True Conversion - Sparks

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AbideinHim May 16, 2011

May 16 "Open Windows" by T. Austin Sparks

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...The Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. (Colossians 2:19)

What is the believer? In God's sight the believer is one in whom Christ is implanted, and God never looks at Christ in a limited way. He always looks at Him in an absolute way, and when Christ is implanted at the beginning of our life it is not as though God implanted Him in a fragmentary way. God's thought was that the end should be bound up with the beginning, and that Christ should be All and in all. That is why conversion is never an end in itself. It is only the first step toward the full end of God. It defines the nature of the believer in God's sight, that it is of Christ. You cannot make that. No decision cards can accomplish that. You can never make men and women Christians by inviting them to make certain decisions, to assent mentally to certain propositions of Christian doctrine, though perfectly true as to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. There has to be something which constitutes in that individual, right at the very center of the being, a living union with Christ, and a deposit of Christ. Anything other than that is a false conversion. It is the depositing of Christ at the very centre of the being, with a view to His spreading to the very circumference, that is the nature of a believer....

You see the pathetic hopelessness of trying to propagate anything by organized means and methods which really is all of God. It simply has to grow, it simply has to be. Ah, but when it is so it is mighty, it is indestructible, it is incorruptible. Nothing can stand in the way of Christ. It is that which rouses hell and the energies of the Devil. He does not mind all the other: doctrine, work, profession. That may often serve his ends as a great deception and misrepresentation; but bring Christ in, bring Christ through, realize Christ, and then you meet every force in this universe which is antagonistic to Christ.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Essential Newness of the New Creation - Chapter 2

sermonindex May 18, 2011

Thank you Brother Mike. Praying you're well!

quote:

"There has to be something which constitutes in that individual, right at the very center of the being, a living union with Christ, and a deposit of Christ. Anything other than that is a false conversion. It is the depositing of Christ at the very centre of the being

Ah, but when it is so it is mighty, it is indestructible, it is incorruptible. Nothing can stand in the way of Christ."

Have a deep burden for those who are not finding this so, years after making a profession of faith.
Your other post today about "forgetting those things that are behind" is a very good idea.
These thoughts bring back that incident where Jesus touched the blind man once and asked him what he saw. The man answered "I see men as trees walking" - and Jesus touched him again.
We could ask, did Jesus not have enough power the first time he touched him?
I think we'd have to sensibly say no. Jesus didn't lack power. He had a purpose for everything He did and didn't do. Like when He didn't immediately go to heal Lazarus.
That incident with that blind man always made me think of a need for that second touch.
To not fear forgetting those things that are behind and going to Jesus again and asking for the touch that does the complete work.
Some have made mental assents - not being taught the meaning of regeneration, when they made their first profession of faith. They didn't fully realize nor were they taught, what exactly they were asking for - until they moved on in years and realized that they didn't have what's posted in these quotes above.
I pray no one ever fears going back to Jesus and asking for the second touch. To ask to receive full sight. The sight that they hadn't received the first time they came to Jesus but they hadn't fully received their spiritual sight.
To 'see' clearly and experience the fullness of what He intends for us. To be Totally healed of the affects of Adam's and our sin and see our way into the fulness of GOD, as He walks with us, through to that.
We need to be able to 'see' Him, to fully understand where He's going and to follow Him completely.
I pray that no one ever fears going back to Jesus for that second touch to see their way clear to the end with Him, as a victorious conquerer. Eph 1:17-23.

"It is the depositing of Christ at the very centre of the being, with a view to His spreading to the very circumference, that is the nature of a believer."

- from: "The Essential Newness of the New Creation"

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AbideinHim May 18, 2011

Dear sister,

Thank you for this exhortation on coming back to Jesus for that second touch.

Thank you for your prayers. I am doing much better, am up and around and just about back to normal. God's Word is medicine to all of my flesh, and my healing is way ahead of schedule according to the doctors.

Mike

sermonindex May 18, 2011

Amen. No one should ever fear telling Him what they see, so that He'll fix it.

"God's Word is medicine to all of my flesh" - Bless GOD Almighty!

L

lylewise May 18, 2011

I would agree that this second touch is what is missing from so many who have made the assent but not been changed by the miracle that is regeneration. As loving, tender, and graceful God is He touches so gently but the effect is earth shattering.

Might this be a part of what is missing from the assenters understanding so as not to be fooled by a false teaching so prevalent and at work regarding the beautiful doctrine of regeneration ( The miracle doctrine).