| Article | The Meaning of the Anointing
What is the meaning of the anointing of the Holy Spirit? It is nothing less and nothing other than the Holy Spirit taking His place as absolute Lord. The anointing carries with it the absolute Lordship of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit as Lord. That means that all other lordships have been deposed and set aside: the lordship of our own lives, the lord ...read |
| Article | The Meaning of the Fire
"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be profaned? and My glory will I not give to another" (Isa. 48:10-11).
You know that Israel was chosen not just to be something, but to serve a divine end. The being was essential ...read |
| Article | The Meaning of the House of God
If we go on with God, the Cross leads us immediately to the House of God. The Cross opens the way to the House of God, and the House of God depends for its full meaning upon whether the Cross has done its work.
A great many people think that the Church, the House of God - or whatever you may term it - is a doctrine, a part of a system of Christian ...read |
| Article | The Meaning of Union With Christ
What is union with Christ? It is union with Him as the new creation - as the new-creation Man; union with Him in the Life which is the Life of the new creation by the Spirit of Life.
What is the meaning of that union? It is that only by such union can God's works be done. What governed Him in relation to the Father governs us. Nothing can be done ...read |
| Article | The Measure of Christ
"Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col.1:27). Read the whole verse carefully, fragment by fragment, to get the full import of its wonderful truth: "God was pleased to make known - what is the riches of the glory - of this mystery... which is, Christ in you." The riches of the glory, Christ in you!
"Know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus C ...read |
| Article | The Ministry of Elijah
Reading: 1 Kings 17.
What we have in view, of course, in the first place, is the servant of the Lord. Once more God is found reacting to a state of things amongst His Own people, rising up in Divine discontent, and, as always, laying His hand upon an instrument for recovery.
So Elijah stands before us to represent such an instrument, and, in Go ...read |
| Article | The Momentousness of Jesus Christ
From "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines 1969, Volumes 47-4 & 47-5
Reading: Philippians 3:1-16.
"I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:5).
This verse sums up the whole book of Job, for it is the deep explanation underlying Job's life. This book takes a patriarchal character and shows us, in a won ...read |
| Article | The Most Difficult Thing in the World
READING: Heb. 4:1-13; 11:5-6.
I am going to speak for a little while on the most difficult thing in the world, that is, faith. So far as the Lord's people are concerned, it can be truly said that the whole of their life in every aspect - salvation in its first step and every subsequent step, spiritual growth, spiritual sustenance, spiritual vict ...read |
| Article | The Mount of Vision
Why the mountain? So often in the Bible God's movements in revelation and purpose were connected with mountains. It was so with Moses and the Law and the Pattern of the Tabernacle. It was so with Elijah at Carmel and Horeb: with David and the Temple site. It was so with Christ and His great kingdom discourse, His transfiguration, etc. And it was so ...read |
| Sermon | The Mystery and Miracle of Divine Support
( A message given in conference)
Reading: John 6:25-27, 30-33, 47-48, 53.
During this past week we have been considering the Lord Jesus as God's pattern to which He is seeking to conform us, and have reminded ourselves of the Apostle's words that we are "foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). So we have been looking ...read |
| Article | The Nature Of Divine Life
"I came that they might have life" (John 10:10).
When we come to the Gospel by John, we see that this is the Gospel of spiritual education. The others are largely a matter of history -- the history of the earthly life, work, and teaching of the Lord Jesus, but the Gospel by John is the spiritual life and interpretation of Christ in Person.
Do y ...read |
| Article | The Nature of the Dispensation in Which We Live
Reading: "The spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall b ...read |
| Article | The Nature of the Testimony
Life Incorruptible and Indestructible
Reading: Hebrews 11:1-19.
We are going to meditate upon the innermost nature of that Testimony which relates to the Lord in this earth, and in this universe. This whole chapter is occupied with that Testimony, but we are going to take but a part of it, seeing the Testimony as touched upon by the first fou ...read |
| Article | The Necessity For New Birth
Reading: 1 Cor. 15:45,47; 2 Cor. 5:17; John 3:3,5-7.
I want to bring a word very simply to you, a word which many may think to be quite elementary, but it will be intentionally so. Perhaps there is no fragment of Scripture which at the same time is more elementary and yet more comprehensive and profound than this, "You must be born anew." I want ...read |
| Article | The Necessity of Giving Earnest Heed to the Things That Have Been Heard
"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? which having at the first been spoken throu ...read |
| Article | The Need For A New Apprehension Of The Gospel
I am just going to talk for a moment out of my heart, because I do feel that we are in a very perplexing, but very significant, situation at this time. There is a sense in which it does seem that the Lord is not doing very much. I mean there are not very manifest movements of God on the earth along certain lines in which we look for God to be movin ...read |
| Article | The Need for a Spirit of Grace
"And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt" (1 Sam. 24:5).
"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends" (Job 42:10).
"And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. A ...read |
| Article | The Need For Positive Ground
"Certain men... taught, saying, Except ye... ye cannot..." "There rose... the sect..., saying, It is necessary..." (Acts 15:1,5).
"Except ye..." "It is necessary..."
What history of confusion and frustration is bound up with that clause! Here in "Acts" we have the beginning of that history which has reached such immense proportions today. It is ...read |
| Article | The Need of the Hour
As we take account of the situation today we feel more and more deeply convinced that the greatest need of the hour is for men of vision and courage.
But we use the word "vision" in the specific sense in which it is used in the Bible and not in the general sense, of enterprise. That is, what is needed above all else is men who have had a Divine re ...read |
| Article | The New Age of the Holy Spirit
The book which goes by the title "The Acts" is the book which introduces a new age; it marks the passing of certain days, age-days, and the arrival of a new day, a new age-day. But it not only marks that change; it sets forth the character of the new day. Among the many very important things which the Lord 's people need to recognize anew is this, ...read |
T. Austin-Sparks