O Love that will not let us go, we come before You this day once again just to proclaim that, for each of us, the power of Your love hath kept us to this day. We are so grateful for the uniqueness of that love. We thank You, dear Lord, that You know us and that You love us.
And now we just want to say once again that we so love You, Lord. We pray that this day, by Your Spirit, You would bless this word; that we would come unto that anointing that is ours in the Lord Jesus, for the speaking and for the hearing; and that we would see You and be changed in the seeing of You. So we depend upon You for this, and we thank You for it even now. In the precious name of Thy most wonderful Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
We are supposed to be speaking about personal devotion, but I do not personally like that term. I think, as we get on, the Lord willing, into what I have in my heart to share, we will see why I would prefer not to use that particular terminology.
If you are here to hear something really profound today, you will not hear that—in one sense. When I think about profound, I think about something beyond me and beyond you, something that only God can really do. He does the profound things. He is the One able to change, and the only One able to change, the heart of a man or a woman, as He has changed your heart and mine. Now, that is really profound.
I think the profound is very important, and God speaks profound things into our lives and wants to do so all the time. But for myself, I have to say I am interested in the ground today. That is where my burden is—in the ground.
In other words, what that means to me is this: How do we take the profound and make it part of our lives? My phrase, the thing that I carry with me and share with brothers and sisters as I have opportunity, is this: Unless revelation becomes realization, it remains just theory, my dear brothers and sisters.
Somehow, we have to take the profound—those things God speaks to us by His Spirit in the revelation of Who He is—and have that translated into our lives in such a way that it becomes our life. When I say I am interested in the ground, that is what I mean: that for me and for you, these things God reveals become incorporated into our lives on a daily basis. They are not just up here; they become part of our life.
I have said to brothers and sisters over time that it is not good enough just to read the Word of God. It is not good enough just to study the Word of God, and it is not good enough even to meditate on the Word of God. The Word of God needs to be lived. It needs to become incarnate in your life and in my life.
I have a little story to tell here, and I will try to make this long story brief. Many years ago, my brother Stephen and I were living in Florida. We both had Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and we were very cool—very cool.
One of the things we wanted to do, because we both loved to hunt, fish, and camp, was to take a camping trip in the Smoky Mountain National Forest in North Carolina. We had planned this for about a year. We got the dry food together—you know, the freeze-dried food—and all the camping equipment and so on.
The day came for the trip. We left southwest Florida, jumped on our motorcycles with our packs, and drove thirteen hours to North Carolina. I do not have to tell you how we felt when we got off those bikes.
We pulled into the campground in the Smoky Mountain National Forest in mid-afternoon, went to the ranger station, and prepared to pick out a campsite for backpacking. Prior to the trip, my brother had been reading all sorts of Sports Illustrated, Field & Stream, and things like that. One day he came across a story about some men camping in the Smoky National Park when a bear came into their campsite, collapsed their tent, and actually pulled off one man’s arm.
So now we went into the ranger station to pick out our campsite. As we walked in, we saw different things posted on the walls. One sign said, “If you encounter a bear on the trail, give it the right of way.” I mean, I figured that was a given.
Then we saw pictures of campsites torn apart by bears, with signs saying, “Do not keep your food in your tent. This is the result of that.” We saw backpacks torn apart and canteens with teeth marks in them.
The ranger said, “Well, where do you want to go?” We said, “Oh, we want to go to the backcountry.” We picked our spot on the map, and I said to my brother Stephen, “Look, it is late. We have to hightail it out of here and get on the trail to find our campsite before dark.”
We did, and we got there and set up our tent. As good campers who knew something about this, we moved about twenty yards away and built our campfire for our meal that night. We made our traditional meal: steak, baked potatoes, and beans.
The sun went down. If you have been in the woods at night, you know that when the sun went down, it was pitch black. You could hardly see your hand in front of your face. We had a little flashlight and made our way back to the tent. We were dog tired after that thirteen-hour trip and the hike into the woods.
One thing I had neglected to do, though: after we set up the tent, I forgot to zip up the outside flap. We crawled into the tent, I zipped it up, and we got into our mummy sleeping bags. You know what they are like—very narrow. We slipped in there, and we were out like that. I was sleeping like the dead in about thirty seconds.
Then, all of a sudden, out from the bottom of my sleeping bag, I felt this hairy thing running up into my chest. I unzipped my bag, and this thing was running around the inside of the tent. I was trying to beat this thing—whatever it was; I do not know to this day what it was—to death.
But as I was trying to beat this thing to death, I was beating on top of my brother’s sleeping bag. All he was thinking was, “Bear attacking tent.”
With that, he let out this scream and went into the bottom of his sleeping bag, into a ball about this big. He was down there petrified and literally screaming. Finally, I unzipped the tent and the thing ran out.
I extracted my brother from the bottom of his sleeping bag, and we were standing outside the tent in our skivvies, holding one another and comforting one another. I mean, it was a pitiful sight.
After we calmed down a bit, we went back into the tent and back into the sleeping bags. But who could sleep? Every twig that broke outside, I was like this: “Is it a bear?” Every sound.
I did not sleep a wink, but I was looking for something. I was looking for that first light of dawn.
When that sun rose up that morning, for us it was consolation and comfort. We were strengthened just by those first rays of light.
If we turn to Genesis, in the very first chapter, verses 1 through 4:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Now, in verse 2 there are some words I want us to look at. You will have to forgive me for these pronunciations of Hebrew words. Where it says that the earth was “without form,” that phrase is translated from the Hebrew word tohu, spelled T-O-H-U. It means to lie in waste: a desolation, a worthless thing, confusion, and emptiness.
Then it says the earth was without form and “void.” The Hebrew word there is bohu, and it means an undistinguishable ruin. The word “darkness” is choshek, and it means misery, destruction, sorrow, ignorance, and death.
When I read that, what the Spirit of God spoke to me was this: If I can take some liberty with it, is that not a description of the world—and of you and me—before the Lord Jesus came into our lives?
When we look back on our lives, would we not be able to say, “Oh my goodness, what a mess I made of things”? Lives that I hurt; people that I sometimes destroyed by what I may have said to them. I had no hope. There was such emptiness in my life. Is this not something of a description of what we have here?
In Job 24:13, it says:
There are those who rebel against the light;
They do not know its ways,
Nor abide in its paths.
Now, that is who I was. I rebelled against the light. I do not know about you guys; I do not know whether that was the way it was with you, but I rebelled against the light. I did not want anything to do with God. I wanted to live my life the way I wanted to live it. I did not want anybody telling me what to do.
If someone tried to, they would hear from me about it. I rebelled against the light. I did not know the way of God, nor was I interested in it, nor did I want to abide in His paths. I was in darkness. Death is what I lived in.
I think that is the same for each one of us before we come to know the Lord.
In Matthew 6:22-23, the Lord Jesus says:
The lamp of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!
What is the Lord saying here? I think we could describe it like this: If you and I were born blind and raised in a home, even though we were blind, as we began to crawl and toddle around that home, we would learn to negotiate it.
We would know exactly where the couch was, where the table was, how to go from the living room into the kitchen. As we got older, we would know where the pantry was, how to get things out of it, and where the coffee pot was. We would be able to negotiate, even though we were in total darkness.
But for us, that darkness would be our light. That is what we knew. And that is the way it was for you and me. We were in complete darkness. We lived in darkness, but we thought it was light. We were able to negotiate through this world; we knew how to get about in it. But we were in darkness, and we did not know it.
Our darkness was our light. How terrible a condition that is. There are those today who think themselves so intelligent, so smart, so cunning, and yet they are living in the worst kind of darkness because they are calling it light. There is only One Who can take us from that.
But then, in Genesis 1:3, it says, “And God said, Let there be light.” As this book was given to us, in the order in which we received it, those words are the first recorded words that God spoke: “Let there be light.”
I believe that, in the heart of God, He was looking over the expanse of time at you and me. He was looking at Jerry, Tang, Eric, William, Christa, and me. As He looked over the expanse of time, He saw you and me.
I think He was saying something more than simply that He wanted to bring luminescence to the earth. In that phrase, “Let there be light,” I think He was saying:
This which lies in waste, I will make fertile.
This desolation, I will make a habitation.
This worthless thing, I will make holy.
Into this confusion, I will bring order.
This emptiness, I will bring fullness.
That which is undistinguishable ruin, I will make distinctly Mine.
This misery and sorrow, I will turn to joy.
This ignorance, I will give knowledge.
And death will be vanquished.
I think He was saying that when He said, “Let there be light.”
This is why I came to that conclusion. If we turn to John 1:1-5, and then verses 9 through 12:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made.
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not.
This was the true light. When God spoke in Genesis 1:3, this is what He had in mind. This was the true light. In Him was the full revelation of the Word of God spoken in Genesis 1:3.
In Christ, as our brother shared this morning, is the fullness. In Him is life. In Him we find light.
Where it says, “The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not,” that word translated apprehended means to seize, to apprehend, to understand, to embrace.
Have you embraced the Lord Jesus? The darkness did not embrace the light. It did not take hold of it. I think the question to us is: Have we taken hold of and embraced the Lord Jesus?
These things I am sharing right now are preliminary to what is on my heart. But unless we have something foundational—unless, by the Spirit of God, we are able to see something here—we are not going to understand what it means to have this personal devotion, what it really means, or how we can have a real personal devotion.
We must, by the Spirit of God, be able to see the great love of God for us. John 1:9-12 says:
There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name.
He gave us the right to become children of God. This is the love of God toward us: He has called us to be part of His family.
In Genesis, we read that He separated the light from the darkness. In Colossians 1, it says that He has taken us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
When we look at those first verses of Genesis, I think we should be able to see plainly what God was talking about. When He said, “Let there be light,” He had in His heart that the Lord Jesus, His Son, would be sent here. He is the true light. He is the life that gives light to every man.
In Him we find our fullness and completeness. This is the love of God that has been demonstrated. It is found in Christ. He loves you and me. He loves us. Our Father loves each of us as His very own children. He loves us with the same love with which He loves the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we turn to 1 John 1:4-5:
And these things we write, that our joy may be made full.
And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. And it says, “These things we write, that your joy may be full.” Do you know that the Lord really wants us to have joy in our lives, regardless of our circumstances or situations? He wants us to have joy in our lives. He wants our life to be full.
I think sometimes we do not really believe that. But Augustine said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Do we really want to glorify God? Then we need to have lives that are fully alive in Him.
That is what the Lord wants for you and me: lives that are full, productive, and joyful. Do we believe that? This is not based on our situations or circumstances, but is realized only when we have a real and deep relationship with Him.
If we are not realizing that, I have to say that we probably do not have a real, deep, and intimate relationship with Him.
In Philippians 4, Paul says:
Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice.
That is one of those statements where you almost want to say, “Oh, come on, Paul. Get real. What do you mean, rejoice always? How can that be? You do not know my circumstances. You do not know my situations.” Or when he says, “Pray without ceasing,” we might say, “Oh, come on, Paul. So idealistic.”
But one day, as I was reading, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” the light went on in my heart and in my head. The Spirit of God made me see much more clearly what Paul was saying.
He is saying that regardless of your circumstances, regardless of the trials in your life, regardless of all the things that are so difficult—the sickness in your life, the things constantly changing, the flux in your life—there is one thing that is unchangeable: Him. It is the Lord Jesus.
He is the Rock of our salvation. In Him there is no shadow of turning. He always loves us. The intention of His heart is always good toward us. He is the unchanging God.
Because of that, even though everything else in your life might be topsy-turvy, you can rejoice in the fact that He is the unchanging God Who loves you and loves me completely with an always unchanging love.
In that I can rejoice, when everything else might be falling apart around you or me. In that I can rejoice. He is my oasis—an oasis of love, of comfort, of knowing that if no one else knows me, if no one else cares about me, if no one else loves me, He loves me.
In that, we can find our strength, hope, joy, and consolation, because He is the unchanging God. Rejoice in that, my dear brothers and sisters, because there really is nothing else in which we can rejoice that will last.
That is what the Spirit of God was saying, and that is what He wants us to know. He wants us to have joy and fullness of life. In Him, we can find that.
Sometimes, though, I think some of us think God is trying to pull one over on us. I hear brothers and sisters say, “Why did He have to allow that in my life? Why did this have to happen? How could He do that to that person?”
We cast a shadow on the character of the Lord Jesus, of our heavenly Father. We think wrongly of Him. There is no such thought in the heart of God toward us. There never was, and there never will be. The thoughts of God toward us are always good.
If you are thinking otherwise, may the Lord help you, because, as one dear brother put it, it is “stinking thinking.” It is not right thinking. The heart of God is always good toward you and me. The intention of His heart is always good. He loves us. In Him there is no darkness at all.
Psalm 36:9 says:
For with Thee is the fountain of life:
In Thy light shall we see light.
What does that mean: “In Thy light shall we see light”? A great example is in Acts 9, in Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.
Acts 9:3-6 says:
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven:
And he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?
And He said, I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest:
But rise, and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Now, you know this man Paul. He was so zealous for the things of God. He had what he thought God wanted him to do, and he went at it full force. He had a conception of who he was and Who God was, and that was the light in which he lived. He was very passionate about it.
But when that light from heaven—that heavenly light, that divine light—shone around him, all of a sudden, “In Thy light shall we see light.” All of a sudden, he discovered that what he thought was light was really darkness.
He did not know, but by the mercy of God, as God’s light shone upon him, all of a sudden his eyes were opened and he was able to see—really see.
Is that not what has happened to most all of us here? We were walking in what we thought was light until the light of God shone on us. Then, all of a sudden, our eyes were opened, the scales fell off, and we saw.
How wonderful. What mercy. What love, that He would love you and me so much that He would do such a thing.
In John 8:12, the Lord Jesus says:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
When it speaks of the light of life, this light is knowledge—the knowledge of life as God would want us to live it, as God would want us to go through this time while we are sojourning here. He is able to give us light.
That life is the knowledge of life as He would have us live it. He wants us to have His mind about things. That is why the Scriptures say our thinking needs to be changed, that we might have the mind of Christ and know how to live in a pleasing way to God.
This is a wonderful and glorious statement: “I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” But then He makes another statement in Matthew 5:14 which I find remarkable.
Remember, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” Then, in Matthew 5, He says:
Ye are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
He says this in anticipation of His leaving the earth: “You are the light of the world.” And I have to say, “Were You talking to me, Lord? No, no. Are You sure it was me? Can You be addressing this to me?” But that is what He is saying to me and to you: “You are the light of the world.”
He continues:
Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.
What is this light in us? It is nothing more than the very life—the divine life—the very life of Christ. Let that life shine before men, that they may see your good works: good works that your heavenly Father has ordered for you to walk in. When they see that, they will glorify Him.
This treasure we have within us is in an earthen vessel. It is very easy for you to look at me and understand what a fool I can be at times, because I am just this earthen vessel. You can see how weak I can be at times, because I am just this earthen vessel.
But somehow, when I look at this vessel in front of me and see her walking in obedience to the Lord Jesus, all of a sudden I can see God. I can see the Lord. I begin to understand, “Wow. Only God can do this.”
He is the only One Who can change the heart, thoughts, and minds of men so that they think differently, act differently, have a different perspective on life, and have a purpose that goes beyond natural understanding.
All of a sudden, what is important to them transcends what is important to the natural world and what the world dictates. It goes beyond that. It ascends that. People are captured by it.
Have we not read of, and have you not met, men and women who are so passionately in love with the Lord that their lives demonstrate something above the natural? You are attracted to that. You are captured by that. You want some of that; you want more of that.
That is something of what the Lord is saying here. You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. His life in us brings light to the world.
Second Corinthians 4:6 says:
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says:
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
Our brother Jeffrey shared that earlier. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Do you understand that this is what God has done for you and me? We are a new creation.
If I can put it this way, we are not merely human beings anymore. We are more than that. We are a new creation. The earth has never seen what we are. We are a new creation in Christ. He has given you and me a brand-new life—the very life of God within us.
Second Corinthians 5:17 is Galatians 2:20 said in a different way:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
And that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. I am a new creation. That old person has passed away. I died on the cross with Christ, along with you, my dear brothers and sisters.
But Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Do you know that without faith it is impossible to please God? Impossible.
I think one of the things the Spirit of God wants to do today—and only He can do this; I cannot do it, nor can anyone standing up here—is to let each of us know in a way from which we will never again be shaken that He loves us.
It is the power of His love. You have to know that He loved you so much that He gave you a brand-new life, that He paid for every one of your sins, and that we can never be judged or condemned for them again.
The work of the cross—the love demonstrated there, not only in His dying but in His resurrection—needs to let you and me know that He loves us unconditionally and that we can trust Him.
Without that, you cannot go on in the Lord, my dear brothers and sisters. You will not go on in the Lord without coming to know—really know—that He loves you.
He did not plan simply to change your life and make you better. That was not God’s plan. It is not a changed life; as we have heard, it is an exchanged life. You are a new creature in Christ. Do you believe that?
We need to cry out to the Spirit of God and ask Him to make that real in our lives, that by faith we would take hold of it and live by it.
So we are not moaning and groaning and saying, “Oh, poor me. I cannot do this, Lord. I know what it says, but I cannot do this.” His only response is, “You cannot do this. That is why I crucified you on the cross with Me. But I can.”
It is My life in you, this life I have given you, that can. Believe Me, because I am the One Who has loved you and been faithful to you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. You can trust Me.
That is what faith is about. It is not blind faith. It is faith in Someone Who loves you unconditionally, and He is saying, “You can trust Me. I said it. You can trust Me.”
When the Lord Jesus redeemed us by His precious blood, He did not leave us to our own nature to love and serve Him as best we could. The Word of God says He gave us this new life: heavenly life, divine life, eternal life. The very life of the Son of God is in you and me.
We can live this life, and we can live it victoriously because His life is in us to do it. We need to take hold of that by faith.
Andrew Murray puts it this way:
This mighty life of God does not work as a blind force, compelling us ignorantly or involuntarily to act like Christ. On the contrary, walking like Him must come as the result of a deliberate choice, sought in strong desire, accepted by a living will.
I love the way he put that. It comes by a deliberate choice. You have to choose, by faith, to live out of the new life that has been given to you.
I know so many of you have heard me say this before, but there is something that helps me in doing this. In the morning, before I get out of bed, I usually say out loud, “Lord, You know how weak I am, and I am unable. I cannot. But today, by Your grace, I choose to live out of Your life today, Lord.”
That is something of what Murray is saying here. It is a deliberate choice. Are you going to live out of His life today and believe Him for it? Or are you just going to stumble out of bed and hope things go okay today for you? Hope that you can be obedient to God? Hope that you might be able to have some time with Him?
Or are you going to make that deliberate choice and say, “By Your grace, I am living out of Your life today, dear Lord. That is the only life that I have”? It is a deliberate choice, sought in strong desire.
This is something else that I feel so strongly: Where is the passion in the lives of God’s people these days? Where is the passion for Him?
What are we satisfied with? Are we satisfied just with going to meetings, or are we passionately in love with Him? Where is the passion in your life? Is there a passion in my life for Him?
When I look at some of these brothers and read of them of old, and some of these sisters, oh, they were foolishly in love with God—foolishly in love with God, in the very best sense of that word.
They gave themselves, poured out as a drink offering, even as we see in Paul’s life. Men and women like you and me fell in love with the Lord Jesus, were passionate about Him, and poured out their lives as a drink offering in the service of others’ faith.
Do you have that kind of passion for the Lord? I do not care how young you are or how old you are. Have you been captured by His love in such a way that you are passionate for Him?
Ephesians 5:8-10 says:
For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light
(for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
Proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord.
How do we come to know what is acceptable to the Lord? Now I get to the part of the message about personal devotion. That was all introduction.
I believe it comes really only one way: by having an intimate life in the Lord. If you have not already guessed that, I believe it comes by having an intimate life with the Lord.
The fruitfulness of our lives is the direct result of our hidden life with the Lord Jesus. I am going to repeat that: The fruitfulness of our lives is the direct result of our hidden life with the Lord Jesus. The abiding life.
Second Timothy 3:7 speaks of those who are:
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The Greek word for knowledge is epignosis. It means expressing a full knowledge. It means a greater participation of the knower in the object known, thus more powerfully influencing him.
I like that. It is not just having the knowledge; that knowledge needs to be expressed. It needs to be worked in and out of our lives.
They were always learning. They were getting a lot of knowledge, sitting under a lot of great teaching, going to a lot of conferences. But they were not living it. It was all up here. They were not expressing that knowledge in life.
That is what He is calling us to: an expression of that knowledge. It speaks of a greater participation of the knower in the object known, more powerfully influencing him.
In other words, if we know the Lord Jesus in His character, if we are participating in the exchange of life—in a vital exchange of life, that wonderful give and take of life—then it will more powerfully influence us.
How do we develop a hidden life? Two things, I feel, are essential. First, I must come to believe that He really loves me. Knowing that love will cause me to take hold by faith of this other life within me—His life within me.
I have to choose to live out of that life. That is why it is so important that, by the Spirit of God, we see just how much He loves us. That love, as He shows it to us, will cause us to trust and love Him, to take hold of this life within us, and to choose to live out of it.
It is essential to know how much He loves you. If you do not have that experience, if you walk around wondering whether you are loved by Him, then ask Him. Say to Him, confess to Him, “Lord, I am sorry. I do not know that You love me. I have a hard time sometimes believing that You love me. Forgive me, Lord, for my unbelief. But, Lord, please show me how much You love me.”
I believe He will, because He wants to. He is the God of love.
In light of this, I go back to what Murray said. You have to make a deliberate choice, seek it diligently, and with a living will make that decision out of your will to believe.
Sometimes we get quite satisfied with our Christian lives. We are satisfied with coming to meetings, going to Bible studies, attending covered dishes, and going to conferences. Not that any of those things are bad, and not that they cannot be used for good in our lives.
But sometimes we substitute those things for the hidden life. We become satisfied with that being our Christian life. That will not do, my dear brothers and sisters. It will not do.
There is no substitute for the hidden life. No substitute. If you do not have a hidden life, you will not have a fruitful life in the Lord. If you do not have a hidden life, you will remain a babe in the Lord. You will not go on into sonship without a hidden life.
It is essential. Do not think that these other things are enough. If that is your Christian life, it is not enough. If you are satisfied with that, you are deceived, and you are being deceived, as harsh as that may sound.
If you do not want a hidden life, if you do not really care about a hidden life, then you are greatly deceived. There is nothing less than that which the Lord Jesus wants for you and me: a hidden life, an abiding life.
There is no substitute for it. Fruitfulness is the direct result of our hidden life. What does the hidden life look like? You only have to look at the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus says, “As is the Master, so shall the servant be.”
In John 5:19, the Lord Jesus says:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.
In John 8:26:
He that sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world.
A hidden life. Then in John 8:28-29:
When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father taught Me, I speak these things.
And He that sent Me is with Me; He hath not left Me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.
The Lord Jesus had a hidden life. There was this communion with the Father. He said, “I only say the things I hear My Father saying. I only do the things I see My Father doing.” There was communication going on. There was this hidden life.
Do you think five days out of the week the Lord just went around and did the best He could, and then every once in a while went up into the mountain, woke up early, or went into the wilderness to pray for a few hours or overnight and then came back refueled? It was not like that at all.
No. He had this wonderful relationship with the Father, this intimacy with Him. That is what He wants for you and me: that same kind of relationship.
Sometimes, when we want this hidden life, we can make it mechanical. A brother or sister might say, “How about going shopping at the mall today?” and I might say, “Okay, wait a second. I have to ask the Lord about this. Should I go to the mall or should I not go to the mall? What do You think, Lord? Am I allowed to go to the mall today?”
You know what? This other life within us, if we are walking in light, walking in obedience, if our conscience is clear, and if we have this relationship with Him, that life in us leads us. It just leads us.
It was not as if Jesus every once in a while said, “Okay, Father, should I go to Galilee today? Is that what I am supposed to do?” No. It was this life within that led Him. He was in this wonderful relationship with the Father.
It is the relationship He wants us to have with Him, so that His spiritual life will become our natural life, and our natural life will become our spiritual life. That is what God is after for you and me.
The Spirit of God is training us in that and teaching us. Will we make mistakes sometimes? Yes, but no sweat. Do not worry about it in one sense, because we have a loving Father, and He is going to teach us from our mistakes.
Have you ever taught your children through their mistakes? Have they made a mistake, and then have you taken them aside and said, “Now you see what the result of that was? I do not think that is the way you are to approach this. Do you understand what I am saying?” “Ah, I got it. Thanks.”
God does that with us because He loves us. So, no sweat. Trust His love.
In John 14:9, Jesus said to Philip:
He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
Do you understand that this is something God wants to do in your life and mine? When someone looks in your face, in some respect they are going to be looking into the face of God.
Philip, when you look at Me, you see the Father. Did it mean that Jesus’ face changed? No. But the very life of God was emanating from Him, as it were. He wanted Philip to know, “When you look at Me, you see My Father.”
There is something of that God wants to do in your life and mine: when people meet us, they will have an encounter with the living God because His life is in you and me. There is nothing short of that.
When we look in John 15, that chapter of the vine, I want to read some of that and then give some practical things related to the hidden life.
John 15:1-5 says:
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
The vine begot the branch. Do we understand that? The branches grow out from the vine. Jesus says, “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” You love because He first loved you. This was the choice of God.
You can read in Ephesians that before the foundation of the world, God chose you in Christ. You were the choice of God. The vine produces the branch.
The vine causes the branch to grow. The branch cannot grow in and of itself. It is the very life of the vine that causes the branch to grow. The life of the vine comes into the branch, becomes the life of the branch, and causes the branch to grow.
It is the vine that keeps the branch. For years, I struggled trying to hold on to the vine. I worked my hardest trying to hold on to the vine. It was toilsome and frustrating.
Then, one day, by God’s mercy and grace, I saw that the vine holds on to me. I do not hold the vine; the vine is the One Who holds on to me. I am the one in the vine’s hands, never to be plucked out.
The vine holds me, and He has held you and me to this very moment through the power of His love. We are kept to this very moment. He has kept you, my dear brothers and sisters.
It has not been your strength that has kept you attached to the vine. Do not fool yourself. It has been His love, the power of His love, that has kept you and me attached to Him. The vine keeps the branch.
The vine’s life flowing through the branch causes fruit to grow. Nothing good in you causes fruit. In me there is no good thing in my flesh. It is the life of the vine in the branch that causes fruit.
The interesting thing about the fruit is that, in Galatians and elsewhere, it is described as love, and then there is a description of what that love is: patient, kind, longsuffering, and so on.
Sometimes we think fruit is external, especially in evangelical circles. We ask, “Have you produced fruit in your life?” But what is often meant is, “How many people have you brought to the Lord?” We need to bring people to the Lord. We need to share this wonderful Savior.
But that is not the fruit being spoken of here. The fruit is that the very life of the vine in you produces fruit in you, and that fruit is the character of the Lord Jesus.
That is what the vine is to produce: the very character of the Lord Jesus in you. Love, kindness, gentleness, longsuffering, and patience—those things are the fruit in your life that God wants to produce.
Someone may come along, admire that fruit, and say, “I need that.” Then they pluck that fruit, and it becomes food for someone that they may come to know the Lord Jesus.
It is the very life of the vine in the branch that produces fruit. So what do we do as branches? Some may shudder when they hear this: The branch does nothing.
The branch does nothing but rest in the vine. When we talk about resting and abiding in the Lord, it means a place of rest. We have come to believe and trust His love, and we rest in it. Out of that rest comes much fruit.
That was number one. Number two—and I know this is a little long, but I cannot even apologize for this—the second most important thing is the discipline of renewing your mind.
Romans 12:2 says:
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Let me say something about this word prove. It means to test, like when you are testing metal to find the tensile strength of it. It is not the bending of the rod this way, but the pulling of the rod this way to prove its strength.
It says, “Do not be conformed to this world.” Can I say something there too? Do not be conformed to Christianity—especially the Christianity we know and see in most places today. Do not be conformed to that.
God is calling us to something greater than what we see, for the most part, in Christianity today. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. He is calling us to step out in faith.
Do not be conformed to what even Christianity may say is good, because oftentimes what it is saying is, “This is good enough.” It is good enough for you to come to meetings. It is good enough for you to give a tithe—and if you do not, you will get a letter in the mail about it. It is good enough to go to a Bible study.
That is not good enough without a hidden life. None of those things are substitutes for it. Do not be conformed to that kind of thinking.
But prove. What is He saying? When God calls you and me to do something, we may look at ourselves and say, “Oh, I cannot do that. I am not sure about that. I do not know if I want to do that.”
The Lord says, “Look, trust Me.” If you sense the Lord wants you to stand up in a meeting and share a testimony, and you are shaking in your boots in the seat, the Lord says, “I know you are weak, but My strength will be there for you. Stand up.”
All of a sudden, you take that little step, stand up, and share. It edifies the brothers and sisters. You sit down and say, “Wow. I did not think I could do that.” The Lord says, “You cannot.”
But because you trusted Him, and trusted His Word that says, “I am the strength of My people,” when you stepped out in faith, you proved the Word of God. Now, all of a sudden, you know Him to be true in that instance, and He will bring you on and bring you on and bring you on, that you would prove the Word of God.
Oh, that is exciting. That is exciting.
This matter of personal devotion—the reason I do not like that term is because, for so long, when we think of personal devotion, we think of some time in the morning that we give to the Lord.
Personal devotion is not that half-hour you give to the Lord in the morning, or that hour, or two hours, or five hours. That is what personal devotion is thought to be.
But the hidden life is more than personal devotion. That can be part of your hidden life, but it is not the hidden life. The hidden life is the abiding life. It is twenty-four-seven.
We can substitute the hidden life for an hour of devotion in the morning and then go on with our day on our own. Do not fool yourself.
That is why I do not like the term personal devotion. In our minds, it takes us to a segment of time in our lives that we give to the Lord. Aren’t we good? But the Lord has more for you and me than that.
He wants communion during the day, all day long. And you know what? That is not pie in the sky. I am telling you.
The hidden life, this abiding life, is communion. Another way of putting it is this: It is a life of communication, conversation, admiration, and worship.
Conversation can help in our hidden life. During the day, you are just talking with the Lord: “Lord, I love You. Oh, Lord, I just feel so weak right now. I need You to be my strength, dear Lord.”
You might say, “Lord, I am going into this job right now, or I am going to my job right now. Help me, by Thy grace, to be Your priest in this situation.” That is conversation. It can go on all during the day—these little ejaculations to the Lord.
“Oh, Lord, I so appreciate Your mercy and Your kindness.” That is conversation. Sometimes you are simply there, listening to the Lord. You get a check in your spirit: “Oh, what is this about, Lord?” Boom—conversation.
Communication is sometimes just casting your eyes to the Lord, casting that gaze to Him. You are working, but you cast your thought toward the Lord. The eyes of your heart are turned to the Lord, and you behold Him in your heart.
It is something similar to when your child is up on the stage performing something at school. They are looking down at you in the audience, and you give them that look as if to say, “Ah, I am so proud of you.”
That kind of communication—communication of the eyes and of the heart—expresses something of your love, devotion, and appreciation.
Then there is worship. All of a sudden, you just have to turn and say, “Oh Lord, how good You are.”
Sometimes, when we are worshiping as an assembly, God begins to speak something that brings you to tears. This worship of the heart can go on all the time, all through the day. This is all part of that hidden life.
God has so much more for us than just a little time of personal devotion. It is a life of loving communication. It is the hidden life, out from which comes fruit.
The reading of the Word of God is very, very important in building and having this hidden life in the Lord, so that the Spirit of God can bring that Word back to us. We need to be in the Word of God.
Ephesians 5:15-20 says:
Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.
It says, “Walk circumspectly.” Walk diligently. Let us be aware of the days in which we are living. You young people especially—you young men and young ladies in college—let us walk diligently. Let us walk with our eyes open, knowing these are evil days.
There are those out there who want to snatch your soul, who want your soul to be involved in the things of this world, and they will drag you down. I am not saying you will lose your salvation, but you will be of no use in the kingdom of God. Be diligent. Make right choices.
Do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation. But there is more here than merely being drunk with wine. Do not have your life filled with dissipation.
I think some of us need to look at our lives. Are you too busy? In light of the days we are living in, are you too busy? Is your life occupied with too many things—superfluous things?
We all, I think, have to take a check on our lives. What are you involved in? Are you so involved in so many things that you have no time for the Word of God, no time for prayer, no time for fellowship?
I think we have to look at these things, my dear brothers and sisters. Take a little inventory of our lives. These are evil days in which we are living. Let us not fool ourselves.
Then it says, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Some translations say, “Speaking to one another,” but there are translations I prefer that say, “Speaking to yourselves.”
I do not believe it means me speaking to you in psalms and hymns, and you speaking to me in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. I think this has to do with the hidden life.
Speaking to yourselves with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord—that is something of what I was talking about before. During the day, we can be singing and making melody in our hearts, bringing up Scriptures and remembering Scriptures.
As we go through the day, we do these things within our hearts. I believe that is part of the hidden life.
Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—we can give thanks in all things because, if we really know Him as a loving Father, we know that He only orders or permits things in our lives for our good.
To walk as children of light means to walk in His life. Romans 8:2 says:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
That is the law at work in your life and mine. The Spirit of God is there to lead and guide each one of us.
This is the verse with which I am going to close. In Genesis 1:3, God said, “Let there be light.” In 1 John, it says that Jesus was the true light that gives light to every man.
In Revelation 21:23-24, it says:
And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.
And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof.
Dear Heavenly Father, we pray that somehow, by Your Spirit, You would show us that You are calling us to an intimate life with You—a life where You can share Your heart with us, and we can share our hearts with You, and we can be intimate.
I pray, Lord, that Your Spirit would be poured out upon us, that we would have a passion for Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, and that we would live in this communion that You have given to us.
So, Lord, would You really reveal to us this issue of the hidden life, of the abiding life, that we would not have a segmented life, but that our life would be fully Yours and Your life would be fully ours.
We ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.