“Attend to the means of grace” was a Wesleyan phrase that was the watchword of the early Methodists.
What are the channels by which grace comes? Church attendance, the sacraments, singing psalms, prayer and reading the Word, the word of exhortation—all are means of grace. Grace comes to us also through the Bless-In and the early morning Communion hour when we come and partake of the Lord’s body.
If you are tempted to be discouraged and sit out a few services, watch it; you may be cutting off the lifeline that brings the grace of God into your life and keeps the blessing flowing. Before you know it, your whole being becomes cluttered and the blessing is stopped.
Keep this in mind because the Scripture gives us a warning: How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Hebrews 2:3a. This was written not to sinners, but to Christians, and was promised before by the Lord and confirmed by signs and wonders through the hands of the apostles (verses 3, 4).
All of this came to us, so how will we escape if we neglect it? There is no escape, but only a fearful judgment begins when we neglect the great salvation. Salvation has come to us, not to the sinner. He never had anything to neglect. He hears the gospel and if he repents he is saved. If he hears the gospel but does not repent, he is condemned already (John 3:18). It is already set. He passes from death to life by believing. Once he becomes a believer and has that salvation, it becomes very necessary not to neglect it.
Expose yourself to God as much as you can but do not build up an idea of legalism when we talk about neglecting the things of God—saying, “I must be very careful to read so many chapters in the Bible every day and to pray so much to keep the lifeline open.” That is well and good, but people can do that and still get nowhere because they are doing it as a legalistic routine. You grow, not so much by your efforts as by exposing yourself to God.
Just as Moses exposed himself to the Lord, so we too are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord. II Corinthians 3:18. We do this with an unveiled face.
Reading the Scriptures does not do much good unless you expose yourself to the Lord and the revelation of the Lord in them. It is through that exposure that you are changed. Do not strive in an activity of self to refine, purify or inspire yourself to more noble efforts of the old human nature, but rather strive to partake of the divine nature and see the old nature crucified. The more effort you put forth in the flesh the less you accomplish. You can become very religious but still be defeated. Do not strive to be religious, but strive to be spiritual: drawing from the Lord and becoming a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. II Peter 1:4.
What is of God within you, grows as it is exposed to the Lord; so simply open up and expose yourself to Him. You are changed from glory to glory by exposure to the revelation of the Lord. Read the Scriptures for a revelation of Him. The more you are exposed to Him and He is exposed to you, the more you change. You are changed through exposure, through revelation, not by the inspiration of the flesh to produce or do something. Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). When you read the Scriptures you are exposing yourself to the Word and to the Lord. Continue reading until there is a revelation of the Lord to your heart. Whether it is one verse or a thousand, read and feed until the Lord has become real to you. In the measure that you have received a revelation, in that measure you will walk in God that day. When you pray, do not try to be a special advisor to the King or an informer, tattling on others. Prayer is coming to the Lord finding what He wants. It is exposing yourself to His will and becoming His channel. Prayer is wrong when you approach it from the wrong angle.
Remember the Pharisee who came to the Lord and said “God, I am thankful that I am not as other men are. Like that publican over there.” The publican was smiting his breast, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18). Prayer is linking yourself to God until there is nothing separating you from the Lord. Again that means an exposure to God, because His spirit is communicated; you catch it like the measles. Come to God and say, “Here I am, Lord.” Wait before Him and expose yourself to Him; then He happens to you. In the worship and blessing let God happen to you, intently, fully. Seek him violently, earnestly—break through to Him. Be violent, not in trying to break God’s arm or to overcome His reluctance, but to break through through the barriers that hinder you from laying hold of His willingness. Thus you seek God with your whole heart. That is what real prayer is. That is what real worship is. The approach may vary but it is still the only way changes come.
“Sometimes we go along and without knowing it slip into the ruts of old disciplines and rituals. Then the word comes through the apostolic ministry and imparts that life and vision to us so we can break through the barriers that limit us from laying hold of God’s willingness.”
“This is an important principle to remember, especially in the memorizing of Scriptures because that can become a habit and something you learn to do only with your mind, if you try to memorize a certain number every week. The only verses that stay with you and that you use are the ones God used to speak a word to your heart.” It must be a living word. Otherwise it will not minister life to those to whom you speak it.
Some people learn to quote many verses to us in arguing about the Scriptures: to quote it and use it like a little system to put a man in a corner and argue doctrine. It is dishonoring God’s Word. Study the Word and follow it. Memorize that Word and let it become the living word of God, as it is in truth, effectually working in those who believe.
Let the Word be loosed with its power. It is a living word from God. Let it live for you. You cannot memorize Scripture just to wind up and throw it around. What are you when you get through? A recorder can do that. Let that Word be transformed from something on a cold page until it lives on the tablet of your heart so you become the living epistle of Christ, read and known of all men. Let it live through you. That is the only worthwhile way to honor God’s Word.
We have a long way to go in overcoming the last vestiges of the legalism that has been pumped into us through two thousand years of slow-working apostasy. We want to become creatures of grace who learn to draw the life of Jesus Christ as He intended us to have it.
Paul asked, “Having begun in the Spirit, do you now think to be made perfect in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). It starts in the Spirit, but then we tend to go back into legalism. “Who made you, little boy?” “Well, the Lord made me about so tall, but I grew the rest by myself.” It is not done that way. Having begun in the Spirit you must also be perfected in the Spirit. You cannot start as a creation of God, and then by mental exercise, an inspiration of mind, or a discipline of human will, complete it in the energies of the flesh. It must be a whole new nature coming forth in the name of the Lord by a work of the cross that crucifies that which must end. It must be an impartation of God, an infusion of His very being in us. Our growth is an appropriation of God.
Many people cannot understand the dealings of the Lord. They cannot understand why certain things happen when they start walking with God. I Corinthians 10:13 explains it: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.
There are times when you think, “I’m in a corner and it’s more than I can bear.” Of course it is more than you can bear in the energy or inspiration of the flesh. Every time you are tempted, you are not tempted beyond what you are able to bear, for God will make a way of escape. You are brought into a corner so you will have to stretch a little more into God. When you have drawn a little more of God you can meet the problem, then there remains a residue of God in your spirit that you appropriated in that hour of need. He puts you in a corner because that is the way you appropriate more of Him in your life. Regardless of what God has become in your life, you will be pushed into a corner, time and time again, where you will say, “I must have something more from the Lord.” What you mean is, “I must have a greater measure of Him.” That is the way you grow. You are not being tempted beyond what you are able to bear; but you are being pushed into God beyond your capacity for something bigger than your former efforts, better than your past victories, and superior to the grace and strength that was in your life yesterday.
Seek God; open up to Him. In this day it is so natural to sink into passivity. People do not want to believe in anything nor become involved. We are a contradiction to the age, because we are involved with God and with His will in the earth. Although we are not doing it through human drive, there still must be a constant exhortation to keep our spirits open to the Lord. If we do not, the abounding iniquity will cause our love to wax cold.
This walk is not a promotion: producing pulpit managers, promoters or professional men of religion. We have no training program for professionals. Only one thing we do stress: get a word from God and proclaim it; believe that word and be open to it.
It is not enough to have only a salvation experience. The New Testament was written not to sinners but to believers. It contains one big package deal—buy the whole thing, lock, stock, and barrel—walk with God and take it all.
Every truth that comes to you should occasion repentance on your part. We talk about the walk and how we do not believe in denominationalism nor being a part of Babylon. You can believe in the restoration of the Church and still become a Pharisee. When you see what God is bringing forth, you must repent of what you have been, or the thing that is wrong; and that repentance then will make a way for the grace of God to change it. Repentance becomes the key. When preachers come into this walk, they think they know so much that it’s difficult for them to receive the truth with repentance in their hearts. Instead they say, “… I know many doctrines and can also use this.” You cannot use a thing. God uses you. You turn yourself over to God.
When the Lord performs miracles or brings a truth, the religious man becomes excited, saying, “There are a lot of good sermons in that; I’ll see what I can do with it.” But when an apostle, or a man whom God is making into an apostle hears it and sees it, he falls at the Lord’s feet and says, “Depart from me. I am a sinful man.” Every time God moves I find myself repeating, like Job, “I abhor myself”; and like Paul, I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing. Romans 7:18. Only by the grace of God are we made able ministers of the new covenant.