Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 4
The Work of Grace in a Life
The human clay with all its potentialities is by no means perfectly suitable to Divine and Heavenly purpose. It may have the particular dispositional properties, but in the natural man everything is mixed, complicated, distorted, and tainted. The clay has been marred and the vessel spoiled. Another must be made. Paul is the most outspoken as to the incapacitation of the natural man with regard to spiritual things. The temperament of Saul of Tarsus, vehemently religious as it was, led him all astray.
So grace had to get to work to break down the natural strengths and to reconstitute according to Christ. This meant that grace had to work in terms of spiritual illumination and understanding; to inculcate Christly patience and forbearance, over against intolerance, to establish balance over against the natural tendency to extremes; to break down the walls of prejudice and enlarge the spirit beyond the limits of national, social, and religious exclusiveness. In a word, to redeem the true values and potentialities of the human nature, and undercut and cripple - like Jacob's thigh - the strength of self-hood. So grace is not only acceptance, it is strength under discipline, submission under chastening, meekness in adversity, and understanding when painful precautionary measures are taken, as in the case of the "thorn in the flesh" to circumvent spiritual pride. Grace is a working power unto the "gaining of the soul," not its destruction or annihilation.
Upon the clay,divinely selected, grace gets to work, not to change the essential personality, for we shall always be ourselves, but to effect an INWARD circumcision, a cutting around or between the self-strength and a dependence wholly upon God. This is the life-long operation of the Spirit of God and the work of grace.
~A. W. Tozer~
_____________________________
Characteristics of the Leader
God's leaders are not essentially leaders because of certain natural qualifications. They go to school with God, and in a hard school the kind of qualities required by God are inculcated. Another general thing about leaders chosen by God is that they, while being very human, are, in many respects, a class by themselves. They are pioneers, and pioneers are lonely people in more respects than one. In some ways they are difficult people. Their standard and measure has to be ahead of others, and as human nature generally likes not to be disturbed, but would seek the easy way, the pioneer is often a bit too much for people. He is restless, never satisfied, always pressing and urging forward. The keynote of his life is "Let us go on." His is not the easy way, the leader is not always popular. The whole nature of man is either downward or to a quiet and happy mean and snugness. The pioneer is therefore not always appreciated, but often very much otherwise. He is so much contrary to this mediocre gravitation. A part of the price of leadership is loneliness.
~A. W. Tozer~
______________________________
Something More Than Evangelical
We can be passionately evangelical or fundamentalist"; we can be fastidiously jealous for correct doctrine and order, and yet - with all this - still be spiritual men. There can be as wide a gap between a rabid fundamentalist and a spiritual man as there is between a conservative and a liberal theologian. Failure to understand this difference results in a very great deal of confusion.
Good motive and intention may be quite right, but with that there must be spiritual understanding. Zeal, yes, indeed; but not zeal that is not according to knowledge. Let there be a desire to do God's will, but let the doing and the way of doing be governed by the Spirit of God, and not just by human judgment. God's way is as important as God's end.
~A. W. Tozer~
_______________________
The Possibility of Spiritual Tragedy
If the Cross and the nature of Resurrection-life do not go more than halfway into our natural constitution, while our "Fundamentalism" or "Evangelicalism", our personal faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus may be unquestionable, we may yet be a spiritual tragedy.
~A. W. Tozer~
Saturday, May 26, 2018
Saturday, May 19, 2018
Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 3
Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 3
The Cost of Ministering Real Food
The Lord, Who wants the most and Whose heart is set upon "bread" for His people - that over the whole earth His people should receive strength, sustenance, building up, through your ministry, individually or collectively - if it is going to be like that, to satisfy that desire of His heart, you are going to have a difficult time, you are going through the "threshing-floor"; you are going to know the "bruising".
If the Lord is not able to do that, and He has to keep us on the elementary, easy-going basis, where we are all having a happy time, and the Lord very rarely does anything corrective and stringent, it is not a compliment to our spiritual life. It may just mean that He is not able to do all that He would do if He could in this great need of bread.
The idea has been very common in Christianity that it is a great and wonderful thing to be "mightily used of the Lord!" Oh, to be a great evangelist! Oh, to be a great teacher! Oh, to be a great Christian worker! Let me tell you, that is an entirely false conception. The truth is that those who serve the Lord most truly go through the deepest suffering. The balances are truly kept by God - extra suffering, extra usefulness, little suffering, little usefulness. That is how God keeps His balances. You may be having a more or less easy time. I do not want to dishearten you by saying it may not always be so, but if you really want to be of greater use to the Lord, remember it may be by a deeper discipline of the Lord. And if you are having a particularly difficult time, most likely it is because the Lord is going to meet needs more fully through you.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_________________________
Spiritual Knowledge
An essential result of the Spirit's government and work is spiritual knowledge. Paul laid much emphasis upon this in both of his letters to Corinth.
Where the Holy Spirit has the ground of Christ to work upon, there will be much light and intelligence among the saints. The tragedy of the average believer, and of many companies of believers, is their spiritual ignorance, their little understanding, the smallness of their apprehension of Christ.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_____________________________
The Importance of Seeing
The Watchman in the Prophets was a man depicted or described as a man with a "burden" - "the burden of the word of the Lord".
So great are the issues of Purpose, so vital to life and work is the meaning of the Church's eternal vocation, that anyone who enters into it in reality will be one who has a deep sense of heavy responsibility. What he says is what he has seen! But it is unto the seeing that God would bring all His people, for only as they see can they fulfill their heavenly calling. The Church itself is meant to be a Body with eyes wide open. The quest of the great Church-Apostle must be the quest of the Church itself - "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the (full) knowledge of Him" (Ephesians 1:17).
~T. Austin-Sparks~
______________________________
God's Total Concentration
The one object is Christ. God has, all-inclusively, committed Himself to fill His Son with all things, and to fill all things with His Son. To bring Christ in, and to increase the measure of Christ, both extensively and intensively, is God's sole object, and cooperation with Him in this is the only true service of God. Conversions are not ends and objects in themselves. Every new believer is a vessel of Christ. The fact in every "new birth" is that Christ has come in. But the Scriptures do not leave it there. The greatest part of the New Testament is occupied with the increase of Christ in believers. That is the personal aspect. Beyond this the Church as a whole is brought into view as that which is to be "the fullness of Him". Then local churches are represented as vessels and vehicles of Christ beyond individual possibility and capacity. The whole idea of the Holy Spirit is to make the fullness of Christ a reality. The test of all Christian work will be its effectiveness in really enlarging the measure of Christ in this universe.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_______________________
Spirituality the Top Priority
If the work of God is essentially spiritual, then it demands spiritual people for its doing; and the measure of their spirituality will determine the measure of their value to the Lord. Because this is so, in God's mind the servant is more than the work. If we are going to come truly into the hands of God for His purpose, then we shall be dealt with by Him in such a way as to continually increase our spiritual measure. Not our interest in Christian work; our enthusiasms, ambitions, energies, or abilities; not our academic qualifications, or anything that we are in ourselves, but simply our spiritual life is the basis of the beginning and growth of our service to God. Even the work, when we are in it, is used by Him to increase our spiritual measure. Any Christian work which does not have the effect of adding to the measure of Christ in the worker is either not the true Divine service, or is itself working to his or her condemnation and injury.
The Apostle's word, "not a novice" (1 Timothy 3 6), as to "overseers" would - if applied to all taking responsibility in the things of God - correct must that is weak and painful in organized Christian work. The lack of an essential measure of maturity has resulted in tragedy in many lives under strain, and many defeats in the work. Too often the devil has either weakened or destroyed the work and the worker by making the activities too heavy and exacting for the spiritual life to measure up. It is not truths stated, ideas set forth, doctrines preached, etc.' but the spiritual life, power, and measure behind it all that settles its real value and fruitfulness.
Again, because this is true, there is no end to spiritual growth in this life. We are really only getting to a position to be of some value, because of experience and understanding, when we are taken away. This would make life an enigma and something of a mockery were it not that the greater measure and nature of our service was to be afterward when and where "His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face."
The training must be above all things that which will produce spiritual men and women. Lectures on the Bible, and analysis of its books, will never make a true servant of Christ. The need is for a spiritual knowledge of the Word of God; it must be spiritually taught and apprehended. That which lies behind the letter as to the Divine mind must be seen. The teaching and study of the Scriptures must have immediate spiritual effect in the life of those concerned. The Word of God will only profit in so far as it comes to us in spiritual power.
There must be life as in a spiritual family, so that all the lessons of forbearance, patience and cooperation are learned. The Cross must be known in the numerous and frequent occasions when the flesh in ourselves and in others rises because of human failures and faults. The great value of fellowship has to be learned in the testing conditions of life at close quarters over a sufficient period.
The training of workers should be in close relationship with church life as constituted and formed on the true organic basis of the Body of Christ. Not just a preaching place, or one where meetings are held and attended; but where there is true corporate life and mutuality in building up. In such, and out from such corporate life, ministry and service should be developed; not just technicians from an institute. No one should really be allowed to go out into whole time Christian service who has not had a true church training and learned the meaning and value of corporate life.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
The Cost of Ministering Real Food
The Lord, Who wants the most and Whose heart is set upon "bread" for His people - that over the whole earth His people should receive strength, sustenance, building up, through your ministry, individually or collectively - if it is going to be like that, to satisfy that desire of His heart, you are going to have a difficult time, you are going through the "threshing-floor"; you are going to know the "bruising".
If the Lord is not able to do that, and He has to keep us on the elementary, easy-going basis, where we are all having a happy time, and the Lord very rarely does anything corrective and stringent, it is not a compliment to our spiritual life. It may just mean that He is not able to do all that He would do if He could in this great need of bread.
The idea has been very common in Christianity that it is a great and wonderful thing to be "mightily used of the Lord!" Oh, to be a great evangelist! Oh, to be a great teacher! Oh, to be a great Christian worker! Let me tell you, that is an entirely false conception. The truth is that those who serve the Lord most truly go through the deepest suffering. The balances are truly kept by God - extra suffering, extra usefulness, little suffering, little usefulness. That is how God keeps His balances. You may be having a more or less easy time. I do not want to dishearten you by saying it may not always be so, but if you really want to be of greater use to the Lord, remember it may be by a deeper discipline of the Lord. And if you are having a particularly difficult time, most likely it is because the Lord is going to meet needs more fully through you.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_________________________
Spiritual Knowledge
An essential result of the Spirit's government and work is spiritual knowledge. Paul laid much emphasis upon this in both of his letters to Corinth.
Where the Holy Spirit has the ground of Christ to work upon, there will be much light and intelligence among the saints. The tragedy of the average believer, and of many companies of believers, is their spiritual ignorance, their little understanding, the smallness of their apprehension of Christ.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_____________________________
The Importance of Seeing
The Watchman in the Prophets was a man depicted or described as a man with a "burden" - "the burden of the word of the Lord".
So great are the issues of Purpose, so vital to life and work is the meaning of the Church's eternal vocation, that anyone who enters into it in reality will be one who has a deep sense of heavy responsibility. What he says is what he has seen! But it is unto the seeing that God would bring all His people, for only as they see can they fulfill their heavenly calling. The Church itself is meant to be a Body with eyes wide open. The quest of the great Church-Apostle must be the quest of the Church itself - "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the (full) knowledge of Him" (Ephesians 1:17).
~T. Austin-Sparks~
______________________________
God's Total Concentration
The one object is Christ. God has, all-inclusively, committed Himself to fill His Son with all things, and to fill all things with His Son. To bring Christ in, and to increase the measure of Christ, both extensively and intensively, is God's sole object, and cooperation with Him in this is the only true service of God. Conversions are not ends and objects in themselves. Every new believer is a vessel of Christ. The fact in every "new birth" is that Christ has come in. But the Scriptures do not leave it there. The greatest part of the New Testament is occupied with the increase of Christ in believers. That is the personal aspect. Beyond this the Church as a whole is brought into view as that which is to be "the fullness of Him". Then local churches are represented as vessels and vehicles of Christ beyond individual possibility and capacity. The whole idea of the Holy Spirit is to make the fullness of Christ a reality. The test of all Christian work will be its effectiveness in really enlarging the measure of Christ in this universe.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_______________________
Spirituality the Top Priority
If the work of God is essentially spiritual, then it demands spiritual people for its doing; and the measure of their spirituality will determine the measure of their value to the Lord. Because this is so, in God's mind the servant is more than the work. If we are going to come truly into the hands of God for His purpose, then we shall be dealt with by Him in such a way as to continually increase our spiritual measure. Not our interest in Christian work; our enthusiasms, ambitions, energies, or abilities; not our academic qualifications, or anything that we are in ourselves, but simply our spiritual life is the basis of the beginning and growth of our service to God. Even the work, when we are in it, is used by Him to increase our spiritual measure. Any Christian work which does not have the effect of adding to the measure of Christ in the worker is either not the true Divine service, or is itself working to his or her condemnation and injury.
The Apostle's word, "not a novice" (1 Timothy 3 6), as to "overseers" would - if applied to all taking responsibility in the things of God - correct must that is weak and painful in organized Christian work. The lack of an essential measure of maturity has resulted in tragedy in many lives under strain, and many defeats in the work. Too often the devil has either weakened or destroyed the work and the worker by making the activities too heavy and exacting for the spiritual life to measure up. It is not truths stated, ideas set forth, doctrines preached, etc.' but the spiritual life, power, and measure behind it all that settles its real value and fruitfulness.
Again, because this is true, there is no end to spiritual growth in this life. We are really only getting to a position to be of some value, because of experience and understanding, when we are taken away. This would make life an enigma and something of a mockery were it not that the greater measure and nature of our service was to be afterward when and where "His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face."
The training must be above all things that which will produce spiritual men and women. Lectures on the Bible, and analysis of its books, will never make a true servant of Christ. The need is for a spiritual knowledge of the Word of God; it must be spiritually taught and apprehended. That which lies behind the letter as to the Divine mind must be seen. The teaching and study of the Scriptures must have immediate spiritual effect in the life of those concerned. The Word of God will only profit in so far as it comes to us in spiritual power.
There must be life as in a spiritual family, so that all the lessons of forbearance, patience and cooperation are learned. The Cross must be known in the numerous and frequent occasions when the flesh in ourselves and in others rises because of human failures and faults. The great value of fellowship has to be learned in the testing conditions of life at close quarters over a sufficient period.
The training of workers should be in close relationship with church life as constituted and formed on the true organic basis of the Body of Christ. Not just a preaching place, or one where meetings are held and attended; but where there is true corporate life and mutuality in building up. In such, and out from such corporate life, ministry and service should be developed; not just technicians from an institute. No one should really be allowed to go out into whole time Christian service who has not had a true church training and learned the meaning and value of corporate life.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 2
Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 2
The Peril of Sidetracks
For those who, like the New Testament writers, have a real burden and sense of responsibility for the spiritual life of God's people, one of the most heart-breaking things is the way in which so many who gave promise of going right on with the Lord are caught in some side-track and turn to something other or less than He meant for them. Not necessarily to sin or to the world, but to something which, while it brings them a great deal of gratification for a time, eventually proves to be a diversion resulting in arrested spiritual growth, and they are found in a backwater, a cul-de-sac, occupied with an alternative to "the whole counsel of God." Their "new discovery," or "light", or "guidance", as they speak of it, by reason of the let-up of some tension, solution of some problems, promise of release into self-realization, and escape from pressure, when the novelty and glamour have worn off, is found to have been "deceitful waters", producing Jericho's fruits which fall before they are ripe.
The pathway of God's eternal purpose is strewn with such tragedies. The Bible, in both of its Testaments, records the sad story of many who have missed the way, turned aside, and - to use the language and fear of Paul - not attained "unto the prize of the high calling." The New Testament is predominantly occupied with warnings, admonitions, exhortations, and entreaties, because of this possibility, and with the tragic contingency as the ever-lurking peril and threat.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
____________________________
The Divine Idea of Ministry
Our technical, professional conceptions of "the ministry" are mostly external: that is, you give a title, you more or less put on a uniform; and so you are "the minister." It is all put on the outside, therefore it can be artificial. But what the apostle is saying ... is that the ministry is not something that you put on, but something that comes out from within. Any special application of that word "ministry" would only be permissible, in the New Testament, in measure, and not in kind. That is, some have a special ministry, and they are God's ministers in that particular way, with that particular measure. It is not that they are a class called "ministers", and other people are "laity" - such ideas are altogether foreign to the New Testament.
The apostle is clearly saying that the personality and the ministry must be one. How searching that is, but how very meaningful. The ministry must not be some "thing" - preaching, teaching, and all those things that are called "ministry" - something just done, while the man himself is different, and the person apart. What Paul is saying so emphatically is that when you meet a truly Spirit-indwelt and Spirit-governed man or woman, what they say comes out of their life - is a very part of their life. Their teaching can be seen to have been wrought into their history and their experience. When that man or that woman seeks to teach, to "minister", to say something to someone else of a Christian character, it is known that that has come out of some secret history with God, something that the Holy Spirit has done in them. Their ministry and their character are identical.
The "ministry" with Paul is nothing less than, nothing other than, what is true of Christ coming out of the life of His servants, of His people, being there, and coming out.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_________________________
The Prophet as Troublemaker
It is essentially a part of the ministry of a prophetic instrument to cause trouble. It is inevitable, it is the very nature of things. For the very function of the prophet came into view when things were not right. If things had never gone wrong, had never needed adjusting, correcting, or bringing to some greater measure of spiritual fullness, there would have been no need of prophets. We should know very, very little about prophets if things had gone right on as they should have done. The function of the prophets was to keep and hold before the people of God His full thought concerning them, especially in the face of certain things that worked very definitely against it. And it is just because of that clash and conflict that the trouble arises.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
___________________________
Food In Due Season
Most of us who have sought to go on with the Lord to the full end know how, at different stages, certain kinds of spiritual food have met our need. But the time has come when a certain kind no longer helps us and we look for something more. The Lord has His provision along the road suited to the particular point of progress.
The spiritual life follows closely the course of the natural infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, maturity. It is, however, necessary to note that the Word of makes it very evident that the last governs all the others. "Full growth" governs all in the mind and will of God, and it is subnormal or abnormal to stay unduly long at any stage short of that end. A consideration should be given by every normal Christian - not to what he or she likes or fancies, but - to what is necessary to carry the life forward beyond its present measure. All the Lord's dealings with us in discipline and ordering are governed by this end - to increase the measure of Christ in us, and He would have us to be concerned about the food question in this direction.
We should not write off as valueless certain food, because at present we cannot understand it. If we go on with the Lord, that which at this stage is beyond us may come to be our very life. The point is, let us be always going on, reaching forward.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
The Peril of Sidetracks
For those who, like the New Testament writers, have a real burden and sense of responsibility for the spiritual life of God's people, one of the most heart-breaking things is the way in which so many who gave promise of going right on with the Lord are caught in some side-track and turn to something other or less than He meant for them. Not necessarily to sin or to the world, but to something which, while it brings them a great deal of gratification for a time, eventually proves to be a diversion resulting in arrested spiritual growth, and they are found in a backwater, a cul-de-sac, occupied with an alternative to "the whole counsel of God." Their "new discovery," or "light", or "guidance", as they speak of it, by reason of the let-up of some tension, solution of some problems, promise of release into self-realization, and escape from pressure, when the novelty and glamour have worn off, is found to have been "deceitful waters", producing Jericho's fruits which fall before they are ripe.
The pathway of God's eternal purpose is strewn with such tragedies. The Bible, in both of its Testaments, records the sad story of many who have missed the way, turned aside, and - to use the language and fear of Paul - not attained "unto the prize of the high calling." The New Testament is predominantly occupied with warnings, admonitions, exhortations, and entreaties, because of this possibility, and with the tragic contingency as the ever-lurking peril and threat.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
____________________________
The Divine Idea of Ministry
Our technical, professional conceptions of "the ministry" are mostly external: that is, you give a title, you more or less put on a uniform; and so you are "the minister." It is all put on the outside, therefore it can be artificial. But what the apostle is saying ... is that the ministry is not something that you put on, but something that comes out from within. Any special application of that word "ministry" would only be permissible, in the New Testament, in measure, and not in kind. That is, some have a special ministry, and they are God's ministers in that particular way, with that particular measure. It is not that they are a class called "ministers", and other people are "laity" - such ideas are altogether foreign to the New Testament.
The apostle is clearly saying that the personality and the ministry must be one. How searching that is, but how very meaningful. The ministry must not be some "thing" - preaching, teaching, and all those things that are called "ministry" - something just done, while the man himself is different, and the person apart. What Paul is saying so emphatically is that when you meet a truly Spirit-indwelt and Spirit-governed man or woman, what they say comes out of their life - is a very part of their life. Their teaching can be seen to have been wrought into their history and their experience. When that man or that woman seeks to teach, to "minister", to say something to someone else of a Christian character, it is known that that has come out of some secret history with God, something that the Holy Spirit has done in them. Their ministry and their character are identical.
The "ministry" with Paul is nothing less than, nothing other than, what is true of Christ coming out of the life of His servants, of His people, being there, and coming out.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_________________________
The Prophet as Troublemaker
It is essentially a part of the ministry of a prophetic instrument to cause trouble. It is inevitable, it is the very nature of things. For the very function of the prophet came into view when things were not right. If things had never gone wrong, had never needed adjusting, correcting, or bringing to some greater measure of spiritual fullness, there would have been no need of prophets. We should know very, very little about prophets if things had gone right on as they should have done. The function of the prophets was to keep and hold before the people of God His full thought concerning them, especially in the face of certain things that worked very definitely against it. And it is just because of that clash and conflict that the trouble arises.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
___________________________
Food In Due Season
Most of us who have sought to go on with the Lord to the full end know how, at different stages, certain kinds of spiritual food have met our need. But the time has come when a certain kind no longer helps us and we look for something more. The Lord has His provision along the road suited to the particular point of progress.
The spiritual life follows closely the course of the natural infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, maturity. It is, however, necessary to note that the Word of makes it very evident that the last governs all the others. "Full growth" governs all in the mind and will of God, and it is subnormal or abnormal to stay unduly long at any stage short of that end. A consideration should be given by every normal Christian - not to what he or she likes or fancies, but - to what is necessary to carry the life forward beyond its present measure. All the Lord's dealings with us in discipline and ordering are governed by this end - to increase the measure of Christ in us, and He would have us to be concerned about the food question in this direction.
We should not write off as valueless certain food, because at present we cannot understand it. If we go on with the Lord, that which at this stage is beyond us may come to be our very life. The point is, let us be always going on, reaching forward.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
Saturday, May 5, 2018
Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 1
Words of Wisdom and Revelation # 1
Divine Discontent
While "the Word of the Lord" may have come to Patriarchs, Prophets, Judges, Apostles, resulting in a commission and a mandate, it is very easy to discern that, either before or by that word, there was found in them an unrest, a dissatisfaction, a sense that there was something more in the intention of God. Inwardly they were not settled and satisfied. Maybe they could not define or explain it. They did not know what they wanted. It was not just a discontented disposition or nature. It was not just criticism, or querulousness, or disgruntledness, a spirit of being "agin the government", as of a malcontent. God was not satisfied, and He was on the move. There sensitive spirits, like Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and Daniel, and Nehemiah, and a host of others in every age - Old Testament, New Testament, and since - have been God's pioneers, because of the inward link with His Divine discontent.
Of course, this is one aspect of all spiritual progress, but it is very true of every new thing of God. If this discontent is a truly Divine activity, it will not be a matter of mere human frustration. It will have nothing to do with natural ambition or aggressiveness. It will resolve into a sheer issue of spiritual life or death. It will become a soul-travail.
Do you see that "churches" should not be just congregations, preaching places for religious observances? They should be, in their inception, constitution, and continuation, the answer to God's dissatisfaction; that which provides Him with the answer to His age-long quest in the hearts of all concerned.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_____________________________
The Balance of Knowledge and Achievement
To recognize and grasp...one thing is to stand possessed of one of the most vital factors in endurance and attainment. It is this, under the hand of God there is always maintained the balance of inward education or knowledge with any outward achievement. The real value of any true pioneer is not that he, by sheer force of will, got somewhere, but that at every stage and every phase he gathered knowledge, by which knowledge he learned the very laws of life, of survival, of salvation; of effectiveness, conservation, and wisdom. He was not merely a doer, he was a learner in his doing, and a doer by his learning.
Paul, Simpson, Taylor were doers, but their whole course was one of spiritual learning. God held them very rigidly to this. There were times when they could go no further, do no more, unless they had some new and fresh knowledge resulted in a new phase of practical progress. It is of great educative value to see in such lives how each step in the work was the result of some new spiritual lesson learned in an inner walk with God.
If we try just to imitate the outward aspects and copy the resultant framework of such work, without the same inward history, we are in danger of being saddled with a corpse without life; a machine without power; a body without personality. All the reproductive works of God begin with an inward organic life, not with an outward form. Jesus has once and for all defined the law of that life in saying: "This is life eternal, that they may know Thee...and Him Whom Thou didst send." The law of life is spiritual knowledge of God, and there is really no other true knowledge of God.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
________________________
God's Ultimate Objective
In relation to His full purpose, God is ever found seeking and taking up a people in whom that purpose has been revealed, and whose life is constituted according to it. God's conforming work, are governed by a purpose, which is centered in His Son. Nothing that God does is, in His mind and intention, something in itself, or an end in itself, all is related to His clear and definite purpose. The Bible throughout shows us that God is ever in quest of a people who have sen what that purpose is, and who are under His hand to be constituted according to that purpose, to serve Him in it.
Such an instrument, related to the purpose, is brought into experience that definitely bear upon that purpose:P that is, they are constituted according to the purpose of God. The purpose of God, in relation to His Son, is that Christ shall ultimately fill all things, and all things shall be summed up in Him. He is to be the universal Lord, and what is true of Him, characteristically, is to become true of the Church: it is to take its character from Him, in order that, so doing, it may be the very vessel and instrument of His government in all the coming ages. If that is so, then a very great deal has got to be done in us to make it possible!
For this is not just an official thing: it is not that God just takes us up and puts us into an official position, willy-nilly, as though it didn't matter what sort of people we were. Oh no - a lot has get to be done to bring a people there. And so we find that in such instruments, as we have them in the Word of God (and they are only indicative of God's abiding methods and principles), the thing in which they were called was wrought into their very being.
And God is seeking to make a constitution in a people. Any instrument that He is to use must have that constitution, and it has got to come right out of what God has done in us. That explains a very great deal.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
____________________________
The Kind of Man God is After
The point is that God has put right down into this world, into the midst of mankind, a new kind of man, who is not just better, more or less, than other men, but different altogether from other men; and has, in effect, said, "That is the Man that I have in view, and eternally it has been My purpose to conform to that image."
~T. Austin-Sparks~
Divine Discontent
While "the Word of the Lord" may have come to Patriarchs, Prophets, Judges, Apostles, resulting in a commission and a mandate, it is very easy to discern that, either before or by that word, there was found in them an unrest, a dissatisfaction, a sense that there was something more in the intention of God. Inwardly they were not settled and satisfied. Maybe they could not define or explain it. They did not know what they wanted. It was not just a discontented disposition or nature. It was not just criticism, or querulousness, or disgruntledness, a spirit of being "agin the government", as of a malcontent. God was not satisfied, and He was on the move. There sensitive spirits, like Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and Daniel, and Nehemiah, and a host of others in every age - Old Testament, New Testament, and since - have been God's pioneers, because of the inward link with His Divine discontent.
Of course, this is one aspect of all spiritual progress, but it is very true of every new thing of God. If this discontent is a truly Divine activity, it will not be a matter of mere human frustration. It will have nothing to do with natural ambition or aggressiveness. It will resolve into a sheer issue of spiritual life or death. It will become a soul-travail.
Do you see that "churches" should not be just congregations, preaching places for religious observances? They should be, in their inception, constitution, and continuation, the answer to God's dissatisfaction; that which provides Him with the answer to His age-long quest in the hearts of all concerned.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
_____________________________
The Balance of Knowledge and Achievement
To recognize and grasp...one thing is to stand possessed of one of the most vital factors in endurance and attainment. It is this, under the hand of God there is always maintained the balance of inward education or knowledge with any outward achievement. The real value of any true pioneer is not that he, by sheer force of will, got somewhere, but that at every stage and every phase he gathered knowledge, by which knowledge he learned the very laws of life, of survival, of salvation; of effectiveness, conservation, and wisdom. He was not merely a doer, he was a learner in his doing, and a doer by his learning.
Paul, Simpson, Taylor were doers, but their whole course was one of spiritual learning. God held them very rigidly to this. There were times when they could go no further, do no more, unless they had some new and fresh knowledge resulted in a new phase of practical progress. It is of great educative value to see in such lives how each step in the work was the result of some new spiritual lesson learned in an inner walk with God.
If we try just to imitate the outward aspects and copy the resultant framework of such work, without the same inward history, we are in danger of being saddled with a corpse without life; a machine without power; a body without personality. All the reproductive works of God begin with an inward organic life, not with an outward form. Jesus has once and for all defined the law of that life in saying: "This is life eternal, that they may know Thee...and Him Whom Thou didst send." The law of life is spiritual knowledge of God, and there is really no other true knowledge of God.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
________________________
God's Ultimate Objective
In relation to His full purpose, God is ever found seeking and taking up a people in whom that purpose has been revealed, and whose life is constituted according to it. God's conforming work, are governed by a purpose, which is centered in His Son. Nothing that God does is, in His mind and intention, something in itself, or an end in itself, all is related to His clear and definite purpose. The Bible throughout shows us that God is ever in quest of a people who have sen what that purpose is, and who are under His hand to be constituted according to that purpose, to serve Him in it.
Such an instrument, related to the purpose, is brought into experience that definitely bear upon that purpose:P that is, they are constituted according to the purpose of God. The purpose of God, in relation to His Son, is that Christ shall ultimately fill all things, and all things shall be summed up in Him. He is to be the universal Lord, and what is true of Him, characteristically, is to become true of the Church: it is to take its character from Him, in order that, so doing, it may be the very vessel and instrument of His government in all the coming ages. If that is so, then a very great deal has got to be done in us to make it possible!
For this is not just an official thing: it is not that God just takes us up and puts us into an official position, willy-nilly, as though it didn't matter what sort of people we were. Oh no - a lot has get to be done to bring a people there. And so we find that in such instruments, as we have them in the Word of God (and they are only indicative of God's abiding methods and principles), the thing in which they were called was wrought into their very being.
And God is seeking to make a constitution in a people. Any instrument that He is to use must have that constitution, and it has got to come right out of what God has done in us. That explains a very great deal.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
____________________________
The Kind of Man God is After
The point is that God has put right down into this world, into the midst of mankind, a new kind of man, who is not just better, more or less, than other men, but different altogether from other men; and has, in effect, said, "That is the Man that I have in view, and eternally it has been My purpose to conform to that image."
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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