The Mirror

By John Thiel

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

How do we live the law through the Spirit? Beholding as in a glass. We have seen what the spirit of the Lord is prepared to do for us. There is something that we must do so the spirit of the Lord can do it for us. We need to behold like in a mirror the glory of Lord, His character of love. As we behold this, even though we have broken Gods laws and failed to keep them and we come crying back to the Lord saying that I am hopeless, I can’t achieve all that I have to do, how does He show us? Because of my terrible sins, He shows us that Jesus has died for us and He says, I have died for you return to me. That is the glory of the Lord and His wonderful love. How do we behold that? We behold the glory of the Lord through the Spirit of the Lord.

Beholding Christ means studying His life as given in His Word. We are to dig for truth as for hidden treasure. We are to fix our eyes upon Christ. When we take Him as our personal Saviour, this gives us boldness to approach the throne of grace. By beholding we become changed, morally assimilated to the One who is perfect in character. By receiving His imputed righteousness, through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, we become like Him. The image of Christ is cherished, and it captivates the whole being (MS 148, 1897). {6BC 1098.1}

Beholding Christ means what? Studying his life as given in His word. We are to Hdig for truth as for hidden treasure. As we study the word, we can see what is written about Jesus and about God’s character.

It is a law of the mind that it gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is trained to dwell. {PP 596.2}

So as we study the Bible and read and contemplate that, we are beholding. The being who has inspired these words, the letter is the being who wants to inscribe them in our hearts.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show [it] unto you.

Not written on tables with ink but with the Spirit of God on our hearts.

As we read the Bible, the Spirit of truth that has inspired the Bible will guide us by taking of what we are reading and showing it unto us. The Holy Spirit will do it unto us, like looking in a mirror. Begin to visualise what you are reading as the Holy Spirit makes that happen. How can you visualize the reality of something? There is a process as we have already established that there is an Old Covenant and then a New Covenant. We go through an experience of failure and then the Holy Spirit guides us through the reading of the Word. He is with us to help us. But notice how deeply He wants to ingrain what He is showing to us.

John 14:17 [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

The Holy Spirit takes of the word and shows it to me and He is with me and is guiding me into all truth. He is there the whole time talking and applying the word of God to me but that is still outside. God will write it in our hearts by the Spirit. How can He write it in my heart if He is only with me? When He comes into me then He can write it in my heart.

The great object of Christianity is to walk along with God through the Old Covenant that I must read and study that He is with me but He is not in me yet. We are all at difference stages.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

To the people of Laodacea there must come a deeper step. He says I am with you at the hearts door but I am not in you. Will you let me in? When we open our heart and permit and let Him to be with me and then let Him, then the new covenant of the writing of the law in my heart will take place when that day arrives and we let Him in. What is the reality? As we are thinking of this, what is the process? God does not shut us away, He wants to come into us and when He comes into us, here is the profound reality.

1 John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

But the anointing which you have received of Him abideth in you. When Jesus was anointed He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. This is the ultimate thing that God wants us to gain. Such an anointing that He is not just with us, but in us and when that has taken place we have no need for anyone to teach us.

Jeremiah 31:33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The reality of having the Holy Spirit inside of me is the knowledge of God inside of me and whatever I need in everyday life if I let this unction abide in me, I will have no need for any man to tell me what to do for I will know exactly what to do for the law is in my hear.

When we meditate on this the church as a whole, that which you know in your mind, I know in my mind and we all know it together without anyone having to say a word. Have you felt it? You want to say something and the other person has the same thing to say. We all speak the same things and do the same things in obeying God’s law. The intimacy that is available to us is that we can fulfill God’s word.

John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

If I want to have eternal life I must have it in me. We will no longer rely upon our own perceptions because the perceptions we have are not ours but they are given to us of the Holy Spirit. We are not sufficient of ourselves. I am not able of myself but when the Holy Spirit comes who in all things are possible.

All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us. {DA 668.3}

The work gets more and more intense that it become so much a part of me that I will resist all sin because the law of God is within my heart through His presence inside of me. This is the great object of true Christianity, we are all at different stages. Some are with Jesus and He says I shall be with you however when He comes in the benefit is greater because then we have the law in our hearts but we are all being benefited by the Holy Spirit so as we let these realities work on our mind we have an unction, awareness and understanding and the world does not understand it. The world cannot receive it because they are living in their own world. When we come to the Holy Spirit we live in a different world to them and we have the victory over all sins.

Amen.