After being reborn, believers have only to continue to grow in the strength of their faith—which is manifested in their works—for salvation does not admit in degrees. Thus all saints are saved at the one and same position of redemption, but “walk” at varying levels of discernment, understanding and maturity in Christ. A believer’s walk in Christ’s image glorifies God, and is used by Him to strengthen the saved, and draw those who will be coming to Him. May we continue to “grow up into Him in all things” (Eph 4:15; 2Pe 3:18)
NC
I must say that the exercise through which you are passing indicates a preparation for service, rather than the reverse. Nothing conduces more to fit the servant for his work than a deep, real sense of the importance of the truth which he has to communicate; and when one is not deeply affected by it in oneself, then one cannot share it effectively with others. I do not think retirement from serving would give good effect to this exercise. I feel it must come as truth is apprehended in its divine greatness.
The sense of my moral distance from my Father deepens as I am conscious of my nearness to Him. I should be overwhelmed by the former, only that in the light of the latter I know my deliverance from it (“deliverance” - though we sin, it’s source, “the old man,” can no longer cause us to desire sin—NC). Your burden is nothing new (1Co 10:13). It may seem rather strange to you, because your naturally even way has preserved you from the sense of alternation (in my opinion this probably means that sometimes we are unaware of our inconsistencies in the Christian walk, which nobody can do without distraction and interruption of the “old man” i.e. “natural way”—NC). You have studied the Word more than you have judged yourself by it (1 Corinthians 11:31). Had you been less personally careful in your walk (Phl 4:6 – occasionally self-dependent—NC), had you been openly or deeply exposed to yourself, you would have known more of this exercise before this.
I regard it as a distinct blessing from the Lord that you should be so exercised (know you’re always delivered—NC); and while it is a voice to myself, I believe it to be His own blessed way of fitting you more for His service; and I find that with everyone who is growing, there is exercise of this kind. It is like the three days Paul was not able to see because of “the glory of that light,” but he heard the blessed word, “that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Act 9:17; 22:11).
There is another thing which this heart-burden imposes upon us, and by which it is relieved, and that is by answering at once to the demand the Lord may have on us. This is devotedness in some shape or form. In some it may entail the confession of a course of hidden worldliness or worse. In others a self-renunciation, or abnegation of any selfishness or covetousness, which the truth, when maintained in power, insists on. The highest truth asserts its claim in the lowest details. Hence, “if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1Jo 3:21, 22 – v 20 shows us we need not condemn ourselves because God has already taken everything we will do into account upon our rebirth—NC). Things which would be passed over in one of less light are subjects of judicial inquiry with one of more light, or of the highest light.
I rejoice, and am far from unfeeling when I say that you are subjected to this exercise. I have passed through much more trying ones myself, because I felt myself more self-condemned, and I often wonder how saints can adopt high truth without seeing deeper through the “hole in the wall.” If you give way to retirement you will shrink from the sword, or rather from the light; and you will not sing as in the days of your youth. I believe there is a new and blessed course before you. You are called upon now to fulfill what you started with, namely, to give up all for the Lord Jesus Christ.
—James Butler Stoney (1814-1897)
MJS online devotional excerpt:
“The Christian life is essentially a continuous dying, and a continuous living. Of course, there may come a particular crisis in experience where the Spirit of God brings the soul face to face with a definite issue as to a willingness for the Cross, and a yielding of the life to God. Yes, the first revelation of the secret of victory also may constitute a real crisis in the life of the believer, but that crisis or experience can never, in itself, avail for the future.
“There is a subtle danger in relying upon some isolated experience of ‘sanctification,’ so-called. The victorious Christian life is a Person, not an experience. Following the crisis, whatever phase or landmark in the life that may represent, there must be the daily reckoning, the moment-by-moment abiding and the control of the Holy Spirit. Whatever may have been our experience of holiness, and the measure of spiritual attainment in the past, we can never get beyond the need of abiding in Christ and the continuous reckoning of faith.”
—Richard Weaver
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/
NC
Gracious Growth Exercise
I must say that the exercise through which you are passing indicates a preparation for service, rather than the reverse. Nothing conduces more to fit the servant for his work than a deep, real sense of the importance of the truth which he has to communicate; and when one is not deeply affected by it in oneself, then one cannot share it effectively with others. I do not think retirement from serving would give good effect to this exercise. I feel it must come as truth is apprehended in its divine greatness.
The sense of my moral distance from my Father deepens as I am conscious of my nearness to Him. I should be overwhelmed by the former, only that in the light of the latter I know my deliverance from it (“deliverance” - though we sin, it’s source, “the old man,” can no longer cause us to desire sin—NC). Your burden is nothing new (1Co 10:13). It may seem rather strange to you, because your naturally even way has preserved you from the sense of alternation (in my opinion this probably means that sometimes we are unaware of our inconsistencies in the Christian walk, which nobody can do without distraction and interruption of the “old man” i.e. “natural way”—NC). You have studied the Word more than you have judged yourself by it (1 Corinthians 11:31). Had you been less personally careful in your walk (Phl 4:6 – occasionally self-dependent—NC), had you been openly or deeply exposed to yourself, you would have known more of this exercise before this.
I regard it as a distinct blessing from the Lord that you should be so exercised (know you’re always delivered—NC); and while it is a voice to myself, I believe it to be His own blessed way of fitting you more for His service; and I find that with everyone who is growing, there is exercise of this kind. It is like the three days Paul was not able to see because of “the glory of that light,” but he heard the blessed word, “that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Act 9:17; 22:11).
There is another thing which this heart-burden imposes upon us, and by which it is relieved, and that is by answering at once to the demand the Lord may have on us. This is devotedness in some shape or form. In some it may entail the confession of a course of hidden worldliness or worse. In others a self-renunciation, or abnegation of any selfishness or covetousness, which the truth, when maintained in power, insists on. The highest truth asserts its claim in the lowest details. Hence, “if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1Jo 3:21, 22 – v 20 shows us we need not condemn ourselves because God has already taken everything we will do into account upon our rebirth—NC). Things which would be passed over in one of less light are subjects of judicial inquiry with one of more light, or of the highest light.
I rejoice, and am far from unfeeling when I say that you are subjected to this exercise. I have passed through much more trying ones myself, because I felt myself more self-condemned, and I often wonder how saints can adopt high truth without seeing deeper through the “hole in the wall.” If you give way to retirement you will shrink from the sword, or rather from the light; and you will not sing as in the days of your youth. I believe there is a new and blessed course before you. You are called upon now to fulfill what you started with, namely, to give up all for the Lord Jesus Christ.
—James Butler Stoney (1814-1897)
MJS online devotional excerpt:
“The Christian life is essentially a continuous dying, and a continuous living. Of course, there may come a particular crisis in experience where the Spirit of God brings the soul face to face with a definite issue as to a willingness for the Cross, and a yielding of the life to God. Yes, the first revelation of the secret of victory also may constitute a real crisis in the life of the believer, but that crisis or experience can never, in itself, avail for the future.
“There is a subtle danger in relying upon some isolated experience of ‘sanctification,’ so-called. The victorious Christian life is a Person, not an experience. Following the crisis, whatever phase or landmark in the life that may represent, there must be the daily reckoning, the moment-by-moment abiding and the control of the Holy Spirit. Whatever may have been our experience of holiness, and the measure of spiritual attainment in the past, we can never get beyond the need of abiding in Christ and the continuous reckoning of faith.”
—Richard Weaver
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/