Friends,—When you are met together in the name of Jesus your saviour, let your minds be over all to him, and out of all things that change, and perish, and die of itself [Lev 22:18], and will corrupt, and are visible, up to him that is invisible, the Lord God, and his son Jesus Christ, that you may see him and feel him among you, and in your meetings, in his life, and light, and power, and spirit; and that you may know that God is, and that he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him [Heb 11:6]; and to know that God is present. And that which giveth the knowledge of him, is the light that shineth in the heart, in the face of Jesus Christ [2 Cor 4:6], and so see him in all your troubles and afflictions; and that God is present, beholding all your actions done in your bodies, and your consenting to your evil thoughts, lusts, or motions; the thoughts, what you will speak or act; or motions which you have not acted outwardly; but if you do consent to do them in your mind or heart, the Lord seeth them there to be done, though they be not done outwardly to the sight of men; and so to God you must give an account of things done in your bodies [2 Cor 5:10], and of things done out of the body [1 Cor 6:18?]; for God both heareth, and seeth what is done in the body, and what is said and done without the body; and therefore turn from the evil that leadeth to destruction, and judge it, and yourselves for cleaving to it; and turn to the Lord, and know him who is mighty to save [Isa 63:1], and to reward all them that diligently seek him, who is Almighty in his power to save and deliver, and to help in time of need [Heb 4:16]. So know him that was from everlasting to everlasting. And here thou knowest God in his power, light, and life, and righteousness, which his kingdom stands <36> in, in that righteousness, and power, and holy ghost, and peace Rom 14:17. 1 Cor 4:20], that never will have an end; and is over all kingdoms that will have an end, and are unclean; and any unclean and imperfect thing may enter into them; and in them are troubles, tumults, and sin, and not peace, but sorrow. But into the kingdom of God no imperfect thing entereth, nor sin, nor any unclean thing [Rev 21:27]. For the kingdom of God standeth in righteousness, and everlasting peace, and in joy in the holy ghost.
G. F.
Be the first to react on this!
George Fox (1624 - 1691)
Was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. This was a group the Lord started through the ministry of George Fox. God called him apart from all other forms of Christendom in his day because of the lack of Biblical obedience and holiness.The emphasis in George Fox's ministry was firstly prophetic. He called out the people of God to show them that they had the Holy Spirit of God and could be taught of Him and not to solely rely on the teachings of ecclesiastical leaders. Secondly, he spoke directly to many ministers in his day to show them they were hirelings and did not have a true shepherds heart for the people of God rather they were seeking after financial gain.
Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, the son of Puritan parents. Little is known of his early life, apart from what he wrote in his journal: "In my very young years, I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in young children. Insomuch that, when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly toward each other, I had a dislike thereof raise in my heart, and I said within myself, `If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton.'"
At the age of 19, he gained deep, personal assurance of his salvation and began to travel as an itinerant preacher, seeking a return to the simple practices of the New Testament. He abhorred technical theology, and preached a faith borne of experience, freshly fed and guided by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit.
Fox was persecuted almost daily, yet his power of endurance was phenomenal. He was beaten with dogwhips, knocked down with fists and stones, brutally struck with pikestaves, hard beset by mobs, incarcerated eight times in the pestilential jails, prisons, castles and dungeons--yet he went straightforward with his mission as though he had discovered some fresh courage which made him impervious to man's inhumanity.
He undertook as far as possible to let the new life in Christ take its own free course of development in his ministry. He shunned rigid forms and static systems, and for that reason he refused to head a new sect or to start a new denomination, or to begin a new church. He would not build an organization of any kind. His followers at first called themselves "Children of the Light," and later adopted the name "The Society (or Fellowship) of Friends."
Fox preached and traveled for 40 years throughout England, Scotland, Holland, and America. His life demonstrated the truth of his famous saying, "One man raised by God's power to stand and live in the same spirit the apostle and prophets were in, can shake the country for ten miles around."