Christ Unifies a Disintegrated Creation In Himself as Head
In the first part of the letter to the Ephesians we get the first great statement by revelation of the Holy Spirit, of the Eternal Purpose and then the mighty energizing by the same Spirit into that Purpose: and then shown the spiritual forces against that Purpose, seeking to bring about chaos and then in between, you have the Holy Spirit trying to tell you, that your daily affairs, relationships, daily duties, business concerns and all that touches your life from the kitchen to the study, in private life and public life are to be brought up into the heavenlies; for if the enemy can get into the common intimacies of daily living he will bring in disorder, chaos; he is out to bring about a break of relationship between the Sovereign Head and the members and also seeks to create strain, provocation between member and member.
Lift everything into the light of the Eternal Purpose, and there is nothing private, personal or isolated. It is in detail and as a whole related to the whole Body, and it is the one battle with the enemy. Don't regard the happenings in home or business on the level of the ordinary world system; bring all up into the light of the Eternal Purpose and when brought there, into all these things can be brought the operation of the greatness of His Power by which He raised Christ from the dead.
If we live our life down here on the ordinary system, the enemy will make an awful mess and there will be defeat. As the Lord's people we cannot live our life on the world's line of things even in the most ordinary connections, because of the strange forces of antagonism against us; we cannot meet with the ordinary resources, we need extraordinary resource with which to meet them.
Get a vision of the Holy Spirit to know the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance and what the exceeding greatness of His power, and then get an energizing accordingly by the same Spirit and bring that into the daily meeting of enemy's provocations, and creating strains, etc., meet all his activities and subtleties in that "all else exceeding power of God's almightiness."
It is not necessary for us to be down on the level of others in meeting things; or in resources; for the exceptional circumstances of our life there is the exceptional might of God.
We need something those who are not the Lord's do not meet, but we need not be cast down or brought under by that, for to meet it we have the "all else exceeding power of God's almightiness."
Oh! We need to grasp this, for we are not yet there in our daily experience, sometimes we have a touch of it, but we need to live in it, and walk up and down in the strength, peace and victory of it; we need to bring it right alongside our daily life, and realize it for ourselves in our daily walk and experience.
We are part of the Church His Body, and so need to see by revelation of the Holy Spirit the hope of His calling and then be strengthened, energized by the all might of His Spirit in the inner man and so meet these forces in the might of His strength that hath already conquered.
Hebrews 2:14: "Since then the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himself in like manner partook of the same that through death, He might bring to naught, nullify, him that had the power of death, that is the devil."
We have not grasped the tremendous truth of these words and laid hold of them and brought them down into our experience and related them to ourselves.
He did it, it was an act, He has done it, He will never again be flesh and blood; He took flesh and blood to bring to naught the devil, and through death destroyed him that had the power of death.
There is an inheritance to enter into, a victory over him that had the power of death. Ephesians 6:10-12: "our wrestling is against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places," but we are not wrestling with a doubtful issue, it is a wrestling energized by this increated faith which raised Christ from the dead that makes the Lord's won victory ours in experience; it is not fighting for a victory but fighting in a victory, appropriating His victory as we go along.
The Holy Spirit - by this increated faith - is bringing us back to a position, back to that Cross, when He shook off from Himself the hostile princes and rulers and boldly displayed them as His conquests when by the Cross He triumphed over them.
There is a point of faith in the child of God which brings him into a position of immunity as to whatever the devil can do: he can torture him, tear him asunder, persecute him, bring about his death, and bring about such darkness of seeming forsaking of God, yet there is a point of faith in the child of God, that he is not moved by all these things. This increated faith of the Holy Spirit is the strength of the might that raised Christ from the dead.
See all the workings of the enemy since the Cross, as they really are; it is all camouflage, and the devil can only get an advantage in so far as we are faithless; when faith gets a certain point the devil is powerless and impotent; this is the victory that overcomes him, this increated faith of the Holy Spirit.
The old dispensation was ever looking towards Calvary and in the new dispensation it is an ever looking back to the accomplished work at Calvary of the Lord Jesus, Son of God, Son of man.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(the end)
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