Dear saints,
It is such a temptation in our Christian walks that because of our much learning, wonderful teachers, degrees, many experiences ministering in the churches, blogs and books we have written, etc. that we are strong, powerful and complete in our walks and have arrived. This might all be true without the cross of Christ working DEEP into our old self natures on a daily basis.
Some of you might have been asking what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Well, Brother Sparks says it quite well…
He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)
What is your idea of power? What is your mentality concerning power? Are you clamoring for power, wanting power? Well, it all works out this way. True power from God’s standpoint is Calvary power. Christ crucified is the power of God. What is Calvary power? Well, it is emptiness of self, you and I being emptied of self – and truly, that is easier said than endured! Oh, how very much there is of this self about us still! How we hate – how we suffer – being emptied of ourselves! What a terrible thing it is to feel our inability – to know that we do not count in ourselves. Oh, to be ABLE! And yet have we not proved, again and again, that our times of greatest emptiness and weakness have been the times when God has done most, and got glory by what He has done? Yes, it has been true. We have learnt it along various lines and different ways, but God has been working right into the very inside of us, so that the thing is done – it becomes a part of us. He does not have to maintain it by external conditions. But He frequently uses such – very often physical – conditions, to bring us to that place of utter dependence upon Himself. It is really not good enough, is it, to be forced to it, compelled to it? That is God’s way of education, but it would be very much better for us to be fit and well and as dependent upon God as ever.
So it all resolves itself into the need, in the first place, for what is meant by being born from above: an entirely new nature and disposition, to begin with, and then a letting God do His work of conforming us to the image of His Son. I am not saying that works and words do not come in, but it is a heartbreaking business to be working and speaking with no power, and no registration of heaven. The Lord give us light as to what He means by this. http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000840.html
A Wilderness Voice 
I have made do many mistakes. Said things I should not have, done things I should not have and because of such I know how much I need Christ. Although at times I feel unworthy but I guess that is the point none of us are worthy and that makes our need greater. I skipped church service today due to the comments on another blog, Suzanne blog, hope I spelled her name correctly.
Any way I had been going as people convinced me to go and this church main goal is to lead people to Christ so figured it was OK.
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Fred, Oh how the traditions of men make of no effect the commands of God. Jesus told His disciples to preach the gospel first in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria and finally unto the uttermost ends of the earth. There were no church building during that whole time that the church expanded throughout Asia and Europe, those came later after Emperor Constantine make Christianity his bureau of religion and consolidated all the other religions into one. What a mixture it became after that! Pagans had their temples so this new religion in his way of thinking HAD to have its temples as well.
The point is Jesus never commanded His followers to go out and put a church building (or hundreds of them) in every city and use them to entice people into to preach at them so that they might get saved. But with that distorted goal, true fellowship in the Spirit with one another can not happen there. But, like Susanne said, it can happen over a cup of coffee in a coffee shop or in the privacy of a home where 2or 3 are gathered together IN HIS name.
May He lead you into such a fellowship with Christian who love you there in Iowa. Either way, it is good to see you back.
Michael
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* Like 🙂
It is a wonderful flow the Spirit has going here (and at Susanne’s 🙂 !
Living water and Daily Bread. Milk and Honey and the Honeycomb! Seems like I just finish “eating” one post and another post appears! I could get FAT if this keeps up!
I read the “Open Windows” today and wanted so much to find a place in comments to add some of the points TAS makes and so you have posted it in its entirety and so I can rest LOL!
1 Corinthians 12:14-26 (NKJV)
“For in fact the body is not one member but many.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,
that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+12%3A14-26&version=NKJV
The Body Ministry is so precious.
🙂 Besides the posts here I am so blessed by the comments –
I have no way to add Likes but I *LIKE all of the comments dear friends!
Each one of you bring such important parts of the whole to the table!
Love in Jesus to you, Michael, and to all the saints – Judi
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Judi, You are a hoot! “You’s not fat, You’s just fluffy!” 🙂 I love reading your comments. It is my desire that this blog can be a place of fellowship with the saints who follow His voice and share there hearts and His healing love. It blesses me so much to hear from you all as well.
One time a dear old saint told a story while we sat in his house waiting for him to speak. The story went,
“There was a group of men that always met in a bar and one day one of them suggested that they should all meet in a common place and each of them bring their favorite bottle of booze. Then that they should put a big bucket in the middle of the floor and each poor their favorite drink in the bucket and afterwards each of them draw with his cup from what was in the bucket, that way they could all get the best of each ones contribution. The only problem was that one guy thought that he would just pour his bottle out into a jar at home and fill it with water and bring it instead, so he could keep his best to himself and enjoy the rest of the booze as well. The only problem was that each of them thought the same thing!”
Paul put it this way, “it is more blessed to give than receive.” Let us each share with the rest “as the Spirit gives utterance.”
Bless you, dear sister,
Michael
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It was a wonderful and powerful message!
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Thank you, Stacey. It amazes me how often my daily devotional from TAS is exactly what God wanted to show me or confirm to me. Then when I post a quote from him I find out that others need to hear it too.:-)
It is good hear from you again,
Michael
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A beautiful message, Michael. ❤
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Yes, brother Sparks nailed it for me, Anna.
Blessings to you, dear sister and you have a wonderful Christmas.
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Your words are true, Michael. Pride always comes before the fall. Whatever we might have achieved, it is over. What we need, instead, is that God speaks into our personal life NOW.
It is so easy, even ‘normal’, to confuse the flesh, its desires, our reasoning, intellect and feelings with what we think might have sprung from God’s Spirit. What sharperns our discerners here alone is getting to know the process of being circumcized in the flesh through the cross of Christ. Only then we might recognize the difference between that which comes from God and that which is simply our habitual old nature’s thought life and behavior. From hence, it makes no sense to try to explain to a carnal Christian what the spiritual Christian sees on the other side of life since the first one is still blind to the kingdom of God. May God give us all eyes to see what and how He sees! Amen.
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So, true, my dear Spirit led sister! There is a place where Solomon said,
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like unto him.
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. (Prov 26:4-5, KJ2000)
Which to do when, can only be found by the wisdom of the Spirit coming to us as we pray first.
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Amen, my brother. ⭐
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Yes indeed–To walk in the power of Divine Life and be a participant we have to realize our crucifiction with Christ from our own control or really satans first.
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Patricia wrote,
This is [it] Michael. Denying is daily. The Lord must penetrate His cross daily in the depth of our life, because we do not know how corrupt we are. Without the cross of Christ we pervert ourselves. Today I read in my prayer book about Joseph “His soul was put in iron” Psalm 105: 18. God has to put us in His prisons, in His iron so that we learn that without Him we are nothing, no matter how much knowledge we have. Without the Lord we are nothing, we have nothing.
—
Así es Michael. El negarnos es diario. El Señor debe penetrar Su cruz diariamente en la profundidad de nuestra vida, porque no conocemos lo corruptos que somos. Sin la cruz de Cristo nos pervertimos. Hoy leía en mi devocionario acerca de José “En hierro fue puesta su alma” Salmo 105:18. Dios tiene que meternos en Sus prisiones, en Su hierro para que aprendamos que sin Él nada somos, no importa cuánto conocimiento tengamos. Sin el Señor no somos nada, no tenemos nada.
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Once again, Patricia, your comment is timely. I was sitting here and praying this morning feeling absolutely NOTHING! No inspiration to write or do much of anything as I watch the snow come down, knowing that I will have to get out in it and shovel and plow once again. At times like this it is as if my soul is in irons. It is amazing how He puts me on “hold” for weeks at a time and then He inspires me to write as He did the last couple weeks and I totally overflow with His inspiration. Then it is back to having my soul in irons again. I now understand what Paul meant when he wrote:
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph 4:1-3, ESV2011)
We who belong fully to Christ are HIS prisoners. It is necessary for Him to have our souls in irons if we are to walk by the Spirit and not the flesh. It is as HIS prisoners that we can walk in a manner worthy of our callings in humility, gentleness, patience and love for one another just as He loves us.
Thank you, my sister, for bringing this truth to my attention at a time such as this,
Michael
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Así es mi amigo y hermano. Eso es negarnos a nosotros mismos. Negarnos a actuar y tan siquiera a hablar si no tenemos la orden celestial. A mi me pasa igual que a ti, hay momentos que me siento quieta como si no pudiera escribir ni hacer nada, solo reposar en Dios, como dice Austin Sparks en medio de la irracionabilidad de sus silencios, solo se puede esperar y contemplar a Cristo. De pronto, el Señor da la orden y comienza a fluir en el interior, para luego nuevamente quedar quietos, a la espera de una nueva orden y una nueva inspiración. Para el hombre natural esto es de locos, pero para nosotros es el Señorío de Cristo en nuestras vidas. Nada que hacer, Él es nuestro dueño y es quien gobierna.
Patricia wrote:
“This is my friend and brother. That is denying ourselves. Refusing to act and even to speak if we do not have the celestial order. It happens to me just like you, there are moments that I feel still as if I could not write or do anything, just rest in God, as Austin Sparks says in the midst of the irracionability of his silences, you can only wait and contemplate Christ . Suddenly, the Lord gives the order and begins to flow inside, to then again be quiet, waiting for a new order and a new inspiration. For the natural man this is crazy, but for us it is the Lordship of Christ in our lives. Nothing to do, He is our owner and he rules.”
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Thank you, Patricia for this accurate description of what it means to be obedient to the wind of the Spirit. The flesh in us hates to go unnoticed and how easy it is for us to want to fill in the gaps between when God is speaking or acting through us and He is not.
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