Scripture: "There are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one,"—1 JOHN v. 8.
        The water is external, a sign of the renewing and purifying through regeneration used in baptism. The Spirit and the blood are two spiritual expressions, working together in regeneration: the blood for the forgiveness of sins, the Spirit for the renewal of the whole nature. All through life the Spirit and the blood must agree.

        The oneness is spiritual and true. Through the blood we obtain the Spirit, as through the blood we are redeemed and purified unto it to receive the Spirit. Only through the blood can we with confidence pray for and receive the Spirit. O Christian, would you have boldness each day to trust to the guidance of the Spirit, then let your faith in the precious blood be sure and strong.

        There may be some sin in your life of which you are hardly conscious, but which grieves the Spirit and drives Him away. The only way to avoid this is to believe that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin." Your only right to approach God is through the blood of the Lamb. Come with every sin, known or unknown, and plead the blood of Christ as your only claim on the love that accepts and forgives.

        Nevertheless, do not rest content with the forgiveness of sins, but accept the fulness of the Spirit, to which the blood gives you access. In the Old Testament the priest went into the Holy Place with the blood, and the High Priest into the Holiest of All. With the blood Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary and poured out thence the Holy Spirit. Do not for a moment doubt that you have a right through the blood to the fulness of the Spirit.

        As one who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ, make a complete surrender of yourself to God as His purchased possession, a vessel ready for Him to use, a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD" (Psalm 118:17).
        A fair assurance this! It was no doubt based upon a promise, inwardly whispered in the psalmists heart, which he seized upon and enjoyed. Is my case like that of David? Am I depressed because the enemy affronts me? Are there multitudes against me and few on my side? Does unbelief bid me lie down and die in despair- a defeated, dishonored man? Do my enemies begin to dig my grave?

        What then? Shall I yield to the whisper of fear, and give up the battle, and with it give up all hope? Far from it. There is life in me yet: "I shall not die." Vigor will return and remove my weakness: "I shall live." The LORD lives, and I shall live also. My mouth shall again be opened: "I shall declare the works of Jehovah." Yes, and I shall speak of the present trouble as another instance of the wonder-working faithfulness and love of the LORD my God. Those who would gladly measure me for my coffin had better wait a bit, for "the LORD hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death." Glory be to His name forever! I am immortal till my work is done. Till the LORD wills it, no vault can close upon me.

Scripture: “Renew a right spirit within me.”(Psalm 51:10)
        A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of grace is required as at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need it now. We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the like grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High, a word from the lip of the loving One, to end our fears then; we shall soon discover, when under a sense of present sin, that we need it now. No man can be renewed without as real and true a manifestation of the Holy Spirits energy as he felt at first, because the work is as great, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were. Let thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee pray earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened to the mercy-seat with “renew a right spirit within me.” Let not the doctrine that you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let it be a goad in your side to drive you with an awful earnestness to Israels strong Helper. O that you may have grace to plead with God, as though you pleaded for your very life—“Lord, renew a right spirit within me.” He who sincerely prays to God to do this, will prove his honesty by using the means through which God works. Be much in prayer; live much upon the Word of God; kill the lusts which have driven your Lord from you; be careful to watch over the future uprisings of sin. The Lord has his own appointed ways; sit by the wayside and you will be ready when he passes by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will foster and nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed from him, cease not to cry, “Renew a right spirit within me.”

Scripture: “I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.”(Hosea 13:5)
        Yes, Lord, thou didst indeed know me in my fallen state, and thou didst even then choose me for thyself. When I was loathsome and self-abhorred, thou didst receive me as thy child, and thou didst satisfy my craving wants. Blessed for ever be thy name for this free, rich, abounding mercy. Since then, my inward experience has often been a wilderness; but thou hast owned me still as thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into me to gladden me, and make me fruitful. Yea, when my outward circumstances have been at the worst, and I have wandered in a land of drought, thy sweet presence has solaced me. Men have not known me when scorn has awaited me, but thou hast known my soul in adversities, for no affliction dims the lustre of thy love. Most gracious Lord, I magnify thee for all thy faithfulness to me in trying circumstances, and I deplore that I should at any time have forgotten thee and been exalted in heart, when I have owed all to thy gentleness and love. Have mercy upon thy servant in this thing!

        My soul, if Jesus thus acknowledged thee in thy low estate, be sure that thou own both himself and his cause now that thou art in thy prosperity. Be not lifted up by thy worldly successes so as to be ashamed of the truth or of the poor church with which thou hast been associated. Follow Jesus into the wilderness: bear the cross with him when the heat of persecution grows hot. He owned thee, O my soul, in thy poverty and shame—never be so treacherous as to be ashamed of him. O for more shame at the thought of being ashamed of my best Beloved! Jesus, my soul cleaveth to thee.

        “Ill turn to thee in days of light,

        As well as nights of care,

        Thou brightest amid all thats bright!

        Thou fairest of the fair!”

Scripture: "Likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what to pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26, 27).
        This is the deep mystery of prayer. This is the delicate divine mechanism which words cannot interpret, and which theology cannot explain, but which the humblest believer knows even when he does not understand.

        Oh, the burdens that we love to bear and cannot understand! Oh, the inarticulate out-reachings of our hearts for things we cannot comprehend! And yet we know they are an echo from the throne and a whisper from the heart of God. It is often a groan rather than a song, a burden rather than a buoyant wing. But it is a blessed burden, and it is a groan whose undertone is praise and unutterable joy. It is "a groaning which cannot be uttered." We could not ourselves express it always, and sometimes we do not understand any more than that God is praying in us, for something that needs His touch and that He understands.

        And so we can just pour out the fullness of our heart, the burden of our spirit, the sorrow that crushes us, and know that He hears, He loves, He understands, He receives; and He separates from our prayer all that is imperfect, ignorant and wrong, and presents the rest, with the incense of the great High Priest, before the throne on high; and our prayer is heard, accepted and answered in His name. --A. B. Simpson

        It is not necessary to be always speaking to God or always hearing from God, to have communion with Him; there is an inarticulate fellowship more sweet than words. The little child can sit all day long beside its busy mother and, although few words are spoken on either side, and both are busy, the one at his absorbing play, the other at her engrossing work, yet both are in perfect fellowship. He knows that she is there, and she knows that he is all right. So the saint and the Saviour can go on for hours in the silent fellowship of love, and he be busy about the most common things, and yet conscious that every little thing he does is touched with the complexion of His presence, and the sense of His approval and blessing.

        And then, when pressed with burdens and troubles too complicated to put into words and too mysterious to tell or understand, how sweet it is to fall back into His blessed arms, and just sob out the sorrow that we cannot speak! --Selected

References: Further Study: Ezek 1:13 Acts 4:37 Acts 22:6 Rev 1:15 Isa 6:6-7 Acts 2
When we consider again the vivid picture of the Day of Pentecost, we will remember the tongues of fire resting upon the disciples. At first glance, this appears to be an isolated event. However, if we reflect back to the prophet Ezekiel, we find that he encountered the same fire depicted as ‘coals of fire’ and ‘flashes of lightning’. The fire appearing upon the heads of the disciples was the fire of offering. As Ezekiel was ordained to the work of ministry by the altar of the Lord, so the early church began in the same way. The encounter of Paul with Jesus on the Damascus road was exactly the same. The light that ‘flashed from heaven’ all around him would be better understood as lightning that ‘was flashing from the fire’ of offering. The prophet Isaiah was likewise ordained to his work by the fire of offering. A coal was taken from off the altar and placed upon his lips. Every initiative which the Lord takes is activated by an altar and an offering. Whether it is evident in the fire, the coal, the flashing light, or the sacrifice itself, the altar is the beginning of the will of God done. Considering again the tongues of fire upon the heads of the disciples, this sovereign manifestation of the Holy Spirit immediately required an altar. This was quickly established at ‘the apostles’ feet’. We are reminded of the revelation of Jesus as the glorified Son of Man where ‘His feet were like burnished bronze’. The Old Testament altar prophetically represented the feet and footstool of the Lord. It therefore makes perfect sense that the offerings of the disciples were brought to the apostles’ feet.

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References Further Study 1 Cor 2:16 Rom 11:34 1 Pet 1 John 10:17 Phil 2:5 Rev 1:5 Heb 12:23
Paul asked, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?’ When he spoke about the mind of Christ, Paul was referring to God the Son’s attitude and willingness to empty Himself. He did not regard equality with the Father and the Spirit, but humbled Himself to be a bondslave. We must have this same mind and attitude as the Son. The need for equality can be such an issue for us. The Son brought this attitude to empty as His part in the offering of Elohim. He made this known within the council of Elohim before all the ages began. This capacity to empty Himself is unique to God the Son. As His offering, the Father laid down the fullness of His fatherhood life to the Son so that the Son could become His firstborn, the life of new creation. Then God the Son emptied Himself so that He could multiply everything that the Father laid down to Him. He humbled, stooped and bowed. He emptied Himself of all His fullness and the Lamb was brought forth as the offering of Elohim. The blood ‘as of a lamb’ was the blood of the Eternal Covenant. This Lamb, unblemished and spotless, was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has appeared in these last times. The Lamb is the sum of all offering because the Father and Holy Spirit have committed all things into the hand of the Son to be the full expression of Their offering. The Lamb is the offering of Their life given as the life of new creation. The Father and Holy Spirit bore witness to the grace of the Son to multiply this life by offering. No one can counsel the Lord, because Their counsel brought forth a finished work before the foundation of the world.

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References Further Study 1Co 5:7 Act 2:1-4 Lev 23 Rev 1:10 Exo 23:14 Rev 7:9, 14-15
The apostle John saw the great multitude gathered for the Day of Atonement as clothed in white priestly garments, with ‘palm branches in their hands’. The symbolism is very important here. The white garments identify this multitude as a company of priests who are ministering in the Lord’s temple, serving before His throne day and night. The palm branches demonstrate that they are ready to celebrate the fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles in the end of the age. The Lord required the nation of Israel to appear before Him three times a year. These three feasts were the highpoints of the year. The substance of these three feasts must be fulfilled in the church. Passover, the first of the feasts, was fulfilled when Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.’ Pentecost, the second of the feasts, was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church. The book of Acts says, ‘In the fulfilling of the Day of Pentecost, they were all with one mind in the same place ... and they were all filled of the Holy Spirit’. And most significantly for us, the third and final feast has not yet been fulfilled. This is the hope of the church in the end of the age. The Feast of Tabernacles began with the blowing of trumpets. We are reminded that the book of Revelation begins with the apostle John hearing a loud voice behind him ‘like the sound of a trumpet’. The sound of this prophetic trumpet is the call to gather, and make ourselves ready to celebrate this great final feast.

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References Further Study 1Pe 4:16 Jas 1:20 Joh 15 Rom 8:12-13 2Co 10:3-5 Heb 12:10
There are many people who consider suffering to be a violation of their privilege as a son of God. The resentment they feel when they are made to suffer is not ‘righteous anger’. If this is the case, then the natural man has now spiralled down to become the carnal man. He has not understood that these are the emotions of sin stirred up by his own law. This is bringing forth in him the fruit of death. ‘So then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die.’ The word of God to Adam and Eve was, ‘If you eat the tree you will die’. However, the serpent said, ‘You will not die!’ Satan is the father of lies and this is the greatest of his deceptions. He is declaring that there is another way of escape from mortality and death, apart from being clothed with Christ. Paul taught us that we must cast down such imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If we are walking in the flesh, we will die! Paul continued, ‘But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body you shall live’. By the Spirit, you are participating in His sufferings, embracing the baptism of Christ and clothing yourself with the promise of sonship. You will live! We must stop resenting and fighting the issue of suffering and be baptised into His death. All our sufferings are His; they are not ours. But we can miss the fruit of Christ’s sufferings if we do not fellowship in them by faith. While we fight against the baptism of His sufferings, we will certainly die outside of Him. But when the discipline of the sufferings of Christ is complete, life, not death, is the final result.

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