Life In The Spirit

Daily Devotional for June 29, 2023

The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life. (John 6:63)

This Life is a very vast Life. It reaches into God's greatpurpose, and we are a part of it;we are "the called according to His purpose." We wantto know the purpose; we want to know our place in thepurpose; we want to know our faculties, our functions.How shall this be? Not by studying up what they are,but by being in Life. It may be very interesting to have ascientific knowledge of the workings of our humanbodies, but it is not necessary in order to live. Live, andthe thing happens. You never have to consider whetheryou will take your next breath, to sit down and make amental problem of it. You do it, and everything else isbound up with it, and follows in proper order. Breathingproperly has a great deal bound upwith it. Well then, live and everything else will follow.That is only saying, in other words: move, have your lifein the Holy Spirit, and all the plan and order of God willfollow. You are bound to come into it, you cannot helpyourself.

Thus the object is to get the Lord's people to a placewhere they walk with the Lord, and are so open to Himthat they are prepared for all that walking with Himmeans. Sometimes it will mean that they will have toleave a great deal that is of a secondary character;perhaps forsake many things, even religious things, theaccepted things, to walk with the Lord. There may be aprice attached to it; misunderstanding, and loneliness,and much besides; but if you are so open to the Lordthat nothing else matters, and you mean to walk withGod whatever the cost, no matter what people say youought to do as (in their thought) a part of a greatChristian order or religious machine, you will come intoall God's secret thought as naturally as a flower opens tothe sun, and you will be making discoveries and findingthat there is a vast realm of meaning and possibility andcapacity and power that you never dreamed of. The Lord is not going to stretch it out before us, and show us it. We shall discover it as we walk in the Spirit.

Bible Verses: John 6:63

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Open Windows messages have been selected and compiled by Austin-Sparks.Net from the works of T. Austin-Sparks. In some cases they appear in abridged form. The introductory verse and its associated Bible version have been selected by the editor and did not always appear within the original message. In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.

Editor's Note

Through the years of our publishing books and articles on Austin-Sparks.Net, we have talked of wanting to compile a series of excerpts similar to Watchman Nee's "A Table in the Wilderness," published by Mr Sparks' son-in-law, Angus Kinnear. We felt that not only would shorter daily excerpts be easy to digest, but they might also inspire readers to read a complete message or book that they may not have read before. This project began in January 2010 when we began to send out daily messages to the Daily Open Windows email list. These continue to be sent daily in email form from Austin-Sparks.Net.

As many of you will be aware, Mr Sparks was from Scotland. He, therefore, used British spelling in his writings; however, many transcripts of his spoken messages have since been published using American English. The website reflects a mixture of both British and American spelling, but for the sake of consistency, all excerpts in this book conform to American spelling and punctuation.

Due to these daily messages being excerpts, they are abbreviated and some have had unnecessary words removed, such as "here this evening...." Also, some daily messages are a compilation of several excerpts from one original message. This is usually indicated with a pause in the text: .... and a reference to the complete source document is always provided. You will also notice that different versions of the Bible have been selected for verses that precede each daily message. Sometimes these Scripture references appeared within the context of the original message, but mostly these have been chosen by the editor with, we trust, the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As you look through these "open windows" we pray that you will not only look out and see Christ, but you will also hear Him and open the door of your heart so that He can "eat with you daily" (Rev. 3:20). Our desire is that these messages will not simply be "inspiring," as daily devotional messages often set out to achieve, but also challenge you; lifting your vision, opening your eyes, revealing Truth, bringing Life and Light, and enabling you to let go of misconceptions. Light is not always welcome when it first shines into the darkness that our eyes are accustomed to. However, Light is absolutely necessary in order to see. And so we pray that through these messages your eyes will be opened (Eph. 1:18) and we will together "see one thing – how superior is Jesus Christ to all else!"

Austin-Sparks.Net
Wellington, NZ

Open Windows by T. Austin-Sparks

This devotional contains short daily portions from a selection of Mr. Austin-Sparks' messages. In his own words, “Perhaps this is just like a window opened into heaven. If you get the right window you can see quite a lot. You can see great things and you can see far things. But the best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else, and how superior is the dispensation into which we have come, and how superior are all the resources at our disposal to all that ever was before!”

Theodore Austin-Sparks (1888–1971), often known as "Mr. Sparks" or "TAS", was a British Christian evangelist and author.

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