The following is a message given by Dr. Walter L. Wilson (1881-1969) at the Canadian Keswick Conference about his experience with the Higher Christian Life.  This message was reprinted in the October 1936 issue of “The Evangelical Christian” and also in the tract, “The Secret of Soul Winning.”  The name of the article is “Whose Body is Yours?” and provides a wonderful glimpse into the process the Spirit took Dr. Wilson to discover the Higher Christian Life and his prayer of full surrender.

Enjoy and be blessed and encouraged in your own search for the Higher Christian life.

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
John 14:16-17

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1

Because there exists in these days a great desire in the heart for, and a confusion in the mind concerning the Spirit-filled life, or the path of consecration, it may help to clear this matter if I tell you of my own experience with the Lord, the Spirit.

It was my privilege to be raised among a group of believers who were quite orthodox in their teaching, and quite earnest in studying the Word.  It was among these that I first trusted the Lord Jesus in December 1896.  He saved me and changed my life.  Immediately the Word of God became my constant companion.  I loved it, studied it, preached it, and gave away tracts in large quantities.  No apparent success followed my labors, and much energy produced little fruit.  This failure disturbed me greatly, but I assured myself and was assured by others that we were not to look for results but only to be busy at seed sowing.

As a church we’ve been studying about faith, especially trying to answer the question, How do we learn to live by faith?  And if you remember, last Sunday we talked about learning how to trust God in all His promises.  But there are other ways whereby our faith can grow.  One of them is by having our faith tested.

As Augustine once said, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.”  Couldn’t agree more.

I realized that our church now is under some trials and tribulations.  It seems Covid-19 has infected almost every family in our church and it appears it may be another week or so before things can get back to normal.  So what I wanted to do is send you just a bit of daily encouragement by following up with what we talked about the last Sunday we were together.

And our text is going to be found in 1 Peter 1:3-9.  So let’s jump right in.

Peter is speaking about joy and rejoicing in the midst of trials and tribulations.  His words tell us much about faith and the reason for the bad things that God allows to happen to His children.

1 Peter 1:3-9 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, (why) that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

Untested faith is just a pipe dream.  It’s something that we do, something we accept, something that we say.  But once faith is tested it becomes alive to us as something we can rely on and grow as the Lord brings even more circumstances into our life in order to test our faith.  Our faith must be tested to grow.

The following article is from Jan Markell with Olive Tree Ministries.  She speaks with such wisdom regarding the uncertain times in which we live and the failure of the church to be the church.  I pray you will read this and vow to be different.  After all, from a Biblical perspective, we are not living in uncertain times, but in exciting, prophetic times.

So many write to me expressing shock, and even horror, at the tide of our times here in 2020.  They see America crumbling under the weight of sin, debt, violence, immorality, and strong delusion.  Right is wrong, black is white, evil is good, and good is evil.

We Are In the Center of the Storm

People of faith are in the bulls-eye so to speak!  Churches are inconvenient.  The remnant of true believers is growing smaller while the Laodicea churches are mushrooming!  Many churches have not even re-opened yet, and some are saying they won’t until 2021!

Many don’t even know how to think about the future much less plan for it.  People write about “uncertainty”.  Will things get worse?  Probably.  How can we plan ahead if the turmoil is going to continue?