Beloved of God,
With gratitude to the Lord we are able to send
out this further issue of the Witness and Testimony, and we count on your
prayers that this ministry may be maintained as long as it is needed. Letters
from so many parts give us reason to believe that it is meeting a need, and
therein we rejoice.
It is much on my heart that-in this letter-I
should say a little to you regarding this ministry, for if it were understood,
and the mists of suspicion and prejudice were dispelled, many more might derive
the same spiritual help which is confessed to by friends in many places and all
sorts of connections.
First of all, let me say that we have one
all-inclusive purpose, and this is our one dominating objective, namely-THE
FULNESS OF CHRIST AS THE GOAL OF ALL GOD'S CONCERN FOR HIS PEOPLE. Not a
"teaching" as such; not a "movement"; and, positively, not a new sect or
exclusive body of Christians! Our purpose (we believe God-given) is to keep this
Divine objective before all of His children; to minister the measure of
that fulness as He imparts and enables; to indicate what is shown to us as the
ways thereto, and the principles which govern attainment; but never to
seek to impose a system of truth or practice upon anyone. If the Lord has so
dealt with us as to involve us in certain practical steps, we would never lay
such steps as an obligation upon others and tell them that they must do
likewise. We know only too well what a false position this would mean for all
who would take such a course on such a ground. No; our business is to present
God's fullest thought in Christ, to exhort and encourage to "go on to full
growth", but never to coerce or impose. Such practical steps as may arise must
come livingly out of a walk with God and spiritual crises in that walk on the
part of everyone concerned, and never because any person or persons urge
them.
Let us be quite clear as to our position, for
herein is all the difference between life and death, liberty and freedom. The
relationship and fellowship between the Lord's people must ever and always rest
upon the basis that they are children of one Father and that they share a
common life. Life, not light, is the uniting factor; the one indivisible life of
God in us all by new birth. Make anything else the basis and you at once divide
and move apart. The only hope of any progress toward fulness is in that we
steadfastly and resolutely preserve this simple basis. We must deliberately put
back any being affected or influenced by earthly connections of Christians. It
is not for us to be affected toward them by their connection with this or that
denomination, sect, society, etc. Do they belong to the Lord? Have they received
His life in the Holy Spirit? Do they truly love our Lord Jesus? Is He to them
the very Son of God? This is where our fellowship begins, and so long as they
will not try to involve us in anything extra to Christ, but will allow a going
on purely on that ground, we must continue in love and fellowship. We shall find
that-apart from all such artificial grounds of difference-the matter of
spiritual fellowship will be a stern battle and call for steadfastness, because
of the forces of evil which are set against this mutual life in God. Let me
beseech you to seek ever to be free of the very mentality which points in the
direction of exclusiveness as among the children of God; or that inwardly
implies division because they have not seen what you have seen, and therefore do
not stand where you stand.
This does not mean that the different
associations make no difference in the matter of spiritual progress toward
fulness. They do, and those associations are very often the grave-clothes which
remain even after life in resurrection has come. But my point is that there is
all the difference between our telling people that they must do this and that in
the matter of their connections, and the thing coming up as a living issue
resultant from a work in them of the Holy Spirit. The latter is the only way of
life, and the only safe way for the future. Anything else is just a
coming down on to earthly ground, and earthly Christianity, and that means
division, limitation, and deadly bondage! No one ought ever to have any fault to
find if the course taken is the result of an inward work of God, and results in
spiritual increase, wealth, life, rather than just having adopted a new
position. We are suffering very much in our testimony because quite a few people
have taken such steps outwardly without the real revelation of God's thought
inwardly, and a mighty work of His Spirit. But this has always been the case
when God has put His hand upon an instrumentality in relation to fuller
purpose. Lot will follow Abraham; a secondhand walk with what is of God; and Lot
will be a burden, if not a menace. Well, beloved friends, let us seek to keep on
heavenly ground.
We are in a time of a great shaking and
overturning of much of the shell of Christianity. If this should lead to
dividing walls disappearing, and the people of God drawing together on the
common ground of Christ, who would shed a tear for the passing of the material?
Just at present God is doing things. We are often distressed that there
is no voice of authority for God either to the world or to His
people. The ear of men is not in any measure captured by a voice of true
interpretation. Yes, just now the world and the Church is without a distinctive
voice which is unmistakably God's "Prophet" for the time. The reasons for this
may be various, but God is doing things, and it may be He is preparing
both an instrument and a way for the message of such. It is quite a question as
to whether the situation has as yet reached the point when-if the Lord did
have the vessel and word-the sense of need is so deep that prejudice and
party interests (even among Christians) would go down as nothing if only the
need could be met. Oh that the enforced suspending of much of long-standing
movements and institutions will be the occasion for a consideration of their
real measure of spiritual value in the light of God's thought as to the
fulness of Christ, so that-if a space is yet given-it will not just be a going
on again as before. This is an hour of great opportunity and demand for
reconsiderations and stock-taking. Let us ask the Lord to make us all alive to
the significance of this present hour, and not to be losing its meaning by
living in an uncertain future.
Beloved, we greet you again in this "little
while between", and assure you of continual prayer. Pray for us!
Yours in the Hope of the Gospel,
T. AUSTIN-SPARKS