Some time later the brook dried up because there had
been no rain in the land. (I Kings 17:7)
Week after week, with an unwavering and steadfast spirit,
Elijah watched the brook dwindle and finally dry up.
Often tempted to stumble into unbelief, he nevertheless
refused to allow his circumstances to come between
himself and his God. Unbelief looks at God through the
circumstances, just as we often see the sun dimmed by
clouds or smoke. But faith puts God between itself and
its circumstances, and looks at them through Him.
Elijah's brook dwindled to only a silver thread, which
formed pools at the base of the largest rocks. Then the
pool evaporated, the birds flew away, and the wild
animals of the field and forests no longer came to drink,
for the brook became completely dry. And, only then,
to Elijah's patient and faithful spirit, did the word of the
Lord come and say, 'Go at once to Zarephath.' verse 9
Most of us would have become anxious and tired, and
would have made other plans long before God spoke.
Our singing would have stopped as soon as the stream
flowed less musically over its rocky bed. We would have
hung our harps on the willows nearby and begun pacing
back and forth on the withering grass. And probably,
long before the brook actually dried up, we would have
devised a plan, asked God to bless it, and headed
elsewhere.
God will often extricate us from the mess we have made,
because 'his love endures forever.'Yet if we had only
been patient and waited to see the unfolding of His plan,
we would never have found ourselves in such an impos-
sible maze, seeing no way out. We would also never have
had to turn back and retrace our way, with wasted step
and so many tears of shame.
Wait for the Lord (Ps 27:4)
Patiently wait!
FB MEYER
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Monday, August 7, 2017
What would I give as advice to a person in my present position?
What would I give as advice to a person in my present position?
(And consequently, physician heal thyself)
1. Just remember that God does love you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And when I say nothing I mean, nothing.
2. Also remember that God has not forsaken you. He has promised to never forsake or leave us.
Your circumstances, your mind, and your emotions may well tell you something different, but God’s word stands above and over all of those.
3. God is at work both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Even though you may be living out the consequences of poor behaviour and choices, it’s worth remembering that God has never stopped His redemptive work.
God disciplines those whom He loves. I like the phrase “corrective redemption”, for it helps me to make some sense out of life at the moment.
4. It’s important to understand that you are in a particular season of God’s ordering.
And so one must try not to resist the season, but invite the Holy Spirit to plunge the pruning knife deep within.
Yield and surrender to the season so that the work can be completed and you can move on into all that God has purposed for you.
- Roger
(And consequently, physician heal thyself)
1. Just remember that God does love you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And when I say nothing I mean, nothing.
2. Also remember that God has not forsaken you. He has promised to never forsake or leave us.
Your circumstances, your mind, and your emotions may well tell you something different, but God’s word stands above and over all of those.
3. God is at work both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Even though you may be living out the consequences of poor behaviour and choices, it’s worth remembering that God has never stopped His redemptive work.
God disciplines those whom He loves. I like the phrase “corrective redemption”, for it helps me to make some sense out of life at the moment.
4. It’s important to understand that you are in a particular season of God’s ordering.
And so one must try not to resist the season, but invite the Holy Spirit to plunge the pruning knife deep within.
Yield and surrender to the season so that the work can be completed and you can move on into all that God has purposed for you.
- Roger
Saturday, August 5, 2017
The Work of Conscience
Now, it is well to understand how the conscience works. Some students of scripture have divided the Bible into seven dispensations: the dispensations innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, and the kingdom. The first three dispensations are categorized according to the principle of government. In the dispensation of innocence we see the principle of GOD'S RULE; in the dispensation of conscience, the principle of SELF-RULE; and in the dispensation of human government, the principle of MAN'S RULE. Of the three kinds of government, the one which is under the rule of SELF is the one related to the CONSCIENCE. Before the fall, no sin barrier existed between God and man. This was the so-called dispensation of innocence, when man was ruled directly by God. He lived before God and was responsible to God. Man failed under God's rule in innocence and became sinful within and without: so the holy and righteous God drove man out from the realm of the Kingdom of God.
Consequently, from the time of Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the time of Noah's departure from the Ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man. This is the so-called dispensation of conscience. In this period man was ruled by his own conscience and was responsible to his own conscience. Before this God had been personally present with the primal pair in the Garden. He was no stranger to the Voice of God. Often he would be awakened by its tones calling him to fellowship; and climbing some verdant hill he would talk to God as a man talketh with his friend. When the evening shadows began to lengthen it was with deep, awful ecstasy that he repaired to some sweet glade, where he would ask his questions and received answers that guided him in his destiny. He was like a grown-up child, no memory, for there were no childhood experiences to look back on. No past experience to guide him – no books, no science – but all he needed came in converse with God from whom streamed all wisdom and knowledge. Thereafter this close fellowship and sustaining life-flow was broken. God withdrew. He gave no law to guide them. They and their offspring were left to themselves. All that they had was the knowledge of good and evil – the consciousness that the works of the flesh were displeasing to God – that is, conscience. This was the fragile link that connected them to God. It was the underlying principle of His dealings with them. Under this self-rule, man again failed. He ignored the rebuke and control of the conscience, and God judged this dispensation by the flood. Paul writes of this rule of the conscience in Rom. 2:14-15: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." The conscience represents God in ruling over man. Just as a nation governs its people through the police force, so also God governs the fallen man through the conscience. God set up the conscience within fallen man that man might govern himself according to the principles and laws of the knowledge of good and evil. If anyone acts contrary or is about to act contrary to this knowledge of good and evil, his conscience immediately condemns him and restrains him from going further astray and falling into corruption. Therefore, the major function of the conscience is to govern man.
Our conscience can really be compared to a judgment seat. A judgment seat never has legislative authority over men’s lives; it has judicial authority only, that is, it can only state whether the action of the accused is punishable according to the law of the land or not. Its duty is to examine the deed in relation to what the law says, and then decide whether the deed conforms with or violates the law. This is also what the conscience does. It compares our deeds or our words or thoughts or our nature with the law of the knowledge of good and evil and then pronounces judgment, deciding whether we are in conformity or in conflict with it. The conscience acts as both judge and jury, as well as the key witness in the case! In this realm of the knowledge of good and evil whatever a man does, as far as he does it from conscience, so far is it lawful, for his conscience is formed of all those things which he thinks to be true, and so thinks to be lawful.
Consequently, from the time of Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the time of Noah's departure from the Ark, God established the conscience within man to represent Himself in ruling over man. This is the so-called dispensation of conscience. In this period man was ruled by his own conscience and was responsible to his own conscience. Before this God had been personally present with the primal pair in the Garden. He was no stranger to the Voice of God. Often he would be awakened by its tones calling him to fellowship; and climbing some verdant hill he would talk to God as a man talketh with his friend. When the evening shadows began to lengthen it was with deep, awful ecstasy that he repaired to some sweet glade, where he would ask his questions and received answers that guided him in his destiny. He was like a grown-up child, no memory, for there were no childhood experiences to look back on. No past experience to guide him – no books, no science – but all he needed came in converse with God from whom streamed all wisdom and knowledge. Thereafter this close fellowship and sustaining life-flow was broken. God withdrew. He gave no law to guide them. They and their offspring were left to themselves. All that they had was the knowledge of good and evil – the consciousness that the works of the flesh were displeasing to God – that is, conscience. This was the fragile link that connected them to God. It was the underlying principle of His dealings with them. Under this self-rule, man again failed. He ignored the rebuke and control of the conscience, and God judged this dispensation by the flood. Paul writes of this rule of the conscience in Rom. 2:14-15: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." The conscience represents God in ruling over man. Just as a nation governs its people through the police force, so also God governs the fallen man through the conscience. God set up the conscience within fallen man that man might govern himself according to the principles and laws of the knowledge of good and evil. If anyone acts contrary or is about to act contrary to this knowledge of good and evil, his conscience immediately condemns him and restrains him from going further astray and falling into corruption. Therefore, the major function of the conscience is to govern man.
Our conscience can really be compared to a judgment seat. A judgment seat never has legislative authority over men’s lives; it has judicial authority only, that is, it can only state whether the action of the accused is punishable according to the law of the land or not. Its duty is to examine the deed in relation to what the law says, and then decide whether the deed conforms with or violates the law. This is also what the conscience does. It compares our deeds or our words or thoughts or our nature with the law of the knowledge of good and evil and then pronounces judgment, deciding whether we are in conformity or in conflict with it. The conscience acts as both judge and jury, as well as the key witness in the case! In this realm of the knowledge of good and evil whatever a man does, as far as he does it from conscience, so far is it lawful, for his conscience is formed of all those things which he thinks to be true, and so thinks to be lawful.
Friday, August 4, 2017
Conscience - Part 1
As soon as man fell by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we read, "And the EYES OF BOTH OF THEM WERE OPENED, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED... and Adam and his wife HID THEMSELVES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD amongst the trees of the garden." There is bitter pathos in this scene. Two people, conscience striken, overwhelmed with a sense of sin and shame, furtively slink away into the shadows to hide from God! "The eyes of them both were opened," no doubt about it; but, alas! to what a sight! – it was only to discover their own nakedness and shame. They had gained knowledge but had lost peace of soul and mind. No human tongue could possibly describe the awful nightmare that must have scared their souls when they awoke to their nakedness, unclothed, nude, undraped, disrobed, bare – BEFORE GOD! It was not any fresh knowledge of heavenly excellency they had attained, no fresh beams of divine light from the pure and eternal fountain of life and glory – alas! no; the very first knowledge that came was the shocking discovery that they were naked – followed swiftly by a chilling fear!
Where conscience is permitted to speak, the pain of conscience will be experienced in all its gradations, from almost imperceptible restlessness to peacelessness, fear, anxiety, horror, and wildest despair. Suicides bear witness to the fact that the pangs of conscience can become greater than even the dread of death itself. It is these terrible and unending pangs of conscience also which compel the criminal to make confession of crimes, which the police have not been able to solve. He prefers any kind of punishment to the torments of his conscience, which he feels he can no longer endure. As every psychiatrist knows, people in our mental institutions are there primarily because of guilt. People have wrestled with the guilt they cannot bear up under, until finally their minds snap, and forms of mental illness develop. Nothing contributes so much to a negative self-image than a deep feeling of guilt. We read about it in literature: After committing murder Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth exclaims: “Oh, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!” All of us have had enough experience with unresolved guilt-feelings of our own to know what they do to our self-image: We begin to despise ourselves, to feel utterly worthless, and are likely to plunge into a nightmare of despair. Guilt is a function of the conscience.
It was the pangs of conscience – guilt – that sent Adam fleeing from God, hiding from Him. He did not insolently confront God, but when he heard God’s voice in the Garden he hid from Him. Adam’s reaction was not one whit different from man’s response today. How quickly the small boy who has stolen the tarts hides when he hears his father’s voice, not only for fear of punishment, but from shame of his own condition and at disobeying a loved one. What a strange delusion of Adam’s, both then and today, to think that he could hide from God, as though the world were opaque to God! But in the throes of conscience-pangs he could not flee fast enough. “Adam, where are you?” With this word God calls Adam forth out of his conscience. God speaks to him, He stops him in his flight. “Come out of your hiding-place, from your self-reproach, your self-covering, your secrecy, your self-torment, from your vain remorse, do not lose yourself in despair.” God calls Adam forth out of his conscience and presents to him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to reveal the Creator’s forgiveness and His power to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
Do not forget for one moment, dear ones, that God, omnipotent, omniscient, PLANNED ALL THIS. Adam was intended by God, ere the morning stars sang, and the sons of God shouted for joy, to take part in his own development unto perfection by a series of moral choices, with ensuing failure, sorrow, redemption, and discipline, whereby He would transform him FROM INNOCENCE INTO HOLINESS!
Where conscience is permitted to speak, the pain of conscience will be experienced in all its gradations, from almost imperceptible restlessness to peacelessness, fear, anxiety, horror, and wildest despair. Suicides bear witness to the fact that the pangs of conscience can become greater than even the dread of death itself. It is these terrible and unending pangs of conscience also which compel the criminal to make confession of crimes, which the police have not been able to solve. He prefers any kind of punishment to the torments of his conscience, which he feels he can no longer endure. As every psychiatrist knows, people in our mental institutions are there primarily because of guilt. People have wrestled with the guilt they cannot bear up under, until finally their minds snap, and forms of mental illness develop. Nothing contributes so much to a negative self-image than a deep feeling of guilt. We read about it in literature: After committing murder Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth exclaims: “Oh, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand!” All of us have had enough experience with unresolved guilt-feelings of our own to know what they do to our self-image: We begin to despise ourselves, to feel utterly worthless, and are likely to plunge into a nightmare of despair. Guilt is a function of the conscience.
It was the pangs of conscience – guilt – that sent Adam fleeing from God, hiding from Him. He did not insolently confront God, but when he heard God’s voice in the Garden he hid from Him. Adam’s reaction was not one whit different from man’s response today. How quickly the small boy who has stolen the tarts hides when he hears his father’s voice, not only for fear of punishment, but from shame of his own condition and at disobeying a loved one. What a strange delusion of Adam’s, both then and today, to think that he could hide from God, as though the world were opaque to God! But in the throes of conscience-pangs he could not flee fast enough. “Adam, where are you?” With this word God calls Adam forth out of his conscience. God speaks to him, He stops him in his flight. “Come out of your hiding-place, from your self-reproach, your self-covering, your secrecy, your self-torment, from your vain remorse, do not lose yourself in despair.” God calls Adam forth out of his conscience and presents to him the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to reveal the Creator’s forgiveness and His power to cleanse from all unrighteousness.
Do not forget for one moment, dear ones, that God, omnipotent, omniscient, PLANNED ALL THIS. Adam was intended by God, ere the morning stars sang, and the sons of God shouted for joy, to take part in his own development unto perfection by a series of moral choices, with ensuing failure, sorrow, redemption, and discipline, whereby He would transform him FROM INNOCENCE INTO HOLINESS!
Thursday, August 3, 2017
God's School of Dominion - Part Two
I have some good news for you, my friends! As soon as you conquer the situation you are in right now, God has a bigger mess arranged for you! Oh, yes, this is God's School of Dominion, remember? In this School we learn to rule by RULING. So God places us in His great Workshop and gives us the required circumstances in which to rule! He is a great Teacher. Ultimately we shall rule over all things. And how shall we learn to rule over all things? Simple. By learning to rule over A-L-L T-H-I-N-G-S! Each adversary must be faced – and conquered. There is no other way! Jesus did not conquer temptation by cloistering Himself in a monastery, shut up from those things that could temp Him. Jesus conquered temptation by being tempted in all points like as we are and putting each one under His feet! He overcome satan by facing satan. He triumphed over death by grappling with it in the faith and power of God. In short, He subdued all things by SUBDUING ALL THINGS. Glory!
The journey to the throne of the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. It is impossible to over-emphasize this foundational and fundamental truth: The Kingdom is within you. It is here, Oh child of the Most High, that the magnificence of the all-encompassing, all-enduring, everlasting Kingdom of God has its beginning. God Almighty, full of wisdom, longsuffering, and faithfulness is preparing a people in the lowly estates of this present evil world who will reign with Christ in His throne, first from sea to sea, then from planet to planet, and finally from universe to universe. Make no mistake about it, my beloved ones! These present hours of preparation in the lowest parts of the earth are fraught with infinite importance and eternal significance. It is HERE AND NOW that preparations are to be made! The enchristed who are to reign in glory with Him are being prepared. Think not in your heart, my friend, that you may pass your life here, careless, indifferent to the purposes of God, suddenly to awake one fine morning to find yourself sitting with Christ governing the universe, because such a thing will not be.
As I have previously pointed out, this present time is but a proving ground for those who through grace will reign with their Lord over the endless vastnesses of infinity. He is raising us up to sit with Him in the higher than heavenlies. And the place which He is preparing for each one is not only a world to come, and a Kingdom of life and light, but a place IN HIM, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit, nature of His nature, life of HIS LIFE!
The journey to the throne of the universe begins in that small and undistinguished place where you are. It is impossible to over-emphasize this foundational and fundamental truth: The Kingdom is within you. It is here, Oh child of the Most High, that the magnificence of the all-encompassing, all-enduring, everlasting Kingdom of God has its beginning. God Almighty, full of wisdom, longsuffering, and faithfulness is preparing a people in the lowly estates of this present evil world who will reign with Christ in His throne, first from sea to sea, then from planet to planet, and finally from universe to universe. Make no mistake about it, my beloved ones! These present hours of preparation in the lowest parts of the earth are fraught with infinite importance and eternal significance. It is HERE AND NOW that preparations are to be made! The enchristed who are to reign in glory with Him are being prepared. Think not in your heart, my friend, that you may pass your life here, careless, indifferent to the purposes of God, suddenly to awake one fine morning to find yourself sitting with Christ governing the universe, because such a thing will not be.
As I have previously pointed out, this present time is but a proving ground for those who through grace will reign with their Lord over the endless vastnesses of infinity. He is raising us up to sit with Him in the higher than heavenlies. And the place which He is preparing for each one is not only a world to come, and a Kingdom of life and light, but a place IN HIM, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, Spirit of His Spirit, nature of His nature, life of HIS LIFE!
God's School of Dominion - Part One
Learn this and you will know a great truth: Christ is not depressed, upset, anxious, frustrated, nor defeated. And CHRIST IN YOU is not either! And YOU IN CHRIST are not either! This is the first step in overcoming: To rise up above the problem in the CHRIST SPIRIT until the problem is no longer a problem to you by virtue of the indwelling of His love and joy and peace.
Man's first instinct under pressure is to run, to extricate himself from the situation. When we run from the problem we immediately FLUNK THE TEST. When we fail to overcome "in" the problem, our nature in that area is left weak, undisciplined, and undeveloped. Oft time, so they can appear "spiritual," men divorce their wives, wives divorce their husbands, parents abandon their children, people move from place to place, from job to job, from church to church. Often people pray like this: "Lord, deliver me from this job where everyone is so filthy and the boss so hateful; give me a job with the Full Gospel Business Men where everyone is spiritual and praise God and speaks in tongues!" Ah, we seek an "environment" that is "conducive" to our "spirituality," little realizing that in that environment where all is so beautiful and harmonious we only appear to be spiritual because there is nothing to cross us, nothing hostile, in short NOTHING TO OVERCOME! You can run from the problem, my brother, you can seek an environment where nothing is adverse to you, my sister, you can even have faith where God will just "solve" all your problems and pour down the healings, prosperity, and blessing; yes, you can do all this and be a Christian, even a good Spirit-filled Christian; but I do not hesitate to tell you that you cannot do this and BECOME A RULER!
There are steps to the throne. Your next step to the throne is before you, right where you are, in your present situation, problems and life circumstances. All the pressures upon you will either rule you, dominating your mind, attitudes, emotions and actions, causing you to be depressed, frustrated, upset, negative etc., or you can utilize the OVERCOMING SPIRIT OF SONSHIP WITHIN to soar up above the problems, putting them under your feet, transformed into STEPPING-STONES TO THE THRONE! Ah, beloved, a blessed secret I have discovered: The things I once saw as liabilities in my walk in Christ I have now begun to recognize as assets – glorious opportunities to LEARN HOW TO RULE, blessed provisions of God by which I may appropriate the triumph of the life of the Son of God within.
You can never rule anything until you first overcome it within yourself. To "overcome" means TO COME UP OVER THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. The term implies the existence of obstacles in the pathway of the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God. When, within yourself, you rise up above the circumstance, the problem, so that it no longer controls or harasses you, you are then ready to begin to control it, to no longer be the victim of circumstances, but the master of them. Come up over what the religious systems have fed you. Come up over your own pride and inherent weaknesses. Come up over your desire to build a reputation for your name. Come up over the myriad pressures from within and without. Come up over the world of confusion and turmoil about you. You are called to be an OVER-COMER. Come over that wall! Come over into the Kingdom of God and a realm of complete victory. If we cannot come out victoriously over ourselves and over the little temptations and frustrations here, how can the Lord trust us to reign over that which is without? What kind of warriors would we make? How much could He depend upon us? He will give us the place for which we are prepared and qualified; we must set our faces to be overcomers if we are to sit with Him upon His throne and reign with Him.
Man's first instinct under pressure is to run, to extricate himself from the situation. When we run from the problem we immediately FLUNK THE TEST. When we fail to overcome "in" the problem, our nature in that area is left weak, undisciplined, and undeveloped. Oft time, so they can appear "spiritual," men divorce their wives, wives divorce their husbands, parents abandon their children, people move from place to place, from job to job, from church to church. Often people pray like this: "Lord, deliver me from this job where everyone is so filthy and the boss so hateful; give me a job with the Full Gospel Business Men where everyone is spiritual and praise God and speaks in tongues!" Ah, we seek an "environment" that is "conducive" to our "spirituality," little realizing that in that environment where all is so beautiful and harmonious we only appear to be spiritual because there is nothing to cross us, nothing hostile, in short NOTHING TO OVERCOME! You can run from the problem, my brother, you can seek an environment where nothing is adverse to you, my sister, you can even have faith where God will just "solve" all your problems and pour down the healings, prosperity, and blessing; yes, you can do all this and be a Christian, even a good Spirit-filled Christian; but I do not hesitate to tell you that you cannot do this and BECOME A RULER!
There are steps to the throne. Your next step to the throne is before you, right where you are, in your present situation, problems and life circumstances. All the pressures upon you will either rule you, dominating your mind, attitudes, emotions and actions, causing you to be depressed, frustrated, upset, negative etc., or you can utilize the OVERCOMING SPIRIT OF SONSHIP WITHIN to soar up above the problems, putting them under your feet, transformed into STEPPING-STONES TO THE THRONE! Ah, beloved, a blessed secret I have discovered: The things I once saw as liabilities in my walk in Christ I have now begun to recognize as assets – glorious opportunities to LEARN HOW TO RULE, blessed provisions of God by which I may appropriate the triumph of the life of the Son of God within.
You can never rule anything until you first overcome it within yourself. To "overcome" means TO COME UP OVER THAT WHICH IS OVER YOU. The term implies the existence of obstacles in the pathway of the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God. When, within yourself, you rise up above the circumstance, the problem, so that it no longer controls or harasses you, you are then ready to begin to control it, to no longer be the victim of circumstances, but the master of them. Come up over what the religious systems have fed you. Come up over your own pride and inherent weaknesses. Come up over your desire to build a reputation for your name. Come up over the myriad pressures from within and without. Come up over the world of confusion and turmoil about you. You are called to be an OVER-COMER. Come over that wall! Come over into the Kingdom of God and a realm of complete victory. If we cannot come out victoriously over ourselves and over the little temptations and frustrations here, how can the Lord trust us to reign over that which is without? What kind of warriors would we make? How much could He depend upon us? He will give us the place for which we are prepared and qualified; we must set our faces to be overcomers if we are to sit with Him upon His throne and reign with Him.
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!
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!
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