THE VOICE OF JESUS
Beloved brethren, I had an impression from what we heard on Saturday and from what our brother has already said about chastening. I too was impressed by what was said about the love of God always lying behind His chastening. I was affected by these verses in John 10 which I have read. We find the Lord Jesus in this chapter as the good Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:15). Because He has laid down His life for the sheep, He would never allow chastening to damage a person for whom He has given Himself. This would confirm that divine love lies behind it. Here He says, “My sheep hear my voice” and I thought that it would be a challenge for us to hear His voice. If we hear His voice, we should take heed to what He has to say to us. If He speaks to us, He has something definite to tell us, which we saw in the two examples our brother has spoken of. What the Lord has to say to us may be of a solemn nature, but it is good that we should not look at it as a penalty. Everyone should understand the speaking, and should also understand why the Lord is speaking in a particular way to them.
On Saturday, Job was mentioned. In the first chapters of the book, we see what a remarkable person he was, and what righteousness marked him. But then it needed forty chapters for him to realise who was talking to him and why. God was talking to him. It took Job so long because he still had his own righteousness before him, and is this not also the case with us sometimes? We also heard of Paul. What a person he was, he had “heard unspeakable things said, which it is not allowed to man to utter” (2 Cor.12:4), and then he was given a thorn for the flesh; this was the Lord speaking to him in order that he might not be exalted (2 Cor.12:7).
In John 10 the Lord says “I know them”. The Lord knows His sheep. They were not only from the Israelites here, and not only from the nations, but it relates to the one flock. We belong to the one flock; the Lord knows us and He knows what we need. He wants to form us, as has been said. I was also thinking about the severity through which we might be passed. If I am not affected by the exercise, then I might think about it lightly, but if I go through very deep exercises, I might reach a point where I almost despair, but what a comfort the Lord gives us, that we are in His hand: “no one shall seize them out of my hand”. Then He turns our attention to the Father, “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”. What wonderful security we have. No one can seize us out of the hand of the Lord Jesus, and neither can anyone seize us out of the hand of the Father, of whom the Lord Jesus says here, “My Father … is greater than all”.
The Lord Jesus said these words when He was down here. The verses we have read in chapter 16 relate to our days. It says “In that day ye shall ask in my name”. The Lord Jesus has revealed the Father, and He has opened the way to the Father. What liberty we have that we can ask the Father in His name. The liberty that we have to ask the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus shows us the great blessedness of our dispensation, and we also have the presence of the Holy Spirit who is available to us, and who strengthens us when we ask Him. Ephesians 3 says “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us” (v.20). I was thinking about the power which works in us. The Holy Spirit strengthens us, enabling us to pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, and gives us the consciousness that the Father Himself has affection for us. This is a wonderful comfort, something that we can remember. And this is, as it says, “because ye have had affection for me, and have believed that I came out from God”. So I thought that we could remember these verses when we are going through exercises, in order that we might be preserved and come to hear what God has to say to us.
Then in the last verse of John 16 it says “These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace”. In John 10 we read that the Lord wants to give us eternal life and then in chapter 16 we have peace in Him. Who else could give us peace but He Himself, He who has overcome this world? I thought that we could be built up and encouraged in these exercises, so that we are able to look up to Him and to find our peace in Him. He it is who has loved us and He it is who still loves us. May we be preserved, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Bad Endbach, Germany
7 October 2015
U. Pfeiffer