Come Out of Poverty! :)

5/24/2004

There are many people who, despite the passage of years, have accumulated very little in the way of divine riches because they have not passed through trials under the government of the Holy Spirit. These Christians can go on day by day for years on end without coming in any definite way under the Spirit’s control. These Christians gain little with the passage of time and often they seem to meet comparatively few difficulties. Even though there has been sufficient lapse of time to learn spiritual lessons, there has not been sufficient discipline in life and submission to the Spirit to produce spiritual wealth. But other Christians, in all their circumstances, yield to being strongly governed by the Spirit of God. The Father uses trials, pain, and difficulties to lay bare weakness, self-deception, and self-interests. These Believers are taken in hand and not let off. Change is wrought and spiritual wealth is gained. Let us prize every circumstance into which we are brought, and let us not be dismayed by whatever difficulties we meet, for they are all ordered for our enrichment. The more trouble we encounter, the more opportunity there is for spiritual increase in life, and only thus shall we be able to bring the Word of Life to others. Wealth in the ability to think and function in the Fullness of Him will often be in proportion to the trials through which we have humbly let God lay bare the motives of our hearts, and in proportion to the trials through which we have allowed Him to change us. We can often only dispense to the Children of God what we have gained by experiences that wrought changes in us by the Hand of God. We impart what we have actually been changed in through God Himself. This change and spiritual wealth can never be acquired through doctrinal knowledge, but can only be made Real in us as we are led by the Holy Spirit through circumstances divinely ordered for our Instruction.

Therefore I hope that we who are learning to follow the Lord will not be slack in our daily life. In all the disappointments and disillusionments we meet let us recognize our Lord’s dealings with us and bow before Him in gratitude and worship, acknowledging that His Purpose in all these things is to enrich our lives.

(Nee)