by A.P., UCLA

Praise the Lord for revealing so many aspects of Himself to us and in us at the college-aged training. I am beginning to realize that I have an exceedingly rich Father who wishes to dispense all that He has to me. Simply responding to His compelling love, trusting in Him who is faithful to work out all things, and presenting ourselves as open vessels make us glorious inheritors of the hearing of faith.

By responding to the Lord, we actively put ourselves into a position to receive all that He is. As pieces of clay, we are raw materials needing to be transformed into vessels fit for the master’s use. As wild olive branches, we cannot sit around waiting to be cut off from our natural life. Rather, we should ask the Lord, as the loving husbandman, to save us, to have mercy on us, and willingly put ourselves under the blade, the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the diving of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Once we allow ourselves to be cut off from our soul life, bound up with the saints in spirit, and grafted into Christ as the root of fatness, the sap life begins to run, causing us to bear much fruit. The abiding that John 15 talks about, which requires active cooperation on our part, results in Christ living in us in Galatians 2:20! Praise the Lord for the living of faith produced by the hearing of faith.

Taking the Lord as our hidden sap-life is possible by remaining in our spirit and sowing unto the Spirit. Then our outward living becomes the result of much inward activity. May we practice to fan into flame the gift of God and willingly submit ourselves to be under the heavenly fire, burning in a spirit of power, love, and sober-mindedness so that the Lord may gain what He is after.