Fit For The Light

[WordSword]

The sole manifestation of faith in Christ is a godly love to others (Jhn 13:35), and all else is a manifestation of this faith! We cannot determine our fullness in the Father by our outward walk, for our ever learning progression will always be manifested by the revealing of our ever “offending” occasions (Jam 3:2). Thus our fullness in Him is determined not by our spiritual maturity but only by Jesus’ imputed righteousness, which can only be “made unto us” (1 Cor 1:30).

Our Father desires us to know that there is nothing between Him and us, except what we might think there to be, which will always be a misconception. One major interference with how He wants us to possess Him can be in attempting to evaluate our place in the Lord Jesus, i.e. “Do we think we are at the proper maturity level in His Son that we should be”?

Such mindset may seem honorable but the truth is that all who are in Christ are eternally accepted by the Father, and since His Spirit is always “conforming” us, we are always at the maturity level He desires of us for the moment, and we will continue to be conformed (not conform but “be conformed” - Rom 8:29) more all the time—“from glory to glory” unto the maturity of Christ, which is a progressive constant that will not change for the duration of our lives.

NC

 

Fit For The Light

 “Giving thanks unto the Father, who has made us meet (fit) to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12). My position is in the light. We cannot properly give a right testimony or be effective servants to others until our own relationship with the Father is completely settled (know that your fully in Him—NC). It is not that you talk about yourself, but can you say in your Father’s presence, “I am thanking Thou because Thou hast made me meet?

You may go through the deepest exercises (the deeper the better), but when you are brought into your position as a believer, you give thanks that He has made you fit. The perfect and infinite love has taken me up, a poor sinner, and made me fit for the light of His presence. That is where I am—my Father has carried it out in the perfectness of love.

Supposing me to be actually risen, am I not fit for the inheritance of the saints in light? Self-righteousness (which is a very subtle thing) says, “I am not fit.” Why, you do know how bright that light is! But I do know that He, whose love has thought of me, must have that which is fit for His presence, for He is light as well as love. The prodigal was quite as sincere when he set out in his rage as afterwards, but he was not fit to go in until he has the best robe on (exemplifying us putting on Christ’s righteousness through imputation—NC).

The life of the Lord Jesus in us cannot be looking after wealth, power and vanity—for the one thing we have to do in the world is to overcome it (1 Jhn 4:4; 5:4). The blinding power of Satan is here (2 Cor 4:4), but we are delivered from it. I get out of this darkness, which only ministers to the wretched selfishness of my old man. There is only one true, holy, blessed place—the presence of my Father in the light. The One who is the delight of the Father’s heart, who satisfies and draws out His love—we are one spirit with that Beloved One (Jhn 17:21).

We have to go through the world, which has risen up because man was turned out of paradise. We have to judge ourselves, and watch unto prayer—but we are brought, even while here, to know we are loved of our Father even as the Lord Jesus is loved (Jhn 17:23). “All things were created by Him and for Him (Col 1:16); but He could not, in the counsels and love of the Father, take all those things without having joint-heirs; His Bride. He has come up, after having wrought redemption, not only Head over everything He has created as man, but also Head of the Body, the Church.

“And you . . . hath He reconciled” (Col 1:21); that is more than “made fit” for what the Father wants, according to His holy nature and presence. We are not simply fitted, but the Father has reconciled our hearts now in that perfect love which has come out. My reconciliation is a present effectual fact, through the knowledge of the perfect love of my Father, which did not spare His Beloved. He has left no uneasiness upon my purged conscience.

The Lord Jesus is my righteousness and my “life” (Co 3:4)—myself loved as He is loved—that is my eternal position in the light of glory, now (Eph2:16, 13). How far can your heart look up to you Father, without one thing to hinder your fellowship with, and enjoyment of, Him (there is nothing to hinder knowing this other than misunderstanding—NC)? He has brought you to Himself—brought into His very presence, in the full sense of the unclouded love of His heart. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).

- F G Burkitt

 

Excerpt from MJS devotional for July 20:

“Not only is my blessing in heaven, but I need the Lord Jesus’ power to enable me to rise above the sense of my infirmity down here; for this world, instead of contributing to me, makes me feel my weakness and need, and that I must rise out of it to find and enjoy my blessing.

“The very infirmity which this evil age makes me conscious of makes me draw upon the power of Christ, as the One outside it, passing into the heavens, so that I take pleasure in the very infirmity which is exposed here, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

-JBS

http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/