Days of Heaven on Earth

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 25, 2012

Better to know Jesus Himself than to know the truth about Him, for the deep things of God are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Paul's great desire was, that I may know him. Not just know about Him, or the mysteries of the wonderful world, or even the deeper and higher teachings of God, but to enter into the Holy of Holies where Christ is, where the Shekinah is shining, making the place glorious with the holiness of God. it is to enter into the secret of the Lord Himself.

it was what Jacob strove for at Peniel when he pleaded with God. God has given us he light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). That is the secret. It is the Lord Himself, and nothing else; it is acquaintance with God; it is knowing Jesus Christ as we know no one else.

It is being able to say not only "I believe Him, but "I know Him. "It is being able to say not only "I know about Him," but "I know Him." That is the secret above all others that God wants us to have; it is His provision for glory and power, and it is given freely to the single-hearted seeker.

Scripture
That I may know him—Philippians 3:10

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Many Christians fail to see all the blessings that are centered in Christ. They want to get the blessing of salvation, but that is not the Christ. They want to get the blessing of His grace to help, but that is not Him. They want to get answered prayer from Him in order to work for Him. You might have all that and not have the blessing of Christ Himself.

A great many people are attached to the system of doctrine. They say, "Yes, I have the truth; I am orthodox." That is not the Christ. It may be like the cold statue in the fountain with the water pressing from the cold hands and lips, but having no life.

A great many other people want to get the blessing of joy, but this is not the blessing of Christ personally. Many people become attached to their church and pastor, or to dear Christian friends, but that is not the Christ. The blessing that alone will fill our hearts when all else fails is the loving heart of Jesus united to us, the fountain of all our blessings and the unfailing One when all others wither and are exhausted-Jesus Christ Himself.

Scripture
The fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ—Romans 15:29

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 22, 2012

How must God feel when we disappoint Him after He has given us His heart's blood, put so many advantages in our way and expended upon us so much grace and care. it makes the spirit cry, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

In my mind's eye I can see before me the time when we shall stand on heaven's shore and look back upon the years that have been, these few short years of time. May we cast ourselves at Jesus' feet and say: "Many a time have I faltered; many a hard fight has come, but Thou hast kept me and held me, thanks to God, who has given me the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ."

Fresh from the battlefields a little band of veterans Came forth. To each was given a medal with the names of their battles on one side, and on the other side this little sentence, "I was there. "Oh, when that hour shall come, may it be a supremely happy thought to look back over the trials and sacrifices of these days and remember, "I was there, and by the help of God and the grace of Jesus, I am here."

Scripture
Fight the good fight of faith—1 Timothy 6:1

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, May 21, 2012

The Bible has always held out two great promises respecting Christ. First, He will come to us. Second, He will come into us.

For four thousand years the world looked forward to the fulfillment of the first promise. The other is the secret which Paul says hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, which is Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26-27). This is just as great a revelation of God as the incarnation of Jesus, for it makes us like Christ, as free from sin as He is.

If Christ is in us, what will be the consequences? Why, He will put us aside entirely. The I in us will go. We will say, "Not I, but Christ." Christ undertakes our battles for us. Christ becomes purity and grace and strength in us.

We do not try to attain these things; we have obtained them in Jesus. This brings glorious rest with the Master. Jesus does not say, "Now we must bring forth fruit, we must pray much, we must do this or that." There is no constraint about it, except that we must abide in Him. That is the center of all joy and help.

Scripture
We will come unto him, and make our abode with him—John 14:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 20, 2012
What a privilege that we may consecrate ourselves! What a mercy that God will take such worthless creatures! What rest and comfort lie hidden in those words, "Not your own." We are not responsible for our salvation, not burdened by our cares, not obliged to live for our interests, but altogether His. We are redeemed, owned, saved and kept in the strong, unchanging arms of His everlasting love.

What unbroken rest from sin and self and destructive care which true consecration brings! To be able to give Him our poor weak lives, with their awful possibilities and their utter helplessness, and know that He will accept them and take joy and pride in making out of them the utmost possibilities of blessing, power and usefulness. To give all, and find in so doing we have gained all! To be so yielded to Him in entire self-surrender that He is bound to care for us as for Himself. in such a step of consecration we are putting ourselves in the hands of a loving Father, more solicitous for our good than we can be and only wanting us to be fully submitted to Him that He may be freer to bless us.

Scripture
Ye are not your own—1 Corinthians 6:19

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 19, 2012

Recently I passed a garden. The gardener had finished his pruning and the wounds of the knife and saw were just beginning to heal. The warm April sun was gently nourishing the stricken plant into fresh life and energy.

As I looked at that plant I thought how cruel it would be were the owner to begin next week to cut it down. The gardener's business now is to revive and nourish it into life. Its business is not to die, but to live.

So it is with the discipline of the soul. It, too, has its dying hour, but it must not always be dying. Rather we are to reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Death is but a moment. We should live, then, as children of the resurrection, depending more and more on His glorious life. The fullness of our lives will then repel the intrusion of self and sin and overcome evil with good. Our existence will not then be the dreary repression of our own struggling but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming and everlasting life.

Scripture
He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit—John 15:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 18, 2012

This definite, absolute and final putting off of ourselves in an act of death is something we cannot do ourselves. It is not self-mortifying, but it is dying with Christ. Nothing can do it but the cross of Christ and the Spirit of God.

The church is full of half-dead people who have been trying to slay themselves for years and have not had the courage to strike the fatal blow. Yet if they would just put themselves at Jesus' feet and let Him do it, there would be accomplishment and rest. On the cross He provided for our death as well as our life, and our part is just to let His death be applied to our nature as it has been to our old sins. When we have done this we must leave it all with Him, think no more about it and count it dead. Recognizing it as no longer ourselves, but another, we must refuse to obey it, or fear it, to be identified with it, or even try to cleanse it. We must consider it utterly in His hands-and dead to us forever-and depend on Him for every breath of our new life as a newborn baby depends upon the life of its mother.

Scripture
For ye are dead—Colossians 3:3

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 17, 2012

A precious secret of Christian life is to have Jesus dwelling within the heart and conquering things that we never could overcome. it is the only secret of power in our lives. Men cannot understand it nor will the world believe it, but it is true that God will come to dwell within us and be the power, the purity, the victory and the joy of our lives. Our attitudes will no longer be, "What is the best that I can do?" but we will ask, "What is the best that Christ can do?" it enables us to say with Paul in that beautiful passage in Philippians, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to stiffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (4:12-13).

With this knowledge I go forth to meet my testings, and this knowledge enables me to stand. I could never keep myself, but because Christ has met the adversary and defeated him for me I am kept pure and clean. Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:57).

Scripture
To him that overcometh, will I give—Revelation 2:17

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

United to Jesus Christ as our Redeemer, we are accepted in the Beloved. He does not merely take our place as a man and settle our debts. He does that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and reproduce Himself in us.

If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have the same mind. The very Christ is in me. This is the foundation of Christian holiness and divine healing. Christ is developing a perfect life within us. Some say man can never be perfect. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. We are all failures. This is true, but we should go further. We must take God's provision for our failure and rise above it through His grace. We must take Jesus as a substitute for our miserable selves. We must give up the good as well as the bad and take Him instead. It is hard for us to learn that we must relinquish even the good in order that we will depend upon divine impulses rather than even our best attainments.

Scripture
It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps—Jeremiah 10:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

We have thought much about what we have received. Let us think of the things we have not received, of some of the vessels that have not yet been filled, of some of the places in our lives that the Holy Spirit has not yet possessed for God and signalized by His glory and His presence.

Shall the coming months be marked by a diligent, heart-searching application of the rest of the oil (see Leviticus 14:17-20) to the yet unoccupied possibilities of our life and service?

Have we known His fullness of grace in our spiritual lives? Have we tasted a little of His glory? Have we believed His promise for the mind, the soul, the spirit? Have we known all His possibilities for the body? Have we tested Him in His power to control the events of nature and to move the hearts of men and nations? Has He opened to us the treasure house of God and met our financial needs as He might? Have we begun to understand the ministry of prayer, as God would have us exercise it? God give us the rest of the oil!

Scripture
I press toward the mark—Philippians 3:14

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 13, 2012

Christianity may mean nothing more than a religious system. The Christian life may mean nothing more than an earnest and honest attempt to follow and imitate Christ.

The Christ life is more than these and expresses our actual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is actually in us as the life and source of all our experience and work.

This conception of the highest Christian life is at once simpler and more sublime than any other. We do not teach that the purpose of Christ's redemption is to restore us to Adamic perfection, for if we had it we should lose it tomorrow. Rather, it is to unite us with the second Adam, and to lift us up to a higher plane than our first parents ever knew.

This is the only thing that can reconcile the warring elements of diverse schools of teaching with respect to Christian life. The Spirit of God will lead us to have no controversy respecting mere theories. Rather, we are simply to hold to the person and life of Jesus Christ Himself and the privilege of being united to Him through living in constant dependence upon His keeping power and grace.

Scripture
Abide in me—John 15:4

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 12, 2012

Beloved, do you not long for God's quiet, the inner chambers, the shadow of the Almighty, the secret of His presence? Your life has been, perhaps, all driving and doing; or perhaps straining, struggling, longing and not obtaining. You long for rest! you long to lie down close to His heart and know that you have all in Him, that every question is answered, every doubt settled, every interest safe, every prayer answered, every desire satisfied. Lift up the cry, Tell me, 0 thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon!

Blessed be His name! He has for us His exclusive love-a love which each individual feels is all for himself, one in which he can lie alone upon His breast and have a place which no other can dispute. And yet His heart is so great that He can hold a thousand millions just as near, and each heart seems to possess Him as exclusively for his own as the thousand little pools of water upon the beach can reflect the sun, and each little pool appears to have the whole sun captured in its beautiful depths. Christ can teach us this secret of His inmost love.

Scripture
Tell me . . . where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon—Song of Solomon 1:7

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 11, 2012

First and foremost Christ teaches resurrection and life. The power of Christianity is life. It brings us not merely law, duty, example, with high and holy teaching and admonition; it brings us the power to follow the higher ideal and the life that spontaneously does the things commanded. And it is not only life, but resurrection life.

It begins with a real crisis, a definite transaction, a point of time as clear as the morning dawn. It is not an everlasting dying and an eternal struggle to live. But it is all expressed in a tense that denotes definiteness, fixedness and finality. We actually died at a certain point and as actually began to live the resurrection life.

Let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11).

And death is only the pathway and portal

To the life that shall die nevermore;

And the cross leadeth up to the crown everlasting,

The Jordan to Canaan's bright shore.

Scripture
Whosoever will save his life shall lose it—Luke 9:24

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 10, 2012

Here is the message of the Christ of the cross and the still more glorious and precious Christ of the resurrection. It is beautiful and inspiring to note the touch of light and glory with which these simple words invest the cross. It does not say, I am he that was dead and liveth, but I am he that liveth and was dead, and, behold, I am alive forevermore. Life is mentioned before the death.

There are two ways of looking at the cross. One is from the death side and the other from the life side. One is the Ecce Homo (behold the man) and the other is the glorified Jesus with only the marks of the nails and the spear. It is thus we are to look at the cross. We are not to carry about with us the mold of the sepulcher, but the glory of the resurrection. It is not the Ecce Homo, but the Living Christ.

Our crucifixion is to be so complete that it shall be lost in our resurrection, and we shall even forget our sorrow and carry with us the light and glory of the eternal morning. So let us live the death-born life, ever new and full of a life that can never die because it is dead and alive forevermore.

Scripture
I am alive forevermore- Revelation 1:18

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 09, 2012

It was a stirring greeting which the Lord of Life spoke to His first disciples on the morning of the resurrection. It is a bright and radiant word which, in His Name, we would speak to His beloved children at the commencement of another day.

it means a good deal more than appears on the surface. It is really a prayer for our health, but which none but those who believe in the healing of the body can fully understand. A thoughtful friend suggested once that the word "hail" really means health, and it is just the old Saxon form of the word. We all know that a hale person is a healthy person. Our Lord's message, therefore, was substantially that greeting which from time immemorial we give to one another when we meet: "How is your health?" "How are you?" or, better still, "I wish you health."

Christ's wish is equal to a promise and command. It is very similar to the apostle John's benediction to his dear friend Gaius, and we would re-echo it to our beloved friends according to the fullness of the Master's will. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth (3 John 2).

Scripture
All hail—Matthew 28:9

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Death and resurrection are the central ideas of nature and Christianity. We see them in the transformation of the chrysalis, in the buried seed bursting into the bud and blossom of spring, in the transformation of the cold shroud of winter into the tinted robes of spring. We see it throughout the Bible in the symbol of circumcision with its significance of death and life, in the crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan leading out and leading in, and in the cross of Calvary and the open grave of the Easter morning.

We see it in every deep spiritual life. Every true life is death-born, and the deeper the dying the truer the living. No doubt the passing months have shown us all many places where there ought to be a grave, and many lingering remnants of the natural and sinful which we ought gladly to commit to a bottomless grave. God help us to pass upon them the irrevocable sentence of death and to let the Holy Spirit make the interment eternal. Then our life shall be continually budding and blossoming and shedding fragrance over all.

Scripture
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die—John 12:24

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, May 07, 2012

It is a blessed moment when we are born again and a new heart is created in us after the image of God. It is a more blessed moment when, in this new heart, Christ Himself is born and Christmas time is reproduced in us as we, in some real sense, become incarnations of the living Christ. This is the deepest and holiest meaning of Christianity. It is expressed in Paul's prayer for the Galatians. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

There will yet be a more glorious era when we, like Him, shall be transformed and transfigured into His glory, and in the resurrection shall be, in spirit, soul and body, even as He.

Let us be, under the power of the inspiring thought, incarnations of Christ, not living our life, but the Christ life, and showing forth the excellencies, not of ourselves, but of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. As a result our lives shall be to all the reliving of the Christ life, as He would have lived it had He been here.

Scripture
I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you-Galatians 4:19

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, May 06, 2012

Death is but for a moment; life is forever. Let us live, then, as children of the resurrection, finding His glorious life more and more abundant, and the fullness of this life will repel the intrusion of self and sin and overcome evil with good. Then our existence will not be the dreary repression of our own struggling, but the springing tide of Christ's spontaneous overcoming life.

Once in a religious meeting a dear pastor gave us a most exhilarating talk on the risen life. Then another minister got up and talked for a long time on the necessity of self-crucifixion. A cold feeling came over us all and we could scarcely understand why. But after he had finished, one of the women clarified the whole situation by saying, "Pastor S. took us all out of the grave, and then Pastor P. put us back again. "

Let us not go back into the grave once we have been delivered, but let us live like Christ, who liveth and was dead; and, behold, [he is] alive forevermore, and [has] the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1: 18). Let us keep out of the tomb. Keep the door locked and the keys in Christ's risen hands!

Scripture
Reckon ye also yourselves to be . . . alive unto God—Romans 6:11

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, May 05, 2012

God is waiting today to mark the opening hours, for every ready and willing heart, with a touch of life and power that will lift us to higher pleasures and offer to our vision grander horizons of hope and holy service.

We shall not need to look far to discover our risen Lord. He was in advance even of the earliest seeker that Easter morning, and He will be waiting for us before the break of day with His glad "All hail" if we only have eyes to see and hearts to welcome and obey Him.

What is His message to us this springtime? If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1, 3).

It is not just risen with Christ, but resurrected. It is not rising a little higher in the old life, but it is rising from the dead. The resurrection will mean no more than the death has meant. Only so far as we are really dead shall we live with Him.

Scripture
If ye then be risen—Colossians 3:1

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, May 04, 2012

Satan loves to trip us over little things. The reason for this is that it is generally a greater victory for him and shows that he can upset us by a shaving and knock us down with a straw. It is the old boast of the Jebusites, when they told David they could defend Jerusalem by a garrison of the blind and lame.

Most of us manage better in our great struggles than we do in our minor ones. It was over a little piece of fruit that Adam fell, but all the world was wrecked. Keep a close watch for the little stumbling blocks and do not let Satan laugh at you and tell his demons how he tripped you over a banana peel. Then, too, when the devil wants to hinder some great blessing in our lives, he generally throws some ugly shadow over it and makes it look distasteful to us. How many times has the devil succeeded in preventing us from receiving God's greatest blessing by keeping us from certain truths or places or persons which we avoided because of our false or foolish prejudice!

Scripture
Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world—1 John 4:4

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, May 03, 2012

Here lies the secret of abiding peace-God's peace. We give ourselves to God and the Holy Spirit takes possession of our hearts. It is indeed "Peace, peace." But it is at this precise point that the devil begins to interfere, and he does it through our thoughts, diverting or distracting them as the occasion requires.

This is the time to prove the sincerity of our consecration and the singleness of our hearts. If we truly desire His presence more than anything, we will turn away from every conflicting thought and look steadily up to Jesus. But if we desire the gratification of our impulses more than His presence, we will yield to the passionate word, or the frivolous thought, or the sinful diversion. Then when we come back, our Shepherd has gone, and we wonder why our peace has departed.

Failure occurs often in some insignificant thing-usually a thought or word. The soul that would not fear to climb a mountain may actually stumble over a straw.

The real secret of perfect rest is to be jealously, habitually occupied with Jesus.

Scripture
My peace I give unto you—John 14:27

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, May 02, 2012

How these words help us! Think of them when people rasp you, when the devil pricks you with his fiery darts, when your sensitive, self-willed spirit chafes or frets. Let a gentle voice be heard above the strife, whispering, "Keep sweet, keep sweet!" And, if you will but heed it quickly, you will be saved from a thousand falls and kept in perfect peace.

True, we cannot keep ourselves sweet, but God will keep us if He sees that it is our fixed, determined purpose to be kept sweet, and to refuse to fret or bear a grudge or retaliate. The trouble is, we may at times enjoy a little irritation and morbidness. We want to cherish the little grudge, and sympathize with our hurt feelings and nurse our little grievance.

God will give us all the love we really want and honestly choose. We can have our grievance, or we can have the peace that passeth all understanding; but we cannot have both.

There is a balm for a thousand heartaches, and a heaven of peace and power in these two little words-keep sweet.

Scripture
Always causeth us to triumph—2 Corinthians 2:14

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Nature's harshness has melted away and she is now beaming with the smile of spring, and everything around us whispers of the gentleness of God. This beautiful fruit is in lovely harmony with the gentle month of which it is the keynote. May the Holy Spirit lead us these days into His purity, quietness and gentleness, subduing every coarse, rude, harsh and unholy habit. May He make us like Him-of whom it is said, He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets (Matthew 12:19)

The man who is truly filled with Jesus will always be a gentleman. The woman who is baptized of the Holy Spirit will have the instincts of a perfect lady, although lowborn and untutored in the schools of earthly refinement. Let us receive and reflect the gentleness of Christ until the world will say of us, as the polished infidel Chesterfield once said of the saintly Fenelon, "if I had remained in his house another day, I should have had to become a Christian."

Lord, help us today to so yield to the gentle Dove-Spirit that our lives shall be as His life.

Scripture
The fruit of the Spirit is . . . gentleness—Galatians 5:22

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, April 30, 2012
There is a beautiful expression in the book of Isaiah which reflects with accuracy the depth of the love of God. He said, They are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour (Isaiah 63:8). They lied, but He would not believe it. At least He speaks as if He would not believe it, in the greatness of His love, because they were His people. He has not seen iniquity in Jacob nor perversity in Israel. There is plenty of it to see, and the devil sees it all, and a good many people are only too glad to see it, but the dear Father will not see it. He covers it with His love and the precious blood of His atoning Son.

Such a wonderful love ought surely to make us more gentle to others and more anxious to cause our Father less need to hide His loving eyes from our imperfections and faults.

if we have the mind and heart of Christ, we shall clothe even the non-Christians with those graces which faith can claim for them. We shall try our best to count them as if they were real, and by love and prayer we shall at length make them real. Love believeth all things (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Scripture
Love believeth all things—1 Corinthians 13:7

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, April 29, 2012

This is a most serious thought, this thought of finishing our work. There is nothing in the Christian life quite so sad as unfinished work.

As I look over the work of God, I see strewn all along the way this curse of incompleted work. The book of Judges tells us of five hundred years of declension because God's people did not complete their work when they were in possession of Canaan. They conquered Jericho; they conquered 31 kingdoms; they divided the land among 12 victorious tribes; but they left here and there little strongholds that were not subdued-little tribes that could not or would not be driven out-and it was not long until they brought Israel under subjection and neutralized all the work of Joshua's conquest.

Consider the ministry of Elijah. Never has the world seen anything more sublime than his victory on Carmel. But who has not grieved at his reaction on the following day when, at the shaking of a woman's finger, he fled into the desert and left the field in possession of God's enemies.

It is not enough to go on for a while. It is the last step that wins. May God put on our hearts this thought, that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have receive of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Scripture
That I might finish my course with joy—Acts 20:24

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sanctification is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the prepared inheritance of all who enter in. It is the obtainment of faith, not the attainment of works. It is divine holiness, not human self-improvement or perfection. It is the inflow into man's being of the life and purity of the infinite, eternal and Holy One. It is the bringing in of God's own perfection and the working out of His own will.

How easy, how spontaneous, how delightful this heavenly way of holiness! Surely it is a "highway" and not the low way of man's vain and fruitless mortification. It is God's great elevated railway, sweeping over the heads of the struggling throngs who toil along the lower road when they might be borne along on His ascension pathway by His own almighty impulse. It is God's great elevator carrying us up to the higher chambers of His palace, without arduous efforts, while others struggle up the winding stairs and faint by the way.

Let us today so fully take Him that He can cause [us] to walk in [his] statutes (Ezekiel 36:27).

Scripture
For it is God which worketh in you—Philippians 2:13