It Pleased the Lord to Bruise Him

This is the last time I have the privilege of being with you and talking with you and I would like to thank God for the happiness and blessedness of our fellowship together this week. I greatly enjoyed the sense of joy and love and freedom centered in Jesus through the whole week. I felt there's been a wonderful flow of the Spirit of God among us, both youth, among the youth and the ancients, both of us.

So I praise God. I praise God for this kind of outflowing of the Spirit through the CFOs of this nation. And to me, of course, as a missionary, perhaps the biggest thrill of the week was to hear Brother Das speaking about how the Spirit is moving out into India and thus into other countries.

God has many wonderful new movements of the Spirit these days and this is one of them. So I do thank the Circle Ring for their kindness in letting me be with you these days. Now I want to add one more thing to what we were talking about last night in the final meaning and purpose of us being sons of God in Christ, that therefore we are forms of him for others.

We're in union with the person in the universe who is being us for others and so in that unity we are for others. We talked about that at some length last night and the general effect it has on our attitude as we recognize this fact and move over to it in a situation which tend to make us turn back to ourselves and ask questions and to recognize everything is some means by which Christ is being magnified by us for others, in us for others. Now there's one special area in this.

It probably is put best in the Bible under that wonderful term royal priesthood. That expression is only used once by Peter. We're royal priesthood, because we're part of the king's household.

Royal implies our sufficiency in God. Priesthood implies what goes out from us in that relationship, a royal priest. Now the word priest is defined in the scriptures quite simply, along the line we've already said.

It says in Hebrews 6 where it says that a priest is someone who's taken from among men, sent back to men to relate them to God. A priest is one who's been taken far among men, by redemption, sent back to men to relate them to God. There's a very special or a very special implication about a priest in this biblical term.

It is that the commission is given is to be an intercessor. An intercessor has a very special meaning in that word intercessor. That's what we're centering our thoughts around for a moment, intercessor.

It was supremely used of Jesus. It says he poured out his soul at the death. In other words, he had made intercession for the transgressors.

And now as he's risen and ascended in life, he ever lives to make intercession for us. Therefore he's able to save us the uttermost. He ever lives to make intercession for us.

But intercession is a shared ministry. He's the head intercessor and we're the co-intercessors with him. There's one rather, in a way though marvellous, rather tragic book, letter, one of the richest and most wonderful letters in the Bible, but it has an element of tragedy about it and that's the letter to the Hebrews.

Whoever wrote it, some people think Paul's, letter to the Hebrews. Because the letter to the Hebrews has to stop short. Because the people he was writing to couldn't take what he had to say to them.

They could only take two-thirds out of the three ways. We talked about these three ways all the way through. The first step, justification, when we reconcile to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Second step, unification, when we enter into the realisation of the perfection of the union, he and us, we and him. Justification, unification, saviourhood. Saviourhood for others, that's the third one we talked about last night.

Being an expression of God for others. We won't stop at length for much more Bible evidence of it, but it's obvious. Anyone who knows the greatest letter in the Bible for our building is the book of Romans.

If you want to have a solid foundation to your faith, get Romans. Soak in Romans, find out what Romans is teaching us, that's the foundational one. And Romans is subdivided into three.

The first five chapters of Romans are reconciling us to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, justification by faith. Romans 6-8 are how we are in union with him and how he functions by us. Romans 9-15 is totally for others.

Paul's occupation for his own people and then on the way, right the way to God. The whole thing is our relationship, how Christ is manifested by us in the world. It falls in those three stages.

In Hebrews, the tragedy is he's using the types of the Old Testament to explain to us what Christ is to us now. And he says now Christ is your Moses, who got you out of the land, got you out of the world into Christ. Then he says Christ is your Joshua, who took you in to Christ as the indwelling life in you.

Moses had the blood sprinkled on the law posts, the reconciling blood. Joshua has the ending, you bring him to the land of rest. The rest, of course, is Christ resting in us.

We're operating not rest from action, rest in action, sufficiency for action. Because he's our sufficiency, that's our rest. The third is Christ is our Meklitidech.

Meklitidech is the picture given to us as the permanent high priest. Now it's at that spot the writer stops short and says, I'm sorry, I can't take you in there. You can't take it because you blocked here at self-pity.

You're glad to have Christ as a savior. You're glad to know something about Christ indwelling you. You're not so glad to be to be a person for others.

And therefore there's a block there because they turned back to self-pity. They were going to put a severe persecution. And they turned back and persecuted, why is this happening to me? So where they've been going forward, here they stopped.

They couldn't accept the fact that what's happening to them was God's purpose through that, through what's happening to me is to a needy world. They couldn't see that. So there's a block.

And so we're told a little in the Hebrews of what Christ is in nature. So by the shedding of his blood and by the giving of his body, that's the ninth and tenth chapters. Shedding his blood is the ninth and giving his body is the tenth.

The eleventh chapter shadows what co-priests are because it's a chapter, a great chapter of faith. By faith Abraham and so-and-so, by faith Moses and so-and-so. They were priests.

They were intercessors in their days. It doesn't actually say so because he didn't intend to say it to the people who couldn't take it. The Bible is always written to you on the level you can take it.

So there are outside relations, presentation in the Bible, there are internal ones. There's a sheriff and the colonel. And the colonel is somewhat hidden because until you're ready to take it, it's no good giving it to you.

And that's say with the book of Hebrews. Now that's just a matter of general background. What it means is this.

There's a general sense in our lives in which, as I say, now the whole of our being is we're brought to the vine, is that by us Christ is manifesting himself, revealing himself by some people. Whatever happens to us really is that by us other people may see something of Christ. We got that yesterday.

That's the general condition. Now the special condition is a consciousness of an individual commission, of an area of personal involvement. So there's a general situation and then there's an area of personal involvement.

Now that personal involvement gets the heart of things. Because where there's a personal involvement, God's saying, I'm going to do this by you. I'm going to do this by you.

You're to be my intercessor. An intercessor takes the place of the one he intercedes for. Now I'm going to do this by you.

And this isn't only just going to be a question of you've got an attitude of faith. It means you are available to me by all means, by your very body. You'll pay a price for this.

You'll be involved to the limit of this thing. You'll be the one by whom I put this thing through. That's a special commission.

That's an intercession. The Bible says in the Old Testament, Isaiah speaks of intercession and so on, that God was looking for intercessors in situations where he's wondering if there was no intercessor. And it says in Ezekiel, he's looking for a man to stand in the gap.

Now you see, the whole of life consists of gaps. And you have your gaps and I have my gaps. And his purpose is, by our individual lives, to have people who can stand in those gaps, by whom he can fulfill those gaps, fill those gaps.

Now, the point I'm getting at in this, is this takes a whole of us. The final position of our relationship with God takes a whole of us. Not just our inner attitude of faith, but our very being, our body, all we have goes into this thing.

You see, the principle of new life is death and resurrection. It's the law of being, death and resurrection. It has to be death and resurrection.

That's, of course, what happened with Jesus. Now, this is the law of harvest, death and resurrection. And death means that deaths take place in us, that resurrection life may come up to others.

Now, the standard scripture on that, that Jesus quoted was this, except a corn of wheat fall on the ground and die, it abides alone. If it dies, it brings forth much fruit. A corn of wheat, you just have it in a bin somewhere, where it's very nice and useless.

If you throw it in the ground, it gets broken up and corrupted and snowed upon and frozen and watered and so on. It breaks up. Out of it comes the blade and the ear and the full corn of the ear.

If it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Now, you see, our highest honor is to share in Christ's death for others. Get that? This is our top honor, to share in Christ's death for others.

Things happen in our life which really cost us. And out of the cost, God's fulfilling a process by which life springs up for others. That's what's called intercession.

If I interpret it right, it's what God has for, the purpose God has for every life, every life's intercessor, because every life's a priest. We're all royal priests, a priest who exists for the benefit of the people. He's taken from among men to go back to men to relate them to God.

He exists to bring God to the people, bring the people to God. And as I say, the term of the priest is intercessor. Intercessor means total involvement.

Poor dies alone, a death, a made intercession. And now he saves people at the uttermost because he made intercession for them. So, you see, it's a law of harvest.

If the corn of wheat dies, it bears its fruit. It's a law. It's a principle.

If Jesus Christ died, all that happens, all the vast harvest of the body of Christ is an inevitable consequence. It had to be. It came out of the death.

It's a law fulfilled. Now, see, we're given the privilege in our own areas to have that same law fulfilled in our lives. That's an intercession.

So, it takes a form which is individual to us. Get that? There's a general sense in which we can put the word of faith into many things. We talked about it last night.

We accept many things that Christ has magnified to our lives and this and that, and we can use the word of faith. There's a special point, which is your special commission. If I stand to write, there's a way by which everybody can know this as my special commission.

This is going to cost me everything. God's going to put this thing through by me, no matter by other people, and it's going to come through because it's a law. If I die, the resurrection comes.

The great scriptural statement I like to get is 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul says, we always bear about and by the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal flesh, so that death works in us, but life in others, life in you comes out through us. We have standard examples, of course. You get, of course, the premium Jesus to get him in our own lives.

I lived with a man who had profound impression upon me because he was a standard example for this. That was the man who founded the mission in which I belong, named C.T. Studd. I haven't had time to talk much about him tonight.

But as a young man, he came with wealthy parents. He had education in the most expensive schools in England, Eton and Cambridge University and so on. Christ got him.

And Christ got him with a marvelous insight. He said, if it's a fact that the Son of God shed his blood to save me from sin and from hell, I'm not an honest Christian unless it's blood for blood and life for life. I'm an honest Christian.

My blood is offered to him in place of his blood. My life is offered to him, blood for blood for life for life. That was his education.

He expected God to take him and carry out through him the same kind of thing as he carried out to his own son. That's our final position. And God took him.

He held a most brilliant position. He was only a young undergraduate at Cambridge, yet for two years he was listed top cricket of all England. Now that's including the professionals and that's in all the areas.

I don't understand baseball. We have batting, bowling and fielding. I think you have batting, pitching and fielding.

Have one man, a student, head of the whole country in all three areas at once. That's some standard. He had the greatest future in cricket there was.

And God called him for something to win men, not games. And he saw the vision of going to China and he went. Well that's all.

In China he received knowledge. He knew that his worthy father had died. His father had been buried through your great evangelist D.O. Moody.

And his father died, left a large fortune and started reading about rich young men. Sell your head, give to the poor. I've got the old checkbook now.

In one day he sold out. He checked off all he had. He said, I prefer to trust the bank of heaven.

It's safer than the banks on earth. He gave all he had away. And then later on in life, when his health had broken, his wife's health too, they'd been in missions in China and India back in 50 years of age, he got this call to the centre of Africa.

That's where I joined him. At that time there was nowhere to be in that area, North Congo. His wife was in the lead.

But he had to heard the call of God. And although at first she even wasn't willing, because they said if he went he'd die. He said, I have to go.

They even told him a Christian, not Christian, leaving his wife behind in that condition going, he went. They saw each other for two weeks in the last 16 years of their lives. They saw each other for two weeks in the last 16 years of their lives.

Because when he got to Africa, he was so busy among these masses of brother Africans who were responding to the gospel. And she got so busy getting young men of whom I was one to come and join him, that he poured out his life out in Africa and she poured her life out in home. And they formed this crusade with this vision of taking the gospel anywhere.

His one goal was to die for Jesus. When they told him that he had a little committee behind him, first of all, until the doctor gave a verdict and said if you go to Central Africa you will die, they resigned. He said to them, gentlemen, I understand your point of view.

You can't be responsible for helping me when the doctor says I'll die. As for me, the point is, did God call me? He said, I believe God did call me. As to die, he said, I've been waiting for a long time for the chance to die for Jesus.

You sure? I'm going to take it now I've got it. See, he saw, you see the point here? Do you see this? The greatest thing is if you may be allowed to die for Jesus, not live for him. Do you get that? You see, we've got so soft in our area, even in our Christian service, it's self-service.

One of my horrors among missionaries is we don't have a board, because boards try to keep you alive. All the missionaries want to watch over the missionaries and tend to them and see if they get their lives. They won't let us die.

They won't let us die, so we won't have a board. And most missionaries won't accept us, so we won't have a board for security. With no security, if we may lay down, that's the highest thing to be done for us.

And see, that's what you might call the ultimate vision and passion you will have, that yourself may be the means by being poor, not by which other people get the life of God. And I learned that, of course, that's just an example. I learned that by being with C.T. Studd and saw the outcome as the gospel went all around the world as the Lord led us to move on until we were all in countries all around the world.

An outcome of that outpoured life. My wife, his youngest daughter, and we were with him just before he died, 70 years of age, in his little hut in Africa. Well, Africans are coming in and out all the time.

He had no doors to his hut, so anybody could come visit him any time, day and night, and pray with him. And as we were going, we had to go home because his wife had died, and we had to take home and work on. And at about 3 a.m. we're sitting with him.

He looked around, he said, oh, the hut we were in, we were a thousand miles from the nearest shopping center, car two. We had to take, by foot, take a good long time to get a thousand miles. So we were right in a forest, and we just, if we had little bits of things, we hung them by strings from the roof, a kind of a hardware store, to preserve what you got.

And then he had these things around. He looked around, he said, you know, Pauline, his daughter, he said, Pauline said, I'd like to give you something before you go. He said, well, he said, the fact is, I haven't got any.

I gave it all to Jesus long ago. That's the kind of father-in-law to have, inspire you to give all to Jesus long ago. Now, that's only one example of many we can give.

But the point I was, the fact I was seeking to present you as this father-in-law is this. You use a outstanding example like that. We don't imitate other people, only to get the principle behind them.

But the principle is somewhere in every life, if we can see it as a place where God says to you, now, this is your involvement. Whatever it costs, you give yourself to this. It's to come to pass through you.

And so it isn't only just your inner spirit, your very outer body is involved in the fulfillment of it. And it's my impression that if we have eyes to see, all of us can see it in our lives, in the variety of ways. I may, if I may use little simple examples, in my own little life, I remember I found Christ just before World War I. And when I went as a young soldier in World War I, I got the point of winning, witnessing Christ.

I did witness for Christ. My fellow officers didn't like it. And when the time for promotion came, they found some holes in the way I was running my company of men.

So they cut my, they bypassed me for promotion. I lost promotion, I got sold. It hurt, I liked promotion too, but I didn't get it.

But you see, as something where you give yourself, and it hurts, and there's a death to your reputation somewhere, out comes life for others. I had the privilege of going to university just before I went to the mission field. And they, after World War I, they made it very easy for us.

They all pretty well gave us our degrees on platter, because we'd lost any brains we had in five years in the war, so don't go trying to find any. So they just gave us, more or less gave us stuff on platter. I only had six months more to do to get, it's a varied degree, very easy to get that degree.

That level of degree, as a higher degree, it's not so easy to get. I wasn't up for the higher one, I dropped that one a while ago. I was in for the easier one.

I only had six months to go. Suddenly the Holy Spirit said to me, go to Africa, and you're inside out there, there in need. It was just after the war, there were only six workers, because since then we've got 1,200 workers all over the world, it was just beginning then.

But I only got six months more to get my degree. Go to Africa, where everybody said I was a fool. Well, I waited on God.

No, I felt this is it, where the need is, I must go. So I went. That meant I surrendered my degree.

Before I left the university, last two or three weeks, suddenly the Holy Spirit suddenly came on me. He says, now, you be sure, you're going to leave the university, there are a lot of friends you made, because I had my Christian friends, and I had my non-Christian circles. You be sure that most of those folks who are here, you'll never see them again, you go around and visit them, and faithfully tell them exactly where they stand before God.

If they're going to hell, you tell them if they're going to hell. If they're defeated Christians, you tell them, pull no punches. You don't spend life running around life pulling no punches, but sometimes the right time comes.

And I went. And it was like the bowling things, my penance went to bowling. Man after man were serving Jesus Christ in a different place, came to Jesus Christ at that time.

About 60 of them came at that time. Now, the point was this, there were hard days. Most of those men were ex-colonels and ex-majors officers who'd been sophisticated in the world.

They weren't like simple students, thank God, the Holy Spirit today was tough in those days. Yet God began to do this work. And as that came to pass, the other fellow Christian students, we had a group of students there, they were eager to hear what God was doing, and so and so, it suddenly came to me, look, there ought to be a witnessing group like every university in the world.

Not only this university, in those days, they weren't there, now today, that's so, wasn't it? And so it came to me to ask two of our friends, let's make an intervarsity conference. Let's go to London, we were in Cambridge, let's go to London and see if we can get some undergraduates from London and Oxford and a few other universities and have an intervarsity conference. Well, it was very small, I was supposed to be more than 60-odd years old.

This was the beginning of the intervarsity conference, which became the intervarsity fellowship, which became the intervarsity Christian fellowship, which spread all around the world today. And so hundreds of universities and colleges have their witnessing centres today. But you see my point, there's a death for their life.

There's death for their life. Dying to personal reputation and so on. Well, those are only minor matters.

So I'm only seeking to put that before you this morning as a final consideration. This is the top spot. This is the top spot.

Stage by stage it gets up to this, that God has a specialised purpose, a special commission, which has a special price tag connected with it for every one of us. Now, you can't tell where that may be, but I'm only saying if you believe you know it. If you have eyes to see, you become conscious of this thing, I've got to put myself into this.

Now here's action. I've got to put myself into this. No matter what it's costing, this is my job, it's going to be seen through.

It's my job. So there's a certain situation when God says, this is your job. There are other contributing situations in which you can help by the prayer and so on.

There's the irresponsible situation in which you're the one in the centre. And then you take it up. And so then God can fulfil it by us.

So that's the last word I'm saying to you. To catch that as a final glory, that by your dyings, life may come to others. That you may accept by grace, he put it through Udom, what it is to be a corn of wheat which you sow into the ground and die.

If it dies, it brings forth much fruit. See that was the seriousness of the gifts in 1 Corinthians. You can have the gifts without having the dying, rising life, without having had the self-life really touched, because gifts give you a certain amount of pride.

So in the gifts of 1 Corinthians, Paul said to him, you have all the gifts, you come behind in no gifts, but I have Paul, I have Paulus, I, I, I, I, I, I. And he says, I warn you, he says, you, you, you, you, you, you're wise, you're honourable, you reign as kings, I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, I'm quoting. I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as it were a point of death, we're made a spectacle to the world and made an agent, spectacle to theatre. People stare, what's this queer creature dying? He says, year wise in Christ, we are fools for Christ, year honourable, we despise, we both err, err, err, suffer hardship and nakedness and so on for the Lord, laid by working with our own hands, being revived, we bless, we persecute, we, we suffer it, we've made a filth of the world, an offscarring of all things, up to this day.

And he says, I write this to warn you. Do you see the point? What's my, what's my final choice then? Is it just to be a rejoicing, victorious, comfortable Christian? Is it, is it to be one who's stripped for God, who loses my life and others may find it? Err, that err, err, err, errm, the, err, Paul's objective was not life, probably not to death, for Jesus' sake. Erm, and as I've said to you, there's a, a spot there where, erm, the Hebrew Christian turned it down.

The Hebrew Christian turned it down. Err, they went, they, they couldn't see themselves being, going through all this suffering, that the world may get the gospel through them, that Christ may be magnified through them. And so Paul, or whoever he was, had to write and had to block that off, that area, he couldn't explain that to them.

Erm, but the explanation, thank God, is presented to us here. Erm, so I give you, err, my final text. Erm, to me, the greatest in the Bible, err, for us who can take it, and that is Isaiah 53 verse 10.

And Isaiah 53 verse 10 says this, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Get that? It pleased the Lord to bruise his son, not bless him. See, we're blessed-minded instead of bruised-minded.

Erm, I have to, err, my job for a long time has been concerning the mission fields, and of course I was there myself in these different fields for years. Erm, and with the young people, this is, that's what, we circle around at home. Er, how can, can you catch the glory of, erm, your, your, your highest period if you can die for Jesus.

Er, it may take a few years to die in some, in some remote place for Jesus. Can you tell that this is the meaning of that? Erm, when I had to take on, by, erm, from CET start in Africa, I had to take on the work of a home end, very small in those days. I'd just begun to learn reproductive faith through Reeves Howells.

That's why that book is so great to me. It, it taught me the, the secret of the faith that produces. Erm, but we felt the need, just a little thing.

Well, here we were, a little home of a mission. We only had thirty-five missions in those days in, in the heart of Africa. Erm, we'd always had the principle to start, never think about money.

Don't waste your time thinking about money. Don't ask for money. Do you, God, the Bible says, if you seek his kingdom first, he adds those things onto you.

It's an insult to ask for money. Er, go for souls and, and God's blessing, and leave, leave God to send the money. So we've never in all our history ever asked for money, never made our needs known, never need to.

God's supplies. And that's been going on for fifty years now, and, er, we're a large number. Erm, but at that time, we had this little group of us at home.

Erm, that month, when I had to take on the home, only fifty pounds had come in for thirty-five missions. Fifty pounds in, in dollars meant about eight pounds, er, eight dollars per head per month. For the whole month, each mission had eight dollars.

That's where we learned faith. Er, we felt, felt, felt, felt like closing up. Erm, and, er, the Holy Spirit said to us, we'd learn, we'd get to learn, just listen, you know, what, er, erm, Alberta was saying about the life.

We learned to listen for God's voice, and God said, what commission do I give you, give you a founder, to take the gospel to the world, to any part of the world where the gospel hasn't been preached. He said, do it. We said, how can we? He said, we'd learn how things are done in the Bible.

That's what we saw, it was done by faith. Erm, and we saw that, that faith meant, meant, er, erm, erm, that, er, that God was at our disposal. We could take, we could take official sources, and, er, er, as need arose, and we, I won't talk now about this principle of faith, and we took it, we began to take it.

Er, but, er, there's a little bit of, a little bit of sacrifice. Er, we thought, well now, erm, what little money there is, little enough, that these missions on the field better have it. We at least are in some security at home.

Erm, why shouldn't we, er, make some little sacrifice? So we decided at that time, we'd take no more money for the mission at all. We'd, we'd trust God for all of our, our daily bread, and anything that might come, we'd go to the mission on the mission field. So we took that step.

At that time we thought, oh well, maybe not many will join us. Oh, no, no. Erm, and, er, since then, all over the world, we've had these co-workers out in our, our fellowship centres in Australia, and Germany, and, er, Holland, and, er, Britain, of course, and, er, USA, and, er, none of them take any money for the mission.

They all trust the Lord for their daily bread. Little bit of sacrifice. You see, it puts some quality into you.

You're getting nothing out of it except the privilege of, of, er, living for Jesus, and taking what Jesus sends you, much or little. And at the same time, freeing whatever money comes in to go to the mission fields. Erm, and, er, I, I, I can see the quality is put, because, you see, here people, er, there's nothing to live for except, except the privilege of being, er, being poured out for Jesus.

And so there's a basis of, of life at home and abroad, and that, by that method, the Gospel moves out to the world. We, we're all over the world. Whenever we have a martyrdom, we always praise the Lord.

We have a hallelujah meeting for a martyrdom. We had five martyrs in Africa, and, er, had a hallelujah meeting for it, because it's the highest honor to die for Jesus. Erm, at one time, as one anxious person at home heard that we were short of money in Africa, and sent a letter out to our father, Mr. Sutton, and said, erm, I hear somebody out here in your mission starve, because there was no money.

So Mr. Sutton, who's always a joker, so he sat around the stations. He said, have you got any skeletons here? Any skeletons of somebody who died for Jesus? Er, when the report came there wasn't any, he went back and said, dear friend, I'm sorry to say, no one yet has had the honor, the honor to starve for Jesus here yet. Yes, you see? Well, now it's, er, I'll leave you to that.

But, erm, er, I'm, er, saying to you all, all the way through, there's the acceptance of a principle, and God works the principle out. Er, the acceptance of the principle, I told you, was the recognition you are part of him for others, that's all you ever are. We said about yesterday, whatever happens to you is something by which God manifests himself, by what's happening to you, through others.

That's one principle. Er, the other, the other principle is, er, that you should say to God, no, God, er, erm, the, the law of harvest is death and resurrection. Er, you fulfill that by your son, and we're the sons now, in union with the son.

Now, this is the law of harvest. I accept that, Lord. It pleased the Lord to bruise him.

It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He was someone who could take the, the, the, the, er, the, er, sufferings that the world might get the gospel. Now, what, what higher thing can I pray than that? Lord, can I be one upon whom you can wear, lean your weight, who can, er, take your cross, so that other people may get the resurrection? Erm, er, er, that, er, doesn't mean, as I've said before, that, er, er, it's, er, the, the, we find what the commission is, God shows that to you.

As I say, maybe in a small way, but if you catch it, you see the difference? It's one thing to be, Rhys Howells used to say a difference, that there's a difference between a prayer warrior and an intercessor. He'd say a prayer warrior may get answers, and the intercessor must, because he paid the price. If you, if you pay the price, the harvest is going to come.

That's a law. So, if I'm in God's hand, I say, now, Lord, you take me in, er, whatever small way, may start in your own family, but God has said we always begin in your family, of course. Erm, when, see, when Rhys Howells in his earlier days had one of his brothers got, was a backslider, so he spent a night of prayer for his backslidden brother.

God says, I listened to this one, I never listened to again one of your brothers. You get occupied with my family, I look after yours. Don't you get fussed around a few of your family.

Er, get them, leave them with me, get on with the world family. So, the intercessors likely be more than their own families. Erm, and then that, er, God, er, the glory is when God can take from us for others, and this can be fulfilled.

Well, I just end up with that word to you. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Erm, this, erm, tremendous, erm, er, er, er, plan of God through the ages.

Erm, in which, er, he's, he fits us to be sons, and you are fit by suffering. Er, the basis of life is suffering. You get that? It's only by opposite you know something.

Er, my beloved friend here, of whom I learned much, Ken Ashton, er, said to me yesterday, he said, that's why it says in the early, in the early creation, the evening and the morning, the evening first, you've got to have, got to have night before you have light. You only see, you only see day when you see night. It's, it's, oh, it's, er, you've got to have the dark first, and then you see the light.

That's the basis of being. You've got to know the bitter first, so you know the sweet. You've got to know sorrow, sorrow first, so you know, for the joy.

God himself went through that, that's his whole purpose. That's the meaning of suffering. Suffering is our greatest blessing.

Because it's, it's through that we can come through to find, er, the, er, the, er, the reverse of suffering, of course, in the peace and power of God. And you see our Paul always said, erm, our light of fiction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us. See the word worketh? Our light of fiction, which is but for a moment, that's what he called his sufferings, they were pretty big, you read the list.

Our light of fiction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us. A far more exceedingly eternal way to go on. Suffering works the other.

So you see, how foolish we are down here, running away from suffering, shaking up suffering. Let, teach people to praise the Lord in their sufferings. I said to him yesterday, teach people not to say, how do I get out of my sufferings? Lord, teach me to praise, I praise you, there's a purpose in this thing.

And while there's a purpose, I'll take it. If out of this suffering can come more glory for you, more glory for the world, here I am. So this is, this is the soldier level.

Erm, what we call in our mission, the crusader level. Erm, that, erm, expects, expects to, er, have your wounds and, and, and, and, er, hardships and so on, er, that the battle may be won. I'm sure we've got it, that's, that's the soldier spirit, the spirit of God, which is us.

I'm only reminding you, I'm not saying you haven't got this, I'm saying I'm only reminding you of it. Erm, and, er, as I say, he, he manifests it in, in a variety of ways. But if, if that little light on that principle can, can sink into you, erm, that the, the way by which God will fulfil his, his, er, er, works of, of, of, of grace and, and, and, er, fruit bearing, is, er, when he can get, er, with his son, co-sufferers, those who will take the burden, pay the price, er, catch the thrill of it, and hold back on nothing, hold back on nothing, er, the, the, body, time, money, everything.

Now some of you do this, there wouldn't be CFOs but for that, prices are being paid, some of you pay a price for the CFOs. Some of you, I, I've heard of the, the friends who founded this thing years ago, you pay a price for the years that the CFO may function, that's a price. And there are things, there, there are inconveniences in, in our lives which we shouldn't take on, if we hadn't got a purpose for others.

So it's all in it, but to catch that principle, erm, because it is one we can, we can slip off, er, that the greatest glory is the suffering, the greatest glory is the cross, er, the greatest glory is, is God putting us in, in, in, in, into situations where the thumbscrews are on us, er, because out of, out of, er, our dying, er, comes, er, the rising life to a world. So thank you, may God bless you.