Please turn to Philippians, the letter to the Philippians, Chapter 3, Verse 8.
But surely I count also all things to be loss
on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
on account of Whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and count them to be refuse,
that I may gain Christ.
Turn also to Romans, Chapter 8. We will begin with Verse 18 through Verse 27.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the coming glory to be revealed to us.
For the anxious looking out of the creation
expecteth the revelation of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to vanity,
not of its own will, but by reason of Him Who subjected it,
in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption
into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For in hope were we saved:
but hope that is seen is not hope;
for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
But if we hope for that which we see not,
then do we with patience wait for it.
And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity:
for we know not how to pray as we ought;
but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered;
and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Turn now to Colossians, Chapter 1. We begin with Verse 24 through Verse 29.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh
for His body’s sake, which is the church;
whereof I was made a minister,
according to the dispensation of God which was given me to you-ward,
to fulfil the word of God,
even the mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations,
but now hath it been manifested to His saints.
To whom God was pleased to make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,
that we may present every man perfect in Christ;
whereunto I labor also, striving according to His working,
which worketh in me mightily.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we want to praise and thank Thee for giving us the privilege of being at Thy table, Thy table of love—that love that loves to the very uttermost.
Lord, may Thy love constrain each and every one of us, knowing that we are no longer ours, but we are Yours. Give us that strong passion to gain Christ. Enable us to toil and labor, not for ourselves, but for the completion of Thy eternal purpose.
O dear Lord, we are here, redeemed not for ourselves, but we are here for Thee. May all that which Thou hast purposed in Thy heart for us be fulfilled, that God may be glorified. We commit this time into Thy hand, Lord. Speak; Thy servants hear. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for bringing us to these last four days. I suppose we all know that the reason why we come together is that we may fellowship on this matter of spiritual travail.
At first look, you may think that it is a very heavy subject. But the more you think about it, the more you see that it is grace. Grace begins the work, and grace continues until the work is done.
So, when we are fellowshipping on spiritual travail, do not look at ourselves. Look to Him, the One Who travailed for us and brings us into this whole realm of travail. From the very beginning to the very end, it is grace—but it is grace received and responded to.
We have received His grace and been saved. He has put His life in us. He has put His Spirit in us in order that, by all His provisions, we may really come to know Him and know what is in His heart.
If there is anything that can satisfy God’s heart, we have to acknowledge that it is not in ourselves; it is in Christ, and Christ in us.
Now, for the sake of some who have not been with us during the past days, let me just briefly say: spiritual travail is based upon the travail of God for us. If He had not travailed for us, we would not be here. We would have no means to travail in any way.
We are called today to travail. It is our calling. But this calling is based upon what He has done for us. Indeed, we are the fruit of the travail of our Lord Jesus. Out of His travailing, He put His life in us. He gave us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us without leaving us.
Now, what is all the purpose behind it? We say travail is unto birth, but when there is birth, is that the final end?
When a woman is in travail and gives birth to a child, she forgets all her anguish, tribulation, and sorrow, and she is glad. Why? Because a man has been born into this world. What comes out is a baby, but what she expects is a man.
Is it not true that whenever there is any birth on this earth, even though that birth is beautiful, if that birth does not aim to become a man or woman, the joy will soon be turned into sorrow?
So it is the same thing with God. We find that it is out of the travail of our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross that we are born into the family of God. Thank God for that. But what is the purpose behind it?
Is it that God wants to have a kindergarten full of babies forever and forever? Not so. What God has in mind is His beloved Son. He wants to have many brethren for His Son. He wants His Son to be the Firstborn among many brethren.
The Son is the model, and He wants those who are born again to be transformed, to grow, until they take upon themselves the very image of His Son—to be characterized not only by His life, but by the full expression of that life: to be Christ-like.
In order that we may be fit to be His eternal companion, God’s purpose must be fulfilled. So that is the reason why our Lord Jesus travailed for us. That is the reason why He calls us, who are the fruits of His travail, to travail with Him in our spirit, that we too may fulfil all that God has ordained for us.
So, dear brothers and sisters, this whole matter of spiritual travail is a must. If you look at it from God’s viewpoint, it is a must, because this is God’s eternal purpose. He wants His Son to be all and in all.
He wants all of us who are babes in Christ to grow up to sonship. He wants to have a church, His own body, fully grown and fit to be the eternal bride of His beloved Son. God had all these things in His mind even before the foundation of the world.
Thank God, He Who has purposed will fulfil it. And thank God that He has put us in it; He has involved us in this. So, dear brothers and sisters, this whole matter of spiritual travail is a privilege. It is a calling to every brother and sister, every born-again child of God.
Now, it is true that there are different levels of spiritual travailing, and yet everybody is involved in it. As we grow in spiritual stature—that is, as we grow in Christ Jesus, as we allow the life of Christ Jesus to take over us more and more—then this spiritual travail will be fuller and fuller until God’s purpose is done.
So I hope that every brother and sister will be encouraged and know that this is a calling for every one of us.
Now, we did ask this question: Is suffering necessary in travailing?
Briefly speaking, we may say travail is exertion; it is exercise. But because there is sin in this world, it becomes a universal law that wherever there is travail, there is suffering.
But thank God that suffering is not negative at all. That suffering is positive, because it brings us into the full fulfilment of God’s purpose.
Now, this morning we would like to fellowship on the fourfold areas of spiritual travailing.
First of all, we would like to see that there is a spiritual travailing after Christ.
You remember the Apostle Paul. He wrote in Philippians, Chapter 3, “I count all things as dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. I am willing to lose all things in order to gain Christ.”
Now, do not try to mix this up. Is it not Christ Who gains us? Why is it that the Apostle Paul said, “Gain Christ”? Had he not already been gained by Christ on the road to Damascus? The Lord met him. The Lord gained him. Yet the Apostle Paul said, “For the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, I suffer the loss of all things in order to gain Christ.”
Knowing Christ is not automatic. It is very true that the mind of the flesh can never know the things of God. The mind of the flesh despises the things of God. Naturally speaking, in ourselves—that is, in our flesh—it is all blind darkness against God. It is all rebellion and opposition toward God.
Unless God reveals His Son in us, we do not know anything spiritual. Not by study, not by searching, can we find God. No. You can know much about God and much about Christ, but you do not know Him in your very being, and because of this there is no transforming power.
You may have a full knowledge of Jesus Christ, and yet you do not grow an inch spiritually. We need revelation. Thank God, He is a God of revelation. It is His delight to reveal His Son in us. God wants to show us Christ all day long.
I often say, whenever you go to a family with a newborn baby, as you step in the door, the first thing they will show you is their newborn son. That is their delight. That is the way our Lord, our God, is. Not only has He revealed Christ Jesus to us as our Savior, but it is His pleasure to reveal all about His Son to us.
Revelation comes from God. It is not difficult, because it is His delight to do that. But why is it that we do not receive revelation? There is something standing against that revelation, and it is our own mind, our flesh, our whole old life within us.
These things within us resist the revelation of Jesus Christ to us. Whenever God reveals anything of His Son to us, immediately you find something within us rising up in opposition, rejection, even hatred.
Brothers and sisters, that is where spiritual travail comes in. What you considered precious to you in the past, as your very life, comes into conflict when the revelation of Jesus Christ comes to you. There is a conflict of interests. There is a cross in your life.
What is our response? Do we exercise our spirit in the sense that we are willing to count all things as dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
To put it another way: is our knowledge, our love, and our commitment to earthly things what prevents, opposes, and hinders the revelation of Jesus Christ in our life?
The problem does not come from God. The problem is in us. Unless that problem is solved—and it takes a lifetime to solve that problem—we cannot go forward.
You remember our Lord Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” If we try to save our self-life, we lose it. If, for His sake, we are willing to lose our self-life, we gain it unto eternity.
Brothers and sisters, this is the spiritual law of spiritual growth. Today, you find God’s people neglect that. Not only do they neglect it; they even oppose it. We like to hear something pleasing to our natural ear, to our natural life: “Everything is all right. Go ahead. Do whatever you want, and you will end up having it wonderful.” But that is dangerous.
Without spiritual travailing, we are not able to gain Christ. In the measure that we are willing to count all things as dross will be the measure of our spiritual growth in stature.
How can we grow spiritually? By spiritual growth, it means only one thing: the life of Christ in you grows into maturity. It is not you, your own life, that grows into maturity. That is the opposite. It is the life of Christ in you that grows into maturity.
It should be a spiritually natural growth, but unfortunately there is another life there that becomes the enemy of that spiritual growth. Because of that enemy, travailing comes in. Suffering comes in. But these sufferings are not in vain; these sufferings are with a purpose.
Our flesh may suffer, but Christ’s life in us will increase. That is the only way to gain Christ, to know Christ.
I wonder why God’s people today, after they are saved and after being Christians for perhaps ten, twenty, or thirty years, know a lot but grow very little. Why?
I have been asking this question for a long, long time. Why is it that God’s people do not grow spiritually? By growing spiritually, I mean growing in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, knowing Christ deeper and deeper, seeing Christ as God the Father sees Him. That is spiritual growth.
Why is there not much growth among God’s people? Is it because we have a false idea of growth? It is because we are lacking in travail. We really do not struggle before God. We really are not violent to ourselves.
You remember the Bible says that the kingdom of the heavens is taken by violence, and the violent take it by force. Now, by that violence, it does not mean violence to others. It means violence to yourself—denying yourself.
If we do not deny ourselves, if we try to gratify ourselves, satisfy ourselves, and give to ourselves all the time, even neglecting the pleading of the Holy Spirit in our spirit, no wonder we do not grow.
So spiritual growth—that is, knowing Christ—requires, demands, spiritual travail. Are we daily travailing?
Thank God, the Holy Spirit is warning us. We do not need to try to find things to deny. We do not even need to search our minds to see things for which we should repent. That would be false; that would bring us into trouble.
The Holy Spirit is warning us. He is so wise. He knows our frame, and He will bring things to our remembrance. He will touch our conscience. He will speak to us in a still, small voice. He will shine His inner light upon our spirit.
We begin to see that there is something there standing in the way of our spiritual growth, and God demands that it be removed. Are we willing to deny ourselves, to lose our soul-life, as it were?
We suffer a little bit, but that suffering is full of meaning because it brings us to Christ. That is gaining Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is a lifetime pursuit.
The second area is that we have to travail for sonship. As we have already said, God’s purpose is not just to bring us into His family as babes. He wants us to grow into maturity, to be sons and daughters who can bear responsibility with our Lord Jesus. That is God’s purpose.
For that purpose, we have to travail. In Romans, Chapter 8, you find it very clear. Even the whole universe is groaning. If we have spiritual ears, we can hear even the groaning of the trees, the groaning of the universe.
They groan not because of themselves. They are under corruption and under emptiness, vanity. It is because of man. It is man who brings the whole world into vanity and corruption. So they are groaning for the day of freedom, but they cannot be freed until the manifestation of the sons of God.
When God’s children become sons—grown up—then the creation will be liberated. Not only is the whole universe, the whole world, groaning around us; we who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit are also groaning within ourselves. We want to grow.
I always remember my youngest sister. When she was little, perhaps five or six years old, she had a cousin of her age. One day they were sitting on the stairway talking, and somebody heard them. They were groaning.
They said, “We are the littlest in the family. See our bigger sisters and brothers. They have so many privileges that we do not have.” So they groaned because of their littleness.
Now, brothers and sisters, are you groaning within your spirit because you see that you are a babe? Or do you feel very comfortable being a baby in Christ?
The life within us is a growing life. Because of that, it is groaning within us—groaning for sonship, groaning for the day that we will be revealed as sons, groaning for the day that we may be able to share not only our inheritance but also our responsibilities with Christ Jesus, groaning for the day when we can reign with Christ.
Do not think that reigning with Christ means that you are above everybody, giving orders and being served. The Lord said, “I am among you as One Who serves,” instead of being served.
Now, are we groaning for sonship? We groan because we realize that within us there is opposition, there is hindrance, there is that which leads us astray. You groan over it. You do not know how you can overcome it.
You wrestle with it. You try to pray, but you do not know how. Then the Holy Spirit groans within you, and God knows the mind of the Spirit. Somehow the whole thing begins to clear up. You begin to grow a little bit more.
Brothers and sisters, is that our experience? Why is it God’s people do not grow spiritually? Because they are too comfortable with their present situation. They like to be babes in Christ and have everybody take care of them.
If anything is a little late, they just cry, and they will be catered to. Now, do you want to be like that and make your Father sorrow? Brothers and sisters, we need to travail into sonship.
The third area is that we need to travail for souls, just like the Apostle Paul. In Romans, Chapter 9, he said, “When I think of my kinsmen, my brethren according to the flesh, I feel pain. I am willing to be accursed from Christ that my brethren may be blessed.”
He travailed for his brethren. He travailed for souls. Brothers and sisters, I believe that as soon as you are saved, there is a spiritual instinct within you. As Christ travailed for your soul, so when you are saved, you feel within you a travailing for the ones you love.
If that kind of travailing is absent, I wonder whether you are saved. Have you ever travailed in prayer for any soul?
I remember Brother Watchman Nee. After he was saved, he tried to win his fellow students. He approached them and attacked them everywhere until his fellow students avoided him.
One day he met Miss Groves, a fellow worker of Miss Barber. Miss Groves asked him, “After you were saved, how many have you won to Christ?” He said, “None. But I preach Christ. It is their fault; they did not believe.”
Miss Groves said, “Have you ever prayed for them?” “Never.” She said, “You had better pray for them, because it is not you who saves them; it is Christ Who saves.”
So he put all their names in his book and prayed for them diligently. Within a short period, one after another was saved.
Brothers and sisters, have you ever travailed for your father, for your mother, for your son, for your daughter, for your friend, for somebody? We need to travail for them.
The fourth area is that we need to travail for the church. Look at Paul, how he travailed for the body of Christ.
He travailed for the Corinthian church. He said, “I am willing to spend and be spent myself, even if the more I love you, the less I am loved. I am willing to do that.”
To the Ephesian church, he said, “Day and night I preached and shared with you the whole counsel of God with tears.”
To the Colossian church, he said, “I travail to fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the body’s sake.” In other words, knowing that he was a member in the body of Christ, he wanted to see that body grow into maturity, and he travailed for it.
Now, do we travail for the church? Do we travail because of all the divisions that we find in the body of Christ?
We need to travail to keep the unity of the Spirit in the body of Christ. We need to pay a cost even for that reason.
We need to travail in giving ourselves to minister to our brothers and sisters in the way that God has gifted us—not just being ministered to. We have our little part to play in the house of God.
In doing that, you may be misunderstood. Sometimes you will be rejected. Thank God for that, because it is through rejection and mistake that you learn—learn to submit yourself under the headship of Christ, so that the body may be increased with the increase of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we find that in all these four areas, we are to be involved.
Finally, how do we begin? This spiritual travail is not something we can work up ourselves. It is the love of God that constrains us.
Brothers and sisters, how we need to live close to God. How we need to meditate upon the love of Christ until we are so constrained that we will likewise have such love.
Do you love yourself? Everybody does. But you love the wrong self. You love the old self. You should love the new self.
If you love the new self, you will begin to travail for it. You will begin to pray for it. You will begin to be willing to pay any cost for it. Love is the beginning. Love is the force behind travailing.
Second, when the Lord gives you a burden within you—for yourself, for the sake of Christ, for other people, or for the church—the best way, the highest way, to express it is by prayer.
Pray, because this is something beyond ourselves. If we can do anything without prayer, there is a warning sign: Who is doing it? So we need to give ourselves to prayer—more prayer. Pray for all these things.
Third, as we begin to pray, we must give ourselves totally to God, willing to pay any cost.
That is the reason why, before we build anything, we need to sit down and count the cost. Are you willing to pay the cost? Without doing that, you may build a tower, lay the foundation, and cannot complete it, and you will become a laughingstock.
Count your cost until, by the grace of God and the mercies of God, you are willing to give yourself totally and completely to Him.
Finally, begin small. Do not be so ambitious and try to pray great prayers or try to do many things. Begin small. That will deliver us from ourselves.
As the Spirit of God works in you, you begin to grow. If we are faithful in small things, God will keep us in greater things. These are the practical ways of entering into this matter of spiritual travail.
So may the Lord start with each and every one of us. God bless you.