4:11). Here is the reason why so many Christians, even preachers, are so unfruitful. Such a man also has a first-hand knowledge of the loving care of the Chief Shepherd, and His ability to heal one who has come humbly to trust in Him and Him alone. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing” (7:18). Many want to do God’s work but are unable, because of the ‘flesh’ in their lives.”. On these two factors rests the ability to appropriate—to reach out in steadfast faith and receive that which belongs to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field… He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom” (Matt. It is a matter not so much of that from which we are saved as of that unto which we are saved” (T. Austin-Sparks). This is the condition of many Christians. I praise Thee that I have already full victory in this matter” (Watchman Nee). It will help new believers build their lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. After reading the first few pages, I knew I had something in my hand that was extraordinary. Up-to-the-moment confession and consequent cleansing have also constituted a popular method. 14:15, Amplified). Our Heavenly Father is still carrying out His purpose of making man in His image. The tragedy of this sort of thing is that self is at home and thrives in the glow of it all and is rarely found out for what it really is. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. 13:5), and the recommendation is certainly not out of order at the very inception of this series of studies. 5:17). “And whosoever cloth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (14:27). And everyone knows that evidence must be founded on facts. This is why so many people with all sincerity walk down the aisles again and again, consecrating uncrucified self to God” (H. Duncan). If he is alive unto sin it will be due largely to the fact that he has failed to reckon himself dead unto sin” (Ruth Paxson). First, that we should seek to understand aright the Spirit’s teaching on this subject. We have to be prepared, and even then there is much time and digging and praying and meditation and yearning and experiencing involved. ‘Now where remission of [sin] is, there is no more offering for sin’ (Heb. There cannot be two masters in our lives. 3:24); “We walk by faith” (II Cor. Little by little we receive that which is already ours. “Justified by faith” (Gal. Now take the next step. ‘Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin. We must get to know ourselves and that we have no strength. Ruth Paxson: “The old ‘I’ in you and me was judicially crucified with Christ. And all the time they are resisting the main instrument in the Father’s hand for conforming us to the image of His Son! Now we have seen a third element involved in our appropriation. What is lacking amongst believers to this day is the proper emphasis on growth—not just to be saved, and heaven by and by. To counterbalance knowledge of self, our Father enables us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Pet. “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (Isa. There is a power within that draws us to sin, and when that power breaks out we commit sins. “As our Substitute He went to the cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins; as our Representative, He took us with Him to the cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together with Christ. endobj “Since the work of God is essentially spiritual, it demands spiritual people for its doing; and the measure of their spirituality will determine the measure of their value to the Lord. A man who is thus minded says, ‘By any road!’ Here is a very difficult road, a road beset by enemies, but the passionate desire for the goal will hold him steadfast in the way. How often we simply admire and talk about truths the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the Word, whereas His primary purpose in giving them to us is that we might stand on them in faith, waiting confidently for Him to make them an integral part of our life. Have we been afraid to really believe God? Introspection is not involved here—the Holy Spirit uses experiential revelation. Our attitude becomes: I gladly and willingly take, by faith in the facts, my finished work of emancipation that was established at Calvary; I reckon myself to be dead indeed to sin and alive to God in Christ. And we receive the benefits of the work of the cross simply by reckoning on, or believing in, the finished work of the cross. 1. You have to be restored to fellowship, and when you are, you find your acceptance with God unchanged and unchangeable. endobj This is surely a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the Divine way. Grace, once bestowed, is not withdrawn: for God knew all the human exigencies beforehand: His action was independent of them, not dependent upon them…, “To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret.“To refuse to make ‘resolutions’ and ‘vows’; for that is to trust in the flesh.“To expect to be blessed, though realizing more and more lack of worth…“To rely on God’s chastening [child training] hand as a mark of His kindness…, “To ‘hope to be better’ [hence acceptable] is to fail to see yourself in Christ only.“To be disappointed with yourself, is to have believed in yourself.“To be discouraged is unbelief,—as to God’s purpose and plan of blessing for you.“To be proud, is to be blind! Along that road the Man Christ Jesus has already gone before, and at every point has overcome for us. One must reckon himself dead to the hard, cold, selfish ‘I’ before the softening influence of the Holy Spirit can operate, qualifying the believer in the service of God. Norman Douty writes: “If I am to be like Him, then God in His grace must do it, and the sooner I come to recognize it the sooner I will be delivered from another form of bondage. A meteor is on a shortcut as it proceeds to burn out, but not a star, with its steady light so often depended on by navigators. Paul wrote that he would “pray with my spirit—by the Holy Spirit that is within me; but I will also pray intelligently—with my mind and understanding” (I Cor. “I must recognize that the enemy within the camp—the flesh, the old nature, self, I, the old Adam is a usurper. [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] And our identification with Him on Calvary took us into death, down into the tomb, up into newness of life. There are great days, days of decisive battles, days of crises in spiritual history, days of triumph in Christian service, days of the right hand of God upon us. We may sometimes feel inclined to be impatient with ourselves because we do not make more rapid progress, but we have to learn to trust the Lord with our spiritual education. Our part is not production but reception of our life in Christ. In other words, Calvary is as much the foundation of sanctification as of justification. Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit, as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our Sanctification, to be appropriated by faith alone…. When the believer begins to really see the cross for what it is—a place of death—he is inclined to hesitate about choosing such fellowship. Isaiah 64:4 refers to what God “hash prepared for [does in behalf of] him that waiteth for him.”, T. Austin-Sparks gives us two valuable thoughts regarding this all-important gap—usually a matter of years—between the actual appropriation and the practical experience. Our Father strips everything away from time to time in order to give us the opportunity of loving and trusting and responding to Him just because He is our Father. In simple trust we must rest in His hands, “being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. The "Principles of Spiritual Growth" ebook goes to the basics of the Christian life -- the cross of Christ, faith, purpose, discipleship and more. “So often in the battle,” says Austin-Sparks, “we go to the Lord, and pray, and plead, and appeal for victory, for ascendancy, for mastery over the forces of evil and death, and our thought is that in some way the Lord is going to come in with a mighty exercise of power and put us into a place of victory and spiritual ascendancy as in an act. 55:8, 9). This is reality which springs from faith founded on the facts of the Word. Here is the image of God back on earth, this time in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s “last Adam” (I Cor. How can this be? People, circumstances, etc. This is the steadying influence most believers are in need of today. 10:18). SPIRITUAL GROWTH PROGRESS SURVEY As a Christian, each one of us is on a spiritual journey. Once in possession of a truth, we are to rest—He will produce. God is able to be at peace with us through our Lord Jesus Christ, “having made peace through the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20). Because this is so, in God’s mind the servant is more than the work. “Progress is only advancing in the knowledge, the spiritual knowledge, of what we really possess at the outset. To know God’s way of deliverance from sin as a master he must apprehend the truth contained in the sixth chapter of Romans. We have go through and so i am confident that i am going to planning to read through yet again again in the foreseeable future. Every believer is accepted by the Father, in Christ. Sadly today, most believers actually reason just the opposite—from themselves to God. 6:11). Every believer is thereby freed from all bondage, but not every believer is aware of this liberating truth. 6:4), eternal life. Regarding the first essential, to see that which is already ours, William R. Newell wrote: “Paul does not ask a thing of the saints in the first three chapters of Ephesians but just to listen while he proclaims that wondrous series of great and eternal FACTS concerning them; and not until he has completed this catalogue of realities about them does he ask them to do anything at all! we diverge from the state in which God can ever be toward us as recorded in Romans 5:1-11. The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. And so, for the making personal of the Divine among men, the first thing needed is one in whom the principle of the Divine life has become personal. This applies to both growth and service. “So, in the spiritual labor of faith, the moment or period comes when we know. With the entrance of Christ into the human individual, the Divine life becomes imminent in us, not in its universal world-relation, but as a personal principle, so that man is not only a being made of God, but a being begotten of God. and the second, If so, upon what basis does He do so? But we know that Adam chose his own way in preference to God’s way, relying on himself only, loving just himself. They take us from the “help me” attitude to that of giving thanks; from begging to appropriation. You will handle your life better when you grow spiritually. Through this process we are patiently taught to walk by faith, to maintain our attitude of reliance on the finished work of the cross. You are getting Three books with your order. 1:21). Alexander R. Hay: “The believer has been united with Christ in His death. Paul’s determination for each of his converts was: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. Ph. But while that life is itself victorious, incorruptible, indestructible, the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its laws, to be conformed to it. Now, once we come to see the fact of the further aspect, we are urged in the Word to stand on the liberating truth of our dying with Christ in His death to sin, which allows the Holy Spirit to bring into our lives freedom from the power, the enslavement, of sin—progressive sanctification. 6:14). From an infinite number of ways, He chooses the most effective for each individual’s transition. There will be a building up goes principles of spiritual growth pdf the churches are, you find your acceptance with unchanged. Sins, namely, on the basis of faith help new believers their. 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