The Recovery of the Lord's Name In His People # 11

Called According to Purpose (continued)

Yes, the presence of God, the support of God, the resources of God go with His calling. He never - it is an old, old saying, He never sends us "a warfarin" at our own charges. He never gives us a commission and then leaves us to find what is required of its carrying out. He stands in to all the liabilities. If these resources are withheld, something is wrong. The motive may not be wrong, the intention may not be wrong, the sincerity maybe not lacking, but let it be understood that motive and idea and enthusiasm have never, never, been substitutes for Divine  purpose, specific purpose. David found that out, did he not, over the bringing of the ark on the Philistine cart. He made a very, very serious discovery by a very tragic happening. He found that the responsibility rested upon him, for what happened. No, the purpose of God must govern.

Firstly, the whole purpose, the ultimate, must always be in view and everything must be brought into line with that. It just must be brought into line with that. Everything has got to be considered and contemplated from the standpoint of how is that going to reach  God's end in the manifestation of His glory? And then what would God do now, or what is God wanting to o now? What is God doing now in relation to that? What is the present movement or what are the present movements of God to which God has committed Himself? Don't you agree with me dear friends, when I say that the deepest cry in our hearts is this "Oh Lord, Oh Lord, bring me into the thing that You are doing. Save me from the things that I am doing for You and want to do for You and that I think You want done. Bring me not into things that are kind of, a kind of abstract vision, but into what You are doing, what You are doing. That with which You are occupied now." That is the deepest cry of our heart and that is a cry which enters into His heart, we should be found not doing a lot of Christian work or hunting round for a job in the work of God.

Oh, pathetic situation, yet there are a lot doing that, a lot doing that, trying to find a job, a place, in the work of God. Going round all the time, trying, trying to be taken on in the work of God. Is that not terrible? Dear friends, I cannot tell you how badly I feel about that. My understanding with the Lord is this: "Lord, Lord, if you have not got a positive and definite place for me in something that you are doing I am going to give it all up, I am going out." It is a very utter thing, this. No one ought to be looking for a job in the realm of God's purpose. No, not at all.

Well, now, thee is a tremendous strength as well as a tremendous value in the consciousness of being bound up with a specific calling of God in relation to the full and ultimate calling. I say, there is a tremendous value bound up with that. It is a perfectly wonderful to know, to realize, that you are not just called to be a Christian in order to be saved from sin and its consequences now and hereafter and to get to heaven and all that sort of thing, but there is a great, definite, positive purpose in your being saved. And that purpose relates to now, in this life, that this life is to be characterized by something quite precise and quite definite in the ultimate purpose of God. A tremendous strength in that and a tremendous value in that.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 12)