What a great tragedy it is that most of us feel little peace, contentment and satisfaction in our being counted righteous in Christ, in our being accepted in Him. We shed little a tear. Our hearts scarcely feel any warmth in prayer. Our spirits little elated in beholding the glories of His grace.
Why is it? Perhaps it is because we little realize the tremendous awe-inspiring reality of what it means to be declared adopted as a child of God (Romans 8:15-17).
Do you, dear reader, really know what it means to be a son or daughter of the Living God?
Do you really know what it means to be loved, cherished and cared for by the Sovereign of the Universe?
Oh! I pray thee that thine and mine hard heart and wandering mind be renewed that we may see the weight of this inexpressible gift! Dear God, our God! We believe, help our unbelief!
“And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” —Luke 15:31.
The words of the text are familiar to us all. The elder son had complained and said, that though his father had made a feast, and had killed the fatted calf for the prodigal son, he had never given him even a kid that he might make merry with his friends. The answer of the father was:
“Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”
One cannot have a more wonderful revelation of the heart of our Father in heaven than this points out to us. We often speak of the wonderful revelation of the father’s heart in his welcome to the prodigal son, and in what he did for him. But here we have a revelation of the father’s love far more wonderful, in what he says to the elder son.
If we are to experience a deepening of spiritual life, we want to discover clearly what is the spiritual life that God would have us live, on the one hand; and, on the other, to ask whether we are living that life; or, if not, what hinders us living it out fully.
This subject naturally divides itself into these three heads:
1. The high privilege of every child of God.
2. The low experience of too many of us believers.
3. The cause of the discrepancy;
4. and, lastly, The way to the restoration of the privilege.
1. The High Privilege of the Children of God
We have here two things describing the privilege:
First, “Son, thou art ever with me”—unbroken fellowship with thy Father is thy portion;
Second, “All that I have is thine”—all that God can bestow upon His children is theirs.
“Thou are ever with me;” I am always near thee; thou canst dwell every hour of thy life in My presence, and all I have is for thee. I am a father, with a loving father’s heart. I will withhold no good thing from thee. In these promises, we have the rich privilege of God’s heritage.
We have, in the first place, unbroken fellowship with Him. A father never sends his child away with the thought that he does not care about his child knowing that he loves him.
The father longs to have his child believe that he has the light of his father’s countenance upon him all the day—that, if he sends the child away to school, or anywhere that necessity compels, it is with a sense of sacrifice of parental feelings.
If it be so with an earthly father, what think you of God? Does He not want every child of His to know that he is constantly living in the light of His countenance? This is the meaning of that word, “Son, thou art ever with me.”
That was the privilege of God’s people in Old Testament times. We are told that “Enoch walked with God.”
God’s promise to Jacob was: “Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.”
And God’s promise to Israel through Moses, was: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”
And in Moses’ response to the promise, he says, “For wherein shall it be known that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not that Thou goest with us; so shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.”
The presence of God with Israel was the mark of their separation from other people. This is the truth taught in all the Old Testament; and if so, how much more may we look for it in the New Testament?
Thus we find our Saviour promising to those who love Him and who keep His word, that the Father also will love them, and Father and Son will come and make Their abode with them.
Let that thought into your hearts—that the child of God is called to this blessed privilege, to live every moment of his life in fellowship with God. He is called to enjoy the full light of His countenance.
There are many Christians—I suppose the majority of Christians—who seem to regard the whole of the Spirit’s work as confined to conviction and conversion:—not so much that He came to dwell in our hearts, and there reveal God to us.
He came not to dwell near us, but in us, that we might be filled with His indwelling.
We are commanded to be “filled with the Spirit;” then the Holy Spirit would make God’s presence manifest to us. That is the whole teaching of the epistle to the Hebrews:—the veil is rent in twain; we have access into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus; we come into the very presence of God, so that we can live all the day with that presence resting upon us.
That presence is with us wheresoever we go; and in all kinds of trouble, we have undisturbed repose and peace.
“Son, thou art ever with me.” There are some people who seem to think that God, by some unintelligible sovereignty, withdraws His face. But I know that God loves His people too much to withhold His fellowship from them for any such reason.
The true reason of the absence of God from us is rather to be found in our sin and unbelief, than in any supposed sovereignty of His. If the child of God is walking in faith and obedience, the Divine presence will be enjoyed in unbroken continuity.*
*Note: I find this a grave doctrinal error in Murray’s expressing of the place of sin in the Sovereignty of God. I am not well versed with Andrew Murray’s theology so I won’t judge his personal position on the matter. Instead, let it be realized by the reader that Romans 8:28 still rings ever true as we struggle between Romans 6 and Romans 7. God actually does, in fact, work together all things—sin included, for the good of those who love God who are called according to His purpose. And as Joseph solemnly declares to his brothers, “…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” (Genesis 50:20)
Then there is the next blessed privilege: “All that I have is thine.”
Thank God, He has given us His own Son; and in giving Him, He has given us all things that are in Him, He has given us Christ’s life, His love, His Spirit, His glory.
“All things are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” All the riches of His Son, the everlasting King, God bestows upon every one of His children.
“Son, thou art ever with me; and all that I have is thine.”
Is not that the meaning of all those wonderful promises given in connection with prayer: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, ye shall receive.”? Yes, there it is. That is the life of the children of God, as He Himself has pictured it to us.
—Andrew Murray, The Deeper Christian life
