"Also, to everyone who takes Jesus or receives Him as the Christ, or the one who puts their trust in Him and believes His promise of life ion union with Him, these are the ones He has given the right, authority and ability to become the children of God. (1 John 1:12 DLT) On the other hand, you must not take the attitude that you are “going to die,” but that you “have died.” If you put it in the future tense, the full benefit of Christ’s death is not wrought in you experientially. As the outward man perishes, so the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). There is always a perishing of the outward, and always a renewing of the inward. This persistent appropriating of the truth of Romans 6 destroys the power of the devil in your life and environment. Your experience does not destroy his power, but the death of Christ does. It would never do to rely upon our experience. We are delivered, not by our death but by Christ’s death applied to us by the Holy Spirit. The finished work of Christ is not only that “he bore our sins in his own body on the tree,” but also that “our old man” (i.e., that part of our being which causes us to sin) “was crucified with him.” How much of our “old man”? Ninety-nine parts? No, no! Christ’s work was complete, and when he died, our “old man” was crucified in entirety.
The urge that makes one man a drunkard, another a philosopher . . . the restlessness that fills the dance hall and the gambling resort, the roadhouse and the movies, and all the other places of pleasure is the heart's search for reality, that universal quest of the ages, the spirit's search for the Holy Grail.
No one finds it until they contact the Man, Christ Jesus, and crown Him as the Lord of their life. That moment the search ends, They have arrived. They may not be conscious of what it is, but they know that the pleasures that they once sought have lost their taste and attraction. They did not know that the hunger was spiritual, that it was a search after something that only God can give. No person reaches the place of rest in the spirit until they have made that contact. Man is a spirit being. He has a soul. He lives in his body. The real man can never be permanently satisfied with the things of the senses. It is a fact that the boy or girl that finds this thing in the teenage never sows wild oats, has no great urge for the dangerous pleasures of the world. They have something that answers that cry. This book is a study. It is a solution of the spirit problem. It is the first time that anyone has attempted to enter the realm and meet man on his own ground. We invite you to read it carefully. We wish we could get in contact with every person who does. We want to know the reactions in your spirit. We believe we have found the fount of eternal joy. The essential thing in religious experience is the inward revelation of Christ. More important than the revelation of Christ to man is the revelation of Christ in man; more important than the revelation of Christ in the Word is the revelation of Christ in the heart. For not until the outward revelation in the Word has become a subjective experience; not until the Christ of Scripture has become inwardly and personally known; not until the inner eye beholds His beauty, and the inner ear hears His voice; not until the light and glory of His spirit fills the temple of the soul, is religion anything more than an empty form.
What does it profit that we see the manifestation of the divine presence in the world if we do not enjoy the manifestation of the divine presence in our hearts? Part II E. CASWALL (TRANS.) Nothing greater could be said of you than that you are a JOY BRINGER. It may not sound like a great title at first but the more you look into it you will see that it is the open Sesame to everything, because: “He annointeth my head with oil (joy), My cup runneth over.” Joy is the oil that saves the material machinery from grinding itself to pieces and burning up with friction. It is the healing and soothing balm that brings peace. Nothing can hold out against the spontaneous overflow of a joyous life. All things give way before it; and the best part of it all is that is a present possibility for you. You, too, can be a JOY BRINGER, you do not have to wait even a day; you can start right now.
We must be honest with ourselves first. It we are not happy and joyous it is because we believe in two powers. If you can find anything bad or distressing then you can find something that the creator did not make. And what the Creator did not make is made by your own little intellect trying to copy the Divine. A religious faith that is uninspired, a hope, or love that proceeds not from the immediate working of the divine nature within us, can no more do any divine good to our souls, or unite them with the goodness of God, than an hunger after earthly food can feed us with the immortal bread of heaven. All that the natural or uninspired man does, or can do in the church, has no more of the truth or power of divine worship in it, than that which he does in the field, or shop, through a desire of riches. And the reason is, because all the acts of the natural man, whether relating to matters of religion or the world, must be equally selfish, and there is no possibility of their being otherwise. For self-love, self- esteem, self-seeking, and living wholly to self, are as strictly the whole of all that is or possibly can be in the natural man, as in the natural beast; the one can no more be better, or act above this nature, than the other. Neither can any creature be in a better, or higher state than this, till something supernatural is found in it; and this supernatural something, called in scripture the WORD, or SPIRIT, or INSPIRATION of God, is that alone from which man can have the first good thought about God, or the least power of having more heavenly desires in his spirit, than he has in his flesh.
Our union with Christ is immortality. The one is the other. If you have one you have the other. (1 John 5:9-13) This is the gospel, the good news. The news explains that your immortality is linked to a life, a Person, not an event. There is nothing else leading to this new life or new birth of holiness but our union with that Person.
Really! By this, our soul is quickened to a natural life, in and by Holy Spirit. God, who is immortality, declares nothing else but our eternal union with the heavenly Life and Spirit of Christ. We simply trust this is true. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17 KJV) “…to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27 NAS
Mr. Love has promised to take residence in us and never leave us nor forsake us. What an awesome promise. He is looking for a home in which to reside and from and through which to declare His love. His Son proved to all in heaven and on earth that obedience is the road to life from the dead. He also declares, by His Spirit resident within us, that we too can shine forth His obedience to Father even now while we live in this flesh which is bent on arguing with the Spirit. The Spirit and flesh may be warring, but each battle is the Lord’s. Life is like a vapor
On the side where you remain Forever is where time goes on Filled with joyful, timeless days Please don’t let the tears that glisten Stay upon your face too long Instead remember the time we had And make tears give way to song Goodbye is not the message I would want to leave for you Rather, what I want to say is, I will see you soon. I am quite alive, you see And waiting here for you So, please live your life with joy and love Until you are timeless too We will laugh again together When life will have no end No, this is not goodbye at all It is, I will see you then |