But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (Joh 1:12-13 KJ2000)
“So I say to you, that t
he fundamental thing is always the Presence of the Lord. It is not any one of the thousand things that make up Christianity. The ultimate criterion is, ‘Is the Lord there?’ and ‘Is the Lord in all things there?’ ‘Is the Lord in what they do?’ and ‘Is the Lord in how they do it?’ Because with the Lord how things are done is as important as doing the things. Is the Lord in the people individually there? And are their lives marked by this supreme thing? THE LORD IN THEM.
“I have no doubt that you love the Lord. I am not raising any question about that. But, I do say again, we are involved in a great system which is a very complicated thing, and a great deal of it is not of the Lord. It is something that man has brought in. Man has put his hand upon the things of the Lord, and man has made things according to his own mind, and therefore a great deal has come in which is of man and not of the Lord. And when we say that, we are not only thinking of Christianity in general, we are thinking of ourselves. This is true of ourselves. We have all come into something called Christianity, and we have all taken on something of Christianity, and there may be a great deal that we have to get rid of, and come back to the simple fundamental reality. And the fundamental reality of all realities is THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. We have got to know that the Lord is with us, and that the Lord is with us in all that we do, that this did not originate in our mind. It did not originate in our will, it did not originate in our emotion. It did not come from our soul, this thing has come from the Lord in every detail like the tabernacle. Just like Jesus Christ, in every detail it has to come to us from God.” ~ T. Austin Sparks 1964
A Wilderness Voice 
Hi Michael
Thank you! I have learned a lot from Mr Austin-Sparks. Have you ever read the works of Mr James Fowler. His website is called “Christ in You”! He has written a few books that can be downloaded for free and there is one that I think you might find very good , ” Christianity is not a Religion”.
You know, Michael, the basics of God …. Father, love, grace, forgiveness, life, love … is drowning in a sea of systemized religion and it makes me sad!
Much love, dear friend XX
Mia
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Mia,
Yes, I have read James Fowler in the past but it has been a while. Thanks for the reminder. I found the URL to his book at:
http://www.christinyou.net/pages/notrel.html I love the chapter list. There are about ten chapters that say what Christianity is NOT, and as I scanned down through them I wondered if he would say what Christianity is? Well there it is in the last chapter, “CHRISTIANITY IS CHRIST.” Bingo! He’s got it. You can bet I will be reading it.
You wrote, “Father, love, grace, forgiveness, life, love … is drowning in a sea of systemized religion.” You are so right, Mia! With that in mind, check out this verse: “that we may by no means still be minors, surging hither and thither and being carried about by every wind of teaching, by human caprice, by craftiness with a view to the systematizing of the deception.” (Eph 4:14 CLV).
Vincent’s Word Studies says about this verse:
If it was not for the Spirit of God sent by Jesus to lead us into all truth, we would all be deceived by the cunning of the devil through religious men.
Much love to you as well, my sister,
Michael
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I think of David when the servants of Saul were looking for someone to soothe his tormented spirit. They found a young man and described him as handsome, with beautiful eyes, a ruddy appearance and (most importantly) THE LORD IS WITH HIM.
What a stark difference between Saul and David! Saul, the self absorbed and self willed king of Israel who disobeyed the voice of the Lord. Then David, a humble and obedient shepherd boy, filled with the power and presence of God in his heart. This young tender of sheep out classed Saul at every turn with acts of heroism, wisdom and the gift of winning hearts. This was NOT something David was TRYING to do, it’s just WHO he was, because the Lord was with him.
David was never in competition with Saul, but served him faithfully, soothing his tormented spirit with beautiful, annointed music one minute and serving him in the battlefield the next. David left us many psalms depicting an absolutely honest and adoring heart for our Father, that still inspires us today.
What about us? Do we grasp what Paul spoke of concerning Christ, who was the mystery of the ages, revealed at just the right time to deliver us from the law, sin and death. CHRIST IN YOU…THE HOPE OF GLORY! EMANUEL…THE LORD IS WITH US!. The fragrance of Jesus revealed in us supersedes religion, tradition and all the complications of churchianity. What an awesome privilege we have to carry such a treasure in these earthen vessels.
Thanks Michael for sharing this!
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Mike,
I hear the heart of David in the way you write, my friend. Your words are like spiritual poetry to my heart. I seems, once an anointed minstrel, always an anointed minstrel. Keep playing my heart strings, my brother,
Michael
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Thanks Michael for those wonderful words!! David was truly the inspired poet and I’m constantly amazed by what was in the depths of his heart that came from the Holy Spirit. Your comment was quite poetic to me too. 🙂
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Beautiful! What a heart to continously choose Him… what you all are writing speaks volumes to me. Bless you!
Lisa
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So good to hear from you and to hear that what we have all been sharing is a blessing. There are some precious saints on here for sure. Welcome, dear sister!
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Michael, for sometime now, i refused to comment on most of your blogs because of the synchronization of thoughts from different saints who contributes to the post and i glorify the name of the Lord for that is true fellowship…I can comfirm that indeed, we have been Baptised into one Spirit, but NO thanks to religion for the IC (Inatitutionals Churches) always testify against this Truth…indeed. THE LORD IS HEAR and may we not say like Jacob that we knew it not…I continue to say AMEN to the Holy Spirit…agape
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Agape to you, my brother.
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