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It is important to distinguish life and the Spirit, because when the Savior is received there is the reception of life and the Spirit at the same moment, yet we must bear in mind that the two are quite different (it’s not the life of the Spirit but of Christ via the Spirit – Col 3:4, which is the new nature which the Spirit “created” after Christ – Col 3:10—NC).
The new life that the believer receives in the Lord Jesus is not God, though of God; but the Holy Spirit is God. The believer’s life (in the new nature—NC) is a new creation, while the Holy Spirit is the Creator (Jhn 3:6). It is not because we have new life that our bodies are made the temple of God, but because the Holy Spirit dwells therein (1Co 3:16; 2Co 6:16).
Hence, when Christians do not properly distinguish this, it is very possible to use that life as a thing to comfort oneself with and set us at ease, leading us to say, I know that I have life and am saved; and practically all spiritual exercises cease there. How often souls settle down to rest in the satisfaction that they know life, or exercise that life only in the desire to win souls!
But, blessed as this zeal is, it is a very inferior thing to loving the Lord Jesus in a personal way, as love to Him is an inferior thing to the enjoyment of His love to us. The great thing that my Father calls upon me for is to admire and delight in and learn more and more of the love of the Lore Jesus. What is the effect? Love to Him is produced in the very same ratio that I know His love to me. What is it that judges the old man and keeps it down in the place of death and raises a person above all the groveling ways and ends? Entrance into the blessedness of His love!
Being filled with the sense of His love, we love souls in a different way, because we see them in His light, and view them out of His affections. This is the secret of spiritual power, at least in its higher forms. Take any suffering we undergo for the Lord Jesus’ sake, and work undertaken for Him—whatever the Father calls us to—in all these things, the true blessing of the believer is not to abstract them from the Lord Jesus, but to have Himself as the spring and pattern and measure of all our service, so that it may flow from our enjoyment of a fellowship with Himself (“The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ, or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is it Christ giving us the power to live a life like His; but it is Christ Himself living His own life through us; 'no longer I, but Christ.” – MJS).
In one way, worship is a nearer thing to the Father, and ought to be a dearer thing to the child of God than even service; whereas it is no common thing to find zealous servants who know very little of worship and fellowship. I say this, not that we should serve Him less, but that we should enjoy Him more, and serve Him in the spirit of enjoying what He is and what we are in Him in the presence of the Father, apart from all circumstances. What is the basis of this measure of enjoyment? It is the absolute peace and rest of our heart in His love and our fellowship with Himself.
- Wm Kelly
Excerpt from MJS devotional for Jan. 29:
“It is essential for the believer to see that his old nature has been completely rejected by God at Calvary, and that as a “new creation” he is fully and eternally accepted in the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, self will continually seek to be something for God, to please Him, to merit His approbation.” – MJS
None But The Hungry Heart
The new life that the believer receives in the Lord Jesus is not God, though of God; but the Holy Spirit is God. The believer’s life (in the new nature—NC) is a new creation, while the Holy Spirit is the Creator (Jhn 3:6). It is not because we have new life that our bodies are made the temple of God, but because the Holy Spirit dwells therein (1Co 3:16; 2Co 6:16).
Hence, when Christians do not properly distinguish this, it is very possible to use that life as a thing to comfort oneself with and set us at ease, leading us to say, I know that I have life and am saved; and practically all spiritual exercises cease there. How often souls settle down to rest in the satisfaction that they know life, or exercise that life only in the desire to win souls!
But, blessed as this zeal is, it is a very inferior thing to loving the Lord Jesus in a personal way, as love to Him is an inferior thing to the enjoyment of His love to us. The great thing that my Father calls upon me for is to admire and delight in and learn more and more of the love of the Lore Jesus. What is the effect? Love to Him is produced in the very same ratio that I know His love to me. What is it that judges the old man and keeps it down in the place of death and raises a person above all the groveling ways and ends? Entrance into the blessedness of His love!
Being filled with the sense of His love, we love souls in a different way, because we see them in His light, and view them out of His affections. This is the secret of spiritual power, at least in its higher forms. Take any suffering we undergo for the Lord Jesus’ sake, and work undertaken for Him—whatever the Father calls us to—in all these things, the true blessing of the believer is not to abstract them from the Lord Jesus, but to have Himself as the spring and pattern and measure of all our service, so that it may flow from our enjoyment of a fellowship with Himself (“The Christian life is not our living a life like Christ, or our trying to be Christ-like, nor is it Christ giving us the power to live a life like His; but it is Christ Himself living His own life through us; 'no longer I, but Christ.” – MJS).
In one way, worship is a nearer thing to the Father, and ought to be a dearer thing to the child of God than even service; whereas it is no common thing to find zealous servants who know very little of worship and fellowship. I say this, not that we should serve Him less, but that we should enjoy Him more, and serve Him in the spirit of enjoying what He is and what we are in Him in the presence of the Father, apart from all circumstances. What is the basis of this measure of enjoyment? It is the absolute peace and rest of our heart in His love and our fellowship with Himself.
- Wm Kelly
Excerpt from MJS devotional for Jan. 29:
“It is essential for the believer to see that his old nature has been completely rejected by God at Calvary, and that as a “new creation” he is fully and eternally accepted in the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, self will continually seek to be something for God, to please Him, to merit His approbation.” – MJS
None But The Hungry Heart
