"THE THING THAT I DO"

“THE THING THAT I DO”

There has always been some special thing before the mind of the Lord, which is His secret at the time, but which He delights to communicate to every servant walking in faith and fear, as He did to Abraham. Generally this secret is unknown, until it has fully transpired, and thus the peculiar foresight or preparation, which the knowledge of it would have imparted, has been missed or forfeited; and the servant, though he may be very zealous, is occupied with a course, however good, which is not the one uppermost and progressive in the Lord’s mind, and which is about to be displaced by ^[p. 173] another which is on the eve of coming forth. This mistake or deprivation has a double loss. The strength is spent in attempting to sustain and animate a doomed thing, and at the same time one is diverted from the only divine one. There may be much zealous labour without light, and without that trembling at the word - that meekness which prepares for His mind the one to whom He will teach His way. Hence it behoves every servant to seek the Lord in patient dependence, in order to learn of Him in this day, what is “the thing that I do”. We invariably find a tendency, even in earnest souls, to confine themselves to a dispensation or order of things which is precursory to the one they are really set in; and thus it is that the mass of christians do not go beyond the intelligence of the disciples who were with Jesus when He was on the earth. Their using the Lord’s prayer, as it is called, indicates and defines their intelligence, though they may be very sincere and true. Now if there can be a clinging or a return to a state of intelligence, so far below the true one of the assembly of God, it is not to be wondered at that rarely any servant is sufficiently on his watchtower, or near enough to the Lord to comprehend or receive what is in advance of all that has yet appeared.

The great point then is that there is something peculiarly prominent in the mind of the Lord. It is plain that if we retrace His history on the earth, and all along to this hour, that at distinct epochs there was some one thing very specially before His mind; and when we apprehend this, we are, according to our devotedness, solicitous to ascertain what is the thing which He is at this moment set on. When He emerged from private life into public service, to propound the kingdom of God, and to be His servant, was the great thing before His mind. When this culminated in the holy mount, when He received an acknowledgment from the excellent glory of His worth and title, He descended with quite another thing before His mind, even His decease, which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. After He rose,

^[p. 174] another thing is peculiarly before His mind, even the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Before we proceed, I may notice that He ever foretold to those near Him the thing in advance, the secret. True, they did not understand Him; but still He let drop distinct intimation of the coming thing. He said for instance with regard to the mount of transfiguration, “there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power”. And again, on His descent, He spake of His death and resurrection, which was quite a puzzle to His disciples. I have digressed to make this comment in order to show that the Lord does not leave us without direct instruction in His word, as to the thing He will do; and therefore we must conclude that the reason why we do not see it, is because we are not meek enough to learn His way.

Well, evidently, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, the assembly on the earth was the great thing before His mind. He had given light and instruction about it previously, but even the apostles had to be weaned from all hopes of the kingdom, before they were prepared to accept the secret of the Lord, the mystery kept secret from the foundation of the world. And alas! multitudes upon multitudes of saints, have sunk into the same groove, and remain thus unto this day.

Now consequent on the setting up of the assembly, His own return was the prominent thing, but when failure, such as we find in 2 Timothy and 2 Peter and Jude, had set in, then the Lord gives John the Revelation, when there is nothing more to be added, prior to His coming; and there we are informed of the progress of events, and the phases of things, as they are in His mind. First then He takes the place of judgment on the whole professing company, setting forth His disapproval and indignation, at the corruption and failure which had crept into the assembly. He is seen (Revelation 1:2) in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, and thus He is ^[p. 175] to the end. This is His present aspect to the assembly on the earth as a whole. He disapproves of the state of it. When I see Him there, I know His mind with regard to the assembly, in its testimony or state on the earth. But besides this, I learn the mind of the Lord from the aspect in which He appears to each of the assemblies, indicating what it is characteristically at the time, and what the overcomers would gain, and this in successional order, - so that when as in Thyatira, popery is dominant, and things have come to the worst, He announces that His own return, as the Morning Star, is the only encouragement for the overcomer; and from this on to the last, His coming is the termination of the four remaining phases of the church. We get His mind at the time of the Reformation in His address to the angel of the assembly of Sardis, and therefore what it is at this moment, to any in the reformed churches. In like manner we get what is most before His mind - the thing He is doing, in the way he speaks to the angel of the assembly at Philadelphia, and it is not too much to say, that the cry, “Behold, the bridegroom” in Matthew 25 was simultaneous with the commencement of the Philadelphia phase of the church. It is evident wherever the cry was effective, that as any one answered to it, he must enter on the path of separation, going forth to meet Him. He would lead the heart to know Himself, as “^[p. 176] he that is holy, he that is true”. How else would the awakened one find out the suited way or what would please Him? and unless He were to make Himself known as such a light, at such a moment, there would be true desires, but without any knowledge how to act, or any hope of success, were He not to present Himself to every one seeking Him in the midnight as “he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth”. No one could progress even of those who have answered to the cry, “Behold, the bridegroom”, and trimmed their lamps, unless the Lord presented Himself in this twofold way. At every step they feel they must have Him as “he that is holy, he that is true”, and also “he that hath the key of David”. The right kind of separation had to be learned; they had to thread their way out of the great ecclesiastical labyrinth, and overcome every obstacle. Hence practically they have “kept my word, and... not denied my name”, and have a little power. They are kept by the Spirit of God, according as Christ set His disciples in John’s gospel, namely, in His word and in His name. One can hardly comprehend the marvellous grace vouchsafed to the saints, in order to effect this revival, the last of all and the greatest of all; but we can easily see how great it was in the mind of the Lord, and to a certain degree, so it continues to His coming, as do indeed the four last phases of the church on earth. It is necessary to travel in company with the Lord historically, in order to get any just or clear idea of that which succeeds the preceding one. I do not see how we can justly enter into or be instructed in the Lord’s chief thought now, if we have no idea of that one which is, as it were, declining. I judge that the great one consequent on the cry going forth and concurrent with it, though still prominent, is giving way to another; and that is, how He will extricate His own out of Laodicea. I believe the characteristics of it are daily developing, and surely, as this phase, the last, prevails, the Lord adopts a new interest, and inculcates on His servants who are in this confidence, the nature of His interest and how to promote it. This He conveys in His words to the angel of the assembly of the Laodiceans, “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”. I believe the Lord is now especially and peculiarly delivering His own from Laodicean boastfulness and indifferentism. It is a very different work and rescue to that which was vouchsafed to Philadelphia; and as each delivered one enjoys both sympathy from Him and communion with Him, which is conveyed in the words, “I... will sup with him, and he with me”, each, though individualized with Him, joins ^[p. 177] in company with his fellows, and thus assembly position is maintained. This necessarily runs on to His actual coming for the saints, and therefore the presentation of Himself as the bright and Morning Star is the wind-up of Laodicea; and this, the Spirit and the bride are looking at, and therefore say, “Come”.

Many earnest labourers think that the Lord’s present chief concern, the thing that He is doing, the secret that He communicates to them, is the conversion of souls. I do not doubt for a moment that there is much and increased blessing in conversions, and I rejoice in it, but it is properly, as I see, the tail-end of the blessing and not the lead; and when it is made the lead, as no doubt it has been made, when servants are not really in the secret of the Lord, then, though there be conversions, there will not be a rising up to that measure of answer to His heart’s desire, which is expressed by the Spirit and the bride, which I believe are in the lead; but when they are so maintained, the evangelizing and consequent conversion will not be neglected. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”.

The Lord grant that the one great inquiry with each of us may be, What is the thing the Lord is doing? Let us but learn of it and pursue it, and all must be right.