Well, brothers and sisters, we come to this time of questions and answers. Now, for the newcomers, I would like to say a few words first.
If there is any real question, God is the only One Who can answer. Men can only touch the superficial; they cannot deal with the real problem. We have to look to the Lord to be the answer to all our problems.
This time of question and answer is not a time for mental exercise. I think we have exercised our minds enough. This is the time for spiritual exercise. As we are looking into these questions—something that may puzzle us, something that may stand in the way of our spiritual pursuit—we want to consider together, help one another, and, by the grace of God, try to have our obstacles removed so that the Lord can do the real work.
So it is a time—you are not here to listen; it is a time you come here to exercise. This is a time that we have to sweat. We have to stretch. We have to put our heart into it.
It is a mutual thing. You are not coming to hear someone give you right or wrong answers, but you are here to exercise your spirit and try to touch the Lord. We are looking to the Lord as we are sharing together, that all the obstacles will be removed, that we may really walk on the highway of holiness.
I have received a few questions. The first question is: What is the relationship between consecration and the cross in regard to possessing our inheritance?
Now, brothers and sisters, we know consecration is of utmost importance in all this matter of bearing the cross in our spiritual pursuit. Why? Because without consecration, we are not able to bear the cross. Or, to put it even more strongly, without consecration, you really do not know what the cross is.
Because oftentimes we think it is our cross, but actually, we are the cross—crossing other people. We do not really know what is the cross that I am to bear. You know Peter: he came to the Lord and said, “My brother crosses me seven times; I have forgiven him. Is that enough?” Now, often we think, who is crossing whom? If you know the character of Peter, I would say mostly it is Peter who is manufacturing the cross.
But this is the way we feel. We always feel it is people who cross us, not realizing that actually we are the cross. So, brothers and sisters, we would never understand what the cross is until consecration.
Consecration is the first spiritual experience. If you have never been consecrated, you have no spiritual life at all. Why? Because even though you are saved, you still live by your own life. You cannot call that spiritual life. So spiritual life begins with consecration.
Praise the Lord, He has given us life—the life of Christ Jesus in us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” But unless you are willing, you are ready to allow the life of Christ to take the ascendancy, you will not be able to experience that life in your daily life.
By consecration, it does not mean that you give yourself to the Lord in the sense that you are going to do something for Him. That is the way I usually was taught when I was saved. But according to the Scripture, consecration is to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
When you offer a sacrifice, you not only tie it to the altar, but you kill it. Why? Because you want to offer it to God. It is out of your own hand; it is now in the hand of God. Now that is consecration.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to present our bodies a living sacrifice—not to be killed, but to be lived for Him and by Him. Now that is consecration.
To put it another way, consecration is to give up your right to yourself, hand over your right to God, and give Him liberty to do whatever He wants to do in your lives. So consecration basically is not working for God. Consecration basically is allowing God to work in you.
Because God always respects our will. He would never force us in any way. He will patiently wait for you until you are willing to give yourself to Him. Then you will discover He begins to work in your life.
And then the Holy Spirit, Who is the only One Who has the wisdom to arrange crosses for you to bear, begins His work. We do not have that wisdom. We have the foolishness of creating crosses for other people, but we do not have the wisdom even to know what the cross is and how to bear it.
Immediately after you give your right to God, the Holy Spirit will begin to work. He will arrange crosses for you to bear. And by cross, it simply means where the will of God crosses your will, where the mind of God crosses your mind, when God’s feeling crosses your feeling. Now that is the cross.
You may think that so-and-so crosses you, but remember, it is the Holy Spirit Who arranges so-and-so to be only the instrument of giving you a cross to bear. So never put your attention on people, on things, or on an environment. Whatever and wherever these things come from, remember, it is the Lord. The Lord loves you.
It is He Who arranges your life, and that gives us the willingness to accept it—the willingness to bear it. And by bearing it simply means you allow your own will, your own mind, your own emotion, to be put to death, that the will of God, the feeling of God, and the mind of God may come out in our life. Now that is the cross.
So the cross, on one hand, is to deal with our old flesh and old self, putting it to death. On the other hand, it is to add Christ into your life. So this is the only way to possess our inheritance, because our inheritance is nothing more than having Christ. Christ will increase, and we will decrease. Now that is the relationship between consecration and the cross.
Another question is this: Brother Carl shared that the problem with us is that our weakness somehow circumscribes God. That is why we must be delivered out of ourselves, to be delivered unto God. Can you elaborate?
Now, did I really say that our weakness circumscribes God? Did I say that? If I said that, I apologize. If the Lord allows me to say it, I will say our strength circumscribes God. That is the correct one.
But unfortunately, so far as our feeling is concerned, that is the way we feel: “If I am strong enough, I will be able to do the will of God. But unfortunately, I am too weak, so I cannot do it.” Now, is that your feeling? But remember, your feeling deceives you. Your feeling actually covers what you really are.
You may feel it that way, but why do you feel it that way? Because you consider yourself stronger than that. You can do it. But, to your surprise, you cannot do it. Now, is not that your strength circumscribing God?
So, you see the wisdom of God. What God is doing is to weaken you. He will weaken you to the extent that you bow down your head and confess, “I am weak.”
Now, brothers and sisters, have you been brought to that point yet? The Lord will test you to the uttermost. The children of Israel, when God gave them the law, all they said was, “We will do it. You do not need to talk too much. All that we have heard, we will do it.”
And God tested them in the wilderness. What was the result? In Deuteronomy, we are told that God brought them into the wilderness for one purpose: to prove them. God knows all along, but we do not know. So God uses the wilderness to prove us, to test us, until we realize:
In me, that is in my flesh, there is no good.
So, brothers and sisters, it is not your weakness that is the problem; it is your strength that is the problem. You remember the experience of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. He was greatly used by God in preaching the gospel, but there was a thorn thrust into his body.
God had given him such great revelations, so God allowed the enemy to thrust a thorn into his body to make him weak. Paul struggled against it. He had very good reason, because he was preaching the gospel of grace, of the great deliverance of God, and here he was trembling, with poor eyesight.
Some people say Paul traveled in areas where malaria was spreading, and evidently he got malaria. When you have malaria, you shake, and it affects your eyes. Paul felt that if he was weak, he was not glorifying God. “Only if I am strong does that prove the strength of the gospel that I preach.” So Paul prayed and prayed and prayed.
We are just like him: “Make me strong for Your sake.” But God said, “If you are strong, it is for your sake, not for My sake. If it is for My sake, you have to be weak.”
My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.
Brothers and sisters, unless we are reduced to the point where we really, honestly confess, “We are weak. Lord, I just cannot. I have tried, but I fail and fail and fail. Lord, what can I do? It is up to You now,” you will not find that His grace is sufficient for you.
So let us recognize our problem. I think this is one of the hardest problems for anybody: to be honest. But once you recognize that problem, you give God opportunity to show forth His strength. Spiritual law is opposite to earthly law. It is not what we think, because God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways are higher than our ways.
Another question concerns the earnest payment made by Christ to secure our spiritual inheritance. Must we continue to make payments in order to gain our full spiritual inheritance?
Well, I will say we will never be able to make such payments. He paid it all.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in our spirit. This is the down payment. In other words, even the down payment is not paid by us; the down payment is paid by God. God paid it for you. This is a sign that the inheritance belongs to you.
The Holy Spirit, Who is the down payment, is also the full payment. Every payment that can be made is made by the Holy Spirit.
But it looks as if you are paying. Why? Because He wants you to cooperate. He wants you to yield to Him. If you do not yield to Him, He has no way to pay it for you.
Strangely, after He has paid the down payment for us to assure us that Christ will be our portion, then suddenly our mind changes: “Thank You very much for the down payment. Now I am going to pay the rest.” So you are trying to pay it. You are trying to do the will of God. You are trying to make Christ increase in your life by gathering all this information, with all these theological doctrines and teachings. You think that is the way Christ may increase in you. Never.
This is the foolishness of man. We do not know how Christ can increase in us. We think we can do it, make Him increase. Try it and see whether you are able to.
It is the Holy Spirit Himself continually paying all the rest of the payment for the inheritance. He is the only One Who can glorify Christ. He is the only One Who is able to make Christ increase in our lives. With the increase of Christ in our lives, we enter more into our spiritual inheritance, and God has more in us for His inheritance.
So remember, brothers and sisters, from the start to the end, it is the Holy Spirit, not us.
The Holy Spirit is paying the rest of the payment day after day. It is not in one lump sum and another lump sum. We do not live our life through crisis only. There may be crisis, but you do not live your life by crisis only. You live your life daily, and it is the daily work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that is paying the rest of the payment toward our inheritance.
This is why our daily life is so important. Do not wait until a crisis is formed. In our daily life, learn to listen to the still, small voice. Learn to obey the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Learn to allow the Holy Spirit to bring you daily into Christ. This is the way the payment is continually being paid.
So I would suggest, brothers and sisters, do not look for crises. Be faithful in your daily life.
Another question: What is the difference between “the Lord is my portion” and “the Lord is our portion”? What is the difference between our individual inheritance and our corporate spiritual inheritance?
We tend to divide the individual, the personal, from the corporate, the Body. But in the eyes of God, they are so intimately intertwined with one another that you cannot divide them.
If you want to divide them, probably there is only one way: so far as the dealings are concerned, they are more on a personal, individual basis. But so far as the end result, the purpose, and the will of God are concerned, even all the dealings that happen in our individual lives are really for the corporate Body.
Nobody can substitute for you. Just as when we are saved, nobody can save for you. Some people say, “If I can only hang on the garment of so-and-so, then when the rapture call comes, he goes and I go with him.” Nonsense. We are all personally, individually responsible.
So the dealings will be personal, but remember, the dealings are for the corporate. It is never just for yourself. Do not think that God is preparing only you for the throne to share with Christ. There are twelve thrones around the throne of God.
So, brothers and sisters, do not divide these two things. Individually, be willing to take the cross and the dealings. When this is being done, you will find it is not for you; it is for the Body of Christ.
Finally, at the end of our earthly journey, how can we make sure that we have gained our spiritual inheritance, such as Paul claimed in 2 Timothy 4:7-8?
Again, that shows something: we want to be sure. Do you want the Lord to be sure, or do you want yourself to be sure? If the Lord lets you be sure, will you say, “I give up”?
Look at Paul. Even when he wrote the letter to the Philippians, he was in prison in Rome for the gospel’s sake. Was he sure that he had apprehended all that God had apprehended him for? That all the purposes of God upon him had been realized? No.
He said, “I do not say I have apprehended all that God has apprehended me for. I am just forgetting the past and pressing on, stretching myself toward the high calling of God.” Brothers and sisters, that is our attitude.
We always want to be sure. That is where insurance comes in. But insurers these days are not very trustworthy. Who is our insurance? We do have insurance. Who is our insurance?
I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.
It pleased God that not until Paul was on the verge of martyrdom, in 2 Timothy, did God give him that assurance. So whether God gives you the assurance or not, it really does not matter. What matters is: do you believe that God is your assurance?
I have a motto that I always use: ever ready, never ready. That is our attitude. We should be ever ready because we do not know when the Lord will return. But within your heart, you realize you are never ready. The Lord is still working—working to the last minute.
So our assurance is in Christ. He Who has called us is faithful; He will perform it. May our assurance be in Christ Jesus, and not in ourselves. The moment you feel sure is the moment you are not sure.
God wants to keep us in humility. Meekness and lowliness is the spirit of Christ. May the Lord have mercy upon us.
I also have three questions. The first question is: What are the greatest hindrances that we may have in entering into our spiritual inheritance?
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we discover many of the obstacles that stand in the way. There is no way that we can take the time this morning to go back over the twelve things mentioned last night. If you carefully read Hebrews, you will find many more of these issues, because it addresses people who were in a dangerous place. They were refusing God’s precious inheritance, given to them freely, and returning to something that was not God’s best for them.
I am going to mention three things that I think can be major hindrances to inheriting our inheritance. First, brothers and sisters, the inheritance that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ is an eternal inheritance. It has been abundantly provided by our God. He only gives the best, and whatever He gives is totally appropriate to us.
God designed man to live a life of total dependence upon Him. This is difficult for us to accept. Here in the United States, you have probably heard someone say, “God helps those who help themselves.” I have been searching for the chapter and verse; I have not found it yet.
What I have discovered is that God says, “That is not what I am after. I designed you, I created you, and I have redeemed you so you will live a life of total dependence on Me.”
God has in Himself our inheritance, and He gives it to us in the person of His Son. The Holy Spirit comes and leads us into the experience of that inheritance. This is something for us every day. It is not something to be looked at only at the end of your life.
The moment we believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, we become heirs at that very second. God cannot give us any more than He has already given us. He has put all the fullness of Himself in His Son and given His Son to us as a free gift, and has sent the Holy Spirit to help us discover this inheritance that is ours.
Hebrews 4 points out probably the greatest hindrance to our experiencing our inheritance: a hardened heart. The writer of Hebrews tells us that God was angry with His covenant people because they hardened their hearts, and the result was unbelief.
God has spoken to us in His Son. Everything God has to say to us, He has said clearly and completely in the person of His Son. The writer encourages us to pay much closer attention to what we have heard. But God’s people in the past, rather than carefully listening, hardened their hearts.
Without faith it is impossible to please Him.
What one thing does God expect from us? For us to believe what He has said to us in His Son. If our hearts are hard, for whatever reason—and there are many reasons that can cause hard hearts—we cannot hear Him.
God begins His redeeming work by giving us a new heart and putting His Spirit inside of us: new heart, new spirit, and His Spirit within us. He is looking for hearts that can hear Him and obey Him.
The nature of the old man is rebellion. Maybe you have somehow worked on becoming a nice rebel. Some of us are not so nice rebels, but some of us put a disguise on our rebellious nature. We even teach it how to say good spiritual words. We try to teach it how to be a Christian. We make it go to meetings, et cetera, et cetera.
But living in our old man, in our flesh, we cannot enter into our inheritance.
I remember my son Benjamin when he was born. Less than an hour old, the nurse laid him on a table to change his diaper. The nurse thought it was a good idea, but Benjamin did not think it was a good idea. I am telling you with my own eyes: he clenched his fist and turned red. He did not want it.
Where did this come from? I did not have time to teach him. It just came out of him. But praise God, the Lord is working in him to teach him this very simple lesson that every one of us needs to learn: we need to learn to obey.
Even our Lord Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered. There is not a greater lesson that any of us needs to learn than this lesson. If we simply learn to obey, then the blessed Holy Spirit, Who is inside us to reveal God’s will and speak to us about what God wants, is also there to give us the measure of the life of Christ to enable us to fulfill it.
A hard heart that has not learned how to obey is a great obstacle to entering into our inheritance. But praise God, it does not have to remain that way. We can open the door of our lives and give every key to every area of our life to the blessed Holy Spirit.
The second hindrance is closely connected to this. In Hebrews 12, we find the absolute necessity of discipline. We do not like this word. When we mention the word discipline, the hair goes up on the back of your neck, because as rebels, we do not like discipline. We want to do what we want to do.
But without discipline, the writer says, you are not really a legitimate child of God. Discipline proves that you are God’s child and that He is bringing you into sonship. Without it, it is impossible.
There is a big difference between punishment and discipline. Listen carefully, please. All the punishment that you and I ever deserved for our rebellious acts—praise God, our Lord Jesus took that punishment on Himself on the cross. We never have to bear the punishment for our sins, whether past, present, or future.
Are there consequences? Yes, there are consequences, but not the punishment. The punishment that we deserved, He took. But in the same way that He was disciplined, we need to be disciplined.
We need to find the grace to discipline ourselves. You are the one responsible—not that the Holy Spirit will not come and enable you. But when the children of Israel were going over into the promised land, when did the water part? When they were still on the bank? No. When the priests put their foot in the water, and then God acted.
We have to take that step.
We need time for considering Jesus, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. How much time do we spend considering and looking off to Him? If you are like most of us, you probably say all day long, “I do not have time. I do not have time. I do not have time.”
But the last time I checked, there are still twenty-four hours in a day. We need to find the grace to discipline ourselves, to seek time to meditate, contemplate, and consider our Lord. It is a step of faith, but it is a discipline.
Take that first step, and you will find the Holy Spirit meeting you there, being faithful to you, enabling you to find time and to meet with the Lord. Do you need help with meditation? Do you need help with discipline? Do you need help in loving your brothers and sisters? That is what the Lord Jesus sent the Holy Spirit here to do—not for us to do it ourselves, but for the Holy Spirit to indwell us and enable us to do the will of God.
The other thing I would quickly mention is: learn to be a grateful people. In Hebrews 13, we are encouraged to be a grateful people.
This is another thing that brings hardness of heart: when we do not give the thanks that we need to give. In Romans 1, when Paul speaks of the wrath of God revealed from heaven against ungodliness and unrighteousness, what was man’s response to God’s revelation? They did not honor Him, neither did they give thanks.
This is something ingrained in our old human nature that has to be broken. I would suggest that we fight this battle. Declare war on every element of unthankfulness and ingratitude, and overcome it by ten thousand thanksgivings—ten thousand thanksgivings.
Every hindrance that may be there, God has a solution to enable us to overcome it. May the Lord be merciful to us.
Well, there are twenty-four hours in the day, but the Lord has left me with a New York minute.
One question asked, “What is the quickest shortcut to the spiritual inheritance?” Somebody actually asked that question: “Give me the quick shortcut. Do not give me a lot of babble. Just give me the stuff.”
Another question asks: What will happen to those who do not want to appropriate the spiritual inheritance today, when the Lord comes back, and in eternity?
I think I would like to boil down everything that has been said, and the Letter to the Hebrews, with this one conclusion: you can only press forward. There is no alternative.
There is no escape. There is no way back. The children of Israel could not have returned to Egypt. It was not an option. Why would we address the option?
There are many Christians who have been born again who have no idea of a spiritual inheritance. They are not pursuing because of the ignorance of not knowing there is something to be gained. They just know they are saved, and they think all they have to do is wait around until they die, and then they all go to heaven.
But the Holy Spirit is the best circumstantial engineer in the world. He brings many who have never heard of spiritual inheritance into their spiritual inheritance. He may bring them to a point of consecration. They may call it total surrender, yielding to the call, or baptism of the Spirit; but beyond the nomenclature, the Holy Spirit works.
He may set up a roadblock in every plan they have. “I am going to take that job.” It does not work out. “I have a great idea.” It does not work out. Frustrated here, frustrated there, the Holy Spirit mercifully roadblocks all the ways that lead into the broad way and the world.
Eventually they say, “I cannot understand it. What is wrong? God, what are You doing?” And God says, “Come to Me.” Then consecration begins.
There is a second group: Christians who have started on the way but have become entangled by encumbrances, heavinesses, and besetting sin. This causes a halt in spiritual pursuit. The Holy Spirit is faithful; He will convict us.
We get so entangled in our own involvement, our life, and our lifestyle. The saints gather for prayer, and we say, “I cannot. I am too busy.” Every time entanglements prevent us from pursuing the kingdom, there is the Holy Spirit inside saying, “No good, no good, no good.”
Somewhere along the line, those “no goods” add up. We begin to say, “What am I doing, so entangled with so much that when the Lord says, ‘Follow Me,’ I say, ‘First let me do this. First let me do that’?”
Sometimes God has to let us tangle ourselves up. But He is working, even through these disciplined things in our lives, for our freedom and liberty to pursue Him.
There are also some who willfully do not want to pursue their spiritual inheritance. They have willfully decided, and this is a fearful thing.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Why is it fearful? There is only one reason: the only thing you need to be afraid of is Somebody Who so jealously loves you that He will do anything to gain you.
God goes to extremes to gain His wayward children. We may say, “I do not care a thing about Him. I am like Esau. I despise my inheritance.” But God loves you more than you can know.
When the Lord comes back, those who have not pursued—who have been careless, uncaring, saved but carnal—will experience unbearable regret and a deep sense of shame that they have trifled and not taken advantage of an opportunity to serve with the King of kings in a responsible position.
There is a remorse that will fall upon people that the Bible calls gnashing of teeth, because we missed the opportunity through foolishness. It is a serious matter. It really is not to be taken lightly.
In eternity, all who have been born again will come into inheritance. But depending upon your faithfulness and usefulness during this lifetime, there will be differing measures of ruling and reigning and special fellowship during the kingdom age and even in eternity.
You are being prepared in this lifetime for something in eternity, and you can miss God’s best.
God has His best things for the few
Who dare to stand the test;
He has His second-best things
For those who will not have His best.
Our God loves all His children, but He has the best things for you. The answer to this question is: there is no alternative. Press on. Press on.
One more question concerns the process of sanctification. In Acts 20:32 and Acts 26:18, we see that our inheritance is conditional upon experiential sanctification. In Hebrews 12:14, we are exhorted to pursue sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord. Since we need to growingly and progressively see the Lord, what does this mean?
It is a very good question. The blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. But do not get tripped up on seeing, because not everybody here is a mystic.
Seeing the Lord is more comprehensive than somehow praying and seeing a face through some fog up in the lights. No. There is a seeing with the eyes of our heart. We see the Lord. We know when the Lord is there. We learn this in the Word of God.
As we obey in this process of sanctification—trust and obey, trust and obey—the more we trust and obey, the more we see Him, the more we know Him.
There are things at the beginning of our Christian life that we knew by faith, but now we know with a certainty borne out by obedience that has come to a further knowledge—what Paul calls full knowledge, experiential knowledge.
This matter of seeing brings the Christian to the place where he is not tossed up and down by every wind of doctrine. Why? Because he knows the Lord. He knows the Lord enough to know if something is extraneous or something is not the Lord.
This process of sanctification brings us into a clearer seeing of the Lord. It is a wonderful experience of sanctification where we are joined together cooperatively with the Lord.
The Lord does it all—the down payment, the full payment—yet there is a cooperation. We take, He undertakes. We take the first step by faith, and then He undertakes.
In every area of our sanctification, we start out saying, “I do not think I can do it.” And the Lord says, “Just take the step. Say, ‘Yes, Lord,’ if you really think it is Me, and then watch what I can do.”
Every morning there may be a little ice on the lake—a little ice on your heart. “Do I really want to open the Bible now? Pray? Wait until I feel like it?” Do not do that.
Say, “Lord, for Your sake, I do not feel very devotional this morning, but I will break the ice. I am willing, Lord. If I open my Bible, would You speak to me? I really need help and supply.”
Break that thin little film of resistance in our will, and the Lord gives us life.
The Lord has such a way of working sanctification in everybody’s life. Who can spell it out? It is impossible, because He is the ultimate tailor. He tailor-makes exactly what we need to bring us to where He wants us.
Every temperament has been stained with sin and flesh. The Lord has a process: we must decrease, He must increase. He takes unfinished servants like you and me and says, “Do this for Me.” Of course we are not worthy; of course we are not ready. Only the person who thinks he is ready discovers he is not ready.
The Lord uses our life. When we say, “I want to pursue a spiritual inheritance,” He may give us an impossible job. That is the way He gets gold out of us. He puts us in an impossible situation where we are absolutely done in, and then we say, “Lord, can I find You in this job?” And He shows Himself.
When circumstances get tough, that is often how we get to gold. When times are easy, there may be fool’s gold. It is when times are tough that we really gain something.
The times when our assemblies have come to a higher plateau have been through difficult times, where something was dying and a problem was besetting the whole company. We had nothing else to do but lay down our lives. Our prayer became more intense and sincere, and His mercy became more noticeable.
If we are in something easy, I do not know that we are gaining much ground. But if we are in something difficult and stay in there, perhaps the Lord is really gaining something.
The most difficult thing in the United States today is staying in a particular company of believers when there are twelve other alternatives in the same neighborhood. But we are built together when we realize, “Where else can I go, Lord? Where else can I go?”
We lay down our lives with brothers and sisters, and the Lord works this sanctifying process. Be faithful. Do you want to see the Lord? If you obey, if you allow Him to do these things, you will see the Lord.
At the deepest level, John wrote to the fathers:
Ye have known Him that is from the beginning.
That takes a walk before the Lord in sanctification. The Lord increases His own life, brings us through the cross and various dealings, and we need spiritual fathers—brothers and sisters who know Him Who is from the beginning.
I always consider this Monday question-and-answer session the apex, the high point of this conference. Those who left early have no idea what they are missing.
I just want to share a few words from my heart. I think the bottom line is to discover: do we have that true trust in Him and Him alone? That is the bottom line. We say we try, but are we really trusting wholly and completely?
If He is trustworthy, do we dare to entrust Him with all? That is the bottom line. “Take My yoke and follow Me.” That is the key, because He knows the way. He is the life. He is everything. If we hang on to Him and let Him be our all, then He is responsible if we are yoked with Him.
We all say we trust Him. How much do we really trust Him? How much do we dare to entrust all to Him? That is the challenge. If He can get hold of our whole choice, really entrusting Him, we have the assurance that He will take us all the way to the end.
That is the key to the whole thing: faith. Without faith, we cannot please Him. Trust and obey is the key. This week’s sharing may be above our heads, but it is real. As we trust Him, He will make what we have heard this week more real to us, more experiential to us.
First, we have to hear. We have to see. We have to believe. We entrust Him to work it out. Then He will do it all.
Father, we thank You for this conference, for speaking to our hearts. We pray that our trust will be real. We entrust You and trust You with all our future. We cast all upon You, knowing that what You have promised, You will truly fulfill.
To God be all the glory as we depart rejoicing, because we have met You in a new way. May Your presence be our satisfaction, and keep joining us to the fullness of Christ. You want fullness; we want fullness for Your people as well. In Christ’s precious name we pray. Amen.