We think of the Christian life as a ‘changed life’ but it is not that. What God offers us is an ‘exchanged life,’ a ‘substituted life,’ and Christ is our Substitute within.
The more spiritual a child of God becomes, the more conscious he is of the significance of walking according to the spirit and the dangers of walking according to the flesh.
The life of faith can be called the life of the will since faith is impervious to how one feels but chooses through volition to obey God’s mind.
Many Christians are unaware how drastically the cross must work so that ultimately their natural power for living may be denied.
Prayer does not alter that which God has determined; it never changes anything. It merely achieves what He has already foreordained.
Because it has been so united with the devil it is vital for man to receive from God a change of mind before he can receive a new heart.
Authority in the world is being increasingly undermined until at the end all authorities will be overthrown and lawlessness shall rule.
We recognize already that regeneration of the spirit is the paramount need of man.
Whenever man touches God’s delegated authority he touches God within that person; sinning against delegated authority is sinning against God.
Neither our psychology nor that of the unbelievers can impart life to them. Unless the Holy Spirit Himself performs the work, all is vain.
Only if we completely acknowledge that what man requires today is God’s life: the quickening of the spirit: will we then perceive how vain is any work performed by ourselves.
Bible-reading and prayer are not wrong, and God forbid that we should suggest that they are. But it is wrong to trust even in them for victory. Our help is in Him who is the object of that reading and prayer. Our trust must be in Christ alone.
God’s ways with us are all designed to establish in us this other principle, namely, that our work for Him springs out of our ministering to Him. I do not mean that we are going to do nothing; but the first thing for us must be the Lord Himself, not His work.
Let me say from conviction that tears are the outlet of the heart.
Sitting describes our position with Christ in the heavenlies. Walking is the practical outworking of that heavenly position here on earth.
Here is invariably a spiritual fact: Our spirit is released according to the degree of our brokenness.
Only those who are subject to authority can be authority.
The operation of His life in us is in a true sense spontaneous, that is to say, it is without effort of ours. The all-important rule is not to “try,” but to “trust,” not to depend upon our own strength, but upon His. For it is the flow of life which reveals what we truly are “in Christ.” It is from the Fountain of Life that the sweet water issues.
For Christianity begins not with a big do, but with a big done.
Only those who sit 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 is not sitting before God he cannot hope to stand before the enemy.
How pitiful it must be when the flesh gains dominion. Sin has slain the spirit:.