By John Thiel
How real is it to you and valuable for us to frequently express ourselves of the value of our relationship with Jesus and to identify the realities and the sense of need of those realities? How much do we trust in Him? Is He dearer than all the earth beside? The way to test that is when He asks us to do something and there are other things to detract us whether we will let the detractions go. That is the way to see if that is true.
Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sons of righteousness arise with healing in His wings and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.
In the study of the three angels, we are in the process of the apprenticeship to Christ in discipleship and you notice as this text says; the Son of righteousness arises with wings and we grow forth and grow up as our minds are focused on Him. There is a growth and development in apprenticeship, the development of Christ’s character in our life.
Did you notice it said the Son of righteousness? What does the sun do when you look at it in its meridian brilliance? What does it do to you? If we gaze even a moment upon the sun in its meridian glory, when we turn away our eyes, the image of the sun will appear in everything we look upon. Thus it is when we behold Jesus. Everything we look upon reflects His image, the Son of righteousness. If we were to look at the sun for long enough it would burn the shape of the sun into the back of the retina and we would see bright and be blind, blind to everything else.
Thus it is when we behold Jesus; everything we look upon reflects His image, the Sun of Righteousness. We cannot see anything else, or talk of anything else. His image is imprinted upon the eye of the soul, and affects every portion of our daily life, softening and subduing our whole nature. By beholding, we are conformed to the divine similitude, even the likeness of Christ. To all with whom we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. We have become transformed in character; for heart, soul, mind, are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us…. {FLB 150.2}
If we keep our minds stayed upon Christ, He will come unto us “as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Hosea 6:3. As the Sun of Righteousness, He will arise upon us “with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2. We shall “grow as the lily.” We shall “revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.” Hosea 14:5, 7. By constantly relying upon Christ as our perSonal Saviour, we shall grow up into Him in all things who is our head. {FLB 150.4}
We need to look at the Son of righteousness long enough until it obliterates every other view. It is so beautiful to behold the real practical aspects of Jesus as our personal Savior. It was so detailed so that it gave us something to occupy our mind with. I shudder how frequently we don’t look long enough. It passes by the eye briefly and it doesn’t burn into the system.
As the mind dwells upon Christ, the character is molded after the divine similitude. You will be totally occupied only with the Son of righteousness. The thoughts are pervaded with a sense of His goodness, of His love when we contemplate His character and thus He is in all our thoughts. That’s what we need and I praise God so much for the vision that we have of Jesus and it is imperative that our gathering focuses on that and when we go our homeward ways it will remain there.
Because we can’t see anything else but the Son of righteousness, by beholding we are conformed to the divine similitude and the likeness of Christ. What will happen to all? When we associate we reflect the bright and cheerful beams of His righteousness. Did you notice that you don’t really have to try very hard to be Christlike when you focus on Jesus and see only Him? Our associates will see the reflection of Christ. You don’t have to try because Christ is so all absorbent in to you mind and all you see is Christ. If you take this in practical terms and if Christ is imprinted on my minds eye, I will only see Christ in you and not your ugly defects.
Have you got trouble with each other? Do you see each other’s defects when you see something wrong? Then Jesus hasn’t burnt His righteousness into my eyes enough and I need to be absorbed with Him. As soon as I observe problems around me, Jesus isn’t there. We have become transformed in character for heart, soul, and mind are irradiated by the reflection of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. I really believe as I fellowship with brothers and sisters that this phenomenon is not happening as much as it should because we pay too much attention to other things.
It is my prayer that we will resolve to pursue the total focus upon Jesus and that when we meet one another and other people we will rejoice to see Jesus in one another because that is all we can see. Jesus is in every human being and even in the most wretched human being you can see Jesus in them.
I came across some Maori’s in New Zealand and in communication with them I saw Jesus in them too and in the most fearsome people there is Jesus in them. If Jesus is in you, He will radiate to others. I think of Jesus when the wild demoniacs came racing down the hill. He saw what they were after, the real thing. He saw it in them and that is what we have to see in every person. We have to see when we meet them our whole demeanor with people will be totally different to our natural human nature.
Jesus is everything to us. The first and last, He is in everything. It is the very texture of our entire being. The words of Christ are spirit and life and we cannot then centre our thoughts upon self. Self is dead but Christ is a living Saviour. We are living in the time of the latter rain. What is that? The very things I am communicating here.
If we keep our minds stayed upon Christ, He will come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth. If we want the latter rain we must keep our eyes stayed upon Christ. He will arise upon us with healing in His wings as the Son of righteousness. We shall grow as the lilies revive and grow as the vine by constantly relying upon Christ as our personal Savior. We shall grow up with Him as our head.
I cannot comprehend this question that was asked through this week as I was studying. Why is it that the other churches don’t have what we have? It is a good question. I cannot understand how such a powerful story as Jesus does not become all-pervading in every Christian. For me it is so precious and so powerful that I can’t give up on anybody because I can see there is a little light there and I work hard to communicate and tend to speak only Jesus to these kinds of people.
They throw all kinds of things at me but I watch and wait to touch the right thing that is really there. Unfortunately the great majority that is around me in Christianity in general seem to push it away. Somehow there is something that I cant comprehend in human beings that wants to resist the inroads of this kind of predominating reality and the reason that the other churches don’t have it is because it is as it reads in Isaiah 4:1. We want to do our own thing. We only want to be called by thy name and the only reason why the other churches don’t have Christ’s love predominating amongst them is because they have lost their first love and they are fallen. Can you see how very easy it is for us to fall in the same way?
That is why we need to frequently express to each other Jesus. If you want to change a conversation that is about somebody that is not right, just listen very carefully and wait for Jesus to come into the picture and turn the picture to that. The person realizes and you don’t even have to say anything just look to Jesus in each person and draw Him out. Have another look at what kind of person He is and by beholding Him we might have our mind further challenged to have the imprint of Jesus.
When you look at the sun you see a whole lot of dots around and you express it. That is what we say when we see Jesus, we can’t stop talking to Him. We cant see or talk of anything else.
Jesus was perfect pattern of that we should be. He was the strictest observer of His father’s law yet He moved in perfect freedom. Heavenly Places page 54.
When we are strict reformers we are like rigid robots and we can’t be smooth in our communication with one another.
He had all the fervour of the enthusiast yet He was calm and sober and self-possessed. How do you put those two together? That was Jesus. He was elevated above the common affairs of the world yet He did not exclude Himself from society. In other words, “Don’t come near me I am holier than thou”, nothing like that. We need to learn from Jesus by beholding this. Moving among society and yet not being of it. Being courteous to people who swear and say horrible things around you. Living above that and yet not excluding ourselves from society.
He dined with publicans and sinners and plays with children and took them in His arms and blessed and graced the wedding feast with His presence and shed tears at the death of Lazarus. He loved the beautiful in nature and used the lilies to illustrate. He associated with people and yet He was above them. Remember it says the zeal of the house of the Lord has eaten me up. Have you ever been so benevolent that you gave in – Jesus never gave in? He had sympathy but no sentimentalism. He combined the innocence and the simplicity of the child with manly strength.
We can sometimes become so devoted to God that we can ridicule the people that are not. But what did He do? He had a tender love for man. How can you be a commanding person and yet totally humble? That was Jesus. He manifested unyielding firmness with gentleness. Usually when we are firm and say no, but He was gentle while He remained soft. You don’t give an inch but you are ever so soft. May we live daily in close connection with a perfect faultless character. We have not six patterns, nor five, we have only one and that is Christ Jesus.
My heart rejoices every time I look at Jesus. I want to be like Him and I will determine to keep my eyes single to Him so that inadvertently He can reflect though me. Is this your wish also?
Amen.
