The Rule of the Heavens # 13

The Rule of the Heavens # 13

They That Honor God, God Will Honor, continued -

This is perhaps a very simple principle and you may hardly see the force of it but a vessel that is really going to bring God into evidence, and the heavens into evidence so that the forces of hell and earth are going to have to take account of this and say: "There is that here which cannot be accounted for on any human ground whatever, this is something beyond the natural, this is something more than man, this is none other than God," a vessel that is going to bring in a testimony like that, a vessel that is going to be instrumental in making every knee to bow to Him, has got to be one which is wholly and utterly relying and dependent upon the Lord, taking nothing to itself, honoring God. It must be a vessel which is empty of everything but the Lord and gives the Lord His place, and in everything it is perfectly clear that it is the Lord; not man or woman, the company, the movement, the organization, not the brain behind the thing, the ability, the acumen, but the Lord; on the human plane there is nothing to account for this; this is the Lord.

That is what the Lord is after, to get that testimony. It was like that in the first days of the Church. "For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God chose the foolish things of the world, that He might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, and that He might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are not, that He might bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God" (1 Cor. 1:26-29). But the thing which governs that strange providence of God in making sure that His vessel is an empty one and in himself a thing which governs Him in so dealing with His vessel is to make sure that all who see, know, wholly attribute it to Himself. You want God to come in? God will come in in the measure in which you go out. The heavens will come in in so far as we are emptied out to the last drop that may e God's way of making room for a larger manifestation of heaven. It is true to spiritual experience. When you are weak and conscious of personal helplessness, that is not the time to throw up your hands and say: "I am no good for anything and never shall be," that is the time to say there is plenty of room for the Lord, and to exercise faith in the Lord to come in, and the Lord's providences and sovereignty operate along the line of weakening us to make us strong "Through faith...out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight" (Heb. 11:34). "The people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32). But it is immensely important to recognize the place of honoring God. It is just the opposite of nature: it represents the work of the Cross having been done. The natural man never will honor God. He may in a mock-humility, but flesh never has, and never will honor God; flesh always takes glory to itself. The most difficult thing for the Lord is to use anybody very much. Whenever the Lord begins to use us there is always that little demon sitting upon our shoulder whispering in our ears: "You are becoming successful, you are becoming something," and that is the Lord's difficulty with this flesh of ours. It does so quickly become gratified with any kind of success or blessing, take something to itself, and when people foolishly begin to gather round and make something of the instrument, as though the instrument were an authority, the flesh feels so nice about it and begins to purr like a cat. Self-satisfaction - that is the curse, and it gets in God's way. For heaven to come in completely God must be honored, it must be all the Lord and that means when God is honored He can go on with His work. It is a law of spiritual power, spiritual authority. If Christ had power and authority over the devil it was surely because of the emptiness of His life from the self-principle. We have often said that the root sin is self interest.

May the Lord just take afresh these two things and bring them home to our hearts. May we keep in mind what the Lord is after in these days is to bring individuals, and a company of people in this world into a place that through them the heavens may govern, and the powers back of this world system may recognize that there is a God in heaven. Amen

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 14 - The Testimony and Its Vessel Unto the Time of the End)