Be fervent in spirit
Rich Exhortation from T. Austin-Spark
The Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” (John 5:16-17 NLT)
A true knowledge of the Lord Jesus will reverse a good many of our ideas, and a good many of our procedures. A true knowledge of Christ and union with Christ, with all that that means, will make us go to work in entirely the opposite way from that in which we have been accustomed to go. We shall come to be governed by this one consideration, that it is not what we would do for the Lord, but what the Lord would do through us, that is alone to rule. It is a very testing way. You can hardly believe, unless you have been the same way, how often and intensely and bitterly the enemy fights and tempts you to come down on to a lower position, and to take up things again for God and launch big schemes, enter upon big undertakings, set up some thing on the earth that can be seen, because all those who are governed by that standard of things seen have said: “You see, you are doing nothing! Show us what you are doing! You cannot show us anything for it all!” Satan does work on that line. To the flesh that is not easy. To go on with God and have nothing to show for it, never to be able to have the work written up in the papers, to publish no reports, nor statistics, and yet to know in your heart of hearts that, although it is hidden, something is going on, and that you cannot do otherwise than you are doing, is far from being a path of ease to the flesh.
It is a testing way, but, blessed be God, if we do endure the testing and go on patiently with Him, in His time, when that flesh has been finally laid low; when the voice of natural ambition is no longer sounding and having influence, and we are now utterly at the place where if things are not going to be of the Lord then there is not going to be anything at all, the Lord has a free way, and He is able to indicate that all the time something has been going on. He shows how He has been at work, and how that in time there will be manifested a work of God, a work that shall have such a large percentage of spiritual value and meaning in it that you are very glad, after all, that you walked with God and not with men in the work of God.
Maranatha!
bodily to make His important purchase of the “souls” of men. The soul of man is the most important thing in the earth though it is darken, wrinkled and totally depraved —its preciousness cannot be valued by mortals. But, the fact that God was willing to pay the price with His own blood should speak volumes to all of mankind.
of preaching the gospel to the souls who are still in the market place will remain the most important assignment God has for those who receive Christ Jesus as their Savior and Lord. This commission produces the greatest miracle of regeneration ever known to man. It’s far superior to the miracle of the Sun standing still, the red sea parting, the poor becoming rich and the dead coming back to life.