New Life a Must: by TA Sparks

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. John 3:5

No one has ever yet been "volitionalized" into the kingdom of God; that is, so appealed to in their wills to make a decision, and to determine to be in the kingdom of God, as by the strength of that decision and that determination to have got through. It cannot be done. A great deal of mistake has been made in that connection, and an entirely false position has been brought about for multitudes of people because the effort has been made along those lines, and they have been appealed to along those lines to exercise their own reason, and their own feelings, and their own wills, as though that would regenerate them.

Thus interest and activity in Christianity is one thing, but being in the kingdom is quite another. Multitudes of good-meaning people are interested in Christianity, and are active in Christianity. They see the value of the Christian standard of life, and Christian teaching, and have thought if only it could be applied, how different the world would be. So they have become busy in Christianity, and have thought they were in the kingdom of God. Not at all! You can have all the interest in Christianity without being in the kingdom. This is what the Lord Jesus said, in effect, and in other and more concise words, to Nicodemus. The only way in is by our receiving Divine Life as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ, and that becomes the new basis of the new creation, the basis upon which everything begins and is carried through, the basis of Divine Life. That Life has in it all the qualities and energies of the new creation. It constitutes our being in what is called the Kingdom of God.

The Anointing: by TA Sparks

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:27

When will the Lord's people, who have the Scriptures and who know the Scriptures so well in the letter, when will they come to realize and to recognize that if truly they have been crucified with Christ, if they have died in His death and have been raised together with Him and have received the Spirit, they have Light in their dwelling? As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit--just as it has taught you, remain in him. 1 John 2:27. When will believers, when will Christians, come to realize that? Why must Christians who have the knowledge of the Scriptures in the letter, run about here and there to seek advice from others on matters which vitally affect their own spiritual knowledge? I do not mean that it is wrong to get counsel, wrong to know what other children of God of experience think or feel about matters. But if we are going to build our position upon their conclusions, we are in great danger. The final authority and arbiter in all matters is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the anointing.

We may get help from one another, but I do hope that you are not going to build your position upon what I say now because I say it. Do not do that. I do not want you to do it. I do not ask you to do it. What I say is: listen, take note; and then go to your final authority Who is in you if you are a child of God, and ask Him to corroborate the truth or to show otherwise. That is your right, your birthright, the birthright of every child of God: to be in the light of the indwelling Spirit of Light, the Spirit of God.

A Song of Love: by Andrew Murray

“There are three things that endure – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Today is wholly devoted to the praise of love. The first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 speak of the absolute necessity of love as the chief thing in our religion.  “If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth. . . if I had the gift of prophesy . . . if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move . . . if I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body . . . but if I didn’t love others” then, three times repeated, “I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal . . . what good would I be? . . . I would be of no value whatsoever.”  If I have not love, I am of no value.

There are fifteen things said about love, but one sentence sums up its whole nature: “It does not demand its own way” (verse 5). And again: ‘Love will last forever” (verse 8). Prophesies, unknown languages, and knowledge shall vanish away.  Even faith and hope shall be changed into sight.  But love lasts forever.

“Love does not demand its own way.” Think and pray about this. “Love will last forever” Consider all that means. “The greatest of these is love.” Let this love rule in your life.

God is love. ‘God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them:
(1 John 4:16).  Let your heart be filled with love so that, by God’s almighty power, you may be a witness to the transforming power of love.  Then you will be a blessing to all around you.

The 1st Commandment: by Andrew Murray

"The Lord your God will cleanse your heart.... so that you will love Him with all your heart and soul." Deuteronomy 30:6

God greatly desires our love.  It is the nature of all love to want to be acceptable and to be accepted.  God longs to have the love of our whole heart.

How can we love God with all our heart and soul?  In the same way that we receive salvation – through faith alone.  Paul says, 'I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).  When we take time to wait upon God and remember how God sought to win our love through the gift of His Son, we shall realize that God has a strong longing for our love.

Our hearts are blind.  It is easy to forget that God longs for the love of His child.  Once we believe it, we will feel constrained to wait before God and ask Him to let His light shine into our hearts.  As the sun gives us its light, God is a thousand times more willing to give us the light of His love.

As we wait silently before God, we become strong in the assurance of faith.  God, who longs for our love, is almighty and will fill us with His love by the Holy Spirit.

Take time each day to love God and believe Him with firmer faith.  God will work within us, granting the desire to love Him with our whole heart.  He will enable us to prove our love by keeping His commandments. 

Open the Eyes of My Heart: by TA Sparks

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you. Ephesians 1:18

The Holy Spirit’s illumination concerning the church is a thing so difficult to explain to any who may not have experienced it. But to those who have seen it, it needs no explanation. It makes such a difference on all these matters. You will be able to preach Ephesians, Colossians, Romans; preach all about the church as the Body of Christ; you may read it all in books, and still there may be no real expression of it. Then one day it was as though the heavens opened and the thing broke upon your spirit, and you saw it; and all kinds of adjustments became necessary in life. You can say, "I saw that the church was no denominational or national thing; I believed in the oneness of all believers..." yes, you can say all that! And yet there is something more. That something can only come by revelation. You can have the other, and it will just take you so far. But get that something more, and it will take you a long way ahead. It brings you into the realm of the conflict and cost, but you are out in an altogether new realm. It is necessary to God’s end.

It is one thing to say these things and point them out and emphasize them; you say: "How do you get it? We see what you mean, it is all quite clear, but we have not got it!" Well, if you really are of the undivided heart, if your heart is wholly set upon the Lord and you see as far as you can see these things, and have very definite dealings with the Lord about it; it may not be in a day, it may be slowly, steadily, quietly you begin to move into a new realm of understanding. And you find that your point of view changes; your standard of values changes; your insight changes. It may take months, but at the end of the time you say: "I am changed! Something has happened to me. I can no longer accept what I used to accept!" It may be like that, or it may come in a flash. How it comes does not matter very much, the fact is the importance of this thing – spiritual illumination. The apostle prayed that these to whom he wrote might have it. Let us pray that we might have it, and that all the Lord’s people might come into that.