Oh, the sun caught me right in the eye. Good morning. Good to see all of you, both here and on Zoom.
We will continue with our series on Bringing Many Sons to Glory. In more than one way, I feel like this is the strongest part of my burden—this message number three. So, I would like to ask you to pay particular attention. I think it is the heart of the burden the Lord laid on my heart at the end of last year and during the first several months of this year.
If you turn with me, I will read some verses. Our theme verse comes from Hebrews 2.
For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons to glory,
to make perfect the Leader of their salvation through sufferings.
— Hebrews 2:10
That one phrase in that one verse—“bringing many sons to glory”—was the origin of this burden.
Now, I would like to read Hebrews 5:12-14. Understand what the apostle—the writer; I will refrain. You know, I call him the anonymous, anointed writer of Hebrews—says:
For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God;
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.
For every one that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a babe.
But solid food is for fullgrown men,
even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
— Hebrews 5:12-14
Now, I want you to notice that phrase: “Solid food belongs to full-grown men.”
Then Hebrews 6:1—the first part of the verse:
Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection.
— Hebrews 6:1
My version has a parenthetical phrase, “to what belongs to full growth,” but I think it reads more clearly without it. That was not in the original, by the way. It simply says, “Let us go on to full growth.” That was the burden of the anonymous, anointed writer of Hebrews.
Then, in Hebrews 12:5-11—verses that I know you love and are familiar with:
And ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons,
My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
Nor faint when thou art reproved of Him;
For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons;
for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we gave them reverence:
shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed good to them;
but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous;
yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
— Hebrews 12:5-11
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so grateful for Your Word. Your words come alive to us by the Holy Spirit speaking. We tell You that we need You to help us today to hear—to hear with that inner ear—for our heart to be open to receive Your words of life.
Your words are spirit and life, and there is no one else we can turn to when we open this Book but to You and say once again, “Lord, would You breathe upon Your Word? Would You make it alive? Would You make it real—not some abstract thing that we hardly understand or hardly can take in, but something that will come into our heart and change us from inside out?”
For we ask this together in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, the burden, I have made clear already, is bringing many sons to glory. It comes from that one verse in Hebrews 2:10, from that one phrase.
I think I have told you before of the impact at the end of last year, when I asked the Lord what was on His heart. That phrase hit me with such force one day. It was like the Holy Spirit spoke to me directly and just whispered, “Bringing many sons to glory.”
This is God’s determined end for man. We have been looking at this in a progressive way, and we will continue further into that progression today.
Remember the first message. I am not going to do a long review. We talked about the privilege of sonship—what a privilege it is. We talked about the ultimate privilege. Can you imagine? The only Son, who had all the rights; we had no rights. Yet, in God’s mercy, He extends this ultimate privilege to us: to be sons with the Son for all eternity. There cannot be a more ultimate privilege.
We talked about the exclusive privilege. This was exclusively His. He was the Son of God’s love. He called Him His darling in Proverbs. When He appeared on the earth, He could not restrain Himself: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight.”
It was His exclusive privilege. But think about it: that was extended to you. The most exclusive privilege—the fellowship of only the Father, only the Son, and only the Holy Spirit—yet, in God’s great divine mercy, He extended that most exclusive fellowship to include you and to include me. This is the privilege of sonship.
Then we talked about it being the greatest and highest purpose. In Romans 8, it talks about how He is conforming us to His image, how He is making us sons, that He would be the Firstborn among many brethren. Can you imagine a higher purpose than that? There is not one.
Then we looked at how sons begin. I used that word, parturition of sons. It means the birth of sons. Nobody can begin to be a son unless they are born again. We talked about the necessity of new birth. It is not an option.
Many who are playing with religion do not know what it means to be born again. Unless you are born again, as the Lord said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” you cannot be a son. God purposely chose this best of Israel’s sons to show the deep need of every person.
We also saw the response of sons. Remember the Son of sons, the Lord Jesus? When He was in the garden of Gethsemane, He cried out in His darkest hour, “Abba, Father.” Then, in Romans and Galatians, it says that our response is to be exactly the same as the one and only Son’s response: “Abba, Father.”
He puts the Spirit of adoption in our hearts, and our response is to cry out, “Abba, Father.” How precious that is. That is how you know you are a son.
Finally, we looked at the condition of sons. When we are born again, we are babes; we are infants. The Word of God in Greek is very specific and uses multiple words to describe that, shall we say in love, selfish and self-centered condition of children—utterly consumed with themselves.
That is the condition of newborn sons, but it is not the end of sons. We are to grow up. That is why this writer of Hebrews said we are to press on to full stature, to grow up to full maturity.
We are to be transformed from infant babes—truly the Lord’s, born again, full of joy—but there is to be more than that. In the end, it is God’s intention that they would be sons.
Today, we are going to look at the preparation of sons. That is a very important thing.
Brothers and sisters, your whole life on earth is for this singular purpose. All that you have been left here for is to be prepared and to be made sons—to be transformed from newborn babes and little children, as John the apostle described them, into mature and grown sons who can take up the Father’s business and take up responsibility.
Our whole life can be described by this one phrase: the preparation of sons.
As a matter of fact, I think the whole Bible can be put in this context. Look at Job, surely the oldest example. Every circumstance he went through, every hardship, every crisis, was for that work of preparation.
Look at Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David—you could go on and on. All of it was for preparing them to be sons.
Then, in the New Testament, look at Peter—one of my favorite subjects. We so identify with Peter. The Lord called him twice. The first call was, “Come, follow Me.” And the phrase many people do not repeat is, “I will make you fishers of men.”
That is the key. He wanted to take this man, with all of his problems and all of his issues, and convert him, mold him, fashion him, conform him, and make him into a mature son. That was Peter’s life.
You think Peter was just picked on in the Bible, exposed, and treated harshly? The rest of them were quiet all the time; they never said anything, but Peter always spoke up. And when he did, the Lord did not hold back.
At the end of his journey, discouraged and despondent, having denied the Lord, cursed, and said, “I have nothing to do with Him,” the Lord turned to him again. At that seaside, He said, “Peter, come. Follow Me.”
Do you know what is left out? That phrase, “I will make you.” Because his whole life, his whole journey, was explained by the making of a son.
To me, this is the deep burden that is on my heart.
The writer of Hebrews—through Hebrews 2, Hebrews 5, Hebrews 6, and Hebrews 12—seems wholly caught up with this maturing of sons, this growing up. In Hebrews 2:10, it is bringing many sons to glory. In Hebrews 5:14, he rebukes them because they cannot take solid food, though they should have been teachers. They were babes.
In Hebrews 6:1, there is that most potent phrase right in the middle of the book: “Unto full growth.” It explains the entire burden of this anointed, anonymous writer of Hebrews. Then, in Hebrews 12, we have that great chapter on discipline. We all know what He is doing: He is making us.
Now, to understand this burden, I have a phrase for you. You may not like it, but it helps me:
Children are born, but sons are made.
There is a difference. Many of you know I am a football fan—no longer a very good one. Some in this room will stand up and rejoice to know that my Redskins tickets are forever gone, and so are the Redskins.
But the famous coach Vince Lombardi said a very important thing: “Leaders are made; they are not born.”
If you understand this one principle, you understand life’s journey. If you miss this one principle, you will be floundering in your Christian life. You will be lost as a rudderless ship, without purpose and without a goal.
This is the goal for all the children of God: the making process, the preparation of sons.
I happen to be very fond of Jeremiah 18—the potter’s house. I think it explains so much.
In the darkest night for the nation of Israel, God told the weeping prophet, “Go down to the potter’s house.” He went down to the potter’s house, and there he saw the potter and a work that was on the wheel. He was making a work on the wheel, the Word of God says.
That work marred in his hands; that clay marred and failed in his own hands. But He did not give up. He took that marred clay, that failed vessel, and He made it again—made it again—into a vessel that He wanted.
Brothers and sisters, He said to the prophet, “This is Israel.” It was the whole explanation of Israel: “I have been making them, and they failed. They marred in My hand.”
This is also the whole explanation for Christians. We may mar in His hands. We may fail in His hands. But thank God, in His mercy, He will never give up. He will make us again.
He will take that failed project and make it into something wonderful for His sake.
One person understood this, and it is the reason we sang together that song, “Have Thine Own Way, Lord.” How many times have we sung that beautiful hymn? I can hardly sing it without weeping.
The dear sister who wrote that hymn was Adelaide Ann Pollard, a sister of broken dreams. All she wanted was to be a missionary to Africa. It was her goal, yet she was never able to raise the money.
Disappointed and distraught, she went to a prayer meeting. It is a good thing to do when you are disappointed and distraught: go to a prayer meeting. The Lord may speak to you in a prayer meeting.
When she was at this meeting, a lady who did not know her or her story prayed this simple prayer: “It is all right, Lord. It does not matter what You do with us. Just have Your own way in our lives.”
Sister Pollard went home a changed woman. She opened the Bible to Jeremiah 18 and read the story of the great divine Potter. She knew with living revelation that God was making her.
He denies some things. He allows some things. He continues to work, shaping, molding, and forming us. Before she went to bed that night, she had written all four stanzas of that beloved hymn that we know so well and should sing often.
Praise the Lord. I think it is a beautiful hymn:
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.
Pardon me—the hymnist caught me. “Yielded and still.” She understood what life was about. Do you understand what life is about?
Have you given yourself to the Lord Jesus, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, to perform this making process in you? Each day we should start with that prayer. We should say, “Lord, this is a fresh start. This is a new beginning. This is a new opportunity. I give myself to You. Make me what You want. Do not allow me to be what I want.”
This is the deep thought that is in my heart. If I cannot express it, I certainly feel it.
There are many things we could speak of in this making process. Ten brothers could come up here with ten different things. I would like to speak about four, because I think that in these four we get an overall understanding of how we are changed from infants and immature children into mature sons and daughters.
The first thing is to endure child training. We have already read that verse.
We do not like that section of Scripture so much. People read right over it; they read past it. But the Lord only disciplines those He loves. How wonderful is this?
It tells us that we cannot be a son unless we go through His child training. I am so glad it says “child training.” I think that is better than discipline. He is training us. He is making us. He is molding us. He is forming us.
That is the whole explanation. Hebrews gets to that point when he almost closes the book, and he says, “This is the point I want you Hebrew believers to grasp and lay hold of: you are in the middle of child training.”
Child training is vitally connected to sonship. You cannot read these verses without noticing the repetition of the word son.
“Have ye quite forgotten the exhortation which speaketh to you as sons?” Hebrews is a book of exhortation. Then: “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord.” “For whom He loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
Listen to this wonderful phrase: “God conducts Himself toward us as toward sons.” Is that not marvelous?
Some people have a wrong impression of God. They believe He is beating them up, putting them through difficulty, and they live in fear. Remember the one who had the single talent and buried it in a handkerchief and put it in the ground? When he was asked for an explanation by the master, he said, “You are a hard man.”
But if you read the Word of God, it is absolutely clear: all of His discipline is in love. Every single stroke is in love. Is that not wonderful?
I can tell you my father and mother did not always discipline me in love. But our heavenly Father always disciplines us in love.
I had a secret when I was young. I figured that the more I yelled and screamed like I was dying, the less I would get hit by the belt. Now I can say that; my father has passed. No one will lock him up for child abuse. But he did not spare the rod and spoil the child. And we reverenced them, it says. We reverenced them.
Child training is an absolute essential to being made a son. Often, we do not allow Him to train us as children. We buck His training. We refuse His training. We ignore His training. Then we become that spoiled child instead of that mature son.
This is so beautiful: God conducts Himself toward you as toward sons. God is making sons. It requires child training, and everything is done in love.
This shaping process, this molding process, is all done in love. It is all done for our good. It is all for our preparation, that we might be among those many sons He is bringing to glory.
The writer of Hebrews paints a startling picture of those who receive this child training and those who refuse it. He says those who are without it are “bastards and not sons.” Now, if you think I am cussing, please forgive me, number one; but number two, notice that it is in the Bible.
What does it mean to be a bastard? It is an illegitimate child. Hebrews 12:8 says:
But if ye are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers,
then are ye bastards, and not sons.
— Hebrews 12:8
There are no exceptions. Think of the consequences. Barnes, in his Notes on the Bible, described this as an illegitimate child, usually abandoned by his father—one whom he neither provides for, instructs, nor governs. What a condition.
Is that our condition? Have we pushed away the chastening of the Lord so completely that we have become that people? What a consequence.
The world thinks little of discipline. In our modern thinking, we do not even like to talk about discipline. We would rather set someone in a corner and have a quiet time. Well, that is just for them to think up more mischief in their quiet time, I think.
Brothers and sisters, thank God we have a loving Father who knows how to train us and is unwilling to let us remain in our condition of immaturity. His entire goal is bringing many sons to glory, making them in His image, and revealing and manifesting in them His character and His life.
Another important thing about child training is that word afterward. Are you not glad child training does not last forever? If you are beating your thirty-year-old—and I am not recommending beating, by the way; I do not want to get locked up—if you were taking the rod to your thirty-year-old son, I think something is wrong.
Afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness, and we become partakers of His holiness. It has an effect. It produces in us, after that short period, something of Christ’s own character. When He looks at us, He sees Himself.
That is the preparation of sons. What is your choice: bastards or sons? Will you give yourself, for the rest of your days, to be made a son?
The second thing, which I think is equally important, is that we must be led by the Holy Spirit.
Paul makes this very clear in Romans 8:14:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God,
these are sons of God.
— Romans 8:14
I think the emphasis in the Greek is there: these are the sons of God. Those who are led by the Spirit of God—these are the sons of God.
Not only do we need child training, but we need to be led by the Spirit of God. Without the leading of the Holy Spirit, you will never become that mature son.
Romans 8:15 says:
For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear;
but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
— Romans 8:15
Brothers and sisters, this “Spirit of adoption” is literally translated sonship. We have received sonship, whereby we have that response: “Abba, Father.”
Then Romans 8:17:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with Him,
that we may be also glorified with Him.
— Romans 8:17
Here is the whole scope. We are made heirs, and in the mercy of God we become joint-heirs with Christ. I think that is incredible. It was all His. Should He dare share it with you and me? Yet the beauty of the Bible is that He will share it all with you and me—sons and daughters of the Most High.
There is suffering in this training. All who live a godly life shall suffer. But out of the suffering comes the last word, the last phrase: we come to glory. None of it is wasted. All of it does its purpose.
Think of this indwelling Spirit in our human spirit, making us His sons. Galatians 4:5-7 says that the Lord came, born of woman, born under the law, that we might receive sonship. That was the reason He came.
It goes further: “God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” All of this is to guarantee that we become sons.
Can you imagine God the Spirit in human vessels? We think it is a great miracle—and it was indeed—when Christ was born of woman, God with us, Emmanuel. But it seems to me an incomprehensible miracle that He put the indwelling Spirit of His Son in our hearts to make us sons.
It is almost unimaginable. It is even a greater miracle, if I can say that without being stoned. I understand the Lord being made the Son of Man, that He might bear the sin of the whole world. But I can hardly take in that, in God’s great thought, He takes the Spirit of His Son and puts that same Spirit in our hearts that He might transform us into sons.
What could be more marvelous than the indwelling Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit’s single and sole responsibility to take you in your immature condition and make you into that mature son. It is not your work, brothers and sisters. All you need to do is cooperate.
If you allow this Holy Spirit, this indwelling Spirit, this priceless and unspeakable free gift that dwells in our hearts and has taken up residence in our being, He will surely transform us into those sons.
What a glorious day when He said, “He will be with you,” and, in John 14, “He will be in you.” How marvelous.
It is too good to be true. It is unimaginable mercy, to think that God the Holy Spirit would come and take up permanent residence in you and in me for the purpose of making us sons. Yet it is wholly true.
Many believers, including myself, are confused about the work of the Holy Spirit. Many people do not understand the full work of the Holy Spirit. There are three things that I think could help you understand it. They help me, and I am more simple than most.
First, there is the baptism of the Spirit. We all know that phrase. It occurs particularly in Acts 2, at Pentecost, and Acts 10, in Cornelius’s home. That is when the church is born.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is for the birth of the church. First Corinthians 12:13 gives the divine explanation:
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free;
and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
— 1 Corinthians 12:13
The Jews in Acts 2, and the Greeks, Romans, and Gentiles in Acts 10, were united together in one assembly for the birth of the church. We are born into the body of Christ.
The second phrase that appears often in the book of Acts is the filling of the Spirit. Those who were baptized were filled again and again. It was not just once.
I will never forget the light that came to me years ago as a young believer who came to the Lord in the charismatic movement, where the baptism of the Holy Spirit was everything. A brother explained it like this: one baptism, many fillings.
The filling of the Holy Spirit happens again and again for service. We cannot serve the Lord without being filled with the Spirit. Even those who served tables were described as being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Surely, in all our service, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to be filled, and you need to be filled again, to be led by the Holy Spirit.
Finally, there is the indwelling Spirit, of which we are chiefly speaking. This is how we are made sons. May the Lord bring us into a deep understanding of the work of the indwelling Spirit.
There are a few things you can do so that you are sure you are led by the Spirit. One is that we must learn to hear the still, small voice.
The most important thing for a son is to have a hearing ear. In Revelation, in each letter to the seven churches, the Lord says:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
— Revelation 2:7
Remember the story in 1 Kings 19 about Elijah the prophet? He was so afraid of Jezebel that he went and hid in a cave—that mighty prophet.
The Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
Then there was the still, small voice. If you want to be led by the Holy Spirit, develop keen hearing. That is the secret.
The second thing is that you must follow the anointing. John, particularly in 1 John, talks about the anointing, or the unction, depending on which version you like.
He says we have this teacher resident within us—this anointing, this unction. You need to listen to the teacher. Children, how many times have you been told, “You need to listen to the teacher”? All of us have been told that.
If you do not listen, you will be taught many things that are error, you will slip into darkness, and you will never come out of immaturity.
This is like a divine GPS. You have a divine GPS. You have the resident expert in you. You have this indwelling Holy Spirit, Teacher abiding in you, and He will teach you all things. The Lord said He will bring everything to your remembrance that He said.
The third thing is so important: do not grieve the Holy Spirit.
I cannot tell you how many times I have grieved the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit goes silent. He is the divine Gentleman. He will not fight you. He will not force you.
When you realize the fellowship is broken, all you have to do is realize that you have grieved the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, believe it or not, will return to the one who grieved Him—to be his abiding Teacher and Instructor, to make him a son.
It is like a divine alarm system. It goes off. You know what happened: “All of a sudden I was in fellowship, and now I do not sense anything of the Lord’s presence.” He is there for that purpose.
Do you hear the still, small voice? If you do, you are led by the Spirit. Do you know the instructions of the divine Teacher daily? “Go this way. Go that way. Do not go this way. Do not go that way. You said that, but you should not have said it. You said it in the wrong spirit.”
Do you know the divine Teacher? Are you spiritually sensitive, or do you grieve the Holy Spirit? This is the difference between those who are led by the Spirit and those who are not.
Two other things I will spend a brief amount of time on. The first is: take up your cross.
You cannot become a son unless you take up your cross. Remember Matthew 16, that great revelation of Peter: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord said, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven.” He said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona.”
Afterward, He gave an essential instruction: those who are going to be My disciples must take up their cross and follow Me. You cannot be a disciple without taking up the cross. You cannot be a son without taking up the cross.
He who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for My name’s sake shall find it unto life eternal.
When I was saved, having never had religious training as a child, I remember reading those verses, and they meant something to me. I said, “Lord, this is the secret. Oh, that I would lose my life for Your sake, to gain my life—life eternal.”
How we need, if we are going to be made sons, to take up our cross and follow Him.
Many of us, as with the Holy Spirit, do not understand the complete work of the cross. We often think immediately, “That is where He died for me.” And that is true.
Hebrews 2:10 says that by the grace of God, He tasted death for every man, so that they could be made sons. That is one aspect of the cross: His own suffering, His vicarious suffering. You have no part in those sufferings, but by those sufferings you were saved from death.
Then there is another aspect. I did not learn this until I read The Normal Christian Life. I am so thankful for Brother Nee. It changed Jerry’s life and mine as we were working together at the City of Richmond, fellowshipping over The Normal Christian Life and the Bible.
Romans 6 says that our old man, Adam, is crucified with Christ. This saves us from the power of sin. We are raised in newness of life that we may no longer serve sin. We are no longer under the power and dominance of sin.
Then we have the third aspect of the cross, which is so important. This is what the Lord spoke to His disciples about in Matthew 16: being saved from self.
The one who loses his life loses his soul life—mind, will, and emotions coming under the dominion of the Holy Spirit and expressing a new life that is not controlled by self.
Brother Kong helped me so much with this as a young, struggling believer. I went to him one time and said, “Brother Kong, I do not like the way I am. I am too emotional.”
Brother Kong said, “That is your personality. God never destroys your personality. God wants to bring your personality under the control and dominion of the Holy Spirit.”
Do not ever think God destroys all our personalities and makes you like me. You are probably saying, “God forbid.” Or me like you—and, believe it or not, I might be saying, “God forbid.”
He who loses his soul life—mind, will, and emotions under the dominion of the Holy Spirit—is taking up his cross and following Him.
The last thought is growing in grace.
In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter’s final words—his last words—were:
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
To Him be the glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen.
— 2 Peter 3:18
Peter—that man who was made into a son—his last words were, “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
This is what I want to embed in your memory: every grace has been provided to us that we may be made sons. Every grace.
There is not one thing lacking. Everything has been given to us so that we can grow to be full-grown, mature sons.
This is my own quote. You may not like it, but if you like it, write it down:
If we fall short of the grace of God, it is not that sufficient grace was not provided, but that provided grace was not taken.
Do you understand? Every grace has been made available to you.
Acts 4:33 speaks of great grace being upon the early church. Ephesians 1:7 speaks of the riches of His grace. Ephesians 2:7 says that in the coming ages He will display in us the surpassing riches of His grace.
The apostle sought for superlatives to describe the grace poured out on him. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, when Paul was given the thorn in the flesh and sought the Lord three times to remove it, the Word that came to him—and the Word that is for us—was:
My grace is sufficient for thee.
— 2 Corinthians 12:9
Every grace has been made available. You do not have to fear that it is impossible for you to be made a son, because unspeakable grace, riches of grace, surpassing grace, all-sufficient grace, and great grace have all been provided that you may be made a son.
This is the preparation of sons. This is the real burden the Lord laid upon my heart.
Newborns and children are born, but sons are made. Everything is provided that you would be made a son—to make the seemingly impossible thing possible.
There is a loving Father devoted to child training; the indwelling Holy Spirit, so that we may be led by the Spirit all the time; a complete work of the cross, that we might not just be delivered from death, but delivered from the Adamic nature and no longer under the control of sin; and grace abundant and all-sufficient.
This is what it means: bringing many sons to glory.
In the time in which we live, this is the task God is performing. This is the work He is doing. The end will surely be completed, just as the work will be completed.
Brothers and sisters, let us give ourselves to Him in a new way and say, “Lord, make me. Forgive me for fighting so long. You have given me a new opportunity—more time, more days—not to be my own man or my own woman, not to live my own life or pursue my own career. You have given me more days to be made a son.”
That is what He is after.
Lord, we bow before the King of kings and the Lord of lords. That You would include us in this is unimaginable mercy, yet altogether true.
We give ourselves to You. We say, like dearest Sister Pollard:
Have Thine own way.
Thou art the Potter; I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
while I am waiting, patient and still.
Have Thine own way. Make us into those sons and daughters who are after Your image. Use this short span called life to do that eternal work, so that we are made in Your image and surely experience all the glories that follow.
In Your precious name, amen.