They That Honor God, God Will Honor (continued)
"Through faith ... not of weakness were made strong; waxed valiant in fight" (Hebrews 11:34). "The people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32). But it is immensely important to recognize the place of honoring God. It is just the opposite of nature; it represents the work of the cross having been done. The natural man never will honor God. He may in a mock-humility, but flesh never has, and never will honor God; flesh always takes glory to itself. The most difficult thing for the Lord is to use anybody very much. Whenever the Lord begins to use us there is always that little demon sitting upon our shoulder whispering in our ears: "You are becoming successful, you are becoming something," and that is the Lord's difficulty with this flesh of ours. It does so quickly become gratified with any kind of success or blessing, take something to itself, and when people foolishly begin to gather around and make something of the instrument, as though the instrument were an authority, the flesh feels so nice about it and begins to purr like a cat. Self-satisfaction - that is the curse, and it gets in God's way. For heaven to come in completely God must be honored, it must be all the Lord and that means when God is honored He can go on with His work. It is a law of spiritual power, spiritual authority. If Christ had power and authority over the devil it was surely because of the emptiness of His life from the self-principle. We have often said that the root sin is self interest.
May the Lord just take a look at these two things and bring them home to our hearts. May we keep in mind what the Lord is after in these days is to bring individuals, and a company of people in this world into a place that through them the heavens may govern, and the powers back of this world system may recognize that there is a God in heaven!
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 54 - (The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose)
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