War In Your Heart # 5

Background of Victory (continued)

Colossians 3:16, 17: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; ... and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

John told us this:

3 John 3: For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.

Peter told us this:

1 Peter 1:22: Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.

When I was visiting a mission station in China for meetings in a girls school, one missionary told me not to expect her to do any personal work. Furthermore, she said she was soon going on furlough and would not return to China because her health. But she was honest enough to acknowledge that her real sickness was spiritual; she was living in absolute defeat. I quoted verses from Scripture on victory. She knew all of them and could quote them verbatim. She had received and read every book on victory she had heard of, and could teach others the Biblical way of victory; but she herself was living in such devastating defeat that it had wrecked her life, both spiritually and physically. She had become what Paul terms in 1 Corinthians 9:27 "a castaway," one disqualified and disapproved for service because she had failed to meet the requirements.

Even though the meetings were for girls in their teens, God had led me to make known the truth of freedom from bondage to sin through union with Christ in His death and resurrection. God purposed that message for that missionary. The truth she clearly apprehended was appropriated, applied, acted upon, and it made her gloriously free.

God purposed just that message for that classical teacher also. When asked why he had so long refused to accept Christ as Saviour, he said that for years he had believed Christ had come to be his Saviour and was able to save him from his sins, but he was a bondslave to unmentionable sin. Not until he heard that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to deliver one from the dominion of sin did he believe the Saviour was sufficient to meet his need. The saint and the sinner both need to know the truth that the Saviour is also Lord, and that He came not only to deliver from sin's penalty, but likewise from its power.

The present day Church is replete with "castaways." Even on the mission field there are those who with scrupulous fidelity go the round of the routine of duties, but with little dynamic power. Why is this so. Largely because the truth that sets free is so little known or apprehended, so feebly acted upon.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 6)