The
Spirit of the Word
"The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."-- Jesus
"The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life."-- Paul
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The Triumphant Way (1)
by Ray and Doris
Prinzing
Chapter
5
TO REMAIN VICTORS
"Therefore put on the complete armour of God, so
that you may be able to stand your ground in the evil day, and having fought to
the end, to remain victors on the field." [Ephesians 6:13, Weymouth
translation].
From day to day, as
the Spirit continues to reveal and clarify the vision before us, we are filled
with rejoicing and praise to Him who is working all things after the counsel of
His own will, into our good, and to His praise. Each fragment of truth, inworked
line upon line, shall bring us to the hour of HIS appointment-when He shall
manifest His own. That this is indeed a long and severe battle, no one will
deny. The pressures seem to be daily increasing, and some days almost seem to
have more than their full quota. Yet the promise remains, "as thy days, so shall
thy strength be." [Deut. 33:25]. And not only are we to come through the
processing, but victoriously so, TO REMAIN VICTORS ON THE FIELD.
There are often many
delicate shades of meaning in the original Greek text of the New Testament, and
the various translators have tried to bring out that which best responded to
their understanding, and in harmony with the rules they applied for translation.
In comparing several translations we sometimes are able to enlarge our own
vision, and gain a wider scope of understanding.
Some Bible Scholars
were so taken by the intense warfare that we face against the spirit forces of
darkness, that they felt one would do well to barely "hold out to the end", and
that, simply because we are clothed with God's armour. In this regard we have
Phillips' translation, "-that even when you have fought to a standstill you
may still stand your ground." The thought of progression is almost excluded
here, FIGHTING TO A STANDSTILL, just holding our ground.
Williams translation,
"-after having completely finished the contest, to hold your own."
Amplified, "-and having
done all (the crisis demands) to stand (firmly in your place)."
Montgomery, "-and
having overthrown them all, to stand your ground."
Now we begin to pick up
a more expansive, positive note. AND HAVING OVERTHROWN THEM ALL! There is a
terrific warfare that has been, and is now in progress, and is yet to climax,
but righteousness shall prevail, and every evil force shall be completely
overthrown. Regardless of its other applications, surely we can appropriate the
scripture, and apply it here, as found in Ezekiel 21:26-27. "Thus saith the Lord
God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same:
exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I WILL OVERTURN, OVERTURN,
OVERTURN, it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I
will give it Him." Glory be to our God!
Omitting a detailed
account of the armour that must be put on, that we might successfully gain the
victory in this conflict of the ages, suffice it to say, without the complete
preparation we cannot expect to survive, for so intense shall be the warfare.
Yes, and so subtle will be the deceptions, that "if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect. -And except those days be shortened, there should no
flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."
[Matthew 24:24,22].
And the Lamsa
translation of our text gives, "BUT BEING PREPARED YOU SHALL PREVAIL." God is so
preparing His people, His remnant, His election by grace, and so completely
equipping them with their full spiritual armour, that, by His grace, they shall
prevail. "THE MAN OF GOD SHALL BE COMPLETE AND PROFICIENT, WELL-FILLED AND
THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK." [2 Timothy 3:17, Amplified]. So
vital is this hour, so desperate is the need, God has not allowed His own to
have to fend for themselves, trying to find their own equipment. Nay, but HE is
sovereignly working in each life to have them fully prepared and ready.
"Through God we
shall do valiantly: for He it is that shall tread down our enemies." [Psalm 108
:13].
"And ye shall tread
down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet IN THE
DAY THAT I SHALL DO THIS, saith the Lord of hosts." [Malachi 4:3]. Before
pursuing the thought of PREVAILING, and DOING VALIANTLY, we would like to insert
a word concerning the enemy being "ashes". Ashes are all that remains once the
fire has consumed the subject. Our God is a consuming fire. THIS BATTLE IS THE
LORD'S, HE it is that must first subdue the enemy and render him powerless, and
then He leads us onward to share the spoils of the battle. It is written, "HE
SHALL THRUST OUT THE ENEMY BEFORE THEE: and shall say, Destroy them." [Deut.
33:27]. The overthrowing is God's work, He casts them out, dislodges them from
their usurped positions, and then says to His people, Destroy them, finish with
the clean-up work. Isn't it strange how fearful we are to go out to battle? When
God gives the command to go out, you can be sure HE has gone before and
already defeated the enemy, and you only have to go out and take possession.
In the days of
Hezekiah, when Jerusalem was threatened by the invading armies of Assyria, after
Hezekiah had wept and prayed before the Lord, received his answer from God, "It
came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the
camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: AND WHEN THEY
(Israel) AROSE EARLY IN THE MORNING, BEHOLD, THEY WERE ALL DEAD CORPSES." [2
Kings 19:35].
Sometimes we feel
the enemy is very much alive, and we dread to go out and face the issue, so the
internal battle wages, and our minds feverishly toil for some answer or way of
escape, until finally we commit the whole thing to the Lord, submit to Him, fall
on the Rock, and then in the morning when we go out to see the matter, lo, the
enemy has become a dead corpse. The problem vanishes before our very eyes.
How often has this happened, and yet when the next battle comes, more fear and
doubt must be conquered, but when INNER VICTORY HAS COME, we find that likewise
outward victory begins to unfold. This is a marvellous inworking of our God.
When a strong man armed
keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall
come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he
trusted, and divideth the spoils." [Luke 11:21-22].
"And having spoiled
principalities and powers, HE made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them
in it." [Colossians 2:15].
"-That through death HE
might destroy (to make of none effect) him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage." [Hebrews 2:14-15].
Dare we believe it? The
triumph of Christ at Calvary is such that when we are IN HIM, moving in His
will, the enemy is already made of none effect. All of the noise, snorting,
howling of the enemy is but to frighten God's people, yet when IN THE NAME OF
THE LORD, i.e. clothed with His nature and one in His will, we go against the
adversary, he must become as ashes under the soles of our feet. "THE BATTLE
IS THE LORD'S", He goes before, He delivers into our hand, and through HIM we
shall do valiantly. Someone expressed this beautifully in the words of a
little chorus:
"In times
of trouble, He'll give thee peace,
He'll cause
thy strivings within to cease,
The Lord
triumphant is leading thee,
For it is
His battle--and victory."
How true are these
words, and how real they are becoming to those who follow on to know the Lord in
a deeper measure. We so often struggle on in our own strength, trying to come to
a place of rest, when we need complete surrender to HIM, to triumph IN Christ.
THROUGH GOD we shall do
VALIANTLY. This word "valiantly" given here is the Hebrew word "chayil" meaning
force, strength. Young's Analytical Concordance points out that this case is an
inexact translation of a noun by a verb or an adjective. A noun is a person,
place., or thing, hence it could be said that in this case the word actually
signifies their STAT'E OF BEING. They are force or strength personified. In his
translation, Ferrar Fenton bears this out, as he gives, "WE SHALL BE MADE STRONG
FROM OUR GOD, and He our opponents defeat."
How does this come
about? How do we become strength personified? I am sure that many feel as we do,
that right now we are just about the opposite, without strength, stripped of
all we even once thought we possessed. And to remain victors on the field would
almost seem questionable. But the truth is here—so let us carry on a little
farther.
"I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me." [Phil. 4:13].
Williams gives in his
footnote to this passage, "literally, I have power for all things through Him
who puts a dynamo in me."
While the Amplified
gives, "I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me—I am ready for
anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me,
(that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency)." Praise the Lord for
ever more!
Yes!, the strength and
power are HIS! When then is the process whereby this is imparted, infused, so
that we become this strength? The Lord said unto Paul, "My grace is sufficient
for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." [2 Corinthians 12:9].
The Wuest Expanded
translation is beautiful here, "He has said unto me, and His declaration still
stands, My grace is enough for you, for power is moment by moment coming to its
full energy and complete operation in the sphere of weakness."
This has been hard for
us to grasp. True, we can read the words, and we know what they mean word-wise,
but when it comes to experimentally becoming a partaker of this process, we
question, ah, we often doubt the outcome. Nor is the enemy very far away with
his doubts and scornful insinuations. How can we save the world when we cannot
even help our own neighbour? Such weakness we feel!
We groan for power, HE
answers us by stripping us even more, till the last vestige of human resource is
fully exhausted, and we have nothing left to even attempt helping another. This
is our moment of utter helplessness, when we can scarcely even speak of it, we
feel so empty. And into the midst of this nothingness the Holy Spirit speaks
anew about "remaining victors on the field." You might smile at the seeming
paradox of it all-and yet it is so true, so very true. All that we can do now is
cast ourselves upon HIM. Ah, this is the very purpose of the whole process, for
then HE BECOMES OUR STRENGTH. What we felt was our greatest weakness shall
become the gateway to His power. I am well aware of the fact that there are many
who as yet have not come to the point of feeling totally inadequate. Self is a
peculiar thing, and it will seem to have hidden reserves, so that about the time
you think you are to the end of it all, from somewhere self pulls out another
idea, and you try again to do what only the Spirit can actually accomplish. As
long as we feel we are in possession of gifts and graces, and that "we" have
power to do something, we are sure to try and carry on. Yet God has a time, and
away of bringing each man to the end of himself-not to grovel in despair and
defeat, but to cause us to turn from our selves, and to seek to be fully JOINED
UNTO THE LORD.
Then it is that we
find, as Phillips' translation gives, "The Christ you have to deal with is
not a weak person outside you, but a TREMENDOUS POWER INSIDE YOU." [2
Corinthians 13:8].
0, the expanding wonder
of that truth, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the nations; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of
glory." [Colossians 1:27].
"For though He was
crucified in weakness (of His humanity), yet by the power of God He goes on
living. We too, indeed, show weakness through our union with Him, yet by the
power of God we too shall be alive toward you through fellowship with Him." [2
Cor. 13:4, Williams].
Our usual thought of
UNION WITH CHRIST is for all the blessing we receive, the life we enjoy, the
victory we shall possess. But here is another thought included, how that
first of all we SHOW WEAKNESS THROUGH OUR UNION WITH HIM, and after that comes
the amazing display of His life flowing through us, until we live again, not
after the former manner of our self-life, but now in the full strength and glory
of HIS life. Yes, to be able to say with Paul, "I live, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the
faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." [Galatians
2:20].
Then the Psalmist
describes the process this way: "Blessed — happy, fortunate (to be envied) — is
the man whose strength is in You; in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
Passing through THE VALLEY OF WEEPING they make it a place of springs; the early
rain also fills (the pools) with blessings. THEY GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
-INCREASING IN VICTORIOUS POWER; each of them appears before God in Zion."
[Psalm 84:5-7, Amplified].
To be sure, seldom does
the thought of man increasing his strength include a "VALLEY OF WEEPING", and
yet God has ordained it so. Yet, though "weeping may endure for a night", rest
assured, "joy cometh in the morning." [Psalm 30:5]. While the prophet Jeremiah
describes the return into God, "They shall come with weeping, and with
supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to
Israel..." [Jeremiah 31:9].
It was when Gideon
acknowledged to the angel of the Lord the very desperateness of the situation,
and of his own helplessness, that the reply came, "GO IN THIS THY MIGHT."
[Judges 6:14].
But the thought does
not end here, for there is a full armour of God, there is a divine strength to
be received, there is a prevailing. The process has been most difficult because
we have not passed this way before, there is no other pattern to victory, EXCEPT
OUR LORD, and He conquered death by dying, and He showed forth the strength of
God through weakness, until Paul, thrilled with the very revelation of it,
declared, "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto
the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. -BUT GOD HATH
CHOSEN the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
-That no flesh should glory in His presence. BUT OF HIM ARE YE IN CHRIST JESUS,
Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption." [1 Cor. 1:23-25, 27, 29-30].
TO REMAIN VICTORS ON
THE FIELD! The upheaval is tremendous, as Jesus spoke to Simon Peter. "Behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not." [Luke 22:31-32].
The words "fail not"
come from the Greek word "ekleipo" which is the word from which our English word
"eclipse" is derived. Thus the Wuest Expanded Translation gives, "in order that
he may shake you in a sieve as grain is sifted, by an inward agitation, trying
your faith to the verge of overthrow. But as for Myself, I made petition
concerning you that your faith should not be totally eclipsed."
God alone is able to
keep our faith from going into an eclipse, for HE is the Father of lights,
"in Whom there can be no variation (rising or sitting) or shadow cast by His
turning (as in an eclipse)." [James 1:17, Amplified].
What siftings we have
to endure, what INW ARD AGITATIONS, bringing our faith to the very verge of an
eclipse. And yet, when you feel that all will become dark, from deep within the
CHRIST ARISES as a ray of divine light, and you are able to move on to the next
battle, pass through another cycle of testing, and always REMAIN VICTOR ON THE
FIELD, because HE through you hath prevailed.
The scripture has been
quoted often, surely everyone knows the words, as the expression goes, backwards
and forwards, how that everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that that
which cannot be shaken might remain. Day by day we see the forces of this
world's system crumble and fall beneath the process, and there is becoming very
little for the world to cling to, for soon all will be completely overturned.
And yet GOD IS BRINGING FORTH A PEOPLE WHO SHALL HAVE REMAINED ALL
THROUGH THE SHAKING, AND THEY SHALL COME FORTH "stedfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord."
Now we come to the
final translation of our scripture text, this time reading from Conybeare,
"Wherefore, take up with you to the battle the whole armour of God" that you may
be able to withstand them in the evil day, and "HAVING OVERTHROWN THEM ALL,
TO STAND UNSHAKEN." This is DIVINE VICTORY! To pass through all the
upheavel, every part of the sifting, each cycle of the shaking, and yet to
emerge triumphant, to remain victors on the field, to stand unshaken. Every
enemy subdued, having overthrown them all, then to come forth to stand
unshaken-this can only be accomplished through the complete sufficiency of
Christ.
Here again we find both
example and promise are before us—when
the three men passed through their severe testing, and were finally cast into a
furnace of fire, one heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated."
Yet, when the king perceived that they were not destroyed by the fire, but only
their bands were loosed, he called them forth. "Then Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and
captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men,
upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed,
neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on
them." [Daniel 3:26-27].
Compromise? Defeat?
NEVER! They remained victors on the field, and came forth from the whole process
to STAND UNSHAKEN.. This is God's great provision for His own.
"Fear not: for I
have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine. When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be
burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." [Isaiah 43:1-3].
There need be no
attempt made to prophesy what the days ahead will bring forth, for there are
both lights and, shadows along the pilgrim way. Darkness is covering the earth,
and gross darkness the people, and the natural disturbances of wars,
earthquakes, etc. is nothing compared to the INNER AGITATION of men. "Even
youths shall faint and be weary, and the selected young men shall feebly stumble
and fall exhausted; But those who wait for the Lord -who expect, look for and
hope in Him -SHALL CHANGE AND RENEW THEIR STRENGTH AND POWER; they shall lift
their wings and mount up ( close to God) as eagles (mount up to the sun); they
shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint or become tired."
[Isaiah 40:30-31 Amplified].
May faith become
strong, and may courage wax bold; by the grace of God may we be numbered among
those who remain victors on the field, to stand unshaken, a living manifestation
of the power of God, possessors of HIS more abundant life, to victoriously walk
the triumphant way.
To remain victors-
While storms of testing 'round thee roll,
When inner agitations would seem to plague thy soul,
Sifting hours run their course till they have purged
the whole.
To remain victors-
When spirit forces stalk the night,
When multiplied deceptions would work their awful
blight,
And ruthless men seek for control-bind their
captives tight.
To remain victors-
When other realms taste of defeat,
O'ercome by conflagrations that wither by their
heat,
And every human resource the process doth
deplete.
To remain victors-
Prepared by grace to e'er prevail,
When verbal lacerations against thy soul assail,
And men with evil cursings the fearful would
impale.
To remain victors-
Till Babylon is overthrown,
And razed are its foundations, uprooted stone by:
stone, ,
No more its merchandising shall doctrinaires
condone.
To remain victors-
And stand unshaken by the pace
Of vital transformations flesh to righteousness
gives place,
Until redemption the whole of mankind shall
embrace.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
(1) Prinzing,
Ray and Doris. THE TRIUMPHANT WAY!. (now out of print), Boise,
Idaho 83705
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