Planted by Water

I referred in an earlier posting to a writer who is not well-known across the Christian mainstream but who has been a big influence on what many of us have come into in the so-called ‘restorationist movement’ - T.Austin-Sparks. I feel that he is an amazing prophetic and teaching ministry and that he has awesome insights into the Bible and the things of God. It is true that his writing is rather awkward and old-fashioned and it can be hard-going at times, (apparently listening to the tapes is even harder work) but it is worth the effort. I have often noted that some of the genuinely ‘deeper’ writers don’t seem to write too well, and some of the more shallow mainstrean writers do (surely there are some out there who can combine both depth of insight with clarity of style!)

I have just been reading, as part of my devotional reading, a book of his called Rivers of Living Water. It was superb. I was really inspired and especially liked his emphasis on truth being about the impartation of life, his relation of the work of the Spirit to the house of God (the church), to the Cross and to God’s ultimate purpose. He also had some great insights into the difference between the spirtitual and the religious.

I’m posting some gems from the book that I noted down; I’ll post some more tomorrow.

The ultimate proof of truth is vitality; not just what it is in itself, even though it may be truth, but its effect. And the effect of the truth is always intended to be life: life and truth go together. The proof of everything is in the ‘living’ conditions which may result, can result, and, if given opportunity, will result.

Let it be understood that it is the Church, the House of God, which is the Spirit’s object, and that we shall not come into the value and benefits of the full tide of the Spirit, unless we are in line with the Spirit’s object, the House of God.

..everything depends on the spiritual state of the church.

We shall prove to the last moment of our lives, if we are going on with the Lord, that the Holy Spirit is still working by means of and by way of the Cross, and that every fresh experience of the Spirit in life and fulness will be based upon some fresh application of the principle of the Cross. 

We shall not get anywhere unless and until we understand the Cross as interpreted to us by the Holy Spirit……….and yet all of this error about the death of Christ is simply because those who propagate it are not Spirit-taught men. If we are taught by the Spirit, we shall come to understand the Cross. No Spirit-guided minstry will ever come to ignore the Cross or make little of it. It will rather do what the Holy Spirit does - keep it in the centre and make everything circle round it.

If you are always turning in on yourself in an effort to crucify that self of yours, you are applying the Cross in a wrong way. Leave it to the Holy Spirit!….if you and I take hold of the Cross to try to crucify ourselves, we are going to become subject to terrible introversion. There is a false meaning of the Cross, making for introspection and self-despair, which God never meant. The Cross is intended, not to throw us in upon ourselves, but to deliver us out of ourselves into new life.

If you make a teaching of the Holy Spirit….something in itself and do not relate it to the full purpose of God, you will get an awful confusion, deplorable situations and conditions, which are a disgrace to the Lord……..It is only as everything is brought into relation to the full purpose and object of God that the Holy Spirit will go on in increasing fulness.