Mark 10:28-30 “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lord, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
A great deal of harm has been done to the spirituality of the body or the church by the idea that once we are God’s children, the using of our gifts in His service just follows as a matter of course. This is not true and a very special grace is needed. And the way the grace comes is again that of sacrifice and surrender. We have to understand that all our gifts and powers even though we are children of God are still defiled by sin and under the power of the flesh. I have to first lay everything at His feet to be accepted and cleansed by Him. I must understand that I am powerless to use them correctly and they are dangerous to me because through them the flesh, the old nature will easily exert its power. I must give them up entirely to the Lord Jesus. When He accepts my surrender and puts His stamp of approval on them, then I may hold them to wait on Him to wait for the grace to use them properly and only under His influence. Not only is what is given up received back to become doubly our own, but forsaking all is followed by the receiving all. We abide in Jesus more fully as we forsake all and follow Him. As I count all things loss for His sake, I am found in Him.
This principle has a deeper application. The spiritual gifts that are the working of God’s own Holy Spirit within us, these surely do not have to be given up and surrendered? Yes, they do: the interchange of giving up and taking in is a life process and does not stop for a moment. No sooner does the believer begin to rejoice in the possession of what he has than the inflow of new grace is slowed and stagnation threatens. It is only into the thirst of an empty soul that the streams of living waters flow. Ever thirsting is the secret of never thirsting. Each blessed experience we receive as a gift of God must be returned back to Him in praise and love, in self-sacrifice and service; so it can be restored to us again, fresh and beautiful. This is what the lesson of Isaiah on Mt Moriah teaches us. He was the son of promise, the God given life, and he still had to be given up and sacrificed so that he might be received back again a thousand times more precious than ever before.
If you are a believer, I pray that you would abide in Jesus and that you would see how here. We shrink back self and surrender in our life. But what your nature does not love and cannot perform, grace will accomplish and make to you a life of joy and glory. If you will give yourself to Jesus the power of His presence will make it joy to surrender everything to Him. The ‘hundred fold of Mark 10:30, this word of the Master comes true to all who, with wholehearted faithfulness accept His command to forsake all. The receiving makes the giving up a blessing as well. And the secret of a life abiding will be seen as this: As I give myself to Jesus, I find the power to take Him for myself, and as I lose myself and all I have for Him, He takes me wholly for Himself and gives Himself wholly to me.
Dale
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