WE took a moment last time to pause and reflect about all the things that occupy our minds and time; those things that would distract us from our purposed end, the Lord of glory – and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
BUT we need to move on now, being reminded that we are in the last chapter of our study in Principles of Spiritual Growth titled Continuance, looking at the necessary final elements of spiritual growth. Rather than labor on in my usual introduction, let’s refresh our thoughts from the previous reading’s closing comments: …the last governs all the others. Full growth governs all in the mind and will and heart and finished work of God, and it is subnormal to stay at any stage short of that end.
SO, with that in mind let’s get right to Miles Stanford’s continued comments in Chapter 18, Continuance with the reminder from last week that: “We are to pursue those things that God promises to do in us” – Al Martin
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas. 1:2
****************************
Chapter 18—Continuance – Part 4
“It is true that God does take up those who are not worthy and permits them to speak His words years before they fully understand their import; but He does not wish any of us to stop there. We may go on in that way for awhile, but is it not true that, from the time when He begins in us His work of formation through discipline and chastening, it growingly dawns on us how little in fact we knew of the true meaning of what we had been saying and doing? He intends that we should reach the place where we can speak, with or without manifest gifts, because we are the thing we say. For in Christian experience the spiritual things of God are less and less outward, that is, of gift, and more and more inward, of life. In the long run it is the depth and inwardness of a work that counts. As the Lord himself becomes more and more to us, other things—yes, and this must include even His gifts—matter less and less. Then, though we teach the same doctrine, speak the same words, the impact on others is very different, manifesting itself in an increasing depth of the Spirit’s work within them also” (WN).
His relentless processing will discourage and baffle us if we simply want heaven when we die. But if we want what He wants, all that we are taken through, including the desert, will encourage us. Thus we will continue because we know that He ever continues to work in and through us that which He began and finished on our behalf in our Lord Jesus Christ. To be continued…
