非用祷告禁食,这一类的鬼总不能出来。(可九29)

“我们为什么不能赶他出去呢?”这问题的答案在于人与主耶稣的关系。只有集中在主身上,加倍的仰望主,才能把这类鬼赶出去。若不集中靠神的能力去作神的工,只靠自己的主意,就变得无能,像昔日门徒一样。我们热心为他作工,却又不认识他,只会给神带来羞辱。

当你面临一件困难的事,外表看来好像没有什么改变,可是你却晓得事情必得以解决,因为你专注在主耶稣身上。这就是你事奉的途径--与主之间毫无阻隔。若有任何阻隔的话,就必须挪开,不是因恼怒而置之不理,也不是越过它,而是面对它,把它直接带到主耶稣面前。那样,这件事和所有与此相关的,都会荣耀神你甚至诧异莫名,直到面对面见主那一天才会完全明白。

我们要像鹰一般展翅上腾,但必须知道如何降落。圣徒的能力,就是能降落,能在平地上生活。保罗说:“我靠着那加给我力量的,凡事都能作。”他所指的事,多半是低贱的事,我们大可拒绝降卑,说:“谢了,我还是喜欢与神在山顶上。”主耶稣是真实的,我能否在这亮光中面对现实的本相?还是让事情完全抹煞了我对他的信心,以致陷在恐慌中?

祈祷◆主啊,将我高举至你那里,以致你救恩那丰富和充满光辉的喜乐,能为着你的荣耀而面临我和照亮我。愿你使我与你之间的祈祷保持畅通。

October 3: The Sphere Of Ministration

“This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:29

“Why could not we cast him out?” The answer lies in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This kind can come forth by nothing but by concentration and redoubled concentration on Him. We can ever remain powerless, as were the disciples, by trying to do God’s work not in concentration on His power, but by ideas drawn from our own temperament. We slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him.

You are brought face to face with a difficult case and nothing happens externally, and yet you know that emancipation will be given because you are concentrated on Jesus Christ. This is your line of service – to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it in irritation, or by mounting up, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ, then that very thing, and all you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way you will never know till you see Him face to face.

We must be able to mount up with wings as eagles; but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and the living down. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” said Paul, and the things he referred to were mostly humiliating things. It is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say – “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountain top with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they are efface altogether my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?