By what
means does God reach His end in His people? What is
Gods means of achieving His purpose? It is by
the Spirit of sonship through the Cross. There is
no hope of reaching Gods end, or of even taking the
first step in that direction, without the Spirit as the
Spirit of sonship.
First there
must be the infant cry, "Father"! There
must be that relationship brought about by the
Spirit. Then the Spirit of sonship, once He is
within, must proceed fully to form Christ in us.
Thus the Apostle says, "My little children, for whom
I am again in travail till Christ be fully formed in
you." It is not a case of my struggling toward
Gods end, but of the Spirit of Gods Son in me
energizing toward Gods end. Oh, that we had
faith here! If you really have faith on this
particular point, you will have the secret, of a profound
rest.
You know, we have our "off" times spiritually -
"off" times in the prayer life when it seems
impossible to pray; "off" times in many other
ways spiritually. No matter how we struggle, we can
make nothing of it. What are we going to do? Well,
if my experience is of any value to you - and I believe I
have discovered just a little of the secret of things - I
have come to this position: Through the Spirit Christ is
in me, and everything is with Him - not with me. It
is not what I can do, nor what I cannot do, nor how I am
today; all is with Him. Today, maybe, I am not conscious
of His indwelling, but on the contrary very conscious of
other things that are not Christ. Well, that is my
state; but He is faithful, He is true. He has given
me certain assurances about never leaving nor forsaking
me, about abiding through all the days to the end, and
about perfecting unto the day of Christ a good work which
He hath commenced.
He started
this thing - I did not; He undertook this thing.
Before ever I had a being, He had undertaken to carry
through His perfect work in any one who would trust
Him. That was all undertaken for before ever I saw
the light of day, so that I did not start this - it is
not commenced with me. My one thing to do is to
trust Him - trust Him - and, if I cannot break through,
to say: "Lord, I cannot pray just at the present; I
must trust you to do all the praying."
No one who really has his heart set upon the Lord will
take hold of a statement like that as a back-door way out
of prayer. I am not trying to give you some excuse
for giving up praying. I am saying there are
"off" times, and I am not sure that the Lord
does not allow us to have such times lest we should begin
to build again upon works. He takes us right off
that basis and throws us upon Himself, where there is no
alternative but to trust Him. You are not
surrendering your prayer life in taking that course at a
time like that. If you could pray, you would do so;
but now in a time of real inability you are just trusting
the Lord about it.
I find I have these "off" times, but as I
definitely trust the Lord, and say: "Lord, this is
Your responsibility, and I know this will not last; that
prayer life will come back, and I am trusting you in the
meanwhile." It does come back, and in greater
fullness and greater blessedness.
Beloved I
have proved that again and again. It comes
back. It is not merely that you get better and
start again. You know quite well that you may be
perfectly fit and yet be unable to pray. No one can
make prayer. It is not a matter of health and
strength to be able to pray. You may be a perfectly
strong man or woman, but you cannot get through to heaven
in prayer because you are that.
Prayer has to do with an opened heaven - prayer is
fellowship with the Lord; and that is His doing, not
ours. He brings that. Trust Him.
"I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in
me"; He has the whole matter in hand. While my
attitude is one of faith in Him, He will see that there
is a prayer life; He will see that there is a life in the
Word. Positive faith in Him is the secret of
everything in the will of God.
Extract from "The Faith of the Overcomer". First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" Magazine, Jan-Feb 1940, Vol 18-1.