Faith Unto Enlargement Through Adversity # 17

The Key of Faith (continued)

The Fullness of God as Light (continued)

There is much more about this matter of enlargement. It was the governing thing in the sovereign gifts of the ascended Lord. "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men ... and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; ... and some, pastors and teachers" - for what" - "for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:8, 11-13). Every Divine gift in ministry has fullness as its object and its governing motive.

Let me close with this for the moment, that the test as to whether a thing is of God is always spiritual measure. It is not the measure of our doctrinal knowledge, nor even the measure of our Bible knowledge as such. It is not the accuracy  or correctness of our technique in form and procedure. It is the measure of God. We can have all those other things, without there being really any measure of God. That is what counts.

Read: Genesis 15:5,k 17:1-8; Romans 4:17-24; Hebrews 11:8-10; Revelation 21:9-18, 22:1-2

We were speaking about God's governing thought of enlargement, bringing to remembrance His words to Abraham concerning the immense increase which He purposed for His servant; and then we saw how every bit of that increase came along the line of a testing of faith.

This is not just teaching. These things are very pertinent and appropriate to our need at the present time. The whole work of the enemy is by every means and agency to limit what is of God, to reduce it, to make it as small as possible and keep it so. God's thoughts, of course, are entirely to the contrary; but God's thoughts do not just operate and come to realization automatically. He is dealing with living people, not with a mechanical world. It is in a people that His thoughts are to have their fulfillment, individually and collectively. For the realization of His thoughts, therefore, all the work of the enemy has to be overcome.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 18 - (The Battle of Unbelief)