The Word of God: Shortest Route to Spiritual Peace: by AW Tozer

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:13

The work of God is not finished in the heart and life of the new believer when the first act of inward adjustment has given him a sense of cleansing and forgiveness, peace and rest for the first time in his life!

The Spirit would go on from there to bring the total life into harmony with that blissful “center.” This is wrought in the believer by the Word and by prayer and discipline and suffering.

It could be done by a short course in things spiritual if we were more pliable, less self-willed and stubborn; but it usually takes some time before we learn the hard lessons of faith and obedience sufficiently well to permit the work to be done within us with anything near to perfection.

In bringing many sons unto glory God works with whatever He has in whatever way He can and by whatever means He can, respecting always His own gift to us, the freedom of our wills. But of all means He uses, the Bible is the best.

The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection, and we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Any tinkering with the truth, any liberties taken with the Scriptures, and we throw ourselves out of symmetry and invite stiff discipline and severe chastisement from that loving Father who wills for us nothing less than full restoration to the image of God in Christ!

Jesus Calling: by Sarah Young

"Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. Isaiah 8:12

DO NOT BE AFRAID, for I am with you.  Hear Me saying Peace, be still to your restless heart.  No matter what happens, I will never leave you or forsake you.  Let this assurance soak into your mind and heart, until you overflow with Joy.  Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, you need not fear! 

The media relentlessly proclaim bad news: for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  A steady diet of their fare will sicken you.  Instead of focusing on fickle, ever-changing news broadcasts, tune in to the living Word- the One who is always the same.  Let Scripture saturate your mind and heart, and you will walk steadily along the path of Life.  Even though you don’t know what will happen tomorrow, you can be absolutely sure of your ultimate destination. I hold you by your right hand, and afterward I will take you into Glory.

There Is a Finality in the Biblical Revelation: by A.W. Tozer

 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. Hebrews 2:1

THERE ARE MEN IN OUR DAY who have studied the Bible and come to the conclusion that since God is vocal in His universe, there is no such thing as an inspired canon of Scripture containing a full body of revealed truth that can serve as the one final source of doctrine and practice.

These teachers reason that if God is still speaking, then we must keep our minds open to further revelation given, it may be, through poets, philosophers, scientists and religionists of various kinds. They would insist that wherever new truth is discovered or new and advanced ideas are brought forth, there God is speaking again as He once spoke by the prophet and seer in olden times.

While we grant such men the right to believe what they will, this one thing is settled: whoever, for whatever reason, denies the finality of the biblical revelation and insists upon a continuing revelation having the same authority as the sacred Scriptures has shut himself out from the name of Christian! He is simply not a Christian in the scriptural and historic meaning of the word.

Between the ideas of a fixed biblical canon and a constantly speaking God there is no contradiction! The point I make is that if the living voice of God were not speaking in the world and in the hearts of men the written Word could have no real meaning for us. 

The Power of TIME: by Andrew Murray

My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me. Psalm 31:15

Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise,  making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16

“Time is lord of all things. What is all the history of the world but a proof of how, slowly but surely, time has made man what he is today? All around us we see the proofs. In the growth of the child to manhood, both physically and mentally, in the success of every pursuit, in all our labors and all our attainments, it is under the law of time and its inconceivable power that we spend our lives.

This is especially true in religion and fellowship with God. Here time is also master. What fellowship with God! What holiness and blessedness! What likeness to His image, and what power in His service for blessing to men! All on the one condition: that we have sufficient time with God for His holiness to shine on us with its light and its heat, and to make us partakers of His Spirit and His life. The very essence of religion lies in the thought: Time with God….

Oh, you who are complaining that overwork, or too much zeal in doing the work is hindering your spiritual efficiency, do you not see that if you would but submit your timetable to the inspection of Christ and His Holy Spirit, you would find that a new life would be yours if you fully believed and put into daily practice the word: My time is in thy hand.”

Paul: Christ Revealed In Me

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.

Why We Lack Understanding: by Oswald Chambers

He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. —Mark 9:9

As the disciples were commanded, you should also say nothing until the Son of Man has risen in you— until the life of the risen Christ so dominates you that you truly understand what He taught while here on earth. When you grow and develop the right condition inwardly, the words Jesus spoke become so clear that you are amazed you did not grasp them before. In fact, you were not able to understand them before because you had not yet developed the proper spiritual condition to deal with them.

Our Lord doesn’t hide these things from us, but we are not prepared to receive them until we are in the right condition in our spiritual life. Jesus said, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). We must have a oneness with His risen life before we are prepared to bear any particular truth from Him. Do we really know anything about the indwelling of the risen life of Jesus? The evidence that we do is that His Word is becoming understandable to us. God cannot reveal anything to us if we don’t have His Spirit. And our own unyielding and headstrong opinions will effectively prevent God from revealing anything to us. But our insensible thinking will end immediately once His resurrection life has its way with us.

“…tell no one….” But so many people do tell what they saw on the Mount of Transfiguration— their mountaintop experience. They have seen a vision and they testify to it, but there is no connection between what they say and how they live. Their lives don’t add up because the Son of Man has not yet risen in them. How long will it be before His resurrection life is formed and evident in you and in me?