Unanswered Prayers 6/1 Wednesday Wisdom

The reason for many unanswered prayers and ineffective testimonies is found in our not touching the Lord.  We have merely copied the method of others; we have not touched the Lord himself.

--Watchman Nee 

Born, Not Taught 5/31 Tuesday Truth

Every spiritual thing outside of Christ is dead.  Let us underscore this well.  Some brothers and sisters are inwardly wondering: "How strange that another person believes God and his prayer is answered, while I too believe and yet am not heard.  Why is God gracious to him and not to me?"  They seem to charge God with partiality, not realizing that what they believe is but a thing, and therefore dead.  Neither formula nor method works;  only Christ is living.  Even if one has learned a whole set of methods, he is not therefore educated to be a Christian, because God's children must be born, not taught.

--Watchman Nee 

Intro to Watchman Nee 5/30 Monday Meditation

Watchman Nee (1903-1972) was a Chinese Christian church planter, pastor, and author.  He was imprisoned for his faith the last twenty years of his life and died a prisoner.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchman_Nee

The characteristic of Christianity lies in the fact that its source, depth, and riches are involved with the knowledge of God's Son.  It matters not how much we know of methods or doctrines or power.  What really matters is the knowledge of the Son of God.  Knowing God's Son is the way, knowing God's Son is the truth, and knowing God's Son is the life.  Our power comes from knowing His Son.  All that God gives to us is His Son, not a lot of things.  Hence, the whole question lies in knowing God's Son.

Man With Christ Is Greater 5/27 Friday Faith

This will be the last John G. Lake quote for a few months.  I will be switching on Monday to an author whom I have not quoted previously.

The man with Christ in him, the Holy Ghost, is greater than any other power in the world.  All other natural and evil powers are less than God; even Satan himself is a lesser power.  Man with God in him is greater than Satan.  That is the reason that God says to the believer, he shall cast out devils.  (See Mark 16:17).  The  Christian, therefore, is a ruler; he is in the place of dominion, the place of authority, even as Jesus was.

--John G. Lake 

A Separated Man 5/26 Thursday Thoughts

The real Christian is a separated man.  He is separated forever unto God in all the departments of his life, and so his body and his soul and his spirit are forever committed to God.  Therefore, from the day that he commits himself to God, he can go to no other power for help or healing, except to God.   

-- John G. Lake

Secret of How to Live 5/25 Wednesday Wisdom

(continued from Mon. & Tues.):  
Jesus gave us the secret of how to live this kind of life.  Jesus showed us that the only way to live this life was to commit oneself, as He did, to the will of God and not walk in his own ways at all, but walk in God's ways.  So the one who is going to be a Christ-man in the best sense and let the world see Jesus in him, must walk in all the ways of Jesus and follow Him.  He must be a Christ-man, a Christian, or Christ-one.

--John G. Lake

A Christ-man 5/24 Tuesday Truth

(continued from Monday):  When one gives himself to the Lord and becomes a child of God -- a Christian -- he is a Christ-man.  All that he does and all that he says from that time on should be the will and the words and the doings of Jesus, just as absolutely, just as entirely as He spoke and did the will of the Father.   (to be continued) 

-- John G. Lake

Jesus in a "sort-of" way ?? 5/23 Monday Meditation

A low standard of Christianity is responsible for all the shame and sin and wickedness in the world.  Many Christians think it is all right if they pattern after Jesus in a sort-of way.  They imitate Him and they do the things which He did; that is, they outwardly do them.  They perform kind acts and they do other things which Jesus did.  But the secret of Christianity is not doing, the secret is in being.  Real Christianity is in being a possessor of the nature of Jesus Christ.  In other words, it is being Christ in character, Christ in demonstration, Christ in agency of transmission.  (to be continued)

-- John G. Lake

Authority and Power 5/20 Friday Faith

And the Church will never be a real Church, in the real power of the living God again, until she comes back again to the original standard, where Jesus was.
Jesus said, "Behold, I give you authority."  What authority?  "Against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease"  (Matthew 10:1).  Jesus has vested that authority in you.  You say, "Well, Lord, we understand the authority that is in your Word, but we haven't the power."  But Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1:8).

--John G. Lake 

God Without Limitations 5/19 Thursday Thoughts

The struggle of the centuries has been to free the soul from narrow interpretations.  Jesus has sometimes been made to appear as a little bigot; sometimes as an impostor.  The world is still waiting to see Him as He is.  Jesus the magnificent, Jesus the giant, Jesus the dynamic -- the wonder of the centuries.

Take the shackles off God.

Let Him have a chance to bless mankind without limitations.

-- John G. Lake

The Church Has Been Robbed 5/18 Wednesday Wisdom

We contend, by the Word of God, that the world and the Church has been robbed of the presence, power, and blessing of Jesus Christ -- a present healer -- because the Church has falsely taught that the days of miracles are past.  The days of miracles never passed, only in the soul that lost its faith in God.  Where faith is, there ever will be the evidence of God's mighty power to save and heal.

--John G. Lake  

My Grace Is Sufficient (pt. 2) 5/17 Tuesday Truth

(continued from Monday)"or, it seemed like a little mouse in the granaries of Egypt, after the seven years of plenty, fearing it might die of famine.  Joseph might say, 'Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.'  Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain, saying to himself, 'I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere.'  But the earth might say, 'Breathe away, O man, and fill the lungs ever, my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.'  Oh, brethren, be great believers!..."   (quoting Charles Spurgeon)

--John G. Lake 

My Grace Is Sufficient (pt. 1) 5/16 Monday Meditation

"My grace is sufficient for thee." (2 Corinthians 12:9) I reached home and looked it up in the original, and at last it came to me in this way, 'My grace is sufficient for thee,' and I said, 'I should think it is, Lord,' and burst out laughing... It seemed to make unbelief so absurd.  It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames said, 'drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.'   (to be continued)

-John G. Lake 

Lost the Old-Time Faith 5/13 Friday Faith

Is He with us still?  Yes, bless God.  Is He changed?  No. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).  "I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6).  "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentances" (Romans 11:29).  God has never repented of having placed the gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church.  In the name of Jesus Christ, I challenge any man to show by the Word of God that the gifts and power of God were withdrawn.  We have lost the old-time faith, that is where the trouble is!  Having forsaken God to lean upon the arms of flesh, and the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that can hold no water.  (Jeremiah 2:13)  Let us honestly acknowledge our sin and return to the Lord our God.

--John G. Lake

Fruitful Spirit Life 5/12 Thursday Thoughts

(continued from yesterday)On the other hand, you spirit life is fruitful and built up and enriched by communion with the Father and by reading His Word.  And your spirit becomes strong and vigorous.  There issues from it a faith that is triumphant and creative.  I venture to say this:  The men and women who are weak in faith, that once were mighty in faith, are so because they have stopped feeding on the Word of God and stopped close, intimate fellowship with the Father.

--John G. Lake

Depleted Spirits 5/11 Wednesday Wisdom

The reason people do not have rich, beautiful faith is because their spirit is denied the privilege of communion and fellowship with the Father.  You understand me?  You don't read your Bible; you don't pore over it; you don't live in it; you don't spend any time in fellowship with the Father.  Consequently your spirit is depleted and weakened.  Faith springs out of it and the faith that grows out of it is a sickly plant.   (to be continued) 

--John G. Lake

The Value of Healing 5/5 Thursday Thoughts

The value of the ministry of healing is not in the mere fact that people are healed.  The value of healing is more largely in the fact that it becomes a demonstration of the living, inner, vital power of God, which should dwell in every life and make us new and mighty men in the hands of God.

--John G. Lake

This will be the last post until the next Wednesday Wisdom, as I will be on vacation. 

My Favorite Lake Quote 5/4 Wednesday Wisdom

I've posted this a few years ago.  It remains one of my all-time favorite quotes.  I used it in church once for my elder-of-the-day discourse:

Have you been in Canada?  Do you know when I went to Canada for the first time there was one thing that struck me peculiarly?  The signs would read, "John Brown, Ltd." ... I was holding meetings in the old St. Andrews Church in Sidney.  I asked them one night why they did not put their national symbol on their churches.  They wondered what I meant.  I said, "Every other business house is 'Ltd' (Limited)."  Why don't you put it over the church?"
An old Scotchman said, "We don't have to.  Everybody knows it." 
Limited?  Sure it is limited.  Limit God, limit ourselves, limit His grace, limit the Word.  Sure our God is a little bit of a God.  Most of us could carry Him in our vest pocket and it wouldn't bulge the pocket -- our God with the "Ltd." on Him.
Brother, sister, that challenge comes to us today to let God loose.

-- John G. Lake

Tomorrow's post will be the last for a few days, as I will be on vacation. 

Don't Magnify Failure 5/3 Tuesday Truth

Another man said, "Brother, I believe in the dual nature.  I believe that when I would do good, evil is always present with me, and I thank God that evil is always there."  You live it and believe it, and God cannot do anything with you.  You magnify failure and you deify failure until to the majority of you the devil is bigger than God.  And you are more afraid of the devil than you are of God. You have more reverence for the devil than you have for God.

--John G. Lake

A Divine Secret 5/2 Monday Meditation

Suppose I could get inside of Mrs. Lake.  Can you imagine such a thing  She would be 190 pounds heavier than she is now.  She would have a voice like a pirate, and all the other characteristics of me.  She would be me.  Do you see it?

Oh, listen.  There is a divine secret in Christ's salvation.  It is Christ in fact in you by the Holy Ghost, dwelling in you, speaking in you, being in you, blazing in you, flashing from you, bless God.

--John G. Lake