Very capable people are not always the people who are most spiritually productive. The Holy Spirit works, on the one hand, to an incapacitation naturally and humanly in order to pave the way for His own witness to the very Sonship of Jesus Christ coming in upon a negative ground, an impossible situation, and giving Life to go through that, perhaps only to go through that, but to go through it and to go through it royally. The result is that Christ has been made known as our Life and God has borne witness by His Spirit to His Son's Sonship, and we know Jesus Christ as the Son of God like that. The first great witness is the Holy Spirit working in the life of the child of God to bring up God's testimony to Christ in terms of Life. That is true individually. It is also true collectively. What is God's witness in a company of His people? God's witness is not that they believe that Jesus is the Son of God as part of their doctrine and creed, nor that they affirm it with great vehemence. "The devils also believe and tremble" (Jas. 2:19). No, the witness of God in a company is that that company in itself as such is to be a dead thing in itself - lifeless and hopeless and helpless in itself - and yet the throbbing of God's Life is felt when that company is together in the Spirit.
(This e-book can be downloaded for free at Austin-Sparks.Net)
T. Austin Sparks (1888 – 1971)
He was ordained as a Baptist pastor at the age of 24, and from 1912 to 1926 led three congregations in Greater London. During these years, he was also closely related to Jessie Penn-Lewis and her publication and speaking ministry, the "Overcomer Testimony."Among the many books that he wrote, at least three are regarded as Christian classics: The School of Christ, The Centrality and Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ and We Beheld His Glory. The primary theme of Sparks' books is the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He mentored Watchman Nee for many years and was very influential in his understanding of the Church Life.
Recommends these books by T. Austin Sparks:
Daily Open Windows: Excerpts from the Messages of T. Austin-Sparks
Discipleship in the School of Christ by T. Austin Sparks
More of Christ: From "The Stewardship of the Mystery" by T. Austin Sparks
"Mr Sparks", as he was affectionately known, was born in London, England in 1888. He came to know Christ as a teenager and later became a Baptist pastor. However, his "ecclesiastical" career took a decidedly different direction when a physical crisis brought him to a place of brokenness.
At the same time God also delivered him from his previous prejudice against anything that was related to the "deeper life". As a result, he joined Jessie Penn-Lewis in the ministry of the spiritual growth of believers; a ministry to which he devoted his life and which also cost him his reputation and his career in the denominational circles of England.
He was based in southeast London at Honor Oak Christian Fellowship which is where Watchman Nee met and fellowshipped with him during a visit to England in 1933. Nee's refusal to disavow Austin-Sparks later became the grounds for him being disfellowshipped by the Taylor Brethren. It has been said that Watchman Nee considered Austin-Sparks as his spiritual mentor, and their fellowship appears to have been rich and fruitful.
... Show more