His Eye of Love

[WordSword]

I can say “My fellowship is with the Father and the Son” (1Jo 1:3). Fellowship is not a future thing, but a thing we have possession of while in these earthen vessels. It is up on the throne with the Lord Jesus that we have it. What a position and privilege! The Lord Jesus in heaven in perfect light, and I, brought there by Him; everything in myself contrasted with what He is—all darkness in myself (i.e. in the “old man”) and all light in Him!

I do not get rid of sin till the Lord Jesus changes this dying body (esp. “the body of sin,” sin nature and its “members” – Ro 6:6; Col 3:5—NC), but sin has no longer dominion over me (Ro 6:14). In being made a new creature in Him, the body is not changed, but a new life is communicated, and we are brought into the light. The root of sin is still within, but the heart is occupied with the sinless One. But if the saint becomes occupied (e.g. excessively so—NC) with things down here, he will lose the power which being in the light gives the heart to detect everything contrary to it. If I turn from that blessed place to which the Father brought me when He sought me out (e.g. in reference to the lifestyle or walk—NC), I am back where evil reigns (Rom 6:12); I get where everyone has likes and dislikes; then sorrow comes, and chastisement (“godly sorrow” fortifies “repentance, and loving “chastisement” unfailingly corrects - 2Co 7:10; Rev 3:19—NC).

The Lord Jesus on earth was perfect light—and everything and everyone was discovered by it. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” We are made partakers of His Life (Col 3:4, 10; 2Pe 1:4—NC). We are with Him in spirit, down here in the body. If the body is to be kept subject, it must be so by fellowship with the Father and the Son. Practical failure there will be; but never say that we must fail (i.e. not always—NC), though we do fail. Paul failed as a matter of fact (e.g. Rom 7:19—NC). It is not, “when any man sin,” but “if any man sin,” we have an Advocate” (1Jo 2:1)—there is the “Fountain” (Psa 36:9; Rev 21:6—NC).

I believe that the advocacy of the Lord Jesus is little thought of as it ought to be. We have never to do with Him, as our advocate, as to personal acceptance (only to our sin, which establishes acceptance—NC). It is when the accepted one sins; and there is not one single blot, one practical failure that has not been in the light, His eye has detected it (walking in unbroken forgiveness—NC). Saints forget often that the Lord Jesus is a great deal more watchful than they are. Directly when the heart of a believer recognizes sin, it ought to recognize the Lord Jesus praying for him (Luk 22:32). This blessed Lord is not only the restorer of our souls, but the One who continually renews the flow of affection between the Father and the wandering child (wander as to our walk, from learning to learning, not as to our salvific position—NC).

The Father has all delight in the Lord Jesus as the perfect expression of His Love—of all that He is; and we enter into His delight. Not content to be Himself light and love, in His own glory, but He has presented light and love and glory to us in His Son (the “glory” is that He is the Son, which is a revelation He gives unto those who are His. They are “the words” of His Gospel unto salvation through believing in Him (Jhn 17:8, 22). Has the delight and the blessedness of fellowship with Him up there discovered to us the poverty of all down here? Are we His heavenly people? Have we heavenly stores laid up in the Lord Jesus (Jhn 14:2, 3)?  Why put off the joy of heaven for a future day? Why not begin now to live in heaven? The Father calls us to fellowship with the Lord Jesus now (which joy comes by knowing the certainty of your salvation, which is its foremost purpose concerning our walk of faith—NC).

Can I connect all the sorrows of the wilderness with the Lord Jesus’ glory? Do I devote myself, and all I have to His glory, turning everything into an occasion for magnifying Him? If my heart is breaking, what it matter, if I have the Lord Jesus? He loves a broken heart. His heart cares for me as no mother cares for her child. Every throb of your heart is known to Him, and He beautifully knows how to show you how all—able He is to give you rest and peace that “passes all understanding.”

If you are broken down bit by bit, it is only to fit you for the place He has prepared for you. There is, for the heart that is resting in the Lord Jesus’ love, a perfect repose, a Divine peace, that Satan cannot shake. You will be wondered at your peace, you will be able to say of things that destroy the dearest hopes of your heart, “I thank God.”

In the Person with whom I have to do, I have the Word of God, the blessed Lord, the glory of whose Person is set forth in the revelation. And if I am in that Christ of God, in whom was never a waver in doing the Father’s will, it will bring me down to the very bottom of self. Have you cultivated an acquaintance with the heart-searching Word, who looks down into the very bottom of your heart, who discovers the first budding of everything wrong, and puts His hand to stop it?

There is not a corner of my heart that the Lord Jesus will not search down to the very bottom. Would I have a blind Christ, one whom I should not like to search out every part of my heart? Ah! I would rather have Him pointing out everything, than friends praises. Who am I that my Lord should so condescend to search me? And where there is evil in me, that is just where my Father lets His streams flow into me. He sees everything that hinders and chokes—would I stay His stand?

The reason for so little progress in practical growth and unearthliness is that the heart is not abiding in the light of the searching eye of the Lord Jesus in heaven, and making the whole value of it come right down to the very bottom of everything. All the Divine glory beams down on us “in the face of the Lord Jesus” (2Co 4:6); we are in Him, and have such fellowship with Him that what is true of the Head, as to the Father’s delight being in Him, is true of each member. The great thing that gives liberty to the heart is the knowing its union with the risen and ascended Lord Jesus, and so being able to stand, resting in the love of the Father in Him.

There is in the heart of the Lord Jesus the full throbbing of that love, as He looks upon us as those given Him of the Father—a Divine savor and fullness in it, because of it being the love of God: a perfect Divine love, which lays hold of each believer as one given Him of the Father; a love which never changes, and from which nothing in heaven or earth can separate. No saint ever finds true rest in the thought of glory and heaven, save as he realizes that everything is centered in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I walked around heaven and failed to find Him there, however bright and beautiful all might be, I should say, “It won’t do without Him!” The Lord Jesus Himself must have a vividness in the soul, a living place there, if the renewed affections are to be satisfied.

 

—G W Wigram (1805-1879)

 

 

MJS devotional excerpt for August 6

“What is it to ‘walk in the Spirit’ (Gal. 5:16)? It is to walk in communion with the Father, in dependence upon the Spirit, having the Lord Jesus as my one object. What held the attention of Stephen, ‘full of faith and of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 6:5)? Two things: the Word of God on earth, and the Christ of God in heaven (Acts 7:55).”

“To walk in the Spirit is not self-occupation, nor even occupation with the Spirit. Walking according to the Spirit is occupation with the Lord Jesus. When the believer looks to the Lord Jesus, depends upon Him, draws all he needs from Him—if the Lord Jesus is his all, then the believer walks in the Spirit.” -A.C.G.

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