PERSEVERANCE

E. M. Walkinshaw

Luke 9: 28–31; 54–55; 10: 38, 39; 11: 1, 13

No doubt the passage in Luke 9 points to the kingdom. The day will yet come when Jesus will be supreme in glory, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea—a wonderful day to look forward to! Perhaps we have little conception of what it will be, but I believe the Spirit of God would give us an impression of it so that we may have amongst the brethren now some knowledge of the heavenly influence of Jesus. It is a heavenly influence. He was on earth, but He was never earthly. He was a heavenly Man on earth. That reminds me of the words of J.N.D. about the assembly “an unearthly witness of heavenly things on earth”. So we are to be characteristically like Him, dear brethren.

Of course, we must first of all accept that we are not naturally like Him. None of us is heavenly. We are earthly. We may not be worldly, and you may argue that you are not worldly, and do not go in for the things of the world. You don’t go in for their pleasures, their pursuits, nor are you ambitious, involved in politics, sport, or such things. Often where I find I am tested is that I am earthly. You may live in your garden. I always remember Mr. Biggs telling us an incident in the life of a brother who got astray. He lost his way and went out of fellowship, and he became a keen gardener. He lived in a village where there was a half-wit, and one day the half-wit passed by, looked over the fence, and said to the brother, “Oh, Mr. —, you live in your garden, don’t you?” The Lord used that to go right home to his conscience, and he was restored.

Where do you live? Where do I live? I am not implying at all that if you have a garden you should not dig it, and produce from it. But the question is, “Where do you live?” Jesus was a very simple when He was here; simple in His life—and I believe, as a lowly Man, very simple in His ways. So He said, “Consider the lilies”. If He says consider them, you do it.

Have you ever considered the lilies? He also said, look at the birds. Have you ever looked at the birds? You say, “All that has moral meaning”. Yes, true; but the Lord said, look at the birds. As you look at the birds you can take account of their habits. I don’t mean you become a specialist, a bird watcher, or something like that, as a profession or hobby, but He said, look at the birds. So Jesus was here a lowly, heavenly Man—coming down here in all the grace of heaven to take up the simplicity of things in life.

He gave His Father delight; and as that character in any way marks us, we give the Father delight. We should love, dear brethren, to practise the things that are pleasing in His sight.

Well, here, Jesus goes up into the mountain. He did not go up to be transfigured; it says He went up to pray. That was the reason. And as He prayed the fashion of His countenance became different. And I believe in this gospel He is a Pattern, especially the Pattern for us.

How often we are challenged as to how far we pray deliberately. I find it is necessary, and a great privilege, to be deliberate in prayer. And I think you will find as you pray that often it is necessary to persevere, and in the power of the Spirit of God you are drawn into a greater appreciation of the Person in Whose presence you are. It is possible, I believe, for praying persons to become different. I am not suggesting, of course, that there was anything about Jesus that needed to be removed, or judged, as there is with us. What I am suggesting is that, as a perfect Pattern for us, He would encourage us to pray. We might have thought, surely the point in this is the glory of the transfiguration; but it says, “He went up to pray”. And in this gospel in particular, as we all very well know, He is particularly pointed out as the praying Man.

In conversing with one or two brothers recently I have found that they have had kindred exercises with mine—the Lord has brought them to a point experimentally where they have felt their utter dependence upon Him. Everything seems shut up. Sometimes you feel you hardly reach God in your prayer. When I say reach Him I mean to be conscious that He is listening to you. You may say, “But I understand that God listens to everything, the faintest, feeblest cry will reach Him”. Yes, you know that objectively, but as we pray, beloved brethren, I believe it delights the Lord when we reach the consciousness that He is listening to us. Jesus said, you remember, “I know that Thou hearest Me always”. That word ‘know’ is conscious knowledge. Think of that Man in His perfection, whatever the circumstances, congenial or otherwise, mainly otherwise. He was conscious that His Father always heard Him. I could not say that.

Do you find, as others sometimes feel, and I must confess to such a feeling, that the heavens do sometimes seem like brass’? And the earth sometimes seems like iron, and you seem to get nowhere and give up in despair. Have you ever done that? What I find is the need for perseverance. You may say, “I kneel down; I’m so tired, I fall asleep”. And what do you do when you wake up? Are you so disgusted with yourself that you get into bed? No—persevere! Go on praying. Wake up, and pray again! These are practical, simple matters which most of us would have to admit that at some time or another we have experienced. I believe that when it says that He went up into the mountain to pray, it is intended to show the deliberate attitude that Jesus took to prayer. Not constant, simple speaking in His daily life—which was true and good—and true and good for us, but a deliberate attitude of mind; He went up there, and “as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance became different”; a praying Man, a dependent Man, going into the glory.

You may say, “Is that possible for us?” I would like to ask you if you are committed to it. We all feel our weakness, as our brother expressed in the reading. None of us would excuse ourselves, or elect ourselves out of what he said as to weakness and feeling our limitation; how little we are in touch with the Lord in the present testimony in its power. But I believe it gives the Lord some delight when we are committed to it. Are you committed to it? What will it mean if I am committed to it? Take the younger men. I would counsel you in your youth to go in for the truth. Go in for reading the scriptures; go in for prayer; be deliberate. Satan would turn you aside, and you will always find something that you must just do before you pray. You must do this, or that. But be deliberate. When you go into your chamber, the Lord says, “Shut thy door”. You say, “Of course, that doesn’t mean literally”. Are you sure it doesn’t mean literally? That is what He says, “Shut thy door”. It is deliberate. And “pray to thy Father Who is in secret, and thy Father Who sees in secret will render it to thee”. You may say, “You are saying a lot about prayer”. Beloved brethren, I believe it is the secret of access into everything. It is simple and implicit dependence on God. A praying man recognises two things, at any rate. One is, that he has a need, and he has no strength in himself; the other is that He is speaking to someone Who is willing to meet that need, that is, our glorious Resource, the Father.

Now here Jesus goes up to pray, and the fashion of His countenance became different. We find here a picture of His heavenly kingdom and glory, but to be held in testimony. Of course, it is bound up among the disciples; but it is held in testimony. And I believe that the Lord would strengthen us by some impression in the present moment in testimony that the glory is about to be revealed. So we are looking forward. It says, “We boast in hope of the glory of God”—boast in hope of it. That is not the glory we are going into there; it is the glory that is coming out, that will yet burst upon this poor benighted scene. Have you the secret of that in your soul? If you have the secret of it, and the secret of Jesus as the Centre of it, I believe it will strengthen you not only in submission to Himself, but in the testimony and enable you to shine in His spirit. So these two men speak of His departure. It does not say they spoke of His death, although, of course, that was the means of it; but they spoke of His departure, that is, out of one scene into another of which He was to be, and was, the Sun and the Centre. How wonderful to think of that I believe that prayer, dependence upon God, is the avenue out of one scene into another. He has, of course, gone before; but I believe it takes us in the spirit of the mind, from the scene of need into the scene where there is no need. Would you not like to touch that? I think the Lord would help us to touch it. But, we need to persevere in prayer.

You never tell people to persevere in things that are easy, do you? You tell them to persevere in things which are difficult. So persevere in prayer. Keep on keeping on, if you like. As the prophet said, “Give Him no rest”.

Now in the next section we find two persons who are enthusiastic. Perhaps we have been that way. They are thinking about the Lord, and I do not doubt that they loved Him. And maybe they had been thinking about those two men, Moses and Elias. Perhaps they had thought about their history, as we would. We go back and think about Moses, the meekest man in all the earth. Then we think of Elijah, of the man who says, “If I be a man of God, let fire come down from the heavens and consume thee and thy fifty” (2 Kings 1: 12). That is what they must have been thinking about. Elijah also was on the mountain. “Wilt Thou that we speak that fire come down from heaven and consume them, as also Elias did?” Think of such a spirit as that; but they did not know the spirit they were of. It is so with us, dear brethren. It is unwitting; often it is ignorance—it is put down as a sin of ignorance. We think we are so enthusiastic for the truth, and press the truth. In a certain sense that is right. You will quote J.B.S. against me. He said, “Press the truth and it will show where the error is”. But to force it, is not of God, and so often in our enthusiasm we overlook the fact that we are not of the right spirit.

Jesus therefore rebuked them. He says, “Ye know not of what spirit ye are”. I wonder whether we do? This is written for us. It is written for you and me, and we are reading today, in November 1972, what is intended for our benefit. Of what spirit am I? It is not, What do I say? but, Of what spirit am I? Jesus says, “Ye know not”. These Samaritans rejected Him. It may be said, “These persons have turned away their minds from the truth”. And what is your spirit going to be? I think we need to watch our spirit, and watch what we say, and the way we speak about the brethren from whom we have had to part company. We must maintain the truth, and it is very clear that there can be no fellowship with them. It is equally true that there should be no bitterness against them. Bitterness is not right; it is not of God; it comes from the flesh. No fellowship does not mean that there is bitterness. You may be accused of it, but just watch your spirit as regards these dear brethren. You must go on in the truth.

Pursue the truth; maintain the truth—and fraternising in this eating and drinking and sitting down to play with those not in the fellowship, or the power of the fellowship of God’s Son, is against the truth. That does not mean that you are bitter; you would love to see every one of them restored on the ground of the truth, and you feel it that there can be no fellowship.

Nevertheless the Lord says to them, “Ye know not of what spirit ye are”.

Then they went to another village. That is sobering. The fact is this, that while fire is not to be called down from heaven upon the village that refused Him, they would have to face the fact that they missed Him. That would be in God’s ways, in God’s government. That means they do not get the gain of His presence. The persons who refuse Jesus, and who refuse the truth, and who refuse to see what He is doing and relate themselves to it, will miss His presence. As far as we are concerned, however, there is to be no bitterness or calling down of fire, or the spirit of it. But at the same time, in God’s ways they miss the presence of Jesus. That is sobering. What will we do? Where are we? The Lord would raise the challenge with us in these days as to what the banner in the power of the Spirit is. There is our desire to hold to the truth in the spirit of Christ, but this is not a free-and-easy attitude toward everybody and everything. The spirit of Christ is a firm, simple, and unflinching pursuit of the path of the will of God in the spirit of meekness; not holding to one’s own rights, but to the rights of God.

Now there is a very natural kind of question that arises when we speak like this. You say, We sit together; we love one another, and it is very easy to speak about these things when we are sitting together. But the pertinent question that arises is, “How can I come out in the spirit of Christ, I who am so unlike Him? I find that immediately something is done against me I retaliate.” You find that, I do not doubt, because you come from the same stock as I do. And therefore if I say what I find in my heart naturally, then I am sure you find it in yours. That again reminds me of the word of J.N.D., “No thought or motive that ever existed in the heart of Jesus ever exists in mine naturally, and no thought or motive that exists in my heart naturally ever existed in His”. So completely different is the kind of man. But how am I to reach His spirit? Has everybody here in this company received the Holy Spirit from a glorified Man? That is a very searching question for us. We should not take it for granted.

Maybe we should ask our younger brethren if they have had a personal transaction with a glorified Man. I never tire of repeating an incident in my own life when I heard Edward McBride give an address and very searchingly say, “How far is a glorified Man in heaven a reality to your soul?” I have never forgotten it. How far is He a reality to you? Have you received the Spirit from Him?

Now in chapter 10 we have someone who sat down at the feet of Jesus and was listening to His word. That is deliberate. It was not that she was about her business and was—thinking that is very good, of course. But she sat down and was listening. I think, brethren, we need deliberately to make time for prayer, and make time for sitting down. “Of course it is not literal”, you say. But why not literal? It says, “She sat down”, and I think there is something in that, you know, to know what it is. A brother pointed out to me that in the passage we read earlier in 2 Timothy 4, it says, “The Lord stood with me”. In another place it says He sat Himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high; but He stood with a man who was standing in the truth. Now of this dear sister it says she sat down. We all find there is not much time for that; there is so much to do; life is so busy, with meetings, much to do in the house, entertaining, and so on. And we would say, “After all, someone has to do it!” I know a young sister who is very often reminding me that someone has to do the washing up—which is perfectly true. She expresses—and other sisters have expressed—a certain sympathy with Martha, because someone must do the work. Notwithstanding, Mary found time to sit down at the feet of Jesus and listen to His word. It was not that she just heard it. She listened—are you listening? You say, “Well, I am only listening to someone saying a word of encouragement”. When we listen to an address we should listen for the Lord’s voice. Do you listen to hear what He is saying? It may be that the person speaking is frail. Maybe he has not much to say, but you listen that in the words that he expresses the Lord will convey something to your soul. That is what is needed. You may find that much is said today you will forget, but there is something the Lord would communicate to every listening person. I would like to be in that state. These two sisters suggest two states of soul. One is a state of soul that is rather agitated; the other is a state of soul that is restful and listening to His word.

One of the old-time worthies said that Mary listened to the whole counsel of God from the lips of that Man. What a thing that is! Well, do we do that?

We now come back to prayer. It says in chapter 11, “As He was in a certain place praying, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples”. Of course you don’t need to be taught to pray, do you? Do you think you need to be taught to pray? Surely you just kneel down and say what you want, and that is it. “Lord, teach us to pray”; do you mean to tell me the brethren need to be taught to pray? Well, that is what someone said and I can understand him saying it after he heard Jesus pray. “Father, as to those whom Thou hast given Me, I desire that where I am they also may be with Me” (John 17: 24)—think of the spirit of the great Priest looking right down the dispensation. As you hear, and get into the spirit of that prayer, you say to the Lord, almost unconsciously, “Lord, teach us to pray”. Not all my wants and woes, but what is the burden of that prayer of the great Priest? It is for the testimony and the will and the interests of His God and Father. So you can understand their saying as they listened to Jesus, “Teach us to pray”; because “we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting, but the Spirit joins its help to our weakness”, so that we might know how to pray according to the will of God. May we be helped in that feature, dear brethren.

The next thing that I draw attention to is the receiving of Holy Spirit. “How much rather shall the Father who is in heaven give (the) Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” Will you say, “Of course I do not do that: I do not ask for Him because I have received Him years ago. My sins were forgiven and I received the Holy Spirit 40 years ago!” and that is that. But, you know, from the point of view of this scripture, that is not that at all! This is characteristic. I may receive the Spirit and grieve Him. I may have received the Spirit and quench Him, quench the fire or the flow. Do you ask the Father every day for Holy Spirit?—not exactly that you should receive Him as you received Him initially, but that you might receive Him in the sense of His character marking every word and every action at every moment. How testing I find that is, even as I say it. But I believe it is in the Lord’s mind that we should ask for Holy Spirit. It is true that once you have received Him. He never departs from you; you are sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4: 30). But I believe it is essential day by day, if we are to reach something of the Spirit, and right submission to the Lord Jesus, that we should daily be seeking the Father’s face, and seeking His help, that we might receive the Spirit in a characteristic way, so as to proceed here in the testimony of God.

May the Lord help us, dear brethren, through our simple time together, as to the spirit and kingdom of our Lord, that we might be here more for Him, more subject to Him; more shining in His spirit, and more committed to the testimony; and that as we are more committed to His testimony we might each of us know what it is to be in the secret and power of the present testimony, though there are but few in it, and I think that has always been the case.

If I may repeat what I said in London—F.E.R. said it at any time in the history of the testimony you could number on the fingers of one hand the men that were in the power of it.

It is not what God intends, but it is the simple fact.

May the Lord grant grace to each one of us that the number in the power of the present testimony may be increased, for His pleasure and glory, and for His Name’s sake!

Walton-on-Naze
11th November 1972

 

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