A Thankful Heart Cannot Also Be Cynical: by AW Tozer

thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20

Let me recommend the cultivation of the habit of thankfulness as an effective cure for the cynical, sour habits of faultfinding among Christian believers.

Thanksgiving has great curative power. The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many religious persons. A thankful heart cannot be cynical!

Please be aware that I am not recommending any of the “applied psychology” nostrums so popular in liberal circles. We who have been introduced to God through the miracle of the new birth realize that there is good scriptural authority for the cultivation of gratitude as a cure for spiritual sourness. Further, experience teaches us that it works!

We should never take any blessing for granted, but accept everything as a gift from the Father of Lights. We should write on a tablet, one by one, the things for which we are grateful to God and to our fellow men.

Personally, I have gotten great help from the practice of talking over with God the many kindnesses I have received. I like to begin with thanking Him for His thoughts of me back to creation; for giving His Son to die for me when I was still a sinner; for giving the Bible and His blessed Spirit who inwardly gives us understanding of it. I thank Him for my parents, teachers, statesmen, patriots.

I am grateful to God for all of these and more—and I shall not let God forget that I am!

The Fulfillment of God’s Desires: by Andrew Murray

For the LORD has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling:
 "This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it-- Psalm 132:13-14

Here you have the one great desire of God that moved Him in the work of redemption. His heart longed for man, to dwell with him and in him.

To Moses He said: “Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” And just as Israel had to prepare the dwelling for God, even so His children are now called to yield themselves for God to dwell in them and to win others to become His habitation. As the desire of God toward us fills our hearts, it will waken within us the desire to gather others around us to become His dwelling too.

What an honor! What a high calling, to count my worldly business as entirely secondary and to find my life and my delight in winning souls in whom God may find His heart’s delight! “Here will I dwell; for I have desired it.”

And this is what I can above all do through intercession. I can pray to God for those around me, to give them His Holy Spirit. it is God’s great plan that man himself shall build Him a habitation. it is in answer to the unceasing intercession of His children that God will give His power and blessing. As this great desire to God fills us, we shall give ourselves wholly to labor for its fulfillment.

Think of David, when he thought of God’s desire to dwell in Israel, how he said: “I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” And shall not we, to whom it has been revealed what that indwelling of God may be, give our lives for the fulfillment of His heart’s desire?

Oh, let us begin as never before to pray for our children, for the souls around us,, and for all the world. And we pray not only because we love them, but especially because God longs for them and gives us the honor of being the channels through whom His blessing is brought down. Children of God, awake to the realization of what it means that God is seeking to train you as intercessors through whom the great desire of His loving heart can be satisfied!

O God who hast said of human hearts, “Here will I dwell for I have desired it,” teach us, we pray Thee, to pray day and night that the desire of Thy heart may be fulfilled. Amen

Revelation: by TA Sparks

To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. (Revelation 2:17)

God always keeps the revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations. You and I can never get revelation other than in connection with some necessity. We cannot get it simply as a matter of information. That is information, that is not revelation. We cannot get it by studying. When the Lord gave the manna in the wilderness (a type of Christ as the Bread from heaven), He stipulated very strongly that not one fragment more than the day's need was to be gathered, and that if they went beyond the measure of immediate need, disease and death would break out and overtake them. The principle, the law, of the manna, is that God keeps revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations of necessity, and we are not going to have revelation as mere teaching, doctrine, interpretation, theory, or anything as a thing, which means that God is going to put you and me into situations where only the revelation of Christ can help us and save us....

Now then, that is why the Lord would keep us in situations which are acute, real. The Lord is against our getting out on theoretical lines with truth, out on technical lines. Oh, let us shun technique as a thing in itself and recognize this, that, although the New Testament has in it a technique, we cannot merely extract the technique and apply it. We have to come into New Testament situations to get a revelation of Christ to meet that situation. So that the Holy Spirit's way with us is to bring us into living, actual conditions and situations, and needs, in which only some fresh knowledge of the Lord Jesus can be our deliverance, our salvation, our life, and then to give us, not a revelation of truth, but a revelation of the Person, new knowledge of the Person, that we come to see Christ in some way that just meets our need. We are not drawing upon an "it," but upon a "Him."

The Peril of Divided Loyalties: by TA Sparks

Be ready to spread the word whether or not the time is right. Point out errors, warn people, and encourage them. 2 Timothy 4:2

Even good people who have been blessed of the Lord, to whom He has shown His favor and whom He has used very greatly, may in the end be involved in spiritual tragedy if for some reason compromise has entered in. It may have come in because of policy. What a snare policy is! We tell ourselves we must be very careful that we do not do this or that because it may have such and such a result. It is all policy and diplomacy. "We must be careful to avoid..." – what? Just what we seek to avoid betrays the whole case. Are we afraid of losing prestige with men, support, friends, position, opportunity? Do these things weigh with us as over against implicit obedience to the Lord? If so, there is divided loyalty; and if we allow it, we may at the end pass into terrible tragedy; the tragedy that always follows compromise....

If spiritual fullness is to be reached, we have to be governed by Divine and heavenly principles, and not by human considerations. Divine principles; not, "What will the consequences be?" not, "What shall we lose?" not even, "What will the Lord lose?" because that is a very subtle argument. The Lord does not ask us to reason this thing out on that level at all. He says, "What is the Divine principle? Let that principle govern and guide." You may not see at all how it is going to work out. If you are governed by Divine principles you may seem to lose a lot here; you may, for a time, have to go out with David and wait. But in the end the principles will be vindicated. You have to recognize that compromise on principle only brings disaster. You see it everywhere.... We must say, "What has the Lord revealed? It will mean this, it will cost that, it will involve me thus; but that is not the point. I am not going to be influenced or governed by consequences at all. Policy must have no place with me. What God has revealed – that is the only argument for me."

The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances: by Oswald Chambers

November 7, 2014 We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28

The circumstances of a saint’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit’s work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession— utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, “…but the Spirit Himself makes intercession” in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.

Stand in Victory! from Watchman Nee (Sit, Walk, Stand)

“Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with Truth (the Verity of God’s Word) . . . !” Ephesians 6:14

Satan’s primary object is not to get us to sin . . .  But simply to take us off the ground of perfect Rest (Sabbath – faith) in Christ !

     Only those who sit (with Christ – Ephesians 2:6) can stand. Our power for standing, as for walking, lies in our having first been made to sit together with Christ. The Christian’s walk and warfare alike derive their strength from His position there. If he (the Christian) is not sitting before God, in His Presence . . .
he cannot hope to stand before the enemy . . . .

Satan’s primary object is . . . . simply to make it easy for us to do so (to sin) by getting us off the ground of perfect triumph onto which the Lord (our Sovereign King) has brought us !
Through the avenue of the head or the heart, through our intellect or our feelings, he assaults our Rest in Christ, or our walk in the Spirit.   But for every point of his attack, defensive armor has been provided . . . . the helmet and the breastplate, the girdle and the shoes, while over all is the shield of faith to turn aside the fiery darts (of Satan’s lies and temptations, those words which sting and cut us).
Faith says: Christ is exalted !   Faith says: We are saved (delivered, rescued, set free, healed and made whole) by His grace!
Faith says: We have access through Him.   Faith says: He indwells us by His Spirit !   (see Ephesians 1:20, 2:8, 3:12 & 17). Because victory is His . . . . therefore it is ours ! If only we will not try to gain the victory, but simply to maintain (except as our own) it,  then we shall see the enemy utterly routed !
We must not ask the Lord to enable us to overcome the enemy, nor even to look to Him to overcome, but Praise Him because He has already done so; He is Victor !    It is all a matter of faith in Him. If we believe the Lord, we shall not pray (plead) so much, but rather praise Him more.
The simpler and clearer our faith in Him, the less we shall pray (plead), and the more we shall Praise (speak in praise our thanks to HIm) ! Let me say again: In Christ we are already conquerors . . . !

It us obvious then that, since this is so, for us to merely pray for victory -uncles that prayer is shot through with Praise – must be to court defeat, by throwing away our fundamental (foundation in Christ) position ?

Let me ask you: Has defeat been your experience? Have you found yourself hoping that one day you will be strong enough to win? Then my prayer for you can go no further than that of the apostle Paul to his Ephesian readers . . . .  It is that God may open your eyes anew to see yourself seated with Him Who has Himself been made to sit

“far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named . . . !” Ephesians 1:20-21

The difficulties around you may not alter; the lion may roar as loudly as ever; but you need no longer hope to overcome. For in Christ Jesus you are Victor in the field . . . !”

Obedience or Independence? By Oswald Chambers

If you love Me, keep My commandments. —John 14:15

Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.

The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

We All Need Instruction: by TA Sparks

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63

Do you notice that whenever the Spirit is mentioned the Spirit is related to Life? Life, then, is a matter of righteousness. The "ministration of righteousness" means the ministration of Life, or the standing in Life with an unveiled face, without fear of condemnation, or judgment. It is most important to recognize this truth. It is elementary. It is one of the first things of our faith. It may sound technical, but the Lord's people need instruction. It is good to have exhortation; it is good that we should have testimony; it is good that from time to time the Word of the Lord should come to us in the fullness of a proclamation, but as the Lord's people we also need sound instruction, foundation in the truth.

There are today a great number of the Lord's people who are finding it well nigh impossible to stand their ground because their foundation is not solid. After all, their relationship to the Lord has been very largely an emotional one, one of ecstasy, and when it comes to sounding the foundation of truth, they are not well grounded; when the enemy comes, and the storms beat upon them, they do not know where they are. When the ecstasies and the emotions and all the more superficial elements in our salvation are brought under the stress of terrific opposition; when in addition to that the enemy lays on his accusations, then the foundations are discovered, and many, many breakdown. It is not that they are lost, if they have trusted the Lord, but, so far as their enjoyment of their salvation is concerned, they lose it. So it is necessary for us to be thoroughly instructed in the Word, and this is one of the things about which we must be perfectly clear in heart and mind, and assured in spirit, that Life, with all that it means – the Life of an unveiled fellowship with the Lord, the Life which in itself sets forth victory over death and the abolishing of condemnation – that Life is rooted in righteousness, a ministration of righteousness. It must be possible for us to say with perfect assurance and confidence before God: "Lord, what I am as apart from Christ is one thing; what I am by faith's union with Christ is that I am righteous with Thine own righteousness; I cannot be destroyed, I cannot come under condemnation!" You can challenge God on that ground, if we may so speak. God invites us to test Him on that ground.