Satan's Activities & Christianity

I was reading a sermon yesterday from a very well known Pastor. He first came to my attention a few years ago when I found one of his sermons on surrender, so once in a while I will check him out. Yesterday I decided to read one of his sermons─by the way I am a sermon freak, my favorite pass time is between my Bible and listening to sermons─it did not take me long to be disappointed. I could not understand how this pastor managed to take the subject in question and put a slant on it in this way. The whole sermon which was about six pages, was filled with examples of how Satan tempts us to make us feel we are not good Christians, he whispers words in our ears to cause us to be depressed by telling us things like we are not growing, he makes us doubts ourselves and so on. What made the sermon reeks was the fact that it was for people who on the outside appeared to be seasoned Christians. But I was to some extend relieved to see that the sermon was written in 1999 and I know for sure this pastor has grown so much more in the Lord.

The truth is that Satan is relentless, he is a coward, he is annoying, he has no shame, he is a liar, he is a trickster, he is a pest, he has audacity, you name it and Satan is it. But a lot of time we accuse Satan and it is not even his doing, it is our own. Very often we are so busy accusing Satan, we do not even stop to examine ourselves from God’s perspective to understand what is happening to us might not have anything to do with Satan but God,  trying to shake us up out of our lethargy. I learned the difference, through a vision I had in the middle of a worship service; the Holy Spirit showed me in a vision, the difference between living in Him and living outside of Him. It was amazing to see Satan sitting there as if he was waiting for me, but he also knew he no longer had access to me as long as I was in Him. Since that day, I learned to see Satan for who he is and I learned to see myself according to my identity in Him and I stop being afraid of Satan as well. As I exited the vision, I came out of it totally equipped with new power and new authority over Satan and I also understood he was more afraid of me than I was of him. Through the vision that lasted about five minutes I got so much out of it that it might have taken me years to learn.

I also learned how we misunderstand Satan’s work, and how much we waste time chasing after Satan when often, the problem lies with us. Make no mistake about what I am saying, Satan is extremely powerful, the meanest, the most egotistical and merciless being that ever existed. But, when it comes to true Christians, Satan is like a tiger with no teeth and not even paws to scratch us.  That brothers and sisters is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. MY LORD, THE MASTER OF MY LIFE, MY SAVIOR, MY REDEEMER, & MY ALL!  As I learned to stop seeing Satan at every corner and learned to focus on my walk with Him I realized many times we attribute those things that come to mind about our Christian walk, they are not Satan’s doing. Often it’s about the darkness of our own hearts. Sometimes it is also God’s way of trying to reach us to help us because we are not walking with Him the way we should. While we are taught to attribute and dismiss those kinds of thoughts to Satan, I have learned to turn it around. I reasoned with myself in this way: If indeed the God I serve is stronger than Satan, if indeed my true goal with all my heart is to find Him by any means, then I have nothing to fear. I learned to stop for a while and examined in the light what has been attributed to the devil whispers and at the end of it, I found it was the Holy Spirit’s voice that was so far away, I was not used to it. It was muffled through all my misunderstanding, my busy mind, my head knowledge etc.

When I stopped dismissing his 'accusations', my only goal was to confront him and let him know once and for all that I had a plan for my life which involved following hard after God, and he was not part of my agenda, so bark another tree. I found out two main things: one is that often, we confuse the devil and the Holy Spirit when we are not used to communicating with Him. It turns out there is a drastic difference between the Holy Spirit and the devil communication to us. Even when Satan’s disguises as the angel of light to dupe us, he still cannot match the Holy Spirit sweetness, subtlety, imprint,  godly peace and God’s Word.  The second thing was that, God was very concerned with the fact that I was not growing and I was not on schedule with His plan. Yes He was concerned with the fact that I have been a Christian for few years yet, my understanding and knowledge of Him did not exceed a new born baby’s stage walk.  So the voice that was telling me I was not right with Him was indeed the Holy Spirit’s voice trying to get my attention.

Should you fear Satan? Of course you should fear him with everything that you are. But understand that if you call yourself Christian, Satan’s power on you is the equivalent of who you are in Him. So, if you still live life like a Christian who is saved in his sin instead of being saved from sin, then, be very afraid of him. If you feel you are not ready to live under the light of God some part of you truly enjoys the dark, be very afraid of him. If you feel you are not ready to leave double mindedness behind, yes be very afraid of him. If you have been a Christian for a few decades now, yet you find yourself seeking for the truth, yes be very afraid of him, because you should have found the truth already so that you can start walking with Him. I guess I do not have to continue, you see where I am going with this. Everything we do to cover up our lack of wanting to go forward with Him, all the lies we tell ourselves to avoid the true Christian walk, we only fool ourselves not God, neither Satan.  We alone pay the price.

Satan is the father of lies, so he knows when we lie to ourselves to avoid true Christianity. While Satan cannot know what we are thinking he knows what occupies our days, he knows how much love we have for Him. He knows our excuses; he can see our pride, stubbornness, ignorance, arrogance, lack of obedience to Him, our self-willed and our resistance to the truth of God. He knows when we left the real path of Christianity to make up our own footprints, to find little shortcuts to reach Him, etc. I noticed there is a group of people in the Church who actually live in Satan’s den, yet they have no idea. These are the Christians who have been desensitized in their sin, Satan has subdued them. They are so deep in bondage, their consciences have been seared by their sins, yet they have that false assurance, and they are usually the first one to talk about God’s love as being the solution for everything, as if His love overrides the cross.  I know a couple which the Church felt was elder material, yet they could not understand why I have acquired that bad habit of letting people like Oswald Chambers, Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, J.C.Ryle, A. B. Simpson, Moody,  etc,  sucked me into looking for a deeper Christianity in Him. To top it all, I was told that I am missing the fact that Salvation is by grace and I am confused.

Try to be in my position for a minute or two, I am in front of these people, I can see so deep into them that they have never made it to experience true Christianity inwardly, along with their grown up children that are in the same boat as they are. The whole family is about superficiality and rituals. They also have years of missions under their belts and title in the Church to prove they understand things better than I. (All man made of course) How do you answer someone who just utters something so ridiculous, so stupid, so void of spirituality, so void of Christ and the Holy Spirit? The only thing that sustains this couple is the lie they tell themselves.

 It is painful to interact with them, because I sometimes hate the fact that I can see so clearly with the eyes of my heart that they are living in Satan’s den, yet they have no clue. They are so deep in there you can’t do anything to pull them out. They have called themselves Christians for so long, Satan has done such a great job of subduing them in bondage, and they have been desensitized they are no wiser. It is strange how this couple has no fear of Satan at all, when in reality they should be deeply disturbed.  This is also an example of Satan’s audacity and he will never stop trying, because I could see behind the stupidity of those words, Satan made a feeble attempt to reach me through them. 

The moral of the story is that the blood of the lamb has power beyond what we can dream of. We should not be looking for Satan in every corner, but we should be very careful when like fools or like some of today’s unbelievers we find we are not worrying about his existence at all. 

By the way, this is coming from someone who once believed the devil was  some kind of  myth and also a joke.  When I became a Christian, all of the sudden I acquired such a fear of the devil that it paralyzed my mind and walk with Him.  

What Is Faith

 I found one of Spurgeon sermon which explains to us what faith is.

I am grateful for all the hits the post dated December 10 titled “Faith” has received and all the emails I received from all of you. Don’t you think for a second that I am not grateful even if I did not send an email back or visit your page back to write a thank you note. I would be careless in my ministry if I did not follow up with more details on what Spurgeon meant. You see, while I was sitting in the pews with some sort of idea in my mind that I too, was a believer, God got hold of me and brought me to a place where I became truly born again. But, I was not always a true convert because I had my idea of what believing meant, and that salvation is by grace, it is free and that’s all there is to it. While it is true, it is that simple and that’s all there is to it, but I did not know, even though I was part of a  big Church, no one ever told me that what the word “faith” amounted to in my life was extremely important to God, until He got hold of me.

There is a story about faith all over the internet, at one point I saw the name of Randall Price attached to it.  I like it because this is exactly what it feels like when God decides to test your faith. The story goes this way: “There was once a famous daredevil named Blondin who regularly thrilled audiences by walking a tightrope stretched across Niagara Falls with a man riding on his shoulders. One day just as he was about to start across, he asked a man in the audience if he believed that he could do it. “Yes,” the man replied you can do it! He then asked him if he were sure that he could do it. ‘Yes, I’m really sure that you can do it!” “Good,” said Blondin, “because my regular man isn’t here today and I need you to ride over on my shoulders.” Now the man was faced with the real issue of faith - he had said that he had believed, but was he willing to stake his life on it? You see, faith is not faith until it's all you’re holding onto.”

While faith is a gift from God and we receive it through grace, but if there is one thing certain about God is that He will always, always, always test your faith. Even when He increases it for you, He once again puts you through the process of testing. When God tests your faith, it also feels as if what’s happening to you should be happening to someone else. When we look at the Israelites and how miserably they failed to the point where they died in the wilderness, we tend to separate ourselves from them and like to make ourselves believe that would not happen to us and we would have trusted God. At the end of the day, while we will not all have the same amount of faith, we got to at least past the first test He put us through.

Christianity is a mess because like the Israelites most of us fail over and over again. We want Christ as our Savior, but, we don’t want to hear about Him being the Master of our lives. We want to know nothing about surrendering to Him, but like Spurgeon said “Again: without faith it is impossible to be saved, and to please God, because without faith there is no union with Christ. Now, union to Christ, is indispensable to our salvation….Union with Christ is, after all, the great point in salvation.” We never quite grasp, that accepting Christ as the Master of our lives and totally surrendering to this life is part of what it means to be the grain that fell on the good soil, it surrenders to the soil, embrace it, dies and take root.  Somehow we managed to separate that from His grace.

One of the major differences you see in the Church is that those who have gone forward with God to receive the proper faith, by His grace of course are most of the time, filed under “false prophets”. Once we do that, we wash our hands and feel free to continue our empty walk. We do not recognize the false prophets are those who tells us that going forward with God to pass from rootless, to rooted in Him is also a work of grace. Even though Paul spent a lifetime telling us “just that,” we continue, even though we cannot truly explain three quarters of the verses in the Bible, vis as vis salvation by grace. But, through the eyes of those who have been with Him and appropriated true faith most of those verses make sense. And we know those verses applied to all of us Christians.

Spurgeon must have at least a dozen sermons on faith and they are anywhere from 12 to 20 pages long. This particular sermon is 19 pages and I felt it was important that I share his view as to what it means to have faith, as a follow up. In his sermon on faith, Spurgeon explained that true faith that brings salvation must possess three things “knowledge, assent and affiance to the truth” without all three we do not have faith. I wish I could say he is wrong, but that’s the faith I learned from God as well. The third part the Puritans called “affiance to the truth” is simply the testing part, that when we go through it with flying colors, faith is then imparted to us, only then, we own our faith.

I will leave you with Spurgeon Sermon Titled  “FAITH:”

"Without faith it is impossible to please God."—Hebrews 11:6.

I shall endeavour to pack my thoughts closely this morning, and be as brief as I can, consistently with a full explanation of the theme. I shall first have an exposition of what is faith; secondly, I shall have an argument, that without faith it is impossible to be saved; and thirdly, I shall ask a question—Have you that faith which pleases God? We shall have, then, an exposition, an argument, and a question.

I. First, for the EXPOSITION. What is faith?
The old writers, who are by far the most sensible—for you will notice that the books that were written about two hundred years ago, by the old Puritans, have more sense in one line than there is in a page of our new books, and more in a page than there is in a whole volume of our modern divinity—the old writers tell you, that faith is made up of three things: first knowledge, then assent, and then what they call affiance, or the laying hold of the knowledge to which we give assent, and making it our own by trusting in it.

1. Let us begin, then, at the beginning. The first thing in faith is knowledge. A man cannot believe what he does not know.  That is a clear, self-evident axiom. If I have never heard of a thing in all my life, and do not know it, I cannot believe it. And yet there are some persons who have a faith like that of the fuller, who when he was asked what he believed, said, "I believe what the Church believes." "What does the Church believe?" "The Church believes what I believe." "And pray what do you and the Church believe?" "Why we both believe the same thing." Now this man believed nothing, except that the Church was right, but in what he could not tell. It is idle for a man to say, "I am a believer," and yet not to know what he believes; but yet I have seen some persons in this position. A violent sermon has been preached, which has stirred up their blood; the minister has cried, "Believe! Believe! Believe!" and the people on a sudden have got it into their heads that they were believers, and have walked out of their place of worship and said, "I am a believer."…

2. But a man may know a thing, and yet not have faith. I may know a thing, and yet not believe it. Therefore assent must go with faith: that is to say, what we know we must also agree unto, as being most certainly the verity of God. Now, in order to faith, it is necessary that I should not only read the Scriptures and understand them, but that I should receive them in my soul as being the very truth of the living God, and I should devoutly with my whole heart receive the whole of the Scripture as being inspired of the Most High, and the whole of the doctrine which he requires me to believe to my salvation. You are not allowed to halve the Scriptures, and to believe what you please; you are not allowed to believe the Scripture with a half-heartedness, for if you do this wilfully, you have not the faith which looks alone to Christ. True faith gives its full assent to the Scriptures; it takes a page and says, "No matter what is in the page, I believe it;" it turns over the next chapter ands says, "Herein are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable do wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their destruction; but hard though it be, I believe it." It sees the Trinity; it cannot understand the Trinity in Unity, but it believes it. It sees an atoning sacrifice; there is something difficult in the thought, but it believes it; and whatever it be which it sees in revelation, it devoutly puts its lips to the book, and says, "I love it all; I give my full, free and hearty assent to every word of it, whether it be the threatening or the promise, the proverb, the precept, or the blessing. I believe that since it is all the Word of God it is all most assuredly true." Whosoever would be saved must know the Scriptures, and must give full assent unto them.

True faith gives its full assent to the Scriptures; it takes a page and says, "No matter what is in the page, I believe it;" it turns over the next chapter and says, "Herein are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable do wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their destruction; but hard though it be, I believe it." It sees the Trinity; it cannot understand the Trinity in Unity, but it believes it. It sees an atoning sacrifice; there is something difficult in the thought, but it believes it; and whatever it be which it sees in revelation, it devoutly puts its lips to the book, and says, "I love it all; I give my full, free and hearty assent to every word of it, whether it be the threatening or the promise, the proverb, the precept, or the blessing. I believe that since it is all the Word of God it is all most assuredly true." Whosoever would be saved must know the Scriptures, and must give full assent unto them.

3. But a man may have all this, and yet not possess true faith; for the chief part of faith lies in the last head, namely, in an affiance to the truth; not the believing it merely, but the taking hold of it as being ours, and in the resting on it for salvation. Recumbency on the truth was the word which the old preachers used. You will understand that word. Leaning on it; saying, "This is truth, I trust my salvation on it." Now, true faith, in its very essence rests in this—a leaning upon Christ. It will not save me to know that Christ is a Saviour; but it will save me to trust him to be my Saviour. I shall not be delivered from the wrath to come by believing that his atonement is sufficient, but I shall be saved by making that atonement my trust, my refuge, and my all. The pith, the essence of faith lies in this—a casting one-self on the promise. It is not the lifebuoy on board the ship that saves the man when he is drowning, nor is it his belief that it is an excellent and successful invention. No! He must have it around his loins, or his hand upon it, or else he will sink. To use an old and hackneyed illustration: suppose a fire in the upper room of a house, and the people gathered in the street. A child is in the upper story: how is he to escape? He cannot leap down—that were to be dashed to pieces. A strong man comes beneath, and cries, "Drop into my arms." It is a part of faith to know that the man is there; it is another part of faith to believe that the man is strong; but the essence of faith lies in the dropping down into the man's arms. That is the proof of faith, and the real pith and essence of it. So, sinner, thou art to know that Christ died for sin; thou art also to understand that Christ is able to save, and thou art to believe that; but thou art not saved, unless in addition to that, thou puttest thy trust in him to be thy Saviour, and to be thine for ever. As Hart says in his hymn, which really expresses the gospel—

"Venture on him, venture wholly;
Let no other trust intrude;
None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good."

This is the faith which saves; and however unholy may have been your lives up to this hour, this faith, if given to you at this moment, will blot out all your sins, will change your nature, make you a new man in Christ Jesus, lead you to live a holy life, and make your eternal salvation as secure as if an angel should take you on his bright wings this morning, and carry you immediately to heaven. Have you that faith?

This was part of Spurgeon sermon #107 which was delivered on on Sabbath Morning, December 14, 1856, at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

True Loyalty to God

2 Chronicles 16:9

                                  

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

 Some translations instead of 'devoted servant' say: those that are “blameless” some translate into those that are “loyal”, others “those committed” etc. But no matter the translation, the end result is that you have been set apart and taken into His purpose.

This verse is one among many in the Scriptures where we are called to be completely devoted to Him. Our commitment to Him, to the Kingdom, commitment to His Word, and His plans for Salvation is of the utmost importance to God. He wants faithful followers willing to serve Him. We are not talking about doing things for Him which is what we Christians we tend to think of when we talk about serving God. We first serve God through having our heart and soul totally dedicated to Him, and for His glory. We serve Him and fulfill the chief mandate we were created for, when we can offer ourselves up willingly to become all that He wants us to be as He lives His life freely through us.

Living a committed life in Him brings a full understanding of what He meant by: love the Lord your God with all your might, with all your strength, heart soul  and with everything that you got (my interpretation of the first commandment.) It is a life where this world has nothing on you, and nothing that can interest you. False prophets cannot sway you because you can see them coming a mile away. It means you left behind double-mindedness; you have chosen to live in the light of God and your allegiance to His truth is unmovable. It also means you have no need to seek for the truth anymore because not only you have found the truth but you are living in oneness with the truth. So, not only your life has become a piece of the truth, but you are on your way of being absorbed by the truth

I find when you are totally loyal to God; you are useless to some extend to other people. Not because you are out of touch with people around you, but because your mind is set on one thing and one thing alone “God”. While you are willing to hang around with friends, but if their focus is not on God, before long you feel it is such a waste of time.  You also get on their nerves easily because all your conversations lead right back to God. Not like a Bible Thumper but, when you have experienced what it means to be violently detached from the world (inwardly) and you have learned to cultivate the mind of Christ, you do not do it on purpose because it feels as if all your default programming has been rewired, or rewritten. So, no matter how and what people around you try to do to lure you into useless and mundane conversations to pass the time, your “new” default programming won’t take it in. I talked about that in my book “Apprehended & Apprehending,” because I have learned over times that default programming comes from living in oneness with Him.

This is extremely important. Right at the onset of my wilderness time with Him, He made it clear to me that loyalty was the key to this relationship He was leading me to. Loyalty puts you in a position to find the truth. And finding the truth is at the very basis of your Christian walk with Him. I remember in the middle of my wilderness wanderings, right after I experienced “regeneration” which was a first for me, (I also talked about regeneration in my book) the  Holy Spirit in His grace taught me how great it was to be freed from the law. He waited for me to enjoy my new freedom from the law, (it was so liberating) and three days after, He taught me that my new freedom from the law comes from the fact that I have found Him, and now, I am more accountable than ever, and I am held at a higher standard to the law just for having found the truth. Because He is the Law, He is the truth. 

My point is, in the Christian walk, all of it is merged together. It is not a question of a little bit of salvation here, a little bit of holiness, a little bit of discipleship here and there. Nothing stands on its own. All of God’s Word is put together to weave this life as one piece of cloth which could represent your own life with Him, but as a corporate people, He is building a big, beautiful multi-coloured and strong tapestry. If you are lucky enough to know Him personally, you realize the tapestry has been originated and is being held together in the hands of God the Father. 

My book Apprehended & Apprehending is available at Amazon for $5.95

Spiritual Plateau

Two days ago I mentioned something in my post about some of us with a need to keep seeking for the truth as if it is lost out there. Because I know people in my own circle with the same issue and because I can see it though oodles of people like me with internet ministry, I felt that I needed to give perhaps an example that could shed some lights on the reason why some of us are stuck there.

Some of us have been Christians for decades, we are attached to our Bibles, we do our best to understand the Word of God and we have reached a place where we know more than a lot of people in our Church. If you belong to a Church where the pastor himself has not been that far personally with God, it makes sense that with his limited spiritual vision and understanding, he sees you the member of his church, like some kind of apostles or prophets materials. After all, you are able to take some verses of the Bible and go wild with them. You are able to even impress some younger or lazier in the faith, with your Bible knowledge and so on. When it's all said and done, you are on fire for Him.

From the outside your life represents the picture perfect of what a deacon or elder looks like. You have learned to suppress certain behavior in a way that most people admire you for it. Soon, you find out you belong to the group of people that are considered godly man or woman and that gives you so much more encouragement. Why not? After all you have managed to achieve status in the eyes of man.

But, someone who has been walking with God can see right through all these hooplas, not because he or she wants to, but it is the nature of true Christianity. As you go forward with God in obedience, He opens the eyes your heart, He gives you wisdom and/or discernment to avoid those traps. What I described in the above paragraphs is in reality, the religion of man. When we get caught up in religion, years and years have passed, it feels as if you have reached a plateau which feels like you have learned almost all there is to be learned. If you are too caught up in religion and you need to have your ego stroke, you do not realize you are no longer going forward with God but you are just moving around. Yet, in true Christianity, no matter how far you have walked with God, He keeps calling you higher and higher. (I discussed that more in depth in my book Apprehended & Apprehending)

There is a trap there, while you go about putting on more shows and conferences, in your mind it seems that you are helping others, and yes God is able to use all that. If He uses Satan for His purposes, He used Pharaoh’s hard heart, of course, He can use anyone. But, your trap comes from the fact that there is no one spiritually wiser around you to tell you how easy it is to spot that you are walking in the flesh and you are not aware of it. There is no one around you to let you know that you have never been broken, no one to tell you that you are stubborn with your head knowledge. How is this possible in a Church of hundreds of Christians?

All who make up the leadership of your Church are in the same boat. NO ONE IS SPIRITUALLY WISER. The Pharisees were there, they have done that. Nothing is new under the sky. Like the Pharisees, when we get accustomed to having our ego stroke, we get attached to our self proclaim titles, Satan is having a fiesta, he gets us exactly where he wants us. What I am going to say next might shock you, but I see self proclaimed prophetesses, prophets, apostles, well respected, yet if they truly see what I see, they would know they have not even received salvation for their own souls yet. It is so pitiful, pathetic and gut wrenching.

What I am trying to say is that when we reach so many years of Christianity, there is nothing else the Holy Spirit can do any more unless we make the choice to offer the natural life to Him. We still have a much better chance to shape up when we are undisciplined and everyone can see we are not mature yet. But, when we spend years masquerading our lack of spiritual discipline and nobody knows that inside we are like wild horses still, unless they have spiritual eyes, Satan is the big winner. At the end of the day, we do not need one more event to uncover the truth, but we need to make the decision to go with the truth. Mathew 23:15 says: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.”

Please get my book, "Apprehended & Apprehending” the subtitle is: Soaring In The Wilderness With God!  You can read it on your computer for only $5.95. Get one and may the spirit of truth help you!  

Please download the free book from Andrew Murray “The School Of Obedience” at

http://www.intothyword.us/Classicbooks.php

OSWALD CHAMBERS IN: 

The Offering of the Natural

Dec

10

2012

It is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman —Galatians 4:22

Paul was not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural can be turned into the spiritual only through sacrifice. Without this a person will lead a divided life. Why did God demand that the natural must be sacrificed? God did not demand it. It is not God’s perfect will, but His permissive will. God’s perfect will was for the natural to be changed into the spiritual through obedience. Sin is what made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.

Abraham had to offer up Ishmael before he offered up Isaac (see Genesis 21:8-14). Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is to “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice . . .” (Romans 12:1). Sanctification means more than being freed from sin. It means the deliberate commitment of myself to the God of my salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.

If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will resist and defy the life of the Son of God in us and will produce continual turmoil. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves physically, morally, or mentally. We excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I wasn’t taught to be disciplined when I was a child.” Then discipline yourself now! If you don’t, you will ruin your entire personal life for God.

God is not actively involved with our natural life as long as we continue to pamper and gratify it. But once we are willing to put it out in the desert and are determined to keep it under control, God will be with it. He will then provide wells and oases and fulfill all His promises for the natural (see Genesis 21:15-19).

Faith

This is part of Spurgeon’s sermon on Faith

…We shall now enquire WHY FAITH IS SELECTED AS

THE CHANNEL OF SALVATION “By Grace are you saved through faith.” It becomes us to be modest in answering such a question, for God’s ways are not always to be understood. But, as far as we can tell, faith has been selected as the channel of Grace because there is a natural adaptation in faith to be used as the receiver. Suppose that I am about to give a poor man an alms. I put it into his hand—why? Well, it would hardly be fitting to put it into his ear, or to lay it upon his foot, the hand seems made on purpose to receive. So faith in the mental body is created on purpose to be a receiver—it is the hand of the man and there is a fitness in bestowing Grace by its means. Let me put this very plainly. Faith which receives Christ is as simple an act as when your child receives an apple from you because you hold it out and promise to give it the apple if it comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only to an apple, but they make up precisely the same act as the faith which deals with eternal salvation!

What the child’s hand is to the apple that is your faith to the perfect salvation of Christ. The child’s hand does not make the apple, nor alter the apple—it only receives it. And faith is chosen, by God, to be the receiver of salvation because it does not pretend to make salvation, nor to help in it, but it receives it. Faith, again, is no doubt selected because it gives all the credit to God. It is of faith that it might be by Grace and it is of Grace that there may be no boasting, for God cannot endure pride. Paul says, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” The hand which receives charity does not say, “I am to be thanked for accepting the gift”—that would be absurd!

When the hand conveys bread to the mouth, it does not say to the body, “Thank me, for I fed you.” It is a very simple thing that the hand does, though a very necessary thing—but it never arrogates glory to itself for what it does. So God has selected faith to receive the unspeakable gift of His Grace because it cannot take to itself any credit, but must adore the gracious God who is the Giver of all good. Next, God selects faith as the channel of salvation because it is a sure method, linking man with God.

When man confides in God, there is a point of union between them and that union guarantees blessing. Faith saves us because it makes us cling to God and so brings us into union with Him. I have used the following illustration before, but I must repeat it because I cannot think of a better. I am told that years ago, above the Falls of Niagara, a boat was upset and two men were being carried down the current. Persons on the shore managed to float a rope out to them, which rope was seized by them both. One of them held fast to it and was safely drawn to the bank, but the other, seeing a great log come floating by, unwisely let go of the rope and clung to the log, for it was the bigger thing of the two and apparently better to cling to.

God gives salvation to our faith because He has thus touched the secret spring of all our emotions and actions. He has, so to speak, taken possession of the battery and now He can send the sacred current to every part of our nature. When we believe in Christ—and the heart has come into the possession of God—then are we saved from sin and are oved towards repentance, holiness, zeal, prayer, consecration and every other gracious thing!

Please download the free book from Andrew Murray “The School Of Obedience” at

http://www.intothyword.us/Classicbooks.php

I am also looking to create a forum dedicated solely to self-published Authors where we can exchange book reviews, like each other on Amazon, etc. If you ideas to share to help other self-published authors to succeed, please let me know. http://intothyword.us/authorsforum/

The School Of Obedience

 A few months prior to the Holy Spirit leading to my wilderness wanderings, I was led to a little book that changed my attitude drastically and really helped me grasp what God had awaited for me in the wilderness, which basically were trials after trials and trails inside of trials. My church was selling books that were of no used in the library, as I walked in there, there was this little book amongst all the other books. While I did not know the author yet, I felt compelled to buy the book. As, I got home, I started reading it, to my surprise I could not put it down because I found myself drawn to the writer’s words which felt as if all of it were meant for me specifically. The way I read the book felt as if I was drinking into it. My mind was so open and was capturing each data. What felt mesmerized to me was the fact I understood each word at a level that made me desire this life and I could see it all with the eyes of my heart.

By the time I reached the last chapter of the little book, I knew God was speaking to me, I knew something much deeper was about to happen in my life and I needed to remain alert and sober. The funny thing about this experience is that I did not know God yet, and I did not have an intimate relationship enough with the Holy Spirit to truly capture the experience. So, I still smile when I remember how I was so looking forward to what was to come, because I was so sure it was going to be good. Don’t get me wrong, I understood Christianity comes with trials but I never expected what was coming next. I never expected to reach the bottom where there was nowhere else to go. Even when I reached the bottom, I had no idea that it could actually fall off and I would find myself facing an abyss where I knew from that moment on, that life would never be the same again.

The little book in question is “The School Of Obedience” by Andrew Murray. When the bottom fell off my life and I found myself face to face with the abyss, the pain in my soul was overwhelming, by then it was almost three years since I read Andrew Murray’s book, and I was in the wilderness for a little over two years. I do not want to talk too much about what happened next because this is going to be part of my third book. But suffice to say this life with God is the most adventurous and awesome life one will ever know. Understanding the content of the book was God’s way of preparing me for my walk with Him. It was crucial to me to understand it was not up to me to claim His promises in time where I needed these promises the most, but what was important was finding and possessing the truth. And if at times like that you are focusing on the wrong promises, you might miss the boat, change the course and never even know it.

As Christians we have become professionals when it comes to putting shows on, conferences, and hold elaborate theories about the truth. We feel good when we use our big boy’s words to show off what we think we know, all the while through our own intellect. We get so puffed up and get on with those temporary sugars high in our empty pursue of the truth. I wish we could hold the press, hold the shows, and hold the conferences. Stop buying time, stop acting like one more show, or one more conference is going to make a difference. We are seeking for the truth as if it is out there, as if it is an unidentified object, or to some it seems the truth has done a good job at hiding itself.

I am not saying we should not go on putting conferences and shows to reach God’s people, not at all. But, I know with the gift of wisdom and discernment that have been given to me by God, a lot of us put on those shows as substitute to hide ourselves behind it all. We hide and spin our tails, because we know we have reached the point where a deeper commitment is to be made but the road, the uncertainties and the pain that could come with it are not palatable to us. So, we get busy convincing ourselves that God does not know what we are doing.

The School Of Obedience

The truth will not be found in one more conference or one more show. If we Christians we are tripping over it and we are no wiser, how do we expect the others to find it? What exactly are we offering them? – In essence we are saying to them “come and fail miserably like me”. The truth calls for real commitment, real surrender, and real obedience. Not in words but in actions. It is the life where the Church music has stopped, the testimonies stopped and everyone disappeared because the curtains have come down. Then you go home facing your own life. You face the uncertainties whether you will have a roof over your head tomorrow, or having children to feed yet you have no one to ask, or two red pennies to rub together. Try a life where you have been out of a job for so long you have no idea what is next, whether to give up to keep looking, you still have to provide for yourself and you are not old enough to retire. Try being a mother with only one child and you end up losing this child tragically in a senseless accident that could have been avoided. Try being a parent who lost few children all at once. Try being close to retirement and all of the sudden you lose even the shirt on your back.

If life has not taken you to places where you have more than one of these situations being your lot all at once, then it might make sense why you are still looking for the truth. When you are in situations where you stand there you have no idea whether your feet are touching the ground or whether you are cold or hot or if all of it is a nightmare. In your mind you want God to explain to you where exactly is He. How come all of the sudden when you need Him most, He is silent? You are trying to make sense of those promises in the Bible where you know for sure He says He will provide for you. You know for sure He says He will never leave you nor forsake you, yet, here you are, none of these promises seemed to apply to you. You start trying to understand where did you go wrong? Why you? And how do you continue when you have no idea or strength to put one foot in front of the other?  When darkness has become your life, the last thing you want to hear Him say to you is “I am the way the truth and life”. You feel like saying, yes I know that by heart God, but this does not tell me where I am going to sleep tomorrow.

When darkness surrounds you, then you find the truth, when you stop all anger, you stop trying to understand, you stop feeling sorry for yourself, you stop trying to work it out, and you have to bring yourself to a point where you even stop thinking about tomorrow while you are in the midst of an emergency for tomorrow. You throw yourself at Him and break down because you realize you made it all about you when all this time it was about Him. You repent and find refuge in His arms while telling Him take this life it is yours, lead me and I will follow. Now, this will not take the pain away from what the rest of your life is going to be. You might still have to find a shelter or your priority now might be which corner of the street you are going to sleep tomorrow and how you are going to survive your first time out there. But this time your WILL has become His will for you.

  

Is it easy? No. But as you find Him who is the truth, you find peace, and love. This, my brothers and sisters is just one example of how we find the truth that is nothing less than our Christ, our redeemer, our Master and Savior. The truth is Him. It is not an elusive thing and He isn't hiding either. On the contrary, He is in plain sight and we trip on Him every day. The truth has been revealed to all who wants Him, thousands of years ago and there is no need to decipher it either.  We still stumble on it, because we are as blind as the unbelievers. We find Him when we are ready to throw the towel and ready to embrace the adventure He sets us on. Good or bad, intense or dull, long or short, you will find yourself needing to surrender in obedience like Christ did. It is one thing to say that you surrender, but it is quite another thing when He leads you to a place where you live it out. It is quite another challenge to keep living a life of surrender. But it is doable, because your obedience has become His obedience.

Andrew Murray’s book “The School Of Obedience” will be ready for download tomorrow of course for free. I will have it for you in all formats

www.apprehended.ca

Christmas Time One More Time Is Upon Us

Every year during Christmas time I always feel like a Scrooge in some ways.  While I enjoy all the festivities, time with families and friends and all the trimmings that comes from the seasons, but deep in my heart I always feel the emptiness of it all.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

Underneath all of our gifts giving, excessive eating, drinking and lavish extravagances, nothing ever changed. While no one can agree on the specific day Christ was born, this tradition started with the pagans long before Christianity was ever an issue.  December 25 has been already a major celebration festival time for the pagans where they celebrated the goddess of nature. If you dig deep enough you will find every little detail pertaining to today’s traditions besides our gift exchange, excessive eating and drinking, even mistletoes and the carols that serenades us, all are tied to the pagans of that time and their god worshiping traditions, (sun, trees, moon etc.) Pope Julius I who served as Pope from 337 to 352, with his own agenda to get more Romans to convert to Christianity, set Jesus birthday on December 25. So, as they embraced the new Christian religion, they did not have to lose their pagan traditions. (What a nice guy and what a joke for Christianity?)

Over the centuries, we have refined the practices and tried very hard to metamorphose them into the true observance of Christian celebration. As for me I stopped enjoying Christmas since I was in my teen years. Not because I understood the fact that we are totally missing Christ in Christ-mas but simply I do not like meaningless rituals that lead nowhere. As I became a Christian and got to know Him so intimately, my shame for feeling like a Scrooge during the Christmas season disappeared. While most Pastors are trying their best to remind us Christians that Christmas is about Him and I appreciate it. But, I have learned a few things on my own along my walk with Him:  first, the birth of Jesus Christ  whatever day it was, is so precious to my heart every single day of the year because it is God’s plan unfolding. It was a great time of humility, submission, dependence and surrender for Christ. It was the birth of my redeemer, the God of my Salvation. His birth was simply amazing grace.

Second, I go through the motion every Christmas knowing full well that most of those who claim to be Christians are not affected by Christmas and all of it is sentimentality. After all the festivities, they go back to being who they are: backstabbing, backsliders, careless, cold hearted, lukewarm, spiritually blind, depraved, lustful, idolaters, compromisers, and so on, with no intention of having their hearts changed by Him.  They are no better than the pagan who celebrated their gods on December 25 before we even heard of Christ. The only thing that is different is their vocabularies. How else would you explain someone living a comatose Christian life year after year and not being wiser?

Third, I know first hand that my God is not a God of religion. He did not care for those religions that existed before or after Abraham times; He went ahead and formed His own with His own people. Nor, that He cares for those religions before and after Jesus-Christ. He cares less about our man made traditions and empty rituals. Does it matter we truly celebrate His birth? No. Because when it truly matters, at the right time, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh! What a day that will be?  All explanations, performances, data, excuses, preferences, all will be done away with and all that will be left is us bowing to His Majesty. He is Lord! He reigns! Happy Holidays! 

Surrender

Surrender is a big thing to me. As I explained in my book Apprehended & Apprehending, I have no idea how to live the Christian life without complete surrender and honestly, I would not want to know it either because it would not be true Christianity.

Surrender

Faith, as Paul saw it, was a living, flaming thing leading to surrender and obedience to the commandments of Christ.

 Author: A.W. Tozer

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Just as a servant knows that he must first obey his master in all things, so the surrender to an implicit and unquestionable obedience must become the essential characteristic of our lives.

Author: Andrew Murray

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Unless you have made a complete surrender and are doing his will it will avail you nothing if you've reformed a thousand times and have your name on fifty church records. Author: Billy Sunday

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God has landed on this enemy-occupied world in human form. The perfect surrender and humiliation was undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was man. Author: C.S. Lewis

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The degree of blessing enjoyed by any man will correspond exactly with the completeness of God's victory over him. A. W. Tozer

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I surrendered unto Him all there was of me; everything! Then for the first time I realized what it meant to have real power.

Kathryn Kuhlman

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The love-slave has no pleasure like that of serving his master. this is his joy, and his very "crown of rejoicing." The love-slave is altogether at his master's service. He is all eyes for his master. He watches. He is all ears for his master. He listens. His mind is willing. His hands are ready. His feet are swift to sit at the master's feet and look into his loved face, to listen to his voice and catch his words; to run on his errands, to do his bidding, to share his privations and sorrows, to watch at his door, to guard his honour, to praise his name, to defend his person, to seek and promote his interests, and, if needs be, to die for his dear sake; this is the joy of the slave of love, and this he counts his perfect freedom. Samuel L. Brengle

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God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts.  John Newton

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Many refuse to accept the reality of a personal God because they are unwilling to submit to His authority. Kurt Bruner

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It is not of God's severity that He requires much from man; it is of His great kindness that He will have the soul to open herself wider, to be able to receive much, that He may bestow much upon her. Let no one think that it is hard to attain thereunto. Although it sound hard, and is hard at first, as touching the forsaking and dying to all things, yet, when one has reached this state, no life can be easier, or sweeter, or fuller of pleasures; for God is right diligent to be with us at all seasons, and to teach us, that He may bring us to Himself, when we are like to go astray. None of us ever desired anything more ardently than God desires to bring men to the knowledge of Himself. Johannes Tauler

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Will is the whole man active. I cannot give up my will; I must exercise it. I must will to obey. When God gives a command or a vision of truth, it is never a question of what He will do, but what we will do. To be successful in God's work is to fall in line with His will and to do it His way. All that is pleasing to Him is a success. Henrietta C Mears

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I saw that the kingdom must be interior before it can be exterior, that it is a kingdom of ideas, and not one of brute force; that His rule is over hearts, not over places; that His victories must be inward before they can be outward; that He seeks to control spirits rather than bodies; that no triumph could satisfy Him but a triumph that gains the heart; that in short, where God really reigns, the surrender must be the interior surrender of the convicted free men, and not merely the outward surrender of the conquered slave.Hannah Whitall Smith

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If you look up into His face and say, "Yes, Lord, whatever it costs," at that moment He'll flood your Life with His presence and power. Alan Redpath

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Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mould them accordingly. Ignatius

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What are you afraid of? Let God act. Abandon yourself to Him. You will suffer, but you will suffer with love, peace and consolation. You will fight, but you can carry off the victory, and God Himself, after having fought with you, will crown you with His own hand. You will weep, but your tears will be sweet, and God Himself will come with satisfaction to dry them. You will not be free any longer to give yourself up to your tyrannic passions, but you will sacrifice your liberty freely, and you will enter into a new liberty unknown to the world, in which you will do nothing except for love. Francois Fenelon

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Today, even amongst Christians, there can be found much of that spirit that wants to give as little as possible to the Lord, and yet to get as much as possible from Him. The prevailing thought today is of being used, as though that were the one thing that mattered. That my little rubber band should be stretched to the very limit seems all important. But this is not the Lord's mind. The Lord wants us to be used, yes; but what He is after is that we pour all we have, ourselves, to Him, and if that be all, that is enough. Watchman Nee

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Let this be thy whole endeavour, this thy prayer, this thy desire,--that thou mayest be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only. Thomas a Kempis

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“Now we cannot...discover our failure to keep God's law except by trying our very hardest (and then failing). Unless we really try, whatever we say there will always be at the back of our minds the idea that if we try harder next time we shall succeed in being completely good. Thus, in one sense, the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, "You must do this. I can't.” ― C.S. Lewis, 

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“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us. ”  ― A.W. Tozer

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“No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring-cleaning until there is only one purpose left--I am here for God to send me where He will.” ― Oswald Chambers

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“I wish Thy way.
But when in me myself would rise
And long for something otherwise
Then, Holy One, take sword and spear
And slay.”
― Amy Wilson-Carmichael

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“The proper good of a creature is to surrender itself to its Creator—to enact intellectually, volitionally, and emotionally, that relationship which is given in the mere fact of its being a creature. When it does so, it is good and happy.” ― C.S. Lewis, 

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“It is easy to use the phrase 'God's will for my life' as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. ... My hope is that instead of searching for 'God's will for my life' each of us would learn to seek hard after 'the Spirit's leading in my life today.' May we learn to pray for an open and willing heart, to surrender to the Spirit's leading with that friend, child, spouse, circumstance, or decision in our lives right now.” ― Francis Chan,

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  “No one should be surprised at the difficulty of faith, if there is some part of his life where he is consciously resisting or disobeying the commandment of Jesus. Is there some part of your life which you are refusing to surrender at his behest, some sinful passion, maybe, or some animosity, some hope, perhaps your ambition or your reason? ... How can you hope to enter into communion with him when at some point in your life you are running away from him?” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 

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 "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have" (1Kings 20:4). [Ahab's fearful words to King BenHadad.] The condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands.

Andrew Murray

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God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: "It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). ...learn to believe...Andrew Murray

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Abraham... God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory. Did not God say to Pharaoh: "For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power" (Exodus 9:16)? And if God said that of him, will not God say it far more of every child of His? God comes and offers to work this... He desires to help you to get hold of Him entirely. Andrew Murray

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Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, "through the eternal Spirit," offered Himself a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it. ...And when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that God does now accept of it. That is the great point, and that is what we so often miss... be occupied with God... look up to God... remember there is a God present that takes note of it, and writes it down in His book...Andrew Murray

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...there is a God present who at that very moment takes possession of you. You may not feel it... but God takes possession if you will trust Him. When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that? In this matter of surrender there are two: God and I-- I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment? ("Sing unto the Lord, bless His name; shew forth His salvation from day to day" -- Psalm 96:2.)A ndrew Murray

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And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted God for it... believe that God will maintain it. ...that aged saint who, on his ninetieth birthday... --I mean George Muller. What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness, and of all the blessing which God had given him? ...two reason. The one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of God's Word. ...Such a life has two sides-- on the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants you to do; on the other side, to let God work what He wants to do. Andrew Murray

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Say: "Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy blessed will."

Andrew Murray

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...separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. Come out for God... given up... by divine grace... acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before Him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh "there dwelleth no good thing," and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Andrew Murray

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...self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you, ...bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and that He would fill us with His mighty power. And as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out. ...bow before God in humility ...confess before Him the state of the whole Church, ...Oh, we want to confess the sins of God's people around us, and to.. Andrew Murray

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 ...humble ourselves. ...There is deliverance. ...death was the path to glory for Christ... --death to self, and fellowship with Christ. ...and... Andrew Murray

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...then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ-- Christ crucified and risen and living in glory-- into your heart.  Andrew Murray

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