POWER
POWER
I hear some have been speaking on power, a most interesting subject; but possibly there is nothing more slowly acquired. It may be desired, but as a sluggard desireth and hath nothing, it is not reached, because its first action is not accepted. The first action of power is always on yourself. People like power which will control others, as knowledge or position or authority would; but divine power is quite different, for the moment you touch it, it lays its mark on you, and that before you can in any way display it. Hence the apostle could say, Not their speech, but their power. Why are we so deficient in divine power? Simply because we do not like the way it begins, and if there is not a beginning there cannot be a finish. Its beginning is to hate one’s own life, and this is an awful start; but there is no tower built without it. You must refuse human material, or you cannot build a true structure. Power enabled Elisha to take hold of his own clothes and tear them into two pieces. I hold this is where power begins. Your clothes — your circumstances — are first affected by it. It begins with self-abnegation. This explains the reason why there is so little power. Very often one lingers over his losses like an exile, but he must rise out of it; he must bury his dead out of his sight; it is a great day when that comes to pass, and then he can be useful to others.
May we all be really and truly in the power of Christ.
I was greatly struck lately with the words, “dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world” (Colossians 2: 20). It is such an [p. 172] absolute and complete excision; but it is with Him out of one place in order to be with Him in another place, and to be there as fully as He is. The more I am with Him where He is now, the better shall I receive Him if He were to come. Very often when one is not fully for Him there, there is a relief to the conscience in wishing Him to come, for then everything would be settled. If I am in real affection desiring Him to come, I am doing everything in my power to have myself and others ready to greet Him.