WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM POWERFUL
E. M. Walkinshaw
Daniel 9: 1–3; 10: 7, 8, 19; 2 Corinthians 4: 4–7; 12: 7–10
I have been thinking a little, beloved brethren, of these two men, their circumstances, and the state into which their devotion to the testimony brought them. One is from the Old Testament, the other from the New; both quite distinguished men. As related to God’s testimony they were brought into circumstances of extreme weakness, and as brought into those circumstances proved that their resource was alone in God.
I think that is true of every person that has been in God’s testimony. He must learn, one way or another, that his resource is entirely in God. We have to learn that from experience. So that while persons with the capacity for it might have the knowledge of the whole of the scope of God’s ways from Genesis to Revelation, such persons might be right out of the present testimony because their resource is in their knowledge rather than in God. God would bring this home to us. He has brought it home to us, that in extreme weakness we learn that our power lies in Him.
Whether there is any evidence of strength, or whether there is not, is quite beside the point; it is utterly impossible to reach any divine end by human means. It takes us a long time to learn that; nevertheless, it is truth that we have to learn in any part we have in the testimony, any part we have in service, any part, for that matter, that we have in the praise of God. We have to learn that the source of power lies in the Spirit and not in ourselves.
So Daniel was committed to God’s testimony. I think God would raise the question with us as to whether we are, in our day. He was, I suppose, quite an old man here, but he had been committed from his youth up. How wonderful that is I have often thought and said that I believe it is very precious to the Lord when He finds an old man turn to commit himself to the testimony of God. But I believe it means very, very much to Him when a young man is prepared to give up what may lie before him in life and unreservedly commit himself to the testimony of God. This is what Daniel did, and others have done it too. Here, I think, he is an old man. Some have estimated his years as probably between 80 and 90, no longer a youth.
You might have thought that with all his experience he would have sufficient to carry him through and enable him to fill out his part in the testimony, but I find that experience teaches me increasingly that I have no strength at all in myself, but that my strength, if I am to have any part in His testimony, is with God alone.
So here he says he had learned from the books what was to happen to his people. Evidently he had some acquaintance with Jeremiah. He would not hesitate to say, ‘Remember, Jeremiah said,’ in the same way that we would not hesitate to, say, ‘Remember Mr. Taylor said,’ or ‘Mr. Raven said,’ or ‘Mr. Darby said.’ So he had an understanding of what God had said through others. I think we need that, dear brethren, so that we can understand the continuity of the testimony. So our brother Mr. Taylor was quoted once or twice in our meeting. We do not rely on that, we rely on God; but there is a simple recognition of what God has said. He said, “The word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah”. It was not just that Jeremiah said it, but it was the word of Jehovah.
I wonder if we have searched out the word of God through the prophets, I mean the prophets of the recovery; not simply Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, and others, but the prophets of the recovery. We have had prophets in the recovery; the word of God has come to us; the scope of prophecy has been outlined. If you care to look into it you will find some exhaustive writings on the meaning of this book, for example. I would encourage younger men to look into them and take account of the word of God that has reached us through the prophets, and then not to be afraid to name the prophet.
Daniel says he learned through the word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah. Then he says, “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” It is not in my mind to go into the detail of his prayer, which is a confession in which he is prepared to take upon himself the sorrow of what had happened to his people. How he must have felt it! He must have felt it for many years, but I suppose that as he grew older he felt it increasingly.
It was said of Mr. Darby that there was never an hour that the breakdown of the church was not present in his mind and affections.
How he felt it Daniel would feel it. Here he is setting himself towards God by prayer and supplication and fasting. He would feel the pressure of the condition into which his people had come. How sad it was—but he committed himself personally to God. He was not relying on Jeremiah, he was not relying on Isaiah, but he was relying on God. So that while he had the word of God that had come through the prophets, he was determined to maintain his own personal links with God, and to be brought into the present testimony. I think, dear brethren, we need this, to pay great attention to what God has said to us, and to pay attention to what He is saying at the present moment.
So he says he set himself in that direction; he received a vision, but this causes him to have no strength in himself. I believe, beloved brethren, that each of us at some time or another, if we are going to serve the Lord in His testimony, has to be brought to what it is to be alone with God. Has everybody else fled from you? “And I was left alone and my comeliness was turned in me into corruption!’ (Daniel 10: 8). Think of the effect on the man himself as he was in the presence of this vision. He had to learn that, in himself, he had no strength. In himself he had no virtue. In himself he had nothing to contribute to the immediate needs of the testimony. He had no strength; it all left him. He says he was in a stupor. Think of the feelings of this man who for 70 or 80 years, or something like that, had been devoted to the testimony of God. He had gone through experiences of suffering and pressure. My immediate reaction would be to say, ‘Here is a man of mettle. Here is a man equal to the testimony. Here is a man of moral fibre.’ From the point of view of God’s work there is no doubt that would be true. But he had to learn in himself that his resource was wholly in God.
Now I wonder if we have learned that, dear brethren. We love numbers, do we not? Big rooms—full rooms—we think that is wonderful, and it is: If persons are committed to the testimony we are thankful for it. The more we have the better, and, of course, the more from God’s point of view, provided there is moral fibre. But naturally, men like numbers. You have read what Hitler thought—he liked numbers. Men like numbers—huge numbers—it is power. This is not so with God. God does not need numbers for His testimony, although I believe the Lord loves to have every person with Him who is prepared to be devoted to Him.
But now, you see, this man is alone. Daniel is alone. Where are Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego? Where are these other men? This is the experience of a man alone with God.
If you look in the index to Mr. Darby’s Letters, I think you will find there, ‘The good of being alone with God.’ One of the things you learn is that your resource is to be entirely in Himself.
So Daniel says of the man who appears to him—no doubt some allusion to our blessed Lord and the support He would give to any man devoted in this way—“As he was speaking with me I was strengthened.” I would say, dear brethren, let us go in more for this spirit and attitude of prayer. I believe that what the poet says is true, ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’ Paul speaks of certain things being done “through your prayers” (Philemon 22), as though prayer can be an instrument in the ways of God to give effect to something.
I think that while we are very thankful for the books from which we learn, we should set ourselves for personal relations with God and give more time to prayer, to be more with Him in the sorrows of the testimony, the breakdown and the ruin of our people, and know what it is, as with Him, not only to prove our comeliness turned to corruption, “the flesh profits nothing” (John 6: 63), and the weakness of ourselves, but “as he was speaking with me I was strengthened”—that is, the experience of a strength that the Spirit brings in, whether in prayer, whether in reading, whether, perhaps in preaching, whether in giving a simple word like this, strengthened “as he was speaking with me.” So the source of strength lies in God, lies in the Spirit, dear brethren. You say, Of course, this is only open to very special people—V.I.P’s! Well, that is quite wrong, you know. This is open, I believe, to any person who is prepared to commit himself, or herself, to God’s testimony, however weak the conditions in which that testimony may be. There is a resource in God, a resource in Christ on high— ‘Lord, on the throne Thy love’s the same’ and there is a power in the Spirit; but I believe it is essential to every person in this testimony of God that he learns in his personal relations with God his own extreme, utter weakness, but learns concurrently with that, that the strength for everything lies in God.
Well, that is Daniel in his day. The word came to him, “Thou shalt … stand in thy lot at the end of the days” (Daniel 12: 13). He went through, dear brethren. We say—he was a singular man—outstanding. Of course he was! Why was he? He was singular and outstanding in the testimony of God because of his link with God; not because of what was innate in himself, but because of his link with God, and what God produced in the man and with the man, because of his relations with Him. You think of a man like that; he can endure the lions’ den; he can put up with all these powers against him, yet here he finds himself, an experienced man, being so utterly weak in the presence of God. Let us, dear brethren, each be prepared for these experiences with God that we might be more fitted, in drawing upon the Spirit, for our part in His present testimony.
Now, in the New Testament we find Paul, and he speaks of having this treasure in earthen vessels, “that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us.” He says a little earlier, “Therefore, having this ministry … we faint not” (2 Corinthians 4: 1). You might say that it implies that if he had not the ministry he might faint. How many have felt like that. Have you ever felt like that? You are a very peculiar person if you have never felt like giving up! I have felt like it, and most of us here have, at some time or another, felt like it—is it worth it? Persons in larger companies, or smaller companies—is it really worth it?
What will the end be? What is the point in this movement?
Well, Paul evidently must have felt at times that way too. There were those who were faint, yet were pursuing (Judges 8: 4). Then Paul says, “Therefore having this ministry … we faint not.” Where did that come from? Think of his link with the Lord. He says, “We all looking on the glory of the Lord … are transformed” (2 Corinthians 3: 18). I suppose much of our difficulty lies in self-occupation. We think of ourselves, our part, our weakness, and so on.
We think, as we were once exhorted continually to say, of our wretchedness, “O wretched man that I am!” One sister once remarked, ‘I am not going to say that any more; what I am going to say is, O glorious Man that Thou art!’ That is far greater, because it is occupation with Him. You find your resource, and your strength, and your joy, in Him. So that in the book of Daniel, and with Paul, there was the understanding that everything was in divine control; things were never out of hand.
Now Paul says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” That is, he is stating that it is earthen—weak, feeble—that the excellency, or surpassingness, of the power “may be of God, and not from us.” Where did his power come from? Oh, you say, what a wonderful man Paul was! Well, I suppose that was true; but the surpassingness of the power was from God, not from him or from them. We have to learn this lesson in christianity, that the Holy Spirit is the source of our power. Now the Lord would give a simple, present application to us, because we desire to have our part in the present testimony. Paul says, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord.” That is essential; it is not a question of ourselves in any sense, but “Christ Jesus Lord,” and the power of God. So Paul, great as he was, found his power and resource in God. As someone said once, I believe, when Mr. Raven was about to be taken, ‘What a wonderful man he was!’ Mr. Percy Lyon overheard it and said, ‘Well, you do not wonder at it, do you? What a wonderful Master he had!’ That is the point. It is directing to Christ all the time; not to any particular man, but to Christ. So Paul was the same, and he drew from Christ.
Now in his own personal experiences, to which he refers in chapter 12, he says that because of the “greatness of the revelations,” that is, that which he had received and heard, when he was in the third heaven, “there was given to me a thorn for the flesh, a messenger of Satan that he might buffet me, that I might not be exalted.” You will notice that there is a little difference here compared with the Authorised Version, which says, “Lest I should be exalted above measure.” He was not to be exalted at all. How easily we become exalted—A little light from God, a little help in service, a little help in the testimony—in practice how quickly we become exalted, any one of us. It has been the downfall of many servants of the Lord.
Here, Paul had a messenger of Satan. What it was he does not say, because what it was is not the point. He is drawing attention to the fact that he had it. Thrice he besought the Lord that it might depart from him. What it must have meant to him! But the Lord says, “My grace suffices thee; for my power is perfected in weakness.” Think of that, dear brethren. It is not a question of standing up, conscious that we are strong—“When I am weak, then I am powerful.” This is the apostle’s experience, his very weakness making way for the strength of Christ as known in the Spirit, and I think this is recorded that we might have this in some degree, though feeling our extreme weakness, to know the greatness of the resource we have—“Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me.” How wonderful this is!
It must have been a very real experience to the apostle. We think of him as a great man; I think we should, for he was that, by reason of what God made him. It was not that he made himself that, or that he was that naturally, although all that would have been in the background in God’s ways, but I think he had to learn in weakness in himself, and through the messenger of Satan, that everything that is to be reached in the divine end must be reached by divine means, and the divine means is the Holy Spirit.
So, whatever we undertake, whatever may be our part in the testimony; let us be with God. The more we are with God, the more I believe we shall understand our own comeliness turning to corruption, and no strength in ourselves, in order that we might understand that our strength, our resource, our life, our power, lie in Another.
We had become, through the years, individually and as a company of brethren, almost self-sufficient; we thought we had everything; all the light, all the knowledge, not understanding that it is only in extreme weakness that we can understand the power of the Christ—“Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me … for when I am weak, then I am powerful”. Let us not be afraid, dear brethren, of felt weakness. It was an expression I used to hear a good deal when I was a boy. You would hear the older men pray that way—‘Our felt weakness, Lord.’ May we feel it more, but at the same time, as feeling it, be able to rejoice in the power of Christ that is effecting everything for God.
So whether it is past testimony, whether with Daniel it was Jeremiah, and all that he suffered, all his sorrows; whether it be Paul and the testimony in his day, or whether it be the testimony in our day, the resource and power for effecting anything for God lies in God Himself. And in this economy it is Christ on high—“Thou art the Same, and thy years shall not fail” (Hebrews 1: 12)—and the Spirit here. Dear brethren, the resource has not changed.
It was pointed out to me the other day that Mr. Taylor said that when the Lord said to Philadelphia, “Thou hast a little power” (Revelation 3: 8) that is a reference to moral power, it is not a reference to any restriction on the Spirit Himself. The resource is the same. He has not changed. The resource that Paul had we have. “Thou hast a little power” is a reference to their capacity morally to lay hold of what was available to them. The emphasis is, as we have often been reminded, on the power, not on the ‘little’; but that power must be in God. There is nothing in ourselves, but as we are dependent on God He will keep us in His testimony.
May the Lord help us all, dear brethren, to be committed to His testimony, however weak we feel, and to understanding that it is the divine intention that we should learn that weakness so that we might, at the same time, learn “that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us.” May the Lord encourage us all, for His name’s sake’.
Southend-on-Sea
24th February 1973