power

[excerpt from Andrew Murray]

The blood of Jesus is the greatest mystery of eternity, the deepest mystery of the divine wisdom. Let us not imagine that we can easily grasp its meaning. God thought 4,000 years necessary to prepare men for it, and we also must take time, if we are to gain a knowledge of the power of the blood.

Even taking time is of no avail, unless there is definite taking of sacrificial trouble. Sacrificial blood always meant the offering of a life. The Israelite could not obtain blood for the pardon of his sin, unless the life of something that belonged to him was offered in sacrifice. The Lord Jesus did not offer up His own life, and shed His blood to .spare us from the sacrifice of our lives. No, indeed but to make the sacrifice of our lives possible and desirable.

The hidden value of His blood is the spirit of self-sacrifice, and where the blood really touches the heart, it works out in that heart, a like spirit of self-sacrifice. We learn to give up ourselves and our lives, so as to press into the full power of that new life, which the blood. has provided.

We give our time in order that we may become acquainted with these things by God’s Word. We separate ourselves from sin and worldly-mindedness, and self-will, that the power of the blood may not be hindered, for it is just these things that the blood seeks to remove.

We surrender ourselves wholly to God in prayer and faith, so as not to think our own thoughts, and not to hold our own lives as a prize, but as possessing nothing save what He bestows. Then He reveals to us the glorious and blessed life which has been prepared for us by the blood. …

It is by this confident trust in Him that the blessing obtained by the blood becomes ours. We must never, in thought, separate the blood from the High Priest who shed it, and ever lives to apply it.

He who once gave His blood for us, will, oh I so surely, every moment, impart its efficacy. Trust Him to do this. Trust Him to open your eyes, and to give you a deeper spiritual insight. Trust Him to teach you to think about the blood as God thinks about it. Trust Him to impart to you, and to make effective in you, all that He enables you to see.

Trust Him above all, in the power of His eternal High Priesthood, to work out in you, unceasingly, the full merits of His blood, so that your whole life may be an uninterrupted abiding in the sanctuary of God’s presence.

Believer, you who have come to the knowledge of the precious blood, hearken to the invitation of your Lord. Come nearer. Let Him teach you; let Him bless you. Let Him cause His blood to become to you spirit, and life, and power, and truth.

Begin now, at once, to open your soul in faith, to receive the full, mighty, heavenly effects of the precious blood, in a more glorious manner than you have ever experienced. He Himself will work these things out in your life.

A growing trend in the churches of the Western World deeply troubles me. Call it apostasy, call it “doctrines of demons”, call it humanism and it is all one and the same boiling cauldron of lawlessness. The worldly church loves with an unholy love stripped of all righteousness and justice and calls it “the love of God”. They teach their fellows that there is no difference between the repentant and the [willful] sinner, that all may participate in the celebratory victory of Jesus Christ.

To that, I raise the question: How can you enter resurrection if you’ve never passed through death? How can you have forgiveness if you’ve never had repentance? For if you don’t have those things first, you have no right to drink of the cup of Christ. “But, but, but…..,” protest the rising voices. “You are unloving.” But I reflect on this:

Jhn 13:35 By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

“One to another” in the context here does not refer to everyone in the world, but to disciples. And my objection is that these love everyone except the Lord’s disciples. Nor can they love the disciples unless they first subvert them into lovers of the world. In fact, they persecute the disciples, wearing them down if possible to bring them into submission to their humanistic gospel.

There is a naive idea that we ought to fellowship with any and all believers, even if they bring uncleanness into the equation. This is spiritual harlotry. The spirit is seductive and will suck the unaware into academic circular discussions and spiritual filth that will militate against their own souls. How can light have fellowship with darkness, righteousness with unrighteousness? Some, bless their hearts, want to dialogue with these firebrands, in hopes of bringing them back.

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all [men], apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; [2 Tim 2:24-25]

If, on the other hand, we are dealing with those who think themselves to be mature teachers and will not regard sound doctrine, we have advice from the first century church:

…but if the teacher himself turn and teach another doctrine with a view to subvert you, hearken not to him; [The Didache, 11:2]

Timothy continues in this vein:

…in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves … Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. [2 Tim 3:1-7]

We are there. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have tasted and handled. I believe we are living in the days of a ripened humanism.

…humanism is a philosophical statement that declares the end of all being is the happiness of man. The reason for existence is man’s happiness. Now according to humanism, salvation is simply a matter of getting all the happiness you can out of life. [Paris Reidhead, "Ten Shekels and a Shirt", sermon]

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth [John16:13]. Not one person I have ever heard argue for the humanistic gospel has testified of being apprehended by God, brought to his knees in repentance, and radically transformed from a state of death and sin into a state of life. They read books, gather speakers and teachers; they swim in suppositions about things that may or may not be and declare them as fact. They posture and they strut, but not one ever speaks of the ongoing reality of the Cross or the power of the blood of Jesus in his own soul! Nor do they open the way that others may access the Door of the Kingdom.

I’m afraid that it’s become so subtle that it goes everywhere. What is it? In essence it’s this! That this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man, has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the angels exist in the…, Everything is for the happiness of man! AND I SUBMIT TO YOU THAT THIS IS UNCHRISTIAN !!! Isn’t man happy? Didn’t God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product! [Reidhead]

The humanistic gospel is the most self-righteous and self-serving gospel I have ever heard. It is the gospel of “niceness” rather than love and salvation. Its adherents compass land and sea to make one proselyte and then make him twice the child of hell as themselves [Mat. 23:15]. The worst humanists are the ones who call themselves believers. Flee this pollution!

A missionary went to India many years ago to preach the gospel. For a long time only a handful of people came to hear him and he became quite frustrated. One day a woman with a dreadful, incurable illness came to hear him and he prayed that she would be healed. The next day she showed up again, completely cured, and many people came to hear him preach after that. Someone asked the missionary about his great spiritual gift and where the faith for the woman’s healing came from. He said, “I don’t know because it sure didn’t come from me.”

Many people want to see gifts of power in operation. Some consider the gifts as proofs of God’s existence or His interest in the affairs of our lives. Some want to have these gifts to validate their own faith. Others consider the gifts as credentials that God sends with His true ministers. And still others have ideas about how they would do great exploits — possibly even to the point of taking over human governments. The list could go on, but at any rate gifts are a powerful but impermanent (I Cor. 13:8) manifestation of the presence and power of God. They are a means, but never the end.

It is difficult in our day to know exactly how far reaching were these spiritual gifts in the first century. We know, for starters, that Jesus healed every one who came to Him (Matthew 12:16). As far as we know, He did not heal those who did not ask to be healed either directly themselves or indirectly through an advocate (Luke 8:41; Mat. 8:8; Mark 2:4). Therefore, it is difficult to say whether He would have emptied the hospitals in our towns. Perceiving the human heart as He did, would He have gone out of His way to heal those without faith (Cf. Matthew 13:58)?

For all the miracles He performed, starting from the time He turned water into wine, one would think He could have rescued Himself from the cross (Matthew 27:42). It would seem He would have done so if all He wanted was for the world to believe on Him. God, however, saw fit to release Peter from prison by a miracle (Acts 12:5-7). Paul and Silas also went to prison and were released by another miracle (Acts 16:26). Yet why did God not keep them out of prison in the first place? It might be supposed that God is “off the hook” here when we consider that in Peter’s case this abounded to his confidence and that of the other Apostles that God was truly with them (Acts 12:17). In Paul’s case, it resulted in the salvation of the keeper of the prison and all his household (Acts 16:33).

There is little difficulty with the logic of these three situations given that Jesus’ real task in the first case was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the world. In the other two cases, we can reasonably argue that the miraculous interventions in the prisons proved that God had a greater purpose than seemed apparent at first — that of strengthening faith and adding to the Church. However, how would anyone have known that greater purpose without seeing the stories through from beginning to end? And what is the “end”?

What could be said for Paul’s later imprisonment and beheading? Why did God not miraculously intervene on his behalf in that instance? Yes, we know the end of Paul’s earthly story — that his two years under house arrest gave him time to write half of the New Testament and to counsel the growing Church. But why the beheading and why did Paul go to Jerusalem after being warned by God through the mouth of the prophet what would happen (Acts 21:11)? And here is the million dollar question: Are we always privy to the “end” of the story? What about when God doesn’t appear to intervene on behalf of His people? Did someone lack faith? Did they lack a spiritual gift? Did God intend a purpose beyond what is apparent? And, lastly, will we even recognize the purpose when we see it?

In the case of the missionary, he claimed no particular gift. In fact, he had no idea where the faith had come from to perform such a work. James tells us:

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (Jam 5:16b)

Does it always matter whether faith comes through a specially gifted one or a simple prayer? We do not know everything there is to know about spiritual gifts, why so much talk of miracles often remains speculative and theoretical, or why there seems to be a dearth of the miraculous in everyday life. Notwithstanding, miracles do happen in the earth, though they are seldom seen. But, if truth be told, there is also a dearth of charity, spiritual fruit, faithfulness, holiness — why do some single out the lack of power gifts as if they are the litmus test of God in His people? John considered love for the brethren (1 John 3:14, 24) as the evidence of God in us, as did Jesus (John 13:35). Paul considered charity (love) as the permanent virtue exceeding all special giftings (1 Cor. 13:8) and urged us to consider all else as worthless without it. Taken as a whole, the lack of any or all of these things should cause us to question ourselves.

As to where the difference lies between the working out of a power gift and the end result of “effectual, fervent prayer”, it is difficult to determine sometimes. One could almost say that special giftings = effectual, fervent prayer. The differences are usually perceived as instantaneous in the first case and subtle in the second case. Nevertheless, as we saw in the example of the missionary, that is not always true. Sometimes the results appear very much the same. Perhaps we may consider all power from God as something akin to an electrical current. In the case of spiritual gifts, it is like loose wires sending out sparks so that the presence of electricity is obvious to all. One explosion from an open electrical socket and the presence of electricity can scarcely be doubted by the most hardened skeptic. Effectual, fervent prayer operates more like a cable connected to a plug in an outlet where the current flows silently, effectively, and unnoticed save for the efficiency of its delivery.

Is one kind of power delivery more authentic or more useful than the other? Emphatically, no — but the constancy of the one endures into eternity, whereas the other will dry up when it is not needed (1 Cor. 13:8). The long term purpose of both is the same: To bring us into our assigned purpose with the Creator. In that sense, they have the same effect as anything else God has allowed in our lives. The goal of Christ is that we may become one with Him and His Father (John 14:23, 17:21) — rather than shipwrecking ourselves worrying about the means.