...The Purging of Our Spirits for the Day of Christ

there is a conviction deep within our hearts that there is to be a people mature and ready for the days of trouble that are bearing down upon us as we wait for the end-time appearing of our Lord. Paul had this same conviction in Philippians 1:6 and 7.

6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: 7 Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.

When he told of the confidence he held toward the Philippians. He said, in effect, "I am persuaded the One who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion with a view toward what you are to be in the day of Jesus Christ."

In verse 7 he said he was justified in holding that conviction because he had those people in his heart. He loved them. And, he said, Ye all are partakers of my grace. That is, "You are all partakers with me of the grace." He didn’t tell them how to avoid tribulation and suffering, but he told them how to discover the grace that would give them sufficient strength for whatever came upon them.

Paul knew this grace. He was in prison while writing this letter to the Philippians. Grace had brought a quality of life to him that his captors could not squelch, nor understand. In fact, they probably saw something in him they wanted. The grace that had come upon him not only gave him the strength to endure, it was sustaining him with confidence. It was releasing joy in him in the absence of all things one would expect to bring joy. It was releasing him from his own pain, to  feel the pain of others instead. It was making him so sufficient in his own personal needs that his longing came to be, not for himself, but for others in their needs.

Paul longed for the Philippians with a compassion released in him by the indwelling Christ. Grace was reaching into his interior parts, and then flowing through him to the people of his care. Because this grace worked in him—and joy, and compassion, and a discipline of spirit—he knew it would work in the people to whom he was writing and bring them to their completion for what they must be in the final day.

When Paul said ye all are partakers of my grace in Philippians 1:7, he used the word sugkoinonós. This defines "someone who partakes jointly with another." The latter part of the word, koinonos, itself means "a fellow partaker." We might think it a strong enough word in itself, but Paul strengthened it with a prefix itself meaning "together with." He was saying, "Together we share the grace together." Oh, what a strong communion! In Paul’s praying, whatever grace had found release in him came over on those for whom he prayed.

A friend of mine asked me one day, "How do we get that kind of grace?" I told him the best way I knew was simply to ask the Lord for it.

So, let’s just do that. We will ask our Heavenly Father for a greater release of His grace in us. We will open up to a new degree of fullness in His saving grace, then, His enabling grace, and His healing grace. Something divine and powerful is ready to flow into us, mercifully, out of His amazing grace.

HEAVENLY FATHER, I open up to the enabling grace You are ready to give me. Your grace has saved me. Let me know yet more of its saving power. It has healed me. Let me know more of its healing power. Let me know its sustaining power in what I face today. And, let me be a channel through which it can move on to others, especially those who are locked in theirprisons and pain and don’t know how to reach You.

again Paul makes use of the Greek word hína to introduce a Kingdom prayer in Philippians 1:9,10. It presents us with a twofold objective. Paul was making precise and definite petitions in prayer "in order that" the people for whom he was praying might become ready to function with Christ in His Kingdom.

9 And this I pray,
• (in order) that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment;
10 that ye may approve things that are excellent;
• (in order) that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

His concern was long-range. He wanted them well prepared, not only for day to day life, but for the day of Christ. He mentioned it twice, in verses 6 and 10. For that day, he wanted their love to abound, but tempered with full knowledge and discernment. He wanted them to be able to make good choices. He wanted them sincere and without offense. All this with a view toward the day of Christ. Paul‘s request was for qualities that would allow them to stand before Christ in the day when He will judge all the earth, and to have full and free function with Him in His Kingdom.

We’re not discussing here whether one will go to heaven or to hell. That is a matter settled in an instant by God’s grace, through faith in Christ. We’re asking Him to work on our inner man, the eternal part of us, with a close view toward making us ready for the day of Christ. It’s how we will function with Christ through the ages of His Kingdom that is taking our concern. It is here that whatever quality of character His grace has worked in us will count.

I am convinced that the time is too close upon us to fool around. Things we’ve gotten by with before will only cause defeat. I am not writing this to bring condemnation or judgment, but these things will steal our confidence at a time when every man’s work shall be made manifest and the day shall declare it—I Corinthians 3:13.

Whether we speak to young or old, there is no time for our love to come up short and cause us to make wrong decisions because of blinded judgment. There is no time to make wrong choices about things we think are our own business but have long-term effect on others. There is no room for any more insincerity or offensive things in the spirit of any of us.

summer has come and gone here in the Carolina mountains. Fall came on with splendor. Everyday we look in awe to see spectacle after spectacle of our Father’s handiwork. Many who are here only in the Summer are packing up to go somewhere warmer, but we’re battening down for Winter. We cannot live in denial that the color and elegance will give way to its bitter freeze. Leaves that turned red and yellow are falling to the ground. The day of growth and productivity has come to its end. There is no more chance for development. It’s too late to fertilize the crop or give it water. It’s too late to deal with worms that invaded the core. Jeremiah saw something like this when he bewailed the condition of Judah and its impending judgment. He lamented, The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved (Jeremiah 8:20).

Like Jeremiah, what’s gripping us is not the end of a season of growth. We’re taken with the conviction that a season in God’s grace is ending. It will soon do its final and beautiful work. Then, a judgment is coming and we will be sealed in our eternal condition.

God is dealing with the pains that have followed us since our youth and have brought about ways of thinking and responding that won’t work in Christ’s Kingdom. He’s dealing with the tendency to sin that has remained, sometimes deep in the recesses of our soul. He’s dealing with our lack of complete trust in Him. The only qualities that have any value to remain for His day are not by our self attainment, but qualities wrought in us by His grace.

For many of us the searching work of the Holy Spirit is revealing much remaining for His grace to do—if we but open ourselves to it.

In the final analysis of what will survive through all the fire of the closing days of this age, there is but one thing that can shine through, untarnished by any tribulation. It is the grace of God—saving grace, healing grace, enabling grace. And there is one more dimension to grace that I must mention for those who minister and those who pray. It is what Paul called my grace. It is the grace that comes upon us who minister. Could we call it "ministerial grace"? In some way it will reach into the lives of those to whom we minister and for whom we pray. For this, we are seeing that what we are has as much effect on people as what we say. It may even have more effect. Right doctrine preached with a polluted spirit produces people whose spirits will be polluted in the final day.

let’s get back to what Paul was praying. We need to see clearly what he was asking, for our own lives as well as for those for whom we pray.

First he dealt with love, but in an unusual way. He asked that it might abound with knowledge and all judgment. This is important in a time when the world is trying to set the standard for love. It is using words like "tolerance" and "acceptance" and urging us to avoid "bigotry." It’s calling Christians "right-wingers" who have no tolerance for "those who differ." 

This is not only to throw confusion upon those who have discovered the greatest tolerance and acceptance in all the universe, but also to bring, shame and disgrace. Persecution of the Church here in America is becoming outright and blatant and has become more severe than it ever has been, even to the uttermost parts of the earth. We have never needed what this prayer is directing us to pray more than now.

The word translated knowledge in Philippians 1:9 is epignósis. We have noted before many times that it means full knowledge or acknowledgment. It is a knowledge that doesn’t have eyes closed to facts. Just think of what being filled with the acknowledgment of God’s will could mean! There are probably many who have knowledge of His will who have never acknowledged it at all. Love with this kind of knowledge doesn’t cause one to live in denial of what the facts are.

Sometimes it seems sweet to say, "Love is blind," but this kind of love will not fare well in the Kingdom where all things will be revealed. It must be open and honest to the truth—and still remain love. The knowledge we’re praying about is a quality that goes with love to enable us to love no matter what the condition of the one loved. It is unconditional love pushed to a degree acceptable in the Kingdom of Christ.

With this knowledge goes judgment. This is from an unusual word found only here in the Greek New Testament. It is aisthésis meaning, the ability to discern a matter thoroughly and to base one’s actions accordingly. For this, one needs understanding enhanced by the Holy Spirit to make it useful for God’s Kingdom. These are things that come in answer to prayer. They are wrought by God’s grace in us and cannot be imitated in a person who rejects the aid of His Spirit.

paul also wanted the people for whom he was praying to be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. I’m fascinated with this word sincere. It’s from the Greek eilikrinés and literally means "judged in the sun." We get our English word "sincere" from it’s Latin equivalent which brings in two words to make the one: sin, "without," and cere, "wax."

I’m not certain how the word developed, but there is an interesting tradition that carries a strong possibility. A woman, on going into the market to purchase a pot for use in her household work, would hold the vessel up to the sun to see if it had a crack in it. Ancient producers learned how a pot marred in its manufacture could be made to look acceptable. They coated it with wax. A cracked pot could be made to look quite well. In fact, one thus covered might even look better than one not coated. An inexperienced woman in household chores might be taken with the greater beauty of the waxed pot, only later to discover, as she carried it on her head filled with water, that she had been duped. She learned to judge it in the sun before making its purchase. You can see she soon learned to choose a "sin-cere" pot.

The brightness of the day of Jesus Christ will certainly reveal the flaws we have covered. The wax of any hidden sin will not endure its light or heat.

But, what must we do about our cracks?

I remember Brother Ivan Spencer, founder of Elim Bible Institute in New York, being taken with the word contrite. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.—Ps 51:17

In dealing with pottery makers of the day, Paul discovered that vessels marred in their making could be crushed in an implement called a "contriter" so they could be remade into new vessels. The early meaning of "contrite" meant "ground into small bits." Life has a way of doing this. And the grace of God has a way—a wonderful way—of coming in upon the ground-up bits and making something beautiful and new for His Kingdom. If we will but allow it, the Spirit of God will come in with a work of grace and make us into useful and beautiful vessels for His Kingdom.

This process, supervised by the grace of God, is not to be dreaded but welcomed. You see, it is God’s grace that receives us in our marred estate and welcomes us into His family. But there is no such thing as "cheap grace" that will cover the iniquity of our inner man to make us look good in the marketplace. The grace that will not let us go demands a new person, a new creation, if you please.

A person who has cheapened God’s grace by using it as a cover for some stronghold, will not have sufficient strength to endure the furious times that will precede the day of Christ. This is the reason we are learning from Paul to pray that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.

If this means we must be ground in the "contriter" and made into a new vessel, we can know that not only the grace of God will oversee the whole process, but the Love of God. This is where persons have their value who love enough to pray with confidence. We can say to the one whose inner weakness, (or iniquity, or stronghold, or whatever you might want to call it) has been revealed: "Hey, I love you! I love you so much I’m not going to give up on you. Something has persuaded me you’re going to make it. I see that the Holy Spirit Who has begun a good work in you is going to take all that has happened and all that is weak in you and process it together to make you useful for the Kingdom of Christ." 

In regard to being without offense in the day of Christ, It could be anything that causes another to stumble. It might be an attitude, a way of responding, a lack of patience, an outburst of temper, a lust, or a broken promise. Most of these things spring from beneath the surface and have their roots in things we might not even consider sin. The Holy Spirit is reaching for these things in us to remove them completely.

All of this brings us to an awesome passage from Paul, Romans 8:26-28. Let me give it here as it comes to me from the Original. It speaks powerfully, both to those of us who need intercessors as well as those of us who will pray.

Likewise the Spirit also comes right with us to take upon Himself our weaknesses so He can deal with them. When He begins we might think He’s against us, but He’s only against what’s wrong in us. He deals with things we don’t know how to deal with, our weaknesses that we can’t even pray intelligently about. He takes the matter into consultation with God, praying inside us with something like an inward sighing. With a way of thinking only the Holy Spirit can have, He brings us through to what God wants. In this we’ve come to see something wonderful. God can take the combined energies of everything in us, both good and bad, and work with them for something good. This is because He loves us and has a sure calling upon us.

FATHER, there is a darkness that has tried to
maintain a stronghold upon me since I was young.
I’ve tried to push it down so none would be aware,
but I can no longer hide.
Let Your grace come now and meet that iniquity in me.
Oh, consuming grace of God,
flood my inner man like a fire and purge me for the Day of Christ.
Make my way of thinking and responding right for Your Kingdom.
Make me sincere for that day, and clear of any offense.

  Now continue on to the next chapter...
Grace! Grace!...the Shout of the Last Hour

© Berean Ministries

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