Learning under the anointing

Reading: Matt 11:29; John 1:51; Matt 3:16; John 1:4; Rom 8:2; 2 Cor 3:16-18.

The School of Christ; that is, the School where Christ is the great Lesson and the Spirit the great Teacher; in the School where the teaching is not objective but subjective, where the teaching is not of things but an inward making of Christ a part of us by experience—that is the nature of this School.

THE MEANING OF THE ANOINTING

"Ye shall see the heaven opened." "He saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending upon him." What is the meaning of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is nothing less and nothing other than the Holy Spirit taking His place as absolute Lord. The anointing carries with it the absolute lordship of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit as Lord. That means that all other lordships have been deposed and set aside; the lordship of our own lives; the lordship of our own minds, our own wills, our own desires; the lordship of others. The lordship of every interest and every influence is regarded as having given place to the undivided and unreserved lordship of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing can never be known, enjoyed, unless that has taken place. That is why the Lord Jesus went down into Jordan's waters, into death and burial, in type, taking the place of man in representation, from that moment not to be under the government of His own life in any respect as He worked out the will of God, but to be wholly and utterly subject to the Spirit of God in every detail. Jordan's grave set forth the setting aside of every independent lordship, every other lordship, every other influence, and if you will read the spiritual life of Christ in the Gospels you will see that it was to that position that He was every moment adhering. Many and powerful were the influences which were brought to bear upon Him to affect Him and govern His movements. Sometimes it was the full force of Satan's open assault, to the effect that it was necessary that He should do certain things for His cause, or for His very continuance in life physically. Sometimes it was Satan clothing himself with the arguments and suasions of beloved associates, in their seeking to hold Him back from certain courses, or to influence Him to prolong His life by sparing Himself certain sufferings. In various ways influences were brought to bear upon Him from all directions, and many of the counsels were seemingly so wise and good. For example, with regard to His going up to the feast, it was urged, in effect: It is the thing that everybody is doing: if you do not go up you will prejudice your cause. If you really want to further this cause, you must fall into line with the accepted thing religiously, and you only stand to lose if you do not do that; you will curtail your influence, you will narrow your sphere of usefulness! And what an appeal that is if you have something very much at heart, some cause for God at heart, the success of which is of the greatest importance. Such then were the influences that were beating upon Him. But whether it be Satan coming in all the directness of his cunning, his wit, his insinuation, or whether it be through beloved and most intimate disciples and associates, whatever the kind of argument, that Man cannot be caused to deflect a hairsbreadth from His principle. 'I am under the anointing; I am committed to the absolute sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, and I cannot move, whatever it costs. Cost it my life, cost it my influence, cost it my reputation, cost it everything that I hold dear, I cannot move unless I know from the Holy Spirit that that is the Father's mind and not another mind, the Father's will and not another will, that this thing comes from the Father.' Thus He put back everything until He knew in His spirit what the Spirit of God witnessed. He lived up to this law, this principle, of the absolute authority, government, lordship of the anointing, and it was for that that the anointing had come.

That is the meaning of the anointing. Do you ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Why do you ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Is the anointing something that you crave? To what end? That you may be used, may have power, may have influence, may be able to do a lot of wonderful things? The first and pre-eminent thing the anointing means is that we can do nothing but what the anointing teaches and leads to do. The anointing takes everything out of our hands. The anointing takes charge of the reputation. The anointing takes charge of the very purpose of God. The anointing takes complete control of everything and all is from that moment in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and we must remember that if we are going to learn Christ, that learning Christ is by the Holy Spirit's dealing with us, and that means that we have to go exactly the same way as Christ went in principle and in law.

So we find we are not far into the Gospel of John, which is particularly the Gospel of the spiritual School of Christ, before we hear even such as He saying, "The Son can do nothing of himself". "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself." The works that I do are not Mine; "the Father abiding in me doeth his works".

"The Son can do nothing out from himself." You see, there is the negative side of the anointing; while the positive side can be summed up in one word—the Father only. Perhaps that is a little different idea of the anointing from what we have had. Oh, to be anointed of the Holy Spirit! What wonders will follow; how wonderful that life will be! The first and the abiding thing about the anointing is that we are imprisoned into the lordship of the Spirit of God, so that there can be nothing if He does not do it. Nothing! That is not a pleasant experience, if the natural life is strong and in any way in the ascendant. Therefore Jordan must be there before there can be an anointing. The putting aside of that natural strength and self-life is a necessity, for the anointing does carry with it essentially the absolute lordship of the Spirit.

You notice the issue of that in 2 Cor 3:16. "When it shall turn to the Lord", when the Lord is the object in view, "the veil is taken away, and we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image . . . even as from the Lord the Spirit", or "the Spirit which is the Lord". You are in the School and you can see Christ and learn Christ; which is being transformed into the image of Christ under the lordship of the Spirit. "When it shall turn to the Lord", when the Lord is our object in view! But with us, with us Christians, with us very devoted, very earnest Christians, what a long time it takes to get the Lord as the sole object. Is that saying a terrible thing? We say we love the Lord; yes, but we do love to have our own way as well, and we do not love to have our way thwarted. Have any of us yet reached that point of spiritual attainment where we never have a bad time at all with the Lord? Oh no, we are still found at the place where we so often think it is in the interests of the Lord that our hearts go out in a certain direction, and the Lord does not let us do it, and we have a bad time; and that has betrayed us absolutely. Our hearts were in it. It was not easy, absolutely easy and simple for us to say, Very well, Lord, I am just as pleased as though you let me do it, I delight always to do Thy will! We are disappointed the Lord does not let us do it; or if the Lord delays it, what a time we go through. Oh, if we could only get at it and do it! The time is finding us out. Is that not true of most of us? Yes, it is true. We do come into this picture, and that just does mean that, after all, the Lord is not as verily our object as we thought He was. We have another object alongside and associated with the Lord; that is, something that we want to be or to do, somewhere we want to go, something we want to have. It is all there, and the Holy Spirit knows all about it. In this School of Christ, where God's objective is Christ, only Christ, utterly Christ, the very anointing means that it has to be Christ as Lord by the Spirit. The anointing takes that position. Well, so much for the moment for the meaning of the anointing. It was true in Him, and it has to be true in us.

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001039.html

Crucified to the Religious World

Posting the following from T. Austin Sparks and the original can be found at this site. 

Crucified to the Religious World – T. Austin Sparks

"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14).

It is interesting to notice the particular way in which the Apostle speaks of the world here. That term is a very comprehensive term and includes a very great deal. Here Paul gets right down to the spirit of the thing. You notice the context; it is well for us to take account of it:

"For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh" (Galatians 6:13).

What does the Apostle mean? They want to say, "See how many proselytes we are making! See how many followers and disciples we are getting! See how successful our movement is! See what a power we are becoming in the world! See all the marks of Divine blessing resting upon us!" The Apostle says that is worldliness in principle and spirit; thatis the world. He sets over against this his own clear spiritual position. Do I seek glory of men? Do I seek to be well-pleasing to men? No! The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

All that sort of thing does not weigh with me. What weighs with me is not whether my movement is successful, whether I am getting a lot of followers, whether there are all the manifestations outwardly of success; what weighs with me is the measure of Christ in those with whom I have to do: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Galatians 4:19). Christ formed in you — that is my concern, he says that is what weighs with me... not extensiveness, not bigness, not popularity, not keeping in with the world, so that it is said that this is a successful ministry and a successful movement. That is worldliness. I am dead to all that; I am crucified with Christ to all that. The thing that matters is Christ — the measure of Christ in you.

You see how the world can creep in... and how worldly we can become almost imperceptibly by taking account of things outwardly — of how men will think and talk, what they will say, the attitude they will take; of the measure of our popularity, the talk of our success. That is all the world, says the Apostle, the spirit of the world; that is how the world talks. Those are the values in the eyes of the world, but not in the eyes of the risen Christ. In the new creation, on the resurrection side of the Cross, one thing alone determines value... and that is the measure of Christ in everything. Nothing else is of value at all, however big the thing may be, however popular it may be, however men talk favorably of it; on the resurrection side that does not count a little bit. What counts is how much of Christ there is.

You and I in the Cross of the Lord Jesus must come to the place where we are crucified to all those other elements. Ah, you may be unpopular, and the work be very small; there may be no applause, and the world may despise; but in it all there may be something which is of Christ, and that is the thing upon which our hearts must be set. The Lord gives us grace for that crucifixion. There are few things more difficult to bear than being despised; but He was despised and rejected of men. What a thing is in God’s sight must be our standard. That is a resurrection standard. Now that is the victory of the Cross: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world".

What will God do next?

Most who have ever read T Austin Sparks either come away with glassy eyes or with wide eyes in wonder as they consider the things of Christ that he has so eloquently layed out before our eyes. I just stumbled across this post from a blog site that apparently honors his writings and posts clips on a periodic basis. It is a very good read and requires some meditation. Think on the things that he is stating, specifically at the bottom of the post. 

May you be blessed as you seek to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the Eternal Purpose of God in His Son. 

http://austinsparks.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/what-will-god-do-next/

David

Darwin Awards - David Style

Not sure if you have ever heard of the "Darwin Awards" but they are typically awarded to people that do something really stupid during the year. I would recommend you look at them BUT there are some things on there that are not good in the eyes of the Lord so, I wouldn't.

Anyway, here is my submission for myself:

Yesterday I was kind and made some hard boiled eggs for my son, and one extra for me to enjoy. He was kind enough to peel them and then he put them in the Microwave to "warm" them a bit. When I went to take one he warned me and said "Daddy, be careful those are hot". To which I replied in a manly tone, "Don't worry, I won't get burned". Well, he was right, they were hot, even to the touch which I have rather hard fingertips so, that is saying a good bit.

So, in my wisdom I promptly walked over to the sink and proceeded to sprinkle some salt on this hot egg thinking that I would take a small bite and then blow on it so that I could cool it down a bit. So, I opened my mouth and proceeded to bite into this egg only to have it explode in my mouth, and I mean explode. It actually made a "BOOM" sound when it exploded. So, here I am standing at the sink with half an egg, a face that feels like I just got punched and a whole lot of egg yolk sprayed down the wall of the kitchen. In looking around I had egg yolk as far as 10 - 15 feet from where I stood and the pieces that were closer hit so hard that they were mashed into whatever they struck. Fortunately it was all in one direction so that the cleanup was reasonable.

So, lessons learned are as follows;

1. When my son tells me that something is hot, I need to listen.
2. When something is microwaved it needs to be punctured (yes, even when the shell is off)
3. Exploding eggs hurt your face, or in my case my lip (very thankful that it was only my lip)
4. Evolution really can't be true because I wouldn't be that stupid after millions and millions of years of evolving... :)

Hope you enjoy from my lessons learned.

David

The world

...is corrupt, it is deceitful and it is desirous of nothing less than your death. Spiritually. I have been very blessed with some things that the Lord has been teaching me but they are not at a point that I can share them fully as they are not worked through my heart yet however, I can share a little bit about some of the things that He has made clear to me.

In my previous post I commented about my experience in Seattle and I have had some other things that have added to this idea of being blind and not seeing. I am in the middle of reading a book to my family called "Henry and the Great Society". If you have never read it, you should, matter of fact I will send you my copy when I am complete if you are interested. The story is about a man, Henry, who lives a very quiet and peaceable life that in their understanding is that which is mentioned in 1 Timothy 6:6 "But godliness with contentment is great gain". The first part of the story is about this simple life that they lived but it rapidly turns as "progress" comes to their community. The picture that is painted by the changes that come in is very scary and really makes you start to think. The book is something that everyone should read, just to have a mirror held up to the ways and things of this world.

I am by no means promoting the ultra-simple lifestyle but I can say that we need to be very careful about the affects that things and goings to and fro have on our time and more importantly on our relationships. Most importantly we need to be careful about that one relationship with our Saviour which is, after all, most important. It is in that relationship where we are changed, it is in that relationship that we can learn of our Lord Jesus (take His yoke upon you and learn of Him...). Isn't that the desire that we should have, to become more like Him, Jesus? That can come through no other means than time with Him and I will say that all of hell stands against that. Everything in this world is meant to do all that it can to pull you away from Him. Much more on this at a later time but, to provide a quick thought, the very testimony of Jesus Christ, the Church, is what hangs in the balance. It can only be represented in fulness when it is represented by those that are truly being changed into His image. That can't happen unless there is a rich relationship where we are beholding Him.

Take some time today and weigh all things in the balance of that relationship with Jesus Christ and ask whether this thing, event, etc is something that is going to draw you closer to Him, to behold Him more clearly or is it going to pull you away. There really is nothing neutral. Don't believe the lie.

David

Seeing

So, what does "seeing" mean?

Matthew 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

I am in Seattle right now after spending a week at a the SQL Server PASS 2008 conference, away from my family, and I have to admit that I have seen many things over the last few days. Not in the sense of "seeing" things but having things revealed to me in a deeper way. The conference that I attended was for work purposes and it was for the most part very good, especially from the technical perspective. However, it is also very revealing to me just how far those things are away from Christ. You may not understand that, especially if you are not having to do many things with the world, but I can honestly see why there is not even a looking to God in the midst of this world. I had a 1.2 mile walk to and from the conference every day and if you have never been to Seattle, it is a really unique city with a mix of the "earthy" crowd, and the posh crowd, all mixed in with people that are poverty stricken and living on the streets. And here I am going about to this conference, in the midst of people that are only concerned about the stock market and making their server more reliable (if you don't understand that consider yourself blessed). I'm not trying to bring about an attitude of humanism but rather trying to paint a picture of why people don't think they have a need for God. The irony is, without their realizing this, the people that I was "mingling" with, were the ones who are in need, they are the poor, the blind, the lame the halt, the beggars so to speak and yet, they think they are doing great, especially when they compare themselves to those they see on the street. Ultimately my friends, the enemy has done a really good job of blinding people. There was no shortage whatsoever with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life eminating from the midst of this "congregation". Not in rampant open "sin" or I would have left but it was evident in all the fruit of their lives.

If you are reading this you may be saying, brother I know these things, why are you stating them. That may be true but I don't know that we see the stark reality of it or there would be some different fruit in our lives over these things. Just consider Abraham when God was preparing to send destruction to Sodom. The pleading that went on between Abraham and God. Are we pleading like that or are we too blind to the fact that destruction is going to come. I'm not trying to get everyone all "Ra Ra'd" up to go evangelize the world, I know that can be as much a work of the flesh as anything but I am asking what the fruit is in our lives in relation to the FACT that God is going to unleash judgment on the world in the future and most likely the near future.

I guess ultimately, I am really just thinking about what a strong contrast there is between what went on in the New Testament to what is seen today in "Christianity". A verse to consider as follows;

1 John 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.


So, having said all this, the reason why I am able to write so freely in this is that I honestly feel like it is for me. These are all the questions that God has been asking me all week. ...and I share it with you to ask yourself.

I apologize, this was not well thought out, just an outpouring of the heart.

David

Prayer Update

Thank you for praying! We have been really blessed with health, in that both I and Emma are feeling much better. Aside from feeling like I just ran a marathon with my muscles aching, I feel fine and Emma appears to be back to her normal energy level. Many blessings there.

In addition to that we also received news this morning that we are going to close on the house on October 9th. So, we are VERY thankful for that news and rejoicing that all this happened without us having to lift a finger toward getting this done. God has just continually showed us how much He desires to act on our behalf if we will only trust Him. Thank you Father!

We will keep you updated as things progress on this site.

Great blessings to you all as you abide in Christ Jesus Our Lord.

David