T. Austin-Sparks: A Course of Reduction

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves,
as we see personal desires being
followed out, likes being served,
preferences being manipulated, and it
becomes so patent that there is something
which is quite natural ruling decisions
and making the plans: Where is the Cross,
and where is the Holy Spirit working by
the Cross?

Therefore, you and I need to ask the Lord
more every day to make these crises acute,
that we shall have no blind spots on this
matter, thinking that it is for the Lord
when it is really for ourselves. Any measure
of that 'I' is countering God's end, and
anything that is done, even though it be
by a most devoted soul, for the Lord on
that basis is bound to have in it that
element which will limit its ETERNAL value.

The thing which is going to be wholly,
utterly abiding, eternal, must be utterly
Christ. It may, therefore, be necessary
for a course of reduction to be followed
by the Lord. The thing may seem small and
it may seem to be very limited according
to the world's standards. What is going
on can hardly be seen on the surface, but
God is working right down at the bottom to
build from the foundation, slowly, steadily,
surely, and every fresh fragment that God
adds to that work is sifted, purged, tested.
It is as though God puts in something and
then, before He adds to it, He tests it,
proves it, tries it, sifts it, until the
thing is, in its absolute purity, all of
Christ and is established.

T. Austin-Sparks, from Christ in You


T. Austin-Sparks
the cross of Christ