Lord, we do stand this morning in the full value of all the intercession and prayer of Thy people—not only that which is represented here by our groaning and our concern, but that, dear Lord, which is going up around the globe this morning. Oh, we are part of something so much larger than we realize. Our spirit this morning would rise in the sense that our expectation would move into that glorious stream in which Thou art working to accomplish, to realize, something eternal for Thyself.
So, in this measure of confidence, we stand. Otherwise, there would be only weakness and fear and trembling and emptiness, and Thou dost know. But in Thee we stand strong. In Thee we claim Thy liberty to move and to speak, and have Thy own peculiar way. In the name of the Lord Jesus, we do ask with thanksgiving. Amen.
In our times with you, we have been attempting to center around this one thought: the more we know Him, the more we become acquainted in an intimate way with Him, the more certain things become very real to us. We know His voice—the sensitivity to His voice. We have come to speak of the consecration that is there, and the moving in the stream of that harmony that is in His own heart with the Father, and that which comes to flow in and through our being.
I feel this morning we are reaching a point, as we have watched the progress of all the ministry, where we come, the more we know Him, to know the authority of the Lord over our lives—an authority that must manifest and express itself through every area, every area, of our being.
It is quite something when we acknowledge His lordship. We do that in our inner spirit. Then, from that beachhead, God begins to work out, to take over our total being, and everything around us begins to come into the same harmony.
I have heard, and I suppose through the years spoken, of the authority of the Lord. But I must confess, in a whole new way, it seems as though the Lord begins to impress upon me what really is involved in His lordship and in His full authority—how little I have really known of it.
I awakened this morning, as happens occasionally, with just a bit of a sense of the futility of preaching. I have talked about the foolishness of preaching for a long time, and I suppose anyone who ministers is driven to that place: all the foolishness, the foolishness of preaching. But the futility somehow weighed in on my spirit.
I thought, “Oh, Lord, maybe it would be better if I stayed in bed. What really can be done that can accomplish something of eternity? Teachings? We have had so much.”
Then, as I looked to the Lord and once again just turned my heart toward Him, He seemed to remind me that everything of eternal content begins first as an act in the spirit. Often we are not aware of it, but there is something of an inner spiritual birth, an inner act in the spirit. That is where we have been pressing all these days.
Then that which has become an inner spiritual act becomes a heart attitude, and then becomes a way of life. You will permit me just for a moment, too, as Paul would say, to be a little foolish. I was reminded of some of you the first time I met you, and I would have to say that there were many things that caused me to say, “Lord, You sure have a lot to do.”
But after four or five or six years, thank God for what He has been doing. We do not know, but something got planted; something started. There was a spiritual act, the spiritual planting of something in the spirit, that began to become a heart attitude, and it is becoming a way of life.
There are many things about it that are revealing in the outward. I sometimes say to people, “Careful now, your spirit is showing. Your heart is showing.” There are so many things in the outward that really begin to show.
Often folks say, “Well, you do not know my heart. Only the Lord can look upon my heart. Man looks on the outward appearance. You do not know what is in my heart.” Well, no, I do not, and yet I do. Any servant, anyone who becomes more sensitive, begins to see things in the outward that are reflective of what is inward. Your spirit is showing very often. Your heart begins to show.
All those—how shall I say it?—all those areas, even in the spirit, that are high places, they have a way of showing. I have said so many times, “Oh, it is an awful revelation to stand before people,” because the more people sense the spirit, they look back into our spirit and they know high places—overtones, undertones, hidden tones—things that begin to come out. We are all the time being an open book, reflected if people are sensitive.
The same thing is true in the realm of our soul. There are strongholds. You ever meet a sister or a brother? They are lovely. There is a graciousness. God has wrought something of life deep within. Yet after a while, you meet a strength in their soul—a strength in their soul. Some concept of yours comes into collision with some strength in their soul.
What we want to get at this morning, I believe, in the mind of the Lord, is to see the real necessity of a full confrontation with knowing Him in such a way that He has the privilege of exposing all the high places in our spirits, and the strong places, the strongholds, of our soul life—and, of course, the areas of our outer life, which are so much more manifest.
Maybe the best way I can picture it is to demonstrate what I call two kingdoms that are in dread conflict. We all are aware that these two kingdoms which are in dread conflict are, first of all, spiritual in their makeup. There is something of the Spirit—we say here it is the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God—that permeates and controls.
Then there is the anarchistic spirit, the spirit of the enemy, another spirit down here, that is in dread conflict against that which God is doing. The thing that we are constantly realizing is that in this awful conflict that is raging, while with our inner spirit we give acknowledgment and recognition that Jesus is Lord, we claim that His lordship shall be very real.
That lordship, first of all, is by the Spirit. No man can call Jesus Lord in the sense that He is truly Lord but by the Spirit. Up to this time, our mind may have been saying or singing and going through the mouthing of words, and we say, “Lord Jesus.” But the individual knows when, in spirit, there has been the true acknowledgment.
Maybe there is a young person here this morning, a young fellow or a young lady who has grown right up in a Christian home, has had all the vocabulary and all the knowledge about Jesus, even the terminology of Him as being Lord. But there comes a crucial hour. There comes a knockdown, drag-out time when, in spirit, the government in spirit bows and acknowledges. From the inner spirit we say, “Lord Jesus.”
From that beachhead, now He is working out to deal in all the realm of our life, that His kingdom, His inner spiritual kingdom, might really pervade every part of our being. Yet there are strongholds, as well as high places. There are areas of imaginations; there is all of this that has to be invaded. There are areas out there in the flesh, in this realm, that have to be invaded.
This realm down here is all the time speaking, as it were, to bring us into captivity. As we have said so often, we are made to be captives. We are made to be brought under an authority. His authority is where we find the deep inward sense in our spirit that we are at home. We have arrived home. In our spirit there has come the full submission.
Let us go back and take several places in the Word where we begin to see this conflict coming into real issue. Do you remember the story of God calling Abram out of Chaldea—the man through whom He was going to begin to work His purpose? His nephew Lot came along with him. They had not been in the land very long where the Lord had called them before something of a conflict began to arise.
In Genesis 13 we get a little picture of this conflict:
And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land.
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.
Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.—Genesis 13:7-9
Here is a very interesting picture. I do believe that Abram, called of God and coming to a sense of the larger purpose that God was going to work out through him, was beginning to move in the stream, in the sense, of being under the authority of the Lord. In this line, he is in a harmony, under an authority.
Lot has joined him. Whether Lot sees very clearly, we do not know, but he follows. In these two families you have the herdsmen, the various ones around each. I do not know what the point of conflict was, but I expect it was very temporal and very physical as they began to quarrel among themselves—probably for the better watering places, probably for the choice grazing land.
This quarreling among the two camps finally gets back to the men who are representatives of their party, their own camp. I love the spirit in which Abram turns and says, “Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.”
Right at this point, you have a very magnanimous spirit in Abram. If he started reasoning as the natural mind does so many times, if he started to evaluate just out of pure natural reasoning, there could have been a nice little stronghold right here that could have said, “But this is mine. Not only is it mine, and I am not selfish about it, but the Lord has given it to me.”
“It is not that I grasped it. It is not that I saw it, but this is mine, and I have real claims to it. I have my rights to this.” This can fit so many areas in our life. Yet there is something in the spirit of Abram at this point.
My natural reasoning could pick up a pretty good argument: “Abram, what right do you have to give away something that God has given to you? You need to be a contender for the faith. Abram, you must not yield at this point. If you do, the Lord’s purposes are not going to be fulfilled.” Oh, I could develop real strength. I have done it.
But, oh, I love the spirit in which he says, “I pray thee, take this. Take this.” This is one of those impossible situations where it really crowds us right to Him, and all we can say is, “Lord, You are going to have to look after Your work. You are going to have to take care of this thing, or it is really going to go down.”
I do not want to read into Abram, but I just love his spirit. Abram, your spirit is showing—that it really is the Lord; it is really something God has to do. Lot’s spirit is showing too, or at least his heart is showing, because Genesis 13:10 says:
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the Plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou goest unto Zoar.
—Genesis 13:10
Lot—out of what shall we say? Selfish ambition? Grasping personal desires? I do not know. I do not know about Lot; he is just Lot. But there are certainly some areas down here. Lot could reason, “Well, Uncle Abram, after all, he has offered it to me, so I have the choice.”
There are some things that are offered that we do not accept, we do not receive. We have to come to this—and I think we will before we get through this morning—that sometimes, it seems, the Lord tests. The Lord holds out.
Remember on the mount, when He was speaking to Moses? The Lord was saying, “Moses, you know what is going on down there amongst the people. They have made a golden calf. I am fed up with their idolatry and their rebellion. Moses, tell you what: I would like to blot them all out, and I will start over, and you can be the founding father of a new family.”
Moses did not say, “Lord, what did You say? Not Abraham as the founding father, but Moses? Lord, say that again. I want to make sure I heard what You said.” No, I do not want to read into it. Moses does not say that.
When God says, “Let Me consume them, and I will start anew; you can be the founding father,” there comes a time when I believe that our spirit is so aligned with that which God is going to do, when we have come to embrace His heart and His purpose, that all that is dear to Him is just as dear to us. There is, in the realm of our souls, nothing that the fleshly itch can get hold of.
I do not know whether Moses heard it, but he was dead to it. He starts to pray in the next verses, identifying himself with the larger thing that God is after. There is no stronghold. There is nothing in the flesh, nothing down here, that can be appealed to.
Well, here is Lot. There is something that could appeal to him. We read in Genesis 13:12:
And Lot dwelt in the cities of the Plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
—Genesis 13:12
Maybe that verse has never stood out to you, but God has caused it again and again, on occasions, to be a whisper to my own spirit. At some moment there was something that began to have a little enticement. Lot did not just, lock, stock, and barrel, move down into Sodom. He began by just pitching his tent facing in a certain direction.
Oh, the gradualness with which things happen. The gradualness with which, instead of knowing the full authority of the kingdom moving in, we are being tested in the crisis of whether there is anything here that the prince of this world can come and find in us, or whether we are being brought into captivity.
We know what happened in due time. Lot not only pitched his tent, but little by little Lot found himself all engulfed and involved and wrapped up until he became one of the leading men right down in the midst of it.
One day, when the kings came in upon that area, Lot was carried captive by these kings. Some escaped, and the word got to Abram. He armed his house, and he went out to liberate Lot.
If Abram had not had a right spirit in this, he could have developed another stronghold in his mind, a stronghold that said, “Lot, I warned you. Lot, you should have known better. Lot, you will have to reap some of the consequences.” But he does not. He arms his house, goes down, and liberates Lot from the captives.
I think it is very interesting now to notice, when Lot comes back, what we read in Genesis 14:
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and of the kings that were with him, at the vale of Shaveh.
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High.
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth:
And blessed be God Most High, who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him a tenth of all.
And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,
That I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet nor aught that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.—Genesis 14:17-23
Oh, I love that. Here is a principle that is working in the authority of Abram’s life. It is not only an attitude to God. God has given; he has been willing to give away. He has been willing to go down and bring Lot out of his captivity.
Once again, Abram could have taken his right. The king is saying, “Look, take this spoil. Take this spoil.” Did he have the right to? Well, it depends on which right you are talking about. If his mind reasoned, he could have said, “Yes, I have my liberty to take the plunder from battle. What is mine? The king has offered it.”
All the natural reasoning at this point, once again, could have said, “Abram, it is yours. It is your right, your liberty now. Take this.” But he refuses. “I will not take.” Why? There is another governing principle that is higher.
It is simply that he has aligned himself so in oneness with God that God will be his provision—and not only his provision, but his riches and all that he has. It is the same thing that we notice in the Lord Himself, the Lord Jesus.
Here He is: the operating principle of His life, because He is under the authority of the Father. The governing thing in His life is, “I will do nothing of Myself,” or out of Himself, independent of the Father. “I will do nothing for Myself.”
These are very subtle points at which God’s children face this testing. Are we really knowing the full invasion of the Spirit over every area of our life? I know men who never could hold a job before they got saved—not very long. They were just irresponsible; they did not amount to too much.
Suddenly the Lord begins to develop some stability and some character, some qualities of Himself within their life. Not only that, but He begins to give them some insight and some wisdom. It is all at that point that the snare comes of using what has been given for myself—some of the wisdom by which I can develop a big business; I can develop this.
But I love this: if the authority of God’s working is going to be fully invading, there must be this sort of helpless dependence in which Abram stands and says, “I will not take,” lest somebody be able to say, “I have gone out, and in battle I have won; I am getting something for myself.”
The Lord Jesus, all the way through, stood tempted by the enemy in the wilderness: “Turn the stones into bread.” He had been fasting forty days, in the crucial hour of hunger. “Turn the stones into bread.” No. He would not do anything He could have done out of independent power from the Father. The kingdoms were offered, but He was held by a higher power within.
Instead of living in what could have been right, He says, “No. It must come from Him.” This is a principle: “Lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich. I have done something for myself.”
I thrill with this next verse because, just as surely as the Lord may begin to make this operative in our own life—at least if we get hold of the doctrine of it, the knowledge of it—and it becomes a principle that we hold very strongly, we try to impose it on others: either our children in our home, or our friends, or those in the church.
We are going to somehow bring them under the dominion, at least of the teaching or the knowledge of the thing. When Abram went to deliver Lot, there were some brothers who went with him. Their names were Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. They were confederates. You can read it in Genesis 14. They went with him.
Now they are all coming back. They meet the king who says, “I will just take the persons; you take the goods.” I love this principle. In Genesis 14:24 Abram says:
Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men that went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.
—Genesis 14:24
Let them take their rights. Do they have the right? Oh, they have won it in battle. Let them take their rights. You cannot impose. We were talking about consecration the other day. You cannot impose this quality or this level upon your children.
This is why in your home you are having too much difficulty. If you have set your face to live by a spiritual flow of resource in the Lord, that is fine; but you cannot impose that consecration on others. I have tried. It is not the Lord’s way. They have some rights. Aner, Eshcol, Mamre—let them take theirs.
I am concerned that we recognize a moral foundation upon which the spiritual can be built. There is an awful tendency these days for individuals to get hold of a spiritual quality or concept and ignore the moral upon which it rests.
There are some things in our dealing with our children that are just right, and we deal with them on a totally moral basis. If we are not dealing with them on that, their mind, natural as it may be, looks back and says, “But Dad, that is not right. That is not right.” There is the moral base.
But up above here, in the spiritual sense, only when God brings them under His own spiritual authority does He have the right to invade and bring them into this place where they begin to give up some of their so-called rights. Only in that way can the Lord bring them under His authority.
This is true in the church, in fellowship, and with the Lord’s people. There are those things that are livingly real and operative in our lives, but they cannot be imposed upon us. It is when the imposition comes, however real it may be to us, that we run into great trouble. God will do it in their life in His own way.
Let us take another conflict. We have been talking about overcomers. Turn to the book of Judges with me for a moment. Let us consider, in Judges 7, another separating that took place.
I do not want to be misunderstood in this, but it is inevitable. There is no way of getting around it. There are two kingdoms that are in conflict. Just as surely as I move in alignment with this, I am separated unto the Lord for all of His purpose, and He is going to invade every stronghold in my life to bring me into total harmony with Himself.
Every area of my spirit in which there is any high place, any stronghold in which there are imaginations fed from out here instead of fed from within, He is going to invade. He is going to invade every area of my outer physical life to bring it into total harmony, so that my real spirit will be showing all the way through the areas of my life.
There was a man who got quite an unveiling one day. The Midianites had been creating great conflict with the children of Israel. There was a desperate hour in which, just about harvest time, they were always coming in and taking the fruits of the harvest. Let the children of Israel do all the labor, but they knew the right hour to come in and take the harvest.
This thing has been going on through history again and again. God raises up various judges who stand with Him in spirit against this. We know the story in Judges 7, where Gideon, a man called of God in this particular instance, was to fulfill something of the purpose of the Lord.
Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.—Judges 7:1-3
Here is the dread conflict that is raging between what God stands for and all that is represented by the Midianites, the hindrance against God’s Word. There are some who should be fully under the control of God’s own mind and purpose, and yet there are some fears, timidity, things that have all through the years been lodging in their lives.
The moment Gideon gives them permission, all that represents the strongholds and areas in their lives takes the easy way, and they head for home. Yet in Judges 7:4, the Lord said unto Gideon, “The people are yet too many.” Ten thousand are yet too many. “Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them there.”
Careful, ten thousand—your spirit is showing. Your whole life is showing. It is going to show. There are things about you that show. So He brought down the people, ten thousand of them, unto the water.
And the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.
And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.—Judges 7:5-6
You say, “What a silly way to separate.” But their drinking was very revealing. There was something showing that Gideon was able to discern. What was it? Nine thousand seven hundred of them headed down for the water, took a drink, got out on both knees, got their mouth right down, and filled their belly. “Oh, what a refreshing drink. I have been so thirsty all day long.” Fill their belly.
Who were they concerned about? What at the moment was the overshadowing thing? What really revealed them? We all know the story. It is so simple. But there were three hundred who likewise showed something about themselves.
Their discipline showed. Their real warlike instruction and quality of a soldier showed. Here they were. Apparently they had been doing it so long that even though there might not have been the immediate need, there was something about their whole manner of life. That which had happened as an act within them had become a heart attitude that was a way of life in their being.
How did they drink? There are things about us in our way of life that reveal us. They show us up. We are giveaways every time we open our mouths, every time we dress, every time we make a little walk through the course of the day. Our way of life is showing.
Inwardly, we may say, “Lord, I love You. I belong to You. I am Yours.” We say it with our lips. Do we really know all that is involved in a life from the inner spirit that is under authority, that touches every area of our lives, including the outreach into the outer area?
Oh, you pray for this young man in the areas in which you see things that I am blinded to. I can only cry before the Lord and say, “Lord, where there is darkness in my spirit, You penetrate. Where there may be strongholds, You penetrate. Where there may be things out here that are still revealing, all right, You have permission.”
There is so much in these days, as has been referred to already this morning and at other times, that reveals the anarchistic spirit, the lawless spirit. It is a revolt against the standards, the customs, the things that have been accepted. Maybe there is some need for changes, and yet down through the years those who have known the discipline of the Spirit, the government of the Spirit within, have known that God has a way of bringing us into conformity to the loveliness of His Son.
Gideon looked at these. Everyone that lapped—there was a dividing. There was a dividing. It is interesting how the three hundred of them qualified. We want to be overcomers. We set our faith. I hope when it comes down to the water pool we will not get separated because we reveal that the cares, the way of our lives, the lust of our flesh, all of it, and the opportunity to do what I want to do, are what govern us.
The enemy may have been a long way away, and yet there was a revealing of the soldier quality within. I have thought so many times: it is quite a revelation. We say we are all busy, and we are. We are pressured on every hand. But what do you do when you can really do what you want to do? What do you do when you have a little time? What do you do when you really have time to do what you want to do?
All the choices that we make reveal us, but they also make us. The three hundred, you remember, were those who qualified in spirit. They were those whom Gideon took out.
I had never noticed this before. They went out and began to chase after the Midianites, and you come in Judges 7:24 to something very interesting:
And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as Beth-barah, even the Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth-barah, even the Jordan.
And they took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.—Judges 7:24-25
You would think these Ephraimites, who had suddenly just come in to help the three hundred, would have been pleased and satisfied. Yet something strange happens in the next verses:
And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight with Midian? And they did chide with him sharply.
—Judges 8:1
They had not been a part of the initial thirty-two thousand. They were not those who went home. I do not know how to explain it. They did not seem to be washed out, to be cast aside from the twenty-two thousand down to the three hundred. But here they are somehow getting in on the tail end, going to battle, and they catch two kings. Now they are chiding; they are dealing rather harshly with Gideon. “Why did you deal with us? Why did you not invite us into battle?”
Gideon said unto them:
What have I now done in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
—Judges 8:2
A better translation would be, “Are not the leftover grapes of Ephraim better than the entire crop of Abiezer?” Abiezer represents the whole posterity, or the whole ancestry, of Gideon. Look, what are you complaining about? Did you not get two kings of Midian? The choice gleaning, or that which is less—is that not better than all that we have conquered, the whole of Gideon’s three hundred, all that we have conquered?
I was struck with my middle margin here, which said—and this is quite interesting—“Here begins the deep root of division in Israel which culminated in the division of Solomon’s kingdom under Jeroboam and Rehoboam.” It was just like a sword that struck me. The enemy was planting something a long, long way ahead, waiting for a time when it could come to harvest.
What was it? What was it? Jealousy? “Why did you not call us?” I do not know what Gideon represents, but I am inclined to believe that Gideon and those who had immediately been around him represented, at least, those who were pressed in consecration for the things that God wanted.
The others were out there too, and even those who got sifted off, the thirty-two thousand down to the twenty-two thousand, the twenty-two thousand down to the three hundred—they were there enough. All that I know is the Lord spoke to my own heart and said, “Careful now, you might be too preoccupied. You might be too busy to hear, to be in the place, to have sensitivity to that which the Spirit is doing, and look on too late and say, ‘Why did You not call me? I would have been glad to help.’”
There is a dreadful conflict that is raging, and it is a conflict between kings: this King and another king who aligns wickedness, all those who will follow him. You see it all the way through the Old Testament. Let us take one look in 1 Corinthians and see the battle as it is raging.
The church has a problem. Right in the midst of the church there are those believers—maybe younger, more immature, perhaps they have not been there too long; we do not know. The problem that arises is that they are looking on some of the others in the church and saying, “Why do you eat meat that has been offered in sacrifice unto idols? Oh, our conscience will not allow us to do this.”
Then there are those who have probably been in the church much longer. I was about to say more mature, but I do not think I had better. At least they had more knowledge. Among these there is this answer: “Oh, no problem with our eating this meat. We want to eat this. We have perfect liberty. We have our understanding that an idol is nothing in the world; there is no other god but one.”
So you have a great conflict arising right here, the same sort of principle as we were dealing with a little earlier. Those who are saying, “We know that an idol is nothing in the world. We have some knowledge.” Now let us see how Paul deals with it.
Now concerning things sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up.
If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth not yet as he ought to know; but if any man loveth God, the same is known by Him.
Concerning therefore the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no God but one.
For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are gods many, and lords many;
Yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.
Howbeit there is not in all men that knowledge: but some, being used until now to the idol, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
But food will not commend us to God: neither, if we eat not, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.
But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to the weak.—1 Corinthians 8:1-9
I hope we get just this principle again. Here is the apostle Paul, standing with the Lord in the spirit, pleading with some brothers, some down here who say, “We cannot, we could not, eat this meat offered to idols.”
Others are saying, “We know our liberty. We know that there is no other god. These idols are nothing in the world.” The conflict rises between those who are saying, “We could not touch it,” and those who are saying once again, “Well, we know our liberty. We know our rights. We will eat this meat if we want to.”
Paul comes along to say to those who are warring here with a stronghold of the mind, the knowledge, “Oh, that you might know what it is to come under the dominion, the control, of the Spirit of God—not living just in the reasoning, that which is right to you.”
He carries this through in 1 Corinthians 9, the same principle, as he explains his own spirit and says, “I have the right, but I do not use my right. I am a man under government, under the authority of the Spirit, under control.”
What are we wanting to say in just this brief word? I have a burden that somehow the Lord may break through and make operative in us a very real sense that all the conflict and struggle that rages comes because we seek our own way, our own rights, our own liberty.
We have not known what it is to be under the authority of the Lord that invades every area of our being. Shall we pray?
Lord, we do not want to just mouth the words. We long, in a fuller way than we have ever known, to know what it means to transcend out of the kingdom where darkness and all that it means reigns, to fully know Thy invading, working authority over every area of our life.
We cry out to Thee this morning. We would be like Abram, not doing anything out of ourselves, or for ourselves, or with ourselves, that is contrary to Thy authority over us. We could be as kings, rich and increased, because of learning some of the laws of life and enjoying some of it. But we will not make ourselves rich.
We will not do anything lest someone can look on and say, “He has done it for himself.” Dear Lord, even as it was with Gideon’s men who were threshed out, we pray Thou wilt work within us the inner discipline.
If there are things that show about our undisciplined life, things in the outward that reveal it, put Thy finger upon it until we know Thy full authority over us. Let it be more than just an inward act; let it become a way of life, under Thy government.
When we get into our church fellowship, where we come into collision with the strongholds of the mind, we want our rights, our liberties. We want to take the things that have even been given to us, that are good, and use them just for ourselves.
We pray there will be an overriding law that will govern us: that we will always be, first of all, under Thy government. How does it affect Thee, dear Lord? How does it really affect others? You say to us what You want to say.
We would know Thee this morning in Thy full dependence upon the Father, Thy glorious being under authority to Him. Even as it is expressed through Thee, make it operative within us.
May we not unwittingly come under the dominion, the control, of other forces that would capture us for their purpose, but be wholly, totally under Thy dominion. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, with thanksgiving. Amen.