POWER
POWER
When a soul is in power I think there are three actions. First, your eye is on the Lord, beholding His glory; secondly, you see what is yours in seeing Him; and, thirdly, you are getting rid of everything which would debar you from possessing or realising what is yours. Elisha first sees Elijah taken up, then he sees the mantle which fell from him, then he rends his own into two pieces to make room for Elijah’s mantle. It was power to rend the old in order that the mantle might have its right place. Paul could say, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me”. (2 Corinthians 12: 9) I consider no one is in power but as he is able to make room for Christ. This is the power of His resurrection. I want power where there is opposition or difficulty, therefore faith is power.
[p. 454] The great teaching of Hebrews is that we are His companions. And in John 10: 14,15, it is declared that there is an intimacy between the Lord and His own of the same order as that which existed between the Father and the Son. This is, of course, by the Spirit; but it is important that we should enjoy this great intimacy. He sympathises with us in order that we may rise above our infirmities, such as sickness or sorrow or distress of any kind (not sin), and as supported by Him be able to run with patience the race set before us.
Infirmity is relieved first, then in faith looking out to Him we surmount the difficulties, we are in power. But John 6 is even a further step; we are running on to heaven, but we have actually reached it in spirit. We have possession there. Israel had to fight for possession, but now it is ours in Christ; we need the armour (Ephesians 6) to retain our possession. The moment you have the sense of possession, that the walls of Jericho are fallen down, that Christ is there, there is a peculiar joy known to the heart, there is the ‘shout’, you exult in the Lord’s achievement for you. It is the peculiar joy of realised possession.
We have the title always, but we are often a long time before we can shout in the assured sense of possession.
It is very interesting and helpful to see the difference between the act of the woman in Luke 7 and of Mary in Mark 14. In Luke 7 the act of devotedness is to make much of Him here; many make sacrifices with this motive. The act in Mark 14 is devotedness that sacrifices what would lend distinction to oneself, because He is no longer here. Deep was her grief because of the death of Lazarus, but the abnegation of [p. 455] that which claims acknowledgment with regard to herself is the tribute of her heart to Christ, as rejected from the earth.
The Lord Jesus knows entirely and exactly the sensations of His Spirit in my trials and therefore His sympathy is perfect. Few human beings have much sympathy for one another, and fewer still are able, except in peculiar or isolated subjects, to enter into the emotions which another endures in a moment of trial, suffering or sorrow. Where it can be found the reliance must be complete and the confidence entirely unconstrained and unequivocal.
I do not see that anyone can recognise the direction of the Lord or anything spiritual but as he is spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2: 14 applies. A man who has eyesight can distinguish between darkness and light without any difficulty, and surely the spiritual man can distinguish that which is spiritual from that which is carnal.
The spiritual man discerneth all things. I can see that when one is carnal and mental one can approve of ministry which is not spiritual. I see that a very little word and very elementary is more effective when of the Spirit than an oration in which there is much truth and no unction, simply because the latter is beyond the speaker’s own experience.
The great thing is to be “wise unto that which is good”. (Romans 16: 19)
Baptism is unto Christ’s death, not ‘into’ it. Jordan is a type of my own death. When a man from among the heathen believes, the evangelist requires him to be baptised, and I believe “all his”. Because Christ, by His death, opened out the only way of safety for Adam’s children, and besides He obtained the right to every man, so that in baptising the child of a believer I am not thinking of the child’s state, but of Christ’s right over him. Christ is the Head of every man. Every child that is unbaptised is avowedly connected with Adam; but when baptised he is avowedly disconnected from Adam and placed unto Christ. When the children of a believer are not baptised they are in this anomalous position, that the parents bear the name of Christ, but their children still bear the name of Adam. Baptism is simply a change of place, and not a change of heart. When your heart is right your place is at the Lord’s table, where you are in fellowship with His death.