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  PERSONIFICATION
  by Miles J. Stanford
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Summary: True spiritual ministry requires growth in the Lord Jesus
Christ and a deep personal experience of God's comfort and power.

Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Discipleship"
Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 4:7, 2 Corinthians 4:17, James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:10

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DESCRIPTION
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Miles J. Stanford emphasizes the importance of sharing not just what we
have, but who we are in Christ to minister to others spiritually. He
highlights the necessity of experiencing God's comfort and power in our
own lives before we can effectively help others. Stanford explains that
true spiritual impact comes from not just knowing the message but being
transformed by it through personal trials and ordeals. He encourages
believers to allow God to work in them over time, humbly submitting to
His process of spiritual growth and maturity.

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CONTENT
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"God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction"
(Genesis 41:52).

To share what we have may minister temporarily to the physical; but to
minister to the spiritual in an eternal way we must share what we are,
and that calls for growth in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"We can only comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have
been comforted of God. Others can only really be helped by what has been
the power of life in the would-be helper.

"Information, by itself, however correct and orthodox, however strongly
held in conviction and passed on in passion, will lack an essential and
indispensable quality or value for spiritual constitution.

"Hence it has ever been God's way to raise up a vessel, personal or
corporate, in which His message has been wrought by fiery ordeal. The
messenger must not only have the message in him, but he must be in the
message: not only in mind and feeling, but in experience and being." -T.
A-S.

"We really can only come into the reality of things by being 'pressed
out of measure' (2 Corinthians 1:8). So the Lord has to take much time
to make our spiritual history. When at length our eyes are open, we cry,
'O, why did I not see it before!' But everything else had to prove
insufficient before we could really be shown, and that takes time."

"Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time" (1 Peter 5:6).

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/miles-j-stanford/personification/
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