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JRT
The Christian life is an event followed by a process. It is an experience followed by a relationship.
Now, it seems, that around the world there is a contagion of desperate searching, of ravenous hunger, and of intense investigation. The waters are troubled and thousands scramble to be the first to be made whole. Many report new lives, new homes, new churches in the wake of the stirrings of the Holy Spirit. That the Spirit of God is at work is a declaration which cannot be refuted. Something is going on! In the midst of it the theologians theorize, the historians analyze, the complacent rationalize. and the suspicious criticize.
The controversy rages! Issues develop. Terminology separates. "Extremism and wildfire'" contends one school. "Deficiency and deadness" replies another. The devil delights to divide. If we are not careful our differences in approach will cause a disturbance which will dull the point of the whole matter, namely, that any person can be BORN OF THE SPIRIT,
Yielding to His Lordship is like standing at the entrance of a gigantic treasure house, overwhelmed at the MUCH MORE of it all.
I am not now content to believe (nor have I ever been) that it was the plan of God that the church should begin in a flame of fire and end up in a fizzle of faithlessness. Jesus Christ is the same today! Only His earthly body has changed. It is now made up of the saved everywhere. Let that body discover the fullness of Him Who is the Head and you have the MUCH MORE of the New Testament church throbbing with the Life of her Lord.
I am delightfully aware that after the last word said and after a thousand others are written, we can still say, "Ah, but on beyond there's more ... MUCH MORE!"
… The KEY, in a statement, is CHRIST IN YOU…THE HOPE OF GLORY. It is by the Holy Spirit that Christ comes to live in the human spirit, abides to master the human spirit, and continues to minister through the human spirit to a world in desperate need.
There is much emphasis today on the need of a new dynamic. A trumpet sounds out a new possibility or a new power and thousands are ready and eager to listen. There are uncertain sounds in the area of renewal which bypass or disregard the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
These sounds are destined to die out among the howling winds of human need.
“Honor the Holy Ghost!” was the plea of an old man to Dwight L. Moody in the beginning days of his evangelistic ministry. He never forgot the admonition. That movement or person which does not honor the Spirit cannot succeed. Those who honestly, scripturally, and sanely honor the Holy Spirit as He magnifies Christ cannot fail… HE IS THE KEY…LIVING IN ME…BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!
There are many ways to say it:
Hannah W. Smith calls it THE CHRISTIAN’S SECRET TO A HAPPY LIFE;
Charles Trumbull, VICTORY IN CHRIST;
Ian Thomas, THE SAVING LIFE OF CHRIST;
Stuart Briscoe, THE FULNESS OF CHRIST;
A. B. Simpson, THE LARGER LIFE;
Harold Wildish, THE GLORIOUS SECRET;
F. B. Meyer, THE EXCHANGED LIFE;
G. B. Duncan titles it THE LIFE OF CONTINUAL REJOICING:
Watchman Nee, THE NORMAL CHRISTIAN LIFE;
Ruth Paxson, LIFE ON THE HIGHEST PLANE;
and still others such as Huegel, Barbour, Maxwell, McConkey, Redpath, Hunter, Tryon, Murray, Finney, and Letgers have varying terms for what Jesus simply called LIFE MORE ABUNDANT!
This quality of life has been appropriately called the Spirit-controlled Life, the Christ-filled Life, the Overcoming Life, Life in the Heavenlies, and the Key to Everything.
Whatever it is called, it is nothing less than all of Christ…RESIDENT IN…REIGNING OVER…AND RELEASED THROUGH the human life. This is the master key. This is the KEY TO TRIUMPHANT LIVING. I do not know of a lock it doesn’t fit.
JRT
from the Introduction to The Key to Triumphant Living
There is a real sense in which the scope of salvation is Trinitarian, a living, continuing power in man. I was saved immediately in my spirit; I am being saved gradually in my soul and will ultimately be saved in my body when it becomes a body such as Jesus possessed after His resurrection.
Now, back to the soul: Before the event of the new birth the unredeemed soul was its own center, the untouched ego. In salvation there is a new center, the spirit where God’s Spirit dwells. The soul -- our expression of authentic identity becomes a servant of the human spirit and God’s spirit in developing expressions of new creation qualities, better known as the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace and so on.
It is at the point of the soul that growth takes place under the influence of God’s Spirit in us emanating His character through our entire being. One of greatest declarations in Scripture regarding the work of God in man’s soul is 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “Now, may God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through (completely) . May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The next verse boldly derclares, “The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.”
Now, this has been a quick run-through bringing us to the place of the soul, now under the influence of the Spirit reaching the whole man. Discipleship becomes a continuing therapy of soul training and the body happily becomes a servant of the soul which is the servant of the Spirit of God in man’s redeemed soul.
JRT
The soul has the power to boast and seems to be the seat of pride, both good and bad. Not all boasting is the fruit of pride. One can boast of things good, noble and productive or one can boast of self and self exaltation. The Scripture says, This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom or the strong man boast in his strength or the rich man boast in his riches but let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight (Jeremiah 9:23-24).”
Now that leads us right away to what was said of David or by David in a very trying time in his life, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will boast in the Lord; the afflicted shall hear and be glad.” And there you have it, arguably the most appealing reach of the soul of man, to be able to boast in the Lord and, at the same time, cause rejoicing among the suffering ones.
I don’t pretend to be thorough in my intellectual understanding of the human soul, but this I know: with whatever this is within me called a soul, I can brag on God to God and, in the act, cause rejoicing among those who hear and hurt.
Now, that is influence! As you think on this, consider that your soul has far-reaching capacities and potential and reaches out when you may not realize it. You can with proper soul care and discipline point your soul toward suffering humanity and leave a blessed trail of joy and happiness in your wake.
Be astonished at your soul, dear friend, within its reach are many waiting for someone whose soul is awakened to its seeming infinite reaches.
JRT