priated and brought into practice the teaching of Paul and Christ about the cross. I bring you a message of joy. The Spirit who is in you, in how ever limited a measure, is prepared to take you under His teaching, to lead you to the cross, and by His heavenly instruction to make you know something of what the crucified Christ wills to do for you and in you. But then He wants you to take time, so that He may reveal the heavenly mysteries to you. He wants to make you see how the neglect of the inner chamber has hindered fel lowship with Christ, the knowledge of the cross, and the powerful oper ations of the Spirit. He will teach you what is meant by the denial of self, the taking up of your cross, the losing of your life and following Him. In spite of all that you have felt of your ignorance, and lack of spir itual insight and fellowship with the cross, He is able and willing to take you under His teaching and to make known to you the secret of the spir itual life above all your expectations. The Part of Prayer Begin at the beginning. Be faithful in the inner chamber. Thank Him that you can reckon on Him to meet you there. Although everything ap pears cold, and dark, and strained, bow in silence before the loving Lord Jesus, who so longs after you. Thank the Father that He has given you the Spirit. And be assured that all you do not yet know, and still must know—about “the flesh,” and “ the world,” and the cross—the Spirit of Christ, who is in you, will surely make known to you. 0 , soul, only be lieve that this blessing is for you! Christ belongs entirely to you. He longs to obtain full possession of you. He can and will possess you through the Holy Spirit. But for this, time is necessary. Oh, give Him time in the inner chamber every day. You can rest assured that He will fulfill His promise in you. “ He that loveth me keepeth my commandments, and my Father will love him, and I will man ifest myself to him.” Persevere, in addition to all that you ask for yourself, in prayer for your congregation, your church, your ministers; for all believers; for the whole Church of God, that God may strengthen them with power through His Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith. Blessed time
when the answer comes. Continue in prayer. The Spirit will reveal and glorify Christ and His love, Christ and His cross “ as the Lamb slain standing in the midst of the throne.” The Cross and the Flesh These two are deadly enemies. The cross desires to condemn and put to death “ the flesh.” “ The flesh” desires to cast aside and conquer the cross. Many, as they hear of the cross as the indispensable preparation for the fullness of the Holy Spirit, will find out what there is in them which must yet be crucified. We must understand that our entire nature is sentenced to death and becomes dead by the cross, so that new life in Christ may come to rule in us. We must obtain such insight into the fallen condition of our nature and its enmity against God that we become willing, nay de sirous, to be wholly freed from it. We must learn to say with Paul: “ In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” “ The mind of the flesh is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” It is its very essence to hate God and His holy law. This is the wonder of redemption, that Christ has borne on the cross the judgment and curse of God on “ the flesh,” and has forever nailed it to the cursed tree. If a man only be lieves God’s Word about this “ cursed mind of the flesh,” and then longs to be delivered from it, he learns to love the cross as his deliverer from the power of the enemy. “ Our old man is crucified” with Christ, and our one hope is to receive this by faith and to hold it fast. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh.” They have willingly de clared that they will daily regard “ the flesh” which is in them as the Your Prayer Requests Each morning at eight the editor ial staff of King's Business magazine gathers for prayer. Over the years God has answered the heartcry of thousands. Should you have a re quest we would count it a privilege to take it to the throne of grace. Your request will be held in the strictest confidence. Address: The Editors, King's Business, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles 17, Calif.
enemy of God, the enemy of Christ, the enemy of their soul’s salvation, and will treat it as having received its deserved reward in being nailed to the cross. This is one part of the eternal re demption which Christ has brought to us. It is not something which we can grasp with our understanding or accomplish with our strength. It is something which the Lord Jesus Him self will give us if we are willing to abide in His fellowship day by day, and to receive everything from Him. It is not something which we can grasp with our understanding or ac complish with our strength. It is something which the Lord Jesus Him self will give us if we are willing to abide in His fellowship day by day, and to receive everything from Him. It is something which the Holy Spir it will teach us, and He will impart it to us as an experience, and will show how He can give victory in the power of the cross over all that is of the flesh. The Cross and the World What the flesh is in the smallest circle of my own person, that the world is in the larger circle of man kind. “The flesh” and “ the world” are two manifestations of the same “ god of this world” who is served by both. When the cross deals with “ the flesh” as accursed, we at once dis cover what the nature and power of the world are. “ They hated both me and my Father.” The proof of this was that they crucified Christ. But Christ obtained the victory on the cross and freed us from the power of “ the world.” And now we can say: “ God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” The cross was to Paul every day a holy reality, both in what he had to suffer from the world and in the vic tory which the cross constantly gave. John also writes: “ the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ . . . And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5 :5,6). Against the two great powers of the god of this world, God has given us two great powers from heaven, namely, the cross and the Spirit. END.
APRIL, 1955
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