Living Through Christ Lessons Developed from the Writings of George D. Watson by Steve Bray {1950-2003} In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (1 John 4:9) Contents The Molting of the Eagles 5 The Forms of Divine Life 10 Channels of the Spirit 13 How We Belong to Jesus 16 Three Kingdom Stages 17 Desires for God 20 Divine Recollection 21 Steps to Holiness 23 The Sweetness of Love 26 The Growth Previous to Sanctification 28 The Banquet at Bethany 29 Divine Manifestations of the Heart 35 Divine Grafting 35 Loaded Words 36 The Love Slave 38 The Heavenly Life 40 The Unmixed Garment 45 The Two Crossings 46 Believing Just Now 49 Let God 50 Threshing Out Chaff 51 Pure Gold 54 Paul’s Thorn 55 Feeding our Faith 56 A Deeper Death to Self 57 The Benefit of Deep Crucifixion 57 Dissolved in Love 59 Our Joy In God 59 The Captive Bride 60 2 Learning Spiritual Lessons 61 Little Things 62 Simplicity 63 Loquacity 63 Superiority of Love 65 Tenderness of Spirit 66 A Critical Spirit 67 The Daily Cross 69 Full Assurance 70 Obstruction to Growth 70 Benefits of Temptation 71 Some Striking Incidents 72 Spiritual Glimpses 73 Human Religion 74 The Dangers of Prosperity 75 Lukewarmness 79 Purple Fingernails 80 Dangers to Deep Spirituality 82 The Spirit of Crucifixion 83 Our Need of Humility 85 Substitutes for Holiness 86 Take Time 86 Anxiety and Faith 89 God’s Quiet Conquests 91 The Fullness of Capability 93 How God Deals with Us 94 Counterpart Providences 94 Going Slow with God 95 A Holy Taste 96 Thou Art My God 98 3 Preface George D. Watson was one of the most influential preachers of the late Nineteenth Century holiness movement. In a publisher’s preface it was said of him: “In each generation God raises some few saints who discern truth more deeply than their fellows; rare spirits to whom He opens truths long hidden from the world, and such as are specially needed for the generation.” George Watson was one of these men. And while he lived in a past generation, he still has much to say to the church today. Material from nine of his books has been used in developing this devotional study. Each section is headed by the book title and chapter title he used. This is the only reference. Some may prefer to read his books. We have used his insight in this single volume to help earnest souls make progress in their Christian walk. Prayer and meditation will be needed to benefit from these lessons. We are too often content with the mere hearing of truth. Christ is the light of truth. We must go to Him in dependent prayer for the true revelation. As He has said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) If His truth is to become an innate part of our life, then we will need Him to reveal Himself within our inner being. It is as we look to Christ’s Spirit to make His divine life known within our heart that His truth becomes a part of our very nature. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth… He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine {by taking from the divine life} and making it known to you. (John 16:12-14 NIV) His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness {the light of truth}, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue…that through these {promises} you may be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Pet. 1:3-4) We should also note that these teachings will only be understood by those who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14) And yet our heavenly Father wants everyone to understand His ways. He has therefore promised to give the Holy Spirit to everyone who will yield their heart to Him and ask for this wonderful gift. (Luke 11:13) We are dependent upon the Spirit to both reveal the light of truth and to supply sufficient power to follow in the ways of our Lord. Working as the “Comforter,” He provides spiritual support while bringing the yielded heart into harmony with the revealed Word. While being separated from the flesh-life will involve some suffering, those who continue to follow His leading will be taken into the life of promise where it is possible to walk as Jesus did in “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17) The Spirit comes in His fullness to enable us to walk in harmony with our Lord with a deep sense of peace and joy within our heart. 4 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time… But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. (1 Pet. 5:5, 10) Unless otherwise noted, the verses quoted are from the New King James version of the Bible. Some of the words in the Scriptures are italicized for emphasis. Bracketed comments have also been inserted on occasions. The Molting of the Eagles From “God’s Eagles” In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah we find a contrast between the natural life and the spiritual life. We are told that in the natural life even the vibrant youth faint and become weary. The strongest of young men who live in their own strength continue to find their spiritual life collapsing. In contrast, those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their spiritual strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isa. 40:31) The word “renew” in this passage would more properly be expressed by the word change. It implies that those who wait on the Lord shall change the source of their spiritual strength. That is, their strength is changed from the natural to the spiritual, from the human to the Divine. These children of faith learn to live through God’s divine life. The life that Jesus revealed through His mortal body is a pure example of the way of life that we are to share with Him. On numerous occasions He said, “My time has not yet come.” He lived on a Divine time schedule. As He walked by the Spirit, all His words and actions were timed by the Father’s will. The Father was able to reveal Himself through the Son because Jesus was willing to wait to be moved by the Spirit. Jesus did not live “out from” Himself. He said, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear {from the Father through the Spirit}, I judge {make decisions and respond}; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30) Jesus literally became an expression of the life of His Father. He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Christ now asks us to follow Him by walking as He did. We are to live as a vessel. The life we are expected to manifest does not have its source in the vessel. We are to learn to wait on the movements of the Spirit and walk in harmony with Him so that Christ may reveal His “light of life” through our body. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) This is how we are to “change” the old self-originated form of life for the divine life that comes from God. Jesus was called the Second or Last Adam because He lived as the first Adam was originally designed to live. He now wants to lead us into this same way of life—the form of life that God originally planned for all of His children. 5 We were created to live as vessels that God could use to display His life and glory. In the same way He was able to light up the world by commanding light to shine out of darkness, He is able to command the light of Christ’s life to shine out from our mortal bodies. Even though the vessel is weak in itself, God, through His creative power, is able to fill it with His glory and display His image. For it is God who commanded light {the Son’s light of life} to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face {in the spiritual image} of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels {weak mortal bodies}, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us…that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Cor. 4:7, 10) There is a vast amount of human religion which does not reveal the life of Christ. The presence and the power of His Spirit are not being displayed. Even after being born of the Spirit we find that our religious life has remained mixed with human strength. We unwittingly go on depending on our own abilities and will-power to make ourselves more like Christ. Not fully realizing that the life needs to be received from Christ by faith, we wear out our strength and find ourselves spiritually drained. Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Gal. 3:3 NIV) But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isa. 40:31) It takes time to learn to wait on the Lord and live through His Spirit. But if we will learn to wait on Him and respond to the leading of His Spirit, our spiritual life will be renewed and strengthened. It will be changed from the natural to the divine. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while {in losing hope in your own strength}, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. (1 Pet. 5:10) While it will entail some suffering as we go through the process of dying out to the old self-originated form of life, there comes “a day” when Christ manifests His heavenly life within our soul so we may share with Him in His victorious life. (John 14:20-21) His overcoming life is even more powerful than the fallen life we received from Adam. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one {spiritual powerlessness reigned through Adam}, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Rom. 5:17) 6 The new birth does result in a new form of life, making all things new. But each child of God reaches a stage when it is necessary to molt or put off our original covering. As an eagle molts its feathers, we are to molt the form righteousness that came mostly from our own strength. We begin to realize that the strength of the flesh does not have sufficient power to purify the heart and produce the kind of heavenly righteousness that is required of God’s children. And so we abandon ourselves to the Lord at a deeper level so we may receive the “much more” of Christ’s reigning life. And then, as we learn to wait on Him and receive our life from Him alone, we are lifted by the power of His Spirit into a much higher spiritual life than we had ever known before. The apostle Paul had once lived for God in his own strength. He was trained in the best school of his day to live by the Scriptures. He rose to the top of his class and became one of the most zealous of God’s servants. In fact, concerning “the righteousness which is in the law,” he referred to himself as “blameless.” (Phil. 3:3-6) But there came a day when he recognized how much he needed the reigning life of Christ filling his soul. In order to come to “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” he had to count everything “as loss” from his old self-originated form of life. Only then could He live through Christ’s heavenly life. He exchanged the strength and zeal he had once used to make himself righteous for “the righteousness that comes from God by faith.” I also count all things loss {everything from the self-originated form of life} for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things…that I may gain Christ…not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection… (Phil. 3:8-10) God’s children need to be built up in their faith so they will turn to Christ for life from above. They need to change the source of their strength. The soul, like the eagle, needs to be clothed with a new set of feathers by receiving “the righteousness which is from God by faith.” By learning to live through Christ in this way of dependent faith our life is taken up in the power of His Spirit. His resurrection power draws the soul upward into the heavenly realms as if gravity was changed to another world. This new form of spiritual life is gloriously lifted above the darkness and spiritual oppression that surrounds this fallen world and has weighed down and depressed so many souls. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saint, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him…in the heavenly realms… (Eph. 1:18-20 NIV) 7 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is… For you died {to the strength of the flesh}, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:1-3) For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit {live through the Spirit}, rejoice in Christ Jesus {for what He is doing}, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Phil. 3:3) All the changes that are needed to produce this new source of strength within the soul are reached by waiting on the Lord. By successive steps in meeting the Divine conditions and in receiving the fulfillment of God’s promises, the power of Christ’s endless life enters into the soul. It is then that we are enabled to fulfill by nature, as Jesus did, all the righteous requirements of the law. (Rom. 8:3-4) There arises another Priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life… (Heb. 7:15-16) To walk slowly with God requires more grace and maturity of thought and habit than to run in our Christian service. Young Christians naturally start out running for the Lord. These earnest souls also tend to become impatient with the quietness and the apparent slowness of spiritual Christians. Those who are still living in their own strength think they can accomplish more with a rush of speed. But these works do very little to further the Kingdom-life that comes down from heaven. To go slow with God in order to walk in the power of His Spirit is one of the most important lessons to learn in the Christian life. Many of us have studied the life of Jesus over and over in the Gospels in order to become more like Him. But it does little good until we begin to see how He lived by the Spirit. He did not walk in His own power or direct His own steps. Everything He did had its source in the Father. He lived as a mere vessel, continuously giving way to the movements of the Spirit, so that His Father could manifest the eternal life through Him. The life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. (1 John 1:2) I do nothing of Myself… And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. (John 8:28-29) This walk in the Spirit resulted in a life of deep calmness, tranquility, quietness and assurance. Like the movement of the sun, it was a life in which everything was measured by a Divine regularity. There was never any haste. He never did or said anything ahead of time or behind time. None of His actions were out of harmony with the divine life of His Father. He consistently moved in the river of eternal life with a deep sense of smoothness, calmness and victory. As He lived by the Spirit, the heavenly life of the Father Himself was being unfolded before the eyes of the world through His humanity. 8 We never read of Christ running. He probably started out in His youth trying to run in the ways of His Father. But He too had to learn obedience by what He suffered. (Heb. 5:8) Everyone learns to walk slowly with God through the suffering that increases patience and faith. And so, when He finally begins His ministry at the age of thirty, we find Him always walking in an unhurried pace. But He was always on time, He never lacked anything, and nothing was ever over-due. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work {as you learn to live by the Spirit alone}, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (Jam. 1:2) It is into this same Divine life that we are to enter and learn to move by walking in His Spirit. There needs to be a real death to the old self-originated form of life that comes from the flesh. We are to walk in Christ, and with Christ, and for Christ. This steady, quiet, slow, mature walk with Christ in the Spirit is the condition that leads to the deepest and most heavenly knowledge of Divine things. This is the state where the graces all ripen into a heavenly fruit, and where the soul begins to share with God in His eternal life. And this is the promise that he has promised us—eternal life. (1 John 2:25) Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called… (1 Tim. 6:12) It is a long way from the fallen Adam to Jesus, from self to God, from the earthly to the heavenly. But the length of the journey does not depend on years as counted by men. It depends on the receptivity of the soul and how quickly we respond in a yielded faith to the ways of God. Waiting seems to be a slow thing, and yet it is by waiting on the Lord, in a true yieldedness to His Spirit, that the soul meets the condition that enables it to change its strength. Those who are responsive to God find their spirit being lifted by His power into ever-higher levels of divine spiritual life. Their spirit rises up into the heavenly realms where it becomes “one spirit” with the Son. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is… For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:1-3) But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (1 Cor. 6:17) According to your faith will it be done to you. (Matt. 9:29 NIV) 9 The Forms of Divine Life From “Soul Food” The life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. (1 John 1:2) God’s eternal life was formed and expressed through the mortal body of Jesus when He walked in this world. While the infinite life and glory of the Father could not be contained in His mortal body, Jesus did reveal the essence of the divine nature. He came to both display the eternal life from heaven and to be the source of this divine life to everyone who believes in Him. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… And of His fullness we have all received {we all have access by faith to the life and glory revealed through Him}, and grace for grace. For the law {which requires living by our own strength} was given through Moses, but grace and truth {divine life} came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:14, 16-17) The same grace and truth that was revealed through Jesus can now be revealed through every believer who will consciously choose to follow Him in His way of the cross. (Matt. 16:23-24) Jesus can now fill the vessel of our body with the glory that His Father revealed through Him. By living through Him we are enabled to share with Him in His life and reveal His image of holy love in this world. (1 John 4:17) And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one…that the love with which You loved Me {perfect love} may be in them, and I in them… (John 17:22-23) Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. (Eph. 1:4) God did not plan from the beginning that some would spend eternity in hell and some would spend eternity in heaven. He planned from the beginning that we would live through the life of the Son. God never intended for us to have life in ourselves. He chose for us to live through the Son so that we would always be like Him in holy love. While the first Adam chose to live by self-will and lost the life of God from his soul, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, came into the world to reverse this loss. He destroyed this work that the devil had fostered on the world by choosing to live through the Father. (Luke 22:42; 1 John 3:8) By walking in the Spirit in complete harmony with His Father’s will, the Father was able to continue to “dwell in” Him and “walk in” Him. He lived as a temple of the living God and thereby restored the way of life that Adam lost. 10