True Redemption

The passage of Scripture I want to call your attention to today is Ephesians 4:8-10,

Therefore He says:  "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."  (Now this, "He ascended"—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

Before Jesus ascended, what did He do?  He descended.  I didn't write that.  The Bible says that.  And when He descended, what did He do?  He led captivity captive.  That refers to the Old Testament saints who were in what is called "Abraham's bosom" or Paradise.

Jesus went down there.  They were in captivity in the sense that they could not go to heaven until Christ's sacrifice.  But after Christ died, having paid the price for our sins, He went and emptied Paradise and He led captivity captive.  He brought those saints up to heaven.

Here is what I want you to picture.  Jesus, through His death and resurrection,  defeated hell and death.  He took the keys away from the devil, stripped him of his power and his authority, and won redemption for the human race.  Then He went to Paradise and there He saw Abraham, David, Moses, Ezekiel, Joshua, Esther, Ruth—all of the people who served the Lord under the Old Covenant.

He threw the door open and said, "Hey, guys!  Time to come home!   It's been done!  The thing the prophets prophesied about, here I am!  I am the reality.  Time to leave this place and come to heaven with me!"

Then He who descended, ascended, leading all of those Old Testament saints to heaven with Him!  And He sent back the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost to empower us to tell the story of His resurrection and His victory.

Let us make that our passion!  To proclaim the resurrected Jesus who has paid the price for our redemption.

~Bayless Conley~

Discipline Unto Prayer # 19

"Whither the Tribes Go Up"

Psalm 122:4; Psalm 50:5)

It was a beautiful thought in the mind of God when, in His divine economy, He prescribed for the periodic convocations of His people. Away back in the time of Moses, He commanded that all the males in Israel should journey three times in every year to some place of His appointment (Deuteronomy 16:16), the details of which are worth noting. It is clear that David laid great store by such convocations. Psalm 122 is by its heading attributed to David, as were other "Songs of Ascent," or pilgrimage. It was due to division resulting from spiritual decline that such gatherings ceased for so long, until Josiah had a great recovery celebration (2 Chronicles 35:17-19). It was therefore a sign of spiritual recovery and strength when the Lord's people so gathered from near and far.

We can briefly summarize the values in the Lord's thought for such convocations:

1. They were times when the universality of God's church, or "Holy nation," as on the basis of the Passover (the Cross) was preserved in the hearts of His people. "They left their cities;" that is, they left exclusively parochial ground. By the gathering from all areas they were preserved from all exclusivism, sectarianism, and the peril of isolation. They were made to realize that they were not the all and everything, but parts of a great whole. Thus the ever-present tendency to make God in Christ smaller than He really is was countered.

2. Thus, they were times of wonderful fellowship. People who belonged to the same Lord, but had either never met before, or had been apart for so long, discovered or rediscovered one another, were able to share both "their mutual woes, and mutual burdens bear," or tell of the Lord's goodness and mercy. Loneliness, with all its temptation and false imaginations, was carried away by the fresh air of mutuality. New hope, incentive, and life sent the pilgrims back to their accustomed spheres with the consciousness of relatedness.

3. They were times of consolidation. The Psalm says: "For a testimony unto Israel." The testimony of the great thing that the Passover (the Cross) means in the heart of His people. A testimony to the unifying power of the blood and body of Christ. The gatherings held a spiritual virtue in the livingness of the presence of the Lord. If they had been assailed by doubts, fears, and perplexities, they went away confirmed, reassured, and established in their common faith.

4. They were times of instruction. The Word of God was brought out, read and expounded. They were taught, and they "spake one to another." In a word, they were fed. There was spiritual food. The initiation of these convocations was connected with three "Feasts" (Deuteronomy 16). Eating and drinking in the presence of the Lord. They returned fortified, built up, enlightened, and with vision renewed.

5. They were times of intercession. Possibly not every individual was able to "go up." For various reasons - infirmity, age, responsibility, or some other form of detention - kept some from the blessings of joining with the pilgrims. But God's idea of the gatherings was - as put into later words - "My house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples." The New Testament is clear and strong on this point, that the representation of the "Body of Christ" in any place can, and should have real spiritual value for all its members because "the Body is one."

So, let the lonely, detained and isolated ones realize that when the Lord's people are together, they are being supported. And let those who are not so deprived of the "gathering together" realize how vital it is, and what a necessity there is in expressing this Divine thought.

Would to God that all our gatherings were after this sort!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 20 - (Gathered of God)

True Satisfaction

Isaiah 14:12-15 records the fall of Satan.  Created as God's archangel, we read about the dissatisfaction that got him in trouble,

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!  For you have said in your heart:  ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'  Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit."

Clearly his problem was pride.  "I will, I will, I will…I am going to be like God."  He wasn't satisfied with being the archangel that God had created him to be.  He wanted to take God's place.

The root of Satan's pride was his discontent with the post and station that the supreme Monarch of the universe had assigned and allotted him.  He thought he deserved better.

We all have our sphere of influence, and we all have our gifting from God.  Your sphere of influence and gifting are different than mine, and mine are different than yours.  It is unwise to desire something that someone else has rather than exploring what God has given you and developing that to its highest potential.

When you look over the fence, it looks like the grass is greener on the other side, but when you hop over, you find out it is spray-painted!

You will only be satisfied if you will develop what God has put inside of you and take that to its highest level possible.  That is what you will be rewarded for.

~Bayless Conley~

Discipline Unto Prayer # 18

"Gather My Saints Together" (continued)

The Nature of the Gathering Together

Having then in view the kind who are concerned, which forms a test as well as a testimony, we are able to look at the nature of the gathering together.

We are well aware that there is a widespread doubt as to whether we are to expect anything in the way of a corporate movement or testimony at the end. Indeed, it is strongly held by some that everything at the end is individual, and this conviction rests, for the most part, upon the phrase "If any man," in the message to Laodicea.

Let us hasten to say that we here have nothing in mind in the nature of an organized movement, a sect, a society, a fraternity, or even a "fellowship" if, by that, any of the foregoing is meant.

Having said this, however, there are some things on the other side which need saying quite definitely.

The Church of the New Testament never was an organized movement. Neither was there any organized affiliation of the companies of believers n various places with one another. It was a purely spiritual thing, spontaneous in life and united only by the Holy Spirit and mutual love and spiritual solicitude. There were other factors which acted as spiritual links which we will mention presently. Further, and still more important, was the abiding fact that a "Body" had been brought into being. This is called "the body of Christ." You can divide a society and still it remains, but you cannot divide a body without destroying the entity.

Are we to understand from  the exponents of the individualistic interpretation that all the teaching of the Lord, in nearly all the Scriptures concerning the House of God, and in nearly all the Letters of Paul concerning the Body of Christ, is now set aside or is only an idea without any expression on the earth? Are we to blot out the mass of the New Testament and live our own individual Christian lives with no emphasis upon working fellowship with other believers? Surely not. This would be contrary to all the ways of God in history, and would certainly spell defeat, for if there is one thing against which the adversary has set himself it is the fellowship of God's people.

Ultra-individualism is impossible if the truth of the "one body" still stands, and what is more, the Lord's people are becoming more and more conscious of their absolute need of fellowship, especially in prayer. The difficulty of 'getting through' alone is becoming greater as we approach the end.

What then is the nature of this gathering together? It is a gathering to the Lord Himself. "Gather My saints together unto Me"; "our gathering unto Him."

In times past there have been gatherings to men, great preachers, great teachers, great leaders; or to great institutions and movements, centers and teachings. At the end the Lord will be very much more than His vessels or instrumentalities.

God's end is Christ, and as we get nearer the end He must become almost immediately the object of appreciation.

Our oneness and fellowship is not in a teaching, a 'testimony,' a community, a place, but in a Person, and in Him not merely doctrinally, but livingly and experimentally.

Any movement truly of God must have this as its supreme and all-inclusive feature, that it is the Lord Jesus Who is the object of heart adoration and worship.

The two great purposes of the 'gathering' are prayer and 'building up': supplication for all saints," and spiritual food. These two things have ever characterized Divine gatherings or convocations - representation before God, and feeding in His presence.

This, then, is the meaning of "call a solemn assembly" (Joel 1:14; 2:15).  The need more than ever imperative as "the day" approaches is the gathering together unto Him.

May we see more of this as His Divinely inspired movement to meet the so great need!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 19 - ("Whither The Tribes Go Up")

The God of All Comfort

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee who passing through the valley of weeping, make it a well (Psalms 84:5-6).

Comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into "depths" if we would experience this most precious of God's gifts--comfort, and thus be prepared to be co-workers together with Him.

When night--needful night--gathers over the garden of our souls, when the leaves close up, and the flowers no longer hold any sunlight within their folded petals, there shall never be wanting, even in the thickest darkness, drops of heavenly dew--dew which falls only when the sun has gone.

I have been through the valley of weeping,
The valley of sorrow and pain;
But the 'God of all comfort' was with me,
At hand to uphold and sustain.
As the earth needs the clouds and sunshine,
Our souls need both sorrow and joy;
So He places us oft in the furnace,
The dross from the gold to destroy.
When he leads thro' some valley of trouble
His omnipotent hand we trace;
For the trials and sorrows He sends us,
Are part of His lessons in grace.
Oft we shrink from the purging and pruning,
Forgetting the Husbandman knows
That the deeper the cutting and paring,
The richer the cluster that grows.
Well He knows that affliction is needed;
He has a wise purpose in view,
And in the dark valley He whispers,
"Hereafter Thou'lt know what I do."
As we travel thro' life's shadow'd valley,
Fresh springs of His love ever rise;
And we learn that our sorrows and losses,
Are blessings just sent in disguise.
So we'll follow wherever He leadeth,
Let the path be dreary or bright;
For we've proved that our God can give comfort;
Our God can give songs in the night.

~L. B. Cowman~

Discipline Unto Prayer # 17

"Gather My Saints Together"

Psalm 50:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; Hebrews 10:25

In all of the above passages there is this one common factor, that an end-time movement and feature is dominant. It must be remembered  that the Psalms themselves represent what remains when a history of outward things as to the general instrumentality has ended in failure. The history of Israel in its first great phase closed with the Book of "Kings" in a calamitous and shameful way. Weakness, paralysis, declension, reproach, characterized the instrument in general. But out of that history now so concluded the Psalms are carried forward, and they represent what has spiritually been gained and is permanent. This is preeminently a personal, inward, spiritual knowledge of the Lord gained through experience. That is why they always reach the heart and never fail to touch experience at every point. To them the saints have turned in times of deep experience. They are the ministry of experience to experience, the only ministry which is permanent. The end-time instrument will always be that which inwardly knows the Lord in a deep and living way through history fraught with much experience of the heights and depths. What David gave to the Chief Musician for the wind instruments and the stringed instruments touches the highest and deepest note of a mortal's knowledge of God. Worship, Salvation, Sorrow, Appeal, Victory, Battle, Faith, Hope, Glory, Instruction, are all great themes interwoven with the mass of matters touched, but the point is that all came in real life; He passed through it all. It is this, and this alone, which can serve the Lord when what He first raised up has failed Him as a public instrument. So the Lord would take pains to secure this, and this may explain much of the suffering and sorrow through which He takes His chosen vessels.

It does not need pointing out that, in the other two passages with which we commenced, the end-time is in view; they definitely state it.

There is a further common feature, however, which is more particularly the subject before us. They all definitely  refer to gathering together as something related to the end-time. The Day is drawing nigh, therefore there is to be a  "so much the more" assembling together. The Lord is coming, and there is a gathering to Him.

A history of a religious system which sprang out of something which the Lord raided up in the first place has ended in weakness, chaos and shame. Therefore, there is to be a re-gathering to the Lord of His saints.

Before we deal with the nature of this end-time gathering, we must get clearly in view those that are concerned in it. The passage in the Psalms would embrace and include those referred to in the other two passages.

"My Saints ... Those That Have Made A Covenant With Me by Sacrifice"

It need hardly be remarked that when all has been said and done through type, symbol and figure, the covenant means an entering into what the Lord Jesus has done by His shed Blood. It is an appreciation and apprehension of Him in His great work by the Cross. The Lord, by His Blood, has made a "New Covenant" by sacrifice, and we, His spiritual people, have entered into that covenant and set our hand to it. Christ as "the mediator of a new covenant" stands for both parties, for a covenant requires two parties. On one side He is God, "The Son of God;" on the other side He is Man, "Son of Man." In Christ we are made the humanity side of the covenant, and by taking our place by faith in Him we enter into the covenant. Just as, in Christ, God has come out to us in a great committal, so also - as in the case of Christ - we in Him go out to God in a like utter committal. The Blood seals the covenant, that is, makes us wholly the Lord's, and the Lord wholly ours.

If we see the meaning of "a covenant by sacrifice" then we shall see who it is that will be in this gathering  together. It will certainly be only those to whom the Lord is everything, to whom He is all and in all; and those who are all for the Lord without a reservation, a personal interest, or anything that is less or other than Himself. Spiritual oneness is only possible on this basis.

The Lord's word to Abraham in the day of covenant was, "Now I know that thou fearest God." Malachi's end-time word was "Then they that eared the Lord ..." The fear of the Lord is an utter abandonment to Him at any cost; His will being supreme, claiming and obtaining the measure of a whole burnt offering.

~T. Austin-Sparks~ 

(continued with # 18 - (The Nature of the Gathering Together)

Six Times We Should Seek God

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 4:29).

In today's devotional, I want to show you the first three of six times we should seek the Lord:

1.  When we have sinned. 

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14).

If you sin, do not run from God, run to Him.  Do not allow shame to keep you away.

2.  When we are feeling dry spiritually.

O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).

When you sense a distance between you and God, or if you feel dry spiritually, do not delay!  Seek Him early.

When my potted plants feel dry, I water them.  I do not wait until they turn brown and are almost dead.  If the soil is dry and the leaves begin to droop, they are in need of water right then, and so it is when you are feeling spiritually dry.

One of the keys to keeping potted plants—and our spiritual lives—healthy is to tend to them early.

3.  When we are fearful.

I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4).

When you are fearful or anxious, it is time to seek the Lord.  When you seek Him you can expect to be delivered from all of your fears! 

~Bayless Conley~