POWER FROM HEAVEN
POWER FROM HEAVEN
Since the rejection of Christ and His sitting down in glory, this whole world is proved to be unproductive of anything for the christian as such. During His life on earth, it was made to yield something under His hand, their wants and infirmities were met by Him. But since His rejection and His sitting down at God’s right hand, a new scene of blessing is made known where He is, and in 2 Corinthians 12 the man in Christ is there with Him. I find now I am blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him, and if I have all these, I am, of course, not to expect to find any here. This is quite a new and difficult lesson for the saint to learn, for if I can find no spiritual blessing here, this world must be spiritually a desert to me, and as true spiritual blessing is known to my soul I must accept this, that there is nothing of that order to be found down here, but that all is in heaven; this, in a very peculiar and distinct way, diverts the soul from this scene and turns it to heaven. With an Old Testament saint there was the power of God to produce from things here an expression of His thoughts and love for His people such as they could appreciate; now that expression of His love is made in heaven. It is all for acceptance on our part, and our enjoyment depends on the extent of our acceptance of it; there we are furnished, as Paul was, with strength and joy outside all of earth or of man; but down here he found everything the reverse. To come from heaven with power acquired in getting there (see Joshua 3: 10) is the preliminary to being able to walk worthy of the vocation. Stephen saw it, and he could surmount [p. 143] everything here triumphantly, even death, and pass out of this scene a victor. But in Ephesians you have to remain down here, and to walk as a victor over every kind of force and down to the smallest detail of daily life! The Lord is absent, but He is above everything here. We should feel His absence, but we should walk in His power above everything in this world.