"And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." - Romans 16:20
We believers who have been chosen by the Lord should never forget this purpose of our being involved in destroying the works and power of the devil. Whatever we do, we should not ask if this matter is good or bad, but ask instead if it is profitable to God and destructive to Satan. We will not do anything if it has no power to affect the kingdom of darkness and to cause damage to the devil.
In all our works we are to judge them not by the apparent result but by the effect they shall have in the spiritual realm as to who will gain and who will lose. This is spiritual warfare that is not to be waged by the efforts of flesh and blood. This is also to be the criterion at the judgement seat on that day: whether a work is to be burned or to stand shall be based on how effective it was in effecting the will of God.
The Lord My Portion (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Romans 14
Showing posts with label God's will. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God's will. Show all posts
Monday, November 19, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Take the Cross
"And he that doth not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me." - Matthew 10:38
A burden is not a cross. Burden is something inescapable; the cross, however, is subject to personal choice and can therefore be avoided. What the first cross in history was, so the countless smaller crosses will be which shall follow afterwards: just as the original cross was chosen by the Lord, so the crosses for today must also be chosen by us. Some people assume that they are bearing the cross whenever they fall into some hardship or encounter some distress. This is not true, however, for these kinds of things may quite naturally happen to any person even if that person is not a believer.
What then is a cross? It must be akin to what the Lord Jesus Himself had said: 'My Father,... Thy will be done' (Matthew 26 :42). The Lord asks His Father not to answer as He the Son wills, but as the Father wills. This is the cross. To take the cross is to choose the will which the Father has decided.
The Lord My Portion (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Matthew 10
A burden is not a cross. Burden is something inescapable; the cross, however, is subject to personal choice and can therefore be avoided. What the first cross in history was, so the countless smaller crosses will be which shall follow afterwards: just as the original cross was chosen by the Lord, so the crosses for today must also be chosen by us. Some people assume that they are bearing the cross whenever they fall into some hardship or encounter some distress. This is not true, however, for these kinds of things may quite naturally happen to any person even if that person is not a believer.
What then is a cross? It must be akin to what the Lord Jesus Himself had said: 'My Father,... Thy will be done' (Matthew 26 :42). The Lord asks His Father not to answer as He the Son wills, but as the Father wills. This is the cross. To take the cross is to choose the will which the Father has decided.
The Lord My Portion (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Matthew 10
Monday, August 27, 2007
God's Will and God's Glory
"When the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward." - Exodus 40:36
Just as all God's speaking to His people in those far-off days was from between the cherubim of glory, so all His leading of them onward was by means of that same glory. In the cloud by day and the fire by night the glory of God appeared, and by it they moved. For us, too, all revelation of God's will issues from His glory. See the glory of God in relation to any matter and we have discovered God's leading in regard to it. You ask me 'Is this His will?' I reply by asking in turn, 'Is God's glory resting there?' Discern that, and you need wait for nothing further. For the divine glory itself expresses the divine will. Guidance is thus simply a matter of correspondence to that. Where God's glory rests we need not ask the way.
The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Exodus 40
Just as all God's speaking to His people in those far-off days was from between the cherubim of glory, so all His leading of them onward was by means of that same glory. In the cloud by day and the fire by night the glory of God appeared, and by it they moved. For us, too, all revelation of God's will issues from His glory. See the glory of God in relation to any matter and we have discovered God's leading in regard to it. You ask me 'Is this His will?' I reply by asking in turn, 'Is God's glory resting there?' Discern that, and you need wait for nothing further. For the divine glory itself expresses the divine will. Guidance is thus simply a matter of correspondence to that. Where God's glory rests we need not ask the way.
The Joyful Heart (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Exodus 40
Monday, July 02, 2007
Altering God's mind
"Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies." - Numbers 14:42
There is always the serious possibility that God will change His mind. This fact should keep us in humble fear before Him. For if there is something in us which resists His will, God may be compelled to modify His orders to us, as He did to Israel. It is true they acknowledged they had sinned, but they were wrong in thinking they could then proceed as though nothing had altered. It had. In such a situation it is folly to hold blindly on to something the Lord gave us twenty years ago - or even last year. We must live in today, and hold on to God. It is the present relationship that is vital. Why, even Moses found his course redirected when he failed God. But bowing to God's present will he was blessed, whereas the Israelites who tried to ignore it met only disaster. Has something in me altered God's mind? Let me then be open to His adjustment. One day He will restore.
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Numbers 14
There is always the serious possibility that God will change His mind. This fact should keep us in humble fear before Him. For if there is something in us which resists His will, God may be compelled to modify His orders to us, as He did to Israel. It is true they acknowledged they had sinned, but they were wrong in thinking they could then proceed as though nothing had altered. It had. In such a situation it is folly to hold blindly on to something the Lord gave us twenty years ago - or even last year. We must live in today, and hold on to God. It is the present relationship that is vital. Why, even Moses found his course redirected when he failed God. But bowing to God's present will he was blessed, whereas the Israelites who tried to ignore it met only disaster. Has something in me altered God's mind? Let me then be open to His adjustment. One day He will restore.
A Table In The Wilderness (Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Numbers 14
Monday, April 16, 2007
Wait On The Lord
"In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." - Isaiah 30:15
Desire for haste bespeaks an emotional nature. Emotion is usually hasty. It is extremely hard for the hasty Christian to wait on the Lord, to know His will and knowing it, to walk a step at a time in that will. Indeed we who are His own are incapable of following the Spirit until our emotions are truly yielded to the cross. We need first to learn there the "patience of Jesus Christ," for let us remember that out of a hundred impatient actions, scarcely one is in the will of God.
「你們得救在乎歸回安息；你們得力在乎平靜安穩」賽30：15
衝動、急躁乃是人的天性。人的情緒常常是急率的。性急的基督徒很難等候神，明白祂的旨意；或在明白之後，很難遵照神的旨意，一步步按部就班地行。的確，屬神的人，除非先讓其情緒接受十字架的對付，否則不可能順從聖靈行事。我們必須先在十字架上學習「耶穌基督的忍耐」。讓我們切記，在一百樁缺乏耐心的草率行動裏，很少有一樁是合乎神旨意的。
因為神知道我們性情的衝動，所以祂屢次用我們的同工、弟兄、家人及環境來作我們的煞車工具。神行事從不匆忙，因此祂很少將祂的能力託付給急躁的人。
The Joyful Heart (by Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Isaiah 30
Desire for haste bespeaks an emotional nature. Emotion is usually hasty. It is extremely hard for the hasty Christian to wait on the Lord, to know His will and knowing it, to walk a step at a time in that will. Indeed we who are His own are incapable of following the Spirit until our emotions are truly yielded to the cross. We need first to learn there the "patience of Jesus Christ," for let us remember that out of a hundred impatient actions, scarcely one is in the will of God.
Because He knows the impetuosity of our nature, God frequently uses our fellow workers, brethren, family, or environment to put the brake on us. For God never performs anything hurriedly; consequently, He will rarely entrust His power to the impatient
「你們得救在乎歸回安息；你們得力在乎平靜安穩」賽30：15
衝動、急躁乃是人的天性。人的情緒常常是急率的。性急的基督徒很難等候神，明白祂的旨意；或在明白之後，很難遵照神的旨意，一步步按部就班地行。的確，屬神的人，除非先讓其情緒接受十字架的對付，否則不可能順從聖靈行事。我們必須先在十字架上學習「耶穌基督的忍耐」。讓我們切記，在一百樁缺乏耐心的草率行動裏，很少有一樁是合乎神旨意的。
因為神知道我們性情的衝動，所以祂屢次用我們的同工、弟兄、家人及環境來作我們的煞車工具。神行事從不匆忙，因此祂很少將祂的能力託付給急躁的人。
The Joyful Heart (by Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: Isaiah 30
Monday, April 09, 2007
Ministry in the Spirit (靈裏的事奉)
"我的食物就是遵行差我來者的旨意，作成祂的工。" - 約4：34
屬靈的事奉，最奇妙的特性之一，就是它能使投身其中的人煥發更新。就拿主耶穌在敘加井旁的經歷作例子。祂在雅各井旁，像撒瑪利亞婦人要水喝，那時祂真的是又饑又渴。然而祂對這個罪人之關切，使祂暫時忘卻自己的需要，祂顧不得口乾舌燥，而與她深入長談，透過這段談話，祂把生命之水傾注到她乾渴的靈魂中。不久門徒返回，看到主耶穌精神爽朗的樣子，十分驚訝，私下彼此對問說，莫非有人拿甚麼東西給祂吃了麼？當然，真正的秘訣乃在於主將生命之水次給那撒瑪利亞婦人喝之後，祂自己的乾渴也得著滿足了。靈裏的生命及靈裏的事奉，常常都是這個樣子。
"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work." - John 4:34
A wonderful feature of spiritual ministry is that it refreshes the one who engages in it. Take, for example, the incident of Jesus at the well of Sychar. He was genuinely thirsty when He asked the woman for a drink, but in His concern for her as a needy sinner He ignored His own condition. Instead He engaged her in a conversation that ministered the water of life to her soul.
屬靈的事奉，最奇妙的特性之一，就是它能使投身其中的人煥發更新。就拿主耶穌在敘加井旁的經歷作例子。祂在雅各井旁，像撒瑪利亞婦人要水喝，那時祂真的是又饑又渴。然而祂對這個罪人之關切，使祂暫時忘卻自己的需要，祂顧不得口乾舌燥，而與她深入長談，透過這段談話，祂把生命之水傾注到她乾渴的靈魂中。不久門徒返回，看到主耶穌精神爽朗的樣子，十分驚訝，私下彼此對問說，莫非有人拿甚麼東西給祂吃了麼？當然，真正的秘訣乃在於主將生命之水次給那撒瑪利亞婦人喝之後，祂自己的乾渴也得著滿足了。靈裏的生命及靈裏的事奉，常常都是這個樣子。
"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work." - John 4:34
A wonderful feature of spiritual ministry is that it refreshes the one who engages in it. Take, for example, the incident of Jesus at the well of Sychar. He was genuinely thirsty when He asked the woman for a drink, but in His concern for her as a needy sinner He ignored His own condition. Instead He engaged her in a conversation that ministered the water of life to her soul.
Then the disciples returned. To their surprise, the Lord looked so refreshed that they began to ask one another where this provision had come from. The answer was, of course, that in giving another to drink of the living water, He Himself had found His own thirst satisfied. Life in the Spirit and ministry in the Spirit are always like this.
The Joyful Heart (by Watchman Nee)
Read the Scriptures: John 4:1-34
Monday, January 22, 2007
Worship the Will of God
"Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel; and he came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped. " - 2 Samuel 12:20
David's son died because of David's sin. True, David had repented, and being a man of prayer had fasted and prayed earnestly for his son's life. Nevertheless the child died. A man of less humble spirit, ignorant of divine discipline, might have been offended and have nursed a grievance against God. David did no such thing. Told of the child's death, he arose at once and worshipped.
Sometimes God has to vindicate His own holiness in this way, putting His servants into the very fires of suffering. The great test in that hour is their reaction to His governmental hand. Of course David felt the sorrow keenly - he would scarcely have been human not to. But when at length he realized that this was God's way with him and there was no relenting, he bowed to it and worshipped the will of God. Should such an occasion arise, could we do this? It marked David as a man after God's own heart.
A Table In the Wilderness (by Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 2 Samuel 12
David's son died because of David's sin. True, David had repented, and being a man of prayer had fasted and prayed earnestly for his son's life. Nevertheless the child died. A man of less humble spirit, ignorant of divine discipline, might have been offended and have nursed a grievance against God. David did no such thing. Told of the child's death, he arose at once and worshipped.
Sometimes God has to vindicate His own holiness in this way, putting His servants into the very fires of suffering. The great test in that hour is their reaction to His governmental hand. Of course David felt the sorrow keenly - he would scarcely have been human not to. But when at length he realized that this was God's way with him and there was no relenting, he bowed to it and worshipped the will of God. Should such an occasion arise, could we do this? It marked David as a man after God's own heart.
A Table In the Wilderness (by Watchman Nee 主僕倪柝聲弟兄)
Read the Scriptures: 2 Samuel 12
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