The Rule of the Heavens # 11

The Rule of the Heavens # 11

They That Honor God, God Will Honor, continued -

Now if Daniel and his three friends represented something of tremendously solemn significance and importance to heaven in their day, and to hell, and to the nations of this world, you and I occupy that position of spiritual importance to God. And while that may sound very lofty, it may sound very much above you. If only you could read your own spiritual history in the light of heaven - that is, if you have got a spiritual history, if you are really going on with God spiritually, if you are alive unto the Lord - if you could read your own spiritual history in the light of heaven you would be reading the Book of Daniel and the Letter to the Ephesians in your own life. You would be able to see that the same things are operative in your experience spiritually as were there, and are there. So I want this thing to come right home to us very definitely and draw us in, every one of us.

The Basic Principle Of Spiritual Effectiveness

The first chapter of this book, as we have said, introduces that basic principle of spiritual power, authority, dominion, which comes out in the life of Daniel and his friends, and that basic principle is found in the words: "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank" (Daniel 1:8). I do want to add just a very brief word in that connection again by way of extra emphasis, to point out that no life can be spiritually effective, can count for God in the spiritual realm, bring in the government of God, can uphold or maintain or advance the testimony of Jesus, stand against the powers of darkness, bring the consummation of the ages nearer, which is the overthrow of the whole satanic kingdom and the bringing in of the universal rule of the heavens. Only in so far as that life is in a position of absolute separation from everything in that realm against which that testimony of Jesus stands, will be spiritually effective. If you have one link, one point of contact voluntarily with that system through any medium, you are crippled, you are paralyzed. 

How often we have had people come to us and they have poured out a story of spiritual defeat, of failure, an up and down experience, more downs than ups, a lack of spiritual power, and when we have sought to get to the cause of it they have been willing to confess various things, they have come out quite frankly - "I think it very likely may be this or that or something else." And they have not made much difficulty about confessing certain things, and the Spirit of the Lord has been saying in us: "It is not that, there is something else." "There is something else that they are not willing to mention," and when through probing and sifting at last we have got on the scent of the thing, we have touched something that had a relation to their like, something they liked, but there was something that they liked, some indulgence of the flesh, and this they would not confess. I remember a man who was in that category, and when one tried to help him he was ready to confess that most likely it was his bad temper, that was the trouble. Confessed it with a long face, and in my heart I felt, No, that is not it, there is something else, and I was asking the Lord: "What is it?" Give this thing into my hands," and as that man got round to another point of the compass in his direction to me I got his breath,and the Lord said: "That is it, tobacco." And I said: "Has the Lord ever put His finger upon a certain habit, indulgence?" "You may have argued that there was no wrong in it, but has the Lord ever very gently said something to you about that?" and I saw by a flush that the thing had been touched. He said: "Well, I see no harm in that, what is wrong with that? A good many other men have been used of God who do it." I said: "It is not a matter of whether the Lord has ever just touched a thing ever so lightly and said, not that it was a downright wicked thing, but: "I would rather it was not" and that raises the issue. When we had got down to that he said: "There have been times when I have come up against it." I said: "Brother, that is the arrest of your whole spiritual life and that is the back door through which the devil comes in, and the bad temper is not the cause but the effect, and all the defeat is the result of one reservation that you have with the Lord. There is not a full obedience and willing abandonment; you are prepared to confess all sorts of faults, but that one thing you are not prepared to confess, you have got a hold with the Lord."

satan's Vantage Ground

Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank; for the king of Babylon was related to Nebuchadnezzar's gods, to idolatry,and this Book of Daniel shows perfectly clearly that it is not just Babylon, but it is the spiritual power and system back of Babylon with which Daniel was dealing. We will prove that before we are through. And Daniel saw that that would be a gangway between him and their system, against which he stood and across that gangway the enemy would come and paralyze him and rob him of the power of spiritual and moral dominion, ascendency to govern the situation in Babylon for God. The devil was out to offer him the dainties from the king's table and the pleasant wine as a trap to paralyze his spiritual life. Now do not misunderstand me. The instance cited is not intended as a wholesale condemnation of that thing mentioned or of other things, but it is used as an illustration to show you that if in secret history with the Lord where neither companions, Christian friends and brethren know anything, where Daniel is alone with the Lord, there is a realization of what the Lord would have and a facing up to that; if in that secret history there is the slightest touch of question, doubt about anything as to the Lord's will; that is the pivot upon which revolves the strength  of the whole spiritual life, the dominion, the government of the heavens. Just think, that all the mighty power of the God of the heavens, the kingdom of the God of the heavens is suspended in our lives if there is a questionable thing between us and the Lord, a thing about which we have doubt. Yes, we bind the hands of heaven if we are not absolutely clear on every detail with the Lord and there is not the most complete break at every point with that whole system against which we are here as a vessel of the testimony. Holiness is necessary, separation is necessary; an uncompromising attitude between everything that the devil offers as a link between us and his system. The victory of the Lord Jesus over the prince of this world came to Him and had nothing in Him. "The prince of this world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30). If only the prince of this world could have got something in Him! He tried to get personal ambition. Anything like that and the Divine end is frustrated. You see how basic is the principle of an absolute separateness from that kingdom in all its connections and aspects if there is going to be spiritual power. Let us not consider the question of spiritual power merely from a personal standpoint of how it affects us, whether we win the benefit or not, but let us remember that it is a part of a testimony to God's Son. The Lord Jesus is bound up with this. The kingdom of the heavens is bound up with this. The eternal predestinating of God is bound up with this, and a people out of the nations for His Name.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 12)