Prayer: Lord, You are omnipresent, always there, it is us who are hindered by the veils of the flesh. We have control over what we allow to capture our attention. We can control our thought life. We long to be aware of You more than anything else. Help us Holy Spirit to crucify those things that keep us tied to our carnal self.
We have been navigating a wonderful pathway with the Holy Spirit, our teacher.
- We have come to understand that the entire plan of salvation was to rescue us from death and darkness that was caused by sin, so that Gen.1:26 can be completed in us.
- We understand and now have true perspective of the instructions and the warnings that the Holy Spirit has given us in these last days – the preparation of the bride.
- The mystery that was hidden from the ages has now been revealed to us – which is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
- As we spend time in the secret place of His Presence, we are learning to know Him, to fall deeper in love with Him, to develop a heart that desires to die to self and to surrender to His will.
- Our surrendered heart leads us to an abiding life, resulting in transformation that births Christ in us.
- All of this is the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Secret Place of His Presence
This is where it all starts.
James 4:8 – Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Drawing near is not a matter of proximity.
Eric Gilmour: This is what James is talking about when he says, ‘draw near to God’. He is specifically speaking about the deepening of the relationship. He is using the language of proximity to give understanding and it is this…when you draw near to someone, you can hear them.
It is this imagery that James has chosen to bring understanding of what happens when you draw near to God. A deep relationship is built on spending attentive time with one another.
I know someone, a very friendly, lovely person, who, when she is with you, will ask you questions and while you are still trying to answer the first question, she interrupts with another because her mind has already been sparked by something else that she wants to know. By the end of the conversation, you have never really answered her because you don’t really have her attention.
This is why it is so important that when you draw near to God, you come for nothing else but Him. Often we come to God for what we need and we leave before He has got our attention. Forget about everybody else and anything else that seeks to distract you from His Presence.
Eric Gilmour: ‘We must enter into a deeper place of weakness, a deeper place of dependency, a deeper place of lowliness and bankruptcy before God. A humbleness that says, I need You, not so that You can fix my situations but because without You…I am empty.’
Andrew Murray – ‘The Inner Chamber and the Inner Life’. (The secret place)
The morning watch must not be regarded as an end in itself. It is not sufficient that it gives us a blessed time for prayer and for bible study and so it brings us a certain measure of refreshment and health.
It is to serve as a means to an end and that end is to secure the presence of Christ for the whole day.
To abide in Him and His love. To be kept by Him and His grace and to be doing His will and pleasing Him. This cannot simply be an intermittent thing to one who is truly devoted to Him.
I want to secure absolutely the Presence of Christ all the day, to do nothing that can interfere with it. I feel at once that my success for the day will depend on the clearness of the strength of the faith that seeks and finds and holds Him in the closet.
Meditation and prayer and the word will all be used as subordinate (less important than developing the inner life) and auxiliary (supplementary or additional) to this. The link for the day between Christ and thee must be renewed and firmly fastened in the morning hour.
True religion aims at having the character of Christ so formed in us that in our most common acts His temper and disposition shall show themselves. The Spirit and the will of Christ are meant to so possess us that in our intercourse (communication) with men, in our relaxation, in our business it shall be a second nature to us to act according to them. All this can be because Christ Himself as the Living one lives in us.
It is this fixed determination before everything to secure Christ’s Presence that will overcome every temptation to be unfaithful or superficial in the keeping of our pledges. It is this that will make the morning watch itself a mighty means of grace in strengthening character, unnerving us to say ‘No’ to every call for self-indulgence.
It is this that will enable us at once when we enter the inner chamber and shut the door to be there with our whole heart, ready at once for our intercourse (communication) with Christ.
Eph. 3:14-19 – For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know (this is the intimate experience of the heart) the love of Christ which passes all knowledge (this is of the intellect); that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
What is Paul saying here? I pray to the Father that He would strengthen you in your spirit – by His Holy Spirit – so that Christ (the express image of God) may dwell in your hearts by faith (becoming one flesh).
It is when Christ dwells in our hearts (through faith) that Jesus’ instruction to us in John 15:4 becomes a reality.
John 15:4 – Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
John 15:5-6 – I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered.
Paul goes on to say that when Christ is abiding in you – that, you are rooted and grounded in Love (Eph. 3:17). Why? Because He is love. If your heart, soul and mind are rooted in Love, in Him…then what will flow forth from you is love. If your heart, soul and mind are grounded in Love, then you will be immovable when the storms come.
Abiding in His Presence
Abiding in the vine is essential to birth Christ in us and through the Holy Spirit we begin to get an understanding and an intimate knowing (Ginosko) that He is LOVE, He is kind, He is all knowing, He is long suffering, He is patient and merciful and we come to KNOW that He loves us, resulting in us falling deeply in love with Him. This love, this awe and reverence that we now have for Him is what brings the humility that longs for Him to change us. By aligning our will with His will, the Holy Spirit is able to produce His fruit in us.
As He is LOVE, the fruit that we will produce is His love. Out of the wellspring of this love, all the others fruits of the Spirit come forth. (Joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – Gal. 5:22)
This is how the two commandments are fulfilled in us and through us. It’s that simple. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
1 John 4:7 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Just as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual, it takes time to develop a strong branch before fruit can be produced on the branch.
In the beginning it is necessary for us to spend time in His Presence just to establish a relationship with Him – built, not just on understanding but on truly knowing His unconditional love for us as well as His unwavering commitment and faithfulness towards us.
As we grow in this knowledge, we won’t fear when correction comes because we know that surrender will result in producing the fruit that He desires. We also know that whatever He does is done in an atmosphere of love.
Robert Pears: This love of God, His love for me…growing now to the place of outflowing. Like that tree branch, I have spent time getting strong. I have gone through the crucifixion of the poor self-image, of the hurts, of all those things that keep us tied to the carnal self and now I am strong and because I am strong, there is an outflow.
Crucifixion of self! The crucified life! This is an important part! The work of the Holy Spirit is to enforce the victory that our Lord Jesus Christ died to obtain for us! Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy!
Anything that the enemy has done to conform our minds to a belief system that is contrary to the Truth. Any lie or deception that we have come into agreement with. Any wounds, hurts, un-forgiveness, low self-image or inflated self-image is restricting the growth of a strong branch.
If we won’t let go of all of these things which are keeping us carnal, then as a branch we will remain weak and ineffectual as a Christian. But in crucifying our flesh, our carnal self, we are opening the way for the Holy Spirit to increase the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in us, the strength, the ability, the wisdom, the joy, the peace and the growth of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.
Let it go! It is inhibiting the glory of who you were created to be! Let it go!
The Holy Spirit
We understand that our part is to draw aside into His Presence and we also understand that the Holy Spirit, is our Teacher and our guide who will help us but how does He do that?
It’s important to know that you are the prime ministry of the Holy Spirit on the earth and that ministry is all about developing the sons of God.
Rom. 8:13-14 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
Who are the sons of God? Those who are led by the Spirit of God.
Gal. 5:16 – Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Those that are led by the Spirit of God are those who are no longer being controlled by their carnal selves.
Rom. 13:14 – Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts. (Remember? Let it go! Anything to do with the carnal self…let it go!)
Rom. 8:18-19 – For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
So how does He, the Holy Spirit do that?
John 14:15-17 – If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
V26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
He is our Helper who has come to teach us by reminding us of the Word of God, everything that Jesus taught.
John 15:26 – But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, He will testify of Me.
He is our Helper who testifies, (bears witness, gives evidence of the truth) of Jesus.
John 16:12-15 – I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
Whatever Jesus wants you to know, whether it is revelation of the Word or revealing things that are to come, the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you and what He reveals to you will glorify Jesus. As you receive it and as you surrender to it, it will glorify Jesus through you.
Rom. 8:26-27 – Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Alaletos). Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Al-al’-ay-tos – Strongs and Thayers – Unspeakable, not expressed in words.
John 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
The power to do what the Word says we should do, is released by the Holy Spirit in us, when in spite of our weakness, we believe that He will help us and we obey.
So, in order to exercise control over my carnal self and thereby crucify my carnal self, I need to let the Holy Spirit help me in my weakness.
How important is this to you and I?
His voice is life. If we don’t hear Him and if we don’t incline our ear daily…we don’t have life.
Is. 55:6 – Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
Ezek. 36:26-27 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Two things the Father is going to do:
- He will take out the hardened heart (has grown callous, dull and blind, has lost sensitivity) and give us a new heart, a soft heart.
- Secondly, He will put His Spirit within us to cause us, to bring about the transformation needed to walk in His statutes.
‘Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.’
The world is drawn by this love and it sees that we are His disciples, by this love.