April
16
The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human
effort accomplishes nothing (John 6:63 NLT).
It is one thing to have a conception or
apprehension of the purpose of God, and to be given up to it, but it is an
extra thing to know how God would realize His purpose. It is still another
thing to know the means He would employ. There are many who have a true
conception of what God's purpose is, but the means which they employ are not
God's means, the way in which they go to work is not His way, and therefore
they find that the Lord does not support them. They may be in a true direction,
but being out of fellowship with the method or means, they are compelled to
take responsibility for the work themselves, and to find the resources. Thus
they find themselves oftimes exhausted, brought to a standstill, and having to
resort to all kinds of methods and means to raise the resource to carry on
God's work, because they are not in the real enjoyment of His Own support. The
work of God becomes a burden upon their shoulders, and the
Lord cannot order it otherwise because there is not the fullest fellowship and
sympathy between them and His ways, His methods, His means, His times and the
details of His purpose.
Now, in the case of the Lord Jesus, it was quite
the contrary. In the details, He was in secret fellowship with the Father. With
Him this represented a detailed obedience unto one comprehensive purpose. The
only explanation needed by Him in any given matter was simply that of knowing
that the Father willed it, and without any further word He did it. That was the
basis of His relationship. Never do we trace in Him a sign of waiting to
question why a thing should be done in a certain way, or at a certain time and
not another, or why certain means should be employed and not others. It was
enough that the Father willed it. The explanation came in the justification and
vindication that followed. The doing of the will of God was a matter of that
obedience which never moves out from self but always out from the Father. As that
held good in His case the spiritual resources of sustenance, maintenance,
strength, and energy were supplied.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Risen Lord
and the Things Which Cannot be Shaken - Chapter 7
This photograph is by Kristofer Rowe.
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