Spiritual Survival in the Coming Days 15

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:6-8—NIV)

In the present hour we are becoming "too smart for our spiritual britches," as the old American saying goes.

The solution is not arrived at by our proud flesh rebuking the devil in some kind of spiritual engagement. The solution is arrived at as we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, looking always and only to Him that He might either remove the problem or else give us the strength to endure until deliverance finally does come.

We are crucified each day that the Life of Christ might increase in us. The Life of Christ shall increase in us if we bring each decision, no matter how small, to the Lord for His solution. In this manner we live in Christ and He lives in us. Such leaning on the Lord is to be true of us every minute of every day and every night, and must always be increasing as we go from glory to glory. This is the normal Christian life.

Thus we arrive at the rest of God, which includes transformation into the moral (and, when the Lord comes, outer) image of Christ and also untroubled rest in the very Center of the Person of God. This is where Christ dwells and He wants us to be with Him where He is.

One of my favorite chapters is the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. In this chapter the Lord Jesus tells us that it is His flesh and His blood that are eternal life, and that it is as we eat His flesh and drink His blood that we are made candidates for the resurrection that will take place when He appears.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:57—NIV)

The above verse indeed is remarkable. It informs us that we are to live by and because of Him, by and because of Jesus, as He lives by and because of the Father.

Is there a more wonderful statement in any language?

Now, to what extent does the Lord Jesus live by and because of the Father?

To the extent that in the present hour it is difficult for us to determine whether Christ and the Father are one Person; whether Christ is the Father (as some believe); whether there are three Gods in One or whether Christ is a Manifestation of the Father; and so forth and so on.

It appears today the Lord is willing to reveal the mystery of God, but only as we experience this mystery of all mysteries, not as we come to understand it through study.

The truth, as I think I am experiencing it, is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three Persons. The Father is the Greatest of all and the Son and the Spirit do His bidding.

The Son is the Servant of the Father, there is no scriptural doubt about that. The Son learned obedience to the Father by the things the Son suffered. This is perfectly clear in the Scriptures.

To continued. Spiritual Survival in the Coming Days 16