Preparation for Rulership

How can a man rule universe if he cannot RULE HIS OWN SPIRIT? "He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city" (Prov. 16:32). A fit preface; for in a universe, or in a world, or in a man the work is the same; and, indeed, man is himself a world, a universe, with realms within him vast and abundant. Darkness and light, and a great deep, and earth and heaven and hell, and principalities and powers, thrones and dominions, as in him. Passions move him as the storms, volcanic fires rage or smoulder in him, wars are fought, battles rage, kingdoms rise and fall – ALL WITHIN MAN. That we might understand this world, this universe, which lies within man, God has written the same design on the giant canvas of the outer world. This is man's proving ground. When he has learned to rule his INNER WORLD, he then qualifies for ruling the OUTER WORLD. The man who conquers himself is the greatest conqueror of all. He has the key of power and has gained the mastery when he is rescued from himself. From thenceforth, no power or tie of earth can hold him. Self is the devil man has to be released from.

            So God, omniscient and omnipotent, has established here upon a School for the training of those destined to be the future rulers of the universe. This School is known as "the body of Christ." None shall ever rule who have not graduated from this School! Consider this. A college graduation exercise, at which students receive diplomas for work accomplished, is called a Commencement. The reason for this is that the graduating students are not really graduating – they are only commencing to put their studies into practice. Their graduation is in reality a beginning rather than an ending and a commencement rather than a termination. Graduation from God’s School of Dominion ushers into the commencement of the great ministry of ruling and reigning with Christ. And what a great Teacher we have! The educators of this world have discovered some vital principles in teaching. They have learned, for instance, that a student remembers far more of what he sees than he does of what he hears. That which falls upon the eye leaves a greater impression upon the mind than does that which strikes the ear. Therefore, the increased emphasis today on visual education. But there is another principle greater yet which declares that a person retains more of what he learns from experience than he does of what he learns by the seeing of the eye. This great fact lies behind the old adage: EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER!

I cannot overestimate the extreme value of experience. How do we know, really know, any emotions of any sort whatever? Only by experience. You may talk forever about feelings, and you teach nothing about them to those who have not experienced them. The poets of the world have been singing about love ever since the world began. But no heart has learned what love is from even the sweetest and deepest refrains. Who that is not a father can be taught paternal love by words, or can come to a perception of it by any effort of the mind? And so with all other things. Only the lips that have drunk the cup of sweetness or of bitterness can tell how sweet or how bitter it is, and even when they, made wise by experience, speak out of their deepest hearts, the listeners are but little wiser, unless they too have been scholars in the same school. Experience is our only teacher in matters of feeling and emotion, as in the lower regions of taste and appetite. A man must be hungry to know what hunger is; he must taste honey or wormwood, and in like manner he cannot know sorrow but by feeling its ache, and must love if he would know love. Yes, experience is the best teacher, and her school-fees are heavy!