Part 6
From: God's Supreme Interest in Man - Chapter 3 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002928.html
June 16
Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My Name, claiming I am the Christ, and will deceive many. (Matthew 24:4,5 NIV)
We want to say a word about the religious, for the same thing holds good here, adapted by the Deceiver to the realm in which he is working, the type of people with whom he is dealing, the religious. Yes, religiously deceived, to put it in another way, deceived by their very religiousness, and that is a strong and a mighty delusion. There is power in that delusion that seems so often to defy every kind of attempt to deal with it. The religious
are deceived by religiousness! What more can be expected than the recognition of the fact of God and the giving to God of reverence, acknowledgment, and recognition: of taking active interest in things which relate to God, attending religious services, and being very busy in religious activities and interests, and finding your chief interest in religious things and the religious realm? What more can be expected? What is the matter with that?
Be patient, bear with me if I say with very great emphasis: that may be one colossal delusion. So often that very thing obscures one fundamental thing, a true and living relationship with God. "Ye must be born again" and religion very often obscures that issue. Oh, religion is no argument for salvation. Religion can be found in the darkest places of the earth. Universally there is religion; depraved and very low in many places, but universally there is the consciousness of standing in relationship to some supreme object of worship, demanding worship. Then men‟s minds or imaginations get to work to give some kind of expression to that consciousness, of that supreme object of worship. The imagination produces that sometimes out of a tree, a stone, or in the heavenly bodies. Somehow it is expressed, but it is the thing that is there, behind all the forms of expression which is universal. All the highly civilized forms of that brought into the realm of Christendom are only the same thing developed. It does not say that Christendom‟s more intelligent, civilized, educated interpretation of God, even though it gets its ideas from the Bible, is salvation. It may be a mighty delusion and very often is.
From: Christ The Power Of God - Chapter 3 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002158.html
June 17
Jesus... said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him,
"Lord, let our eyes be opened." (Matthew 20:32,33 ESV)
We shall never see Divine things by the aid of our reason. We shall never see things because they are put plainly to us by the one who ministers. No, it will only be as Jesus of Nazareth comes into touch with us and we with Him. And that applies to every stage of the Christian life. If there are any reading these lines, who have never in the first place had their eyes opened to see, so that the result is Life eternal – for knowing is only another word for seeing, and Jesus said, "This is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ" (John 17:3); "that they should know" – another word for seeing – if you have not yet entered into Life, received eternal Life, remember that it will not just happen to you; it will not simply happen. You will have to become tremendously concerned about this and show the Lord that you mean business; you will have to be like Bartimaeus and cry,
and "so much the more" cry. Remember that the Lord does so often wait, delay, and hold off, to see if we really place value upon this seeing. We are tested as to how much we esteem His things.
And what is true at the beginning is true all the way along. There is no end to Divine revelation; there is no end to our seeing. Oh, how little we have seen, how little we know, of the vast stores of Divine intention and thought and purpose and meaning. We stand and paddle on the shores of this vast ocean of God and of His purposes and meanings in our creation. How little we know about it! – and we are not going to know until we have deep heart exercise. But it is there, and it is there for us, and oh, we have got to come in this way – "so much the more." Are you like that after a conference, or after any meeting in which there has been a ministry of God‟s Word? Are you sure you have seen all that God meant you to see? Are you just hearing what is said? You agree – but what is the effect? The real effect waits upon this heart exercise, this crying out – and a crying out "so much the more." The Lord is not close and mean, holding it from you, but He is wanting to know that this is of greater price to you than all else; if needs be, of greater price than your sleep, your rest: you are going to give Him no rest until He opens your eyes.
From: The Significance Of Christ - Chapter 6 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000843.html
June 18
The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among
the nations. (Numbers 23:9)
Not reckoned among the nations. Oh, that is glorious! That puts Israel not only apart from the nations, but on top of the nations. Now, if there has been one thing which Satan has ever tried to do with the people of God in all ages, it has been to get them reckoned among the nations. I speak solemnly and carefully. Right at the very heart of Christendom as we have it today is the desire to be recognized. Recognition! Everything that organized Christianity does is to gain recognition. What are all these churches? I mean, in this instance, all these elaborate and imposing buildings. They are to gain recognition. They are in order to be reckoned something. To what end is all the procedure, the advertisement, and the much else besides? It is in order to get recognition, to be accredited here on this earth, to be reckoned. Yes, that is Satan's triumph. That is where spiritual power has gone out. That is where the Church has ceased to be something to be reckoned with up there. It has, in spirit, come down here, to be reckoned among the nations. If only Satan can get the people of God into a position where they are taken up by this world, written up by this world, made something of by this world, he has triumphed and pulled the Church down out of its heavenly place and made it an earthly thing. That is
the principle right through the Old Testament. That too is seen to be the trouble in the Revelation. God will not have it. Satan's success is along that line. He has pulled the Church out of the heavens. Somewhere he has made it touch earth, form a link in some way with earth.
What we have just said does touch us in so many ways, yes, in countless things, this question of being reckoned among the nations in principle, this coming down from the heavenly position. The Lord never meant His Church on this earth to be something that would be taken up by this world, to be something that would be reckoned among the things of this world, recognized and accredited by this world. What He meant, and what obtained when things were right, was that the world itself could not bear the presence of the Church, did not want it. That is the power of the Church to testify against the world.
From: The Overcomer - Chapter 2 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003655.html
June 19
Now comes My hour of heart-break, and what can I say, „Father, save
Me from this hour‟? No, it was for this very purpose that
I came to this hour. (John 12:27 Phillips)
There is one all-comprehending, all-embracing, all-governing purpose to which God has committed Himself, by creation, by redemption, and by union. That purpose is the conformity of a race to the image of His Son. This is man‟s chief end and chief good. What more satisfied and "happy" person is there – even amidst suffering and sorrow – than he or she who is most perfect in patience, love, faith, and the other "fruits of the Spirit"? If our requests regarding things were granted, while we were left the same people, unchanged in disposition and nature, it would not be long before we should be in the same unhappy condition over other things. There is possible for us some inherent quality that wears out circumstances and reigns above them. Some of the most radiant people have been the greatest sufferers in infirmity, poverty, or other forms of adversity; whilst the most "privileged" are often the most discontented.
The solution to the problem of suffering does not lie in being philosophical; it is not in fatalistic resignation – "This is my lot; I suppose I must accept it." It is not in passive or active suppression of desire. It is far removed from self-pity, bitterness, cynicism, or envy, and the rest of their wretched family of wilderness-makers and wanderers. We may have to let go the particular occasion of our trouble, and first recognize, and then embrace with our heart, the fact that in the affliction there resides the immense eternal potentiality of an increase of the image of God‟s Son, which is to be the one and the only character and nature of the eternal
kingdom. We have too much visualized the "Heaven" that is to be, as geographical and pleasurable, without giving sufficient weight to the fact of a nature to be inculcated and perfected.
From: One Universal Answer www.austin-sparks.net/english/002930.html
June 20
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in
every part of our lives. (Galatians 5:25 NLT)
Satan is a great master of strategy, and one of his favourite lines is that of pushing things to extremes. Among the Galatian believers, he had sought to push legalism to an extreme. But now he is thwarted along that line; Paul wins the battle – there is no doubt about it. What is the enemy's next line of attack? "Very well then," he says, "if you won't have the law, then don't have any law; discard all law. You are no longer under law, you are under grace – you can do as you like! Just behave as you like; just carry on as you like; you must know no limitations, no restrictions. Any kind of restriction is law – repudiate it! Go to the other extreme – licence instead of law!" I believe that, if Paul were alive today, he would be just as vehement against this as he was against the other: for here is a work of Satan indeed. If Satan cannot bind by the law, and change the whole nature of things in that way, he will seek to dismiss all law and make us wholly lawless.
But remember, if this Letter to the Galatians is the letter of the liberty of the Spirit, it is also the letter of the government of the Spirit. We are only free when we are governed. In George Matheson's well-known words, that we sometimes sing: "Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free."
A paradox – but how true. We are not free when we are giving way to licence, when we take liberty that far. No: this Letter, and the Letters to the Romans and to the Hebrews, are not documents of lawlessness. Even if they do set aside the whole of the Jewish system, they do not introduce a regime of lawlessness. But they do most clearly bring in the life and government of the Holy Spirit. Remember – no child of God who is governed by the Holy Spirit, who is really living a life in the Spirit, will infringe any Divine principle. Indeed, a life governed by the Holy Spirit will be the more meticulously careful about spiritual principles.
From: The Arm of the Lord - Chapter 8 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002047.html
June 21
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do
nothing. (John 15:5 NLT)
I have not been the least of those who have striven, and agonized, and strained, and pressed and reached out for all that the Lord would have, all that is possible. It is possible to wear yourself right out, and kill yourself in a spiritual quest, and the Lord at last says to our hearts: "If you only know Me, things will happen; it will all come to pass without any of your strain, struggle and agony. I am going to bear this fruit. I will bear it through you by way of union and fellowship. Remember that the holy, blessed secret of fellowship is just resting in Me, abiding in Me." If you saw all the branches of the vine every day groaning and agonizing, and writhing in order to bear their fruit, you would see something which is altogether unnatural. As a matter of fact you will see nothing of the kind. You will see them abiding there and bearing fruit. It is what we often speak of as the rest of faith. What is behind the rest of faith? It is not bringing yourself to a passive state, when you inwardly sink down and say, "I am just going to rest." It is knowing the Lord, God in Christ; for the way in which God has joined Himself to us is in Christ, not apart, and the way in which we have been joined to God is in Christ, not apart. The answer to every need is knowing Him in this way.
From: Knowing God in Christ - Chapter 1 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003117.html
June 22
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and
bear fruit – fruit that will last. (John 15:16 NIV)
The new creation is in Christ. It is not in you, and not in me, and never will be. All that it will mean in time, and in eternity will be through our spiritual union with Christ. All God‟s fullness is in Christ. We shall receive all that fullness, and enjoy it in a practical out-working. But this, while we are yet here in time, will ever be by faith‟s union. In eternity, where the reception of that fullness will be unhindered, the work of faith, though not its fruit, will have passed. But we shall never be absorbed in Christ in the sense that we become so many Christs. It will still be Himself as distinct Who is to be glorified. We shall never be glorifying ourselves, neither shall we be glorified by others as though we were Christ. Christ is not some great widespread essence, which is going to become the constitution of a great multitude, so that that multitude becomes a Christ in essence. It will ever be true that Christ remains apart in His Person, though
manifested in His glory and in His excellence in the saints, and we shall still, therefore, be worshiping Him as objective and distinct in His own Person from ourselves. Perhaps that hardly needs saying. But it is very important that we should recognize that forever God has bound up everything with His Son, and that nothing will ever be had or enjoyed apart from Christ, while for this present life that is only by faith in the Lord Jesus. The object of this present emphasis is to seek, as the Lord will enable, that there shall be an emancipation from ourselves; for that occupation, that consideration, is always taking from His glory. Let us ask the Lord to cut us really free from ourselves by an unveiling and presentation of His Son to us, as the sum total of all that ever God desires and wills.
From: The Essential Newness of the New Creation - Chapter 3 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002211.html
June 23
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed
away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:17,18 ASV)
The all-inclusive rule of the new creation is that "all things are of (out from) God." Concerning this fact the Apostle Paul uses the word "but" – "But all things are of God" – as though he would anticipate, intercept, or arrest an impulse to rush away and attempt life or service upon an old creation basis, or with old creation resource. The great question then is: What does it mean that all things in this new creation are out from God? What kind of a life will such a life be? To answer that question adequately would be a very comprehensive task and the most revolutionary thing conceivable.
To begin with, we should have to be settled regarding the difference between the old and the new creations, and then as to how far-reaching that difference is. In addition, we should need to see that God has put these two creations asunder, utterly and forever, and however gracious and forbearing He may be with us in our ignorance and slowness of apprehension, He never accepts the overlapping or intertwining of the two. Then there would be the further need of an inward, intelligent judgment and power by which we are made aware of the Divine veto upon the one and energy toward the other.... It is not what is done for God that will last, but what is done by God. The measure of spiritual value is determined by the measure in which God promotes it, not the measure of human activities according to human judgments and energies in the name of God.
From: A New Creation www.austin-sparks.net/english/002203.html
June 24
God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in
Christ Jesus…. (2 Timothy 1:9 ESV)
Whenever we are being faced with some new and different course, some fresh proposition or position, there is one all-governing question that we should ask, and which we should take ample time to ponder and pray over seriously. That question is – Does this thing before me stand in direct line with the full purpose of God, as revealed – not in a fragment – but in the fullness of His Word? God has left us in no doubt that He has a clearly defined purpose in view as the ultimate object of all His dealings. He has also made it abundantly clear what that purpose is. Further, it is distinctly shown that believers are "called according to His purpose," and that they are to "make their calling and election sure."
It is the business and duty of every true Christian to study so as to be quite clear as to what that "Eternal Purpose" is. Having done so, everything that arises to engage us must be brought to the judgment bar of that purpose, and interrogated in its light. God will not cut across our path, or give us particular light at any fork in the road if we have not been diligent in this quest, or faithful to the light given. It just will not do to allow ourselves to be influenced by questions of comparative right or wrong, good or bad, permissibility, desirability, expediency, or policy. Nor must ambition, soul-gratification, enlarged prospects "for the Lord," wider acceptance in Christianity, or any such thing, color our judgment or affect our decision. Advantage and cost are ruled out here as deciding factors. One question, and one alone, will decide tragedy or glory: does this that is before me stand directly in line with the full purpose of God? When the end is reached, the full story told, the sum taken, how much that is bound up with this will be stripped off, as having no real substance with what is Christ, and therefore fail to be carried over into the eternal? What will the River carry away, and what will emerge on the other side?
From: The Danger of Coming Short www.austin-sparks.net/english/002966.html
June 25
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First
and the Last. (Revelation 22:13)
We have to put back all our schemes, and all our plans, and all our arrangements, and all our programs for the Lord, and in the secret place with the Lord get into the value of true, living, spiritual union with Him, that the purpose may not commence with us – in our thought, in our desire,
in our will – but may begin with God and find a registration in us from God. He would have us see with spiritual perception what He is doing, and do it, and "in like manner"; for God is as particular about His method as He is about His purpose. The question is not one of doing a thing for God, but of God. That is why the Apostle adds that governing clause to his great statement about the new creation, when he says, "If any man be in Christ there is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things are become new. But all things are of (out from) God...." In the new creation all things are out from God. There is a Man in the work of God. There is a Man to whom all the works of God are entrusted. There is one Man, only one. All the works of God are bound up with that Man in the glory. The important thing for us is to see what Christ is; not only who Christ is (though it is important to see that Christ is God), but what Christ is, that Christ is an inclusive new-creation Man; that He is a Divine humanity now, and that He fully and utterly, conclusively and finally, expresses the thought of God. There is no expression of God apart from Jesus Christ, so far as the new creation is concerned. God‟s thoughts, God‟s will, God‟s desires, God‟s works, are finished in Him. He is the First and the Last, and you cannot get outside of that.
From: The Meaning of Divine Life - Chapter 3 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002997.html
June 26
Let the person who has ears listen to what the Spirit says.
(Revelation 3:22 GW)
The man or woman who has no inner ear, no inner silence, no inner place for hearing the Lord is never going to be of much use in the service of the Lord, and mark you, it must be the Lord, and we must be very careful that we do not give even good men and good writers the place that the Lord ought to have.
There is a time when we must sweep our books aside, when we must shut ourselves up from the voices of men, when we must get quiet with the Lord and listen, and more, we must seek to cultivate, by the grace of God, the ear that is always open to the Lord even when all the other sounds are around us. It is difficult, yet not impossible, that in the raging of the street and the rush of business life the Lord should say something; but He will only speak to those who recognize the value of listening to the Lord and who are giving Him His place of silence to speak when possible. The ear to hear the Lord when all other sounds and voices are around us is prepared and trained in these times of detachment which the Lord demands, and against which the devil is eternally active to capture the ear again.
Now, that is elementary (we are not seeking to be profound), but tremendously important. You and I know, never mind how spiritually mature we are – the one object of the devil is to capture our ear from God, to make it impossible for us to have the silent hour and the silent ear for God. The pressing in, and all the things which happen just when you have decided to have a little quiet time; then it is you have to fight for the ear – you know it is true. Do you see there is something bound up with that; the undoing of the work of the devil, the registration of God‟s mind upon this universe, everything which is meant by priestly ministry, which is bringing God in, is bound up with this: God having the ear.
From: The Servant and Service of the Lord www.austin-sparks.net/english/002991.html
June 27
I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower
you with inner strength through His Spirit. (Ephesians 3:16 NLT)
The strength of the Lord‟s people is none other than the strength of the Holy Spirit in the inward man. Right at the very center of the being, deeper than thought or reason, deeper than emotion or feeling, deeper than all that which comprises the more outward man which, under given circumstances, may prove weak and incapable of standing up to the situation. In the variations of our soul life, the changes of our moods, our ideas, our attitudes, our feelings, our minds; deeper down there is that strength which does not let us go.
That is the true nature of spirituality. It is not the tremendously forceful conviction of our intellects or the mighty power of our wills. When these cannot stand up to conditions of intense spiritual antagonism, opposition or perplexity, there is that more inward thing, right in the inward man, which is of God – the Holy Spirit: "Strengthened with might by His Spirit into the inward man."
Test that out and the result is that when the mind is bewildered by the perplexity of a situation, and the arguments are all in the direction that a mistake has been made, a wrong course has been taken, everything is false – when all the feelings are churned up, disturbed, anxious, fearful, or when there are no feelings at all, they are simply petrified by the position – when circumstances are all arguing in the opposite direction of that which we, in the purest moments of our fellowship with God determined upon. The world around us – and very closely around us, even within the sphere of our own natural life, our own soul life – is an inexplicable mystery. Then spirituality is proved by that inward strength which abides: that standing when you cannot go forward; that holding when you can do nothing; that remaining when all the forces are seeking to sweep you off your feet. That
represents a measure of spirituality. That is the true nature of the child of God. The opposite is to be carried away by argument, reasoning, appearance, circumstance, and all such things. That proves a lack of true spirituality. In a sentence, true spirituality is not to live on the outside; it is to live with God right down deep in the inner part of your own being, where He, the Spirit, is.
From: Filled Unto All the Fullness of God - Chapter 11 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002867.html
June 28
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in
Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of
the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)
If it is true that you and I have been anointed of the Holy Spirit, as we ought to be, our presence in this world ought to register something positive for God. It ought to be impossible for us to come into this world, and go out of it, without having registered something upon it. People in this world ought to feel something when we are near them. The devil himself ought to take notice that, because we are here under the Holy Spirit, Jesus is here. It is impossible for Jesus to be anywhere without something happening, and now Jesus is here by the Holy Spirit in believers. Therefore there ought to be nothing neutral about any Christian....
The Holy Spirit is positive, and not negative, and if the Holy Spirit is really Lord in our lives, our lives will count for something. There will be an influence from our lives which will be eternal. Thank God for the Holy Spirit! Let us be sure to ask the Lord that the anointing shall have a free way in our lives. The effect of the Holy Spirit may be to condemn some people, and it may be to redeem others, but He cannot be neutral, and if the anointing is upon you and upon me, the devil will take account of it. May the Lord help us to see that that may not be a bad thing! Do you want the devil to say: "Oh, that man, that woman, does not matter. You need not bother about him, or her!" I had a friend once who, whenever we were parting and going our different ways, took hold of my hand and said: "Goodbye, old man. The Lord make you a nuisance to the devil!" Well, that is how it will be if the Holy Spirit is really upon us, for that is how it was with the Lord Jesus.
From: The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Anointing www.austin-sparks.net/english/002195.html
June 29
The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life. (John 6:63)
This Life is a very vast Life. It reaches into God‟s great purpose, and we are a part of it; we are "the called according to His purpose." We want to know the purpose; we want to know our place in the purpose; we want to know our faculties, our functions. How shall this be? Not by studying up what they are, but by being in Life. It may be very interesting to have a scientific knowledge of the workings of our human bodies, but it is not necessary in order to live. Live, and the thing happens. You never have to consider whether you will take your next breath, to sit down and make a mental problem of it. You do it, and everything else is bound up with it, and follows in proper order. Breathing properly has a great deal bound up with it. Well then, live and everything else will follow. That is only saying, in other words: move, have your life in the Holy Spirit, and all the plan and order of God will follow. You are bound to come into it, you cannot help yourself.
Thus the object is to get the Lord‟s people to a place where they walk with the Lord, and are so open to Him that they are prepared for all that walking with Him means. Sometimes it will mean that they will have to leave a great deal that is of a secondary character; perhaps forsake many things, even religious things, the accepted things, to walk with the Lord. There may be a price attached to it; misunderstanding, and loneliness, and much besides; but if you are so open to the Lord that nothing else matters, and you mean to walk with God whatever the cost, no matter what people say you ought to do as (in their thought) a part of a great Christian order or religious machine, you will come into all God‟s secret thought as naturally as a flower opens to the sun, and you will be making discoveries and finding that there is a vast realm of meaning and possibility and capacity and power that you never dreamed of. The Lord is not going to stretch it out before us, and show us it. We shall discover it as we walk in the Spirit.
From: Life in the Spirit - Chapter 6 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003083.html
June 30
He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
(1 Corinthians 6:17)
The nature of this relationship is essentially spiritual; that is, it is a union of spirit. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." "They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit..." because "God is Spirit." The union, then, is the union of spirit. That goes deeper than any other kind of union. We cannot go deeper than that. That defines the nature of man in the
deepest, the most real part of his being, that he is fundamentally in the sight of God, spirit. The basis is Life. That is what John brings out so clearly, by way of illustration in his Gospel, and by way of direct statement in his epistle – "...God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." "He that hath the Son hath the life." That is a statement imposed upon the basic declaration that our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son. The fellowship is explained as being that of possessing His very Life. The basis of union with God is that God‟s own Life is given to us in new birth, and upon that God builds everything, on that He counts for everything. Where that is not, God can do nothing so far as union is concerned.
In order to reach and realize all God‟s thought, God must put Himself into man in the very essence of His being, His very Life. God cannot realize spiritual, eternal, universal intentions on the basis of natural life. The Scriptures make it very clear that man‟s own natural life can never be the basis of the realization of any of God‟s purposes, that God‟s own Life alone can be that. Thus for all His hopes God first of all provides His own basis. God‟s hope is in His own Life, not in ours, and He puts the basis of His hope within at new birth, and on that basis He proceeds to the development of all His thought, and the realization of all His intention.
From: The Power of His Resurrection - Chapter 6 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001164.html
July 1
Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust
in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9)
We shall not be able to raise ourselves any more than we can crucify ourselves, but we must recognize that the Lord‟s dealings with us are with that in view. In order to display the power of His resurrection, He will very often have to take the attitude toward us of letting things get well beyond all human power to remedy or save, of allowing things to go so far that there is no other power in all the universe that can do anything whatever to save the situation. He will allow death, disintegration to work, so that nothing, nothing in the universe is of any avail, except the power of His resurrection.
We shall come to the place where Abraham came, who became the great type of faith which moved right into resurrection: "He considered his own body now as good as dead" (Rom. 4:19). That is the phrase used by the apostle about Abraham: "as good as dead." And Paul came into that: "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (2 Cor. 1:9). Whatever else men may be able to do in the realm of creation, they stop short when death has actually taken place; they can do no more. Resurrection is God‟s act,
and God‟s alone. Men can do very many things when they have got life, but when there is no life it is only God who can do anything. And God will allow His Church and its members oft-times to get into such situations as are altogether beyond human help, in order that He may give the display, which is His own display, in which no man has any place to glory.
From: Bethany – The Lord's Thought for His Assembly www.austin-sparks.net/english/000422.html
July 2
This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is
in His Son. (1 John 5:11)
Christ is never proved to be alive from the dead, nor to be Lord, by doctrinal statements. Your statement of faith may include the fact that you believe Jesus died and rose again, ascended to heaven, and is at the right hand of the Majesty on High, but how are you going to prove your statement? What has God given as the evidence of that? You may believe it; you may be willing to lay down your life for that faith; you may state it with tremendous emphasis, and yet you are not thereby proving it. You will never prove anything by saying: "I believe with all my might that this is the case!" You will never prove a thing by standing up and declaring it as something which you believe. You will never prove a thing by saying: "I believe in all the fundamentals of the Christian faith!" and calling yourself by some name which indicates that you believe in the inspiration of the Bible. Nothing is ever proved in that way. Reducing the whole matter to these two points – that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, and is Lord of all – you have still to prove your statement after you have made it. If you have appealed to the fact that the Word of God says so, even then you have proved nothing. Your proof can never be by argument, because what argument can build up argument can pull down, and what logic can construct, logic can destroy.
How, then, are you going to prove that this is so? By the expression and manifestation of His risen Life, that is all – but it is a mighty "all"! That signifies that you are the embodiment of the thing which you declare – that besides the doctrinal statement there is the living expression. Thus the resurrection and the Lordship of Jesus are bound up with this expression which is called the "testimony." The testimony is not a system of truth. It is that extra factor to the statement and presentation of truth which is the power of a Life which conquers death. How, then, will you prove that Jesus has conquered death? The proof of it will be a deathconquering Life that expresses itself in you.
From: The Battle For Life - Chapter 5 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000706.html
July 3
I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named. (Ephesians 3:14,15)
God is acting in this dispensation to get a Family, and God‟s present dispensational activity is not going to be defeated by death, and He is not going to be cheated of it by death. He will get a Family, and will cheat death of that Family. It is not God, Infinite and Mighty, as such, it is the Father; and it is a deathless Family that He is after. This Family is never divided by death, this Family is never broken into by death, this Family knows no such thing as bereavement by death, this Family will never lose a child by death. Of course, as the Family, when we enter into the appreciation of that, that is our comfort: that in this Family we do not lose anyone. Death may touch things here, but the spiritual Family is no more separated in the spiritual reality and in the eternal oneness of the Father‟s house, than they would be if they were still here. It is the natural, human side of us that suffers the loss and knows all that pain. But what is the comfort of the believer? We sorrow not as those who have no hope. What is our hope? Because we have a Father who has got a Family that can never be broken up by death and never lose a member by death. Our hope is that the whole Family will be together with not one missing. The hope is that we have not lost any. Ours it is to be together forever. "The whole family in heaven and on earth…" That is a part of the meaning of Fatherhood, and that is what the Father is doing in this dispensation; getting that kind of Family.
The mentality of "God" is sometimes severe. We can never have a severe mentality in the right atmosphere of "the Father." All these things have to be brought into that realm; the Lord‟s dealings with us now are the dealings of the Father and are along the family line. That is what is happening in this dispensation.... The revelation above all revelations of God in the history of the world is the revelation in which we are now living; the revelation of the Father, brought to us by the Son, Jesus Christ. In future when we say "Our Father" may it have a fuller meaning for us.
From: Filled Unto All the Fullness of God - Chapter 7 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002863.html
July 4
To me, to live is Christ. (Philippians 1:21)
I wonder very often if the fact that our tremendous knowledge about Christ, our tremendous doctrinal apprehension, failing to lead us into triumphant joy, failing to result in something of this contagious spirit of triumph that was about Paul, does not imply that it is something which is
not Christ personally with which we are occupied and taken up. We are getting to know Christ purely by a book knowledge, and a Conference knowledge, an address knowledge, an historic knowledge; that really, apart from our Conferences, our books, our studies, our addresses, and all these things; in the secret place, in the secret history back of it all, we are not living on Christ Himself, and out from Christ, and knowing Christ. So much of our Christian life is a matter of teaching, of things about Him.
We recognise the simplicity of that word, but we are quite sure that you understand what we mean, because you have known a very great deal about Christ in doctrine, and then you have discovered something of the Lord Himself, and you have discovered the tremendous difference. There is nothing more uplifting than to come into a personal experience of the Lord, a knowledge of the Lord, in a living way, to have Christ ministered to your heart by the Holy Spirit. Then you discover that there is something there which is more than all your suffering, and which makes suffering worthwhile, and which robs suffering of its deadly sting. It is Christ. Paul lived on Christ: "For me to live is Christ." Now, what might have been put afterward? For me to live is to be able to go to meetings! For me to live is to be able to have fellowship with other believers! If I am cut off from them I cannot live! If I cannot go to the meetings I cannot live! You can put in anything else: For me to live is to have encouragement in the work, to see results for my labours! You can cover a great deal of ground, if you are going to cover the ground of our demands in order to be triumphant. But Paul looked out, and he saw his work being injured, damaged, outwardly destroyed, his old friends being alienated and led to doubt and suspect him. Oh, he saw enough to take the heart out of any man at the end of such a life, but he did not say: "for me to live is to see my life work standing as a monument, intact; to have all my old friends faithful and around me; to know that my message has had universal acceptance and appreciation!" No! "For me to live is (when all these things, and many others, have gone) Christ!"
From: The Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ - Chapter 2 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003542.html
July 5
I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24 NLT)
Here is something that you and I must dwell upon. Personally, I am constantly brought to this: I have not yet learnt thoroughly to believe what I believe in! I believe in the finished work of Christ, yet sometimes I am just as miserable about myself as any man could be. I am often almost at the point of giving up because of what a wretched kind of thing I am. If there is anything in this world that would cause me to give up the Christian ministry, it is myself. Do you understand what I mean? Oh, how we are
discouraged by what we find in ourselves! And so, we don‟t believe what we believe in. We believe in the finished work of Christ, and that God puts all that finished work to our account. God does not see us in ourselves – He sees us in Christ. He does not see us, He sees Christ in us. We don‟t believe that! If we really did we would be delivered from ourselves and would indeed be triumphant Christians. Of course, that does not mean that we can just behave anyhow.
We may speak and act wrongly, but for every Christian there is a refuge – a mercy seat. It has not to be made; it is there with the precious Blood. That has not to be shed; it is shed. There is a High Priest making intercession for us. There is everything that we need. The work is finished, completed. Oh, we Christians must believe our beliefs! We must take hold, with both hands, of the things which are of our Christian faith.
From: The On-High Calling - Chapter 5 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000970.html
July 6
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was,
I am." (John 8:58 ESV)
The Lord‟s ability to crowd vast ranges into small phrases is amazing. He compasses the whole range of human need, and answers every heart cry in a simple sentence of two words: "I am." I cry for resurrection, for Life, for something to happen, for a filling, a consciousness, a sensation, a movement, an energy, a "something." The Lord‟s answer is, "I am the resurrection and the Life at any moment, in My will, anywhere." Oh that we might live on that "any moment – anywhere" because of Him! He would woo us away from subjects, experiences, and teachings to propagate. Such a course has done much harm.
The people of God are divided into groups, larger or smaller, around some thing, some experience, some truth, and the all-embracing and alluniting reality is lost. Away, then, with things, experiences, and truths, to Him. "This is life eternal, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." "Do you not understand? Who do you say that I am?" With a touch of Divine illumination in your heart you see the thing that you have known so long. Only the Lord can do that. That is the direction of inquiry. The Lord set our hearts on that.
From: Knowing God in Christ - Chapter 1 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003117.html
July 7
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the
law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
Let any of our old man, whether of our old temper, our old way of judging, our old disposition, any of it come up at all, if we are children of God, we know quite well that at that point a barrier is set up and we cannot get past, we are held up in our spiritual life and we have to go back and have that thing cleared up. It is as real as any other thing in the universe to us. At that moment we stand still spiritually, and the flaming sword is across our path. There is no way for that here. Bring that here and you will be judged. You will meet the judgment of God. You will be broken. It is coming up against the fact that God finished with all that long ago and we have to accept God‟s standpoint. When we have accepted it then the thing works out, it continually works out. We take that position, we accept the truth. We cannot bring an actual end to the old creation ourselves, but we say in a positive way: "I reckon as God reckons." Well then, we shall find as we go on that God, having put all that under death, death rests upon it and if ever it shows its head again, the sentence of death is met. If we begin to work for the Lord with our own natural strength we meet death and before long our natural strength will come under death. If we begin to use our natural judgment in the things of God we shall meet an arrest and before long we shall come to a deadlock, unable to get through. Anything which we bring of nature into the things of God will bring us up against – not some new issue, but the old issue – death which was made to rest upon the old creation. In so far as we move in the newness of Life, work by the Spirit of God, and walk after the Spirit, death is done away and we are in Life and we can go on and can get through, no matter how much there may be of handicap and weakness in nature, we can get through as we go on in the Spirit. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death." We are free!
From: Foundations - Chapter 4 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002124.html
July 8
We were dead and buried with Him in baptism, so that just as He was raised from the dead by that splendid Revelation of the Father's power so we too might rise to life on a new plane altogether. If we have, as it
were, shared His death, let us rise and live our new lives with Him!
(Romans 6:5 Phillips)
In our union with Christ in His death, we cease and He begins, and from the beginning He becomes the All. That is a progressive thing, as well
as a basic thing. It is a thing all-inclusive in its meaning, in its intent, but it is also progressive. We have to accept the fullness of that thing in an act. We have to take the position quite definitely and consciously that now, in accepting our union with Christ in His death, this is to work out in our having no more place at all, and that whenever we come into evidence we shall be smitten, we shall be put aside, we shall not be allowed to go on. We have to accept that once for all in a definite act of commitment, that from henceforth everything that is of self is going to be smitten unsparingly with that Cross, and whenever self comes in it will not be allowed to have a standing.
We had better settle it once for all, and have a dealing with the Lord on that inclusive, comprehensive, and utter ground, that He will make His own meaning in that real; not our understanding of it, not our grasp or apprehension of it, not what we think to be the "I" which is to be forbidden, but what He knows to be the "I"; not the measure of our knowledge of ourselves, but His knowledge of us. There will be revealed a very great deal more that is "I" than has ever entered into our thought or imagination. Self, then, not as we know it, but as He knows it through and through, is to be brought under the power of that Cross, and this we accept in an act.
From: The Risen Lord and the Things Which Cannot be Shaken - Chapter 11 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002226.html
July 9
I do know one thing. I used to be blind, but now I can see.
(John 9:25 GW)
If you and I were allowed to be perfectly satisfied with what we have got at any stage, and not to feel the absolute necessity for something we never have had, should we go on? Of course not! To keep us going on, the Lord has to bring about those experiences where it is absolutely necessary for us to see the Lord, and know the Lord in a new way, and it must just be so all the way along to the end. It may be a series of crises of seeing and seeing again, and yet again, as the Lord opens our eyes, and we are able to say, as never before, "I see!" So it is not our study, our learning, our book knowledge, but it is a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of our hearts being enlightened, and it is that seeing which brings the note of authority that is so much needed. That is the element, the feature, that is required today. It is not just seeing for seeing‟s sake, but it is to bring in a new note of authority.
Where is the voice of authority today? Where are those who are really speaking with authority? We are languishing terribly in every department of life for the voice of authority. The Church is languishing for want of a
voice of spiritual authority, for want of that prophetic note – "Thus saith the Lord!" The world is languishing for want of authority, and that authority is with those who have seen. There is far more authority in the man born blind seeing, in his testimony – "One thing I know that, whereas I was blind, now I see" – than there is in all Israel, with all Israel‟s tradition and learning. And may it not be that that was the thing about the Lord Jesus that carried such weight, for "He spoke as One having authority, and not as the Scribes" (Matt. 7:29). The Scribes were the authorities. If anybody wanted an interpretation of the law, they went to the Scribes. If they wanted to know what the authoritative position was, they went to the Scribes. But He spoke as One having authority, and not as the Scribes. Wherein lay that authority? Just that in all things He could say, "I know! It is not what I have read, what I have been told, or what I have studied that is with power, but this – I know! I have seen!"
From: Spiritual Sight - Chapter 1 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001059.html
July 10
Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who
is the Head, that is, Christ. (Ephesians 4:15 NIV)
We know of many children of God who have been the Lord‟s children for years and they have been working for the Lord many of them, and yet they have come to a standstill; they have come under an arrest. Why? Well in some way, at some point, somehow, something of themselves, their old self has come up, has come into evidence, and has come into the way. It may be some of their old mind, some of their old will, some of their old affections, desires and feelings. They are in their own way somehow. They are in the Lord‟s way. What is needed is not that they should die again, but that they should come to accept their once-for-all death in Christ in relation to whatever that may be that has come up, and let it go and be set free from that law of sin and death. "Repentance from dead works." That is exactly what the apostle is saying to these Hebrews: "You have come to a standstill. You simply ceased to go on. You went so far, now you have got to a certain point and for years you have not budged a bit from that position. You have never got past foundations, you are not going on to full growth. You have not settled it once and for all that you died when Christ died. You ended the whole system and order of the old creation religiously and otherwise when you came to Christ. Christ is the end of the law and Christ is the end of the old creation, and He is the beginning of everything new. Do not be wearied at repetition of old truths, they are very important as foundations, and this is foundational." We are destined, whether we now accept it or not, whether we like it or not, we are destined to discover that God‟s foundation stands. This is true, and no one
will ever get through in relation to God and His things while still bound by the old creation, on the old creation level. This new way of Life is so narrow that we cannot take ourselves into it, we have to leave ourselves behind.
From: Foundations - Chapter 4 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002124.html
July 11
Let us then be eager to know this rest for ourselves, and let us beware
that no one misses it through falling into the same kind of unbelief as
those we have mentioned. (Hebrews 4:11 Phillips)
Those who failed to go in failed, it says, to enter into His rest. Those to whom the Gospel was afore preached failed to enter in. That is remarkable! The Gospel was preached to them. These are they to whom the Gospel was afore preached. What is the Gospel? To answer the inquiry in that connection, it is Christ as our Rest. That is the Gospel: and the Gospel of Christ as our Rest was preached to them in type, and they to whom the Gospel was afore preached failed to enter in. Then, says the Apostle, "Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience." They failed! God set forth another day, saying, "Today if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts...." The Gospel is preached to believers to enter into His Rest. The Lord Jesus put this in the germ form of truth when He said: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Christ in heaven is our spiritual Rest, heart rest.
What is the essence of rest? It is satisfaction and assurance. If you are satisfied, you are at rest, no matter how much work you have to do. And if you are quite sure that your work is going to be successful, you have assurance, and you are in rest. Everything for us is based upon Christ having entered as the Forerunner, and having become our Rest. We shall labor: we shall pour ourselves out; we shall spend; we shall be spent; but in it all there can be real heart rest. We shall be assailed: we shall be pressed on every side; we shall be cast down; we shall be tried; but Christ can still remain our Rest: for in the first place, we know that these things are not going to be to our destruction, since He has destroyed the power of destruction; and, in the second place, that our labors are not in vain, because He has swallowed up death victoriously. He is our Rest.
From: The Essential Newness of the New Creation - Chapter 4 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002212.html
July 12
I wrote to you out of great sorrow and anguish of heart – along with many tears – not to make you sad but to let you know how much love I
have for you. (2 Corinthians 2:4 ISV)
There is nothing that is precious to the Lord, and which He would make the property of His people, but there will be suffering for it. It will only become their property – in that sense – as they suffer for it, and then woe betide who criticizes that! If you are detached from a thing, if you are detached from a testimony, from a work of God, you can do all the criticizing you like. You have no inward heart-relationship to it, and so you pass your judgments upon it. But if you are in it and you have suffered, if it has been a costly thing where you are concerned, then you are seeing more than all the failings, more than all those faults. The people who can criticize like that and judge and point out faults are the people who have not suffered.
On the other side, we may know all the terms, all the phraseology, all the doctrine, all the truth, and it may be just objective, something we have heard; we have lived in the midst of it, it is familiar to us. But what the Lord will do if that is to become ours is to take us into travail over the matter. He will relate that thing to our hearts in a deep, inward way, so that none of us will be able to say, "I know all about that, I have heard all about that, I could tell you all that you could tell me about that." The Lord would so work in a costly, deep and painful way in relation to that, to make it ours through travail, that we are brought into a new position.
We are not spectators, looking on, criticizing; we are on the inside, looking out, defending. We are jealous over it. Suffering is a great purifying thing. It destroys selfishness. It destroys that self-interest that is the cause of so much of the trouble. It makes us in a disinterested way jealous for what is of God. Yes, suffering purifies, and suffering makes this deep, inward link. It gives an extra feature to things. That extra feature where we cannot just be occupied with faults and be people of a criticizing attitude, the extra feature with a love which covers a multitude of sins. We have suffered together. When we suffer together, what a lot we get over!
From: The Eternal Reward of Labor and Suffering www.austin-sparks.net/english/002012.html
July 13
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so
the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore.
(Psalm 125:1,2 NIV)
Mountains? And the Lord like the mountains? What is that? It is fortification, it is strength, it is protection. And what is the point of fortification if there is nothing against which to be fortified? Away back in Old Testament times, when the people came into the land, the remarkable thing is that they occupied the higher places more than the lower. You will find that their towns, cities and villages are almost all of them upon some high place; the reason being that their enemies, who had chariots and horses, had their strength on the level, in the plain, but they could do nothing with chariots and horses against mountains. And therefore the safety, security and fortification of the Lord‟s people was by being on high places.
That is a parable. If the enemy can get you on to his level he has beaten you. So he must pull you down, he must get you down, he must get you to accept something less than God‟s full place and mind for you, and then he will undo you. That is what he has done with the church, speaking of the church now in very general terms. He has pulled it down to this world level; he has reduced it to the level of things here, and he has absolutely disintegrated it, broken it up and divided it and robbed it of its power. The church which is revealed to us in the New Testament is always on high ground… In Ephesians, it is "in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." It is a great power to be on high ground, it is a great defensive, protective factor; the enemy can do little with you if you keep up there and refuse to come down. Nehemiah found that to be so, when they said, "Come down and let us confer"; and he said, "I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down" (Neh. 6:3). It is a principle operating.
From: The Mountains Around Jerusalem - Chapter 1 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/003266.html
July 14
I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! (Luke 12:49,51 NLT)
If you and I are going to be men and women of the Spirit, we are not going to have an easy time. Hell will see to that. At once the clash arises and it is true that the more the Holy Spirit is able to have His way in us and to lead us into all the will of God, the more we find this opposition, this
antagonism. And it not only comes between us and the world, it sometimes comes in the circle of the Lord‟s own people. It is inevitable provocation. You wonder why, sometimes. As you read the New Testament you wonder, "What is the matter with these people? Why should they be so upset and so annoyed? And why should it be so spontaneous, this thing? And persistent; so unreasonable?" but there it is. There is the fact. It is inevitable.
You see, this thing that the Lord came to do and is doing, will not allow for any neutrality. It is going to be one thing or the other. It is going to be for or against. The eyes of flame (here the fire comes in again) the eyes of flame will not allow lukewarmness or anything that is of the Laodicean character. The fire is a positive element always, and it will create positive situations. If everything is all just nice and quiet, no disturbance, no trouble and no antagonism and opposition, you have reason to question whether the Holy Spirit is doing much, because He does aim at such a positiveness, which is a very, very costly thing. It is either with the Lord, or not with the Lord, and there is nothing between. It is going to come out sooner or later and be precipitated. Now, the Lord says that is what He came to do. This is not an accident, a chance or things having gone wrong or miscarried. This is exactly what He came to do – to scatter fire on the earth and these are the inevitable effects of the fire. They are going to work out.
From: The Cross and the Way of Life - Chapter 1 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002845.html
July 15
We have stopped evaluating others from a human
point of view. (2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT)
The first and primary thing is the absolute necessity for knowing one another after the Spirit. "The love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him"; "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh." That means that as far as we can see, we have not made what we are by nature the final basis of our relationships, of our expectations, of our judgments, of our appraisals, of our valuations. It does not mean that we are oblivious of one another‟s human nature. It does not mean that what we are in the flesh never strikes us; that we are to be totally insensible to the defects of one another‟s nature. No! We shall always be sensitive. It is probably true that the more spiritual we are, the more sensitive we become to what we are by nature and to what others are by nature. Perhaps we shall suffer all the more because of the defects and imperfections, the strengths and the weaknesses of one another naturally.
Men of the world have but a very, very minute degree of the difficulty that Christians have of getting on with one another. They seem to be able to ignore and ride over one another‟s difficult parts and make-up. It seems that Christians are much more alive to that sort of thing than others, and are touched by it more keenly. Of course, we can explain that along two lines. If we become spiritually sensitive the flesh is sensed very much more quickly; what is not spiritual registers itself upon spiritual sensitiveness. There is also the fact that we have an adversary to reckon with who is always seeking to make a lot of the imperfections and brings them up and hits us with them. He is at work in this matter of seeking to upset the relationships of the Lord‟s people. He never tires of that. Not knowing one another after the flesh does not mean that all that realm will cease to exist for us, but it does mean that we shall look beyond that realm and we shall steadily seek grace and the help of the Holy Spirit to cultivate and develop a determination to look through what we are by nature to what there is of the Lord Jesus and of the Holy Spirit in one another, and keep our eyes upon that.
From: Filled Unto All the Fullness of God - Chapter 10 www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/002866.html
July 16
With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)
There are two ways of viewing the impossible. Everything depends upon where you put the impossibility – on the thing or on God. The things which are not possible with men are possible with God (Matt. 19:26). And He answers these impossible things in the normal way – for it is the normal way; the abnormal would be by signs and wonders and extraordinary happenings: demonstrations to our senses; but the normal way in the Christian life is the way of the continuous transcendence of His Life over the working of death. That miracle is far more general than we recognize. You have to live your life and do your work in a sphere of spiritual death where everything is against spiritual Life, and there is nothing to support you at all, and yet you go on there in the Lord, and are not swallowed up, engulfed and destroyed by that atmosphere and by those conditions. That is the miracle of Divine Life working silently. Yours, then, is a life – as is the life of everyone – set in the presence of the great stone of death, spiritual death. We know it, and yet we are preserved alive spiritually and we go on. That is the great miracle. It is the miracle of every day. That is the testimony that God raised Him from the dead....
In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus – or let me put it this way – in union with the risen Christ our hopes are far greater than all our worldly hopes. We may in His death have to lay our treasure in the dust, we may