DISCIPLESHIP AND CONFLICT
DISCIPLESHIP AND CONFLICT
I hope that the truth you have gained has become so a part of your life that everything you do bears the mark of it. It is not doing some things right, and in a right spirit, which is the “life of Jesus”, but doing everything, even the least thing, as He would do it. To resist the flesh and its likings in everything, and to manifest Christ in everything is the work of grace in our hearts, so that a saint is never idle; he is never without employment. Like a plant, the roots beneath are always at work, and outwardly, the leaves are always green. People in the world, especially young people, often say they have nothing particular to do. The saint has always something to do, because he has to keep out the intruder, the flesh, and to manifest in his body the life of Jesus. I hope you will find yourself well occupied, and that you have more than you can do.
... I rejoice with you in the step that ———— has been led to take — to leave all and follow the Lord. It is a wonderful step when fully apprehended. It is in one way a greater step than learning the doctrine of justification by faith which was brought to light in Luther’s day. One might say that justification was more important, as teaching the only true way of salvation, which is so far true; but unless a soul learns that the Holy Ghost is here, and that the church is the body of Christ who is the Head in heaven, he has not settled peace, nor can he walk in the Spirit, nor does he know Christ as Head. If he is ignorant of the latter truth (the truth which has come out in these late days) he may be safe, but he is nothing but a dwarf, he never grows beyond the merest babe....
The Christian is a child of war from his birth, making for the great battle in the land — the heavenly places — where the contention is to reproduce or exhibit Christ as the One exalted by God, though refused by man. We spend [p. 228] many a day fighting to get there, but we have to fight to maintain the position we are set in by God; and there it is that the greatest power is against us, but it is concealed in “wiles”. Where are you in this scene of conflict?