"The best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else!"
- T. Austin-Sparks
March 25
Without Me, you can do nothing. (John 15:5)
The Cross simply says that an order, though it
be religious, well-motivated, or good-intentioned, but nevertheless proceeding
from man in his natural state (not necessarily in defiance of God or in
conscious rebellion against Him, but just the expression of man's natural state
as he is), the Cross says that this entire order is set aside. God has
judicially judged it and put a ban upon it. In the Cross of the Lord Jesus God
has said finally: 'You in your natural state cannot serve Me, and cannot bear
any fruit to My glory! It is possible to go out and work, labor, and die of the
strain of trying to serve Me and yet it still remains true that you cannot, out
from yourself, by any natural resources whatever, bear fruit unto Me.' The only
thing that can ever get through to God's end, and that can be in Life – eternal,
Divine, heavenly Life – is that which proceeds from the Holy Spirit.
How sweeping that is! How that analyzes and dissects everything! Of the things
we say, for example, it continually presents the interrogation: 'Was that spoken
in the Holy Spirit?' It is not enough to ask ourselves: 'Did I mean it well? Did
I intend it for the Lord?' but: 'Was it said, was it done, in the Holy Spirit,
or did I do it?' It is not a question of motive or of intention, but of
the source from which we did it. We have daily to recognize that our lives must
be subject to the Holy Spirit, and when we are aware that there has been
something of our own will, we have to be faithful before God about it.
Daily Open Windows messages have been selected from the works of T. Austin-Sparks. In some cases they appear in abridged form. The introductory verse and its associated Bible version have been selected by the website editor and did not always appear within the original message. In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.