Flowing Rivers From Within
Posted by jerrywhite on May 9, 2013
He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38).
~~~
“A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, ‘rivers of living water’ will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even ‘to the end of the earth’ (Acts 1:8) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow—‘This is the work of God, that you believe…’(John 6:29). God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.
A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, but then comes to an obstacle. And for a while it is blocked, yet it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again even broader and greater than ever. Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life and you do not seem to be of any use to God? Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you around the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty. The obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river that will flow steadily through you if you will simply remember to stay focused on the Source. Never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ—not emotion nor experience—nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.”
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
My Utmost For His Highest, September 6
~~~
Oswald Chambers was converted on hearing Charles H. Spurgeon. He studied art and then entered college in 1897 to train for the Baptist ministry. He became a Bible teacher. He died at age 43 never knowing the impact his life would make through his teachings that were compiled by his wife after his death in the classic devotional book known throughout the world, My Utmost For His Highest. The rivers from Chambers still flow.
Email This Post
Waiting In Stillness
Posted by jerrywhite on Jan 21, 2013
“Blessed the man who learns the lesson of stillness and fully accepts God’s Word, ‘In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.’ Each time he listens to the word of the Father, or asks the Father to listen to his words, he dares not begin his Bible reading or prayer without first pausing and waiting, until the soul be hushed in the presence of the Eternal Majesty. Under a sense of the Divine nearness, the soul, feeling how self is always ready to assert itself, and intrude even into the holiest of all with its thoughts and efforts, yields itself in a quiet act of self-surrender to the teaching and working of the Divine Spirit. It is still and waits in holy silence, until all is calm and ready to receive the revelation of the Diving will and presence. Its reading and prayer then indeed become a waiting on God with ear and heart opened and purged to receive fully only what He says.
‘Abide in Christ!’ Let no one think that he can do this if he has not daily his quiet time, his seasons of meditation and waiting on God.”
Andrew Murray
Abide In Christ
~~~
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Psalm 37:7a (ESV)
~~~
With sound readily available to us through electronics, solitude and silence in our day are neglected disciplines. Those accustomed to sound may even find stillness and aloneness a bit frightening. Aloneness with His Father in a quiet place was a regular practice of the Lord Jesus. He found it absolutely essential for His daily life and ministry. If it was true for Him, is it not true for us also? If I were to entertain a very godly person for meaningful fellowship and conversation would I be so rude as to do so while listening to something else? Those who want to grow in conformity to Christ cultivate the blessed habit of being alone with the Lord Jesus in silence with single-eye focus and reverence so they can wait upon Him to hear His heart, and sometimes just enjoy the safe stillness of His presence
Email This Post
Wholehearted Disciples
Posted by jerrywhite on Dec 13, 2012
“When the Lord Jesus was here upon the earth, what was it that distinguished His disciples from other people? He took them away from their fishing nets and their homes, He gathered them about Himself and they knew Jesus. He was their Master; He guarded them, and they followed Him.
And what is to make a difference between Christ’s disciples—not those who are just hoping to get to heaven, but Christ’s wholehearted disciples—what is to make a difference between them and other people? It is this: They are in fellowship with Jesus every hour of the day. And just as Christ upon earth was able to keep those people with Him for three years, day by day, so Christ is able in heaven now to do what He could not do when he was on earth—to keep in the closest fellowship with every believer throughout the whole world.
Glory be to God! ‘He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things’ (Ephesians 4:10). Why was my Lord Jesus taken up to heaven away from the life of earth? Because the life of earth is a life confined to localities, but the life in heaven is a life in which there is no limit and no bound and no locality. Christ was taken up to heaven so that, in the power of the omnipresent God, He might be able to fill and be with every individual here.
That is what my heart wants to realize by faith; that is a possibility, that is a promise, that is my birthright, and I want to have it. I want by the grace of God to say, ‘Jesus, I will not rest until Thou hast revealed Thyself fully to my soul.”
Andrew Murray
Jesus Himself: A Call to Spiritual Intimacy, 12-13 (1996)
~~~
The saints I met through many years who displayed authentic Christian living were those who discovered how to live with an every moment consciousness of Christ’s presence with them and in them. To them He was not a distant figure, or an occasional thought, but rather He was a living reality as much as if He were physically present. These believers took literally His promise of being with them always, and they lived out its implications in their daily walk. Their complete surrender to Christ and simple trust in Him brought an obvious love, joy, and peace to their lives that other professing Christians do not know.
Email This Post
Only Believe
Posted by jerrywhite on Aug 29, 2012
“O Christian, only believe that there is a victorious life! Christ the victor is your Lord. He will undertake for you in everything and will enable you to do all that the Father expects from you. Be of good courage. Will you not trust Him to do this great work for you who has given His life for you and has forgiven your sins?
Dare, in His power, to surrender yourself to the life of those who are kept from sin by the power of God. Along with the deepest conviction that there is no good in you, confess that you see in the Lord Jesus all the goodness of which you have need, for the life of a child of God. Begin to literally to live ‘by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20).
Thank God, a life of victory is sure for those who have a knowledge of their inward ruin and are hopeless in themselves. But, who, in ‘the confidence of despair’ have looked to Jesus, and, in faith in His power to make the act of surrender possible for them, they have done it, in His might, and now rely on Him alone every day and every hour.”
Andrew Murray
Fill Me With Hope, October 21
Compiled by Paul M. Miller
~~~
If Christ lives in you by His Spirit, then why is He there? What difference should it make in your daily living? How will it affect how you live today in your responsibilities? Will you live out of your self-life—your own soul’s energy—or will you live out of His abundant life within you — out of His power? How will you live out of His power? What will you do to deny living out of your futile self-life so you can live triumphantly from His strength within by His Spirit? Christ in you as a believer is a wasted gift if you do not live out of His all-powerful life but choose instead to live in the strength of your own soul. The Lord Jesus lived by complete dependence on His Father in all things every day, and this graphically shows us how we should live our lives — by total dependence like He did. The branch draws its life from the vine.
Email This Post
Abide Now
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 12, 2012
“It has been well said that in that little word now lies one of the deepest secrets of the life of faith. At the close of a conference on the spiritual life a minister of experience rose and spoke. He did not know that he had learned any truth he did not know before, but he had learned that it was his privilege at each moment, whatever surrounding circumstances might be, to say, ‘Jesus saves me now.’ This is indeed the secret of rest and victory. If I can say, ‘Jesus is to me at this moment all that God gave Him to be—life, and strength, and peace,’ I have but as I say it to hold still, and rest, and realize it, and for that moment I have what I need. As my faith sees how of God I am in Christ, and takes the place in Him my Father has provided, my soul can peacefully settle down. Now I abide in Christ.
Believer! When striving to find the way to abide in Christ from moment to moment, remember that the gateway is: Abide in Him at this present moment. Instead of wasting effort in trying to get into a state that will last, just remember that it is Christ Himself, the living, loving Lord, who alone can keep you, and is waiting to do so. Begin at once and act faith in Him for the present moment; this is the only way to be kept the next. To attain the life of permanent and perfect abiding is not ordinarily given at once as a possession for the future; it comes mostly step by step. Avail yourself, therefore, of every opportunity of exercising the trust of the present moment. Each time you bow in prayer, let there first be an act of simple devotion: ‘Father, I am in Christ; abiding in Him now.’ Even when overtaken by sin, and the heart within is all disturbed and excited, O let your first look upwards be with the word, ‘Father, I have sinned; and yet I come—though I blush to say it—as one who is in Christ. Father! Here I am; I can take no other place; of God I am in Christ; I now abide in Christ.’ Yes, Christian, in every possible circumstance, every moment of the day, the voice is calling, ‘Abide in me. Do it now.’”
Andrew Murray
Abide In Christ, 110-112 (Grosset & Dunlap, 1965. I updated the pronouns)
~~~
This comes from the copy of one of the first books I read in my middle twenties that caused me to know there is a deeper way in the Christian life than I had known. It is a classic on abiding in Christ.
Email This Post
