The Way To Know: by Oswald Chambers

If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.… — John 7:17

The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience. If things are dark to me, then I may be sure there is something I will not do. Intellectual darkness comes through ignorance; spiritual darkness comes because of something I do not intend to obey.

No man ever receives a word from God without instantly being put to the test over it. We disobey and then wonder why we don’t go on spiritually. “If when you come to the altar,” said Jesus, “there you remember your brother hath ought against you…don’t say another word to Me, but first go and put that thing right.” The teaching of Jesus hits us where we live. We cannot stand as humbugs before Him for one second. He educates us down to the scruple. The Spirit of God unearths the spirit of self-vindication; He makes us sensitive to things we never thought of before.

When Jesus brings a thing home by His word, don’t shirk it. If you do, you will become a religious humbug. Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually. First go — at the risk of being thought fanatical you must obey what God tells you.

The Christ Life: by Andrew Murray

"Christ lives in me."—Galatians 2: 20

"Christ is our life."—Colossians. 3:4

　　Christ’s life was more than His teaching, more than His work, more even than His death. It was His life in the sight of God and man that gave value to what He said and did and suffered. And it is this life, glorified in the resurrection, that He imparts to His people, and enables them to live out before men.
　　"Hereby shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another." It was the life in the new brotherhood of the Holy Spirit that made both Jews and Greeks feel that there was some super-human power about Christ's disciples; they gave living proof of the truth of what they said, that God's love had come down and taken possession of them.
　　It has often been said of the missionary, that unless he lives out the Christ life on an entirely different level from that on which other men live, he misses the deepest secret of power and success in his work. When Christ sent His disciples forth, it was with the command: "Tarry till ye be endued with power from on high." "Wait, and ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost, and be My witnesses to the ends of the earth." Many a missionary has felt that it is not learning and not zeal, and not the willingness for self-sacrifice in Christ's service, but the secret experience of the life hid with Christ in God, that enables him to meet and overcome every difficulty.
　　Everything depends upon the life with God in Christ being right. It was so with Christ, with the disciples, with Paul. It is the simplicity and intensity of our life in Christ Jesus, and of the life of Christ Jesus in us, that sustains a man in the daily drudgery of work, that makes him conquer over self and everything that could hinder the Christ life, and gives the victory over the powers of evil, and over the hearts from which the evil spirits have to be cast out.
　　The life is everything. It was so in Christ Jesus. It must be so in His servants. It can be so, because Christ Himself will live in us. When He spoke the word, "Lo, I am with you always," He meant nothing less than this: "Every day and all the day I am with you, the secret of your life, your joy, and your strength."
　　Oh, to learn what hidden treasures are contained in the blessed words we love to repeat: "Lo, I am with you all the days."

John's Missionary Message: by Andrew Murray

 "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ."—1 John 1:3

What a revelation of the calling of the preacher of the Gospel! His message is nothing less than to proclaim that Christ has opened the way for us simple men to have, day by day, living, loving fellowship with the holy God. He is to preach this as a witness to the life he himself lives in all its blessed experience. In the power of that testimony, he is to prove its reality, and to show how a sinful man upon earth can indeed live in fellowship with the Father and the Son.
The message suggests to us that the very first duty of the minister or the missionary every day of his life is to maintain such close communion with God that he can preach the truth in the fullness of joy, and with the consciousness that his life and conversation are the proof that his preaching is true, so that his words appeal with power to the heart:

"These things write we unto you that your joy may be full."

In an article in the I. R. M. of October 1914, on the influence of the Keswick Convention on mission work, the substance of Keswick teaching is given in these words:

"It points to a life of communion with God through Christ as a reality to be entered upon, and constantly maintained, by the unconditional and habitual surrender of the whole personality to Christ's control and government, in the assurance that the living Christ will take possession of the life thus yielded to Him."

It is such teaching, revealing the infinite claim and power of Christ's love as maintained by the power of the Holy Spirit, that will encourage and compel men to make the measure of Christ's surrender for them the only measure of their surrender to Him and His service.
It is this intimate fellowship with Christ as the secret of daily service and testimony that has power to make Christ known as the deliverer from sin and the inspiration of a life of wholehearted devotion to His service.
It is this intimate and abiding fellowship with Christ that the promise, "I am with you always," secures to us. This is what every missionary needs, what every missionary has a right to claim, and by which alone he maintains that spiritual efficiency that will influence the workers and the converts with whom he comes in contact.

My Life’s Spiritual Honor and Duty: by Oswald Chambers

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians… —Romans 1:14

Paul was overwhelmed with the sense of his indebtedness to Jesus Christ, and he spent his life to express it. The greatest inspiration in Paul’s life was his view of Jesus Christ as his spiritual creditor. Do I feel that same sense of indebtedness to Christ regarding every unsaved soul? As a saint, my life’s spiritual honor and duty is to fulfill my debt to Christ in relation to these lost souls. Every tiny bit of my life that has value I owe to the redemption of Jesus Christ. Am I doing anything to enable Him to bring His redemption into evident reality in the lives of others? I will only be able to do this as the Spirit of God works into me this sense of indebtedness.

I am not a superior person among other people— I am a bondservant of the Lord Jesus. Paul said, “…you are not your own…you were bought at a price…” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul sold himself to Jesus Christ and he said, in effect, “I am a debtor to everyone on the face of the earth because of the gospel of Jesus; I am free only that I may be an absolute bondservant of His.” That is the characteristic of a Christian’s life once this level of spiritual honor and duty becomes real. Quit praying about yourself and spend your life for the sake of others as the bondservant of Jesus. That is the true meaning of being broken bread and poured-out wine in real life.

Paul: Christ Revealed In Me: by Andrew Murray

 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased  to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 
Galatians 1:15-16

In all our study and worship of Christ we find our thoughts ever gathering round these five points: The Incarnate Christ, the Crucified Christ, the Enthroned Christ, the Indwelling Christ, and the Christ coming in glory. If the first be the seed, the second is the seed cast into the ground, and the third the seed growing up to the very heaven. Then follows the fruit through the Holy Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart; and then the gathering of the fruit into the garner when Christ appears.
Paul tells us that it pleased God to reveal His Son in Him. And he gives his testimony to the result of that revelation; 'Christ liveth in me, Gal 2:20. Of that life he says that its chief mark is that he is crucified wit Christ. It is this that enables him to say 'I live no longer'; in Christ he had found the death of self. Just as the Cross is the chief characteristic of Christ Himself--'A lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the throne'--so the life of Christ in Pau l made him inseparably one with his crucified Lord. So completely was this the case that he could say: 'Far be it from me to glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which I am crucified to the world.'
If you had asked Paul, if Christ so actually lived in him that he no longer lived, what became of his responsibility?, the answer was ready and clear 'I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.' His life was every moment a life of faith of the in the life of Him who had loved him and given Himself so completely that He had undertaken at all times to be the life of His willing disciple.
This was the sum and substance of all Paul's teaching. He asks for intercession that he might speak 'the mystery of Christ'; 'even the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Col 2:2; 1:27). The indwelling Christ was the secret of his life and work, the hope of glory. Let us believe in the abiding presence of Christ as the sure gift to each one who trusts Him fully.

The Church: What Does God Say? By AW Tozer

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.—2 Timothy 3:16

I knew a man from India who got hold of a New Testament, was converted and started to preach, but he had no background at all. That is, he started from scratch. He did not have a Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic or Protestant background. He just started from the beginning. He didn't know anything about churches. He testified, "What I did when I had a problem in the church was to go straight to the New Testament and settle it. I let the New Testament tell me what I was to do." The result was that God greatly blessed him and his work in the land of India.

This is what I would like to see in our church—the New Testament order of letting Scripture decide matters. When it comes to a question—any question—what does the Word of God say? All belief and practices should be tested by the Word; no copying unscriptural church methods. We should let the Word of God decide. Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, 140.

"Lord, as our Board meets this month would You direct us to seek Your mind. We're mostly businessmen and we know how to make decisions. But remind us, Lord, that that's not enough in Your work; we need clear direction from Your Word and Your Spirit. Amen."

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say… Genesis 3:1

The Cross We Bear Must Be Assumed Voluntarily: by AW Tozer

For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Philippians 1:29

In the Christian faith there is a real sense in which the cross of Christ embraces all crosses and the death of Christ encompasses all deaths: “If one died for all, then were all dead….”

This is in the judicial working of God in redemption. The Christian as a member of the body of Christ is crucified along with his divine Head. Before God every true believer is reckoned to have died when Christ died. All subsequent experience of personal crucifixion is based upon this identification with Christ on the cross.

But in the practical, everyday outworking of the believer’s crucifixion his own cross is brought into play. “Let him… take up his cross.” That is obviously not the cross of Christ. Rather, it is the believer’s own personal cross by means of which the cross of Christ is made effective in slaying his evil nature and setting him free from its power.

The believer’s own cross is one he has assumed voluntarily. Therein lies the difference between his cross and the cross on which Roman convicts died. They went to the cross against their will; he, because he chooses to do so. No Roman officer ever pointed to a cross and said, “If any man will, let him!” Only Christ said that, and by so saying He placed the whole matter in the hands of the Christian believer. Each of us, then, should count himself dead indeed with Christ and accept willingly whatever of self-denial, repentance, humility and humble sacrifice that may be found in the path of obedient daily living.

God Never Violates Our Freedom of Choice: by AW Tozer

. . . And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.  Revelation 22:17

It is inherent in the nature of man that his will must be free.  Made in the image of God who is completely free, man must enjoy a measure of freedom.  This enables him to select his companions for this world and the next; it enables him to yield his soul to whom he will, to give allegiance to God or the devil, to remain a sinner or become a saint.

And God respects this freedom.  God once saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.  To find fault with the smallest thing God has made is to find fault with its Maker.  It is a false humility that would lament that God wrought but imperfectly when He made man in His own image.  Sin excepted, there is nothing in human nature to apologize for.  This was confirmed forever when the Eternal Son became permanently incarnated in human flesh!

So highly does God regard His handiwork that He will not for any reason violate it.  He will take nine steps toward us but He will not take the tenth.  He will incline us to repent, but He cannot do our repenting for us.  It is of the essence of repentance that it can only be done by the one who committed the act to be repented of.  God can wait on the sinning man, He can withhold judgment, He can exercise long suffering to the point where He appears lax in His judicial administration - but He cannot force a man to repent.  To do this would be to violate the man's freedom and void the gift of God originally bestowed upon him.  The believer knows he is free to choose - and with that knowledge he chooses forever the blessed will of God! 

Life through Death: by TA Sparks

Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9)

We shall not be able to raise ourselves any more than we can crucify ourselves, but we must recognize that the Lord's dealings with us are with that in view. In order to display the power of His resurrection, He will very often have to take the attitude toward us of letting things get well beyond all human power to remedy or save, of allowing things to go so far that there is no other power in all the universe that can do anything whatever to save the situation. He will allow death, disintegration to work, so that nothing, nothing in the universe is of any avail, except the power of His resurrection.

We shall come to the place where Abraham came, who became the great type of faith which moved right into resurrection:

"He considered his own body now as good as dead" (Rom. 4:19).

That is the phrase used by the apostle about Abraham: "as good as dead." And Paul came into that:

"We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:9).

Whatever else men may be able to do in the realm of creation, they stop short when death has actually taken place; they can do no more. Resurrection is God's act, and God's alone. Men can do very many things when they have got life, but when there is no life it is only God who can do anything. And God will allow His Church and its members oft-times to get into such situations as are altogether beyond human help, in order that He may give the display, which is His own display, in which no man has any place to glory.