We have to be in the Communion. God has never asked us to celebrate it; it is not a service. We have not been instructed to keep it; it is not a memento. We have not been exhorted to observe it; it is not a spectacle. We must be in it. We are either in or out of this Communion. Every man desiring to enter it must go the same way as Jesus the Christ, and in order that he should do so, all the merits of Christ will be imputed to him. Therefore, except a man repent and accept this grace, he cannot enter into the Communion, but must remain forever without. But so surely as he sees and confesses to his basic state of excommunication from God through Adam's sin and seeks salvation from it, he will be forgiven, cleansed and justified from all things and brought into the Regeneration.
However, all these, great as they are, are but the overtures of God's grace, the means and preparations for the highest honour of all, which is entrance and acceptance into the Communion of God. O the honour of being greeted with the words, 'thou art My beloved son, this day have I begotten thee', and again 'I will be to him for a Father and he shall be to Me for a son'. This is the very holiest of the holies. Not now a secret place of the Most High within a tent, a figure of the true copied out from a heavenly pattern, but a Being, and that Person — God. The sons of Israel had a land, the sons of Aaron had a tent, but the sons of the Father have God. Israel never had communion, they had a Passover; they never had reconciliation, they had atonements (many); they never had regeneration. They had redemption, sanctification, purification and a host of other necessary, though lesser things that God provides for men, but we have God Himself.
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G.W. North (1913 - 2003)
G. W. North was born in London England in 1913. As a young man he became aware that the Lord was calling him into the work of the ministry. At timely stages the Lord placed folk in his path who were able to direct him into the truth of heart purity and a more expansive understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He held pastorates in Kent and Bradford. By the late 1960s, following a significant period of ministry in Liverpool, he began a more itinerant ministry. This led him to many parts of the world, and occupied him until well into his eighties. His powerful preaching and the unique sense of the Lord's presence, which seemed to brood over his meetings, were always intensely challenging.The true secret of his remarkable ministry stemmed from his personal communion with the Lord Jesus. To him, 'entering the holiest' was not merely a theological concept; it was a distinct spiritual reality - and the central feature of his spiritual life. It was here, in the place of worship, that his revelatory ministry found its source. He preached from understanding and conviction. He was never the echo of another, nor did he take on board the ebb and flow of various contemporary emphases. He was not a man of 'books'; he soaked himself in Scripture and allowed it to saturate his heart and mind. Truly, this is a man who has lifted up a standard for the people. Mr North went to be with the Lord on 29th April 2003, shortly after his ninetieth birthday.