The Spiritual Life # 2

Helps and Hindrances


Every careful reader of the New Testament must see that in the Godhead there is a trinity of blessing, no matter what note we strike on the piano of truth. There is life from Christ (John 5:25) which, like Ezekiel's river, makes us glad and healthy and fruitful as it touches us (Ezekiel xlvii: 9-12); there is life in Christ (Romans 8:2), which means participation in all His fullness and unlimited riches, even as Ruth was made to participate in all the wealth of Boaz in her union with him; and there is life with  Christ, which means fellowship with Him, or having everything in common with Him, as Elijah and Elisha had when they went together from Bethel to Jordan (2 Kings 2:2).


When we come to the Shiloh waters of God's peace we find there are three streams which flow one into the other. Peace with God is the first stream which flows, like the living water of Ezekiel from beside the altar of sacrifice (Ezekiel xlvii:1). The peace of God is the garrison to keep the citadel of our heart from one care and worry, as we are careful for nothing, prayerful in everything, and thankful for anything (Phil. 4:6, 7); and the God of peace enshrines Himself in the sanctuary of our being to keep us absolutely and wholly for Himself. Thus we have not only the blessing but the Blesser.


It is not without significance that the apostle replied to the jailer's question, " What must I do to be saved?" "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." That is, I take it, to believe in Him as Lord, Jesus, Christ. To believe in Him as Jesus means to be saved by Him; and to believe in Him as Lord signifies, He is sovereign over us. The practical question now comes, do we know the Lord and His blessings in the larger and deeper sense of the word? No one who comes in contact with the Christians of our day can help being convinced that there are those who are, like Peter, following their Lord afar off; that there are those who are like the Ephesian Christians, who do not know the Spirit's filling; that there are those, like the Thessalonians, who have a defective faith; that there are those who, like Ananias, are keeping back part of the price; that there are those like the unspiritual and factious Corinthians, who are "carnal"; that there are those who are in bondage, like the legal Galatians; that there are those who have left their first love, like the Church at Laodicea; and that there are those who are tolerant to error, like the Church at Pergamos. Mr. Moody was not far wrong when, in calling together a conference at Northfield some years ago, said, "There are in the churches stores of unconsecrated wealth, unused or misused talents, multitudes at ease in Zion, witnesses who bear no testimony for their Lord, workers with the Spirit's conquering power, teachers who speak without authority, disciples who follow afar off, forms without life, Church machinery substituted for inward life and power."


The question may be asked, "How are we do be the opposite to what the great evangelist said too many Christians were?" There is one answer, namely, obedience to the Lord.


When Arthur of Round Table fame lay dying, he commissioned Bedivere to take his beautiful sword and throw it into the lake. The knight hesitated to do his master's bidding, but at last at his lord's repeated command he made his way, sword in hand, to the margin of the lake. Ere he obeyed Arthur's word he looked at the hilt of the sword as it flashed in the moonlight, and saw that it "twinkled with diamond studs, myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work of subtlest jewelry."  He was so dazzled by the beauty of the sword that he went and hid it among the marsh, and then went back to wounded Arthur, who looked up to him and said, "Hast thou performed the mission which I gave? What is it thou hast seen, or what hast heard?"


He knew by the answer that Bedivere gave that he had not obeyed his directions. The king tells him so, and charges him with his unfaithfulness, and bids him go the second time and do his will. As he goes he argues with himself against the king's command, and again failed to do as he was bid, and gave the same reply to Arthur upon his return. Whereupon the king, with scathing words, told him again to obey.


Stung to the quick he rushes down to the waters edge and, without look or hesitation, he grasps the sword and flings it far into the waters. As Excalibur, flung through the air, nears the surface of the lake, there "rose an arm clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful, and caught him by the hilt, and brandished him three times and drew him under the water."


Bedivere had no vision till he had obeyed, and obeyed fully, King Arthur's will. The same is true of the believer in Christ. The Lord as the Almighty will not walk in us till we fully come out from the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 6:14-18); He will not give the Spirit's fullness of power unless we obey Him (Acts 5:32); He will only direct our steps as we acknowledge Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:6); and He will only give us "open vision" as we are right with Him.


~F. E. Marsh~


(Continued with # 3 - "Prayer: The Secret of the Spiritual Life")