1 Corinthians 2:14
“But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.”
The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says – “If our gospel be hid, it is hid” – to those who are blackguards? No, “to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp, they have no sense of need of the Gospel. It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself. Jesus said – “Ask, and it shall be given you,” but God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He withholds, but that that is the way He has constituted things based on Redemption. By means of our asking, God gets processes into work whereby He creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. The inner reality of Redemption is that it creates all the time. As the Redemption creates the life of God in us, so it creates the things belonging to that life. Nothing can satisfy the need but that which created the need. This is the meaning of Redemption – it creates and it satisfies.
“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” We preach our own experiences and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened by it. If once Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of Him. Behind the preaching of the Gospel is the creative Redemption of God at work in the souls of men. It is never personal testimony that saves men. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
Words of Wisdom
What To Do When You Are
Doubting God (Part 2)
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returned not thither, but watered the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
