Tape 1 - Communion with God Series

We want to begin studying this evening how to commune with God, how to have communion with God.

One of the most difficult problems is maintaining unbroken communion with God and seems to be the great question in many people's hearts.

We understand that the spiritual life we receive can only be sustained by constant fellowship with the Lord. A child of God must learn how to abide in this living union in communication with Him.

Now the word communion is misunderstood by many people. It means to converse, an interchange of thought.

The act of communing is described as consulting, conversing, or talking with another. This is exactly what communion with God truly means.

A ceaseless consulting with Him. A blessed converse over all the problems and difficulties that must come to us in our pilgrimage through this present evil world.

You remember that God makes an appointment to meet the sinner at the cross of Calvary and converse begins there.

Colossians 1 .20 when He made peace through the blood of the cross. All becomes clear on God's side and He issues an appeal to His enemies and makes an appointment to meet them at Calvary.

That is the place of reconciliation. This place called Calvary, yes, it is in full sight of that wondrous sacrifice of the

Son of God according to Hebrews 9 .26 that God brings us into an agreement with Himself.

We are shown that our sins are nailed to the tree with His Son, 1 Peter 2 .24, but we will be spared years of struggle if we learn that we ourselves were put to death in the death of Christ.

The past is blotted out and the pardoned sinner is accounted crucified with a crucified Lord. Romans 5 .10

tells us that we are saved by sharing His life. Of course, one has to deal with a surrendered will.

It is necessary that we yield wholly unto God, Romans 6 .13. How can we be set free from the bondage of self and sin if we hold back anything for ourself?

Jesus Christ will not manifest His own life through us if we will not entirely give Him the throne.

This is so confusing to many people. Our will is all that we really have to give to our beloved

Lord. He simply asks us decisively to take sides with Him against all in us and in our lives, from which

He must set us free. Read 2 Corinthians 6 .14 -18.

Yes, we must give ourselves irrevocably into His hands. And this brings in the result of the indwelling spirit of Jesus Christ.

As we yield to Him, our whole being, the Holy Spirit takes possession, cleanses the heart from its old desires and reveals the living

Christ as the indweller of the surrendered one. The walk and the happy converse has begun, 2

Corinthians 6 .16. The most important point in this blessed walk with Jesus is that there should be no gaps in the communion.

After the first agreement with God, there is much to learn, and we must not become discouraged or fainthearted if we do not understand all at once how to walk with Him faithfully.

There are conditions for this communion. I want us to examine some of the conditions of maintained communion.

First of all, we must take care to give the Lord the very first moments of the day for consultation over our lives.

The Lord needs time to breed His life into us and to talk with us of His purposes for us as is revealed in His word.

This is the real heart of fellowship with God. We need to enter into His presence and sit at our

Father's footstool as little children. And as we draw nigh to Him with true hearts and a full assurance of faith,

He responds. We can count on immediate access through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 10 .19 .20. Turn to a portion of Scripture in the morning, not so much as to study it, as to just listen to what

God the Lord shall speak to you through it. Just listen. Talk to your Father about it.

Ask Him to unveil its meaning and what warning it has for you. What rebuke comes to you from it?

What command is He given through it? What comfort do you receive from that passage of Scripture?

And then respond to Him. Tell Him you will obey as far as you know how, that you will trust

Him to watch over you, to guard you in the day that is beginning. Then pour out your heart's longings to Him, your deep desire to know

Him better and to be His obedient child. This is just a beginning of the communion with God.

We must feed on the heavenly food provided for us in the Word of God. Matthew 4 .4.

Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

There is a vast difference between spiritually feeding upon the Word of God, Jeremiah 15 .16,

and studying it with our intellect. Many people spend time studying while their souls starve in the midst of plenty.

In the morning hours we must learn to take our spiritual breakfast. Job 23 .12.

Remember the Holy Spirit is the author of the Holy Book. Before you read, recognize the presence of the author.

Speak to Him and ask Him to open your eyes to see wondrous things in His law. The Bible is a storehouse of food laid up for the child of God for His whole pilgrimage on earth, and we may know the portion that the

Holy Spirit distributes to each person according to his need every single day.

We need to be as little children and take the food that is convenient for us. As we come to heart sayings, let them alone, for they may belong to solid food.

Hebrews 5 .14. Let us look for God in His Word rather than for knowledge about Him, and He will reveal

Himself to us more and more. We need to look for God rather than knowledge about God in His Word when we are in these moments of communion.

We must learn to live with Him moment by moment. Communion with God is very much like breathing, and it is only maintained just one moment at a time.

Refuse to look back, refuse to look forward, even though you may be tempted to do so.

Vain regrets over the past and vague fears of the future will harass our minds enough to break our fellowship with God.

Our mind cannot be occupied with two matters at one time, so that we need to trust our Lord to keep us abiding, even unconsciously, while we give our attention to our duty in doing the next thing.

Colossians 3 .23. Someone may say we have made mistakes. Are we not to make them right?

Communing means consulting with the Lord. As you spread out your cause before Him, ask

Him to show you anything He wishes you to do, any step that He would have you retrace. If you are shown something concerning another where you have done wrong,

His Word is very clear. Confess your faults one to another. Many passages of Scripture.

James 5 .16, Matthew 5 .23, Matthew 18 .15. This is necessary always for unbroken communion.

A conscience void of offense toward man as well as God. Acts 24 .16.

He promises that His glory, He promises that His presence shall be your reward.

We must be intent on having no gaps in this communion. If in earnest we walk with God, we shall find the blessed

Spirit making us increasingly sensitive to any break in that holy friendship. When we are conscious of actual failure, we should instantly fly to the throne of grace and cast ourselves by faith into the presence of our

Father God. Hebrews 10 .19 .20. We are always assured of access on account of the precious blood of the

Lord Jesus. His blood and His blood alone gives us entry into the Father's presence.

Not our experience, not our obedience, there is nothing, nothing but the precious blood of Jesus.

We must obviously deal very quickly with any failure. It is not easy to at once go to God when conscious of failure.

In fact, the battle turns most upon this particular point. Once we go, we are saved in the very going.

The devil, our conscience, our shame and our regret all combine to keep us away from God.

Some have sort of a feeling that they ought to be miserable for a few hours first. It looks so presumptuous, a making light of sin, to dare to run to God at once.

And yet, if we delay in going to God, we know one fall is but the precursor of many falls.

The sin will be the same hideous thing and worse three hours later. The way of victory in the hour of defeat is to go to the

Father saying, Father, I have sinned. Let me emphasize, however, at this point that constant transgression and restoration is not

God's purpose for His redeemed children. We must not expect to fall.

We must not expect to fall again and again and again over the same sin, for the living

Lord is able to guard us from stumbling. Jude, verse 24. He that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 3, 21. The blood of Jesus cleanses, the Greek literally means keeps on cleansing, if we ceaselessly live under the searchlight of God, earnestly desiring

Him to test our lives. Everything is wrought by Him and in Him for His glory.

But supposing we are conscious of a cloud and we do not know the cause, we don't understand the reason, consult the

Lord. Go at once to the throne of grace and ask the faithful witness to tell you the truth and show if anything is wrong.

Trust the blessed Holy Spirit to apply the blood of sprinkling and if you wait and if nothing specific is brought to mind, leave it all with God and go on in quiet trust and rest under the cleansing blood.

You must take heed that you do not morbidly get occupied with yourself, for this is introspection and if you turn upon yourself, you will lose the fellowship with the

Lord. Someone comes to me and says, yes, I do go back at once to God when I am conscious of failure and I do confess, but there is not the immediate restoration of peace and the consciousness of communion.

There may be one or two reasons for this if this occurs. First of all, that we do not know sufficiently the efficacy of the precious blood to bring us the assurance of peace.

It is not your confession, but the application by the Holy Spirit of the cleansing blood of Jesus that immediately restores the broken fellowship with God.

When we have sinned against the Lord and we apply to him for forgiveness, we must humbly leave ourselves in his hand to deal with us as he sees fit.

It may be even possible that we confess our failure with sorrow for the loss of the joy rather than with the grief over the pain to him.

He must teach his children how sinful a thing sin is and make them understand how grieved he is.

Then we must walk in obedience right up to light. If we are to walk in communion with the

Lord, it is reasonable that he should expect us to obey all the light he gives us to enable us to obey.

Ye are my friends if you do the things I command you, he said. Friendship with Jesus must mean that we rejoice to fulfill his every wish, walking in obedience up to our present knowledge.

It is well never to act when in any restless or hurried condition of mind. We need to cultivate quietness of spirit and recollectness of the spirit of our unseen friend.

Now, many people have difficulty with temptation, but let me again say something that I have said over and over again through these years.

We must remember that temptation is not sin. The adversary makes it his business to cut communication between the soul and the

Lord, an individual and his Lord. Meet all accusations of lack of surrender by a definite surrender to the

Lord on that particular point in question. He does not expect his child to obey without clear knowledge of a father's mind.

Temptation is not sin. Sin comes when we say yes in our will to the temptation.

We must learn to live in the will and not in the realm of our feelings. It is through the central power of the will that God controls us always and ever.

Crowds of terrible thoughts may be pouring through your mind. Turn once to the Lord. Quietly settle before Him your attitude to all these things.

I refuse them in the name of Jesus Christ. Then praise God and praise the

Lord. It is the victory and the enemy is put to flight. Let us not dishonor our

Lord by thinking that every unpleasant thing must be His will. So long as in the will we are steadfastly purposed to obey

Him, and we rely upon Him moment by moment to keep us from self -seeking and self -indulgence in every form, we may trust

Him to incline hearts to keep His law. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 14.

A part of communing with God and having fellowship with the Lord is co -praying with the

Spirit of the Lord. There is tremendous power in prayer if we only knew how to use it.

In Romans chapter 8 verse 26 and 27, a very much quoted but most misunderstood passage of Scripture, it shows us the part the

Holy Spirit takes in our prayer. It says the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity.

In the Greek this refers to our physical and moral weakness. For we know not how to pray, that is, we cannot without His aid arrive at a knowledge of what to pray for, either for ourselves or for other people.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is vitally and necessarily involved. Well, what are the conditions for the praying with the

Spirit of the Lord? The personal spiritual condition must be that of verses 12 to 17 before the prayer life in the

Holy Spirit described in verses 26 and 27 can be fully known. So there must be an observance and obedience to verses 12 to 17 in Romans chapter 8 before verse 26 and 27 can come into play.

Now the first condition leading up to the prayer life of Romans 8 26 is found in Romans 8 13.

If you live after the flesh, you must die. But if you by the Spirit, or if by the

Spirit, ye make to die the doings of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the

Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. There will be no advance in the spiritual life.

None can be realized without the foundation of the cross. Obviously, we must be shown by Him how to stand in the position of Christ's death.

And by His working, let the death of Christ be applied to us experimentally. They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh,

Galatians 5 24. It means therefore the standing of Romans chapter 6 while in practice the

Spirit of God apply the power of the death of Christ to all the activities of the flesh. This is the first condition.

The second condition of this prayer life in the Spirit is found in verse 15 where the

Apostle Paul speaks of the spirit of sonship, the spirit of adoption, where the believer knows

God as Father and the Holy Spirit bears witness with His Spirit that He is a child of God, verse 16.

As you read Romans chapter 8 verses 12 and 17, ask yourself the question, are these conditions fulfilled in my life?

Is our standing in Christ on the ground of Calvary and reckoning ourselves crucified with Christ, is it a real fact to us?

Do we permit the Holy Spirit to apply the power of the death of Christ or do we shirk the cross? The clear leading of the

Spirit through the human spirit cannot be known if in any degree the lower life is allowed to have dominion.

They that are led by the Spirit, that is, they who have the Holy Spirit indwelling, leading, teaching, witnessing, giving the spirit of adoption, they are the ones who will know the life of the

Spirit. And walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit and knowing the

Spirit depends upon our standing upon the ground of the every single moment, so that whenever there is any manifestation of the doings of the flesh, we instantly count on the

Holy Spirit to apply the death of the cross to them and in the will say no to the lower life and all its varied workings.

Now, dear beloved, there is a what I call a hidden leakage hindering prayer, a hidden leakage.

Many Christians have a hidden hindrance which causes leakage of strength in the spiritual life.

There is something from below pulling them downward, draining and dragging every now and then to a lower sphere of living.

They cannot know the intercession of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Spirit or His inspiration of prayer unless they know the power of the

Spirit in their daily life. It is just impossible. There are three groanings, notice that referred to in Romans chapter 8, there are three groanings in Romans 8.

First of all, the whole creation groaneth, verse 22. That is the outside world.

Then we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, verse 23.

Here is the saint, the believer, groaning and waiting for the redemption of the body. And then verse 26, the

Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings. Here is the blessed Spirit of God in the church, in the body of Christ groaning, a groaning creation, a groaning saint, and a groaning of the

Spirit in the church with groanings which cannot be uttered. We may now look at the prayer life as given in verse 26.

First of all, we are powerless in prayer for lack of knowledge. We know not how to pray as we ought.

Next, the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Many words can be poured out in prayer, wonderful prayer sometime, but without any of the genuine wordless prayer of the

Spirit being involved with it. The Holy Spirit's prayer in your spirit is oftentimes a groaning without words when it cannot reach the mental consciousness for expression.

We need the Holy Spirit to put into our spirits the Spirit cry unto God. Think with me about the groaning of the

Spirit. In our prayer life, can we tell the difference? Is our prayer a stream that comes from the innermost depths of our being, a groan, a cry of the

Spirit in the Spirit? Is it prayer in the mind first, or is it there the cry in the

Spirit saying, Lord teach me what to ask? He maketh intercession for us according to the will of God, the

Scripture teaches. Do we recognize the need of equipment for prayer?

We want the Holy Spirit to give us words for utterance to give the message to others, is that it?

Then why not in like manner recognize the need of the Holy Spirit to give us words to cry to God in prayer?

The first need, I believe, is to discover that we cannot pray as we ought to pray.

And the next thing is to learn how to depend upon the Holy Spirit to pray in the

Spirit as much as depend upon Him for power and service. You recall King David said,

I cried unto the Lord and he heard. And we shall find that when there comes a wordless cry of the

Spirit within, that we too shall have what we ask and know it.

We must trust the Lord definitely to know what to ask and how to pray.

This is what we we hear and read about concerning the intercession of Christ.

After the groaning intercession of the Spirit in verse 26, look what you read in verse 34.

It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

The intercession of Christ. Hebrews 4 .15. The Greek speaks of the moral and physical weaknesses.

Here we have the previous training of the heavenly intercession. He is not there interceding as one who does not understand.

He received his training as an intercessor while on earth. Hebrews 5 .7.

Who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying was heard.

He went through all and lived through all with strong crying and even tears.

He knows what it means to be on earth and this is why he is so quickly touched as our heavenly intercessor.

The Holy Spirit within inspires the cry in our spirit. The heavenly intercessor seated on the throne makes intercession in heaven.

When the cry of the Spirit is in the heart, then we know that the master hears that cry. He that searches the heart knows what is the mind of the

Spirit. Now we understand why Christ is praying for the church. If he were not praying for it, the church would be swallowed up by the powers of hell.

The intercessor in heaven calls into the fellowship with himself all God's children on earth to share with him his work of prayer.

He is praying there then by his Spirit the prayer comes unto us and again through us to reach others.

Such is the wonderful life of prayer. We need to understand and to learn what it means to have a co -praying in the

Spirit. I want to take a few moments and share with you some thoughts.

We're talking about co -praying with the Spirit. I hear people saying co -laborers with the Lord, you know, co -working with God.

It is a great truth but I think sometimes it is misunderstood. One of the greatest dangers, if not the greatest danger, that the individual believer and the

Church of Jesus Christ has to dread is the inordinate activity of the soul with its powers of mind and will.

This touches one of the deep underlying reasons for so much failure in Christian life and service.

When God created man a living soul, that soul as the seat of his personality and consciousness was linked on the one side through the body with the outer world, on the other side through the

Spirit with the unseen and the divine. In the fall the soul refused the rule of the

Spirit and became the slave of the body with its appetites. The Spirit lost its destined place of rule.

Now when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in man, he seeks to reverse the condition of the fall by raising man's spirit again to place of dominance, born again.

He wants to have right of way through our entire being from the center to the circumference.

We are so anxious to get the outward life changed and you must do this. You must not do that.

You must go here. You must not go there. But God's way is to renew us from within outward, not outward and within.

Most people I know, most churches I'm in, most pastors I see ministering are trying to get people to change the outside and then work on the inside.

But we need to work on the inside, let God change the inside and renew us from within outward.

This is where life for the body comes in. It is God in your spirit moving out through your soul life, penetrating even the physical frame, strengthening and enabling it for His service.

It is the purpose of God that your very disposition shall be changed and quickened by His Spirit and that His life shall penetrate and energize all of your human faculties.

What stands in the way of this complete renewal of the whole man after he has been born of the

Spirit? What do you believe it is? I believe it is the activity of the natural life that has not yet wholly come under the rule of the

Spirit of God, the creaturely activity. The soul is the connecting link, so to speak, between spirit and body, and all the nature powers of the soul are preventing the life of God in your spirit from flooding and renewing your entire being.

The activity of your own capabilities prevents the Holy Spirit energizing and using your faculties.

You may be crying to God to quicken you and endue you with power for His service, and all the time your own natural life is hindering the answer to your prayers.

I want to take you to the Word of God and show you the difference between the natural man and the spiritual man, and why it is that the natural man, literally a man of the soul, is the greatest hindrance to the work of the

Holy Spirit in and through the Church of Jesus Christ. Let's think for a moment about the natural man.

A believer is either carnal or spiritual, according to the element which is dominant in his life. If the carnal or flesh life, which includes the power of the soul, that is, the intellect, the affections, the emotions, etc.,

the Word of God calls him yet carnal, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 3. The natural man, says

Paul, cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, and the word used in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14 is psuchikos.

I'll spell that for you, p -s -u -c -h -i -k -o -s, psuchikos from the Greek, psuche.

And the Greek lexicon will define for you that, strangely, as, quote, the animal life, close quote.

Man considered as endued with the animal life, that is, the living principle, just a living principle, as distinguished from the spiritual principle.

This word is translated in the New Testament 40 times as life or lives, and it is translated 48 times as soul.

The man whose life is governed by the soulish realm of his being, says Paul, cannot receive the things of the

Holy Spirit, nor can he understand them. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 45, we read, the first man,

Adam, was made a living soul, psuche. The last Adam, Christ, was made a quickening spirit, pneuma, in the

Greek. Therefore, the natural man is as descended from the first Adam, in whom all die, because through him the human race was involved in the fall.

When a man is born again, he ought to walk after the spirit, for he is a new creation in Christ.

His spirit is regenerated and made anew, but he still awaits the redemption of the body, and while he is in his human frame, there is always the possibility of his walking after the old life of nature or the soul powers not yet fully animated by the life -giving spirit.

He may know what it means to make to die the doings of the body, Romans 8, 13, while his intellect or his affections are still governed by the psuche or the soul life.

Even his worship or Christian experience may be in the realm of his feelings rather than in spirit and in truth.

The soul life of a carnal Christian or the believer who has not learned to distinguish between what is psychic, that is, of the soul, and what is spiritual, is peculiarly open to the workings of the powers of darkness,

Satan producing in the soul realm counterfeits of the things of God by drawing out of man's natural life dormant powers he has not known he possessed.

In James 3, verses 14 and 15, listen to this. If in your hearts you have bitter feelings of envy and rivalry, do not speak boastingly and falsely in defiance of the truth.

That is not the wisdom which comes down from above. It belongs to earth, to the unspiritual, natural.

The Greek is the psychical and to evil spirits. That's the Weymouth translation of that verse of scripture.

It belongs to the unspiritual, natural. The Greek word is psychical for natural. Now, let's contrast the spiritual man.

What makes a man or a person what the Bible calls a spiritual man? Man needs a new birth.

He needs to be born of the Spirit, and secondly, he needs to receive the

Holy Spirit, man's own spirit renewed and quickened by the work of God's Spirit upon him, and then the

Spirit of God coming to dwell in the prepared sanctuary. This is what man needs, and it is only then that Romans 8, 16 is fulfilled.

The Spirit himself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. As the

Holy Spirit dwells deep in his spirit, the believer is strengthened with all might by the Holy Spirit in his inner man, that is, the regenerate human spirit.

He who joins himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 17.

If your spirit and Christ's spirit become one, how closely united are you? One spirit.

Think with me. It is a marvelous conception. You never read that you can become one soul, but one spirit.

However, much knowledge you have of the things of God, no matter how much you have, nothing will ever make up for that personal, intimate, moment by moment recollectiveness of perpetual fellowship with the living

Christ. This is the key to a life in the Spirit. The life in the

Spirit is Christ becoming your wisdom, your strength, your holiness, Christ in you, joined in one spirit.

Now the great aim of the enemy is to keep the natural soul powers in full activity, for he knows that he can hinder the work of God as effectively through the man's own energy and powers as by leading him into the sins of the flesh.

What is to be done with a soul life? First of all, recognize that your own life, the old

Adamic life of nature, is painted with a fall. It is only as the own life is laid down that God can fulfill his purpose of bringing every faculty into his use.

How does he do this? First of all, through the two -edged sword of the word, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, he separates them,

Hebrews 4 .12, searching, penetrating, striking at the very roots of the natural life.

Secondly, by believing and reckoning upon the fact, God's fact, that our old man was crucified with Christ, Romans 6 .4,

with him therefore we are buried by the baptism wherein we shared his death, that even as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the

Father, so we likewise might walk in newness of life. Do not think of Christ crucified as something separate from you, but think of him there and say, and I died with him.

The Holy Spirit has baptized me into his death. The negative is necessary in order to get to the positive.

Do not be afraid of the death side. It does not mean deadness, but an application of the death of Christ to the activities of this old natural life, so that his divine can be imparted to us.

It is not knowledge received into the mind, but it is the quickening touch of God that can make you a life transmitter.

I want to extend this thought a little further with you concerning the natural man seeking to serve

God. Much of the suffering God's people have to pass through is on account of these natural powers.

In the early days of our Christian experience, the problem was victory over sin in the flesh. We all agree that we have to hate sin, but as you go on with God and yearn to be an instrument for his use, that his life shall pour through you to others, you will find that every bit of the activity of the natural man is hateful, because it belongs to the fallen

Adam. The fallen Adam. Light touches like is the saying. When the

Holy Spirit is working through you, he meets the spirit of the hearers. Something in the depth of them is moved.

They are brought in contact with the Almighty God. But, when your own soul powers are at work, you only arouse the soul life or emotional life in others.

How can these soul powers be taken into death, so that the life of God shall be liberated to quicken us, spirit, soul, and body, not only for personal deliverance, but for testimony?

The Lord Jesus Christ himself has given us the key to this. John 7, 25, He that loveth his life, the

Greek word psouki, is soul, shall lose it, and he that hateth his soul life shall keep it unto life, that's zoe in the

Greek, eternal, life eternal. Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life.

The hardest thing that God has to deal with in us is this love of our own life.

If any man who is in the Lord's service will lay down his own natural life and its powers at the cross, then the

Father will use him and honor him and make him fruitful. It is said of the Son of Man that he poured out his soul, his sinless soul, unto death.

The Lord grant that we learn something of this handing over of this soul life unto death, recognizing it as of no avail for God's service.

Then we can expect, as we walk with God, that there shall come forth into this world a pure stream of the divine from him.

Through our renewed and quickened spirit, as it is written, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water, the

Holy Spirit living Christ through us. One of the most important facets and one of the major areas is attitude.

One of the key factors is, and I'll just say it bluntly, change your attitude. 2

Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through 10. The attitude you take to a thing that troubles you, that's a key, isn't it?

In the bit of autobiography given by Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, a careful reader can see how even the apostle needed to change his attitude to a thing which he was keenly desirous should depart from him.

The occasion which drew forth this very personal bit of private history from the apostle is to be found in the preceding two chapters of the epistle to the

Corinthians, in which we read that Paul was being compelled to defend his own ministry, a course none that a spiritual man could enter upon safely, and this not for his own glory but for the sake of the message that had been entrusted to him by God.

Other so -called workers, fashioning themselves as ministers of righteousness, were belittling the so as to deprive the truth he proclaimed of any authority in the eyes of his hearers.

Paul knew that in this case the messenger and his message could not be identified, so he brings forth the credentials of his apostleship with burning words pointing to his sacrificial service for the church's sake, and the revelations that have been given him of God, in which he was not only caught up into heaven himself but actually received of the

Lord Jesus, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, and Galatians 1, 12, the very gospel that he had proclaimed to these

Corinthians. But as the apostle proceeded in his defense, he may have become conscious of his weakness, as possibly so manifest to his hearers as they looked at him they could see, so that to give occasion to the opposing workers to discredit his message of being of God.

This thought leads him to lift the veil and tell the story of his own inner conflict and sufferings under the buffetings of the messenger of Satan, and how by the direct word of the

Lord he had been led to change his attitude and see what he had thought a weakness from which he should be freed was purposed of God for his own growth and grace, his own safety in unique ministry for God, and the very condition necessary for obtaining the divine strength and the power he needed for that ministry.

We need to notice the distinction the apostle makes between himself as the man in Christ, really the inner man of his renewed and the spirit indwelt human spirit, and himself in his own humanity and mortality.

Paul knew such a full indwelling of the Holy Spirit in his spirit, he just knew it to its fullest that he could distinguish between its activities as distinct from his soul or human personality.

The word of God dwelt in him richly, so that the man in Christ, his inner man, 2

Corinthians 4 .16 and Ephesians 3 .16, the new creation in Christ, 2

Corinthians 5 .17, could be taken up to the third heaven, the very place of the throne of the

Lord, and there receive from the glorified Lord himself the gospel of the cross, and the unfolding of the mystery of God's purpose to call out from among redeemed sinners of every tongue and nation a body of believers as organically united to their

Lord as the human body is to its head. Of such a one the man in Christ, the new creation in Christ, will

I glory, declares the apostle, but on my own behalf I will not glory.

Of that man, the spirit man, I will glory, for all that he is and has is of grace, and by the supply of the

Spirit of Jesus. But on mine own behalf, as I am in my humanity, I have nothing to speak of but my weakness.

What a beautiful thing going on in the life of Paul. Then Paul lifts the personal veil and tells the inner history of his thorn in the flesh.

The man in Christ, joined to the Lord in one spirit, may be caught into heaven, but such dealings of God with a spiritual man required special dealings of God with a mortal vessel of clay.

Although vindicating his apostleship to the Corinthians, he frankly says that apostle as he is by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations that I should not be exalted over much, there was given to me a stake in the flesh, the mortal man, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.

What was it that was in Paul's life? Paul calls it in verse 8 a thing, but he also says he wanted it to depart for it was a thorn and a messenger of Satan.

Its origin is specifically said to be of Satan. It was also given by God on account of the revelations, therefore all messengers of Satan are under his permissive control, and Paul describes its effect upon him as buffeting, or beating him.

Here we have in contrast the spiritual man and the mortal man, the inner spirit life and the outer life after the body.

The triumph and glory of the spirit man able to enter where angels stand before the throne of God, Hebrews 10 19, and the outer weakness and humiliation of the mortal man subject to the beating of messengers of Satan and to the cries and groans wrung out by the unanswered prayer, verse 8.

The man in Christ in spiritual communion with God in life and light and glory, the man in himself beaten, suffering, and crying to God for relief that never comes.

Concerning this thing, Paul says, I besought, pleaded, begged the

Lord thrice that it might depart from me, from me, this something which pierced his flesh, this thorn, this stake, this messenger of Satan.

At last Paul's prayer is answered, not by the removal of the thing, but by light from God on the attitude to take towards the thing.

The thing is a messenger of Satan, but it is given by God. God is sovereign over all.

Satan may send his messengers, but they can only come when given of God. And the apostle is shown how to change his attitude to the thing and cease praying for its removal.

My grace is sufficient for thee. Better take grace to manifest some of the glory of the inner man in the outward life than to be set free from the occasion requiring it.

Change your attitude, Paul. Give up troubling about its departure. Let it stay.

If through it you will prove the abounding grace of God. And then Paul saw it. He quickly changed his attitude by the act of his will.

He decided to choose to glory in his weaknesses as well as in all his revelations.

Most gladly I will glory in my weaknesses, he cried. I choose to take pleasure in the things from which the mortal part of me desires to be free.

See how the Lord appealed to Paul's reason? God showed his servant the reasonableness, in verse 7, of his dealings, and his understanding was brought into action, so that he might intelligently put his will with the will of God, even though it was against himself in the realm of his mortality.

It has much to do with attitude. Paul probably felt the thorn in his flesh just as much as before.

But his change of attitude toward it brought into action the supply of grace he needed for triumph over his thorn.

For it is not possible for God to manifest His power until the condition for doing so is fulfilled.

If Paul said, I want this thing to depart, and God said, I want that thing to stay, how could the power of God be manifested in relation to the thing?

But Paul had light upon the thing, and he saw God's will. His changed attitude toward it brought the supply of grace he needed.

It has much to do with attitude today, dear children of God. As the children of God in the midst of countless trials who await the translation when

Jesus comes to get us, there are possibly many Christians crying out to God for the things around them to be changed, whereas they themselves need to be changed in their attitude toward these things.

These attitudes must always have the basis of the will of God in relation to specific things, and they must be in line with truth as made known in the holy scriptures.

Then how simple the path will become. Victory over sin results from an attitude based on the truth of God's word in the declaration of Romans 6 that our old man was crucified with Christ.

Your attitude to sin based on this truth is simply, I have died with him, and so far as my choice is concerned,

I have finished with sin. It shall have no dominion over me. It is for the

Holy Spirit to work your experience up to your attitude. So it is the same in relation to the life.

The word of God declares that all that are in Christ are hid with him in God. Based on this statement, you take the attitude accordingly, and the

Holy Spirit works in you up to the realization and experience of that which is a fact in God's sight, but is unrealized yet in your life.

So it is the same in relation to victory over Satan and over the world, over death and the grave, and all that Christ accomplished for us on the cross of Calvary.

You pray for victory, but change your attitude, child of God. Change your attitude into a declaration that on the basis of Christ's victory for you, you have victory and you will have it.

Some should now change their attitude to spiritual conflict. You have fought a good fight and gained victory at every point in your personal life and environment, so change your attitude to the foe.

If you keep going over and over the old ground, your spirit will not find its right place in the plane of accomplished victory.

If you take the attitude now belonging to your position, far above all principality and power, having overcome all, now stand,

Ephesians 6 .13, you will find again that the Holy Spirit will work your experience up to your attitude, and thus you will find yourself in the plane of readiness for the

Lord's coming. Perhaps like Paul, you have some thorn or stake which you know is a messenger of Satan, because it clearly has its origin from him.

But you have been trying to get rid of this messenger by the old weapons of resistance, not discerning that there was no unction on your weapons.

It will not depart if God has given it to prepare you for ascension glory, even though you have assault the

Lord for its removal. Change your attitude towards it, child of God, and see if you will not quickly get ease in your spirit and grace to triumph and grace to endure.

Maybe in your home or your work for God, you have things which are almost intolerable for you. You can see the messengers of Satan at work in those you love.

Maybe there are financial problems and troubles abounding from the evil natures of unsaved friends or relatives in your path, troubles to the right of you and troubles to the left of you, how they thunder at us and around us and over us.

Why does not God remove them and why doesn't he answer our prayer concerning these things? This is the cry that I hear.

Stop asking for things on earth to be changed for your relief, but change your attitude toward them.

It is you who are to depart away from the thorns in God's good time. Change your attitude now in view of this to the world and to its cares.

Take your place, beloved, in heaven as a citizen of heaven. Take grace from the abounding supply of God to manifest the

Spirit of heaven now in the little while before the Lord comes. Change your attitude to the thing you have writhed under.

Take the attitude of glorying in it. Take the heavenly attitude of taking pleasure in injuries when others smite you, in necessities when you cannot have what you need, glory in that need, in persecution when you suffer for the name of Christ, in distress when the most distressful suffering of the present time of trials is thrust as a cloud upon your spirit.

Take pleasure not in the things themselves, not in the things themselves, but in the occasion for the manifestation of the grace of the glory of God.

Now go further. Change your attitude to the future. The Lord himself said,

Be not anxious for tomorrow. How much more should you, expecting the rapture, you expect translation, you expect him to come, live now and now only?

Take the attitude of not wanting or expecting any future on earth because you expect to go up when the

Lord comes. Do all that you can do now. Live as if you knew this hour, this moment was your last on earth.

Give what you ought to give now. Say what you ought to say now. Holding this attitude, arrange what you must arrange for the future with a joyous reservation in your heart,

I may not be here. James 4 verse 13 and 16.

And then change your attitude to the master's work. Let it no longer take the place of the

Lord you work for. Don't let the work replace him.

Think more of the Lord who's coming than your service for him. He will do so much more for the work and the church than you can do.

Take heed lest you have proclaimed to others, but yourself not be approved. 1 Corinthians 9 27.

Give up your own schemes and plans and care more to make sure of doing his will and of being well -pleasing unto him.

And then as you go about, change your attitude in regard to unsaved friends. Give up fretting and worrying about their state and thus poisoning your own state of joy.

Commit them to God and believe that he loves them more than you do. Change your attitude toward them in your contact with them and pour out upon them all the love and kindness your heart of compassion can show.

For they need all the love you can give them as they are without Christ in a storm -tossed world.

And then speaking of the world, change your attitude towards the terrible worldwide unrest in every nation.

Refuse to look at it from the viewpoint of earth. Remember God must deal with nations as well as with men.

Take the attitude of standing with God in his attitude to sin and do not deal on the human side of death and suffering.

Pray against the unrest because it is a part of the old dispensation which is passing away. Stand against it in the spirit because demons are behind it.

And God is against the demons even while he allows them to destroy their own work. Refuse to be troubled by the trouble about you.

Refuse to put your trust in any but God for his protecting care as you trust him for yourself.

Trust him to adjust the nations of the world. One man has said men may misjudge thy aim to think they have cause for blame.

Say they are wrong. Hold on thy quiet way. Christ is the judge not they.

Fear not. Be strong. And then what about our attitude to prayer?

This is what we're talking about how to commune with God. In Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 we read this.

Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. You could call this the rod of victory.

The multitude of slaves set free by God and whom Moses was leading out of Egypt had reached to Rephidim.

They had crossed the Red Sea and seen the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians to save them from their hand.

They had streamed across the desert for three rainless days and they reached water at last.

Only to find it what? Bitter. Bitter waters. But it was changed into supply for their needs by the miracle power of God manifested through the symbol of a tree.

Again they needed food. Once more it was miraculously supplied by the hand of God.

Now they reached Rephidim where again they saw the providing care of God in the supply of water given to them from a smitten rock.

Here for the first time in their marched forth to the promised land they found their passage contested by a foe.

A band of Amalekites appeared to fight with them. Now what was to be done?

They were untrained for war. Almost too helpless even to care for their own need. How could these slaves meet such a foe as the warlike

Amalekites? Once more the leadership of the Lord Jehovah was shown through his chosen instrument.

You remember Moses said unto Joshua in Exodus chapter 17 verse 9, choose out men and go out fight with Amalek.

Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. On the next day while Joshua went out into the valley with a little company of picked men to meet the foe, the man of God went to the hill with two others there to watch the battle and lift up the rod of God, the symbol of his of God's power which had brought about so many judgments in Egypt and divided the waters of the

Red Sea for Israel to pass over. And it came to pass, runs the story, when

Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed and when he let down his hand Amalek prevailed.

Was it not enough to lift his hands once? No. The hands had to be kept up until the battle was through.

What about the strain of it? They needed food and rest. All this must not be taken into consideration.

You must not consider the food or rest. Israel was in a crisis. She was attacked by foes.

God had put into the hand of the leader a rod which if it was kept lifted would symbolize his power manifested on behalf of Israel.

If it was laid down even for a brief period the foe would prevail and during that interval might such advantage as to seriously threaten the safety of the whole people if not to obtain rule over them altogether.

The way of victory shown to Moses by the Lord was not only that Joshua and his company should go forth to meet the foe in a close conflict but that on the hilltop the trained prayer warrior

Moses must stand and with calm steadfast faith in the rod which had seen accomplish so many mighty deeds lifted up and held up with unwearied persistency until the battle was won and the foe utterly defeated.

But I know what you think. Yes, Moses was but a human being and after a time his hands grew heavy.

The battle was more stubborn than he had thought. The foe did not give way quickly before the uplifted rod and the valor of the picked with Joshua.

Shall Moses retire from the hill and say that someone else must hold up the rod while he went to rest? Because he had been faithful to his trust as long as he was able.

But now he could do no more. No. Moses knew that he must not leave the hill until the battle was won.

Excuse me. He had seen that while he lifted his hands Israel was gaining. Even though the enemy was not yet completely routed he must stay at his post until the conflict was through.

In Exodus 17 verse 12 they took a stone and put it under him and he set their own and Aaron and her stayed up his hands and one on the one side and the other on the other side and his hands were steady until.

Moses had stood as long as he could and now he sat. He sat down to watch and wait and simply hold up the rod while Aaron and her held up his hands.

No feeling but heaviness. No sense of victory. No power to do anything but just sit and hold the rod.

He had certain tokens of Israel prevailing in the valley. Fight while his hands were lifted and so he must go on and pray through or rather hold through.

He dared not fail Joshua and the little company who were depending upon the uplifted rod on the hilltop.

He dared not fail God who had shown him exactly the plan the strategy of the campaign.

Now let me ask a couple of questions. Why was it not sufficient for Moses to lift the rod on the hilltop without Joshua and his warrior group going to meet the foe in a hand -to -hand conflict and vice versa?

Why was it not enough for Joshua to lead forth the picked men of Israel to meet the Malachites without Moses with the rod on the hill?

Also why should Joshua fight at all if the rod of God could accomplish such things as dividing the Red Sea when

Israel did no fighting and saw their enemies slain before their eyes? Why should Moses endure such a strain that long day in the brawling sun if Joshua and his men could fight in the valley?

Why again was it not enough for Moses just to ask God for the victory? Final question.

Why have to lift his hands and persist even when they lost power to stay up of his own volition?

He couldn't hold him up any longer. First Corinthians 10 verse 11. These things happened to them by way of figure and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are come.

Wrote the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians concerning the story of Israel. This incident most truly is an example to us now.

Moses on the hilltop lifting his hands to God for the battling men in the valley is one of God's examples to us of the prayer warfare at the close of the dispensation and of the division of the people of God who are called to the mount to watch and pray and also those who are sent forth by the captain of the resurrection host into the battle fray.

The prayer warrior on the hill lifting his hands to God and the armed men in the heat and confusion of the battle of the plains have both their commission from the

Lord of hosts and from the spiritual standpoint picture the two aspects of the spiritual warfare where the holding up of the hands and the grasping of the hands of the victorious word of God needs the co -working of the actual aggressive warfare with the enemy in the valley of the soldiers of the

Lord. God could have given victory to Israel at Rephidim by the lifting of the rod as at the

Red Sea but Israel must now learn to cooperate with God. So Joshua is sent to fight as though there was no uplifted rod on the hilltop and Moses must lift up the rod at the cost of suffering and strain as though there were no armed men fighting the in battle because the time had come when

Israel must learn the lesson of co -partnership with God and the people of God learn from the object lesson how to work with God in prayer.

We learn from this story how faithful in all his house Moses was and how faithful to his trust on the hilltop that day because his hands were steady until the going down of the sun

Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword the scripture says and the

Lord bade him write a memorial of the battle and the victory and the strong declaration of the

Lord of hosts who had watched the scene from his holy habitation. Write said the Lord that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

God declared that the hour should come when he should be utterly blotted out. He had seen what they did in attacking his people smiting the hen most and all that were feasible when the whole host was faint and weary.

Deuteronomy 25 18. Years afterwards the Lord told Saul I have marked that which

Amalek did to Israel how he set himself against him in the day when he came up out of Egypt and he bade

Saul go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have. First Samuel 15 1 through 3.

What the rod of God meant we see in the action of Moses for after the victory he built an altar and called it

Jehovah Nisi the Lord is my banner. Israel had fought under the banner of Jehovah and at the altar typifying the cross of Calvary he said amen to God saying the

Lord had sworn the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. From the

New Testament pattern of the prayer warrior on the hill and for the understanding of the full significance of the example to us we have to look at Paul's letter to the

Ephesians in the last chapter where we find the great warfare that is going on in that passage of scripture and we shall look at that when we come together at the next time and finish our discussion on communion with God.

May God richly bless you and may the teaching of his word do that which you sent it out to.

Holy Father I pray for the teaching of the word that you'll bless these people as we've gathered together quietly in this place without a lot of emotion without a lot of caring about just to simply study your word.

Thank you for the fellowship of the spirit. I pray that the grace of God and the love of Christ the communion of the spirit strengthen us all until we gather again tomorrow evening in Jesus name

I pray until he comes again amen. Good evening and God bless you and we'll see you tomorrow evening.