In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the presence of God in their lives and the lives of others. They emphasize the importance of understanding and knowing the way of God more perfectly. The central message of the sermon is the purpose of God to create a vast family of sons through His own son, Jesus, and to elevate them to the same level as Jesus, giving them the inheritance of the universe. The speaker also discusses the concept of the soul and the need to overcome the illusion of being an independent self, recognizing that in Christ, we are a self that is truly His.

Thank you, Lord, you're the ever-present living God, Father, Son, Spirit. Where we are, you are. Where you are, we are. Here, through this week, precisely the same person at home and everywhere. You're there, you've unveiled yourself to so many hearts and lives through the world, and you're unveiling yourself through us to others in the world. So we thank you for your manifested presence these hours, these days. Thank you, in Jesus' name. Well, it's been a blessing and inspiration to share the joy and love and freedom and praise and fellowship and worship in this liberated bunch. I meant body, I'm sorry. With the Lord in us and among us. My purpose through these hours we've had together, as I quoted from the scriptures at the beginning, was that maybe we who are already his saints may have the eyes of our understanding, enlightened, we may understand and know a little more. Or, as it was quoted also from Acts, we might know the way of God more perfectly. So we've been seeking, haven't we, to look into, from the revelation of God's word, what the way of God is more perfectly. And we've found that wonderful way to be his purpose of eternity. To bring into being a vast family of sons through his own son. And to level those sons up with his own son as brethren. To give them the inheritance of the universe. And by his sons to be his living manifested self. The lover father by the lover sons. And to be so established in himself that that's just how we live. So we're not getting people, we are being people. We're not becoming people, we're being people. We're in this living relationship. So we trace how, in order that we might know ourselves as who we are, we've had to go through these processes. The process of being the wrong kind of person. And then having been disillusioned about being the wrong kind of person, he himself, who created us, who always is the head of his church, besides the fact that he's the head of the universe, himself came as one of us, identified himself with us, entered into our sufferings, and then by his act of death cut us off from this false spirit of error, which had distorted our humanity. And in his resurrection, relate us to himself, to begin the true life of being the true person. We find the beginning of that true person has been, as we moved in by faith, his witness that we were his. We were redeemed. The seal was blotted out. Dead to sin. Alive under God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Related to him as Saviour, Lord, and God as Father. And then we were led on to see that there was a final misunderstanding of the human self, from which we had to be delivered. That we may operate with the right understanding of how a human self operates. And we find that was the illusion of being an independent self, which we picked up from Satan, and when we're in Christ, it's an illusion. We're not an independent self. In Christ, we're a self which is really his self, expressed by myself, in a union. But not knowing that, as redeemed people, we went through the phase of the illusion of independent self, which in the Bible is put in the terms of Romans 7, when we're seeking to live the renewed life of the Spirit in us by our own independent acts. Until we finally become disillusioned on that level also. And we discover that the appearance of an independent self in redeemed persons is an illusion. There's no such thing. And therefore the last sin we commit really is trying to be good, instead of trying to be bad, because trying is independent self. And so this second break takes place. Second recognition that what we really are is not an independent self, but a union self. A united self, which the real self is not we, but Christ. And we move in again by faith, into recognition that forever now our life is never we again. It is actually this living person expressing himself by us. And we enter into this consciousness of union. And we live by consciousness, because when we've got a consciousness, it's we. And in that sense, we never really need a blesser outside, because he's the blesser forever inside. Well, we're so blessed, we're a blessing now. See, God from the very beginning said, Abraham, I bless you and make you a blessing. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. A dear friend came to me last night and said, will you bless me? Well, I said, I tell you, you've got the blesser inside you, so you don't need my blessing. He's forever your blessing. You see, we enter into a new relationship. We don't need the outside. We don't need it for fellowship and joy and friendship, but not for an increase. Maybe for confirmation, not for greater reality. You can't have a greater reality. You can't have a greater reality. He said, you are Christ in human flesh. Can you have greater than that? You are the living Christ in human flesh. You're the living God expressed by your humanity. That's what this vine and branch union means. A branch is the vine expressed in its branch form. And we are the vine expressed in our branch form. So, the Lord is seeking to settle us into a permanent conscious relationship in which there never is a lack again. As we sought to explain, the lacks come through our soul reactions. Our soul is not our spirit. Our spirit is our inner self, which is united to his self. So, our real inner self, joined to Lord One's spirit, is He, and we, and it's He, and it's we, and it's one. Now, in the soul life, we get disturbances. So, we may feel dry, or feel cold, or feel we need renewal. We never need renewal. Permanent renewal is here. What do I need renewal for? I never need an external drink of living water. Living water is here. I never need a further bite of the bread. The bread is here. The recognition of this person is the eternal bread, is the eternal light, is the eternal life. He is the all. And so, we are moving into the I am life. Not the I want life, not the I need life. I always like to change that hymn, I need thee, oh, I need thee. When I sing it, I whisper to myself, I have thee, oh, I have thee, thank you. There's no I need. You need what you haven't got. You have what you have got. So, we've moved into a having life, an amming life, an ising life, a being life. And you'll find as you read through the scriptures, it emphasizes the present fact of who we are. Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Who hath raised us up together with Him. Who hath seated us in heavenly places. Hath put us far above the satanic power. And so on, and so on. So, again, I'm always stressing. All I am is my inner consciousness. I am my inner self. That's all I am. My inner knowing self. I operate always from my knowing self. And this is what this revelation has moved us into. The knowing self, first of all, knowing I'm a saved self. Which has brought me into a relationship. That's the first step, the justified relationship. I'm a knowing I'm a saved self, I'm a forgiven self, I'm an accepted self, I'm a cleansed self. But there's a little tendency remain of self and he. Because I'm just beginning. So I see myself as a cleansed and redeemed and accepted and loved self and a member of the family of God. But it's rather a little bit, I'm here and I'm in the family and he's here and he's there and he's there. That still leaves us, as we point out, in this dangerous idea, well I'm still an independent self. That's what I said, how we go through an area when we try to work it by ourselves. Well we have to have a second revelation somehow. That the real self is not I. The real self is a union, a tremendous fact, a union, a tremendous fact, a union. A final branch of unity, head and body of unity. And then, don't you see, you understand, when this sinks into my consciousness, I live by my consciousness. As I kept telling you day by day, you operate your profession because you're conscious, not because you've got something out there. Because you know how to practice medicine, you know how to cook, you know how to teach. It's become you. It's become a consciousness. You operate your profession or run your home, whatever it is, at ease because you know how to do it. Not because of the materials outside, but because the knowing is inside and the knower uses the materials. At your home, in your cooking or your teaching or secretarial work or engineering, whatever it is. That's knowing. And so we've seen that this is what is the fact about us. What is the fact about us. That we are in this indescribable relationship. In which the human is the container, the manifestor of the deity. And we've changed deities. We were manifestors of the spirit of error, as the Bible says. According to the course of this world, we're manifestors of the spirit of error, so we were compulsively self-centered. We couldn't be anything else. Because the spirit of error is the spirit of Satan, who is the spirit of self-centeredness. So we were compulsively eye for eye for me. And everything was geared around that, whether it was good works or bad works, it was eye for me. And that union has been changed. All the gospel is this change of union. All the gospel is this change of union. Change if you regard yourself as a vessel. Of course a vessel is not a perfect illustration, because a vessel and what's in it are not one. They're two separate entities. It's a stepping stone, if you like. It's a change of what's in the vessel. That's a scriptural description. Because in Romans 9 it says everybody's a vessel. What's in the vessel? You're either a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy. A vessel of wrath is a human that contains the deities to whom wrath comes, the false god, the god of this world. The vessel of mercy is the same human who contains the deity by whom mercy and all God's fullness comes, Jesus Christ. So all the gospel is this change of God, not change of you. And when we get into this new relationship, you're a new person, not because you're new. Your humanity remains the same. That's by how God gets out. God gets out through our humanity. If we hadn't got appetites, faculties and abilities, God couldn't get out. Equally, that's why we can be tempted. Because our privilege is to be on the level with the world. So that doesn't change. But what has changed is the deity within us. And when it becomes a consciousness, it becomes an ease. And you'll never go outside yourself. Technically, you'll never need prayer again. Technically, you'll never need the Bible again. Our father, in faith, had no Bible. But he walked with God. That was Abraham. He had no Bible. He walked by an inner consciousness of an inner person. And he's our father. So don't try to be bigger than your father. Enoch walked with God and knocked us all, because he never remained down here at all. He popped up. He was not, for God took him. So you see, technically, you won't even need a Bible or prayer. Because you are you. A Bible is an agency by which I can find I am who I am. And be thrilled to find a little more about who I am and how I operate. And how He operates by me. That's all the Bible is. It's an agency to reveal to me or remind me who I am. Which is I'm not I. I'm the living God in one of His human expressions. Prayer is the same thing. Prayer isn't to get something. Prayer is, in its one form, a recognition. Isn't it wonderful? Can it really be? I live the life I now live by Him who loved me, gave Himself for me. Yeah, that's my hope. That's why we have a personal Jesus. We know what God is, because He's like Jesus. And Jesus loved. Therefore you love. So the prayer is partly to help us to refresh ourselves. And the fact is this is a real fact. It really is. Quite apart from what appearance is. Feelings don't go by feelings. Feelings you may feel absolutely blank. So prayer may refresh us in who we are. You see, there's a hidden secret. You can see it. You see, I may not get this over to you. You can't see an absolute, an unlimited, a universal. You can only be part of it. You can only see universal by something which isn't universal, which exposes it. One is known as one because it's a two kind of thing. Now you see, we move back into universal. We're universal. We're part of the universal one. So there's a sense in which you don't even know God. You are He. Do you get it? So you can know about Him. You can think about Him. That's not what you think about Him. That's it. But that's not it. You are He. He and I are one person. And you don't really know yourself. You are yourself. You don't know yourself. You just say, I am. You may know a little about yourself. But who I am, that's all. But my new I am is, I am, I am. Yes, I am. But there's a Christ here. It's Christ expressed by me. That's the I am. The union I am. So really, knowing Christ, knowing God is even beyond conscious knowing. It's just being. And ultimately God has to get us there. Because if it's by conscious knowing, why do I know Him? Is He here? Then you get frightened. Is He gone? Is He lost? And often, you know, we come to conferences to get what we already have. Which is rather silly. You may hope that. We come to conferences to get what we, we oughtn't. We oughtn't to come to rejoice in what we have, not get it. We oughtn't to come to conferences to get refreshed. We oughtn't to come to conferences so refreshed we're going to be co-refreshers to each other. See, we mustn't, somehow, patiently, God's got to get us off the outer into the inner. And the outer is as if I'm a separate person. I've got to have this, got to have that, need this. And then I'm in my difficulties, I'm in and out. But the inner is a fixed fact. And so patiently God has to teach us. Come back to the fixed fact. You can't have more. This living person is you. He's the all. You really are the universe, because He's the universe, so the universe is inside you, really. We're all. And so we've got to learn, He's the all, He's the wisdom here, He's the power, He's the life, He Himself, He's the love, He's the all. And begin to be conscious, that's what I am there for. I'm the all. I'm the love, because I'm expression of Christ in me. I'm the power, I'm expression of Christ in me. I'm the wisdom, because I'm expression of Christ in me. This is the union. This is what the revelation is here for. Because you see, I'm to be permanently a person, detached from myself, involved in other things. I can't be involved in other things if I'm attached to myself. When I'm detached from myself, I can be involved in other people. That's the whole principle. God's detached from Himself. God's not caring about Himself, He's Himself. He's busy giving Himself. He's busy being a lamb that's slain. He's busy pouring Himself out. He hasn't got time to think about Himself, because He just is Himself, that's all. So He doesn't think about that. When you know who you are, you're detached from who you are, and you can give yourself to others. When you're finding out who you are, you've got to come back all the time and have to be quite sure who you are. Fuss around it. So God's purpose is to teach us to be defussed. And to cease the fuss. And the way not to fuss is the faith which constantly recognises. The greatest word I know is recognition. See, recognition is recognising a fact. It's what faith is. See, faith, as I might say, disappears and becomes recognition. What I mean is this. I've pointed to it before. Now, by faith you say, I'll come into this room. Now, you're not in the room yet. But your faith believes there is a room. Your faith is your choice. I choose, I go to that room. So faith says, there's a room. There's a meeting. I'm going there. All right, your faith has, by faith, taken the fact of a room. You haven't got there yet. Now, when you come in this room, you don't say, I believe I'm in the room. Do you? I am in the room. Faith dissolves and becomes fact. Faith always dissolves and becomes fact. I take Jesus. That dissolves. You've got him. Oh, he's mine. You've changed faith to fact. You see what I mean? And so that's why the best word for faith is recognition. Because it's not getting. It's, oh, that's a fact. That's a fact. That's a fact. So there's a certain element in this life, and that's sometimes where worship is valuable, and prayer, to refresh me in my recognition. Refresh me in my recognition. And I'm going to learn to recognise a fact. And the whole pressures around me are to teach me to recognise. The negative presses you into the positive. If a thing is too bitter, you work at it to make it sweet. If a bed's too soft, you work at it to make it too hard. You work at it to make it softer. Life is, the negative forces you into replacing it by the positive. If a thing's rough, you work at it to make it more smooth. If a thing's ugly, you work at it to make it more beautiful. That's what life is. So all our negatives here are to press us into our recognition. Not getting something, recognising something. So all our temptations and all our problems are to give us a chance, our chance to say, I feel like hell this morning. I don't love God a bit. And God loves you, to be honest. If you don't love Him, be busy telling Him. The best kind of prayer you can pray is to come and say, God, I don't love you a bit this morning, take that. And God says, oh, I like that, now you're honest, I'll show you who you are. I'm you in me. I'm you, you'll find you love me, because your love's in me. My love's in you. So you see, you're honest. So you're just at these outer pressures, whatever the kind they may be upon us, but they are the negatives which press us into recognition. Recognition is facts, facts, facts. If I die, they're facts. So he slayed me until I trusted him, that's the facts. So that's really the basis of this. Now, as I say, when we're released from finding out facts about ourselves, and settling in the facts about ourselves, we're released then to be an agency for bringing these facts to other lives. That's this third level. That's this father level. When you're freed, you know who you are, you're Christ in you, you're God in you, now you're with God, you're operating, and how he manifests himself through you. And that's why we talked a little yesterday about the absurdity of external faith. Internal faith is absurd enough to believe I'm not either Christ, that's absurd enough but for the word of God, but for the revelation of Jesus Christ, who's going to believe that? That's why those who haven't got Jesus Christ don't find God. In transcendental meditation, you don't find God. You only find God because he's been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. And he's made the living father to us. And so through him you know him. So that's absurd enough faith. When I move in and say he is my Lord, who says so? He is my saviour. And when you say I'm a former hymn, you're saying something. The Bible says that. You say those things. Now that's absurd, but we move on to the greater absurdity of faith when you begin to operate with God in everything. And one of those first absurdities is cease to see evil. Oh, that's an important point. We're all bugged by evil. We're bugged by it. Oh, I'm going home now. Look what I'll find there. I see evil. Oh, I shall meet this problem. I shall meet these things. Oh, oh, oh. Life is groaning and grunting until we get a bit of praise. You get some praise here, praise God. But we've got to have one that lasts at home as well, haven't we? See, we're groaning and grunting because we're seeing things that we wish they were different. Is there one other thing not to see evil? It always catches me. I always start that way. Oh, goodness sake, I always start that way. I hate public speaking. That's my private hell. And it's pretty well a hell for you who have to listen, but that's all good. But... So, you see, I always have to say I don't like it. I don't want to do it. It's horrible. I say, well, all right, it's you getting on with it. You're getting on, all right. If you mean this, all right, you do the speaking. And what mistakes I make are your mistakes. It's your fault anyhow, so I'll go to it. If I speak too quickly, it's your fault also. If I speak English, it's your fault also. So there we are. So, you see, but isn't it a great thing? I find every time when I see evil, oh, can I... into the absurdity of faith, that looks evil. And God meant it to be because it came out of freedom, which came out of my misuse of myself, so He's not responsible for the evil. It came out of my misuse of freedom. But because I'm all His precious people, and because He's everywhere, He says, OK, because I'm the Redeemer God, I mean that to be a thing in which I'm going to show myself a new way. I'm seeing a perfect God going to come out in perfect situations, in a horrible situation. Oh, you'll find a tremendous victory. It's so sincere to me. I will not see evil. It's there. But my seeing is to be God's seeing. It's self sees evil. It's the devil sees evil. It's there. You see, He's the person who redeems from evil. He's the person who transforms evil into good. He transforms sinners into saints, doesn't He? So, you see, if I can begin to catch... It's a tremendous release. Oh, no, I'm not seeing that. God meant that to be. God meant a wrong thing to be wrong. Because that's our freedom. But He's there because He's going to change that wrong thing to a right one. He's going to put redemption there. To me, that makes a great difference in accepting people. That's why the word meaning means so much to me. See, if... We all have difficult people, haven't we? Of course, we're never difficult. It's always the other fellow. We know that. We're surrounded by difficult people. Now, if I see a difficulty, well, if I even say, God changed them, I'm still seeing a difficulty. If I say, God meant the difficulty, Oh! If a kid or an adult has gone way off, because adults go way off as well as kids, have gone way off. If it may be us seeing things in our children, or our children seeing things in us, whichever way you like. Way off. Now, oh, I wish it wasn't. If I say, God, you meant that person to be just like that now. I'm released. You meant that person to be fulfilling their self just now, in sin if necessary. We all start that way. You meant it. Oh! Because you meant to be themselves, but you're there right in that self, and you're going to use that thing to turn them back into yourself. Now I'm released. I haven't got to fuss. I haven't got to fuss at them because they've gone wrong. I've got to accept they've gone wrong, and if may, maybe if I'm able to say so, if it's a thing in which I can tell a person they say so, but instead I'll say, God's going to change you. When an atheist comes and talks to me, I don't try and change his atheism. I say, OK. If you enjoy your atheism, go to it. I say, you're tired of it. When you've had enough of it, I'll tell you a better way. I don't try and change the atheism. I say, enjoy your atheism while you can. When you... When you've had enough, I'll give you some theism in its place. That's all. So you release people. I always do that. When people come to me with problems, don't come to me with a problem, because I say, you're the problem. That's all. Why do I say that? Because you're seeing a problem, that's why. I don't say that it's a problem. You're seeing it as a problem. That's why you bring it as a problem. If you say, OK, it looks like a problem. God meant this. God meant that situation. My wife will be like that. My husband will be like that. All right, God. You meant it would be like that now. I accept that. I don't like it. I accept it. There may be times, of course, when you say something, but I'm here with saying, God, you're there. You're doing a changing job. You purpose to change that person. I'm with you there. I'm thanking God. By the word of faith, that's central. That person's changed. They don't know it's it. That person's saying they don't know it's it. That's the release. So the problem is in the person who sees it as a problem, not the problem. My point? So be careful. You're the problem. And when, you know, when the person comes to me all fussed up about their husbands or vice versa, I say, I'm not fussed about them. I'm fussed about you. And when they say, will you pray with me? I say, no, I won't pray with you. I won't waste my time. I don't know you, don't know you. I won't pray with you. I'll tell you something. I'll tell you that what's wrong is you're seeing devil as you're seeing God. Now if you have faith, and you can say with me now, God, my husband's precious, if it's a wife's husband, my husband's precious to you. He's been bought by the blood of Christ. He's redeemed, doesn't know it. He just doesn't know who he is. He's precious to you. And your love, you're pressing in on people. So I'm believing you're pressing in on my husband even in his alcoholic condition or whatever it is. Now when you say that, I say, I say it with you. I'll say with you, if you want, God, I'm herewith believing, thanking you, my husband, what you meant to me at the moment. I'm watching now, the change is there, the change is going to come to place. And I accept that fact. That this revolution has taken place by faith in that person. That's the release. So I say there are no problems on earth. There's no hunger left for us. Nothing for us to get, just to enjoy. Great life. That's it. One last thing is, can I take the privilege of a personal commission? I think I'm correct in saying, you see, we're not under the law. There's no more left. We are the law. You know that. The law, we died to the law. Read Romans 6, 7. We're dead to the law. The law is only there when I'm a you ought person. When I'm, I think I'm independent, I think I ought to do this, or I said, OK, do it. So the law's the right thing. When I say, you ought to do so and so. But I don't do anything. All I ought to do is leave Jesus to do it. So if the law comes, I say, you talk to Jesus, don't talk to me, because I'm Jesus in my human flesh. See, I don't answer. There's no more law. So you see, we are the law. The law of God is the principle of love. The law of the universe is a person who is loved. And we are united. We're persons who are loved with him. So we are the law now. So we're not under the law. We don't obey the law. We are the law. And that's what we, when we're tempted, don't come back and say, Lord, give me love. See, I'm loved with you, Lord. With you, I'm loving. Come back, always to the I am, the I am position from your temptations. Now, therefore, we're not under the law. We have, what can we call, imperatives. That's the command. The commands aren't law. The commands aren't, that's the only way it works. That's not the command, therefore the redeemed, that's the only way, of course, that's the only way you agree. You don't say under the law that you come to this weekend, you agree. You're under a sort of command. You've got to take your meals at the right time. Okay, a command is just what you agree with. It's different. Now, I'm only saying this, I think that the commission life is something we've all to accept. The commission life, can I take this, is where the Holy Spirit, he has done to many of our lives, has come to us and says, this is a thing I'll do by you. See, a commissioned life is a local life. That's why it's a body life. Spirit life, spirit can go anywhere. Spirit can reach out and leave anything anywhere. That's the glory of this wonderful adventure of faith and living. We can turn anything into faith. The word of faith can be operated on any level, thank God. Spirit is universal. Body is not. Body is local. So, a commission is a local, is a body commission. Now, it means the Spirit can be a very privileged way to you and me saying, now, there's something I'll do by you. There's something I'll do by you. I'm going to do it by you. It's a sense of commission. I'm sure this is meant to be for all lives. It depends how far I see it. It doesn't come from me. The commission comes from Him. See, this life is an easy life because it's a driven life. The Holy Spirit takes us this way. Into this third area where you're for others. It isn't you. You can't help yourself. Isn't that so with most of us here? From my early life, when I first found Christ, and then I made a battle about three months after about a girl. And she was a good girl, and we had a good friendship, but she didn't want to follow the Lord. And the Lord said, drop her. That cost me something. It cost me more than my salvation. When I said yes to that, and the girl went out, which is a blessing for her, I'm sure, and for me, Christ got a hold of me. It was just when I was going into the army in World War I. I couldn't help myself. The moment Christ got a hold of me like that, and I saw I had eternal life, whether it's heaven or hell, I had eternal life. I was going with my whole crowd of soldiers. We were going to have a year's training. They were going to the front, as we said in those days. And many of us would say we'd be dead in a year's time. I got to give eternal life to them. I was driven. I had to go and witness to the officers and witness to the soldiers and so on. I had to do it. An awful life I've had. Haven't you? I can't help it. I'm under a compulsion that by some means my life may be some way in which other people may find Jesus Christ. So the third area is a drive. It isn't a mean. I always like that scripture. There's Eccles 36, it's worth marking down, verse 37 or something, where it says, I'll put my spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my ways. You don't try to walk. You've got to walk. The Holy Spirit, He makes you walk. If you slip, He picks you up and puts you back again. That's all. I don't mind slipping into a byroad if I know where the main road is. I just come back in. That's all. So you've got to walk. I like Paul's, Love of Christ constrains me. So a commission, it's not something I get, it's not something I get, it's something that gets me. Do you get that? It's got me. I can't help it. Now the point of commission is God saying to you, this I'll do by you. This I'll do by you. That's the highest privilege you can have. This certain thing. Now many of you know him in our lives. I've had him again and again in my life. This I'll do by you. Now that's action. That's when my body goes into action. Alright, I go and do it. Whether it's witnessing, or self-sacrificing, whatever activity it is. You dear friends have formed up this conference. God says this I'll do by you. It's cost you a year's hard work. This I'll do by you. And so on. Now this is what the Bible speaks of as intercession. Now, in the this I'll do by you, there's always what's equivalent to a death. There's a sacrifice. There's a law of sacrifice that operates. Jesus made it of nature. All nature we eat, we live by what's died for us. All this world's built on you, you live by what dies for you. And so Jesus said, corn and wheat falls down and dies. Unless it dies, it abides alone. Corn is just corn and wheat. If it falls on the ground and dies, if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. This comes resurrection. So, in these commissions, there's a giving of myself to his finishing. Now do you understand what I mean? Some of you know this in your life. I believe it's God's purpose for every one of us to know it. To have a sense, that's what I mean. God puts me, alright God, I'm into that. I give myself, I lay down my life for it. This is, I'm poured out on that thing. It may be temporary, or it may be a life thing. Some of us, it's been a life thing. Other things arise. And you'll find along the way, somewhere comes a death. You pay a price, there's a death in it, and out of that comes a life. And the life is God's purpose to complete through that, what's called intercession. I mean, if I may just, many for that matter, my own life. A little thing, but there's a death. I remember when I went to college after World War I. Now we hadn't got too much work, because our brains had gone to seed for five years. So they more or less gave us degrees on a platter. They just took them. I like that kind of college. So we had plenty of time. Now I was on fire for Christ. In our university there were very few. We had not a single professor, dons as we called them, not a single professor would follow us. We had a little group of men, who were on fire for Christ. And we used to witness. So I really gave my time to witness. It often cost me, because there were mostly men who had been sophisticated in the war. There were ex-majors, or sometimes colonels, and people who messed about with the world. And they'd come up later in life, twenty-three, twenty-four, to get this college thing through. But I used to go, and it cost me, to go around this witnessing. What I'm going to say is this. I had this commission. I got to get Christ to these fellow students. And then the Holy Spirit suddenly said to me, there was a great need in Africa at that time, a great shortage. There had been the war, for five years there had been no people. This was right in the heart of Africa, central Africa. I was needed then, to join the man whom I did join, C.G. Stout in the heart of Africa, recruits for need. Would I go to the heart of Africa? Well I only had two more terms to do. What you call them, I think, I don't know what you call them, we call them term time, terms. I've forgotten your names. We had just two, that's all, to finish this thing, only two terms. I had just to go from January to June, that's all. But here this call came, would I go? I didn't want to go. I wanted at least to have the reputation of getting this degree. I only had to wait six months. The Holy Spirit said, they need you now, would you go? I didn't like that. My folks around me didn't like that, because it was losing earthly reputation. But in the end I couldn't help it. And so in the end I remember saying, alright God, oh okay, I'll go. And I made my transaction with the university authorities that I leave. Now I tell you, when you get a commission, a commission means I give myself to it, and you pay a price. There is a deficit, but there's surely life. Now my commission at that time had been to seek to win some of these men in the university to Jesus Christ, and to begin some kind of Christian union which is there. Now during the last two, couple of weeks I was there, before I left, I had a kind of calling for me to go around the various men I knew who didn't know Christ, and be perfect to play with them, because I'd never seen them again. My various friends, of course I had Christian contacts too, and I did it, and God began to work in lies. And then quite suddenly, about a week before I left, I suddenly came to my mind, here, we ought to have this kind of witness of Christian in every university. The whole world, every college should have its witnesses in those days, as far as I knew, this was a good many years ago, there wasn't such a thing going. It suddenly came to us, let's get some students together from other colleges in England, let's start up something, we should have a kind of united witness together, a work that Christ would do in our universities. And so we called together, three men of us, what we then called the Inter-Varsity Conference. Now that was the birth of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship. So after that dying, to a little thing for myself, has come something which has spread around the world since that I went out to the mission field. So you see, as a principle, as a commission, you give yourself to it, you go into action, and the Lord takes you through whatever sacrifice and death is in it, and out of it comes a harvest. A harvest is inevitable. That's all I need to say about it, intercession. It means a commission, the Bible says Jesus made intercession, he poured out his soul for his mother's death and made intercession. Made intercession, out of that comes a harvest. He ever lives, able to save the uttermost, ever lives because he makes intercession. If any can catch it, it's a great principle. You've got a commission, God gave you it. You can't help it. You're in it. OK, God, in I go. I'll pay, I'll do it. What I've got to do, work, trample, sacrifice, give my home up, whatever it costs, I'm in it. And whatever death comes along, yes, that's my honour and glory if it be for your sake. But the fruit is going to come. A prayer may, an intercession must. The fruit's going to come. This thing's going to come to pass that you commissioned me to see happen. That's a commission, that's a sense of purpose. Now if I understand it right, many of you know it, in different ways, in different, God's come to each of us and said, now I'll put this thing through you. And there's a glory when you catch on to it. I'm in this thing now and there's a price, it's the glory of paying the price and God's going to bring the thing through. This is what's meant by the body in action. The Spirit of God coming through our bodies in reaping the harvest, whatever for it may be. Well, I must be stopping now. That's why, if we can take it, to me, I know no greater statement in Scripture than this. Can you take it? It's in Isaiah 53, for it pleased the Lord to bruise him, not bless him. Don't come for blessing, come for bruising. Oh God, what a glory if I may be beaten up for Jesus. Oh, that's the glory. I lived with a man like that in Africa, C.T. Studd, England's great cricketer. Crickets like baseball, only better, that's all. But, so he was a famous man, sold up his cricket for Jesus, after winning some of the crickets for Christ first. He had a big fortune, poured that in, poured out his life's worth, mission field, broken his health, picked up in broken health, went again to Africa when he was past 50. His wife was an invalid, so she remained at home. She picked up from her bed by faith, and they lived apart for 16 years. While she got busy getting recruits, who I was one, to go out to Africa, and he got busy getting gospel to the Africans. Poured out for Jesus. The only thing I know about him is this, that he, he used to say, Oh, I have one regret. I haven't got anything more to sacrifice to Jesus. He sold it all. And my wife was his youngest daughter. He sold everything for Jesus. I remember that last night we had in his little bamboo hut in Africa. We knew we shouldn't see him again. We had to go home. His wife had died at home. And we had to take on the responsibility at the home end. And we were just saying goodbye to him. He was 70 years of age, every day being poured out for Jesus, preaching the gospel to the Africans. And there's about 70,000 of them now, which wasn't in those days. And there he was in his little, sort of, camp bed where he slept. We were with him until about 3 a.m. And all he owned were the few things in, in a few steel trunks. You have to have steel trunks to keep the termites off. Just a few clothes, and he used to keep, we were, oh, miles from, a thousand miles from, there were no, no cars in those days. A thousand miles from Khartoum, a thousand miles away was our main, main city. And you had to do by foot or by cycle. And there, and so he kept a can, he kept a, a tin box full of canned goods. He, he, they were sent to him. He wouldn't use them. He'd give them out to sick missionaries. He'd send them out to sick missionaries. That's all he had. And his other goods, he used to hang by strings like a, a hardware shop. Bam, he'd play the guitar which he used for the songs. The difference, he'd hang by strings from his roof. This was his, this was his home. That's all he had. And I remember the last thing, Pauline was his youngest daughter. He was saying goodbye. He said, Pauline, he said, you know, I'd like to give you something. He says, the fact is, I've given it all to Jesus long ago. Isn't that a tremendous father to give, to have? Who, who, the, the, the wealth he gives you is the wealth of giving yourself to Jesus. Well, I must be stopping. But could you get that? Isn't that wonderful? It pleased the Lord to booze him. God was delighted to have a son who would take it. A son who could die, delighted to have a son who could take it by the indwelling power of the Spirit. So could we. We've got the same power. We can take it. And you, we do take it. We are taking it, aren't we? Isn't that a glorious thing? God, could you give me a bit of that? He has for some of you. Could you give me that privilege to be a bruised person for Jesus? Out of my bruising comes life to the world. Isn't that tremendous? That's the highest standard I can offer you. It pleased the Lord. He's done something for us, thank God. We're made to do a bit more. I'm only starting now. I'll get a little bit more. That's all. Wonderful. And so we say that's like that. I'm convinced being confident I say this last thing Paul says be confident in this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.