Gospel

Abide In Abundance “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me” (John 15:4). Quality Of The Fruit The quality of the fruit of the branch depends upon the quality of the life of the vine. Neither quality nor quantity is the product of the branch, for the branch merely receives what is produced by the vine . “To walk with God in hallowed fellowship is not only the secret of joy and growth, it is the condition of all acceptable service, of all real usefulness. The value of what we do depends very much upon what we are. And what we are depends upon where we abide. The mightiest power for usefulness is the quiet influence of a life that abides habitually in the secret place of the Most High. Such an one dwells in the source of all life, of all purity, of all fruitfulness.” -E.H.H. “It is just a matter of taking a position that is already yours. The enemy has filled the minds of many ...

Powerless Recipients “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Rom. 8:37) The world, the flesh, and the devil say, Be powerful. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit say, Be powerless -  “for My strength is made perfect in [your] weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9) “There would be little harm in trying to imitate Christ if such an endeavour did not hide from us what our Lord really desires, and so keep us back from ‘life more abundant.’ Christ has come Himself into our hearts to dwell there, and what He wants is to live His life in us, as the Apostle Paul says, ‘For to me to live is Christ.’ Christ was the very source and mainspring of all he was and did. What a wonderful thing this is! We would be driven to despair if Christ had simply left us an example to follow or imitate, for we have no power within ourselves to do it. We must have a new source-a new spring of action, and Christ Himself wants to be just that for us.” -E.C.H. “The man in...

Rest In Him " For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2: 10). The turning point in our Christian life comes when we begin to “let God be God,” the day we throw all caution (fear) to the winds and look to Him to carry out His purpose for us in His own time and way. “Our Father never does a thing suddenly: He has always prepared long, long before. So there is nothing to murmur about, nothing to be proud of, in the calling of God. There is also no one of whom to be jealous, for other people’s advantages have nothing to do with us. ‘It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy’ (Rom. 9:16). Our heritage, our birth, our natural equipment: these are things already determined by God. We may pick up other things in the way, for we are always learning; but the way is His way. When we look back over our life, we bow and acknowledge that all...

Dependent Reception “Walk in [dependence upon] the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). Those who have thoroughly learned full dependence on Him for justification will come to understand that sanctification is by the same faith principle. We are to rest in His finished work-both for birth and for growth. "We are not to overcome the lusts of the flesh in order that we may walk in the Spirit. We are to walk in the Spirit in order that the lusts of the flesh may be overcome. The enemy can hold up young Christians on this point for a long time, so that they do not really get started on the Christian walk. They feel they cannot expect to begin to walk in the Spirit until they have, in some degree at least, dealt with the lusts of the flesh. "They wait for some vague time when they hope they will have reached a more satisfactory position in regard to the lusts of the flesh, and will feel more confident about attempting a walk in the Spirit. But t...

Source Of Sin “I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). When the believer first becomes aware of the sinful self-life, he often makes the mistake of attempting to deal with its symptoms. He struggles to curb his sins and tries to live righteously. The resultant failure leads him to reliance upon the work of the Cross, which is effectively applied to the root of the matter by the Holy Spirit. The old life is crucified; the new life is manifested. “We are apt to think that what we have done is very bad, but that we ourselves are not so bad. God is taking pains to show us that we ourselves are wrong, fundamentally wrong. The root trouble is the sinner; he must be dealt with. Our sins are dealt with by the Blood, but we ourselves are dealt with by the Cross. The Blood procures our pardon for what we have done; the Cross procures our deliverance from what we are.” -W.N. “It is for want of a complete or adequate realization of the meaning of the Cross, that so many Christians are carnal...

Freedom To “Be” “Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter” (Rom. 7:6, ASV). The law was applied to the natural man, that he might produce; grace is given to the spiritual man, that He might produce. “Almost every believer makes the same mistake as the Galatian Christians. Very few learn at conversion at once that it is only by faith that we stand, and walk, and live. They have no conception of the meaning of the Word about being dead to the law, freed from the law-about the freedom with which Christ makes us free (Rom. 7:6). Regarding the law as a divine ordinance for our direction, they consider themselves prepared and fitted by conversion to take up the fulfillment of the law as a natural duty. They cannot understand that it is not to the law, but to a living Person, that we are now bound, and that our obedience and growth are only possible by the unceasing faith in His power and life ever working...

Josiah Humbling Himself before the Lord Then Hilkiah answered and said... "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD"... Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes... [and said] "... great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD." (2 Chronicles 34:15, 19, 21) When Nebuchadnezzar and Manasseh humbled themselves before the Lord, our great God poured out amazing grace upon these formerly godless and prideful kings. Of course, it is not necessary to first be rebellious in order to be humbled and to become a recipient of further grace from God. This truth is illustrated in Josiah's humbling himself before the Lord. Josiah began to reign in Jerusalem at a very young age. "Josiah was eight years old when he became king" (2 Chronicles 34:1). When he was yet in the teen years, he began to pursue the Lord. "For in the eighth year...