THE SECRET OF POWER
[p. 276] THE SECRET OF POWER
2 Kings 2: 9 - 12; 2 Corinthians 3: 17, 18; 2 Corinthians 4: 10,11
I have read this passage in the Old Testament because it tells the secret of how we get power.
There is a difference between what Christ has done for us, and what He has done in us. A person though only a babe is as perfect in the former respect as the greatest saint that ever existed. That is Christ’s work.
Then another thing is what that person is now. Hence the apostle says to the Galatians, “.. . of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you”. That was not the question as to what Christ had done for them. A person may say, I admit all you say, but what I want to know is, How do we get the power now? The secret is told. I have read it in the Old Testament. “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so”, 2 Kings 2.
And I may say, in passing, I commend the reading of the Old Testament to you. We suffer from a great defect if we confine ourselves too much to the reading of the New Testament, and neglect the Old; and no less so, if we confine ourselves to the reading of the Old, and neglect the New. In the former case we become dry and critical, and in the latter legal. We require both. The New Testament is the science of navigation, and the Old is the log-book where you get the account of the history. A man who does not study the Old Testament does not know where he is historically - does not know what he has learned by the grace of God for himself. There are two ways, so to speak, in which we learn this. First, the christian, like a bird, flies at once to the top and sees everything accomplished; and then he, as it were, comes back and creeps up every inch of the way. We are not only [p. 277] going to heaven, but we have to understand the nature of the road, and the way there.
Now the point here is that Elijah was to be taken away. That is the first thought. You must get hold of it simply in your heart - Christ is not here.
Elijah was going away, and this causes him to put the question to Elisha, “Ask what shall I do for thee, before I be taken away from thee”. Give me, said Elisha, “a double portion of thy spirit” - a competent portion. Very well, but there is only one way in which you can get it. “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so”. Now, beloved friends, whether you think it simple or not, that is the only way to get power. If you see me when I am taken, it shall be unto you; and if not, it shall not be so.
Now, mark, Elisha loved Elijah, and what is more, was extremely devoted to him; and yet, had he not looked at him when taken, he would have had no power. This is as clear as possible. If he had not observed this simple direction, he would have had no power.
Now there is no question about Elisha’s being a true-hearted man, but true-heartedness is not power. I meet many a person true-hearted, but not powerful. You say you are truthful. Quite true, I do not doubt you are, and in earnest, but you have no power. Power is quite another thing. It is simply the reproduction of Christ in me. It is all right; where Christ is, there is power.
Christ comes into a poor, wretched earthen vessel, as we read in the chapter we looked at just now, 2 Corinthians 4: 7 - 9. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels”. Here are four things stated about us - half inside and half outside. That is what we are. At the same time the excellency of the power is in us. But how do we get this power? You say, I am a believer, a member of Christ. Yes, certainly. Accepted [p. 278] in the Beloved. Yes; but what I say is, it is another thing to have power; the apostle says, “I have strength for all things in him that gives me power”, Philippians 4: 13. Power is a peculiar thing. Power is simply that a poor, weak creature, as I am myself, who am a child of God, a member of the body of Christ, that I should be walking here, meeting things here, and acting here, according to the power of Christ.
You find this in Elisha. He gets the secret of what I am dwelling on now. And I will show you in the New Testament that when the christian acts in power, that is the secret still. If you see me taken, it shall be so.
It would be an interesting study to examine the passages where we read of the Lord being “taken up”. In the first chapter of the Acts we get it no fewer than four times.
In John 15 we have a passage which contains the whole truth of which I have been speaking. It says, “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine”, and adds, “no more can ye, except ye abide in me ... for without me ye can do nothing”. That brings out the principle of the secret of power. “Without me ye can do nothing”. It is not ‘without me ye are nothing.’ It is not service there, but really you can do nothing.
One says, I want to do something. Well, you cannot do it without Christ. You want to go and preach, or to go and visit the sick. You cannot without Christ. But you say, I am a christian. I do not doubt you are a christian. I am not raising that question at all. That is not the point. It is a question of power.
Many a person may be a strong man but not able to make a watch. Why not? He wants ability to make the watch. He wants the necessary intelligence and skill. It is not because he is not a strong man. He does not know how to apply his strength; he has not had the necessary education. You require to be [p. 279] taught. The most talented man can never do one single thing aright the first time. I believe it was never known for a man to do the thing rightly at first. Take what you will - take the most skilful driver of horses; when he began to drive, depend upon it he took the reins the wrong way. A man must be taught to do everything first, or he is sure to do it awkwardly. He has not the knack.
And so it is when we come to divine work. You are going to visit that sick person - who is going, I want to know? Is it some nice christian - some kind lady or gentleman? That will not do. It should be Christ. And now just think of the gravity of Christ’s doing it. If you are going for Him, you must be in unison with Him about it. The very fact of the importance of the work, and the danger of your misrepresenting Him who does it, shows your need, and that is the secret — “Without me ye can do nothing”. Neglect of this is the secret of all the failure. It is the cause in every instance. It is the cause of all our failures in service. I will sit lowest here if you like, but I repeat it, that is the cause of all failure. It is not that the motive is bad. You say, I am well inclined. Inclination is not power. This is the only secret of power - to see Christ taken up. The apostle is contrasting the law with Christ in 2 Corinthians 3. He says the law comes from glory, and was written upon tables of stone, and now Christ is come from glory too, and must be written upon the fleshy tables of the heart. The law was written in glory, and of course Christ must be. The law was written in glory upon tables of stone, and Christ, the greater thing, which is the ministration of righteousness, not written in stone, but upon the fleshy tables of the heart in glory. I say it affectionately, dear friends, you cannot get the impression of Christ but in the sphere where Christ is, and that is the real cause of the little knowledge of what Christ is practically. You have not been conversant [p. 280] with Christ in the sphere where He is. Here the tables were written in glory, and if the ministry of condemnation, which is annulled, was in glory, how much more shall the ministration of righteousness excel in glory. It must be in glory that Christ must be written upon the fleshy tables of your heart.
I do not want to distress anyone, but I want to account for it. You say, Why have I so little of Christ about me? The simple answer to the question is this: you are not receiving the impression of Christ in the only place where you can receive the impression. I must go where the Person is to get an impression from the Person. We cannot know Christ except where He is. It is as simple as possible, but the argument the apostle uses is this: the law, which is the demand for righteousness, was from glory, then how much more the ministration of righteousness from glory. You have Christ in the glory - you have a Man in the glory of God now.
He is raised from the dead, and now there is a Man in the glory. He met all the righteous demands of God, not only in Himself personally, but on account of me; and therefore I have now a Saviour in the glory. I have a Saviour, not a law now but a Saviour in the glory. That is exactly the difference. This was what so astonished Saul of Tarsus. He had gloried in the law, but now he sees a Saviour in the glory.
I say, then, to every christian, if the glory is not the easiest place for your soul, even when you fail, if the glory of God, the brightness of His own personal glory, is not the easiest place for your soul, you have not yet found, and you have not a Saviour in glory. Where would a child feel happiest and safest? By the side of his father and mother. And where should I feel happiest and most secure? By the side of my Saviour and my Lord. Firstly, how we acquire Christ; and secondly, how we express Christ.
[p. 281] I think it is often the case with many of us, that we know a great deal more of the Lord than we can show. Else, why do we feel so distressed when we have not acted rightly? Why, we know more of the Lord than we express, but have not been able to act up to it. How is this? Why, there is something the matter - something wrong. You see in 2 Corinthians 3 the secret of acquiring Christ. I have a Saviour in the glory of God, and it is the easiest place for my soul if I belong to Him. I will show you presently how a man finds it so, and how a man walks in the grace of God. “The Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” - liberty wherever there is a good thing to do. I have liberty to go wherever there is good; I do not want to go where there is bad. Then, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. You have an object, and you take in the object because you have a mirror. The Lord is there, and we behold Him with unveiled face. There is no veil upon His face, nor on ours; and you go in and look upon Him. You say that is very simple. Yes, it is all very simple if you practise it. Try it and see what you will be. “If thou see me .. . it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so”. It is the same principle. When we first came to Christ, we looked at Him. So with the brazen serpent - they looked and were healed. So with the thief on the cross. He looked - he did nothing else.
The glory is the expression of the divine satisfaction in Christ. But the apostle says it shines out from us.
Then we must have it in us if it shines out. But how do I grow in this? Beholding with unveiled face, I catch the image, and I am formed into the same image. Beholding the Lord’s glory we are transformed - not changed - into the same image of [p. 282] glory. The glory now claims me. At mount Sinai man could not get near it. Now it claims me. What does it do? It draws me to the Saviour - “from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. There you acquire Christ, and most blessed it is. I am sure I trust you know what it is to sit alone with the Lord, gazing upon Him, taken up with the glory of His Person - and there is no expressing Him without it. The more I know of Him, the more I am able to express Him.
It is like a man standing on the sea-shore gazing on the sun. He sees it there, but he gets on higher land, and the sight increases. He goes on a mountain and the object grows larger still. He ascends one yet higher, till at length he sees nothing but the sun.
And so it is as to Christ: the higher I go, the more immense I see the One I have to do with. And this is the secret. I am looking at Him - beholding Him. The first blessing I got came by looking at Him, and every blessing comes that way. But how do I know I am looking at Him? Because I am not looking at anything else. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”.
People often think this so very simple. It is very simple, but I say, let me see you practically maintaining it, then it will throw you in dependence on Him, and that is what faith is.
What hinders souls is that they get off this ground. You go in like Paul, perhaps, into the third heaven, and very happy you come out, but someone meets you and says something disagreeable to you, and you reply with something naughty, and you say, I wish I had not come out. I was so very happy, and now I am come out it is all wrong. What is the explanation? You were right in acquiring Christ, but failed in expressing Him. And why? You did not walk in faith. You were trusting to your enjoyment instead of [p. 283] walking in faith. And how many have damaged the truth after enjoying, and talking of their enjoyment of it, by then going home and failing in one of the most common details of life. This comes from trusting to your enjoyment and not to the Lord - not walking in faith. The apostle Paul comes out of the third heaven, but the Lord says, You must depend on Me. You must not boast about these wonderful things you have seen there - you must go down and be nothing. The principle is the same all through. I do not dwell upon it further. He took the poor man up and set him upon His own beast. You must be carried all the way by Christ. Do not say you must get along by your own power. If you think to go on your own legs you will come down. The principle is the power of Christ upon me. Thus the apostle learns in that lesson the power of Christ resting upon him. You see in heaven it was the enjoyment he had, but now he comes down into the world, it is the power of Christ resting on him. That tells you the secret. You say, I have been very happy in the Lord, but going out into the cold world you button your coat around you, for you feel there is an enemy outside and so you must get ready for him. It is the principle of Ephesians. In the first chapter, the power is used against Satan for bringing me up to God, and turning it round, I must bring that same power to bear upon the enemy; chapter 6. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”.
For a person to live Christ, he must have Him. How can a person live Christ if he has not got Him? You cannot express more of Christ than is in you. That is the truth. You can never go beyond what you know. You may use all the adjectives in the dictionary, but you cannot get beyond it. Some people abound in the use of adjectives, but it is of no use, for they only qualify their nouns, and the noun is the idea.
And you never bring a person beyond where you are [p. 284] yourself. You may give them the desire to go further. You may awaken the desire, and, if you are a minister, then they will leave you. That is the way people sometimes leave off going to churches. Their ministers awaken desires which they cannot meet, then they go somewhere else. And that is the right principle.
The point is to be where the Lord is, and it is important to get hold of it simply. The apostle’s desire, as expressed in Philippians, was, “Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ”. But then he had acquired Him. I will explain this a little, and then pass on.
I will give you one passage to keep simply before you in Matthew 14. It is Peter walking on the water, and what he wants is power to do that. Christ’s rejection is come in; He goes to the wilderness, the multitude follows Him there, and He goes on in His marvellous manner feeding people in spite of the power, and by the power of death, He feeds them on the earth. But there is another thing: He walks on the water. What is the answer to that? Why, He is above it. He allows things to go on as they are, but He is calm. He walks on it. Wars and rumours of wars now, but where is Christ? Above all. “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come”. Well, then, I say, what will I do now? What says Peter when he sees the Lord? “If it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water”. And he came down from the ship. You have the waters now, the waves are here, the whole thing acted upon, and Christ above it all. If I say, I will leave the ship, where am I to go? I will go on the waters with Jesus. What is the secret of this power? The inclination for it? The courage for it? No, the faith. “Bid me come unto thee”. Now the secret of the power comes out. Jesus said, “Come”, and Peter went down and walked on the [p. 285] water to go to Jesus. And here he found out what this power was. While walking on the crest of the wave to go to Jesus, where was his eye? How did he get the power? In the same way as Elisha. He saw the Lord above the waters, the figure of His resurrection, “far above all principality, and power”. He is the exalted Jesus. My eyes are upon the exalted Man. Where is your eye? If my eye is upon Him, I am equal to anything and everything. To walk upon the water? Yes.
The cause of the declension of the church is visible means - that is the hindrance. Where there is the most visible means, there God is showing that there is no power. Nebuchadnezzar and Darius had visible means, but neither the one nor the other had the power. The poor children of the captivity had the power. The one king had the fire, the most powerful of material forces, and the other the lions, the strongest of beasts, but neither the one nor the other could get the mastery of these poor captives.
People talk so much of means. There are plenty of means, but they have not power. The secret of Peter’s power is that his eye is upon Jesus. But now he misses that power. How is this? He sees the wind boisterous, and the power is gone. Is not that the case with you sometimes in your domestic circumstances? Do you not look at the things that trouble you? And do you get great help by doing so? Do you not get more confounded? But you turn your eye from circumstances to the Lord, do you not get a wonderful sense of support and strength to get above it?
Let me tell you, beloved friends, the mistake that souls make, and I have made it, too. You think if you get into any difficulty or trouble, God will change the circumstances. No, God will make you superior to the circumstances. And which is the better? Would you be superior to them, or inferior? If the latter,
[p. 286] God must come in. He says, I am not going to take away that thorn from you, but I will bring you up to it. “My grace is sufficient for thee”. That is the wonderful position I see Paul in. A prisoner, and yet able to say what all the emperors of the world could not say, “I have strength for all things in him that gives me power”. Beloved friends, it is a most magnificent thing to be a true saint here! Peter turned to look at the things around him, and it was all over with him. Listen to people - listen to myself - listen to rumours - think about the things around you - and what do you get by it? Do you get out of it? I look at the Lord - the Lord who is above everything, and what is the result? I am above everything, too. You have to come to this real comfort. I have known it for myself.
But suppose everything does go wrong, and the crash comes, well, the Lord will come. What an immense comfort that is! You are walking on the water now. Now you have brought Christ in, you see perfectly. But mark, beloved friends, you have to do with Himself, and when you have to do with Himself, He will impart power to you.
I cannot tell how He actually presents Himself, but the moment I look to Christ, I see Him in the very aspect I want to be in. To give you an example. When the Lord was in the ship in the storm, He was asleep. The disciples were in trouble on account of the storm, and they see the Lord asleep. If they had had sense, what would they have done? Why, they would have gone to sleep, too!
Let me just give another practical example of it in Stephen, in Acts 7. There you get more the principle. In verse 55, “But [p. 287] being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven”. It is of immense importance where your eye is. You will find if your eye is turned to things down here, you have no power for anything. But here Stephen is a pattern man. He inaugurates a new order of things. Heaven is opened to him.
“Being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus”. And he comes down with the expression of Christ on him. But he acquires Him first, and then he expresses Him. Now he has got his look and he comes out in that sense as a soldier well drilled, up to every evolution, every exercise, comes out now to battle. He has not now to learn his steps. He has learned them all. If he had not learned them, he would fail in the day of battle. But now, what is the preparation required? The preparation is, I have to do with Jesus in the place where Jesus is.
I remember well a sister saying to me once, she had been in a storm at sea, and at the time she was thinking of Jesus asleep in the storm. I said, That is not the way to look at Jesus. If you had been looking at Him where He is, He would have made you like what He was in the storm. You must get your connection with Jesus where He is. How do I get skill to be as Jesus was here? Let me give you one single statement to keep definitely in your souls. You must see Him where He is, to be like Him where He was. You must see Him where He is: not be looking at Him where He was.
Many a person is greatly hindered by merely studying Jesus in the gospels, as if Christ was to be his pattern, as He is depicted there. Morally He was a pattern; but it is not in the gospels I am to be occupied with Him. I must be educated. I must get power. I am indeed to be like Jesus where He was, but I am in conscious connection with Him where He is, and He enables me to act as He would have acted in this scene. Take a case. Go to visit a sick person. What are you looking at now? You say, I have my eye upon the Lord. That is right; and very likely the Lord will come out and make the thing perfect. You see a person nervous and anxious sometimes. He says, the only thing I feel I can do now is to get my [p. 288] eye upon the Lord. It is not that I do anything. It is the sense of dependence upon Him.
Let me illustrate this. It is like a flower and the sun. Take a little daisy. It has not opened today. What is the reason? There is no sun. The daisy will not come out, for there is no sun. Take the finest, the most expanded flower you ever saw, and put a cover on, and hide it from the sun, and you will wither it up. Its dependence is upon the sun.
Many a saint is like a plant you sometimes find in the garden-house with a long taper stalk working its way out at the door or window. There is no real development about him. It is not a question of root. There is a difference between root and flower, and between root and fruit. You have the root but no fruit. You must have blossom before the fruit, and the reason you have not got blossom is that you have not got sun. Look at any plant you like, and if it has not got sun, it is flowerless. Many a christian is like the stalk travelling out of the garden-house to get light from the sun. No flower can do without that, and no christian can do without the light of Christ.
I often ask myself, Have I had the glory of Christ shining upon me this morning? The Israelites did not want to go to the baker’s shop for the manna. They gathered it in the morning, before the sun was up. Before the influences of the day, the soul gets the sense of what Christ is, for a provision for it. The soul sees in the light of the glory of that blessed presence all he wants, and nowhere else. Do you think that a sorrowful thing? It is the most joyful thing a soul can see. “Without me ye can do nothing”.
I say, Thank God! “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”. It is not up there. If I look up to the glory I get it. I say I have Him now. But you say it does not come out. What is the reason? The flesh is the difficulty, and the glory will not do to set aside the flesh. You must bring in Christ’s death.
You must mortify it, “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”. He gives us the cross to open the way to the glory. I must use the cross to be the expression of Christ on earth. I can tell you what prevents the expression of Christ. The very thing that gratifies you most, that is the thing that hinders.
Mark the latter part of the verse - “that the life also of Jesus” (not the Lord Jesus) “may be manifested in our body” - in our body. The life is there, but I want it to be seen outside. I say to a coachman on a dark night, Have you got your lamps? Yes, he says. Are the candles good? Oh, yes, the best that can be got. Well, what is the state of the glasses? Oh, I quite forgot to clean them. Then, I say, your lamps are not worth a farthing. The light is there, but no one will see it because the glasses are dirty. The light is there, but it has to come through the glasses and cannot because of the dirt.
I use a word well known to some of you, though perhaps not to all - the reason the light does not come out is that your body is opaque. I was speaking on this subject the other day in the country, and a countryman said, When we want a light we take a large turnip and scrape it till it is so thin that the light can shine through it. That is just what you want - no ‘flesh’ in your body, and then your body will let out the light. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus”.
You say, How am I to know the dark thing hindering? Have you a great taste for music, or for drawing? Yes, you say, I have quite a passion for it. Then I say, Take care, that is black. That will hinder the light. You say, Why, there is no great harm in it. It is not a question of harm. It hinders the expression of Christ, the light. You do not allow yourself to become an unhindered vehicle of grace. You say, I must do my work. Certainly, work never does harm. It is care and absorption through nature that does harm. Work is the very thing given to man, and he will [p. 290] never do well without it; it is the care that does the mischief. Care is the doubtful issue of your work. It is not work that hinders. That is no excuse. There is nothing so useful for a man as labour. “He brought down their heart with labour”. No man has his health if he is not a labouring man. A working man is a true man, whether it is for the Lord or not. Let no person talk to me and excuse himself by saying, I must do my business. The duties of life are the banks of the river within which you ought to flow on. After mingling in the bustle of a godless world, when I get home there should be the “ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price”. What a wonderful thing that is! There is something to teach me what God is. The duties of life are the very banks through which that river shall flow. If the river had not banks, where would it be? I am not answerable for people if they make what I call canals - make ways for themselves. You never saw a canal without a dry dock. That is not God’s way. That is a canal that you make for yourself to ride on.
But as an actual force, what is to hinder me? The hindrance is whatever is self-gratification - that will bar the expression of that which is Christ.
I look at a man like Stephen. He is the expression of Christ. He is under the cross - under death. Flesh gets nothing. There is no self-gratification to hinder him, and then he comes out as a beautiful expression of the divine. We should live here “always delivered unto death”. God is extremely gentle with us, beloved. He will never leave us to say He neglected or overlooked us. But if He does not find you tractable - if He finds you are like a self-willed horse, you will have your own way, you will not go - Well, He says, I cannot make any hand of him, I will turn him out to grass. He will not use you, but leave you just to feed, and some people say, perhaps, he has a fine time of it.
[p. 291] I do not think so. He will be brought in again some day, and the collar will be put on again, and it will gall all the harder for having been off so long. What the Lord does when He sees us willing to do anything is, He comes in and helps us.
You should live “always delivered unto death”. Then all is easy. Suppose a person says, I will give up my ornaments and such like. I have no doubt the Lord comes in and helps you in that way. But where there is a strong desire to retain the thing, He allows it to go on till circumstances bring the soul into the right place.
Just like Paul. Paul was full of Jerusalem. This was a real and true thing in one sense, and the Lord allows it to go on, and by and by, in Philippians, we find Paul in his right place. He says, I am like a balloon on a string. All I desire is “to depart, and to be with Christ”. Nothing can draw him here now - not even Jerusalem. The Lord brought in the pressure of circumstances, and he says, “We .. . are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake”. And the Lord does not remove the pressure. As a man sometimes says of a pony, I never keep the saddle off him. He is a tractable, useful animal, I have always work for him. That is exactly what the Lord says of us, when we can say with Paul, “We which live are alway delivered unto death”. I will never take the pressure off you. I will always keep the pressure on you, because you turn it to some account. Now, what people are looking for are fine, easy times - and that is really to be out to grass. I do not know if any of you are looking for easy times here, instead of saying, I am in the world, and Christ is gone away. And because Christ is gone away, what are you doing now? I say, my eye is upon Him where He is.