Grace in Weakness

[The following is a transcription of a live teaching]

What felt most real and most alive in my heart this morning was—and I guess it still is at this moment— something having to do with the verse that Benji read last night, a verse that is familiar to all of us. But I think in a lot of us, it is probably more familiar in words than it is in experience. That is the case with so many scriptures.

It is easy to become very familiar with the words, even when we don't become familiar with what is behind the words. And I think all of you understand, we talked about this a little bit this morning in the meeting, that as true as the words of scripture are, all of them are just pointing at experiences of the life of God. And it is easy and dangerous to become extremely familiar with the words; so familiar with the words that we fool ourselves into thinking that we're also familiar with the thing behind the words, the life or the reality or the experience of God that is bigger than words. This is really common. I have definitely fallen into that trap many times in my life, and still have the tendency to do that.

And so, whenever we read scripture together, whenever I talk about these things again—and Jared gave kind of the preamble yesterday about not wanting to apologize for saying the same things a lot—but as he said clearly, the goal is to grow in the experience of that life that is behind words, the place where true words come from, the spirit out from which all true words have their origin. And words, if we let them, if our hearts are soft and humble and weak in our own sight, words can help with that. They can come out from God, and whether it is directly from God or through scriptures or through a person, they can reach into you in such a way, to grab your attention and to kind of pull you back to the life that they came from.

And this is what Jesus was seeing in the Pharisees or the Jews when he was saying, you guys diligently seek the scriptures, you study the scriptures, and they all, every single one of them speaks of me; but you are not willing to come to me to have the life that they speak of. All of these things you study, you learn, you are familiar with them, you've memorized them, and every one of them has something behind them. And that something behind them is me, and I'm standing right in front of you, and you won't come, you don't actually want truth, you think you do because you love the words. You think you know the life because you've learned the words. And maybe you've even touched and tasted little bits and pieces of the life, but here I am standing in front of you, and you won't come to me. And I just offer this as a way to begin today, because that is always the propensity of the human heart, is to have a relationship with words that is a lot bigger than our relationship with the life behind the words.

So, this verse that was read last night, where Paul says, “And lest I should be exalted above measure, by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure...” Let me say something really quickly about this phrase. What is it to be exalted “above measure”? It is to try to have a life, to find a life, and to live a life above your measure of Christ.

You see, the thorn wasn’t just because he boasted too much. As though there is an appropriate measure of boasting, and then there is an inappropriate measure. No, the thorn was so that he would not be exalted above his measure, above the measure of the life of Christ. He was saying, “It keeps me from thinking that I have anything to give, to know, to share, to minister above that measure.” The thorn in the flesh was causing him to feel that measure, and to be familiar with where that measure stopped, to learn what that measure of life and grace was in him, and also to feel weakness in another part of him. And this was obviously very displeasing to him, or uncomfortable to him, because if you read about Paul’s life, you know that there was a whole lot of other things in his life that sound really horrible or difficult, and you don't hear him talking about praying for those things to depart from him.

So, whatever this was, it wasn't good, and it wasn't easy. And he pleads with the Lord three times that it might depart from me, and the Lord’s answer, the familiar answer that we all know, is that “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And therefore I take pleasure”..., let’s think about this for a minute, he says, “I take pleasure in my weaknesses, in reproaches, in needs, that is in lack, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I'm strong.” 

Now, so much of what we talk about here in our fellowship has to do with these two things that are in man. There is that which we are by nature, the natural man, what we have inherited from our fallen father Adam, a natural birth, a natural life. You can call it the first birth. You can call it the flesh. There is a number of different terms in the New Testament that speak of this. And then there is something else that is not of man, and yet it is sown into man. It doesn't come from man. It has nothing to do with man as its source, but we find it in ourself, and that other “thing” is called the GRACE of God. So what every man experiences, is really the presence and power of two different things.

And this is a very frequent subject of our conversations, as we share what we're experiencing in the Lord, that we find these two things in ourselves. We find in us a natural man, a first birth. “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.” And what is it that is born? It is a life, of course. It is a nature. It has its own kind. It has its own nature. It has its own light with which to see. And Christianity, in just a very short, simple summary, is supposed to be the experience of one of those births, or one of those lives, becoming stronger, more real, shining with more light and becoming an experiential, tangible, discernible, increasing power that is the very power that raised Jesus up from the dead.

This power is referred to generally in the New Testament as grace. That is what grace is. Grace is power, grace is life. Grace is a measure of the life or light or seed or implanted Word of God. It is a gift of God. It doesn't come from man, but it is found in man. We feel it in man, and we recognize it because of its contrariness, its enmity and hostility against what we are and what we find and feel in ourselves according to our natural birth. And those two things are in man, and those two things are the subject of so much of the Old Testament types and shadows in the births of the firstborn that always represents what God rejects, the Cain’s and the Ishmael’s and the Esau’s and the Saul’s and the Manasseh’s”  

“And then there is the second-born, the second birth. There are so many of the pictures in the Old Covenant of the Abel’s and the Isaac’s and the Jacob’s and the David’s, and then Leah and Rachel, Ephraim and Manasseh, and the two sons of Judah, where the one came out with his hand first, and then the other came out, etc. There are so many stories that speak of these things. And then there are also stories of what it means for God to actually have a seed INSIDE of a land that is enmity with him, like a seed that is trapped in Israel, or Lot that is living in Sodom and Gomorrah, or Rahab that is living in Jericho. And what it means for God to actually pull one seed out of another, separate it from another, cause the one to grow, and then bring plagues to shake the other, cause the kingdom of the first birth to be shaken and to fall, and to have another kingdom grow out from it, a kingdom of light, a kingdom of power, a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom that is united to God, that walks in God. 

The whole Old Testament talks about this. If you have eyes to look through history and stories, you will see that the reason why God put these histories and the stories in there was to show us (in so many different shadows and figures and symbols) what he’s always tried to do from the very beginning. From the very beginning of the fall, God didn't begin to talk to man about a book, he didn't begin to talk to man about a doctrine, he didn't begin to talk to man about a philosophy, a life philosophy. After the fall He began to talk to man about a Seed, a Seed of life that was going to bruise the head of the serpent seed that was in man. Genesis 3 verse 15, God spoke and said, there are two seeds, and there is enmity between them, and you are going to feel them both. One is going to strike the heel of the other, and the other is going to crush the head of the first. And this story then is manifested right there in Cain and Abel, the first two births that come forth. And then it is manifested again in Ishmael and Isaac, and it is manifested again in Jacob and Esau. One birth comes out first, and then the second birth takes its place, takes the birthright, takes the inheritance it. Then the first birth gets mad and wants to kill and persecute and mock, etc. All of this is a picture of these TWO THINGS, these two things that are in man. 

And then comes the Gospels, and Jesus starts saying, “You have to lose one life to find the other. You have to hate one life to experience the other. You have to deny what you call self, and you have to put a cross on it, and then you have to follow me out from it, entirely. There are multiple pictures of everything that this means, and I've painted them for you in hundreds of pages of the Old Testament. I have shown you what it means to come out of what you naturally were born into. You were born in Egypt. You were born in slavery. You were born in darkness. You can't get out. Your life is making bricks without straw. That is you. You are under the power of Pharaoh, but there is another SEED. There is a seed that God sows into that land. He offers your soul an ability to grab onto it, to hold onto it and cling to it, and this  gift, this power is called grace.

“And Noah found grace in God’s eyes,” and Enoch found grace and walked with God. He tells these stories throughout the Old Testament. He shows you that he has to come and open the door, and that is what Christ did. He opened a door. He opened a door through his death, burial and resurrection. He painted blood over a door and made you walk in and eat his death and eat the lamb and participate in that death so that you could walk out in the morning, and Egypt couldn't follow you because they didn't eat the lamb. They didn't go through the blood-covered door. 

Then you read the New Testament, and you find Paul’s talking about bearing about in ourselves the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might be manifested. We read of being conformed to his death, so that the life, the resurrection, can come forth, that we can experience resurrection life. Not just resurrection life in the future. No, there is a first resurrection. There is the resurrection of the life of the Son of God coming out from the dead tomb of the human heart. And Paul talks about dying daily, and he talks about putting off the old man and putting on the new man, and the whole Bible is talking about these two things that are in man.

And yet, to so many of us, in so many ways, the first birth is so strong. It stays so strong. We live in it. We love it. We feed it. It is the life that we call our life. It is the life we find our purpose in, our identity in. It is the very thing the Lord is trying to pull us out of, trying to show us the way out of it, teach us to leave behind. It is the very thing represented in the story of Lot, when the angels grabbed him by the hand and said, “You need to get out of here! The whole thing is going to be destroyed. Take my hand and get up to the mountain of God! Noah, get into that ark! There is only one place that you can live. It is in the ark. Everything else is dead!”

All of those stories, all of them point to the same reality. They point to a life or birth, a birth that comes from God which is supposed to grow strong. And it is supposed to be sufficient. And we're supposed to not find our sufficiency in the other birth and in the other life. And yet, here we are, 2,000 years later, having all of these things laid out for us in such incredible detail, in stories that you can read. And every time you read them, you can see something new. If you have a tender heart, if you have a soft heart before the Lord, you can see that you are Goliath. You are not David, you are Goliath. And David is coming towards you with his little stone. And you can see that you are the nation of the Philistines, and that Joshua is trying to fill you with his spirit, with his law, with his righteousness. 

And you can see that YOU were born in Egypt, just like them, and you can't enter into the Promised Land unless everything that was born in Egypt falls dead in the wilderness. All of those stories, there they are, one after another, after another, after another. There are two births, there are two lives. One of them is supposed to be growing weaker. It is supposed to be bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus. It is supposed to be taking a cross on its shoulders. It is supposed to be learning of Jesus, becoming humble and meek and tender, wearing his yoke on our shoulders so that another birth, another life can grow. And we can learn of him, not just learn about him, but learn of his life and learn of his spirit and feel his spirit, and so grow strong in one way and insanely weak in another way. 

And this is what Paul is talking about here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. He’s saying, “I want to be strong, God. I want to be strong in the first birth, in the life that is feeling the thorn.” And God says, “No, I want you to know the sufficiency of my life and power. I want you to know that everything you need is found in the growth and the increase and the power and the life of the second birth, the living Spirit of my Son in you, his power, his life, his light. If I gave you sufficiency in the first birth, you would never feel your weakness, you see? You would never reach for grace. You would not need grace.” 

And that is what I want to say to us today: How many of us need grace? I know that we all say we do, but this is what I feel right now. I feel a need to call both you and myself to the sufficiency of grace. And what does that mean? It means that this second life, birth, nature, power, and seed, is REALLY the only thing that we need. There is strength in it. There is plenty. It is sufficient. There is more than you need. And yet, to feel it and to find it and to know it and to grow in it, we have to let the Lord make us weak in the other life. Because if we try to stay strong in that first birth, we will live our whole lives as Christians with true beliefs and true Bible verses and true ideas and good friends and honest comrades that believe the same things. But how much will we actually know the sufficiency, the power of the grace of God?  

And I must testify, that when I started to follow the light of Christ... it began to make me weak. And I have seen now, with great clarity, that many never know the power of God working in them because they simply do not let Him make them weak that way. They stay strong in what is supposed to grow weak, and therefore they stay weak in what is supposed to grow strong. This is perhaps the greatest reason that we haven't experienced so much of what the Scripture testifies. Here is one that popped into my mind, Ephesians 3:20 “Now, to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, or according to the power that works in us.” Does anyone here think that Paul was exaggerating? Paul says, God is able to do “exceedingly” and “abundantly.” One of those words didn't cut it for him, he had to use both. Exceedingly abundantly above all that we “ask” or “think.” He had to use both of those words too. According to the power that works in us. Why is this power often so unfamiliar to us? Why was it so unfamiliar to me for so long? I'll tell you why. I was so strong in the first birth. I had grown so big in words and ideas. I had grown strong in so many different ways. And I didn't really need him. I didn't need him. Oh I know we all say we need him. We need him to take us to heaven. We need him to forgive our sins. We need him to protect us when the airplane takes off. We need him to protect our loved ones when they're driving across the country. We need him to bless our lives. But we don't really need him right now. And we don't want to feel how much we need him right now. 

We live in a world where Christians love the Beatitudes because they're so pretty, but we do everything in our power to keep from feeling the conditions that Jesus mentioned in the Beatitudes are blessed. We don't want to mourn. We don't want to feel poverty of spirit. We don't want to be persecuted or hated or misunderstood for righteousness. We don't want to feel hunger and thirst for righteousness. We don't want to feel those things. We don't want to feel our need for him. We want to stay strong in the first birth. Strong in that birth that is the very thing that Jesus is trying to make weak. We don't want him to make us weak. And you see, that is what Paul was trying to tell us here in this very, very familiar verse that we've all read so many times. Here is a little of what is behind the words. I said that there is something behind the words. I think this is something of what is behind his words. Paul wanted to be strong in something other than grace. And the divine answer, the answer from heaven was this: “I want you to be strong in grace. I want you to know the sufficiency of grace.”

There is one part of us that has grown strong. And in it we've sought to find strength, and we've sought to find confidence, and we've sought to find control. That is one of the highest human values, whether we all admit it or not. We want to be in control. We don't want to feel weakness. Weakness is the absence of control. Weakness means I can't stop this problem, or pain. I can't stop the confusion. I can't stop the fear. I can't stop it! I can't control it! Or I can't control that person. I can't control that situation. This is everyone’s greatest enemy. And so CONTROL, control is what we seek. We've wanted to find security and be strong in the flesh. We’ve wanted to grow strong in the wrong man. Maybe some of you are arguing with me right now and saying, “I don't do that.”  But honestly, I think that if there is something in you that is arguing with what I am saying, it is the part that is still strong in the wrong man. 

Some of us have grown strong in our jobs. We have a sense of strength that we get from our work, or our abilities, or our natural giftings. Some of us have grown strong in our intellectual capacities, or our roles. Some of us feel very strong and confident in our parenting. Others have grown strong in Christian words, and Christian ideas, and Christian ideals, and Christian opinions, and understanding. And because of this we can't see, and we can't feel our measure of Christ. Remember, Paul didn't want to exceed his measure, but we often can't even feel that our measure of Christ is so small. We're too strong to feel it. Too strong in the wrong man. 

Some of us have learned how to control our situations. That is what we try to do. We control people. We control people and make them need us, and want us, just in the way that makes us feel  safe in our relationship with them, or important, or necessary. Maybe we've learned how to make people want us, or make people think we're the funniest guy in the room, or the smartest guy in the room. Some of us have grown strong in our self-image, our self-confidence, our talents, our beauty, etc. Strong in the wrong man. We have learned just how to live, and what to say, when to say it, in order to control our lives. And what I'm trying to say is that this feeds the very thing that the Lord Jesus is trying to make weak in us, so that we actually feel our need of grace. 

I know that I'm not speaking to people who are all in the same condition. Everybody here is in a different place, and in a different condition, and I don't want my words to fall in the wrong way, on the wrong people, and I don't know how to avoid that sometimes. But here is one way maybe you can know that you are too strong. If you can have a good day that has nothing to do with the experience of the life of Jesus Christ. If that’s you, something may be wrong there. I mean, if you can be strong today, in control today, confident today, on top of things today, with everything under your feet today, if you can make it a whole day (let alone a week) and feel like everything is good, and that “good” has nothing to do with grace, nothing to do with a dependency, nothing to do with “blessed are those who mourn,” and “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and “blessed are those who feel their poverty of spirit,” and “blessed are those who are being misunderstood for their desire for righteousness.” If it has nothing to do with those blessings that Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes; if you can have some kind of plan, and find some kind of peace, some way to be strong, that has nothing to do with an inward experience of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of Christ, the power of Christ, the birth and increase of the Son of God in the heart of man, then I would say that maybe it is because there is too much strength in the wrong man. 

I don't claim to be very far in this. I don't claim to be anything in this. But I will say that according to my measure, there is something in me that doesn't want me to boast above my measure either. There is a thorn or two that I felt pricking me when I go beyond my measure. And when I try to find strength outside of grace, and when I want to just quote that “grace is sufficient,” but I don't want to actually feel that grace is my only sufficiency… then I do feel some thorns there. Whenever I feel like there is something—something that I can consider strong and meaningful and comforting and purposeful that has nothing to do with the second birth, with the grace of God, with the life of God in my heart, then I am not knowing the sufficiency of grace. 

Here is another way to say it: whenever I don't NEED Jesus, I mean really need Him, I mean need Him today. I don't mean just need Him when I die, or when I'm in an airplane, or when I'm worried about my kids. I am talking about needing grace right now, today. Sometimes when I'm crying out for strength in other things, it is as though God says, “My grace is sufficient for you. That is what you need. I want you to feel it. And I want you to feel how much you need it. I want you to know it. I don't want to make you strong any longer, Jason. I want to make you weak in that life or nature. I want to make you weak in your own understanding and intellect. I want to take away your control. I want to take from you all the things that used to make you feel so smart and so strong and so capable and so confident. I want to make you weak there.” And I say, “Why, Lord?” And the answer is this: “So that you will NEED grace, so that you will find and feel the sufficiency of grace.”

Time passing tells the truth in a lot of ways. I've found this to be true. You can ask somebody, “do you need grace?” Someone answers, “Yes, of course I need grace.” Well, let a day go by. Did you need grace today? It doesn't really matter what you say with your mouth. Time will tell the truth. Let a few hours go by, a few days go by. That will speak a whole lot more than what you say with your mouth in a meeting, or in a 10 minute prayer. Do you need grace today? 

I feel something in me that cries out, “Lord, help me stop finding strength without the strength of God!” I feel something in me that is trying to teach me through weakness to not find peace without the Prince of peace. I feel something in me that asks me, “What is your purpose for today? What is your goal today? What do you want today, Jason? What are you looking for the next hour? Jason are you looking for a kind of contentment that has nothing to do with grace? Is it a peace you can have which I have nothing to do with? Is it strength and control, security, favor that has nothing to do with my Spirit, with my grace? 

You say, Jason, I’m already a Christian. I don't doubt it. I don't doubt you are a Christian. But here is my question: what makes you strong? That is what I'm asking. What makes you strong? And have you let him make you weak? Paul says again, therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in weakness! I take pleasure in weakness, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake. “This is what I do,” says Paul, “because I have found something to be universally true—when the first birth is weak, then the second birth is strong. When the flesh has lost its confidence, and lost its power, and lost its security, and lost its ability, and lost its sense of importance, and relevance, and control, then I find grace to really be sufficient.” 

This was the thing that was spinning around in my heart this morning. I'm speaking to myself. You know I am. Those of you who know me at least know that I'm speaking to myself, not just you. But here is my question: How strong are you? Where’s your strength? Are you strong enough to have a perfectly great day which has nothing to do with the grace of God? Are you strong enough to be happy and content without feeling Jesus Christ cleansing your heart, purifying your heart, removing everything from you that has a contrary nature to His Spirit? Are you weak enough to sit through a silent meeting and cry out to God to help you, instead of letting your mind wander to so many other things that make you feel strong and happy and content and entertained? Are you weak enough to feel how much you need Him? And feel glad to have an opportunity to gather with other weak people to sit and cry out (even if nobody says anything)... to cry out in your heart for help to lose strength in the first birth and to gain strength in the second birth? Are you weak enough to lose your own plan for today? 

I'm not trying to judge anybody’s condition, but there is a gospel plow. I mean, there is something like a plow that goes out before the Lord. We often talk about the Seed of Christ here. There is a Seed of Christ’s grace, a Seed of life and light. It is sown into the heart. But some seed fell on the wayside. It fell on a road, it fell on asphalt, and the asphalt cannot feel it. The asphalt ground received a seed, but it didn't feel it, it didn't experience it, it didn't grow in the asphalt ground. Why not? Because it wasn't broken up, it wasn't softened. And so the plow goes out first. There is a plow that comes, and this plow makes you weak. This plow comes out from God, and it says in your heart, “You are not what you think you are. You are not as strong as you think you are. You are not as confident as you think you are. You don't have as much strength as you think you do.”

Here comes the gospel plow! And then all the voices in the church today come out and say, “That is not the voice of God. God makes you strong!” But the Spirit of God whispers in your heart, “No, God makes you weak, so that He can be strong.” That plow comes out, and it starts to break up the ground. And there are a lot of voices in the church today that tell you that this is not God. “This is not God making you weak. This is not God making you feel like you are nothing. This is not God taking away all your natural abilities, and your ability to feel confident and strong and be someone important. This is not God taking away your control. No, it is the devil.” Or “I know a good doctor, and there is a pill for that.” But I'm telling you that it is the gospel plow. I'm telling you that God sends out a plow. I mean, it is the one Spirit of God, the one work of God, but He comes to us first like a plow.

He comes first like a plow because His powerful Seed can sit there on the cold, hard asphalt of your heart without doing anything, even though it has all the power in the universe. This seed is the seed of Jesus Christ, who said, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.” And yet, it can sit there on the hard heart, and it stay there for 10 years, or 20 years, or 40 years, or 60 years, or 80 years, and you can die without ever experiencing its power, unless that plow starts plowing up your heart and showing you just how weak you are. And when this begins to happen, don't think that something strange or wrong is happening to you. No! 

Why did God send John the Baptist first? So that people could recognize the Messiah. Do you see? Why did God send John the Baptist, or the spirit of Elijah, first? Why did he come first? So that he could cry out to all the people, saying: “You are a brood of vipers. Don't tell me what you are according to your natural birth. You say you are sons of Abraham. I say God can make sons of Abraham out of these stones. Don't tell me who you are. There is an axe. It is laid to the root of that tree. You are the wrong tree.” Why did God send out the plow first? So that the ground would be soft and would receive the Seed. John said, “There is one coming after me, and he’s greater than me. He was before me. I'm not even worthy to untie his sandal. He’s got a much bigger and better baptism than mine, by the way. I was sent to prepare the way. I was sent to break up some of the ground so that you will recognize Him. I was sent to shake what can be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken can be recognized by you and formed in you and found in you. And there He is, the Lamb of God! That is him! I am pointing to him! I am the plow. He is the Seed. I have my own little measure of light to point to the real Light, the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the world.” This is what God sends out first. 

There is an interesting verse in Luke 7. I mentioned this once not too long ago in one of our meetings here, but I want to read it again, because I want you to see how we miss the Seed and its power. Verse 28, Jesus says, “For I say to you, among those born of a woman, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who was least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. And when all the people heard him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John.” You understand it was not just because they went underwater and came back up out of the water. I mean, that was what they were physically doing, yes, and that baptism was a baptism sent of God. And it was important to be baptized by John, but it wasn't just the ritual. It wasn't just once you are in the water, you are good to go. It was because John the Baptist was baptizing them in a baptism of repentance, preparing the way. “He will go before me to prepare him the way,” says Isaiah, right? Isaiah chapter 40. 

And then Luke says this, “...but the Pharisees and the lawyers,” (listen to this), “rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by John.” How did they do it? Did they just refuse to go in the water, and that was rejecting the will of God? No, they rejected the plow! They rejected being made weak. They rejected being nothing. They rejected being small in their own eyes. They rejected the truth of an ax being laid to the root of the first birth. They rejected that! They rejected being told that they were nothing just because they were of the flesh of Abraham. They rejected being called broods of vipers in their first birth. That is what they rejected. And because they rejected that, they rejected the will of God for themselves. What a statement! Because they wanted to be strong in their first birth, by the flesh of Abraham, they remained weak in the kingdom of heaven.

I just have one little quote here that I want to share. A couple people this weekend have already mentioned one of our favorite authors, Isaac Pennington. And I often think of this quote, and I can very rarely say it without losing it a little bit, because of how it struck me when I first read it. I was talking to someone earlier about how these guys are dead, you know, all these are early Friends, they're dead in the flesh, but there is a communion in the Spirit sometimes. And sometimes when you read the words of people that are long dead, you feel that what they spoke out from, and what they lived in, is so alive still. And sometimes you have that experience. You can have it with Paul, you can have it with anyone that lived and walked in the spirit. And I feel it sometimes when I read my friend, Isaac Pennington. He wrote once in a letter, and a don’t remember who the letter was to, but he wrote: “God has struck at the man’s part in me, and I am now weak. I am now weaker than I can explain, or you could ever understand.” What God did in and through that weak man is still blessing my heart, 350 years later.

Anyway, I said a minute ago that I know that I speak this to different people in different conditions, and I want some of you to take heart. Because you feel weak, you feel weaker than you were a week ago, and a year ago. I want you to take heart and be encouraged that God is weakening you. And don't despise that work, or don't think that something strange is happening to you. If you feel weaker than you did when you first started following Christ with all your heart, take heart. All of your confusion, all of your feelings of being crushed, all of your losing confidence in yourself and your own abilities, all of that very likely is the work of God’s plow in your heart. Be encouraged that this is the work of God. 

But perhaps there are others who are listening to this, and you are in a different condition. Maybe you need to be warned that you are too strong, too strong in the first birth, too high, you've climbed up too high. You are like Zacchaeus…you know that story, that little guy climbs up in the tree. And here is maybe what God’s saying to you, “Come down, Zacchaeus. You are a little guy. Be a little guy with the rest of us. Come down out of your tree, and be nothing, be small. Let God show you how small you are.” Let the Lord, if the Lord is speaking in any of this, let the Lord speak to you about your own condition. 

But again, to some of you, I truly desire your encouragement, and to lift you up. To the mourners in Zion, the ones who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, who do feel poverty of spirit, be encouraged because blessed are those who mourn and weep and feel that their own family doesn't understand them because they desire righteousness so strongly. Be encouraged because Jesus says, “blessed are you,” and to you He says, “you will inherit the kingdom of heaven.”

To those of us who are strong in the first birth, let’s come down. Let’s let the Lord bring us down.