#stand #sit #walk #fathers #fathersday
Watchman Nee – SIT, Walk and STAND – With Emphasis on STAND : True story of the God of Elijah on the Mission field of life Experience
Sunday, 16th of June 2024
Blog Link Part 3: https://www.otakada.org/watchman-nee-sit-walk-and-stand-with-emphasis-on-stand-true-story-of-the-god-of-elijah-on-the-mission-field-of-life-experience/
Link to Part 2: https://www.otakada.org/watchman-nee-sit-walk-and-stand-with-emphasis-on-walk-true-story-of-a-brother-with-a-rice-farm/
Dear Friends, Happy Fathers day to all our veteran fathers and aspiring fathers in the house! May God Himself grant all of us the spirit of fatherhood that continuously tends towards perfection just like our Father in Heaven perfect in Jesus name, amen.
The scriptures that comes to mind are these:
Matthew 5:47-48
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
47 And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that?
48 You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete [a]maturity of godliness in mind and character, [b]having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Genesis 17:1-7
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before Me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete).
2 And I will make My covenant (solemn pledge) between Me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.
3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him,
4 As for Me, behold, My covenant (solemn pledge) is with you, and you shall be the father of many nations.
5 Nor shall your name any longer be Abram [high, exalted father]; but your name shall be Abraham [father of a multitude], for I have made you the father of many nations.
6 And I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you, and [a]kings will come from you.
7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting, solemn pledge, to be a God to you and to your posterity after you.
Today, we have come to part 3 of the 3 part series of the message from Watchman Nee. We looked at in the earlier parts on the need to have a mindset of SITTING ( SIT) in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, which also connotes REST and Secondly as we maintain that SITTING or RESTING position, on the need to WALK with Jesus on what He Himself is doing by the power of Holy Spirit here on earth. We emphasised the importance of having a mindset of the Father in Heaven who is the Father of perfection in our relationships, especially the unfriendly Ones . Today, as Christians and fathers, we need to move into and unto the position of STANDING (STAND) as we SIT, then WALK on EARTH by confronting the Devil on an ongoing basis. What we are saying here is strategic spiritual warfare in the heavenly places with earthly manifestation. We cannot take the spoils of a strongman except we first BIND the strongman.
We start this section with a True story of the God of Elijah On the Mission field of Life Experience by Watchman Nee himself.
Let me give you in closing an experience of my own. A few years after the beginning of our work we entered upon a period of severe testing. They were days of disappointment and near-despair. We had come in for a great deal of criticism and discredit on account of the stand we were taking, resulting in coolness and estrangement, even on the part of the Lord’s true people. We had honestly faced and examined the charges made against us, for it is essential always to take criticism seriously and examine it, and not to pass it off with ‘Oh! he’s just criticising me! Yet we had reason to believe that the Lord was with us, for, as a particularly difficult year drew to its close, we were able to reckon that within that period He had given us several hundreds of real conversions. Then, at the year’s end, it seemed that a climax was reached.
Annually for several years it had been our custom at the New Year public holiday to hold a convention in the city for believers of different connections from throughout the province.
This year, the sponsors of the convention asked me not to attend. The request came as a shock to us. It was, I now realise, an attempt by Evil One to draw me and my brethren off our ground of rest in Christ. The question was, how would we react?
The New Year holiday is a long one, lasting fully fifteen days, and besides being a suitable period for a convention, it is also the best time for Gospel preaching. After seeking the Lord’s will we became clear that He would have us use it for the latter purpose, so I planned to take with me five brother for a fifteen-day preaching visit to an island off the South China coast.
At the last moment, another young brother whom I shall call ‘brother Wu’ joined the party. He was only sixteen years of age and had been expelled from school, but he had just lately been born again and there was a marked change in his life.
Moreover he was very eager to come, so after some hesitation I agreed to take him. This made us seven in all. The island was a fairly large one with a big main village of ‘six thousand stoves’. An old school-mate of mine was there as headmaster of the village school, and I wrote to him in advance asking for a room in which we might lodge during our stay From January 1st to 15th. When however we arrived, late and in darkness, and when he discovered we had come for Gospel preaching, he refused us accommodation. So we sought through the village for somewhere to lodge, until eventually a Chinese herbalist had pity on us and took us in, making us quite comfortable on planks and straw in his attic. It was not long before the herbalist became our first convert. But though we laboured systematically and hard, and though we found the people of the village most courteous, we had very little fruit from the island, we began to wonder why this was.
On January 9th we were outside preaching. Brother Wu with some others was in one part of the village and suddenly asked publicly: ‘Why will none of you believe?’ Someone in the crowd replied at once: ‘We have a god-one god-Ta wang,* (* Pronounced with a long a as in ‘car’ and with the final ng very lightly sounded. The name means ‘Great King’.-ED.) and he has never failed us. He is an effective god.” How do you know that you trust him?’ Asked Wu. ‘We have held his festival procession every January for 286 years. The chosen day is revealed by divination beforehand, and every year without fail his Day is a perfect one without rain or cloud,’ was the reply.
‘When is the procession this year?’ ‘It is fixed for January 11th at eight in the morning.’ Then,’ said brother Wu impetuously, ‘I promise you that it will certainly rain on the 11th.’ At once there was an outburst of cries from the crowd: “That is enough! We don’t want to hear any more preaching. If there is rain on the 11th, then your God is God!’
I was elsewhere in the village when this occurred. As soon as I heard of it I saw that it was most serious. The news had spread like wildfire, and before long over twenty thousand people would know about it. What were we to do? We stopped our preaching at once, and gave ourselves to prayer. We asked the Lord to forgive us if we had overstepped ourselves. I tell you, we were in deadly earnest. What had we done? Had we made a terrible mistake, or
dare we ask God for a miracle?
The more you want an answer to prayer from God, the more you desire to be clear with Him. There must be no doubt about the fellowship no shadow between. If your faith were in coincidence you could afford to have a controversy with Him, but not otherwise. We did not mind being thrown out if we had done something wrong. After all, you can’t drag God into a thing against His will! But, we reflected, this would mean an end to the Gospel testimony in the island, and Ta-wang would reign supreme for ever. What should we do? Should we leave now?
Up to this point we had feared to pray for rain. Then, like a flash, there came the word to me: ‘Where is the God of Elijah?’ It came with such clarity and power that I knew it was from God. Confidently I announced to the brothers: ‘I have the answer. The Lord will send rain on the 11th.’ Together we thanked Him, and then, full of praise, we went out all seven of us-and told everyone. We could accept the devil’s challenge in the name of the Lord, and we would broadcast our acceptance. That evening the herbalist made two very pointed observations. Undoubtedly, he said, Ta-wang was an effective god. The devil was with that image. Their faith in him was not groundless.
Alternatively, if you preferred a rationalistic explanation, here was a whole village of fishermen.
For two or three months on end the men were at sea, and on the 15th they would be out again. They, of all people, should know by long experience when it would not rain for two or three days ahead.
This disturbed us. As we went to our evening prayer, we all began once more to pray for rain-now! Then it was that there came to us a stern rebuke form the Lord: ‘Where is the God of Elijah?’ Where we going to fight our way through this battle, or were we going to rest in the finished victory of Christ? What had Elisha done when he
spoke those? He had laid claim in his own personal experience to the very miracle that his Lord Elijah, now in the glory, had himself performed.
In New Testament terms, he taken his stand by faith on the ground of a finished work.
We confessed our sins again. ‘Lord,’ we said, we don’t need rain until the 11th morning.’ We went to bed, and next morning (the 10th) we set off for a neighbouring island for a day’s preaching. The Lord was very gracious, and that day three families turned to Him, confessing Him publicly and burning their idols. We returned late, tired out but rejoicing. We could afford to sleep late tomorrow.
I was awakened by the direct rays of the sun through the single window of our attic. “This isn’t rain!’ I said. It was already past seven o’clock. I got up, knelt down and prayed. ‘Lord,’ I said, please send the rain!’ But once again, ringing in my ears
came the word: where is the God of Elijah?’
Humbled, I walked downstairs before God in silence. We sat down to breakfast-eight of us together, including our host-all very quiet. There was no cloud in the sky, but we knew God was committed. As we bowed to say grace before the food I said, ‘I think the time is up. Rain must come now. We can bring it to the Lord’s remembrance.’
Quietly we did so, and this time the answer came with no hint what ever of rebuke in it.
‘Where is the God of Elijah?’ Even before our Amen we heard a few drops on the tiles. There was a steady shower as we ate our rice and were served with a second bowl. ‘Let us give thanks again,’ I said, and now we asked God for heavier rain. As we began on that second bowl of rice th rain was coming down in buckets-full. By the time we had finished, the street outside was already deep in water and the three steps at the door of the house were covered.
Soon we heard what had happened in the village. Already, at the first drop of rain, a few of the younger generation had begun to say openly: there is God; there is no more T-wang! He is kept in by the rain.’ But he wasn’t. They carried him out on a sedan chain. Surely he would stop the shower!
Then came the downpour. After only some ten or twelve yards, three of the coolies stumbled and fell.
Down went the chair and Ta-wang with it fracturing his jaw and his left arm. Still determined they carried out emergency repairs and put him back in the chair. Somehow, slipping and stumbling, they dragged or carried him half-way round the village. Then the floods defeated them.
Some of the village elders, old men of 60 to 80 years, bareheaded and without umbrellas as their faith in ta-wang’s weather required, had fallen and were in serious difficulties. The procession was stopped and the idol taken into a house. Divination was made. ‘Today was the wrong day,’ came the answer.
‘The festival is to be on the 14th with the procession at six the evening.”
Immediately we heard this there came the assurance in our hearts: ‘God will send rain on the 14th.’ We went to prayer: ‘Lord, send rain on the 14th at 6.0p.m. and give us four good days until then.’ That afternoon the sky cleared, and now we had a good hearing for the Gospel. The Lord gave us over thirty converts-real ones-in the village and in the island during those three short days. The 14th broke, another perfect day, and we had good meetings. As the evening approached we met, and again, at the appointed hour, we quietly brought the matter to the Lord’s remembrance. Not a minute late, His answer came with torrential rain and floods as before.
The next day our time was up and we had to leave. We have not been back. Other workers asked for those islands and we never question anyone’s claim to a field. But for us the essential point was that Satan’s power in that idol had been broken, and that is an eternal thing. Ta-wang was no more ‘an effective god’. The salvation of souls would follow, but was in itself secondary to this vital and unchanging fact.
The impression on us all was a lasting one. God had committed Himself. We had tasted the authority of the name that is above every name-the name that has power in heaven and earth and hell. In those few days we had known what it is to be, as we say, in the very centre of the will of God’. Those words were no longer something vague or visionary to us. They described and experience we had ourselves been through. Together we had ben granted a brief glimpse of ‘the mystery of his will’. (1.9;3.10). We would go softly all our days. Years later I met ‘brother Wu’. I had lost touch with him, and in theinterval he had become a pilot in the Airways.
When I asked him whether he still followed the Lord, ‘Mr Nee!’ He said, ‘do you mean to say that after all we went through I could ever forsake Him?’
Do you see what it means to ‘stand’? We do not try to gain ground; we merely stand on the ground which the Lord Jesus has gained for us, and resolutely refuse to be moved from it.
When our eyes are really opened to see Christ as our victorious Lord, then our praise flows forth freely and without restraint. Singing with melody in our hearts to the Lord, we give thanks for all things in His name (5. 19-20). Praise that is the outcome of effort has a laboured and discordant note, but praise that wells up spontaneously from hearts at rest in Him has always a pure, sweet tone.
The Christian life consists of sitting with Christ, walking by Him and standing in Him. We begin our spiritual life by resting in the finished work of the Lord Jesus. That rest is the source of our strength for a consistent and unfaltering walk in the world. And at the end of a gruelling warfare with the hosts of darkness we are found standing with Hin at last in triumphant possession of the field.
‘Unto him… be the glory… Forever.’
STAND
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil…. That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your
loins… Having put on the breastplate… Having shod your feet… taking up the shield … And the helmet… and the sword… praying… and watching’ (6. 10-11, 13-18).
Christian experience begins with sitting and leads to walking, but it does not end with these.
Every Christian must learn also to stand. Each one of us must be prepared for the conflict.
We must know how to sit with Christ in heavenly places and we must know how to walk worthy of Him down here, but we must also know how to stand before the foe. This matter of conflict now comes before us in the third section of Ephesians (6. 10-20). It is what Paul calls ‘our wrestling with wicked spirits’.
But let us first remind ourselves once again of the order in which Ephesians presents us with these things. It is: ‘sit… walk …stand’. For no Christian can hope to enter the warfare of the ages without learning first to rest in Christ and in what He has done, and then, through the strength of the Holy Spirit within, to follow Him in a practical, holy life here on earth. If he is deficient in either of these he will find that all the talk about spiritual warfare remains only talk; he will never know its reality. Satan can afford to ignore him for he does not count for anything. Yet the very same Christian can be made strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might’ by knowing the values first of His exaltation and then of His indwelling (compare 6.10 with 1. 19 and 3. 16). It is with these two lessons well and truly learned that he comes to appreciate the third principle of the Christian life now summed up in the word ‘Stand’.
God has an arch-enemy, and under his power are countless demons and fallen angels seeking to overrun the world with evil and to exclude God from His own kingdom. This is the meaning of verse 12. It is an explanation of things taking place around us. We see only ‘flesh and blood’ ranged against us- that is to say, a world system of hostile kings and rulers, sinners and evil men. No, says Paul, our wrestling is not against these, ‘but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places’— in short against the wiles of the devil himself. Two
thrones are at war. God is claiming the earth for His dominion, and Satan is seeking to usurp the authority of God. The Church is called to displace Satan from his present realm and to make Christ Head over all. What are we doing about it?
I want now to deal with this matter of our warfare first in general terms in relation to our personal Christian lives and then in a more specialsense in Relation to the work of the Lord entrusted to us. There are many direct assaults of Satan upon God’s children. Of course we must not attribute to the devil those troubles that are the result of our own breach of divine laws. We should, by now, know how to put these right. But there are physical attacks upon the saints, attacks of the evil one upon their bodies and minds, of which we must take serious account Surely, too, there are few of us who do not know something of the enemy’s assaults upon our spiritual life. Are we going to let these pass unchallenged?
We have our position with the Lord in the heavenlies, and we are learning how to walk with Him before the world; but how are we to acquit ourselves in the presence of the adversary- His adversary and ours? God’s word is: Stand!’ ‘Put on whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.’ The Greek verb ‘stand’ with its following preposition ‘against in verse 11 really means ‘hold your ground’. There is a precious truth hidden in that command of God. It is not a command to invade a foreign territory.
Warfare, in modern parlance, would imply a command to ‘march’. Armies march into other countries to occupy and to subdue. God has not told us to do this. We are not to march but to stand.
The word ‘stand’ implies that the ground disputed by the enemy is really His, and therefore ours. We need not struggle to gain a foothold on it.
Nearly all the weapons of our warfare described in Ephesians are purely defensive. Even the sword can be used as well for defense as for offence. The difference between defensive and offensive warfare is this, that in the former I have got the ground and only seek to keep it, whereas in the latter I have not got the ground and am fighting in order to get it. And that is precisely the difference between the warfare waged by the Lord Jesus and the warfare waged by us. His was offensive; ours is, in essence, defensive.
He warred against Satan in order to gain the victory. Through the Cross He carried that warfare to the very threshold of Hell itself, to lead forth thence his captivity captive (4.8, 9). Today we war against Satan only to maintain and consolidate the victory which He has already gained. By the resurrection God proclaimed His Son Victor over the whole realm of darkness, and the ground Christ won He has given to us. We do not need to fight to obtain it. We only need to hold it against all challengers.
Our task is one of holding, not of attacking. It is a matter not of advance but of sphere, the sphere of Christ. In the person of Jesus Christ, God has already conquered. He has given us His victory to hold. Within the sphere of Christ the enemy’s defeat is already a fact, and the Church has been put there to keep him defeated. Satan is the one who must do the counter-attacking in his efforts to dislodge us from that sphere. For our part we need not struggle to occupy ground that is already ours.
In Christ we are conquerors- nay, ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom. 8. 37). In Him, therefore, we stand. Thus today we do not fight for victory; we fight from victory. We do not fight in order to win but because in Christ we have already won.
Overcomers are those who rest in the victory already given to them by their God.
When you fight to get the victory, then you have lost the battle at the very outset. Suppose Satan sets out to assault you in your home misunderstandings arise, a situation that you can or in your business. Difficulties mount up, neither deal with nor escape threatens to overwhelm you. You pray, you fast, you struggleand resist for days, but nothing happens.
Why? You are trying to fight into victory, and in doing so are relinquishing to the enemy the very ground that is yours. For victory is still for you a distant thing, somewhere ahead of you, and you cannot reach it. I was in just such a situation once myself, and God brought to my mind the word in 2 Thessalonians concerning the man of sin, whom the Lord Jesus ‘shall slay with the breath of his mouth’. The thought came: It will need but a breath from my Lord to finish him off, and here am I trying to raise a hurricane! Was not Satan once for all defeated? Then this victory too is already won.
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.
Satan’s primary object is not to get us to sin, but simply to make it easy for us to do so by getting us off the the ground of perfect triumph on to which the Lord has brought us. Through the avenue of the head or of the heart, through our intellect or our feelings, he assaults our rest in Christ or our walk in the Spirit. But for every point of his attack defensive armour is provided, the helmet and the breastplate, the girdle and the shoes, while over all is the shield of faith to turn aside his fiery darts. Faith says: Christ is exalted.
Faith says: We are saved by His grace. Faith says: We have access through Him. Faith says: He indwells us by His Spirit (see 1.20; 2.8; 3.12,17).
Because victory is His, therefore it is ours. If only we will not try to gain the victory but simply to maintain it, then we shall see the enemy utterly routed. We must not ask the Lord to enable us to overcome the enemy, nor even look to Him to overcome, but praise Him because He has already done so; He is Victor. It is all a matter of faith in Him. If we believe the Lord, we shall not pray so much but rather we shall praise Him more. The simpler and clear our faith in Him, the less we shall pray in such situations and the more we shall praise.
Let me say again: In Christ we are already conquerors. Is it not obvious then that, since this is so, for us merely to pray for victory-unless that prayer is shot through with praise-must be to court defeat by throwing away our fundamental position? Let me ask you: has defeat been your experience? Have you found yourself hoping that one day you will be strong enough to win? Then my prayer for you can go no further than that of theapostle Paul to his Ephesian readers. It is that God may open your eyes anew to see yourself seated with Him who has Himself been made to sit ‘far above all rule, and authority, and power, and
dominion, and every name that is named’ (1.20,21)
The difficulties around you may not alter; the Lion may roar as loudly as ever; but you need no longer hope to overcome. In Christ Jesus you are victor in the field.
IN HIS NAME
But this is not all. Ephesians 6 is concerned with more than the personal side of our warfare. It has to do too with the work of God entrusted to us- the utterance of the mystery of the Gospel of which Paul has already had much to say (see 3. 1- 13). For this it arms us now with the sword of the Word and its companion weapon, prayer.
Take…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, and on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak Ephesians (6.17-20).
I want to say something more about this warfare in its relation to our work for God, for here
we may encounter a difficulty. It is true, on the one hand, that our Lord Jesus is seated ‘far above all rule, and authority’, and that all things have been put’in subjection under his feet’ (1. 21, 22). Clearly it is in the light of this completed victory that we are to ‘give thanks always for all things in the name of Jesus Christ’.(5. 20). Yet on the order hand we have to admit that we do not yet see all things subject to Him. There are still, as Paul says, hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places, dark, evil powers behind this world’s rulers, occupying territory that is rightly His. How far are we correct in calling this a defensive warfare? We do not want to be falsely presumptive. When, therefore, and under what conditions are we justified in occupying territory that is outwardly the enemy’s and holding it in the name of the Lord Jesus? Let us take…the word of God’ to help us here. What does it tell us about prayer and action ‘in the name’? Consider first the following two passages:
‘Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them. For where two or three are gathered together in my name,there am I….’ (Matt. 18. 18-20). ‘In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye
shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in name: ask, and ye shall receive that your joy may be fulfilled…. In that day ye shall ask in my name’ (John 16. 23, 24, 26).
None can be saved without knowing the name of Jesus, and none can be effectively used of God without knowing the authority of that name. The apostle Paul makes it clear that the ‘name’ to which Jesus alludes in the above passages is not simply the name by which He was known while here among men. To be sure, it is that very selfsame name of His humanity, but it is that name invested now with the title and authority given to Him by God after He had become obedient to death (Phil. 2. 6-10). It is the outcome of His sufferings, the name of His exaltation and glory; and today it is in that ‘name which is above every name’ that we gather and that we ask of God.
This distinction is made not by Paul alone but already by Jesus Himself in the second passage quoted above: ‘Hitherto ye have asked nothing… In that day ye shall ask’ (verses 24, 26). For the disciples ‘that day’ will differ greatly from the ‘now’ of verse 22. Something they do not have now they will receive then, and having received it theywill use it. That something is the authority that goes with His name.
Our eyes must be opened to see the mighty change wrought by ascension. The name of Jesus
certainly establishes the identity of the One in the throne with the Carpenter of Nazareth, but it goes further than that. It represents now the power and dominion given to Him by God, a power and a dominion before which every knee in heaven and earth and beneath the earth must bow. Even the Jewish leaders recognised that there could be this kind of significance in a mere name, when they inquired of the disciples concerning the healing of the lame man: ‘By what power, or in what name, have ye done this?’ (Acts 4.7).
Today the name tells us that God has committed all authority to His Son, so that in the very name itself there is power. But further, we must note in Scripture the recurring expression in the name’ – that is to say, the use to which the apostles in fact put that name. It is not only that He has such name, but that we are to use it. In three passages in His last discourse the Lord Jesus repeats the words ‘ask in my name’ (see Johr 14. 13. 14; 15.16; 16.23-26). He has placed that authority in our hands for us to use. Not only is it His, but it is given among men’ (Acts 4. 12). If we do not know our part in it we suffer great loss.The power of His name operates in three directions. In our preaching it is effective to the salvation of men (Acts 4. 10-12) through the remission of their sins, and through their cleansing, justification, and sanctification to God (Luke 24.47; Act 10. 43; 1 Cor. 6. 11). In our warfare it is mighty against the Satanic powers, to bind and bring them into subjection (Mark 16. 17; Luke 10. 17-19; Acts 16. 18). And as we have already seen, in our asking it is effective towards God, for twice we are told: ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask…’, And twice: ‘if ye shall ask anything…’ (John 14. 13, 14; 15. 16; 16. 23). Faced with these challenging words, well mighty we reverently say: ‘Lord, your courage is very great!’
For God thus to commit Himself to His servants is indeed a tremendous thing. Glance now with me at three incidents in the Acts which serve to illustrate this further: ‘Peter said, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk’ (Acts 3. 6). ‘Paul turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour’ (Acts 16. 18). ‘Certain exorcists, took upon them to name over then which had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth …. And the evil spirit answered and said unto them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? Observe first the action of Peter in dealing with the crippled man at the gate. He does not and ask the mind of the Lord first. kneel and pray At once he says: ‘Walk’ He uses the name as if it were his to use, not something far away in heaven.
With Paul at Philippi it is the same. He senses in his spirit that the Satanic activity has gone far enough. We are not told that thereupon he pauses to pray.
No, his is a true walk before God, and because this is so he can, as a custodian of the name, take action almost as though the power were in himself. He commands, and the evil spirit flees ‘that very hour’.
What is this? It is an example of what I shall call God’s ‘committal’ of Himself to man. God has committed Himself to His servants to act through them, as they take action ‘in the name’. And they, what do they do? It is clear that they do nothing of themselves. They use the name. Equally clearly no other name, whether their own or that of another apostle, will have the same effect. All that takes place results from the impact of the name of the Lord Jesus on the situation, and they are authorised to use that name.
God looks at His Son in the glory, not at us here on the earth. It is because he sees us seated with Him there that His name and His authority can be entrusted to us here. A simple illustration will help to make this clear. Some time ago my fellow-woker sent to me for a sum of money. I read his letter, prepared what he had asked, and gave the sum to the messenger. Was I right? Yes, certainly. The letter bore my friend’s signature, and to me that was sufficient. Should I instead have asked the messenger his name and age and employment and native place, and then perhaps sent away because I objected to what he was? No, by no means; for he had come in my friend’s name, and I honoured that name.
THE DIVINE SELF-COMMITTAL
It is a mighty thing that God has done in thus committing Himself to His Church. In so doing he has entrusted to His Servants the greatest possible power; that of One whose dominion is ‘above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come’ (1. 21). Jesus is now exalted in heaven, and all His work of saving men, speaking to their hearts, and working fo them miracles of His grace, is done through the medium of His servants as they act in His name. Thus the Church’s work is His work. The name of Jesus is in fact God’s greatest legacy to her, for where such a self-committal of God is really operative, He Himself takes responsibility for what is done in that name. And God desires so to commit Himself, for He has allowed Himself no other means for completing His task. No work is worthy to be called a work of God if God is not, in this sense, committing Himself to it. It is the authorisation to use His name that counts. We must be able to stand up and speak in His name.. If not, our work lack spiritual impact. But let me tell you, this is not something that can be ‘worked up’ at a time of crisis. It is a fruit of obedience to God and of a resulting spiritual position known and maintained. It is something we must have already
if it is to be available in a time of need.
‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know.’ Praise God for the second! The evil powers recognise the Son; the Gospels give us plenty of evidence of this. But there are those also who are in union with the Son, and they too count in Hades. The question is, Can God commit Himself thus to you?
Let me illustrate again. If something is to be done in my name, it means that, subject to certain conditions, I give my name to another to use, and that I am then prepared to take responsibility for what he does with it. It may mean, for example, that I give him my cheque book and my signature. Ofcourse, if I am poor, with no personal standing and no bank account, my name is of little moment. I well remember how, as a student, I used to be fond of stamping may name everywhere, on books, papers, and anything that came to hand. But when I first had a cheque book and a bank account- fourteen dollars in the Post Office- I became very careful over the use of my personal seal, for fear someone else should counterfeit it and use it.* my name had become important to me.
How powerful and how wealthy is our Lord Jesus! How precious to Him is His name! If, therefore, He is to take responsibility for everything that happens in consequence, how careful must He be as to how that name is used! I ask you again: Can God commit Himself -His ‘bank balance’, His ‘cheque book’, His ‘signature’– to you? That question must be settled first. Then only can you use His name freely. Then only ‘what things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven’. Then, because of the reality of His committal to you, you can move as a true representative of Him in this world. That is the fruit of union with Him.
Are we in such a union with the Lord that He will thus commit Himself to what we are doing? It seems often that we shall be running a big risk in stepping into a situation with the promises of God to up? back up our stand. The point is, will God-back us”The Chinese custom is for everyone to have his own personal tu-chong, a seal or die bearing the characters of his name carved in wood, stone or ivory in an individual design. The impression is usually made with an opaque red; ik. This is felt to be less easily forged than a hand-written signature, and the seal is kept under lock and key and used for signing cheques and other personal documents.–ED.Briefly let me outline four essential features of a work to which God can fully commit Himself.
The first vital need is of a true revelation to our hearts of the eternal purpose of God. We cannot do without this. If I am working on a building, even as an unskilled labourer, I must know whether the objective is a garage or an aeroplane hanger or a place. I must see the plan or I cannot be an intelligent worker. Today evangelism is assumed by most Christians to be the work of God. But evangelism can never be an unrelated thing. It must be integrated with God’s whole plan, for it is in fact but a means to an end. That end is the pre-eminence of the Son of God, and evangelism isbringing in the sons among whom He shall stand pre-emient.
In Paul’s generation every believer had a specific relation to the eternal purpose of God (see especially chapter 4. 11-16). That should be no less true of us today. The eyes of God are turning towards His coming kingdom. What we know as organised Christianity will shortly have to make way for something else-the sovereign rule of Christ. But as with the kingdom of Solomon, so now, there is first a period of spiritual warfare represented by the reign of David. God is seeking those who will co-operate with Him today in that preparatory warfare.
It is a question of the identification of purpose with the eternal purpose of God. All Christian work that is not so identified is fragmentary and unrelated, and it does not ultimately get anywhere. We have to seek from God a revelation to our hearts by His Holy Spirit of ‘the counsel of his will’ (see 1. 9-12 and then to ask ourselves concerning the work to which we are going back after reading this: ‘Is it directly related to that?’ When that is settled, all the small questions of daily guidance will solve themselves.
Secondly, all work that is going to be effective in the divine purpose must be conceived by God. If we plan work and then ask God to bless it, we need not expect God to commit Himself to it. God’s name can never be a ‘rubber-stamp’ to authorise work that is ours in conception. True, there may be blessing upon such work, but it will be partial and not full. There can be no ‘in His name’ there; only, alas, our name!
‘The Son can do nothing of himself.’ How often in the book of the Acts we find the Holy Spirit’s prohibitions! We read in chapter 16 how Paul and those with him were ‘forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia’.and again:
“The Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.’ Yet this book is the book of the acts of the Holy Spirit, not of His ‘inactivities’. Too often we think that the actual doing is what matters. We have to learn the lesson of not doing-of keeping quiet for Him. We have to learn that if God does not move we dare not move.
When we have learned this, then it is that He can safely send us forth to speak for Him.
I must have, therefore, a knowledge of God’s will in my particular sphere of work. Out of that knowledge only should the work be initiated. The abiding principle of all true Christian work is: ‘In the beginning God…’
Thirdly, all work to be effective must depend of God alone. for its continuance upon the power What is power? We often use the word loosely. We say of a man, ‘He is very powerful speaker’, but we have to ask ourselves the question: What power is he using? Is it spiritual power or is it natural power? There is today all too much place given to the power of nature in the service of God. We have got to learn that, even where God has initiated a work, if we are trying to accomplish it in our own power God will never commit Himself to it.
You ask me what I mean by natural power. Put very simply, it is what we can do without the help of God. We give a man the task of organising something of planing a Gospel campaign or some other Christian activity-because he is naturally a good organiser. But if that is so, how hard will he pray? If he is accustomed to depend on his natural gifts, he may feel no need to cry to God The trouble with us all is that there are so many things we can do without relying upon God. We must be brought to the place where, naturally gifted though we may be, we dare not act, we dare not speak, except in conscious and continual dependence on Him.
Stephen described Moses, after his Egyptian education, as a man ‘mighty in his words and works’. Yet, arter God had dealt with him, Moses had to say: ‘Oh Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant: for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.’ When a born orator comes to the place of saying ‘I can’t speak’, then he has learned a fundamental lesson and is on the road to real usefulness for God. That discovery involves a crisis and then a lifelong process, both of them implied.
Surely, in Luke’s expression ‘baptised into the name’ (Act 8. 16; 19. 5). That expression points every new believer to the necessity for a fundamental knowledge of he death and resurrection of Christ in its relation to his entire natural man. Somehow, in our history with God, we must experience that initial crippling touch of His hand to weaken our natural strength, we stand forth on the ground of resurrection life in Christ alone, where death has no longer any claim.
So that After that the circle goes on widening, as fresh areas of our own self-energy are brought under the working of the Cross. The way is costly one, but it is God’s sure way to fruitfulness of life and ministry, For it provides Him with the ground he requires in order that He may give His backing to what we do in the name of His Son In the work of God today things are often so constituted that we have no need to rely upon God.
But the Lord’s verdict upon all such work is uncompromising: ‘Apart from me ye can do nothing. Such work as man can do apart from God is wood, hay, stubble, and the test of fire will prove it so. For divine work can only be done with divine power, and that power is to be found in the Lord Jesus alone. It is made available to us in Him on the resurrection side of the Cross. That is to say, it is when we have reached the point where in all honesty we cry: ‘I cannot speak,’ that we discover God is speaking. When we come to an end of our works, His work begins. Thus the fire in the days to come and the Cross today effect the same thing. What cannot stand the Cross today will not survive the fire later. If my work, which is done in my power is brought to death, how much comes out of the grave? Nothing!
Nothing ever survives the Cross but what is wholly of God in Christ.
God never asks us to do anything we can do. He asks us to live a life which we can never live and to do a work which we can never do. Yet, by His grace, we are living it and doing it. The life we live is the life of Christ lived in the power of God, and the work we do is the work of Christ carried on through us by His Spirit whom we obey. Self is the only obstruction to that life and to that work. May we each one pray from our hearts: ‘O Lord, deal with me!’
Finally, the end and object of all work to which God can commit Himself must be His glory. This means that we get nothing out of it for ourselves. It is a divine principle that the less we get of personal gratification out of such a work the greater is its true value to God. There is no room for glory to man in the work of God. True, there is a deep, precious joy in any service that brings Him pleasure and that opens the door to His working, but the ground of that joy is His glory and not man’s. Everything is ‘to the praise of the glory of his grace’ (1.6, 12, 14).
It is when these questions are truly settled between us and God that God will commit Himself-and indeed I believe He will allow us to say that then He has to do so. Experience in China has taught us this, that if there is ground for doubt whether our work is of God, then sure enough we find God is reluctant to answer prayer in relation to it. But when it is wholly of Him, he will commit Himself in wonderful ways. Then it is that, in utter obedience to Him, you can use His name, and all Hell will have to recognise your authority to do so. When God commits Himself to a thing, then He comes out power to prove that He is in it and is Himself its Author.
Question for you!
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