Good morning! As we prepare to leave for Refresh Retreat today, many of us who have been praying have a sense of great expectation…. God is moving and will move. Some have been earnestly praying for Him to demonstrate that He is here, and the Kingdom of God is near. This morning my heart is that while we earnestly desire Him to do great and mighty things among us, let us ask and expect that He would do great and mighty things within our hearts. This is the greater miracle when women are willing to agree that we have been hindered by the sin that so easily entangles us… and we have made peace with it. The greater miracle is when we agree that we have sought God’s favor according to our righteousness and have felt condemned when we fall short. O sister, let us expect great things in our hearts from the One who knows our hearts and loves us enough to expose! Let us ask for the grace to see ourselves and to see our own need. Let us ask for the grace to have our own sin exposed and confessed, that we might receive healing and forgiveness and freedom to run our race with perseverance and that we might run in unity with one another. Let this weekend be marked by agape love in us for one another. Let us go to the Father on behalf of one another to pray and ask for healing and freedom and joy. Let us ask this not only for our own joy, but that this joy in Him and our love for one another might testify that You Abba, You are who You say You are and You Abba can do what You say You can do – Let us keep in step with the Spirit, allowing Him access to our hearts to expose what is hindering our relationship with You, the kind of intimate relationship we have LONGED for, but have given up hope to have. O expose Abba, the places of our hearts that are hard, are wounded, and heal these places O God, that we might be free to receive the fullness of the freedom and relationship You have purchased for us, at such a great cost- that we might freely share this joy with others. O God give us courage to see ourselves and our capacity of need – O God give us courage to receive Your healing in our wounded hearts. O God give us courage to risk loving those who might not be able to love us back. O God give us courage to life our eyes to Your eyes and rest in belief of Your great love for us… we wait, we hope, we rest Abba. Do what You will among us this weekend. We are Yours. We are Yours. In Jesus’name, amen.
The final reading today is entitled. Prevailing Prayer.
I Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide: That Whatsoever Ye Shall Ask of the Father in My Name, He May Give It You—John 15.16
In the first verse of our parable, Christ revealed Himself as the true Vine, and the Father as the Husbandman, and asked for Himself and the Father a place in the heart. Here, in the closing verse, He sums up all His teaching concerning Himself and the Father in the twofold purpose for which He had chosen them. With reference to Himself, the Vine, the purpose was, that they should bear fruit. With reference to the Father, it was, that whatsoever they should ask in His name, should be done of the Father in Heaven. As fruit is the great proof of the true relation to Christ, so prayer is of our relation to the Father. A fruitful abiding in
the Son, and prevailing prayer to the Father, are the two great factors in the true Christian life.
That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.—These are the closing words of the parable of the Vine. The whole mystery of the Vine and its branches leads up to the other mystery—that whatsoever we ask in His name the Father gives! See here the reason of the lack of prayer, and of the lack of power in prayer. It is because we so little live the true branch life, because we so little lose ourselves in the Vine, abiding in Him entirely, that we feel so little constrained to much prayer, so little confident that we shall be heard, and so do not know how to use His name as the key to God’s storehouse. The Vine
planted on earth has reached up into Heaven; it is only the soul wholly and intensely abiding in it, can reach into Heaven with power to prevail much. Our faith in the teaching and the truth of the parable, in the truth and the life of the Vine, must prove itself by power in prayer. The life of abiding and obedience, of love and joy, of cleansing and fruit-bearing, will surely lead to the power of prevailing prayer.
Whatsoever ye shall ask—The promise was given to disciples who were ready to give themselves, in the likeness of the true Vine, for their fellow men. This promise was all their provision for their work; they took it literally, they believed it, they used it, and they found it true. Let us give ourselves, as branches of the true Vine, and in His likeness, to the work of saving men, of bringing forth fruit to the glory of God, and we shall find a new urgency and power to pray and to claim the “whatsoever ye ask.” We shall waken to our wonderful responsibility of having in such a promise the keys to the King’s storehouses given us, and we shall not rest till we have received bread and blessing for the perishing. “I chose you, that ye may bring forth fruit, and that your fruit may abide; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” Beloved disciple, seek above everything to be a man of prayer. Here is the highest exercise of your privilege as a branch of the Vine; here is the full proof of your being renewed in the image of God and His Son; here is your power to show how you, like Christ, live not for yourself, but for others; here you enter Heaven to receive gifts for men; here your abiding in Christ has led to His abiding in you, to use you as the channel and instrument of His grace. The power to bear fruit for men has been crowned by power to prevail with God. “I am the vine, my Father is the Husbandman.” Christ’s work in you is to bring you so to the Father that His Word may be fulfilled in you: “At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you.”
The power of direct access to the Father for men, the liberty of intercession claiming and receivingblessing for them in faith, is the highest exercise of our union with Christ. Let all who would truly and fully be branches give themselves to the work of intercession. It is the one great work of Christ the Vine in Heaven, the source of power for all His work. Make it your one great work as branch: it will be the power of all your work. In My name. Yes, Lord, in Thy name, the new name Thou hast given Thyself here, the true Vine. As a branch, abiding in Thee in entire devotion, in full dependence, in perfect conformity, in abiding fruitfulness, I come to the Father, in Thee, and He will give what I ask. Oh, let my life be one of unceasing and prevailing intercession! Amen!
Friday, March 20, 2015
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Abiding Fruit
Good morning sweet friends, we are 24 hours away from day of departure, though God has been at work in us already. As a prayer team, we have had a front row seat in seeing how He has and is going before us with specific answers to specific prayer. One sister we pray with commented that much of what has been coming in has been requests for our heart attitudes, and spiritual freedom, even as the needs are physical. This is very encouraging. As a body we are desiring God to be at work in our hearts as much as we desire relief from physical ailments. Hallelujah.
Our reading today is entitled Abiding Fruit.
I Chose You, and Appointed You, That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide—John 15.16
There are some fruits that will not keep. One sort of pears or apples must be used at once; another sort can be kept over till next year. So there is in Christian work some fruit that does not last. There may be much that pleases and edified, and yet there is no permanent impression made on the power of the world or the state of the Church. On the other hand, there is work that leaves its mark for generations or for eternity. In it the power of God makes itself lastingly felt. It is the fruit of which Paul speaks when he describes the two styles of ministry: “My preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstrations of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” The more of man with his wisdom and power, the less of stability; the more of God’s Spirit, the more of a faith standing in God’s power.
Fruit reveals the nature of the tree from which it comes. What is the secret of bearing fruit that abides? The answer is simple. It is as our life abides in Christ, as we abide in Him, that the fruit we bear will abide. The more we allow all that is of human will and effort to be cut down short and cleansed away by the divine Husbandman, the more intensely our being withdraws itself from theoutward that God may work in us by His Spirit; that is, the more wholly we abide in Christ, the more will our fruit abide.
What a blessed thought! He chose you, and appointed you to bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. He never meant one of His branches to bring forth fruit that should not abide. The deeper I enter into the purpose of this His electing grace, the surer my confidence will become that I can bring forth fruit to eternal life, for myself and others. The deeper I enter into this purpose of His electing love, the more I will realize what the link is between the purpose from eternity, and the fruit to eternity: the abiding in Him. The purpose is His, He will carry it out; the fruit is His, He will bring it forth; the abiding is His, He will maintain
it.
Let everyone who professes to be a Christian worker, pause. Ask whether you are leaving your mark for eternity on those around you. It is not your preaching or teaching, your strength of will or power to influence, that will secure this. All depends on having your life full of God and His power. And that again depends upon your living the truly branchlike life of abiding—very close and unbroken fellowship with Christ. It is the branch, that abides in Him, that brings forth much fruit, fruit that will abide.
Blessed Lord, reveal to my soul, I pray Thee, that Thou hast chosen me to bear much fruit. Let this be my confidence, that Thy purpose can be realized—Thou didst choose me.
Let this be my power to forsake everything and give myself to Thee. Thou wilt Thyself perfect what Thou hast begun. Draw me so to dwell in the love and the certainty of that eternal purpose, that the power of eternity may posses me, and the fruit I bear may abide.
That ye may bear fruit. O my heavenly Vine, it is beginning to dawn upon my soul that fruit, more fruit—much fruit—abiding fruit is the one thing Thou hast to give me, and the one thing as branch I have to give Thee! Here I am. Blessed Lord, work out Thy purpose in me; let me bear much fruit, abiding fruit, to thy glory.
Lord, let us walk in belief of this truth, that it is not in our preaching, or teaching or our own strength of will or power to influence through which fruit will bear in our lives. Nor Abba, is it the lack of any of these! It is not our personalities that will cause others to know You, or will give us purpose or position. O God, it is as we rest in You, as we abide in You, as we gaze upon You through Your word and the meditation of our hearts and You work these things out in us through Your Spirit, that You will bear fruit. Abba, any of us who have placed our faith in You, can bear eternal fruit, because it is You who has chosen and appointed us to do it. What a promise O God! And how our hearts are free when we believe the truth that it depends not on us, but upon You to produce it, as we believe You and abide in You, as we believe You and abide in Your love. Teach us again the difference between believing IN You, and BELIEVING You. Oh God, You must make the connection for us in our hearts. The work You have given to us is to prevail in prayer, to abide, to believe by faith. None of it we can do without You giving us the ability, and yet we must act on the belief You have given to us. O empower us through Your Spirit to act upon the very thing You want us to do… to prevail in prayer, to rest in You, to abide in Your love. In Jesus name, amen.
Our reading today is entitled Abiding Fruit.
I Chose You, and Appointed You, That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit, and That Your Fruit Should Abide—John 15.16
There are some fruits that will not keep. One sort of pears or apples must be used at once; another sort can be kept over till next year. So there is in Christian work some fruit that does not last. There may be much that pleases and edified, and yet there is no permanent impression made on the power of the world or the state of the Church. On the other hand, there is work that leaves its mark for generations or for eternity. In it the power of God makes itself lastingly felt. It is the fruit of which Paul speaks when he describes the two styles of ministry: “My preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstrations of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” The more of man with his wisdom and power, the less of stability; the more of God’s Spirit, the more of a faith standing in God’s power.
Fruit reveals the nature of the tree from which it comes. What is the secret of bearing fruit that abides? The answer is simple. It is as our life abides in Christ, as we abide in Him, that the fruit we bear will abide. The more we allow all that is of human will and effort to be cut down short and cleansed away by the divine Husbandman, the more intensely our being withdraws itself from theoutward that God may work in us by His Spirit; that is, the more wholly we abide in Christ, the more will our fruit abide.
What a blessed thought! He chose you, and appointed you to bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. He never meant one of His branches to bring forth fruit that should not abide. The deeper I enter into the purpose of this His electing grace, the surer my confidence will become that I can bring forth fruit to eternal life, for myself and others. The deeper I enter into this purpose of His electing love, the more I will realize what the link is between the purpose from eternity, and the fruit to eternity: the abiding in Him. The purpose is His, He will carry it out; the fruit is His, He will bring it forth; the abiding is His, He will maintain
it.
Let everyone who professes to be a Christian worker, pause. Ask whether you are leaving your mark for eternity on those around you. It is not your preaching or teaching, your strength of will or power to influence, that will secure this. All depends on having your life full of God and His power. And that again depends upon your living the truly branchlike life of abiding—very close and unbroken fellowship with Christ. It is the branch, that abides in Him, that brings forth much fruit, fruit that will abide.
Blessed Lord, reveal to my soul, I pray Thee, that Thou hast chosen me to bear much fruit. Let this be my confidence, that Thy purpose can be realized—Thou didst choose me.
Let this be my power to forsake everything and give myself to Thee. Thou wilt Thyself perfect what Thou hast begun. Draw me so to dwell in the love and the certainty of that eternal purpose, that the power of eternity may posses me, and the fruit I bear may abide.
That ye may bear fruit. O my heavenly Vine, it is beginning to dawn upon my soul that fruit, more fruit—much fruit—abiding fruit is the one thing Thou hast to give me, and the one thing as branch I have to give Thee! Here I am. Blessed Lord, work out Thy purpose in me; let me bear much fruit, abiding fruit, to thy glory.
Lord, let us walk in belief of this truth, that it is not in our preaching, or teaching or our own strength of will or power to influence through which fruit will bear in our lives. Nor Abba, is it the lack of any of these! It is not our personalities that will cause others to know You, or will give us purpose or position. O God, it is as we rest in You, as we abide in You, as we gaze upon You through Your word and the meditation of our hearts and You work these things out in us through Your Spirit, that You will bear fruit. Abba, any of us who have placed our faith in You, can bear eternal fruit, because it is You who has chosen and appointed us to do it. What a promise O God! And how our hearts are free when we believe the truth that it depends not on us, but upon You to produce it, as we believe You and abide in You, as we believe You and abide in Your love. Teach us again the difference between believing IN You, and BELIEVING You. Oh God, You must make the connection for us in our hearts. The work You have given to us is to prevail in prayer, to abide, to believe by faith. None of it we can do without You giving us the ability, and yet we must act on the belief You have given to us. O empower us through Your Spirit to act upon the very thing You want us to do… to prevail in prayer, to rest in You, to abide in Your love. In Jesus name, amen.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Election
Dearest Sisters, we are two days away from the beginning of our Refresh retreat. A small group of intercessors met yesterday afternoon to wait upon the Lord and pray what He would have us pray for us. He led us to pray specifically for our retreat attendees, but also for our body here at HFC. Oh how He loves us and desires us to walk in belief, freedom and hope. Here are some of the themes He led us to pray:
Being still and inquiring of the Lord,
loving others with the compassion and love of Jesus through the power of His Spirit, freedom into joy like King David,
freedom in our identity in Christ,
spirit of humility,
healing of our spiritual, emotional and physical selves,
rest in the finished work of Christ for our justification, relationship with God,
and much prayer for our marriages.
These are the things we were led to pray, and what joy when He leads us to ask for the very things He wants to accomplish! Oh dear sisters, be encouraged! King Jesus is on the throne, and bids us ask for the very things He desires to pour out onto and into us.
The reading today is entitled: Election. I would strongly encourage you that if you choose to read this, read through the entire devotional to understand what he is saying, and what he is not saying.
Ye Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, and Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit—John 15.16
The branch does not choose the vine, or decide on which vine it will grow. The vine brings forth the branch, as and where it will. Even so Christ says: “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.” But some will say is not just this the difference between the branch in the natural and in the spiritual world, that man has a will and a power of choosing, and that it is in virtue of his having decided to accept Christ, his having chosen Him as Lord, that he is now a branch? This is undoubtedly true. And yet it is only half a truth. The lesson of the Vine, and the teaching of our Lord, points to the other half, the deeper, the divine side of our being in Christ. If He had not chosen us, we had never chosen Him. Our choosing Him was the result of His choosing us, and taking hold of us. In the very nature of things, it is His prerogative as Vine to choose and create His own branch. We owe all we are to “the election of grace.” If we want to know Christ as the true Vine, the sole origin and strength of the branch life, and ourselves as branches in our absolute, most blessed, and most secure dependence upon Him, let us drink deep of this blessed truth: “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.”
And with what view does Christ say this? That they may know what the object is for which He chose them, and find, in their faith in His election, the certainty of fulfilling their destiny. Throughout Scripture this is the great object of the teaching of election. “Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son.” (to be branches in the image and likeness of the Vine). “Chosen that we should be holy.” “Chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit.” “Elect in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.” Some have abused the doctrine of election, and others, for fear of its abuse, have rejected it, because they have
overlooked this teaching. They have occupied themselves with its hidden origin in eternity, with the inscrutable mysteries of the counsels of God instead of accepting the revelation of its purpose in time, and the blessings it brings into our Christian life.
Just think what these blessings are. In our verse Christ reveals His twofold purpose in choosing us to be His branches: that we may bear fruit on earth, and have power in prayer in Heaven.What confidence the thought that He has chosen us for this gives, that He will not fail to fit us for carrying out His purpose! What assurance that we can bear fruit that will abide, and can pray so as to obtain! What a continual call to the deepest humility and
praise, to the most entire dependence and expectancy! He would not choose us for what we are not fit for, or what He could not fit us for. He has chosen us; this is the pledge, He will do all in us.
Let us listen in silence of soul to our holy Vine speaking to each of us: “You did not choose Me!” And let us say, “Yea, Lord, but I chose You! Amen, Lord!” Ask Him to show what this means. In Him, the true Vine, your life as branch has its divine origin, its eternal security, and the power to fulfill His purpose. From Him to whose will of love you owe all, you may expect all. In Him, His purpose, and His power, and His faithfulness, in His love let me abide.
I chose you. Lord, teach me what this means—that Thou hast set Thy heart on me, and chosen me to bear fruit that will abide, and to pray prayer that will prevail. In this Thine eternal purpose my soul would rest itself and say: “What He chose me for I will be, I can be,
I shall be.”
Amen. Abba, what You chose for us we will be, we can be, we shall be. O joyful truth that enables us to rest in who we are, because of Whose we are. May it be Lord Jesus, just as you say. Amen…
Being still and inquiring of the Lord,
loving others with the compassion and love of Jesus through the power of His Spirit, freedom into joy like King David,
freedom in our identity in Christ,
spirit of humility,
healing of our spiritual, emotional and physical selves,
rest in the finished work of Christ for our justification, relationship with God,
and much prayer for our marriages.
These are the things we were led to pray, and what joy when He leads us to ask for the very things He wants to accomplish! Oh dear sisters, be encouraged! King Jesus is on the throne, and bids us ask for the very things He desires to pour out onto and into us.
The reading today is entitled: Election. I would strongly encourage you that if you choose to read this, read through the entire devotional to understand what he is saying, and what he is not saying.
Ye Did Not Choose Me, But I Chose You, and Appointed You That Ye Should Go and Bear Fruit—John 15.16
The branch does not choose the vine, or decide on which vine it will grow. The vine brings forth the branch, as and where it will. Even so Christ says: “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.” But some will say is not just this the difference between the branch in the natural and in the spiritual world, that man has a will and a power of choosing, and that it is in virtue of his having decided to accept Christ, his having chosen Him as Lord, that he is now a branch? This is undoubtedly true. And yet it is only half a truth. The lesson of the Vine, and the teaching of our Lord, points to the other half, the deeper, the divine side of our being in Christ. If He had not chosen us, we had never chosen Him. Our choosing Him was the result of His choosing us, and taking hold of us. In the very nature of things, it is His prerogative as Vine to choose and create His own branch. We owe all we are to “the election of grace.” If we want to know Christ as the true Vine, the sole origin and strength of the branch life, and ourselves as branches in our absolute, most blessed, and most secure dependence upon Him, let us drink deep of this blessed truth: “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.”
And with what view does Christ say this? That they may know what the object is for which He chose them, and find, in their faith in His election, the certainty of fulfilling their destiny. Throughout Scripture this is the great object of the teaching of election. “Predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son.” (to be branches in the image and likeness of the Vine). “Chosen that we should be holy.” “Chosen to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit.” “Elect in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience.” Some have abused the doctrine of election, and others, for fear of its abuse, have rejected it, because they have
overlooked this teaching. They have occupied themselves with its hidden origin in eternity, with the inscrutable mysteries of the counsels of God instead of accepting the revelation of its purpose in time, and the blessings it brings into our Christian life.
Just think what these blessings are. In our verse Christ reveals His twofold purpose in choosing us to be His branches: that we may bear fruit on earth, and have power in prayer in Heaven.What confidence the thought that He has chosen us for this gives, that He will not fail to fit us for carrying out His purpose! What assurance that we can bear fruit that will abide, and can pray so as to obtain! What a continual call to the deepest humility and
praise, to the most entire dependence and expectancy! He would not choose us for what we are not fit for, or what He could not fit us for. He has chosen us; this is the pledge, He will do all in us.
Let us listen in silence of soul to our holy Vine speaking to each of us: “You did not choose Me!” And let us say, “Yea, Lord, but I chose You! Amen, Lord!” Ask Him to show what this means. In Him, the true Vine, your life as branch has its divine origin, its eternal security, and the power to fulfill His purpose. From Him to whose will of love you owe all, you may expect all. In Him, His purpose, and His power, and His faithfulness, in His love let me abide.
I chose you. Lord, teach me what this means—that Thou hast set Thy heart on me, and chosen me to bear fruit that will abide, and to pray prayer that will prevail. In this Thine eternal purpose my soul would rest itself and say: “What He chose me for I will be, I can be,
I shall be.”
Amen. Abba, what You chose for us we will be, we can be, we shall be. O joyful truth that enables us to rest in who we are, because of Whose we are. May it be Lord Jesus, just as you say. Amen…
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Christ's Friendship: Its Intimacy
Dearest sisters, thank you for sending in your requests for us to care and pray through. Be encouraged. God is at work in us as a Body, and calls us to pray with and for one another. There is nothing special about those whom God has called to pray for this retreat… we just believe Him, that He is Who He says He is and really can do all He says He can do. We have a passion to see God glorified in our Body, whether you attend HFC or somewhere else. It is true that God exposes what He will for our healing (Heb 4). We have a High Priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, our suffering, our humanity… He went through great suffering to identify with us, so that we might be identified with Him! At our greatest weakness and failure, He bids us again and again, draw near, draw near to the throne of grace… receive mercy, receive grace! He is willing and He is able to heal our hearts, our fears, our unbelief as we take Him at His word and find Him gentle, faithful and Strong. Compared to the weight of our pain, our sin, our striving, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. So take time today to meditate on His Word below. You will find rest in it, as our Friend reminds us of our position in Him and His intimacy with us.
The reading today is entitled, Christ’s Friendship: Its Intimacy
No Longer Do I Call You Servants; for the Servant Knoweth Not What His Lord Doeth: But I Have Called You Friends; for All Things That I Heard From My Father, I Have Made Known Unto You—John 15.15
The highest proof of true friendship, and one great source of its blessedness, is the intimacy that holds nothing back, and admits the friend to share our inmost secrets. It is a blessed thing to be Christ’s servant; His redeemed ones delight to call themselves His slaves. Christ had often spoken of the disciples as His servants. In His great love our Lord now says: “No longer do I call you servants”; with the coming of the Holy Spirit a new era was to be inaugurated. “The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth”—he has to obey without being consulted or admitted into the secret of all his master’s plans. “But, I have called you friends, for all things I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.” Christ’s friends share with Him in all the secrets the Father has entrusted to Him.
Let us think what this means. When Christ spoke of keeping His Father’s commandments, He did not mean merely what was written in Holy Scripture, but those special commandments which were communicated to Him day by day, and from hour to hour. It was of these He said: “The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he doeth, and he will show him greater things.” All that Christ did was God’s working. God showed it to Christ, so that He carried out the Father’s will and purpose, not, as man often does, blindly and unintelligently, but with full understanding and approval. As one who stood in God’s counsel, He knew God’s plan.
And this now is the blessedness of being Christ’s friends, that we do not, as servants, do His will without much spiritual insight into its meaning and aim, but are admitted, as an inner circle, into some knowledge of God’s more secret thoughts. From the Day of Pentecost on, by the Holy Spirit, Christ was to lead His disciples into the spiritual apprehension of the mysteries of the kingdom, of which He had hitherto spoken only by parables.
Friendship delights in fellowship. Friends hold council. Friends dare trust to each other what they would not for anything have others know. What is it that gives a Christian access to this holy intimacy with Jesus? That gives him the spiritual capacity for receiving the communications Christ has to make of what the Father has shown Him? “Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you.” It is loving obedience that purifies the soul. That refers not only to the commandments of the Word, but to that blessed application of the Word to our daily life, which none but our Lord Himself can give. But as these are waited for in dependence and humility, and faithfully obeyed, the soul becomes fitted for ever closer fellowship, and the daily life may become a continual experience: “I have called you friends; for all things I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.”
I have called you friends. What an unspeakable honor! What a heavenly privilege! O Saviour, speak the word with power into my soul: “I have called you My friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all that passes between my Father and Me.”
Lord, thank You for being our friend, thank You that although we would have been satisfied with salvation, You have called us into Relationship with You, a relationship that began with the forgiveness of our sin, and continues because of Your faithfulness. Lord, we would believe You that You are calling us into deeper intimacy with You. We would believe that it is far easier to walk in obedience with You, out of trust and faith and love and relationship with You, than it is to follow our own sin nature, who simply wants what it wants when it wants it. When we walk by faith in You, listening to all You are saying, as You listened to all Abba Father said when You walked this earth, we can truly believe that we will live a life that honors and pleases You in all aspects. This is our deepest desire, even if we do not yet fully understand it: Your glory Lord. When You are glorified, we have joy. You have created us this way. And O! That You would seek to glorify Yourself through ones such as us? Such joy! O thank You that You glorify Yourself not through our strengths, but through our weaknesses. O teach us, as You taught our brother Paul, to glory in our weaknesses, admitting them rather than covering them up, confessing them to and with one another with the belief of our healing and strength coming not from us, but from Your resurrection power through Your Spirit alive in us. We stumble God, but we stumble forward. O let us believe today that You truly desire intimacy with us, and it is possible to be more intimate with You as our hearts desire, through following You as You lead us by Your Spirit. For the joy set before Jesus, He endured the Cross… and we are His joy! O may we see You as our purest, truest JOY, and be willing to go where You lead, for Your glory and our joy too! O thank You that it is possible to have this joy, and You have made it plain as to how. Abba for the sister who struggles to believe this is true, for the sister who struggles to believe that she is fully known and still, even still, so completely and fully loved… would You apply this truth Abba to her heart? Heal her heart to believe O God, teach her to fight to believe that she does not and cannot earn Your favor… she has it if she has put her faith in the finished work of Jesus. Teach her Lord to fight to believe that she has Your approval, Your hope, Your joy… and teach us to pray for and with one another, that we might strengthen each other through the power of Your Spirit in us, and all the more as we see the glorious Day approaching. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The reading today is entitled, Christ’s Friendship: Its Intimacy
No Longer Do I Call You Servants; for the Servant Knoweth Not What His Lord Doeth: But I Have Called You Friends; for All Things That I Heard From My Father, I Have Made Known Unto You—John 15.15
The highest proof of true friendship, and one great source of its blessedness, is the intimacy that holds nothing back, and admits the friend to share our inmost secrets. It is a blessed thing to be Christ’s servant; His redeemed ones delight to call themselves His slaves. Christ had often spoken of the disciples as His servants. In His great love our Lord now says: “No longer do I call you servants”; with the coming of the Holy Spirit a new era was to be inaugurated. “The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth”—he has to obey without being consulted or admitted into the secret of all his master’s plans. “But, I have called you friends, for all things I heard from my Father I have made known unto you.” Christ’s friends share with Him in all the secrets the Father has entrusted to Him.
Let us think what this means. When Christ spoke of keeping His Father’s commandments, He did not mean merely what was written in Holy Scripture, but those special commandments which were communicated to Him day by day, and from hour to hour. It was of these He said: “The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that he doeth, and he will show him greater things.” All that Christ did was God’s working. God showed it to Christ, so that He carried out the Father’s will and purpose, not, as man often does, blindly and unintelligently, but with full understanding and approval. As one who stood in God’s counsel, He knew God’s plan.
And this now is the blessedness of being Christ’s friends, that we do not, as servants, do His will without much spiritual insight into its meaning and aim, but are admitted, as an inner circle, into some knowledge of God’s more secret thoughts. From the Day of Pentecost on, by the Holy Spirit, Christ was to lead His disciples into the spiritual apprehension of the mysteries of the kingdom, of which He had hitherto spoken only by parables.
Friendship delights in fellowship. Friends hold council. Friends dare trust to each other what they would not for anything have others know. What is it that gives a Christian access to this holy intimacy with Jesus? That gives him the spiritual capacity for receiving the communications Christ has to make of what the Father has shown Him? “Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you.” It is loving obedience that purifies the soul. That refers not only to the commandments of the Word, but to that blessed application of the Word to our daily life, which none but our Lord Himself can give. But as these are waited for in dependence and humility, and faithfully obeyed, the soul becomes fitted for ever closer fellowship, and the daily life may become a continual experience: “I have called you friends; for all things I have heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.”
I have called you friends. What an unspeakable honor! What a heavenly privilege! O Saviour, speak the word with power into my soul: “I have called you My friend, whom I love, whom I trust, to whom I make known all that passes between my Father and Me.”
Lord, thank You for being our friend, thank You that although we would have been satisfied with salvation, You have called us into Relationship with You, a relationship that began with the forgiveness of our sin, and continues because of Your faithfulness. Lord, we would believe You that You are calling us into deeper intimacy with You. We would believe that it is far easier to walk in obedience with You, out of trust and faith and love and relationship with You, than it is to follow our own sin nature, who simply wants what it wants when it wants it. When we walk by faith in You, listening to all You are saying, as You listened to all Abba Father said when You walked this earth, we can truly believe that we will live a life that honors and pleases You in all aspects. This is our deepest desire, even if we do not yet fully understand it: Your glory Lord. When You are glorified, we have joy. You have created us this way. And O! That You would seek to glorify Yourself through ones such as us? Such joy! O thank You that You glorify Yourself not through our strengths, but through our weaknesses. O teach us, as You taught our brother Paul, to glory in our weaknesses, admitting them rather than covering them up, confessing them to and with one another with the belief of our healing and strength coming not from us, but from Your resurrection power through Your Spirit alive in us. We stumble God, but we stumble forward. O let us believe today that You truly desire intimacy with us, and it is possible to be more intimate with You as our hearts desire, through following You as You lead us by Your Spirit. For the joy set before Jesus, He endured the Cross… and we are His joy! O may we see You as our purest, truest JOY, and be willing to go where You lead, for Your glory and our joy too! O thank You that it is possible to have this joy, and You have made it plain as to how. Abba for the sister who struggles to believe this is true, for the sister who struggles to believe that she is fully known and still, even still, so completely and fully loved… would You apply this truth Abba to her heart? Heal her heart to believe O God, teach her to fight to believe that she does not and cannot earn Your favor… she has it if she has put her faith in the finished work of Jesus. Teach her Lord to fight to believe that she has Your approval, Your hope, Your joy… and teach us to pray for and with one another, that we might strengthen each other through the power of Your Spirit in us, and all the more as we see the glorious Day approaching. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Christ's Friendship: Its Evidence
Good morning sisters! As we draw closer to our time together, the heat is being turned up emotionally, spiritually and for many, physically. As you encounter challenges throughout your day, would you take a moment to pray for yourself, and by faith pray for those who might be experiencing similar things? For instance, if you are struggling with loneliness, would you by faith, talk to the Lord about it and also intercede for your sisters who are experiencing the same thing, even though you might not know it, or know them? This way we pray with more compassion for one another, and pray more thoroughly, perhaps. And know we pray for you. Tomorrow our onsite Intercession Team will meet to pray specifically for you and our body at HFC. If there is anything you’d like us to specifically pray about for you, shoot me an email at nicolechapingiven@gmail.com We would love to bring you before the Lord in prayer.
The reading today is entitled Christ’s Friendship: Its Evidence
Ye Are My Friends, if Ye Do the Things Which I Command You—John 15.14
Our Lord has said what He gave as proof of His friendship: He gave His life for us. He now tells us what our part is to be—to do the things which He commands. He gave His life to secure a place for His love in our hearts to rule us; the response His love calls us to, and empowers us for, is that we do what He commands us. As we know the dying love, we shall joyfully obey its commands. As we obey the commands, we shall know the love more fully. Christ had already said: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” He counts it needful to repeat the truth again: the one proof of our faith in His love, the one way to abide in it, the one mark of being true branches is—to do the things which He commands us. He began with absolute surrender of His life for us. He can ask nothing less from us. This alone is a life in His friendship.
This truth, of the imperative necessity of obedience, doing all that Christ commands us, has not the place in our Christian teaching and living that Christ meant it to have. We have given a far higher place to privilege than to duty. We have not considered implicit obedience as a condition of true discipleship. The secret thought that it is impossible to do the things He commands us, and that therefore it cannot be expected of us, and a subtle and unconscious feeling that sinning is a necessity have frequently robbed both precepts and promises of their power. The whole relation to Christ has become clouded and lowered, the waiting on His teaching, the power to hear and obey His voice, and through obedience to enjoy His love and friendship, have been enfeebled by the terrible mistake. Do let us try to return to the true position, take Christ’s words as most literally true, and make nothing less the law of our life: “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things that I command you.” Surely our Lord asks nothing less than that we heartily and truthfully say: “Yea, Lord, what Thou dost command, that will I do.” These commands are to be done as a proof of friendship. The power to do them rests entirely in the personal relationship to Jesus. For a friend I could do what I would not for another. The friendship of Jesus is so heavenly and wonderful, it comes to us so as the power of a divine love entering in and taking possession, the unbroken fellowship with Himself is so essential to it, that it implies and imparts a joy and a love which make the obedience a delight. The liberty to claim the friendship of Jesus, the power to enjoy it, the grace to prove it in all its blessedness—all come as we do the things He commands us.
Is not the one thing needful for us that we ask our Lord to reveal Himself to us in the dying love in which He proved Himself our friend, and then listen as He says to us: “Ye are My friends.” As we see what our Friend has done for us, and what as unspeakable blessedness it is to have Him call us friends, the doing His commands will become the natural fruit of our life in his love. We shall not fear to say: “Yea, Lord, we are Thy friends, and do what
Thou dost command us.”
If ye do. Yes, it is in doing that we are blessed, that we abide in His love, that we enjoy His friendship. “If ye do what I command you!” O my Lord, let Thy holy friendship lead me into the love of all Thy commands, and let the doing of Thy commands lead me ever deeper into Thy friendship.
Abba again, command what You will, but O grant what You command! The law in our hearts that we still love would say it is impossible, impossible to do all You command through Your Spirit, every moment every day. And Your Spirit says, Yes, I agree. I do not ask you to do it according to Law dear daughter, but by my very present help, my love, my power. O that we would rest in relationship with You Abba! How much freedom we would possess and walk in, if we truly believed You loved us this much! We hear the ancient lie, that we cannot be truly known and truly loved. They are mutually exclusive. If we are truly known, then we are not truly loved because we are so needy, so sinful, so ugly at heart. And if we are truly loved, we must not be truly known, for if we were known, how could we be loved? But Lord! You say we are truly known, AND truly loved by the only one who could say this truthfully, because You are the only one who has the remedy for our sick hearts! You have demonstrated Your own love, true love for us in this, while we were still sinners, while we were still in our diseased and most ugly state, You, fully knowing us, died for us, that we might be rescued and be given a clean heart and Your own righteousness, Your glory within us! Oh God, we believe, help our unbelief. Continue to remind us we are truly known and truly loved, and may we, by faith, lift our eyes to Yours and see the love You have for us. And out of this amazing love, this relationship we have as Your daughters, may we walk where You lead us by Your Spirit, knowing it is because You love us, you speak and lead. And because You love those in our sphere, You desire they experience Your transforming love through redeemed people like us. Let us follow the promptings of Your Spirit because we are so very loved, and experience this Love first hand, and let others experience Your love through us and desire also to believe…. Yes, they are fully known, and fully loved. Only by the power of Your Spirit, Your love, can we say this Abba. O thank You for Your grace and love toward us, and thank You for Your commands to extend this joy toward others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The reading today is entitled Christ’s Friendship: Its Evidence
Ye Are My Friends, if Ye Do the Things Which I Command You—John 15.14
Our Lord has said what He gave as proof of His friendship: He gave His life for us. He now tells us what our part is to be—to do the things which He commands. He gave His life to secure a place for His love in our hearts to rule us; the response His love calls us to, and empowers us for, is that we do what He commands us. As we know the dying love, we shall joyfully obey its commands. As we obey the commands, we shall know the love more fully. Christ had already said: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” He counts it needful to repeat the truth again: the one proof of our faith in His love, the one way to abide in it, the one mark of being true branches is—to do the things which He commands us. He began with absolute surrender of His life for us. He can ask nothing less from us. This alone is a life in His friendship.
This truth, of the imperative necessity of obedience, doing all that Christ commands us, has not the place in our Christian teaching and living that Christ meant it to have. We have given a far higher place to privilege than to duty. We have not considered implicit obedience as a condition of true discipleship. The secret thought that it is impossible to do the things He commands us, and that therefore it cannot be expected of us, and a subtle and unconscious feeling that sinning is a necessity have frequently robbed both precepts and promises of their power. The whole relation to Christ has become clouded and lowered, the waiting on His teaching, the power to hear and obey His voice, and through obedience to enjoy His love and friendship, have been enfeebled by the terrible mistake. Do let us try to return to the true position, take Christ’s words as most literally true, and make nothing less the law of our life: “Ye are my friends, if ye do the things that I command you.” Surely our Lord asks nothing less than that we heartily and truthfully say: “Yea, Lord, what Thou dost command, that will I do.” These commands are to be done as a proof of friendship. The power to do them rests entirely in the personal relationship to Jesus. For a friend I could do what I would not for another. The friendship of Jesus is so heavenly and wonderful, it comes to us so as the power of a divine love entering in and taking possession, the unbroken fellowship with Himself is so essential to it, that it implies and imparts a joy and a love which make the obedience a delight. The liberty to claim the friendship of Jesus, the power to enjoy it, the grace to prove it in all its blessedness—all come as we do the things He commands us.
Is not the one thing needful for us that we ask our Lord to reveal Himself to us in the dying love in which He proved Himself our friend, and then listen as He says to us: “Ye are My friends.” As we see what our Friend has done for us, and what as unspeakable blessedness it is to have Him call us friends, the doing His commands will become the natural fruit of our life in his love. We shall not fear to say: “Yea, Lord, we are Thy friends, and do what
Thou dost command us.”
If ye do. Yes, it is in doing that we are blessed, that we abide in His love, that we enjoy His friendship. “If ye do what I command you!” O my Lord, let Thy holy friendship lead me into the love of all Thy commands, and let the doing of Thy commands lead me ever deeper into Thy friendship.
Abba again, command what You will, but O grant what You command! The law in our hearts that we still love would say it is impossible, impossible to do all You command through Your Spirit, every moment every day. And Your Spirit says, Yes, I agree. I do not ask you to do it according to Law dear daughter, but by my very present help, my love, my power. O that we would rest in relationship with You Abba! How much freedom we would possess and walk in, if we truly believed You loved us this much! We hear the ancient lie, that we cannot be truly known and truly loved. They are mutually exclusive. If we are truly known, then we are not truly loved because we are so needy, so sinful, so ugly at heart. And if we are truly loved, we must not be truly known, for if we were known, how could we be loved? But Lord! You say we are truly known, AND truly loved by the only one who could say this truthfully, because You are the only one who has the remedy for our sick hearts! You have demonstrated Your own love, true love for us in this, while we were still sinners, while we were still in our diseased and most ugly state, You, fully knowing us, died for us, that we might be rescued and be given a clean heart and Your own righteousness, Your glory within us! Oh God, we believe, help our unbelief. Continue to remind us we are truly known and truly loved, and may we, by faith, lift our eyes to Yours and see the love You have for us. And out of this amazing love, this relationship we have as Your daughters, may we walk where You lead us by Your Spirit, knowing it is because You love us, you speak and lead. And because You love those in our sphere, You desire they experience Your transforming love through redeemed people like us. Let us follow the promptings of Your Spirit because we are so very loved, and experience this Love first hand, and let others experience Your love through us and desire also to believe…. Yes, they are fully known, and fully loved. Only by the power of Your Spirit, Your love, can we say this Abba. O thank You for Your grace and love toward us, and thank You for Your commands to extend this joy toward others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Christ's Friendship: Its Origin
Good morning friends! I hope you are ready to come into community this morning, to hear Your Abba Father speak through those whom He has placed to speak His word, for His glory and our joy.
Today’s reading comes from John 15:13 and is entitled: Christ’s Friendship: Its Origin
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends—John 15.13
In the three following verses our Lord speaks of His relation to His disciples under a new aspect—that of friendship. He point us to the love in which it on His side has its origin (v.13): to the obedience on our part by which it is maintained (v.14); and then to the holy intimacy to which it leads (v.15).
Our relation to Christ is one of love. In speaking of this previously, He showed us what His love was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation—lay down His life for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine life which we need to receive within us.
Christ and His love are inseparable; they are identical. God is love, and Christ is love. God and Christ and the divine love can only be known by having them, by their life and power working within us. “This is eternal life, that they know thee”; there is no knowing God but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must drink of its living stream, we must have it shed forth by the Holy Spirit in us.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man give his life for his friends.” The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he holds nothing back, he gives all he has and is. It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placedHimself at our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession. He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act, that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in their wonderful identification, in their perfect union. It is as we know something of this, not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine, who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us.
Great is the mystery of godliness! Let us confess our ignorance and unbelief. Let us cease from our own understanding and our own efforts to master it. Let us wait for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own.
His life for His friends. How wonderful the lessons of the Vine, giving its very life to its branches! And Jesus gave His life for His friends. And that love gives itself to them and in them. My heavenly Vine, oh, teach me how wholly Thou longest to live in me!
Abba we do confess our ignorance of the depth of this friendship You have extended to us through the death and resurrection of Your Son! We confess our unbelief that You have given to us all we need to be in relationship with You! For if we truly believed it, always and continually, we would not strive to work for Your approval after we have a season of failure. If we truly understood and believed the depth of Your love for us in Christ, and through Christ, through His Spirit, we would run to Your throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help us believe that we are Your daughters, and nothing can separate us from Your love, not even when You expose our sin and we see it for the ugliness that it is.
Abba if we truly believed that You have extended Your friendship, our adoption as daughters, we would speak with You all the time, we would delight in Your presence, we would remember we have nothing to give one another if we have not come to You first to receive it. Abba we strive to give to others the bread of Life when we ourselves are starving for it! We strive and earnestly desire others to drink deep of the water of Life when we ourselves are dying of thirst! Forgive us for our unbelief, forgive us our ignorance. We ask again, teach us to pray, teach us to believe and trust that You are who You say You are, and we are who You say we are. “This is eternal life, that they would know Me, and Jesus Christ, whom I have sent.” Abba, we confess we know a lot about You…. But we do not know You nearly enough. Forgive us for trying to impart eternal life to others by knowledge of You, rather than by sharing out of the power of the Spirit of Christ within us, the love which draws others to You. We cannot give what we do not possess.
So do what You will to bring us to drink deeply and eat heartily of You, satisfy us this morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy the rest of the day, and days, and weeks and months and years. And let others see this food You have provided for us, and let them desire to be filled to the full in their own hearts as well. I ask this for myself and on behalf of my sisters dear Lord. We believe, help our unbelief. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Today’s reading comes from John 15:13 and is entitled: Christ’s Friendship: Its Origin
Greater Love Hath No Man Than This, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends—John 15.13
In the three following verses our Lord speaks of His relation to His disciples under a new aspect—that of friendship. He point us to the love in which it on His side has its origin (v.13): to the obedience on our part by which it is maintained (v.14); and then to the holy intimacy to which it leads (v.15).
Our relation to Christ is one of love. In speaking of this previously, He showed us what His love was in its heavenly glory; the same love with which the Father had loved Him. Here we have it in its earthly manifestation—lay down His life for us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Christ does indeed long to have us know that the secret root and strength of all He is and does for us as the Vine is love. As we learn to believe this, we shall feel that here is something which we not only need to think and know about, but a living power, a divine life which we need to receive within us.
Christ and His love are inseparable; they are identical. God is love, and Christ is love. God and Christ and the divine love can only be known by having them, by their life and power working within us. “This is eternal life, that they know thee”; there is no knowing God but by having the life; the life working in us alone gives the knowledge. And even so the love; if we would know it, we must drink of its living stream, we must have it shed forth by the Holy Spirit in us.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man give his life for his friends.” The life is the most precious thing a man has; the life is all he is; the life is himself. This is the highest measure of love: when a man gives his life, he holds nothing back, he gives all he has and is. It is this our Lord Jesus wants to make clear to us concerning His mystery of the Vine; with all He has He has placedHimself at our disposal. He wants us to count Him our very own; He wants to be wholly our possession, that we may be wholly His possession. He gave His life for us in death not merely as a passing act, that when accomplished was done with; no, but as a making Himself ours for eternity. Life for life; He gave His life for us to possess that we might give our life for Him to possess. This is what is taught by the parable of the Vine and the branch, in their wonderful identification, in their perfect union. It is as we know something of this, not by reason or imagination, but deep down in the heart and life, that we shall begin to see what ought to be our life as branches of the heavenly Vine. He gave Himself to death; He lost Himself, that we might find life in Him. This is the true Vine, who only lives to live in us. This is the beginning and the root of that holy friendship to which Christ invites us.
Great is the mystery of godliness! Let us confess our ignorance and unbelief. Let us cease from our own understanding and our own efforts to master it. Let us wait for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us to reveal it. Let us trust His infinite love, which gave its life for us, to take possession and rejoice in making us wholly its own.
His life for His friends. How wonderful the lessons of the Vine, giving its very life to its branches! And Jesus gave His life for His friends. And that love gives itself to them and in them. My heavenly Vine, oh, teach me how wholly Thou longest to live in me!
Abba we do confess our ignorance of the depth of this friendship You have extended to us through the death and resurrection of Your Son! We confess our unbelief that You have given to us all we need to be in relationship with You! For if we truly believed it, always and continually, we would not strive to work for Your approval after we have a season of failure. If we truly understood and believed the depth of Your love for us in Christ, and through Christ, through His Spirit, we would run to Your throne of grace to receive mercy and grace to help us believe that we are Your daughters, and nothing can separate us from Your love, not even when You expose our sin and we see it for the ugliness that it is.
Abba if we truly believed that You have extended Your friendship, our adoption as daughters, we would speak with You all the time, we would delight in Your presence, we would remember we have nothing to give one another if we have not come to You first to receive it. Abba we strive to give to others the bread of Life when we ourselves are starving for it! We strive and earnestly desire others to drink deep of the water of Life when we ourselves are dying of thirst! Forgive us for our unbelief, forgive us our ignorance. We ask again, teach us to pray, teach us to believe and trust that You are who You say You are, and we are who You say we are. “This is eternal life, that they would know Me, and Jesus Christ, whom I have sent.” Abba, we confess we know a lot about You…. But we do not know You nearly enough. Forgive us for trying to impart eternal life to others by knowledge of You, rather than by sharing out of the power of the Spirit of Christ within us, the love which draws others to You. We cannot give what we do not possess.
So do what You will to bring us to drink deeply and eat heartily of You, satisfy us this morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy the rest of the day, and days, and weeks and months and years. And let others see this food You have provided for us, and let them desire to be filled to the full in their own hearts as well. I ask this for myself and on behalf of my sisters dear Lord. We believe, help our unbelief. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Even As I Have Loved You
Good afternoon dear sisters! Sorry this is so late in getting out… I didn’t time my morning very well before heading out the door, and am now just getting back home. A long day, but one filled with wonderful, encouraging conversations and Jesus at the center of it all. He is good.
The reading today comes from John 15:12, and is entitled Even As I Have Loved You
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another, Even as I Have Loved You—John 15.12
This is the second time our Lord uses the expression—Even as I. The first time it was of His relation to the Father, keeping His commandments, and abiding in His love. Even so we are to keep Christ’s commandments, and abide in His love. The second time He speaks of His relation to us as the rule of our love to our brethren: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” In each case His disposition and conduct is to be the law for ours. It is again the truth we have more than once insisted on—perfect likeness between the Vine and the branch.
Even as I—But is it not a vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love the brethren, even as He kept His Father’s, and as He loved us? And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement? Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our strength, or without a full apprehension of the truth of the Vine and its branches. But if we understand that the “even as I” is just the one great lesson of the parable, the one continual language of the Vine to the branch, we shall see that it is not the question of what
we feel able to accomplish, but of what Christ is able to work in us. These high and holy commands—“Obey, even as I! Love, even as I”—are just meant to bring us to the consciousness of our impotence, and through that to waken us to the need and the beauty and the sufficiency of what is provided for us in the Vine. We shall begin to hear the Vine speaking every moment to the branch: “Even as I. Even as I: My life is your life; and have a share in all My fullness; the Spirit in you, and the fruit that comes from you, is all just the same as in Me. Be not afraid, but let your faith grasp each “Even as I” as the divine assurance that because I live in you, you may and can live like Me.”
But why, if this really be the meaning of the parable, if this really be the life a branch may live, who do so few realize it? Because they do not know the heavenly mystery of the Vine. They know much of the parable and its beautiful lessons. But the hidden spiritual mystery of the Vine in His divine omnipotence and nearness, bearing and supplying them all the day—this they do not know, because they have not waited on God’s Spirit to reveal it to them.
Love one another, even as I have loved you—“Ye, even as I.” How are we to begin if we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be cleansed from all that is of self, and detached from all that is in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this “even as I” is in very deed what Christ is ready to make true, the very life the Vine will maintain in the branch wholly dependent upon Him.
Even as I. Ever again it is, my blessed Lord, as the Vine, so the branch—one life, one spirit, one obedience, one joy, one love.
Lord Jesus, in the faith that Thou art my Vine, and that I am Thy branch, I accept Thy command as a promise, and take Thy “even as I” as the simple revelation of what Thou dost work in me. Yea, Lord, as Thou hast loved, I will love.
Abba teach us this mystery of “even as I”. Show us how to appropriate the truth that we are crucified with Christ, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. Show us how to appropriate the truth that the life we live in the body, we now live by faith in Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We long to grow into who we are, but so much of self is in the way. We want what we want when and how we want it, but we are soon weary and find ourselves in great need when we follow self. Oh be King again in the throne room of our hearts, and let us walk in the freedom of the Son, as we follow You and love whom You love with the love You give us! How good to know we cannot well this kind of love up on our own; we have tried, we have tried and failed and You simply wait for us to cease striving and know that You are God, You are the one who fulfills every command in us, through the power of Your Spirit as we abide, rest and seek Your face. Again O God we pray, command what You will, but grant Your command. We ask this by faith in the name of the King of Kings, Jesus the Son, our Savior and Redeemer, amen.
The reading today comes from John 15:12, and is entitled Even As I Have Loved You
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One Another, Even as I Have Loved You—John 15.12
This is the second time our Lord uses the expression—Even as I. The first time it was of His relation to the Father, keeping His commandments, and abiding in His love. Even so we are to keep Christ’s commandments, and abide in His love. The second time He speaks of His relation to us as the rule of our love to our brethren: “Love one another, as I have loved you.” In each case His disposition and conduct is to be the law for ours. It is again the truth we have more than once insisted on—perfect likeness between the Vine and the branch.
Even as I—But is it not a vain thing to imagine that we can keep His commandments, and love the brethren, even as He kept His Father’s, and as He loved us? And must not the attempt end in failure and discouragement? Undoubtedly, if we seek to carry out the injunction in our strength, or without a full apprehension of the truth of the Vine and its branches. But if we understand that the “even as I” is just the one great lesson of the parable, the one continual language of the Vine to the branch, we shall see that it is not the question of what
we feel able to accomplish, but of what Christ is able to work in us. These high and holy commands—“Obey, even as I! Love, even as I”—are just meant to bring us to the consciousness of our impotence, and through that to waken us to the need and the beauty and the sufficiency of what is provided for us in the Vine. We shall begin to hear the Vine speaking every moment to the branch: “Even as I. Even as I: My life is your life; and have a share in all My fullness; the Spirit in you, and the fruit that comes from you, is all just the same as in Me. Be not afraid, but let your faith grasp each “Even as I” as the divine assurance that because I live in you, you may and can live like Me.”
But why, if this really be the meaning of the parable, if this really be the life a branch may live, who do so few realize it? Because they do not know the heavenly mystery of the Vine. They know much of the parable and its beautiful lessons. But the hidden spiritual mystery of the Vine in His divine omnipotence and nearness, bearing and supplying them all the day—this they do not know, because they have not waited on God’s Spirit to reveal it to them.
Love one another, even as I have loved you—“Ye, even as I.” How are we to begin if we are really to learn the mystery? With the confession that we need to be brought to an entirely new mode of life, because we have never yet known Christ as the Vine in the completeness of His quickening and transforming power. With the surrender to be cleansed from all that is of self, and detached from all that is in the world, to live only and wholly as Christ lived for the glory of the Father. And then with the faith that this “even as I” is in very deed what Christ is ready to make true, the very life the Vine will maintain in the branch wholly dependent upon Him.
Even as I. Ever again it is, my blessed Lord, as the Vine, so the branch—one life, one spirit, one obedience, one joy, one love.
Lord Jesus, in the faith that Thou art my Vine, and that I am Thy branch, I accept Thy command as a promise, and take Thy “even as I” as the simple revelation of what Thou dost work in me. Yea, Lord, as Thou hast loved, I will love.
Abba teach us this mystery of “even as I”. Show us how to appropriate the truth that we are crucified with Christ, and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. Show us how to appropriate the truth that the life we live in the body, we now live by faith in Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. We long to grow into who we are, but so much of self is in the way. We want what we want when and how we want it, but we are soon weary and find ourselves in great need when we follow self. Oh be King again in the throne room of our hearts, and let us walk in the freedom of the Son, as we follow You and love whom You love with the love You give us! How good to know we cannot well this kind of love up on our own; we have tried, we have tried and failed and You simply wait for us to cease striving and know that You are God, You are the one who fulfills every command in us, through the power of Your Spirit as we abide, rest and seek Your face. Again O God we pray, command what You will, but grant Your command. We ask this by faith in the name of the King of Kings, Jesus the Son, our Savior and Redeemer, amen.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Love One Another
Good morning sisters. One
week from today we head up to Camp
Hebron
Today’s reading is entitled
Love One Another and is from John 15:12
This is My Commandment, That Ye Love One
Another—John 15.12
God is love. His whole nature and
perfection is love, living not for Himself, but to dispense life and blessing.
In His love He begat the Son, that He might give all to Him. In His love He
brought forth creatures that He might make them partakers of His blessedness.
Christ is the Son of God’s love, the
bearer, the revealer, the communicator of that love. His life and death were
all love. Love is His life, and the life He gives. He only lives to love, to
live out His life of love in us, to give Himself in all who will receive Him.
The very first thought of the true Vine is love—living only to impart His life
to the branches.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love. He
cannot impart Christ’s life without imparting His love. Salvation is nothing
but love conquering and entering into us; we have just as much of salvation as
we have of love. Full salvation is perfect love.
No wonder that Christ said: “A new
commandment I give unto you”; “This is my
commandment”—the one all-inclusive
commandment—“that ye love one another.” The branch is not only one with the
vine, but with all its other branches; they drink one spirit, they form one
body, they bear one fruit. Nothing can be more unnatural than that Christians should
not love one another, even as Christ loved them. The life they received from
their heavenly Vine is nothing but love. This is the one thing He asks above all
others. “Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples...love one
another.” As the special sort of vine is known by the fruit it bears, the
nature of the heavenly Vine is to be judged of by the love
His disciples have to one another.
See that you obey this commandment. Let
your “obey and abide” be seen in this. Love your brethren as the way to abide
in the love of your Lord. Let your vow of obedience begin here. Love one
another. Let your intimacy with the Christians in your own family be holy, tender,
Christlike love. Let your thoughts of the Christians round you be, before
everything, in the spirit of Christ’s love. Let your life and conduct be the
sacrifice of love—give yourself up to think of their sins or their needs, to
intercede for them, to help and to serve them. Be in your church or circle the
embodiment of Christ’s love. The life Christ lives in you is love; let the life
in which you live it out be all love.
But, man, you write as if all this was so
natural and simple and easy. Is it at all possible thus to live and thus to
love? My answer is: Christ commands it: you must obey. Christ means it: you
must obey, or you cannot abide in His love. But I have tried and failed. I see
no prospect of living like Christ. Ah! that is because you have failed to take
in the first word of the parable—“I am the true Vine: I give all you need as a
branch, I give all I myself have.” I pray you, let the sense of past failure and
present feebleness drive you to the Vine. He is all love. He loves to give. He
gives love. He will teach you to love, even as He loved.
Love one another. Dear Lord Jesus, Thou art all love; the
life Thou gavest us is love; Thy new commandment, and Thy badge of discipleship
is, “Love one another.” I accept the charge: with the love with which Thou
lovest me, and I love Thee, I will love my brethren.
Abba, this is too hard. And You
understand this. You are not asking us to love one another through our own
strength, or through law. You Lord, are asking us to abide in Your love, and as
we do, to receive all we need from You to carry out the command to love one
another. Forgive us for believing the lie we must do this in our own strength.
Forgive us for believing the lie we can only love the lovely. Forgive us for
believing the lie that others must be worthy of our love for us to love them.
And forgive us Abba for believing the lie that love is more of an emotion,
rather than an action empowered by the One who is Love. Abba, You are our Life,
and You are Love, and You are Strength, and Your life is flowing in and through
us. O let us lay down self life, abide in You, abide in Your love, and let the
natural outflow be: we love one another. May we start simply with those in our
sphere, and may they see Your love as we interact with one another. May the one
who feels unloved and lonely, see Your love through me, through each one
reading this today. Command what You will O God, and grant what You command, we
ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Joy
Good morning dear sisters. We are about one week out from our Refresh Retreat. We are asking Abba Father to help those who are to attend this retreat but have not signed up because they are unsure, or wary or because they allow the lack of comfort (physical, emotional and spiritual) to keep them from saying yes to listen to His Voice and attend. The retreat itself is just the conduit for the work He would like to do in us individually and corporately. We all have expectations as to what a retreat is, or should look like. We are praying He and He alone would be our expectation. We are praying that those whom He has called would listen and come, and those who are attending would lay down all expectations except that He would speak, and we would have ears to hear and by His Spirit, walk out what He says. My personal prayer is that those in whom the Spirit is drawing to walk a more intimate walk with Him, would not miss this. He is the Giver, and He gets the glory for what He desires to impart to us through all the elements at the retreat.
These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled—John 15.11
If any one asks the question, “How can I be a happy Christian?” our Lord’s answer is very simple: “These things,” about the Vine and the branches, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” “You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you.” All healthy life is a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His joy in full measure.
To many Christians the thought of a life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to them: “I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me, and allows Me to do all. I engage to make and keep the branch all that it ought to be.” Ought it not to be an infinite and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work all, and to know that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love who is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?
That My joy may be in you—We are to have Christ’s own joy in us. And what is Christ’s own joy? There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father’s love and His own abiding in it, and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of receiving His Father’s love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving and living for those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches: abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine, His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love.
And that your joy may be fulfilled —That it may be complete, that you may be filled with it. How sad that we should so need to be reminded that as God alone is the fountain of all joy, “God our exceeding joy,” the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much of God, as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world. Oh, that Christ’s voice might reach the heart of every young Christian, and persuade him to believe that His joy is the only true joy, that His joy can become ours and truly fill us, and that the sure and simple way of living in it is—only this—to abide as branches in Him our heavenly Vine.Let the truth enter deep into us—as long as our joy is not full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright; every desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more simply and more fully in His love.
My joy—your joy. In this too it is: as the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch.Thy joy is our joy—Thy joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed Lord, fill me with Thy joy—the joy of being loved and blessed with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing others.
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure….. Oh to rest as a branch is our desire O God, to know that we know that we are loved, to know that we can truly love others with Your love. Abba, for those who struggle to believe they are fully known by You and fully loved by You, would you impart to them what they need to receive this truth fully? Would you bring clarity and help us see the walls of protection we build to protect our hearts, to protect us from further wounding? Lord those walls might keep our emotions from overwhelming us, might keep us from being hurt by others, but they also keep You out Abba. We cannot selectively build walls of protection in our hearts without keeping You out as well. O God, You are the gentle Shepherd. Gently remove the bricks we have placed to protect wounded areas of our hearts, and bring Your healing in. Lift our eyes to see Your face Jesus. Let us look deeply in, and believe once for all that You are good, and You mean good to us, and You desire us to receive all the love You would pour into our hearts, and then be the conduit to pour out onto others. We cannot help but have joy when we believe we are truly, wonderfully, wholly loved by You. Allow the painful truth of our lack of joy reveal our lack of belief that we are truly, wonderfully and wholly loved by You. We believe, O help our unbelief again, and again, and again until we believe it. Then may we walk in that joy of believing love, and may we be Your agent of grace as You pour out Your love through us onto and into others by the power of Your Spirit, the Seal of Your Love for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
These Things Have I Spoken Unto You, That My Joy May Be in You, and That Your Joy May Be Fulfilled—John 15.11
If any one asks the question, “How can I be a happy Christian?” our Lord’s answer is very simple: “These things,” about the Vine and the branches, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.” “You cannot have My joy without My life. Abide in Me, and let Me abide in you, and My joy will be in you.” All healthy life is a thing of joy and beauty; live undividedly the branch life; you will have His joy in full measure.
To many Christians the thought of a life wholly abiding in Christ is one of strain and painful effort. They cannot see that the strain and effort only come, as long as we do not yield ourselves unreservedly to the life of Christ in us. The very first words of the parable are not yet opened up to them: “I am the true Vine; I undertake all and provide for all; I ask nothing of the branch but that it yields wholly to Me, and allows Me to do all. I engage to make and keep the branch all that it ought to be.” Ought it not to be an infinite and unceasing joy to have the Vine thus work all, and to know that it is none less than the blessed Son of God in His love who is each moment bearing us and maintaining our life?
That My joy may be in you—We are to have Christ’s own joy in us. And what is Christ’s own joy? There is no joy like love. There is no joy but love. Christ had just spoken of the Father’s love and His own abiding in it, and of His having loved us with that same love. His joy is nothing but the joy of love, of being loved and of loving. It was the joy of receiving His Father’s love and abiding in it, and then the joy of passing on that love and pouring it out on sinners. It is this joy He wants us to share: the joy of being loved of the Father and of Him; the joy of in our turn loving and living for those around us. This is just the joy of being truly branches: abiding in His love, and then giving up ourselves in love to bear fruit for others. Let us accept His life, as He gives it in us as the Vine, His joy will be ours: the joy of abiding in His love, the joy of loving like Him, of loving with His love.
And that your joy may be fulfilled —That it may be complete, that you may be filled with it. How sad that we should so need to be reminded that as God alone is the fountain of all joy, “God our exceeding joy,” the only way to be perfectly happy is to have as much of God, as much of His will and fellowship, as possible! Religion is meant to be in everyday life a thing of unspeakable joy. And why do so many complain that it is not so? Because they do not believe that there is no joy like the joy of abiding in Christ and in His love, and being branches through whom He can pour out His love on a dying world. Oh, that Christ’s voice might reach the heart of every young Christian, and persuade him to believe that His joy is the only true joy, that His joy can become ours and truly fill us, and that the sure and simple way of living in it is—only this—to abide as branches in Him our heavenly Vine.Let the truth enter deep into us—as long as our joy is not full, it is a sign that we do not yet know our heavenly Vine aright; every desire for a fuller joy must only urge us to abide more simply and more fully in His love.
My joy—your joy. In this too it is: as the Vine, so the branch; all the Vine in the branch.Thy joy is our joy—Thy joy in us, and our joy fulfilled. Blessed Lord, fill me with Thy joy—the joy of being loved and blessed with a divine love; the joy of loving and blessing others.
How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure….. Oh to rest as a branch is our desire O God, to know that we know that we are loved, to know that we can truly love others with Your love. Abba, for those who struggle to believe they are fully known by You and fully loved by You, would you impart to them what they need to receive this truth fully? Would you bring clarity and help us see the walls of protection we build to protect our hearts, to protect us from further wounding? Lord those walls might keep our emotions from overwhelming us, might keep us from being hurt by others, but they also keep You out Abba. We cannot selectively build walls of protection in our hearts without keeping You out as well. O God, You are the gentle Shepherd. Gently remove the bricks we have placed to protect wounded areas of our hearts, and bring Your healing in. Lift our eyes to see Your face Jesus. Let us look deeply in, and believe once for all that You are good, and You mean good to us, and You desire us to receive all the love You would pour into our hearts, and then be the conduit to pour out onto others. We cannot help but have joy when we believe we are truly, wonderfully, wholly loved by You. Allow the painful truth of our lack of joy reveal our lack of belief that we are truly, wonderfully and wholly loved by You. We believe, O help our unbelief again, and again, and again until we believe it. Then may we walk in that joy of believing love, and may we be Your agent of grace as You pour out Your love through us onto and into others by the power of Your Spirit, the Seal of Your Love for us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Even as I
Good morning dear sisters.
Last night, the Intercession Team met to pray for us. We let the Spirit lead
the “conversation” and His heart is for our strengthening, our healing, our
marriages. We spent a long time praying for those who feel weary and heavy
laden, and for those who feel lonely and without community. He desires our
unity, and for His love to pour into us and through us. It was a sweet, sweet
time of prayer. The prayer team at large would be glad to continue to pray
through any specific requests you have, even anonymously. We believe He speaks,
He listens and He intimately cares for the needs of His own sheep, who know Him
and hear His Voice and follow Him (John 10) May we be encouraged today by a
strong sense of His presence and may the meditation of our hearts be pleasing
to Him. You may email requests to nicolechapingiven@gmail.com
If Ye Keep My Commandments,
Ye Shall Abide in My Love, Even as I have Kept My Father's Commandments, and
Abide in His Love--John 15:10
We have had occasion more
than once to speak of the perfect similarity of the vine and the branch in
nature, and therefore in aim. Here Christ speaks no longer in a parable, but
tells us plainly out of how His own life is the exact model of ours. He had
said that it is alone by obedience we can abide in His love. He now tells that
this was the way in which He abode in the Father's love. As the Vine, so the
branch. His life and strength and joy had been in the love of the Father: it
was only by obedience He abode in it. We may find our life and strength and joy
in His love all the day, but it is only by an obedience like His we can abide
in it. Perfect conformity to the Vine is one of the most precious of the
lessons of the branch. It was by obedience Christ as Vine honored the Father as
Husbandman; it is by obedience the believer as branch honors Christ as Vine.
Obey and abide--That was the
law of Christ's life as much as it is to be that of ours. He was made like us
in all things, that we might be like Him in all things. He opened up a path in
which we may walk even as He walked. He took our human nature to teach us how
to wear it, and show us how obedience, as it is the first duty of the creature,
is the only way to abide in the favor of God and enter into His glory. And now
He comes to instruct and encourage us, and asks us to keep His commandments,
even as He kept His Father's commandments and abides in His love.
The divine fitness of this
connection between obeying and abiding, between God's commandments and His
love, is easily seen. God's will is the very center of His divine perfection.
As revealed in His commandments, it opens up the way for the creature to grow
into the likeness of the Creat or. In accepting and doing His will, I rise into
fellowship with Him. Therefore it was that the Son, when coming into the world,
spoke: "I come to do thy will, O God"! This was the place and this would
be the blessedness of the creature. This was what had lost in the Fall. This
was what Christ came to restore. This is what, as the heavenly Vine, He asks of
us and imparts to us, that even as He by keeping His Father's commandments
abode in His love, we should keep His commandments and abide in His love.
Ye, even as I--The branch
cannot bear fruit except as it has exactly the same life as the Vine. Our life
is to be the exact counterpart of Christ's life. It can be, just in such
measure as we believe in Him as the Vine, imparting Himself and His life to His
branches. "Ye, even as I," the Vine says: one law, one nature, one
fruit. Do let us take from our Lord the lesson of obedience as the secret of
abiding. Let us confess that simple, implicit, universal obedience has taken
too little the place it should have. Christ died for us as enemies, when we
were disobedient. He took us up into His love; now that we are in Him, His Word
is: "Obey and abide; ye, even as I." Let us give ourselves to a
willing and loving obedience. He will keep us abiding in His love.
Ye, even as I. O my blessed
Vine, who makest the branch in everything partake of Thy life and likeness, in
this too I am to be like Thee: as Thy life in the Father's love through
obedience, so mine in Thy love! Saviour, help me, that obedience may indeed be
the link between Thee and me. . .
Lord thank You that You are
intimately acquainted with our need. Thank You that You know all that we go
through as people Jesus, because You consented to be born in the flesh, so that
we would have a Redeemer. You understand and sympathize with our weaknesses
because You were tempted in every way as we are, You experienced the
limitations of the body, as we do, yet You were without sin. You understand,
and You are our Savior. O teach us to boldly approach Your throne of grace to
find the mercy we need and the grace we need. Teach us to admit our need. Give
us courage to confess our need to one another, give us Your love to love one
another through frailty, through sin, through weakness. Your agape love heals
and restores… may we be Your willing conduits of grace and love toward one
another. Let us not be so easily offended, let us keep no record of wrongs
against one another. Especially in this next week O God, give us Your gift of
forgiveness toward others, release us from our own rights that lead to
bitterness and resentment, and let us see ourselves in the light of Your glory.
We have been forgiven of so very much. Give us Your agape love to walk in
forgiveness of others, for our freedom, their freedom and our mutual joy. We
ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Obey and Abide
Good morning : ) I pray as
we continue to read and soak in John 15, that the “how” of abiding will become
more and more clear. It’s not by striving to abide, but by keeping our eyes
fixed on Jesus. I’m learning that praying, resting and abiding, are pretty
synonymous in the spiritual realm. We (the prayer team) continue to pray
through your requests, and are so glad when you update us. We are grateful to
see how He is fulfilling His promise of peace that guards our hearts and minds,
as we by faith, with thanksgiving, submit our requests to Him. At the end of this post is prayer for us.
Today’s reading is entitled
Obey and Abide, and comes from John 15:10
If Ye Keep My
Commandments, Ye Shall Abide In My Love—John
15.10
In our former meditation reference was
made to the entrance into a life of rest and strength which has often come
through a true insight into the personal love of Christ, and the assurance that
that love indeed meant that He would keep the soul. In connection with that
transition, and the faith that sees and accepts it, the word surrender or
consecration is frequently used. The soul sees that it cannot claim the
keeping of this wonderful love unless it yields itself to a life of entire
obedience. It sees too that the faith that can trust Christ for keeping from
sinning must prove its sincerity by venturing at once to trust Him for strength to obey. In that faith it dares to give
up and cut off everything that has hitherto hindered it, and to promise and
expect to live a life that is well pleasing to God.
This is the thought we have here now in
our Savior’s teaching. After having in the words, “Abide in my love,” spoken of
a life in His love as a necessity, because it is at once a possibility and an
obligation, He states what its one condition is: “If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” This is surely not meant to close
the door to the abode of His love which he had just opened up. Not in the most
distant way does it suggest the thought which some are too ready to entertain,
that as we cannot keep His commandments, we cannot abide in His love. No; the precept
is a promise: “Abide in my love,” could not be a precept if it were not a
promise. And so the instruction as to the way through this open door points to
no unattainable ideal; the love that invites to her blessed abode reaches out
the hand, and enables us to keep the commandments. Let us not fear, in the
strength of our ascended Lord, to take the vow of obedience, and give ourselves
to the keeping of His commandments.
Through His will, loved and done, lies
the path to His love.
Only let us understand well what it
means. It refers to our performance of all that we know to be God’s will. There
may be things doubtful, of which we are not sure. A sin of ignorance has still
the nature of sin in it. There may be involuntary sins, which rise up in the flesh,
which we cannot control or overcome. With regard to these God will deal in due
time in the way of searching and humbling, and if we be simple and faithful,
give us larger deliverance than we dare expect. But all this may be found in a
truly obedient soul. Obedience has reference to the positive keeping of the
commandments of our Lord, and the performance of His will in everything in which we
know it. This is a possible degree of grace, and it is the acceptance in
Christ’s strength of such obedience as the purpose of our heart, of which our Savior
speaks here. Faith in Christ as our Vine, in His enabling and sanctifying
power, fits us for this obedience of faith, and secures a life of abiding in
His love.
If ye keep My commandments, ye shall
abide in My love—It is
the heavenly Vine unfolding the mystery of the life He gives. It is to those
abiding in Him to whom He opens up the secret of the full abiding in His love. It
is the wholehearted surrender in everything to do His will, that gives
access to a life in the abiding enjoyment of His love.
Obey and abide. Gracious Lord, teach me this lesson, that
it is only through knowing Thy will one can know Thy heart, and only through
doing that will one can abide in Thy love. Lord, teach me that as
worthless as is the doing in my own strength, so essential and absolutely
indispensable is the doing of faith in Thy strength, if I would abide in Thy
love.
Lord I am thankful Your command is a
promise: If you obey or keep My commands, you will abide in My love. Lord we
must trust You for the strength to obey, even in the very small, if we are to
trust You to keep us from the sin that so easily entangles. Abba teach us to
reject the lie that “it’s no big deal if I do…. “ or “it’s not that big a deal
if I…” Anything that keeps us from experiencing the abundant life You have
promised, must go. But we cannot make it go in our own strength. We are
entirely dependent upon You to fulfill Your very command to us! O teach us
again that to surrender our will to Yours is far easier in the long run and
produces the very thing we seek: Rest in You. Joy in You. Peace in You. Abiding
in You. Again teach us to cease striving and know You are God. Again may Your
Spirit speak louder than our “old hag”, our sin nature, who wants what she
wants when she wants it. May Your promise of abiding in Your love, through
abiding in You, be proved true in each of us today. May You show each of us the
time You have set aside for us to just be with You, to learn the sound of Your
Voice as You speak through Your word, Your Spirit, our hearts abiding. You are
faithful and true. We belong to You if we have put our faith in Your finished
work on the Cross. We desire more than just salvation and assurance of heaven.
We desire You, to know You, to walk intimately with You and know Your voice and
heart. O give us the courage to walk in obedience, even in the very small, and
give to us what You promise: abiding joy, abiding love. We pray in Jesus’ name,
amen.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Abide in My Love
| Good morning friends. It is good to be back home, and good to start back into the rhythm of our retreat. Thank you, those of you who prayed for me, who prayed for Brenda Hollenbach over the weekend as each of us spoke at different retreats. Your prayers helped us be just the branch, allowing God to give us His own strength, and His own words so that what was produced would last. So, so thankful. Today’s reading is Abide in My Love, and is from John 15:9 Instead of the highlights, I’ve included the entire devotional below. It is in public domain. If you missed the prior readings, here is the link to the online PDF. Even as the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also Have Loved You: Abide Ye in My Love—John 15.9 Abide in My love—We speak of a man’s home as his abode. Our abode, the home of our soul, is to be the love of Christ. We are to live our life there, to be at home there all the day: this is what Christ means our life to be, and really can make it. Our continuous abiding in the Vine is to be an abiding in His love. You have probably heard or read of what is called the higher, or the deeper life, of the richer or the fuller life, of the life abundant. And you possibly know that some have told of a wonderful change, by which their life of continual failure and stumbling had been changed into a very blessed experience of being kept and strengthened and made exceeding glad. If you asked them how it was this great blessing came to them, many would tell you it was simply this, that they were led to believe that this abiding in Christ’s love was meant to be a reality, and that they were made willing to give up everything for it, and then enabled to trust Christ to make it true to them. The love of the Father to the Son is not a sentiment—it is a divine life, an infinite energy, an irresistible power. It carried Christ through life and death and the grave. The Father loved Him and dwelt in Him, and did all for Him. So the love of Christ to us too is an infinite living power that will work in us all He delights to give us. The feebleness of our Christian life is that we do not take time to believe that this divine love does really delight in us, and will possess and work all in us. We do not take time to look at the Vine bearing the branch so entirely, working all in it so completely. We strive to do for ourselves what Christ alone can, what Christ, oh, so lovingly, longs to do for us. And this now is the secret of the change we spoke of, and the beginning of a new life, when the soul sees this infinite love willing to do all, and gives itself up to it. “Abide ye in my love.” To believe that, it is possible so to live moment by moment; to believe that everything that makes it difficult or impossible will be overcome by Christ Himself; to believe that Love really means an infinite longing to give itself wholly to us and never leave us; and in this faith to cast ourselves on Christ to work it in us; this is the secret of the true Christian life. And how to come to this faith? Turn away from the visible if you would see and possess the invisible. Take more time with Jesus, gazing on Him as the heavenly Vine, living in the love of the Father, wanting you to live in His love. Turn away from yourself and your efforts and your faith, if you would have the heart filled with Him and the certainty of His love. Abiding means going out from everything else, to occupy one place and stay there. Come away from all else, and set your heart on Jesus, and His love, that love will waken your faith and strengthen it. Occupy yourself with that love, worship it, wait for it. You may be sure it will reach out to you, and by its power take you up into itself as your abode and your home. Abide in My love. Lord Jesus, I see it, it was Thy abiding in Thy Father’s love that made Thee the true Vine, with Thy divine fullness of love and blessing for us. Oh, that I may even so, as a branch, abide in Thy love, for its fullness to fill me and overflow on all around. Lord we would be with You where You are that we may see Your glory. We would learn to abide in Your love. We would desire to desire to have You alone as our greatest hope, our greatest joy. Lord strip away for us that which is in the way, and grant us the grace to believe, by faith, it is for our good, our joy, our heart’s desire to abide in Your love. When we would strive, let us hear Your Spirit say, “rest daughter, in my Love.” Your love strengthens, confirms and heals. Your love invigorates all we do, think and speak. And this abundant life that has been so elusive for so long… is very near. You alone can make it true in us. O make it true in us Abba. We are branches, only branches. You are the Vinedresser and You intimately care for each branch, pruning each to encourage more fruit, abundant fruit, fruit that will last. Let us rest in that. You are the Vine, we are the branches. Do what You will, only make the truth of an abundant life, abiding in Your love, true in us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.. |
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