Ordained of God

“And the staff of the man
whom I choose shall sprout”
Numbers 17:5

Life begets life. It is the principle of the Life and purpose of God in Christ. There is nothing inherent within the natural order of man to have this life of resurrection. It is this one thing for which all creation was created and that is to be filled with the Life of God. The natural man is understood by the spirit of man, but only the Spirit of God knows the mind and purpose of God.

“For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit”
1 Corinthians 2:11

The necessity to walk with God and be led by His Spirit is to the end that others may taste and see the goodness of God. It is His goodness that leads us to repentance. It is His goodness to lift us up when we are discouraged. It is His goodness to cause us to discover the issues of our own hearts in order for us to be free in Him. It is to this end that we desire to know of the budding, blossoming, and fruitfulness of His life in ours.

Seek His life, abide in His life that He may be seen and heard in the lives we live. The signs of life should be the only credentials any individual should desire.

“Ye shall know them by their fruits”

__________

“And the staff of the man
whom I choose shall sprout”
Numbers 17:5

“Aaron’s priesthood had been contested. People were questioning whether he was indeed God’s chosen. “Is this man ordained of God or not?” they asked. “We do not really know!” God set out therefore to prove who was His servant and who was not. How did He do so? Twelve staffs were placed before Him in the sanctuary and were left there for a night. In the morning His choice was seen in the staff which budded, blossomed, and bore fruit.

New buds, flowers, ripe almonds: all these proclaim the miracle of resurrection. It is life out of death that marks divinely attested ministry–that, and that alone. Without it you have nothing. God can only use as His ministers those who, through union with Him, have come to taste the power of an endless life.”
– Watchman Nee

Brian Troxel

Our Measure of God

Watchman Nee

“We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.”
Luke 9:13

“When Jesus said “Give ye them to eat”, it was not because He expected His disciples to have a plan, but because He wanted them to expect a miracle. Like us, however, they chose the easier way, the way which does not require the exercise of faith or prayer. Their solution was to “go and buy”. It was a proposal unworthy of disciples; it could as well have been made by the Pharisees or even Sadducees. It displayed no faith, no trust in Him. As John’s Gospel makes plain, their thoughts were in their pockets. They had not enough money!

We only see what we can do. We shut our eyes to God and His inexhaustible resources. But God is not to be measured by us. Never mind what we can do or cannot do; He is waiting to show us His miracles.”
– Watchman Nee

____________

God’s purpose is to bring us to the place of measuring our circumstances in the greatness of His provisions.

The Remnant – Watchman Nee

“When at the incarnation God visited His people, but a handful of them looked for the redemption of Israel. They believed God was going to act, and through them and because of them He acted. Then in Jesus’ own lifetime multitudes followed Him, but again it was a much smaller group who protested: “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” And once more, before His ascension, He instructed His own to await the promise of the Father.

In practice, it seems to work out that God has always to move through a faithful remnant who, within the larger number and for the sake of God’s purpose in the whole, will be utter in their obedience to Him today.”
– Watchman Nee

Watchman Nee

“…and in their ministering to the LORD and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate to Me both Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them,”
Acts 13:2 (LSV)

Service Unto the Lord

“No one can truly work for the Lord who has not first learned to minister to Him. It was while Barnabas and Saul ministered unto the Lord and fasted that the voice of the Spirit was heard calling them to special service.

And it was to the divine call they responded, not to the appeal of human need. They had heard no voice but the voice of the Spirit: they had seen no claims but the claims of Christ. It was on His authority alone that they went forth.”
– Watchman Nee

Watchman Nee – Seeing God

Seeing God

“Here is a heart condition God requires for the fulfillment of His purposes of grace. Purity of heart simply means a state where there are no hindrances to seeing God. The kingdom of the heavens is here, so there is no reason why anyone should fail to see Him, unless man himself puts up barriers.

It is not necessary to place a dirty article in front of your eyes to prevent you from seeing an object; a perfectly clean article will do just as well! The “clean heart” of the psalmist has to do with the removal of unclean things; the “pure heart” of the Sermon on the Mount has to do with the removal of all things, clean or unclean. Many have no right knowledge of God because they have numerous competing interests apart from God. Purity of heart corresponds to singleness of eye. It means that God is the exclusive object of attention. From such preoccupation, there will be no loss, “Thy whole body shall be full of light.”
– Watchman Nee

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light”
Matthew 5:22

Crucified

“Crucified with Christ”

“I have been crucified with Christ”
Galatians 2:20

“What does it mean for me to be “crucified with Christ”? I think the answer is best summed up in the words the crowd used of Jesus: “Away with Him!” God never allows this matter of being crucified with Christ to remain for us a mere theory, though I confess that for many years it was no more than that to me. I myself had preached the Cross in these very terms without knowing it in my own experience–until one day I saw with dramatic suddenness that it had been I. Nee To-sheng, who died there with my Lord. “Away with Him!” they had cried, and in saying it of Him they had also, unwittingly, echoed God’s verdict upon me. And that sentence of God upon me was carried out in Him. This new discovery affected me almost as greatly as did my first discovery of salvation. I tell you, it left me so humbled as to be for a while quite unable to preach at all, whereas till that day, I have to admit, preaching had been my consuming passion.”
Watchman Nee

“Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom”
T.S. Elliot

Experiential truth is the bridge between the idea and the substance, between the shadow of words and the Light of the Truth.

“For the kingdom of God is not in word,
but in power”
1 Corinthians 4:20

The Truth of His Kingdom in each of us is as real as the truth which reigns in us. The power to be is the purpose of His coming:

“I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly”
John 10:10

Brian Troxel

Separation and Life

“Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty”
2 Corinthians 6:17-18

Separation from the world is an issue of the heart; it is in itself the revelation of our salvation. We are not sanctified by our confession, we are sanctified by the living truth of Christ working within to sanctify us without.

“Sanctify them through thy truth:
thy word is truth”
John 17:17

It is in the Word becoming the truth in us, whereby we know what sanctification is. Obedience is the only path to sanctification.

“Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips,
and the world in your heart”
Ignatius

Watchman Nee

Quote for Today

“And it is through conflict that God induces the believer to seek and to grasp total triumph in Christ.”
– Watchman Nee

“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”
1 Corinthians 15:57

Quote for Today – Watchman Nee

Quote for Today

“Spiritual advancement is measured
by faithful obedience
Watchman Nee

Quote for Today – Watchman Nee

Quote for Today

“What he needs is not increased spiritual teaching but an obedient heart which is willing to yield his life to the Holy Spirit and go the way of the cross according to the Spirit’s command. Increased spiritual teaching will only strengthen his carnality and serve to deceive him into conceiving himself as spiritual”
– Watchman Nee