THE SON-GLASSES

BEFORE AND AFTER BROKENNESS THE BREAKING of the outward man is the basic experience of all who serve God. This must be accomplished before He can use us in an effective way. When one is working for God, two possibilities may arise. First, it is possible that with the outward man unbroken, one's spirit may be inert and unable to function. If he is a clever person, his mind governs his work; if he is a compassionate person, the emotions control his actions. Such work may appear successful but cannot bring people to God. Second, his spirit may come forth clad in his own thoughts or emotions. The result is mixed and impure. Such work will bring men into mixed and impure experience. These two conditions weaken our service to God. If we desire to work effectively, we must realize that basically "it is the Spirit which quickens." Sooner or later, if not on the first day of our salvation, then perhaps ten years after, we must recognize this fact. Many have to be brought to their ...

  EXPECT TO SEE WOUNDS  We see Jacob in the Old Testament, how even in his mother's womb he struggled with his brother. He was subtle, tricky, deceitful. Yet his life was full of sorrows and grief. When a youth, he fled from home. For twenty years he was cheated by Laban. The wife of his heart's love, Rachel, died prematurely. The son of his love, Joseph, was sold. Years later Benjamin was detained in Egypt.  He was successively dealt with by God, meeting misfortune after misfortune. He was stricken by God once, twice; indeed, his whole history could be said to be a history of being stricken by God. Finally after many such dealings, the man Jacob was transformed. In his last few years, he was quite transparent. How dignified was his answer to Pharaoh! How beautiful was his end, when he worshipped God on his staff! How clear were his blessings to his descendants! After reading the last page of his history, we want to bow our heads and worship God. Here is one who is mature...

  REASONS FOR NOT BEING BROKEN  Why is it that after many years of dealing some remain the same? Some individuals have a forceful will; some have strong emotions; and others have a strong mind. Since the Lord is able to break these, why is it that after many years some are still unchanged? We believe there are two main reasons.  FIRST REASON Many who live in darkness are not seeing the hand of God. While God is working, while God is breaking , they do not recognize it as being from Him. They are devoid of light, seeing only men opposing them. They imagine their environment is just too difficult, that circumstances are to blame. So they continue in darkness and despair.  May God give us a revelation to see what is from His hand, that we may kneel down and say to Him, "It is You; since it is You, l will accept." At least we must recognize whose hand it is that deals with us. It is not a human hand, nor our family's, not the brothers' and sisters' in the church, but ...

  THE TIMING IN OUR BROKENNESS  The Lord employs two different ways to break our outward man; one is gradual, the other sudden. To some, the Lord gives a sudden breaking followed by a gradual one. With others, the Lord arranges that they have constant daily trials, until one day He brings about large-scale breaking. If it is not the sudden first and then the gradual, then it is the gradual followed by the sudden. It would seem the Lord usually spends several years upon us before He can accomplish this work of breaking.  The timing is in His hand. We cannot shorten the time, though we certainly can prolong it. In some lives the Lord is able to accomplish this work after a few years of dealing; in others it is evident that after ten or twenty years the work is still unfinished. This is most serious! Nothing is more grievous than wasting God's time. How often the church is hindered! We can preach by using our mind, we can stir others by using our emotions; yet if we do not k...

  THE ALABASTER BOX MUST BE BROKEN  The Bible tells of the pure spikenard. God purposely used this term "pure" in His word to show that it is truly spiritual. But if the alabaster box is not broken, the pure spikenard will not flow forth. Strange to say, many are still treasuring the alabaster box, thinking that its value exceeds that of the ointment. Many think that their outward man is more precious than their inward man. This becomes the problem in the church. One will treasure his cleverness, thinking he is quite important; another will treasure his own emotions, esteeming himself as an important person; others highly regard themselves, feeling they are better than others, their eloquence surpasses that of others, their quickness of action and exactness of judgment are superior, and so forth. However, we are not antique collectors; we are not vase admirers; we are those who desire to smell only of the fragrance of the ointment. Without the breaking of the outward, the inw...

    NATURE HAS ITS WAY OF BREAKING  This is a series, in order to have a full grasp of this Topic kindly read from "The release of the Spirit Diet 1" The Lord Jesus tells us in John 12, "Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit." Life is in the grain of wheat, but there is a shell, a very hard shell on the outside. As long as that shell is not split open, the wheat cannot sprout and grow. "Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die  . . . " What is this death? It is the cracking open of the shell through the working together of temperature, humidity, in the soil. Once the shell is split open, the wheat begins to grow. So the question here is not whether there is life within, but whether the outside shell is cracked open. The Scripture continues by saying, "He that loves his life (Greek, soul) shall lose it, and he that hates his life (Greek, soul) in this world shall ...

  The Inward Man and the Outward Man   Notice how the Bible divides man into two parts: "For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man" (Rom. 7:22). Our inward man delights in the Law of God. ". . . To be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man" (Eph. 3:16). And Paul also tells us, "But if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet the inward is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16).  When God comes to indwell us by His Spirit, life and power, He comes into our spirit which we are calling the inward man. Outside of this inward man is the soul wherein function our thoughts, emotions and will. The outermost man is our physical body. Thus we will speak of the inward man as the spirit, the outer man as the soul and the outermost man as the body. We must never forget that our inward man is the human spirit where God dwells, where His Spirit mingles with our spirit. Just as we are dressed in clothes, so our inward man "wears" an o...

WHAT IS BROKENNESS?  T. A. Sparks has said:  "Whether we are able yet to accept it or not, the fact is that if we are going on with God fully, all the soul's energies and abilities for knowing, understanding, sensing and doing will come to an end, and we shall-on that side-stand bewildered, dazed, numbed and impotent. Then, only a new, other, and Divine understanding, constraint, and energy will send us forward or keep us going. At such times we shall have to say to our souls, 'My soul, be thou silent unto God' (Ps. 62.5) ; and 'My soul, come thou with me to follow the Lord.' But what joy and strength there is when, the soul having been constrained to yield to the spirit, the higher wisdom and glory is perceived in its vindication. Then it is that 'My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:46). The spirit HATH, the soul DOTH(note the tense)  THE IMPORTANCE OF BROKENNESS  ANYONE who serves God will discover so...

    FAITH IS INTERCESSION  Abraham was concerned about Lot and his family. Genesis 18:23-33 tells the story. When he knew that God intended to destroy Sodom and Gomorrha because of the wickedness of the people, Abraham drew near to the Lord, and said, "Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" What a thing for a man to say to God! "Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?" What intercession! Look what he told God. "That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked..." You ought to get that; that will teach you what the great tribulation is all about. God has not changed His nature yet. "that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" What a challenge in the face of God! "A...

  FAITH IS TOTAL LOVE  Faith is a total dedication. Look at Gen22:1-2, "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, (isn't that amazing God said he had only one son?) whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."   Faith is total commitment and faith is total love. This was the hardest day of Abraham's life. It was easier to fight all the kings of Babylon than to do this. Why did God ask Abraham to do such a thing? Perhaps it was because of Isaac. He was now 10 or 12 years old and Abraham was 100 when he was born, so he had spent the last 10 or 12 years kissing that boy. He had been so busy hugging and loving him, he had not said much to God for 10 years! God looked down and said to him, "Abraham, you used to talk to me a...

  Faith raises a son to believe Abraham stayed close to Isaac. We have no record of him permitting the boy to visit Lot and his family in the glamorous city of Sodom, not one time. He did not feel that his son had to climb the social ladder in Sodom. If he had gone down there he would  probably have married one of Lot's daughters. Raising a son with the right people, that is faith.  Isaac stood by the altars of Abraham and watched God move in his father's life and said, "That's the religion I want, just like daddy's." Most of us never identify faith when it comes to raising a family. I am sure it is a great part of training any family. It will not work in the pulpit if it does not work at your house. Lots of people only want pulpit faith, but God is looking at your bedroom; He knows all about what is going on behind closed doors. Abraham did not send Isaac to the learned, liberated university of Sodom. He did not study chemistry in the classes of Gomorrah wh...

  Faith Staggers Not Romans 4:20 says, "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." Faith was believing for an heir, a world saviour. Abraham's faith continued under siege after he arrived at the place where God wanted him. A lot of people cannot accept that. They say, "I am what God wants me to be, and I do what God wants me to do. Why then is this happening to me?" That is the end of their faith. Abraham journeyed to the promised land and his faith was still under siege. Why? Because God promised him a supernatural son. In Genesis 17:6 it says, "And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee" But the devil was fighting them. Do you know that the devil tries to keep you away from all the promises of God? He is the chief destroyer of faith in people's hearts. If you don't know that, you don't know the devil. You have...

  Faith Refuses to Be Bought In Genesis 14:23, Abraham said to the king of Sodom, "I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich." Faith refuses the unholy. All the wealth belonged to Abraham; he won it at war; it was his, but he gave it all back to them, despite that, he was one of the richest men on earth. Read the life of Abraham and you will find that he was one of the richest men on the earth. If somebody said, "Show me where people in the New Testament were rich," you only need one verse, Galatians 3:29. "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." We are the seed of Abraham by faith. He made it everywhere, and you can do the same thing. Do you believe it? Yes! That your spiritual reality.  You don’t have to manipulate it, or fall to the deception of the devil to get wealth, you are alr...

FAITH DEFEATS THE ENEMY  Did you know that the first general mentioned in the Bible is Abraham? Abraham led the first war mentioned in the Bible? He was an aggressor. He went after the enemy! They did not attack him—he went after them. Do you think faith is for sissies? No, real faith is strong. Faith is a general at war.  Five kings took over Sodom and Gomorrah, but in Genesis 14:14 we read, "When Abram heard that his brother (which was his nephew Lot) was taken captive, he armed his trained servants,..." Abram had his own private army; he was a dangerous man. It says he had three hundred and eighteen men born in his own house, and he armed them with swords and spears. Verse 14 says, "He pursued them unto Dan."  But Abraham was in Beersheba, so a couple hundred of the worst miles on the face of the earth separated the two. When he got to Dan, "He divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night..." (Genesis 14:15). Talk about strategy? Fait...

  FAITH HAS NO GENERATION GAPS  Faith is a power that can tie generations together. Faith is the authority to say to your son —"I've got it, you get it; you give it to your children." Faith is the power to transcend generations. Denominations die because they do not have the faith to move into another generation with the same stamina and spirituality that they had in the old generation.  Hebrews 11:9 says, "By faith Abraham sojourned...in a strange country." You are supposed to live on the face of this earth as a stranger to the earth. This world is a place you are passing through. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country. He lived separated from others, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac (one generation), with Jacob (another   generation), the heirs with him of the same promise. Abraham shared his faith with new generations. Doubt and fear and compromise can never do it. It takes faith to do it. You have to believe God that yo...

  FAITH CHALLENGES THE UNKNOWN If you know all the facts, you do not need faith. Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." If you are going to become a person of faith, you are going to enter into the area of the unknown. You will be moving in places you do not understand. Faith is when you are willing to deal with God in areas you are not sure of , not knowing if you have a place to put your feet. When we began construction of the church building that we now worship in, we had just come back from the Philippines. I had no money. Do you know what God said? He said, "If you have the courage to sign the papers, I'll supply the needs." You know what I said? "That is very interesting. When they don't get their money, I'll say, 'He told me,' but they won't be able to find you. They have my address and...

Faith Acts Genesis 12:4 says, "Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran." Abraham obeyed. He did not stop between the two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates—a rich, luxurious, tempting area. At that point in time the greatest civilization on the face of the earth was located right there. God said, "You go west young man." and He did not give give him a map. He just said, "Go" and Abraham started going. If you think that was easy, you have missed the whole story. I have seen parts of the excavated city of Babylon in the British Museum. It had paved streets and sewage running underneath the streets, and I have seen gold work they have brought up from deep down in the earth. It is beautiful filigree gold work.  It was a great city, and rich Abraham had to sell his property and leave town, his kinfolk, his friends, and everything he held dear. What is faith? W...

Faith Hears Genesis 12:1 says, "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." Abraham was a citizen of Ur of the Chaldees, possibly in the area of where the Garden of Eden once stood. Abraham's people built the city of Babylon and Babel, the great tower. Despite their culture, the people and his family were idol worshipers. In Joshua 24:2 it says, "And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods." Abraham's environment and heredity were contrary to his faith.  He was not a product of his day; he was different. Abraham was like a lily that came up out of the mire, and like a rose that came forth from among the briars. Abraham received word from God that he should leave his home and...

What is faith In Hebrews 10:38 it says, "Now the just shall live by faith..." That is speaking about the justified, the ones who are just as if they had never sinned, the born-again ones. The Bible says that the believer, the justified, does not live by natural means; he has a secret power called "faith."  The just live by faith. They make decisions by faith. They do things that others do not quite understand because they live in a dimension beyond natural dimensions; they live by faith.  Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we cannot please God without faith. You and I should seek faith in order to please God. Faith is not to benefit ourselves altogether, but to please God. What then is faith? It is a knowledge of God. The amount of your faith is in direct relationship to your experience and knowledge of God. If I took a little three-year-old child and stood her on top of a high counter and said, "Honey, jump to me," she would look down at me and say, "No....

Unquestioning Obedience “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).  Obedience from the heart is the true and unmistakable evidence of the reality of Christ’s lordship in our lives. Disobedience vitiates all our professions of loyalty. Our performance speaks more loudly than our professions. The test is not what I say but what I do. Were it not for Calvary’s revelation of the heart of God, we might well fear God’s sovereignty and think His demands tyrannical. Calvary has set that fear to rest once for all. There was a man in Germany, a village organist, who one day was practicing on the church organ, playing a piece by that master of music Mendelssohn. He was not playing it very well, and a stranger stole into the church and sat in the dimness of a back pew. He noted the imperfections of the organist’s performance, and when the latter had ceased playing and was preparing to depart, the stranger made bold to go to him and say, “Sir, would you allow me t...

Recognition of His Ownership “He is Lord of all” (Acts10:36). The word "Lord" here carries the idea of an owner who has control of all his possessions. Unless we recognize that fact in practice, Christ’s reign over us is purely nominal. We are His by creation, and we are His by purchase. Now we are His by self-surrender.  All that we have we hold as trustees, not as owners. But His gifts are to be enjoyed. God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Tim6:17). The story of Sir John Ramsden of Huddersfield, England, provides an interesting sidelight on this aspect of truth. I have checked the accuracy of the story with an old man from Huddersfield, who, when a boy, used to run messages for a Quaker and was rewarded with an orange and a penny. When quite a young man Sir John saw that Huddersfield was destined from its location in Yorkshire  to become a great industrial center. Property was certain to acquire a largely increased value in the near future. He ther...

Christ’s Lordship  What Is Involved in Christ’s Lordship? Let us examine what submitting to Christ’s lordship really means. Full Submission to His Authority “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Peter 3:15). The verb is in the imperative, so it calls for a definite act of the will, by which we take our place at the feet of Christ in absolute surrender. Paul states that this was the objective of His death and resurrection: “For this very reason Christ died and returned to life, so that He might be the Lord, of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14:9) In one of the Napoleonic wars, Lord Nelson defeated the French navy. The defeated admiral brought his flagship alongside Nelson’s vessel and went aboard to make his surrender. He approached Nelson smilingly, with his sword swinging at his side. He held out his hand to the victor. Nelson made no response to this gesture but said quietly, “Your sword first, sir" Laying down the sword was a visible token of surrender. So, like Pau...

The other lords This is a continuation of "diet 3"  The “other lords” take various forms. With some it may be business, with others sports, or money, or some a vocation that takes the place that is due Christ. The danger is that these “other lords,” though legitimate in themselves, may take an inordinate place in our time and affection and may eventually oust the real Lord.  Ideally the coronation of Christ as Lord of our life should take place at conversion. When we present the gospel to a seeking soul, we should follow the example of the Lord and not conceal the cost of discipleship. Christ was scrupulously open and honest on this point. Unfortunately, that is not always done.  It is noteworthy that immediately on his conversion Paul realized what his only possible attitude should be toward Jesus. As soon as he got the answer to his question, “Who are you, Lord?” and realized that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, he asked a second question, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Act...

  Christ's call.  Christ’s call was not merely to believe in Him but to be His disciple, and that involves more than “making a decision” or believing certain doctrinal facts. A disciple is one who learns of Christ with the purpose of obeying what he or she learns. Jesus did not commission His disciples to go and make believers of all nations, but disciples; the terms are not synonymous, although there can be no salvation without believing (Matt. 28:20). When Peter preached the first sermon to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, he said, “He is Lord of all" But Peter had not always recognized and bowed to His lordship. When, prior to that visit he saw a vision of a sheet being let down from heaven, containing all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds, he heard a voice say, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat" “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean” (Acts10:13–14).     He set his opinion against the Lord and received a well...

  Lordship salvation. In recent times in evangelical circles there has developed strident debate around what has been termed “lordship salvation,” a name that has been applied to the view that, for salvation, a person must believe in Christ as Savior and submit to His authority. Some, at the other end of the spectrum, go so far as to say that to invite an unsaved person to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is a perversion of the gospel, and is adding to the scriptural teaching about salvation.  “All that is required for salvation is believing the gospel message,” says Thomas L. Constable. On either side are godly men whose love for the Lord is beyond question, and each view aims to preserve the purity of the gospel presentation in our day. There must, therefore, be mutual respect, but both positions cannot be right. In my view, it is defective teaching to divorce the Saviorhood of Christ from His lordship. Salvation is not merely believing certain doctrinal facts; it is ...

 Ye call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. (John 13:13 KJV)   Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Acts 10:36   The question of authority is one of the burning issues of our times. It is challenged in every sphere; in family, church, school, and community. This revolt against constituted authority has been responsible for the disastrous breakdown in law enforcement, with a consequent upsurge in crime and violence. Without some central authority, society will disintegrate into chaos and anarchy. Every ship must have a captain, every kingdom a king, and every home a head if they are to function aright. If this is true of society in general, it is no less true in the kingdom of Mansoul, as Bunyan termed it in the lives of individual men and women. The crucial question to answer is, “In whose hands does the final authority rest?” For the Christian there are only two alternatives. The authority rests in the Master’s hands or in mine. Scripture leaves us in no doubt as...