Amen. Let’s open with a word of prayer.
Lord, we just come to You this morning. We want to have Your word go deep into our hearts. Lord, my prayer today is that You would remove the gravestone of unbelief; that, Lord Jesus, You would call us forth.
Fill us with Your life. Lord, strip from us the grave clothes that bind us. Set us free to follow Thee.
Lord, we are in need of You to open our eyes and our ears, because we have discovered, Lord, that our minds cannot comprehend the things of God. It takes the Spirit.
Lord, we pray that You would fill us with Your Spirit this morning, that You would anoint this time, and Lord, even my tongue, that I might share Your words appropriately. Lord, we just come. We ask You to really bless us with Yourself this morning, with Your presence. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, this morning, the title of my message—I was asked what the title was—is “Kingdom Life or Pig Life.” Kingdom life or pig life. You’ll understand what I mean by that as I go on this morning.
A few weeks ago, a few Wednesdays ago, Kenny shared a word with us on Wednesday night—a burden that the Lord had put in his heart about the need to focus on the kingdom. Some Scriptures were shared, and I need to share that again because, indeed, our hearts and lives need to be not only focused on the kingdom, but dedicated to live in the kingdom.
In Matthew 4:23, Jesus came preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom. In Matthew 6:10, when the Lord shared with His disciples how the church should pray, He said:
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In Matthew 6:33, He told His disciples, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”—not second, not third, not occasionally, not maybe, but seek ye first the kingdom of God.
In Matthew 9:35, it says Jesus went round about all the cities and villages, and in the synagogues preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom. You might think that He would be preaching salvation, but He preached the glad tidings of the kingdom, which included salvation.
Matthew 24:14 says the glad tidings of the kingdom will be preached in the whole habitable world for a witness to all the nations; then the end shall come. Oh, how it seems that the Lord is emphasizing the need to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom, to be a witness to all nations, and then the end shall come.
So the end has something to do with this matter of the kingdom. Revelation 11:15 gives this great announcement out of heaven:
The kingdom of the world of our Lord, and His Christ, has come.
And He shall reign from the ages to the ages.
Brothers and sisters, I agree with my brother so much. This matter of the kingdom is serious. This matter of the kingdom is obviously on the Lord’s heart. It is on God’s heart: the desire for a kingdom for our Lord Jesus Christ. Every tongue shall speak, “Jesus is Lord.” Every knee shall bow to Him. He will reign over all the kingdoms of the world.
The kingdom has very much to do with our life as Christians, brothers and sisters. We should be devoted to what the Lord Jesus is devoted to. We should have on our heart what the Lord Jesus has on His heart. It is obvious from these Scriptures, all the way through the Book, that the kingdom is in view, and that is greatly on His heart.
Now, I had the privilege of being able to watch the memorial service for Billy Graham. Something really caught my attention in that memorial service. It was something said by Anne Graham Lotz, Billy Graham’s daughter—the one connected with the book and song Just Give Me Jesus.
This is what she shared. She said, “You know, Moses freed a million people out of bondage in Egypt and took them to the promised land, but he was not able to take them into the promised land. It was Joshua who took them into the promised land.”
She said, “And Joshua means Jesus. My father had the privilege of leading millions from bondage, to deliver millions from bondage because of Jesus Christ. And now he is gone. It’s time for Jesus to come and lead us into the promised land.”
That is the kingdom she has in view. In other words, in her heart, there is something very imminent. She said, “Is this not a shot across the bow, that all of the church in America should be awakened to the soon-coming King?”
I couldn’t agree with her more, and I think it was a real prophetic word that she gave.
Anyway, brothers and sisters, it is true: the Lord Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Praise the Lord, He did that. But He came to seek and save the lost because they are going to become the subjects of His kingdom. We are to be brought into that kingdom.
We thank Him greatly for that salvation, but I think Colossians 1:13 makes it clearer: He has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness and put us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Colossians 1:13 does not emphasize salvation as much as it does that we have been delivered from darkness and put into a new kingdom—a kingdom not of this world, as our Lord Jesus said.
In Revelation 1:6, those precious Scriptures say that He has washed us from our sins in His blood and made us a kingdom, priests unto His God. In Revelation 3:21, speaking of the kingdom age, He says:
To him that overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me in My throne.
Brothers and sisters, I think we need to really grasp, particularly in the hour in which we live, that the kingdom is God’s purpose. It is our calling, and it is our destiny. Our focus, indeed, should be on the King and His kingdom.
Brothers and sisters, we are born again, born anew, born from above—but we are born into the kingdom. We are to learn to live in the kingdom. We are now being trained in kingdom life, and we are to become kings and priests, reigning and ruling with Christ during the thousand-year millennium, the kingdom age.
The next age is not eternity. The next stage is the kingdom age—a thousand years, called to reign and rule. But, brothers and sisters, to reign and rule in the kingdom means that we need to learn kingdom life.
Finally, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the church will be the bride of the King, sharing with Him in the kingdom of that day. Kingdom is very much on the Son’s heart right now. Oh, how we are today being trained in kingdom life.
Now, what I want us to grasp this morning is not only the dominance of the matter of the kingdom in Christ’s heart, but also, brothers and sisters, to realize that to live in the kingdom, to live the kingdom way, means we need kingdom life.
It is not the life that we are born with. It is a different life. It is not the natural life that controls us from our birth—our mind, will, and emotions. It animates our soul, but our natural life is not sufficient for the kingdom. It cannot live the kingdom life. In fact, it is powerless to live the kingdom life.
It is flawed at its core. It is infected with the sin nature. Brothers and sisters, we can tell the effectiveness of the sin nature because not only do we sin, but we find that we are very self-centered, don’t we? Not God-centered, but self-centered. Not kingdom-centered, but me-centered—my world.
The natural life, the life we are born with, once we accept Christ, we want to use it to try and live in the kingdom and live kingdom life. It cannot. No matter how much you dedicate that life, it will not be able to make it. It is flawed. It is doomed to failure, no matter how hard you try and perform and try to be a Christian with that natural life.
Brothers and sisters, we are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. We need to grasp that. We are not sinners because we sin, but we sin because, in our nature, we have that sin nature that we are born with.
The judgment of God is upon it, and the wrath of God is upon it. The only way to avoid that wrath is to get a new life—to have sin dealt with and a new life brought in. We do need a Savior because we are lost. We are hopeless to live in the kingdom of God.
So we need a Savior to save us from our sins and our self-centeredness. But we also need that new life. He calls it eternal life. Eternal life means more than living forever. The news is that all souls will go on forever, but the kingdom in which you will be is quite different.
Christians, those that know the Lord Jesus, will live in eternal life, in that new life, in the kingdom forever with Him. The souls that are raised without Christ will live in the kingdom they have been living in all along, the one controlled by Satan. Brothers and sisters, there is quite a difference between eternal life for the believer and eternity for the unbeliever.
In fact, in the Bible, when it speaks of eternal life, it is talking about the life that God gives to Christians—that eternal life. Well, what is kingdom life? We talk about kingdom life; what is it?
I read in Matthew 4:23 that Jesus went about proclaiming the glad tidings of the kingdom. Immediately following that, in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, we have the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord has chosen His disciples, brings them up to the mount, and begins to teach them.
What He is teaching them, brothers and sisters, is kingdom life. You might remember that the Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes. The Lord begins to explain to His disciples the life that He is looking for.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are the humble, for theirs is the kingdom.
Blessed are those who mourn and grieve about the condition in this world and the fact that God’s heart is not being met. They will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, or the teachable, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart—those with a single eye, those that are not double-minded—they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Brothers and sisters, the only peace that we can bring to this world is the peace that is of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness’ sake; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness—not persecuted because you did something wrong, but for righteousness’ sake. Then He goes on to share that we should be the salt of the earth.
Salt is for preserving life. Those who grew up in my age know what cured ham is, and it is cured with salt, not sugar. Cured with salt. Salt is a preservative; it preserves life. We are here to preserve the life of Christ and show it forth among the nations.
It also prevents corruption. Salt prevents corruption. Brothers and sisters, we are to be the salt of the earth. We cannot totally prevent corruption, but we can slow it down.
He goes on to say that we are the light of the world—not only light to shine forth and show the life of Christ, but brothers and sisters, light also exposes darkness. Where there is real light and real truth, it exposes the darkness in men’s souls.
I like a couple of Billy Graham’s opening words that so gripped me. He said:
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Is that not light coming to the world? And he said:
Be not deceived. Whatsoever you reap, that shall you sow.
Those are the two things I remember from his messages mostly. Light—we are to be light.
Then finally, He goes on to say that we need to be righteous—not an outward righteousness, a show of righteousness; not wearing a mask or performing or putting on a show for others. We are to have an inward life of righteousness.
Then He culminates with this:
Be ye perfect, as I am perfect.
Brothers and sisters, the key to understanding the Sermon on the Mount is that the emphasis is on being—what you are being—not on doing. He is showing us what kingdom life is and what it is like.
Now, some think that the Sermon on the Mount is a higher law. It is not. Nobody could fulfill the law that Moses received on the mountain. Can we expect to be able to perform and meet the higher law that we see in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount? We cannot attain to it.
But does it mean it is not valid? Of course not. It is showing us the life. It is showing us kingdom life. It is showing us what it looks like, what it is, and what it does. It shows us the life of the King. It is kingly life. It comes from my Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the life that we are called to live: the life of the King. Brothers and sisters, it is kingly life. Now you say, “How can I ever live kingly life?” You can, because when you receive Jesus Christ, that life comes into you.
If we will, in our daily lives, allow that kingly life to come out and to live, brothers and sisters, then the Sermon on the Mount will become true in your life. You will show forth kingly life. May our eyes be open. That is the prayer of my heart this morning: to see that it is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
There is no hope in that natural life you are born with. No matter how you want to follow Jesus and give yourself to it, it is going to be a failure until we learn and discover that Christ in us is the hope of glory, and we have been given that life.
It is futile to live by the natural life—the old man, as it is referred to—or by the power of that life, that old man in your soul that animates your soul. It is the life of your soul: the willpower, the reasoning of the mind, and the passion of the emotions. The old man cannot make it.
I know some very strong-willed people, but their will cannot get them through in the kingdom. Some have great minds, but I have seen great minds that are deceived, brothers and sisters. And the passion of emotion, when you are gripped by something and want to see it achieved—even that will eventually fail in disappointment.
The soul under the control of the old life is powerless. There is no hope of glory in the old life. I pray that we will give up on it. I pray we will give up on it and learn to trust the life of the King that is in you. There is kingdom life in you, but we have to learn to trust it.
Brothers and sisters, how to live that kingdom life brings us to the cross. We must be born again. That is the only way you can receive kingdom life: accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, as your substitute, as a sin-bearer for your sins, your sinfulness, who you are, and what you are.
He was the substitute who took the penalty for sin and this sin nature on the cross of Calvary. When you accept Him, He gives you His life inside, in the spirit, and you become a son of God.
But, brothers and sisters, He wants us to receive Him as more than a substitute for us on the cross. He wants us to receive Him as a substitute life—to substitute our natural life for His life now for us.
We have that life, but we also still have that sin nature in us, the life of the flesh, which will be with us until we go to glory. So there is that transformation that the Word of God speaks of. It says that God’s desire is to bring many sons to glory.
What does that mean, bringing many sons to glory? It means that you become conformed to His image. That kingdom life in you has a new nature, different from your old nature. The nature of Christ, the King, needs to grow and be cultivated in your life.
As it is, a transformation takes place, and it results in the character of the King in your life. The Lord Jesus encouraged us to daily deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him. This is how we are transformed. This is how we learn to live the kingdom life.
When that old man wants to control your life and rises up in your life, the best thing to say is, “I don’t know you anymore. The cross has crossed you out. I don’t recognize you. The only thing I recognize is Christ.”
I recognize Christ, and brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit in you will show forth Christ. Obey the anointing within, and you will be strengthened in that new life and that new nature. You will develop a new character in you.
It is the Spirit that wrestles against the flesh. You cannot wrestle against it; only the Spirit can. What we need to do is keep our eyes on Jesus. When trials and temptations come, keep your eyes on the King, and the kingly life will prevail.
Brothers and sisters, we need to see that the Christian life is not performing. I know that young people get hung up on this. They feel like, “Hey, they just want me to perform, to do the outward things.” But that is not true. We want you to learn to live by the inward life, the kingly life that you received when you received Jesus Christ.
You cannot improve your natural life. Outwardly it may look better, but you have really not improved it, because it still has that self-centered sin nature in it. It is flawed. You cannot reform it. It cannot be reformed.
That is why the Word of God says we have been crucified with Christ. God’s judgment came upon not only Christ, and our sins were taken away, but it came upon the old man, the old nature as well, and He has crossed it out. Now that has to be worked out in your life daily by denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him.
You know, this natural life is interesting. I call it the pig life.
Some of my cousins in Carolina were just poor farmers. They worked the land for the owner. They were allowed to live in an old rundown house on the property, and they had chickens and cows. Of course, they milked the cows, and they had pigs—hogs.
Yearly, they would do what they called the hog killing. I will not say a whole lot about that. I went to one; I never want to go to another one. But anyway, they would cut it up, put salt on it, hang it up in the shed, and cure it out. We also had barbecue, which was hard for me to eat after I saw how they got it.
That being said, it is interesting about pigs. Actually, they are pretty intelligent animals. But one thing they love is mud. When I went to their house, if you went to the pigpen, that is where they were—in the mud, particularly in the summertime. They just rolled in it. They lived in it. They loved the mud.
Now let me tell you about a pig. You can take it into the house, clean it up, and wash it. You can even put a ribbon around its neck. You can try to educate it. You can teach it tricks. It can come and go much like a dog, become a real pet. Some people have them for pets.
You can try to educate it. You can even read the Bible to it—I do not know how much it will understand, but anyway, it will listen to you. You can try to cultivate it, let it listen to Mozart, classical music.
But I tell you what: you take that pig out of the house and put him out in the yard, and the first thing he is going to do is run to that mud hole. Without a doubt, that is his first instinct. That is his nature. That is the nature of his life—to live in the mud. He will return to the mud.
That is our natural life, brothers and sisters. We can dress it up. We can educate it. We can refine it, try to reform it, cultivate it. But it is going to return to the mud. That is the nature of that life that we have. It is a sin nature.
The Christian life is not a changed life. It is not a reformed life. It is an exchanged life. We have said that many times around here. It is not that you are trying to reform that old life. You cannot. But we do need to learn to exchange it—the old life for the new. That is what Christianity is.
When we first accept Christ, we are full of joy. The weight of our sins has been rolled off. We fall in love with the One who offered Himself on Calvary’s cross on our behalf, that we might be set free. Brothers and sisters, this glorious thing—it is an amazing time for most.
That joy goes on for months, maybe a year or so. But that joy begins to turn to sorrow and even despair because your life is not becoming what you expect it to. No matter how much you love the Lord, you are falling all the time. You are turning back to the self-centered life and self-centered ways.
The old man seems to dominate rather than the kingly life. You become like Paul in Romans 7, and he discovers—and we all discover—that what we want to do, we cannot. Even worse, what we do not want to do, we find ourselves doing.
We are caught in this trap because we have a problem. The problem is that we are trying to reform the old life. We are trying to make it acceptable. It never will be acceptable. I can tell you that. I have lived for seventy-four years, and it has never changed.
Even after I accepted Christ, that old life never changed. Fundamentally, it is self-centered. It loves sin, and it desires to live for its own self. It is only the Christ-life of Christ in me, brothers and sisters, that brings me any hope, that brings me any joy.
Brothers and sisters, I have known people without Christ. They have become successful—large homes, big businesses, big salaries—but I have seen them in agony because their life does not have meaning.
Billy Graham said, “You can fill all the barns, but what are you going to do that night when God calls you to leave this earth?” Riches are deceiving.
The problem is that we are leaning on a hopeless life to try to live the kingdom life. Our end—coming to an end of ourselves, finally discovering that that old life will never, never change—is your new beginning.
You are beginning to learn to live the Christian life by the kingdom life that is in you. The Holy Spirit is working on you. He wants you to live by that kingdom life. May the Lord open our eyes this morning.
Christ is not only the door into the kingdom. He said, “I am the door. No man can enter except by Me.” But, brothers and sisters, He also said that He was the way, the truth, and the life.
Brothers and sisters, we are on a pathway to glory. He is that way. Not only that, He is the life that takes us that way to glory—many sons to be brought to glory. That is the Lord’s heart for us.
He wants not only to bring us into the kingdom, but to teach us to live in the kingdom. Brothers and sisters, when the Lord comes, if we have not learned to live by that kingdom life, it is going to be difficult because we are not used to it.
So may the Lord encourage us, and in the little time that we have left, to pursue the kingdom; to have it as our passion; to pursue the King Himself.
Now, I would like to end today by reading a couple of testimonies. This matter of union life—the life of the King, kingdom life—really came out, I guess it was in the 1600s, in the Keswick conventions. There was a great move of the Spirit, and people’s eyes were opened to see that it was Christ who was their life.
So I would like to read a few testimonies that I think may help us understand what I am trying to share this morning. One of the most famous, and maybe one of the best, is Hudson Taylor. It will take a few minutes, but bear with me. He is writing to his sister.
So many thanks for your long letter. I do not think you have written me such a letter since we have been in China. I know it is with you as with me: you cannot, not you will not. Mind and body will not bear more than a certain amount of strain, or do more than a certain amount of work.
As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, so difficult. But the weight and strain are gone. The last month or more has been perhaps the happiest of my life. I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul.
I do not know how far I am able to make myself intelligible, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful; yet all is new. In a word, whereas once I was blind, now I see.
Perhaps I can make myself more clear if I go back a little. My mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight months past, feeling the need personally, and for our mission, of more holiness, more life, more power in our souls. But personal need stood first and was the greatest.
I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living near to God. I prayed, I agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for retirement and meditation, but all was without effect.
Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if I could only abide in Christ, all would be well, but I could not. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my eyes from Him for a moment.
But the pressures and duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions, apt to be so wearying, often caused me to forget Him. Then one’s nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control.
Each day brought its register of sin and failure, lack of power. To will indeed was present with me, but how to perform I found not. Then the question: Is there no rescue? Must it be thus to the end? Constant conflict, and instead of victory, defeat?
How, too, could I preach with sincerity that to those who receive Jesus, to them gave He power to become sons of God, when it was not so—or godlike—when it was not so in my own experience? Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin.
And no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting low. I hated myself. I hated my sin, and yet I gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God. In spirit, my heart would cry, in spite of it all, “Abba, Father.” But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.
I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by diligent use of the means of grace. I felt there was nothing I so much desired in this world, or needed, than that. But so far from any measure of attaining it, the more I pursued it, the more I strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp.
Till hope itself almost died out, and I began to think that perhaps, to make heaven the sweeter, God would not give it down here. I do not think I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless, and I told the Lord so. I asked Him to give me help and strength.
Sometimes I almost believed He would keep and uphold me, but on looking back in the evening, alas, there was but sin and failure to confess. I would not give you the impression that this was a daily experience of those long months. It was a too-frequent state of my soul, that toward which I was tending, and which almost ended in despair.
And yet never did Christ seem more precious—a Savior who could and would save such a sinner. Sometimes there were seasons not only of peace, but of joy in the Lord; but they were transitory, and at best lacked power.
Oh, how good the Lord was in bringing this conflict to an end. All the time, I felt assured that there was in Christ all that I needed, but the practical question was how to get it. He was rich, truly; I was poor. He was strong, but I was weak.
I knew full well that there was a root, the stem, abundant fatness; but how to get it into my puny branch was the question. As gradually the light dawned on me, I saw that faith was the only prerequisite, was the hand to lay hold of His fullness and make it my own.
But I had not this faith. I strove for it, but it would not come. I tried to exercise faith, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of my precious Savior, my helplessness and guilt increased.
Sins committed appeared to be as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief, which was their cause—which could not nor would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar. Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it.
I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do? When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy, a fellow worker in Hang Chow, was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before.
McCarthy, who had been much exercised in the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did—and I quote from memory—“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. As I read, I saw it all. If we believe not, He abides faithful. I looked to Jesus and saw, and when I saw, oh, how the joy flowed—that He had said, “I will never leave you.”
Ah, there is rest, I thought. I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I strive no more, for has He not promised to abide with me and never to leave me, never to fail me? And He never will.
But this was not all; He showed me, nor half of it. As I thought of the vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured into my soul. How great seemed my mistake in having wished to just get the sap, the fullness, out of Him.
I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but I was a member of His body, of His flesh and bones. The vine, now I see, is not the root merely, but everything—root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, and fruit.
Jesus is not only that; He is the soil, the sunshine, the air, and the showers, and ten thousand times more than I ever dreamed or wished for. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth.
I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ. Oh, my dear sister, it is a wonderful thing to be one with the risen and exalted Savior, to be a member of Christ.
Oh, how rich, and I was poor. Can your right hand be rich and the left poor, or your head be well while your body starves?
The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this, for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is my will.
It makes no matter where He places me or how. That is rather for Him to consider than me. For in the easiest positions, He must give me His grace; and in the most difficult places, His grace is sufficient.
It matters little to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things or the most expensive articles. In either case, he looks to me for the money and brings me the purchase. So if God placed me in great perplexity, must He not give me much guidance? In positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great trial, much strength.
No fear that His resources will be unequal to the emergency. His resources are mine, for He is mine, and He is with me and dwells in me.
I am no better than before. May I not say, in a sense, I do not wish to be, nor am I striving to be; but I am dead and buried with Christ, and risen too, and ascended. Now Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.
My whole heart this morning is that we will see the greatness of what Christ has done—not only in saving us from our sins, but in giving us His very life, that He wants us to learn to live by, that His kingdom might come.
Brothers and sisters, the King is getting ready to come back. But are we ready? Have we really been trained in the kingdom life? May our hearts be turned toward this matter and issue of the King and His kingdom, because it is of primary importance to our Lord.
Lord, we just come to You today thankful. Lord Jesus, Your grace is so amazing. Lord, how You have made every provision for us. Lord, You did not leave us on our own to make it. You have given us Your life.
Lord, it is my heart and desire that we would see it with our eyes—to see the greatness of Your life that is in us—and, Lord, learn and be trained in living that life. Take up our cross daily and follow You.
Lord, we look to You. As our brother said in this testimony, Hudson Taylor: “I had not faith, but I had the Faithful One.” In Jesus’ name, amen.