EXTRACT – THE FATHER OF SPIRITS
And so there is … the present faithful patient dealing of the Father as the father of spirits. It is a good thing to keep that in mind, dear brethren. We sometimes tend to become unduly occupied, it may be, with our bodies. This may be the tendency with us, and, of course, our bodies are of value, they belong to the Lord, they are necessary for the expression of what is for God, and for the expression of what is right in man Godward, but at the same time, the great thing is our spirits. Think of the spirit that was found with the Lord Jesus when He said, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46), and then the spirit that was in Stephen when he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”, Acts 7:59. We might say with Stephen it was a perfected spirit, and that is what the Father is after with us, perfected spirits. He is the Father of spirits …
Well, beloved brethren, there is plenty of pressure today, pressure in the individual circumstances of the saints, pressure too in assembly matters, but all these things are under the hand of the Father, are ordered and controlled by Him in perfect skill. There is … such a thing as the balancing of the clouds, as though all is held in perfect wisdom and perfect skill by the One who is working with every one of us in view of this great matter of His bringing many sons to glory. And so it says, “shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?”, Heb.12:9. And the end in mind is that we should become partakers of His holiness …
Well, may the Lord encourage us then in the present pressures to understand what is in view in them, and as subject to the Father of spirits to be with God in all His ways so that we may reach with every one of us here the end He has in view.
From a word in a meeting for ministry by A.J. Gardiner
Dorking, 31 May 1957
Edited and Published by John Brown and Paul Martin
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