The Great Attack

God has shown me how the Church is asleep while being entertained or caught up with the giftings and blessings at this hour, not because gifts are evil, but simply because she is sidetracked from the essential and deep work of God that truly changes the heart.

He revealed to me how the principalities and ruling spirits of this age cunningly exert their influence to minimize any sense of vigilance and alertness on the part of God's people. These demonic forces that specially attack in the moral sphere as well as in the mind... motivate powerful ambitions and pride.

As they are not counter-attacked, and find little or no resistance in their way, they are able to come in and thwart any real benefit of the work of the Holy Spirit.

The spirit of the age works toward minimizing, denigrating, and attacking everything that exalts Christ. That very spirit is behind the idea that expresses "let's do something more practical," rather than giving priority to prayer, seeking the face of God, and ministering to Him.

Consequently, it becomes the ideal environment or breeding ground for the enemy to develop greater resistance, influence and even control.

Parallel to this great attack of the enemy, the historic hour in which we live also marks a time of great fulfillment within God's eternal purpose and plan.

The Lord brought to me how the changes in our world, such as the events in relation to Israel, and the world wide involvement in the Middle East crisis, as well as the world trend toward globalization, all point to the need to prepare for His corrective judgment on the church, as well as His punitive judgment on the world.

We need to awake from our spiritual slumber to a greater intensity than ever, because the time is short. A complete change will take place soon in the world order as it is known today and the control of the evil one will become more and more apparent.

For this reason the Lord has prompted a deep urgency and a burden in me that we not despise nor neglect the grace God has extended for our preparation.

The Lord is calling and awakening His own to a state of awareness and readiness. There is a special imbuing and impartation of the Holy Spirit being made available to those who now will yield all and seek Him with a whole heart.

These yielded ones will be ready to resist as well as overcome the influences, powers, and control of the enemy. Already the Holy Spirit is moving in an unprecedented way in the earth, making His own ready for a great counter-attack against the enemy.

Annie Schisler
http://lovestthoume.com/PropheticPages/TheGreatAttack.html

PRESS ON

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:7-14

The voice of my beloved! Behold, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind our wall; He is looking through the windows, Gazing through the lattice. Song of Solomon 2:8,9

By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. "I will rise now," I said, "And go about the city; In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love." I sought him, but I did not find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; I said, "Have you seen the one I love?" Scarcely had I passed by them, when I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go,....... Song of Solomon 3:1-4

What does it take for us to be among that company that are always "pressing on"? Have we even considered what that phrase might mean for us individually? For the Apostle Paul it was clear cut. He had his eye on the prize and that propelled him forth, compelling him to keep moving, ever advancing, towards the finish line. But even the finish line was not the end for him; he would not be satisfied until he obtained the prize for which he was called. The prize for Him was nothing less than to both possess and be totally possessed by Christ Jesus. To be found in Him, with nothing left of his own previous life in the flesh, nothing that would identify him as the one formerly known as Saul of Tarsus or even Paul the Apostle.

Believers tend to get a little nervous about that word "possession". We are used to using that word in relation to the demonic, and it doesn't often occur to us that it could even have a positive connotation. Total "possession" by Christ, however, is exactly what Paul was pressing towards, yearning for with all his soul, and exhorting us to pursue with all our might. He was speaking of nothing less than full and absolute abandonment. The God He knew and served was a God whose goal was to totally consume all that was not of Himself in Paul. The God he wrote to the Philippians about was a God who would be satisfied with nothing less than full possession of this vessel He had "laid hold of."

How often do we think of Christ in these terms? As One whose intention is to seize and own us, as One who will be satisfied with nothing less than the fullness of Himself demonstrated in our fleshly frames? We don't speak of our God in these terms because the whole concept is both uncomfortable and unfamiliar. We like to speak of a God who shepherds us gently rather than a God who consumes us with uncompromising holy fire. Both these are aspects of His nature, but when was the last time you heard someone passionately crying out to be fully possessed by the Spirit of God, nothing held back from His refining fire? When was the last time you heard preaching that passionately exhorted you to count ALL you had ever done or been up to this day as rubbish, in order to gain Christ?

The full and literal meaning of the word rendered as "lay hold" is to "lay hold of so as to make one's own, to seize upon, take possession of." If we will receive this truth, any idea we have ever held that our lives are our own will be exposed as a lie. We have been "laid hold of," "apprehended," "taken possession of" by Christ Jesus Himself. To "press on" means to actively pursue something eagerly. We know the scriptures say that we have been bought with a price, yet many of us struggle through each day just trying to keep limping along to that finish line, let alone pressing toward it with abandonment.

If you will think about it, I believe you will agree that those times when our spiritual lives have suddenly become energized and our vision has become clear, are those times when we have momentarily caught a glimpse of the prize, Christ Himself, waiting just beyond the finish line. At such moments of grace, we have been blessed and left breathless with a sense of the depth of His love for us, the magnitude of His power to free and transform us, and the eternal riches of relationship with Him that are to be unfolded in His Presence. We have felt His Presence, experienced His Touch, heard Him speak, or received some new revelation of Him that has suddenly made the finish line defined more clearly, and the "prize" awaiting us desirable above all other things. We have caught sight of Him leaping upon a mountain, skipping on the hills, standing and looking through the window, and all of our being yearns to follow Him, whatever the cost. At such moments we literally experience the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. He captures our hearts and we are compelled to cry out "Have you seen the One I love?" abandoning all we call "reasonable" to pursue Him.

Have you known such moments? Have you tasted Him, smelled Him, touched Him, glimpsed Him "gazing through the lattice", beckoning you to come with Him? If you have, then let nothing become more precious to you than laying hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of YOU. What is the "that" we press towards? It is the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ! It is being found in Him, knowing Him both in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. He is the prize that compels us to press on, counting all things lost, reaching with all our might toward the goal, holding Him and not letting go. He is our exceeding great reward, our pearl of great price and the fullness that fills all in all.

Keep your eye on the Prize, and press on!

"Lord, come and possess us, filling your vessels with the fullness of Yourself, consuming all we hold on to that is offensive to your holy nature, releasing within us the fragrance of Christ that the world may know that the Lord of all the earth has come to His temple."

Cheryl McGrath

http://lovestthoume.com/FeedMySheep/Presson.html

Pentecost At Any Cost

Some simpleton, trying to fill in the Grand Canyon with a shovel, would evoke gales of laughter and would suffer scorn and unbearable vituperation. No man will ever fill in that hole - not even with any army of bulldozers (never mind a one-man shovel operation). We Christians are a "holey" people. There are holes everywhere in and about our theology. There is a big hole or gap between what we read in the Book and what we practice. There is also a chasm in our church life. We seem at this hour to be as far removed from apostolic Christianity as the pope is from marriage. We are strangers from the commonwealth of the divine power of Pentecost. We are aliens to that city-moving enduement that was known to our spiritual fathers of the first decade in Pentecost. I remember on one occasion using a tin of well-advertised paint. The "fast-color, quick-drying, permanent-finish" selling line hooked me. But my experiment was a flop. Was the paint at fault? No, the painter was the transgressor. He did not read the directions, and so the results could not come out right. For an outpouring of the Spirit let us as Christians go back to the Bible directions. Even before a return to the Bible, we might ask a searing question: "Do we want another Reformation in the Biblical style?" A second not-too-easy question is this: "Do we really want a Pentecostal visitation of the Spirit that will shatter our status quo spiritually, socially, and economically?" (Let me inject a stop signal here: Unless you can answer yes to both these questions, don't pass on.) Our investigation into "Pentecost at any cost" is not merely to find an answer to empty pews nor yet to solve that preacher's headache, the Sunday night congregation. It is not merely a short-cut to getting our particular church or denomination on its feet. The answer to that problem is simple - get it on its knees. Our rediscovery of Pentecost may bring these several changes within a church; or on the other hand, it is possible that the new wine might burst the old bottles. If we want to, we can get back to Pentecost. But the road up this hill of blessing is steep. (I am assuming here that my readers believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, imperishable Word of God, and that it is no mere theological cliche to say, 'Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever" (Heb. 13:8)). The first hurdle blocking this road to spiritual recovery is this: The Price of Reproach Even suggest tarrying and right off some will dub us Pentecostals (as if that matters). Or, we would get jerking thumbs and out-of-the-side-of-the-mouth comments like this one: "They are trying to be super-spiritual" - an appendage we all would like at the judgment seat of Christ. Or some might even term us "lazy" for escaping work for some period. Or, if, with our fetters off, we leap for joy-in heart if not on our feet-then out from the critics would come the shattering phrase, "They are drunk" We could hardly take that! Another reproach might be the fact that the manner of the Holy Spirit and His method of directing worship would be so anti-orthodox that the unmoved believers might be again heard to say, "They are unlearned and ignorant men " The flesh hates to be slighted intellectually by the intellectuals. Can we pay the price of reproach? Well then, if the reproach is not too great, if the price is not too high, if the sacrifice is not too involved, and if the stigma is not too humiliating, we can consider the next step to spiritual recovery. The Price of Disruption "Of course we do not have to tarry these days," say the expositors, "because," they add, "this is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit." Dispensationally (if one may dare to use that often-abused word) they are right. But I still hold that we need to tarry. First, take notice that this tarrying would mean a shattering of our own little program. The Holy Spirit is no one's errand boy. The Holy Spirit does not move at our beck and call. He cannot be slighted by frail human will without serious consequence. For spiritual recovery He must be obeyed. Only let calamity come, and we will all want to be spiritual. Stock market addicts miss their shrine of Mammon when there is personal or domestic calamity or a national day of prayer (called usually when there is no other way out). A "rat in a trap" turns many to prayer. But do we pray when we are not in a trap? We need to remember that wars always bring disruption. In London, England, just after the second world war, I saw from the outside balcony of St. Paul's Cathedral an ugly slab of concrete far below. The upper crust of that slab was thirty feet thick, the guide told me. Beneath it and in comparative safety, Winston Churchill, his cabinet, and his military advisors, spent many a sleepless night plotting military strategy in an attempt to out-maneuver a crafty foe. Especially was this disruption true when England was "going it alone," and Hitler's flesh-pounding juggernauts were only twenty miles across the English Channel. While the top brass were thus engaged, the lesser fry were fire-watching. That meant each man had a certain night that in pouring rain or in hail from failing shrapnel, he would walk the street and if need be put out incendiary bombs. It was a risky task. But here was compulsion to duty as well as a bit of the disruption that all war brings. In the holy war against the devil and his works, can we be choosey in our obedience? Can we pray when we like? Can we seek the fulness of the Spirit when we are so disposed? No! If we are aware that now is the time for God to do a new thing, then precedents will be shattered. This brings us to another hurdle, the third: The Price of Waiting We need this waiting to get it clear in our minds that Holy Ghost visitation would not have to fit into our preconceived theological orbit. We need the waiting:     - for humiliation and for time for a confession of our too-long-a-time satisfaction        with our own works.     - to get our spiritual eyes refocused on the holiness of God and the lostness of men.     - to linger until we have a broken and contrite spirit.     - to prove we can master the claims of this materialistic age in which we live.     - to hear again the living voice of the living God.     - to show our utter disregard for our own efforts and our complete        dependence upon the living God for deliverance in this sin-dominated age.     - to convince our skeptical friends that we love the will of God, that we long for the        favor of God, and that we seek the power of God with more zeal than we put        into our business lives and with greater hunger than we have for food.     - for a sorrowful confession of sin and pleading for cleansing through the blood of        Christ. In the divine presence, vows would be made to put wrongs right and to        remain submissive to God's revealed will. I believe that then the Spirit would fall. Is the fire and fervor of the early church as revealed in the Acts of the Apostles the norm for the church of Jesus Christ? We believe it is. Jesus came that we might have life "more abundantly," life with glow and with flow and with overflow. The Spirit does not discriminate as to a man's position in a church. The Spirit falls on a Saul and makes him a Paul and an apostle. The Spirit endues a Philip, and he turns the city of Samaria upside down and ransacks the devil's kingdom. Supernatural evidence has accompanied every revival. The external miracles have been greater in some operations than in others. But - and this is the core of the thing - signs and wonders were done; the rationalists and materialists were stirred, and at times silenced. To revival there is peril and pain - pain for the birth of revival, pain from the scorn of others while revival is in progress, and pain when the fire of revival dies down. Repeatedly the question has been asked, "Why does revival come in a blaze, but to the delight of the critics soon sputter and die out?" The answer to that question could be one or two of these things (at times maybe both): First: Ignorance could quench the Spirit - an inability to hear the voice of the Lord for the next move. Second: Disobedience - this seems the most likely thing to douse the flame that seeks to consume all the dross. There might be other causes such as laziness to follow the close schedule that the Spirit demands, or there might be smug satisfaction that there is now some "life." Let us remind ourselves again that the early church "moved." In moving, something or somebody must be left behind. The modern Ananias and Sapphira will find the pace too hot and the price too high.  To keep the fire of revival burning, we would have to meet together:     - daily for prayer and praise. This is what the church in Acts did (Acts 2:42-46).     - daily for breaking of bread. This the early church did.     - daily for prayer. This was their pattern in the early church.     - in the harmony of the Spirit. This was the glow of the first church. This stringent schedule would be the death of many of our flimsy and unproductive patterns of life. How easily we Christians move along in the light of the lostness of men and their gambling with the certainty of eternal destruction unless they hear and believe. Sloth has seeped into our endeavors. The mesmerism of materialism has almost completely clogged the channel of blessing. We stand condemned. Almost every Christian without exception knows better than to live at his present standard of spirituality. "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." There is only one way for the church to operate - God's way. The Bible is the blueprint of this way. Here, then, is the way back to Pentecost and on to glory!          Quick, in a moment, infinite             for ever,          Send an arousal better than             I pray;          Give me a grace upon the             faint endeavor,          Souls for my hire and             Pentecost today! http://www.ravenhill.org/pentecostcost.htm

The Holy Fellowship of the HOLY SPIRIT: It Must Be Cultivated!

Contrary to what professing Christians like to think, many of God's people are not willing to walk in perfect agreement with Him, and this may explain why so many believers do not have the power of the Spirit, the peace of the Spirit and many of the other qualities, gifts and benefits which the Spirit of God brings.

The question is: Are we willing to walk with Him in love and obedience?

The answer is that we cannot walk with Him unless we are agreed and if we are not agreed, we will not walk with Him in harmony and fruitfulness and blessing.

Many people in the churches who profess that they have an interest in the subject, "How to cultivate the Spirit's companionship," are not really willing to give up all to obtain all. They are not willing to turn completely toward God and walk with Him.

You may remember that John Bunyan, in his great allegorical writings, often mentioned Mr. Facing Bothways, and we ought to know as well as he did that there are a great many Christians who try to accomplish the difficult task of facing in both directions at the same time. They do want Christ but they also want some of the world. They allow the Lord to disturb their way, but they also disturb the Lord's way, and there is no use talking about being filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit unless we are willing to give up all to obtain all!

Now, this old question in the text, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" is a rhetorical question, equivalent to a positive declaration that two cannot walk together except they be agreed, and the affirmation that if the two walk together, they must in some sense be one.

These two, in order to walk together, must agree that they want to walk together, and they must agree that it is to their advantage to have this companionship together. I think you will see that it all adds up to this: for two to walk together voluntarily, they must in some sense be one. They must be unified on the important issues of their walk and companionship and direction if they are going to be committed to traveling together.

I have discovered that some people are just not ready for this teaching of commitment and consecration and devotion to the highest will of God for their lives. They are still facing both ways.

Let me name some of the types of professing Christians who are not ready to give up all to obtain all. There are those who are most interested in Christianity for its "insurance" value.

Believe it or not, they want the care and protection that God gives them now, and they want avoidance of hell in time of death. They want the guarantee of heaven at last. To get these things, they seem willing to support the church, give to missions and show a financial interest in other church projects.

Amazing, but true! Some people keep on supporting the church, and they even abstain from some gross pleasures because they want protection - they are interested in the insurance value of Christianity. They want what it has to offer. They are not interested in modernism and liberal Christianity - there isn't any insurance value there.

Are you happy that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross because it means that you will not be brought into judgment, having passed from death into life?

Are you willing to live reasonably well, giving up some gross pleasures as a premium you are paying for the guarantee that God will bless you while you live and take you home to heaven when you die?

Some Christians do not like to have this proposition stated in this manner - for it sort of lets the truth leak out that sets up another question: If this is the basis for our Christian life, are we any better than some of the not-professing sinners?

Not every sinner is dirty, you know. Not every sinner is a rascal. There are honorable men and good men and honest men - men that will tell the truth even if it hurts. They have no hope of eternal life or of heaven to come. They are not followers of our Lord. I have known fine, ethical, honest men who were not Christians.

Actually, I know a man who is so fine and good that everyone wants to make a Christian out of him. He steadfastly refuses and is positive in his statement, "I am not a Christian." He doesn't claim he is winning his way to heaven - he knows he is lost, but he is so good in his life and his ways and his habits that he puts a lot of Christians to shame.

Then there are those who are not willing because their concept of religion is social and not spiritual. This includes the people who have watered down the religion of the New Testament until it has no strength, no life, no vitality in it. They water it down with their easygoing opinions. They are very broad-minded - in fact, they are so broad-minded that they cannot walk on the narrow way.

They are socially-minded. This is as far as religion goes with them. I am not prepared to say dogmatically that they are not saved, but I am prepared to say that they are not ready for what I am talking about. There is no argument with the fact that the gospel of Christ is essentially spiritual, and Christian truth working upon human souls by the Holy Spirit makes Christian men and women spiritual.

In a similar sense, there are those who are more influenced by the world than by the New Testament, and they are not ready for the Holy Spirit. Of these people, we have to say that they are influenced far more by Hollywood than they are by Jerusalem. Their spirit and mode of life are more like Hollywood than it is like Jerusalem. If you were to suddenly set them down in the New Jerusalem, they would not feel at home because their mode, the texture of their mind, has been created for them by twentieth century entertainment and not by the things of God!

I am positive that much that passes for the gospel in our day is very little more than a mild case of orthodox religion grafted onto a heart that is sold out to the world in its pleasures and tastes and ambitions.

Now another group that talks about the Holy Spirit but is not prepared for His companionship are those who would like to be filled with the Spirit just for the thrill of it. I think it is plain that some people want to be thrilled so badly that they would pay any price - except that they will not die to themselves, nor to the world, nor to the flesh.

For these, what I am about to say now will have no sympathetic meaning whatsoever. It is this: You have never come over into the region where God can get to you! The kind of teaching I have been giving has disturbed some people. If you have been traveling along thinking you are all right, and a man of God begins to insist there is yet much land to be possessed, you will probably be disturbed. That is the preliminary twinge that comes to the soul who wants to know God. Whenever the Word of God reaches us and convicts us, it disturbs us. But this is normal - for God has to jar us loose, even if it takes a disturbance.

When we speak of conviction by the Spirit, we must differentiate between knowing Christian doctrine intellectually and knowing it sympathetically. Anyone can learn creeds and catechisms and recite Christian doctrines from memory, but it is quite another thing to let the Word of God reach us sympathetically. I am talking about the human heart that goes out sympathetically to the Word of God.

I hope that there are many more people hungry for God than I know. God keeps many of His mysteries and secrets from me, so I have no idea how many persons have been helped by my ministry and my preaching. I do thank God for those I know about - some of those who have told me of their "sympathetic" reception of the Word. From somewhere came the deep longing, a blessed aspiration, a yearning after God that is so real and so wonderful and so pain-filled that they know what I am talking about, sympathetically.

Now, if you are a spiritually hungry person, Christ is more than insurance against hell, and Christianity is more than an opportunity to mingle socially with good people. If God is real to you, and Christ is real, and your heart is longing after God's best, I want to give you these pointers to help you in cultivating the Spirit's holy friendship.

First, the Holy Spirit is a living Person, and He can be known in an increasing degree of intimacy. Since He is a personality, He can never be fully known in a single encounter.

One of the great mistakes we make is to imagine that by coming to God in the new birth and receiving the Spirit of adoption we know all we can know about God! Similarly, those of us who believe in being filled with the Holy Spirit after conversion also make a mistake in thinking that we know all there is to know about the Holy Spirit.

Oh, my friend, we are just beginning. God's personality is so infinitely rich and manifold that it will take a thousand years of close search and intimate communion to know even the outer edges of the glorious nature of God. When we talk about communion with God and fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we are talking about that which begins now but will grow and increase and mature while life lasts.

Actually, I do find Christians these days who seem to have largely wasted their lives. They were converted to Christ but they have never sought to go on to an increasing knowledge of God. There is untold loss and failure because they have accepted the whole level of things around them as being normal and desirable.

The Holy Spirit is a living Person, and we can know Him and fellowship with Him! We can whisper to Him, and out of a favorite verse of the Bible or a loved hymn, we hear His voice whispering back. Walking with the Spirit can become a habit. It is a gracious thing to strive to know the things of God through the Spirit of God in a friendship that passes the place where it has to be kept up by chatter.

How can we cultivate this holy fellowship? Our second pointer is this: Be engrossed with Jesus Christ.

Do you remember that Jesus, on that last day of the feast, lifted up His voice and cried, "He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly show flow rivers of living waters." (But he spoke this of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

The pouring out of the Holy Spirit depended upon and waited upon the glorification of Jesus Christ the Lord. Then when Pentecost was fully come and Peter got up to give his great sermon, he referred back to that same passage and said, in Acts 2:32-33, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."

We must always remember that we will know the Spirit more intimately as we make more of Jesus Christ the Lord. As Jesus Himself said, a ministry of the Holy Spirit would be to take the things of Christ and show them to us.

This brings a companion thought - honor Christ and the Holy Spirit will honor you. We walk with the Holy Spirit when we walk with Christ, for Christ will always be where He is honored. The Holy Spirit will honor the one who honors the Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Let's honor Him by giving Him His right title. Let's call Him Lord. Let's believe that He is Lord. Let's call Him Christ. Let's believe that He is Christ. Remember that "God has made this Jesus who you crucified Lord and Christ, and set him at his own right hand and put all things under his feet, and made him to be head over all things."

As we honor Jesus, the Spirit of God becomes glad within us. He ceases to hold back, He communes with us and imparts Himself, and the sun comes up and heaven comes near as Jesus Christ becomes our All in all.

To glorify Jesus is the business of the church, and to glorify Jesus is the work of the Holy Spirit. I can walk with Him when I am doing the same things He is doing and going the same way He is going and traveling at the same speed He is traveling. I must honor Him by obedience, by witness, by fellowship.

There is another pointer: We must walk in righteousness if we are to know the Holy Spirit in increasing intimacy. Why should we try to argue with the fact that God cannot possibly have sweet fellowship with those who will not live right and walk right?

We have magnified grace in this grace-conscious age. We have magnified grace out of all proportion to the place God gives to it in the Bible. We do have now, as Jude predicted "....ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." We are so afraid that we will reflect upon the all-sufficiency of grace that we do not dare tell Christians that they must live right.

Paul wrote his epistles in the Holy Spirit and he laid down holy, inward ethics, moral rules for the inward Christian. You can read them in Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Galatians.

Read the Sermon on the Mount and the other teachings of Jesus, and you will see that He does expect His people to be clean and pure and right.

Now, I have heard that a Christian brother has said, "Tozer doesn't distinguish between discipleship and salvation. You can be a Christian without being a disciple."

Just let me ask: Who said that you can be a Christian without being a disciple? I don't think you can be a Christian without being a disciple. The idea that I can come to the Lord and by grace have all of my sins forgiven and have my name written in heaven, and have the carpenter go to work on a mansion in my Father's house, and at the same time raise hell on my way to heaven is impossible and unscriptural. It cannot be found in the Bible. We are never saved by our good works, but we are not saved apart from good works. Out of our saving faith in Jesus Christ, there springs immediately goodness and righteousness. Spring is not brought by flowers, but you cannot have spring without flowers. It isn't my righteousness that saves, but the salvation I have received brings righteousness.

I think we must face up to this now - that we must walk in righteousness if we are going on to know the Lord. The man who is not ready to live right is not saved, and he will not be saved, and he will be deceived in that great day.

The grace of God that brings salvation teaches the heart that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. There you have the three dimensions of life: soberly - that is me; righteously - that is my fellow man; and godly - that is God. We ought not to make the mistake of thinking that we can be spiritual - and not be good.

I cannot believe that a man is on the road to heaven when he is habitually performing the kind of deeds that would logically indicate that he ought to be on his way to hell. How can the two walk together accept they be agreed? He is the Holy Spirit, and if I walk an unholy way, how can I be in fellowship with Him?

The fifth point of help is this: Make your thoughts a clean sanctuary.

God reveals to us that our thoughts are a part of us. Someone has said that "thoughts are things," and the Spirit is all-seeking and all-hearing and all-loving and pure.

Can you imagine a man with malicious and evil thoughts in his heart having companionship with the loving Holy Spirit? Can you imagine a man bloated with egotism knowing the Holy Spirit in any like intimacy? Can you imagine a man who is a deceiver having blessed fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Never!

My friend, if you are habitually given over to thinking and harboring and savoring dirty thoughts, you are habitually without the communion of the Holy Spirit! Keep your mind pure. Clean out the sanctuary the way old Hezekiah did. They had dirtied up that sanctuary so when he had taken over, Hezekiah got all of the priests together. It took them days and days but they carried out all of the filth and burned it, threw it over the bank and got rid of it, and then went back and sanctified the temple. Then the blessed God came and they had their worship again.

Our thoughts are the decorations inside the sanctuary where we live. If our thoughts are purified by the blood of Christ, we are living in a clean room, no matter if we are wearing overalls covered with grease. Our thoughts largely decide the mod and weather and climate within our beings, and God considers our thoughts as part of us. They should be thoughts of peace, thoughts of pity and mercy and kindness, thoughts of charity, thoughts of God and the Son of God - these are pure things, good things and high things.

Therefore, if we would cultivate the Spirit's acquaintance, we must have the control of our thoughts. Our mind ought not to be a wilderness in which every king of unclean thought makes its own way.

Again, for the kind of fellowship we are talking about, seek to know Him in His Word. Remember that the Spirit of God inspired the Word and He will be revealed in the Word. I really have no place in my sympathies for those Christians who neglect the Word or ignore the Word or get revelations apart from the Word. This is the Book of God, after all, and if we know the Book well enough, we will have an answer to every problem in the world.

Every problem that touches us is answered in the Book - stay by the Word! I want to preach the Word, love the Word and make the Word the most important element in my Christian life.

Read it much, read it often, brood over it, think over it, meditate over it - meditate on the Word of God day and night. When you are awake at night, think of a helpful verse. When you get up in the morning, no matter how you feel, think of a verse and make the Word of God the important element in your day. The Holy Spirit wrote the Word, and if you make much of the Word, He will make much of you. It is through the Word that He reveals Himself. Between those covers is a living Book. God wrote it and it is still vital and effective and alive. God is in this Book and the Holy Spirit is in this Book, and if you want to find Him, go into this Book.

Point #7 Let the old saints be our example. They came to the Word of God and meditated. They laid the Bible on the old fashioned, handmade chair, got down on the old, scrubbed, board floor and meditated on the Word. As they waited, faith mounted. The Spirit and faith illuminated. They had only a Bible with fine print, narrow margins and poor paper, but they knew their Bible better than some of us do with all of our helps.

Let's practice the art of Bible meditation. But please don't grab that phrase and go out and form a club - we are organized to death already. Just meditate. Let us just be plain, thoughtful Christians. Let us open our Bibles, spread them out on a chair, and mediate on the Word of God. It will open itself to us, and the Spirit of God will come and brood over it.

I do challenge you to meditate, quietly, reverently, prayerfully, for a month. Put away questions and answers and the filling in of the blank lines in the portions you haven't been able to understand. Put all of the cheap trash away and take the Bible, get on your knees, and in faith, say, "Father, here I am. Begin to teach me!"

He will surely teach you about Himself and about Jesus and about the Spirit and about life and death and heaven and hell, and about His own presence.

Finally, our last pointer is to cultivate the art of recognizing the presence of the Spirit everywhere, all of the time.

The Spirit of the Lord fills the world. The Holy Spirit is here and you will find it impossible to just walk out and hide from His presence. David tried it, and in the 139th Psalm tells how he found out that he could not get away from God.

"If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, you are there. If I ...dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall your hand lead me," David said. "If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me." He testified that he could not get away from the presence of God.

If you are interested in Him, you will find Him where you are. The Presence is all about you. When you awaken in the morning, in place of burying your head behind the local newspaper, can't you get in just a few thoughts of God while you eat your grapefruit? Remember, cultivating the Holy Spirit's acquaintance is a job. It is something you do, and yet it is so easy and delightful.

Now, I recommend that you find out what it is that has been hindering you in your Christian experience. You have not made progress. You do not know God as well as you did.

It all depends upon how you must answer certain questions about your daily life habits - some things you do and others that you are not doing. Do these things help to hide the face of Jesus from you? Do these things chill and stifle your spiritual progress? Do these things take the joy out of your spirit? Do they make the Word of God a little less sweet? Do they make earth more desirable and heaven farther away?

Repentance may be necessary. There may be some necessary cleaning up before the Holy Spirit will come and warm your heart and refresh it and make it fragrant with His presence. This is how we cultivate the Spirit's friendship and companionship.

http://lovestthoume.com/FeedMySheep/HolyFlloshipSprt.html

KINGS AND THEIR KINGDOMS: HOW TO REIGN IN THE INTERIOR LIFE by Hannah Whitall Smith

'And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.'

The expressions 'kingdom of God' and 'kingdom of Heaven' are used in Scripture concerning the divine life in the soul. They mean simply the place or condition where God rules, and where His will is done. It is an interior kingdom, not an exterior one. Its thrones are not outward thrones of human pomp and glory, but inward thrones of dominion and supremacy over the things of time and sense. Its kings are not clothed in royal robes of purple and fine linen, but with the interior garments of purity and truth. And its reign is not in outward show, but in inward power. Neither is it in one place rather than another, nor in one form of things above another. It is not, lo here, nor lo there, not in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, that we are to find Christ, and enter into His kingdom. It is not a matter of place at all, but one of condition. And in every place and under every name, and through every form, all who seek God and work righteousness shall find His kingdom within them. But this is very little understood. In our childish fashion of literalism we have too much imbibed the idea that a kingdom must necessarily be in a particular place and with outward observation; and have therefore expected that the kingdom of heaven would mean for us an outward victory of heaven over earth in some particular place, or under some especial form; and that to sit on a throne with Christ, would be to have an outward uplifting in power and glory before the face of all around us. But as the inner sense of Scripture unfolds to us, we see that this would be but a poor and superficial fulfilling of the real meaning of these wonderful symbols. And the vision of their true significance grows and strengthens before the 'eyes that see,' until at last we know that our Lord's words were truer than ever we had dreamed before, that the 'kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.'


In Daniel 2:44, we have the announcement of the kingdom, and in Isaiah 9:6, 7, the announcement of the King: 'The God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.' 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.' This kingdom is to break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms by right of the law by which the inward always rules the outward. If there is peace within, no outward turmoil can affect the soul; but outward peace can never quiet an inward tempest. A happy heart can walk in triumphant indifference through a sea of external trouble; while internal anguish cannot find happiness in the most favorable surroundings. What a man is within himself, makes or unmakes his joy, and not what he possesses outside of himself.


Someone said to Diogenes, 'The king has degraded you.' 'Yes' replied Diogenes, triumphantly, 'but I am not degraded!' No act of kings or emperors can degrade a soul that retains its own dignity; no tyrant can enslave a man who is inwardly free. Therefore to have this divine kingdom set up within, means that all other powers to conquer or enslave are broken, and the soul reigns triumphant over them all. Men and devils may try to hold such a one in bondage, but they are powerless before the might of this interior kingdom. No longer will fashion, or conventionality, or the fear of man, or the love of ease, or any other of the many tyrants to which Christians cringe and bow, rule a soul that has been raised to a throne in this inward kingdom. No sin or temptation can overcome, no sorrow can crush, no discouragement can hinder. Let a man or woman have been bound in ever so tyrannical chains of sinful habits, this kingdom will set them free. Circumstances make men kings in the outward life, but in this hidden life men become kings over circumstances. And the soul that has aforetime been the slave of a thousand outward things, finds itself here utterly independent of them, every one. For the King in this kingdom is One whom no circumstances can affect or baffle. He it is indeed who makes circumstances. 

And since the government is upon His shoulders, we cannot doubt that He will order the kingdom with a judgment and justice that will leave nothing for any subject in His kingdom to desire.


In the expression 'the government shall be upon His shoulder,' we have the whole secret of this wonderful kingdom. Upon His shoulder, not upon ours. The care is His, the burdens are His, the responsibility belongs to Him, the protection rests upon Him, the planning, and providing, and controlling, and guiding, all are in His hands. No one can question as to His perfect fulfillment of every requirement of His kingship. Therefore those who are in His kingdom, are utterly delivered from any need to be anxious, or burdened, or perplexed, or troubled. And by this deliverance they become kings. The government is not upon their shoulders, and they have no business to interfere with it. Their King has assumed the whole responsibility, and if He can but see His subjects happy and prosperous, He is content Himself to bear all the weight and care of kingship. How often we speak of the responsibilities of earthly kings, and pity them for the burdens that kingship imposes. We recognize, even on an earthly plane, that to be a king means, or ought to mean, the bearing of the burdens of even the meanest of his subject. And even now, as I write, many hearts are aching with sympathy for the new Czar, who has assumed the grievous burden of the mighty Russian Empire.


From this instinctive sense of every human heart as to the rightful duties and responsibilities of kingship, we may learn what it means to be in a kingdom over which God is King, and where He has himself declared all things shall be ordered with judgment and justice from henceforth and even forever. Surely no care or anxiety can ever enter here, if the heart but knows its kingdom and its King! In John 18:36, our King tells us the tactics of His kingdom: 'Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.' Earthly kings and earthly kingdoms gain and keep their supremacy by outward conflict; God's kingdom conquers by inward power. Earthly kings subdue enemies; God subdues enmity. His victories must be interior before they can be exterior. He does not subjugate, but he conquers. Even we, on our earthly plane, know something of this principle, and do not value any victory over another which only reaches the body and has not subdued the heart. No true mother cares for an outward obedience merely; nothing will satisfy her but the inward surrender. Unless the citadel of the heart is conquered, the conquest seem worthless. And with God how much more will this be the case, since we are told that 'He seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.'


We speak of 'subduing hearts,' and we mean, not that they are overpowered or forced into an unwilling and compulsory surrender, but that they are conquered by being won, and are willingly yielded up to another's control. And it is after this fashion and no other that God subdues. So that to read that 'His kingdom ruleth over all,' means that all hearts are won to His service in a glad and willing surrender. For again I repeat, His reign must be inward before it can be outward. And in truth it is no reign at all, unless it is within. If we think of it a moment we shall see that this must be so in the very nature of things, and that it is impossible to conceive of God reigning in a kingdom where the subduing reaches no further than the outside actions of His subjects. His kingdom is not of this world, but is in a spiritual sphere, where its power is over the souls and not the bodies of men; and therefore only when the soul is conquered, can it be set up. Understood in this light, how full of love and blessing do all those declarations and prophecies become, which tell us that God is to subdue His enemies under His feet, and is to rule them in righteousness and power! And how glorious with hope does the voice of that great multitude heard by John sound out, saying, 'Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!'


In confirmation of all this we have two passages descriptive of this kingdom, in Rom. 14:17, and 1 Cor. 4:20: 'For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.' 'For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.' Not outward things, but inward. Not what a man eats and drinks, not where he lives, nor what is his nationality, nor the customs of his race, not even what he thinks nor what he says; but what are the inward characteristics of his nature, and the inward power of his spiritual life. For these alone constitute this kingdom of God. Not what I do, but what I am, is to decide whether I belong to it or not. And only as inward righteousness, and inward peace, and inward joy, and inward power are bestowed and experienced, can this kingdom be set up. Therefore no outward subjugation can accomplish results like these, but only the interior work of the all-subduing spirit of God.


I have been greatly instructed by the story of Ulysses, when he was sailing past the islands of the sirens. These sirens had the power of charming by their songs all who listened to them, and of inducing them to leap into the sea. To avert this danger, Ulysses filled the ears of his crew with wax, that they might not hear the fatal music, and bound himself to the mast with knotted cords; and thus they passed the isle in safety. But when Orpheus was obliged to sail by the same island, he gained a better victory, for he himself made sweeter music than that of the sirens, and enchanted his crew with more alluring songs; so that they passed the dangerous charmers not only with safety, but with disdain. Wax and knotted cords kept Ulysses and his crew from making the fatal leap; but inward delights enabled Orpheus and his crew to reign triumphant over the very source of temptation itself. And just so is it with the kingdom of which we speak. It needs no outward law to bind it, but reigns by right of its inward life. So that it is said of those who have entered it, 'Against such there is no law.' For it is a kingdom of kings. The song we shall one day sing, nay, that we ought to be singing even now and here in this life, declare this: 'Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.' (Rev. 1:5, 6.)

We who have entered this kingdom, or, rather, in whom this kingdom is set up, sit upon the throne with our King and share His dominion. The world was His footstool, and it becomes our footstool also. Over the things of time and sense He reigned triumphant by the power of a life lived in a plane above them and superior to them, and so may we. We are all of us familiar with the expression that such or such a person 'rises superior to his surroundings,' and we mean that there is in that soul a hidden power that controls its surroundings, instead of being controlled by them. Our King essentially rose superior to His surroundings; and it is given to us who are reigning with Him to do the same. But, just as He was not a king in outward appearance, but only in inward power, so shall we be. He reigned, not in this, that He had all the treasures and riches of the world at His command, but that He had none of them, and could do without them. And so shall our reigning be. We shall not have all men bowing down to us, and all things bending to our will; but with all men opposing and all things adverse, we shall walk in a royal triumph of soul through the midst of them. We shall suffer the loss of all things, and by that loss be set forever free from their power to bind. We shall hide ourselves in the impregnable fortress of the will of our King, and shall reign there in a perpetual kingdom.


All this is contrary to man's thought of kingship. The only idea the human heart can compass, is, that outward circumstances must bend and bow to the soul that is seated on a throne with Christ. Friends must approve, enemies must be silenced, obstacles must be overcome, affairs must prosper, or there can be no reigning. If man had had the ordering of Daniel's business, or of that matter of the three Hebrew children in the burning fiery furnace, he would have said the only way of victory would be for the minds of the kings to have been so changed that Daniel should not have been cast into the den of lions, and the Hebrew children should have been kept out of the furnace. But God's way was infinitely grander. He suffered Daniel to be cast among the lions, in order that he might reign triumphant over them when in their very midst, and He allowed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be cast into the burning, fiery furnace, in order that they might walk through it without so much as the smell of fire upon them. He tells us, not that we shall walk in paths where there are no dragons and adders, but that we shall walk through the midst of dragons and adders, and shall 'tread them under our feet.' And how much more glorious a kingdom is this than any outward rule or control could be! To be inwardly a king, while outwardly a slave, is one of the grandest heights of triumph of which our hearts can conceive. To be destitute, afflicted, tormented, to be stoned and torn asunder, and slain with the sword; to wander in sheepskins and goatskins, and in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, and yet to be through it all, kings in interior kingdoms of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, is surely a kingdom that none but God could give, and none but God-like souls receive. A few such kings we have at some time or other seen or heard of in this world of ours, and all hearts have acknowledged their unconscious sway.

One I read of among the brethren of the monastery of St. Cyr. Because of their piety, these brethren incurred the hatred of the monasteries around them, and the anger of their superiors, and were cast out as evil from their community. One of them was sent as prisoner to a monastery where his chief enemies dwelt, and was there subjected to the most cruel and degrading treatment. Although he was of gentle birth, and had been an abbot in the community he had left, he was compelled to do the most menial work, was forced to carry a noisome burden on his back, and was driven out to beg with a placard on his bosom declaring him to be the vilest of the vile. But through it all the spirit of the saint reigned triumphant, and nothing disturbed his calm, or soured for a moment his Christ-like sweetness. For his persecutors he never had anything but words of kindness and smiles of love. And at last by the mighty power of the divine kingdom in which he lived, he subdued all hearts around him to himself, and became the trusted friend and adviser, and the beloved ruler over the very enemies who had once so delighted to persecute and revile him. 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' By his meekness he conquered and became king.


At one time a dangerous criminal was sent to the monastery for imprisonment. He was so violent that no bonds sufficed to bind him, and no strength could control him. At last he was taken to the cell of this brother from St. Cyr, and they were shut up together; even the stolid monks themselves recognizing in that divine meekness a power to conquer that surpassed all the powers with which they were acquainted. The saint received the violent man as a beloved brother, and smiled upon him with heavenly kindness. But the criminal returned it with abuse and violence. He broke the monk's furniture and destroyed his bed, he kicked him, and beat him, and tore his hair, and spat upon him.

He exhausted himself in his violence against him. Through it all the monk made no resistance, and said no word but words of love; and when at length the criminal, worn out with his fury, paused to take breath, the beaten and outraged man looked upon his persecutor with a smile of ineffable love and tender compassion, as though he would gather him to his bosom and comfort him for his misery. It was more than the criminal could bear. Hatred, and revenge, and anger he could repay in kind, but against love and meekness like this he had no weapons, and his heart was conquered. He fell at the feet of the saint and washed them with his tears, as he entreated forgiveness for his cruelty, and vowed a lifelong loyalty to his service. And from that moment all trouble with that criminal was over. He followed the saint about like a loving and faithful dog, eager to do or to be anything the other might desire. And when the time of his imprisonment was over, and the gates of his prison were opened for his release, he could not be induced to go, because he could not bear to leave the man who had saved him by love. Of such a nature is kingship in this kingdom of heaven.Each soul can make the application for itself, without need of comment from me.


In Matt. 5, 6, and 7, we have the King of this kingdom describing the characteristics of His kingdom and giving the laws for His subjects. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' He says, 'for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Not the rich, or great, or wise, or learned, but the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who mourn, and those who hunger and thirst, those who are persecuted, and reviled, and spoken evil against, all such belong to this kingdom. Gentleness, yieldedness, meekness, charity, are the characteristics of these kings, and they reign in the power of them. One Christian asked another, 'How can I make people respect me?' 'I would command their respect,' was the reply. And this meant, not that he should stand up and say in tones of authority, 'Now I command you all to respect me,' but that he should so act, and live, and be, that no one could help respecting him. Men sometimes win an outward show of respect and submission by an over-bearing tyranny, but he who would rule the heart of his subjects must try other methods. Our Lord developed this thought to some who wished to share His throne. He called them to Him, and said, 'Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: and whosoever of you will be the chiefest shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.'


From the human standpoint, that man alone reigns who is able to exercise lordship over those around him. From the divine standpoint the soul that serves is the soul that reigns. Not he who demands most, receives this inward crowning, but he who gives up most. What grander kingship can be conceived of than that which Christ sets forth in the sermon on the mount, 'But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain'? Surely only a soul that is in harmony with God can mount such a throne of dominion as this! But this is our destiny. We are made for this purpose. We are born of a kingly race, and are heirs to this ineffable kingdom; 'heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.' Would that we could realize this; and could see in every act of service or surrender to which we might find ourselves called, an upward step in the pathway that leads us to our kingdom and our throne! I mean this in a very practical sense. I mean that the homely services of our daily lives, and the little sacrifices which each day demands, will be, if faithfully fulfilled, actual rounds in the ladder by which we are mounting to our thrones. I mean that if we are faithful over the 'few things' of our earthly kingdom, we shall be made ruler over the 'many things' of the heavenly kingdom. He that follows Christ in this ministry of service and of suffering, will reign with Him in the glory of supreme self-sacrifice, and will be the 'chiefest' in His divine kingdom of love.


Knowing this, who would hesitate to 'turn the other cheek,' since by the turning a kingdom is to be won and a throne is to be gained? Joseph was a type of all this. In slavery and in prison he reigned a king, as truly as when seated on Pharaoh's throne or riding in Pharaoh's chariot. (See Gen. 39:6, 22, 23.) He became the greatest by being the least, the chiefest by being servant of all. Dear reader, art thou reigning after this fashion, and in this sort of a kingdom? Art thou the greatest in thy little world of home, or church, or social circle by being the least, and chiefest by being the servant of all? If not, thy kingdom is not Christ's kingdom, and thy throne is not one shared by Him. To enter into the secrets of this interior kingdom and to partake of its heavenly power, is no notional victory, no fancied supremacy. It is a real and actual reigning, which will cause thee as a matter of fact to 'rise superior' to the world and the things of it, and to walk through it independent of its smiles or frowns, dwelling in a region of heavenly peace and heavenly triumph which earth can neither give nor take away. 'For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.'

It is not a talk but a fact; and those who are in it recognize their kingship and prove it by reigning. But perhaps thou wilt say, 'How can I enter into this kingdom, if I am not already in?' Let our Lord himself answer thee: 'At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.' It is a kingdom of childlike hearts, and only such can enter it. To be a 'little child' means simply to be one. I cannot describe it better than this. We all have known little children in our lives, and have delighted ourselves in their simplicity and their trustfulness, their light-hearted carelessness, and their unquestioning obedience to those in authority over them. And to be the greatest in this divine kingdom means to have the most of this guileless, tender, trustful, self-forgetting, obedient heart of the child. 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.' It is not saying, but doing, that will avail us here. We must be a child, or we cannot sit on the child's throne.

And to be a child means to do the Father's will, since the very essence of true childhood is the spirit of obedience united to the spirit of trust. Become a little child, then, by laying aside all thy greatness, all thy self-assertion, all thy self-dependence, all thy wisdom, and all thy strength, and consenting to die to thy own self-life, be born again into the kingdom of God.


The only way out of one life into another is by a death to one and a new birth into the other. It is the old story, therefore, reiterated so often and in so many different ways, of through death to life. Die, then, that you my live. Lose your own life that you may find Christ's life. The caterpillar can only enter into the butterfly's kingdom by dying to its caterpillar life, and emerging into the resurrection life of the butterfly; and just so can we also only enter into the kingdom of God by the way of a death out of the kingdom of self, and an emergence into the resurrection life of Christ. Let everything go, then, that belongs to the natural; all your own notions, and plans, and ways, and thoughts; and accept in their stead God's plans, and ways, and thoughts. Do this faithfully and do it persistently, and you shall come at last to sit on His throne, and to reign with Him in an interior kingdom which shall break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms, and shall stand for ever and ever. There is no other way. This kingdom cannot be entered by pomp, and show, and greatness, and strength; but by littleness, and helplessness, and childlikeness, and babyhood, and death. He that humbleth himself, and he only, shall be exalted here; and to mount the throne with Christ requires that we shall first have followed Him in the suffering, and loss, and crucifixion. If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with Him. Not as an arbitrary reward for our suffering, but as the result that will follow in the very nature of things. Christ's loss must necessarily bring Christ's gain, Christ's death must bring Christ's resurrection, and to follow Him in the regeneration, will surely and inevitably bring the soul that follows to His crown and His throne.


In a volume of sermons for children I have found a vivid illustration of this royal kingdom: -- 'A little fellow from one of the Refuges in England had risked his life to save one of his comrades, and England's Queen had sent him a medal by the hand of one of England's earls. The little fellow was held forward by his comrades to receive it, for he was shy and nervous and tried to sidle away. 'Look at the noble chairman; he had driven down from his proper place in the House of Lords, where were gathered earls and dukes, and the men who had done well as lawyers, and judges, and statesmen, and warriors, and the Princes of the royal blood. Yet, all peer though he was, he was moved to the sincerest depths of his being as he murmured, `I have the honor,' and pinned the life-saving medal on the child's jacket. His heart was full. He paused to swallow down something that would rise in his throat before he could go on. 'There is the `glory and honor' of successful statesmen, and warriors, and lawyers, but the glory of self-forgetful saving of life is a glory that excelleth, and that was the wondrous glory won by this boy.


He had plunged into the stream and shared a drowning boy's risk, and that little hand, look at it there, steadying him by holding the table, had come out holding the saved. 'Why has self-forgetfulness such mighty power? How was it that a twelve-year-old boy could bow down an audience of grown men before him? What gave to that brow, that its stubby crown of carroty hair, a glory and honor more than the lustre of gold and jewels? Why was it that that small body in its little breeches and jacket, wiping its tears on the rough little sleeve, could grip thousands of hearts and hold them all, and make them for the time loyal members of his kingdom? 'Why was all this so? 'It was so because that little boy in his measure had been like Christ, in the self-forgetful spirit of sacrifice for others. He had a bit of the same beauty we are all made on purpose to worship; the glory before which angels give a great shout, and all the company of heaven fall down and adore, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!" The 'Lamb that was slain' is the mightiest King the world has ever known, and all who partake of His spirit share in His kingdom. And since this kingdom is not a place, but is character, those who have not the character cannot by any possibility be in it.

We pray daily, 'Thy kingdom come.' Do we know what we are praying for? Do we comprehend the change it will make in us if it comes in us? Are we willing to be so changed? What is the kingdom of God but the rule of God? And what is the rule of God but the will of God? Therefore when we pray, 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' we have touched the secret of it all. A horde of savages might conquer a civilized kingdom by sheer brute force; but if they would conquer the civilization of that kingdom, they could only do so by submitting to its control. And just so is it with the kingdom of heaven. It yields its sceptre to none but those who render obedience to its laws. 'To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne.' 'He always reigns who sides with God,' says an old writer. And again, 'He who perfectly accepts the will of God, dwells in a perpetual kingdom.'


Art thou reigning after this fashion and in this sort of a kingdom? Art thou the 'chiefest' by being the 'servant of all'? Art thou a king over thy circumstances, or do thy circumstances reign over thee? Dost thou triumph over thy temptations, or do they triumph over thee? Canst thou sit on an inward throne in the midst of outward defeat and loss? Canst thou conquer by yielding, and become the greatest by being the least? If thou canst answer Yes to all these questions, then thou art come into thy kingdom; and whatever thy outward lot may be, or the estimation in which men may hold thee, thou art in very truth among the number of those concerning whom our Lord declares 'the same shall be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'

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