Every one in your measure wait upon God, who is the true shepherd, and leads his flock into the green pastures [Psa 23:1f], and fresh springs he opens daily; this ye will see and experience. And mind that which is pure in one another, which joins you together; for nothing will join, or make fit, but what is pure; nor unite, nor build, but what is pure. Therefore every particular, fear God; for whatsoever ye build of yourselves will not stand, but will tumble down again; although it be as gold, or <22> silver, or brass, or iron, [Dan 2:35?] the strength of all these things, which is above the pure in you, will come to nothing, and this will not unite with the pure. Therefore wait every one in the measure which God hath given you; and none of you be sayers only, but doers of the word [Jas 1:22, Mat 23:3]. And so, walk in the truth, and be ye all servants to it, and it will lead you out of the world. The world would have the truth to serve them to talk of, to trade withal, and to contend withal; these are the wells without water [2 Pet 2:17], these are the trees without fruit [Jude 1:12]. But they who dwell in the spirit of the Lord, (which is pure, which joins together, and unites and builds up all in one spirit,) see all these things, and are separated from them. So if ye live in the spirit, and walk in it, ye will not fulfil the lusts of the flesh [Gal 5:16], which will lead into uncleanness, and into adultery, and into that which despiseth dignity, which defiles the flesh [Jude 1:8], and goes from the pure. Therefore the pure faith is to be contended for [Jude 1:3]; and those who were sanctified by God the Father, did contend for it, and were preserved by it in Christ Jesus. Therefore wait upon God for the living bread, that never fades away; which he that eats of, lives for ever [John 6:51]. So God Almighty bless you, and keep you in the measure of his gift, faithful to himself!
Dear hearts! to that which is pure in you I speak, (which the presumptuous mind would veil,) that God alone may be exalted, and all flesh shattered down. And all are to take warning, and not one to exalt himself above another: but that God alone may be exalted [Isa 2:11,17] among you all, and in you all, who alone is blessed for ever. And ye may see, from whence your heavenly food comes alone, and grow up by it; for God hath done great things in these northern parts [Ezek 38:15?], and the Lord is doing great things to the exaltation of his great name, and astonishing the heathen; notwithstanding the raging of the beast, and the opening of his mouth, to the blaspheming of God and his temple [Rev 13:6]. Therefore all be valiant in the Lord God; and so fare ye well! And the Lord God of power keep you.
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."