November 26th
The concentration of spiritual energy
… save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gal. 6:14.
If you want to know the power of God (i.e., the resurrection life of Jesus) in your mortal flesh, you must brood on the tragedy of God. Cut yourself off from prying personal interest in your own spiritual symptoms and consider bare-spirited the tragedy of God, and instantly the energy of God will be in you. “Look unto Me,” pay attention to the objective Source, and the emotional energy will be there. We lose power if we do not concentrate on the right thing. The effect of the Cross is salvation, sanctification, healing, etc., but we are not to preach any of these; we are to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The proclaiming of Jesus will do its own work. Concentrate on God’s center in your preaching, and though your crowd may apparently pay no attention, they can never be the same again. If I talk my own talk, it is of no more importance to you than your talk is to me, but when I speak the truth of God, you will meet it again, and so shall I. We have to concentrate on the great point of spiritual energy, the Cross, to contact that center where all the power lies, and the energy will He let loose. In holiness movements and spiritual experience meetings, the concentration is apt to be put not on the Cross of Christ but on the effects of crosses.
The feebleness of the churches is being criticized today, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the weakness is that there has not been this concentration of spiritual energy; we have not brooded enough on the tragedy of Calvary or on the meaning of Redemption.
Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI: Oswald Chambers Publications; Marshall Pickering, 1986. Print.
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