Along with the gold in both Eden and Paradise, we find precious stones (Genesis 2:12; Revelation 21:19). Precious stones are jewels; and jewels are not produced in one day. Precious Christians are not formed overnight! Time is a vital factor both in their transformation and completion. Precious stones are wrought by a long process in the fires of t...

These words describe the beginning of everything in the 'New Life' experience of God's children. Dew-fall is altogether vital to the life and growth of trees and flowers. It is the very nourishment that sustains their life. And to us also, the Lord Himself promises to be as the dew to all His people, whether they recognise it or not! Everything in ...

There are times when we put forth tremendous effort in our prayers without getting any answer from God, yet how seldom do we seek God to discover as to why. For how can we expect God to answer prayers that are out of harmony with His mind? In all our praying we must first find the key. It was this that David sought to do at the time of prolonged fa...

First of all, we are talking here about Spiritual life and spiritual death, not physical life or physical death! The law of sin and spiritual death is applied to all that is of the old nature, therefore it is a law principle for the old creation. Whenever we walk after the old nature then sin and Spiritual death will surely follow. Whenever we walk...

Lot had been quick to settle down in the land he should not have; before long he was to lose all his possessions in it. By contrast, as this chapter reminds us, Abram was the Hebrew, the "passer-over," the pilgrim. It is they who are content to remain in transit in the land of promise who have real power against its enemies. Abram had been right to...

Many of us do not differentiate clearly between the promises of God, the accomplished facts of God (His mighty works) and the Covenant of God. Promises are given to encourage faith but often we cannot rise up to believe God's promises. At times we can hardly even lay hold of divine facts because current appearances seem even to make a lie of them t...

We need to 'know' before we can grow as Christians. Many have taken this word 'present' here to imply consecration, without looking carefully into its content. Of course that is what it does mean, but not in the sense in which we are inclined initially to understand. It is not the consecration of our old self with its instincts and resources, its n...

If God's throne seems to rock, can our hand steady it? Some appear to think so. One such was Jacob. God had clearly stated that he should rule, and in all he did he aimed only to forward God's plans. He saw God's election and he embraced it. But then one day he learned that his father had sent Esau hunting with a view to giving him the blessing ins...

What does it really mean to sit? When we walk or stand, we bear on our legs all the heaviness and weight of our body, whereas when we sit down our entire weight rests upon the chair which we sit on. We grow weary when we walk or stand, but we feel rested and refreshed when we have sat down for a while. In walking or standing, we expend a great deal...

Mention here of the ark alone makes it appear as though the writer were ignoring the whole army of people who marched in faith round those walls of Jericho. But of course it was the ark that really mattered. This stronghold of Jericho was not demolished by the march of the Israelites alone. As we know only too well, we may walk round our own 'Jeric...