The Rule of the Heavens # 9

The Rule of the Heavens # 9

The Nature of the Vessel's Present Ascendancy, continued -

Beloved, you never know what you are going to effect for God in securing others to a position of definite, strong standing for the Lord, by taking a strong, though costly stand yourself. Sometimes you personally have to take a stand alone at great cost, which may involve you in a good deal of suffering. You never know what that is going to mean for the Lord by others being morally brought into a strong place. The Lord needs "Daniels" in this sense; the men and women who will take a personal stand, at any cost, upon what they know to be according to the mind of God. It is not a question, in the first place, of whether others do it or not; or whether others will follow suit or not; it is what God requires, what is according to God. The question is not, What will it cost me? What will others think of it? Will others agree with me? It is, Will the Lord require it? If so, that is the only ground for me to act upon. And acting like that very often means that moral stamina comes into others and the Lord gains by a personal, lonely stand for Him, a mighty increase of reinforcement in His testimony.

Now that may be a word that touches someone who is being faced with a course which is costly, and a price has to be paid, and as far as they know there is not another one who will take that step; but if you do you may discover there are several others whom the Lord will meet if you go on in faithful devotion, if you go on in what you know to be the will of God for you. Daniel purposed he would not defile himself. This brings in a whole new world. Wherein lay the defilement? You read of Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem. You will find he took away the vessels of the House of the Lord and put them into the house of his gods. Nebuchadnezzar had gods, and it was not the Lord. There was another spiritual system back of Babylon. It was not just Babylon, just some earthly system, not just men; it was that spiritual thing back of men and the system of the world-ruler. Yes, something spiritual behind; that comes out so much in this book. Back of Babylon was the prince of this world, the god of this age. He was moving things in Babylon and moving things against Daniel and his companions, because of the testimony and the Lord, the testimony of the God of heaven. That was behind; and Daniel knew that to voluntary partake of those things from the king's table was to involve himself in the moral and spiritual background of things, and that would be defilement, and that kind of thing would rob him of power with God as well as with men. So he calculatingly and deliberately purposed he would not defile himself, he would not allow any kind of voluntary link between himself and that spiritual system back of this world order. If only people recognized the things of which they say: "Well, there is no harm in it," the things of this world, even the religious things of this world with which they have voluntary connections, in which they dabble and indulge; if only they recognized that back of those "harmless" things there is the working of a sinister force, to entrap them, to spoil them, to rob them of spiritual power! And you know as well as I do, that any professing child of God who has some compromising thing in their life, something that forms a link, be it never so small, between them and the spiritual system back of this world, they are robbed of power with God and with men and it is not until that thing is dealt with and thoroughly put away that they have any kind of spiritual or moral ascendancy. Until that thing is repudiated from the heart God cannot come in and communicate Himself to them. No compromise with the devil through any kind of means or form of his government. I said that introduces a whole new world, now let it open up.

The World Dominion Gathered Up In One Man

Do you notice that in this second chapter the image of Daniel brings all the world empires from the beginning of the Babylonian empire to the end of the Roman empire and its ten provinces, into  the form of one personality, one image, the image of a man? Has the significance of that struck you? All the world empires, all the "Times of the Gentiles" gathered up in the figure of one man. I ask you if the final issue of this dispensation, of this world-government on the human side, is not going to be gathered up in one personality, the antichrist? There is no doubt about it that the Word of God makes it clear that that principle will be carried out, that the government of this world, will be headed up into one personality, the antichrist. There is in Daniel one man, and all is gathered up into the figure of one personality, one corporate body. That is set right over against the Son of Man. The Christ, and the antichrist; they both come out in Daniel.

Now what is the dominion of the Son of man over the antichrist in the Church, the vessel? It is the absolute distinctiveness of that vessel, separation, holiness; its complete break with the whole system of the evil one at every point, and not allowing one touch of defilement with that system. Have you not in your spiritual experience seen recognized more than once, that in order to destroy your spiritual power and strength and your moral ascendancy or effectiveness, the enemy in some way or another must make a contact between you and his kingdom? He will put a temptation in your way, he will put a suggestion into your mind, he will make suggestions to you, put thought into you. In thousands of different ways he puts out a gangway,and he wants you to cross that gangway, to accept that gangway, a link between you and his system. There is no wrong in temptation, beloved, most believers know what it is to have evil thoughts suggested to their minds. It does not mean they have sinned because an evil thought has been suggested, but at the point where they entertain that, respond to that, allow that, they have sinned and made a link with the enemy, and before long that very link is the means of their undoing, their weakness, breakdown, and not until they get back to the Lord and say: "I allowed that to linger, I added another to it." Or in some way the enemy put out and we took on, and that has been completely dealt with wiped out by the Blood, we do not get back our position. The rule of the heavens through the instrument in overthrowing the power of evil demands no defilement, no contact. Oh, sometimes it will come along the line of discouragement, sometimes through depression, doubt; sometimes through an overwhelming sense of weakness, and the enemy strikes a blow and send a fiery dart of questioning the Lord, His love, His wisdom. We can never exhaust the ways in which it comes, but it is not just the fact that it comes, but the fact that we accept it, we take it on, we allow the enemy to lodge his gangway and we go across; we are undone. Mark you, the principle, the basic principle of spiritual and moral ascendancy,of dominion, of overhrowing the power of the enemy, of having authority over all the power of the devil is not in our language, our phraseology, is not the volume of our voice, the forcefulness of our effort, our manner, it is the moral purity of our lives; or in other words, the fact that we give the enemy no ground anywhere.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 10)