Y
SheepShed
"The Ultimate Test of True Christianity"
Y GRAPES OF THRONES
&
FIGS OF THISTLES
Y The test of the Spirit, and the only test of the Spirit Jesus ever gave, is the ultimate and final test, He said,
"You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thrones, or figs of thistles?"
Mt 7:16
If you want to test whether any present outpouring of the Spirit of God is real, pure baptism of the Holy Spirit
or not, test it by the fruits that it produces. If it is producing in the world, as we believe it is, a consciousness of
God so high, so pure, so true, so like Christ, then it is the Holy Spirit Himself. No other test is of any value
whatever.
The ultimate test to your own soul of the value of a thing that you have in your heart is the common test which
Jesus gave, "You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thrones, or figs of thistles?"
Men tell us in these days that sin is what you think it is. Well, it is not! Sin is what God thinks it is! You might
think according to your own conscience, but God thinks according to His. God thinks according to a heavenly
purity of His own nature. Man thinks in accordance with that degree of purity that his soul realizes. But the
ultimate test is in God.
When men rise up in their souls aspiration to the place of Gods thought, then the character of Jesus Christ will
be evident in their life; the sweetness of His nature, the holiness of His character, the beauty of crowning glory
that not only overshadowed Him, but that radiated from Him. The real life of the Christian is the inner life, the
life of the reborn spirit and soul. "For out of the heart," said Jesus. "proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." These are the things common to the flesh of man. Out of the
spirit and soul of man, likewise, proceeds by the same law, the beauty, virtue. peace. power and truth [truth's
reality] of Jesus, as the spirit and soul knows it.
Mt 15:19.
He whose soul and spirit is joined to Christ may now, today, this hour, shed forth as a benediction upon the
world the glory and blessing and peace and power of God, even as Jesus shed it forth to all men to the praise of
God.
Y THE EARTHLY
&
HEAVENLY MATERIALITY
Y One of the most difficult things to make people understand is that the Spirit of God is a tangible substance; it
is the essence of Gods own substance! We are composed of water and earth. This may sound a little crude, but
the actual composition of a human being is about sixteen buckets of water and one bucket of earth. I am glad
there is one good bucket of mud in us! Water is a composition of gases,
Y 2
so you can see how much gas there is in mankind. But we are not all gas.
The composition of the personality of God has a personality and a being and is a substance different from mans.
Spirit is a substance. The bodies of the angels are of some substance. They are not the same character of
materiality as our own, for ours is an earthly materiality, but the materiality of heavenly things is of a heavenly
materiality. In other words, heavenly materiality is of Spirit.The Word says, "God is 'a' [not some]Spirit: and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
John 4:24.
The spirit of man must contact and know the real Spirit of God. We do not know God with our flesh, with our
hands or with our brains. We know God with our spirit. The knowledge of God that our spirit attains may be
conveyed to us through the medium of our mind. The effect of God in our body comes through the medium of
the spirit of man, through the mind of man into the body of man.
There is a quickening [making alive] by the Spirit of God so that mans body, a mans soul and mind, and a mans
spirit become blessed,
pervaded and filled with the presence of God Himself in us. The Word of God is wonderfully clear along these
lines: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." Why? Because he trusts in Thee."
That is the peace that a Christian knows whose mind rests in God in perfect trust.The Word of God says also
that our flesh shall rejoice. Not our mind, but our very flesh shall rejoice.The presence of God is to be a 'living'
presence, not only in the spirit of man, nor in the mind of man alone, but also in the flesh of man, so that God is
known in all areas of his life. We must know God in our very flesh; we must know God in our very mind; and
we must know God in our spirit. [God's Spirit must leaven the whole lump! Yeast, dear Saint, does not always
mean sin].
Mt 13.
The medium by which God undertakes to bless the world is through the transmission of Himself by the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is His own substance of being, the very nature and quality of the presence of God.
Consequently, when we speak of the Spirit of God being transmitted to man, we are not talking about an
influence, either spiritual or mental. We are talking about the transmission of the living substance and being of
God into your being and into mine.
Not a mental effect, but a living substance, the living being and actual life transmitted, imparted, coming from
God into our being.
This is the secret of abundant life of which Jesus spoke. He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it
more abundantly." That is, the living life of the Spirit of life! [Not your expensive cars, clothes and magnificant
homes]! The reason we have more abundant life is that, receiving God into our being, all the springs of our being
are made alive by His living presence.
Consequently, we become the receipients of the energy of God in addition to our normal energy, by receiving
His being, His nature, His life into ours.
John 10:10.
Y THE RADIATING GLORY OF
TRANSFIGURATION
Y It's True! The tremendous capacity of the human being to receive God is demonstrated by some of the
incidents in the
Y 3
Word of God. The most remarkable in the Scriptures is the transformation of Jesus Himself, when the Spirit of
God came upon Him so powerfully that it radiated from His being until His clothes became white and glistening,
and His face shown as the sun [light].
One must be the receipient of the light, glory and power of God before he can manifest it. Jesus demonstrated
these two facts: The marvelous capacity of the nature of man to receive God into his being, and the marvelous
capacity of the nature of man to reveal God! In the glory shining through His clothes, in the glistening of the
glory of God upon His countenance, He demonstrated mans capacity to reveal God! Thank you Father for the
Spirit of revelation.
Y THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN
HANDKERCHIEFS & CLOTHES
Y The human being is the most wonderful and marvelous instrument of all the creation of God in its capacity to
receive and reveal God. Paul received so much of God into His being that when men brought him handkerchiefs
and women brought him their aprons, and he took them into his hands, the handkerchiefs and aprons became
impregnated with that living Spirit of God. When they were carried to one who was sick or possessed of devils,
the Word says when they laid the handkerchiefs or aprons on them the Spirit of the Living God passed from the
handkerchiefs or aprons into the sick, and the sick were healed and the devils were cast out.
People have been so in the habit of putting Jesus in a class by Himself that they have failed to recognize that He
has made provision for the same Holy Spirit of God that dwelt in His own life, and of which He Himself was a
living manifestation, to inhabit your being and mind, just as He inhabited the being and mind of Jesus or Paul.The
word to us is: Receive & Reveal God the Father in the Son!
The story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment is a familiar one. Knowing how His whole
being radiated that wondrous, blessed Life of God, of which He Himself was the living manifestation, she said
within herself, "If I may but touch His garment," and as she did so there flowed into her body the life giving
stream. She 'felt' in her body that she was made whole of that plague. Conscious that something had flowed
from Him, Jesus asked, "Who touched My clothes?"
Mt 9:21.
His disciples replied, "You see the multitude
pressing You. and You asked, Who touched Me?" But Jesus knew someone had touched Him with a touch of
faith, for 'virtue' went out of Him." The Greek word used here for virtue means 'life' or the substance of His
being, living power of God, the very nature and being of God. If I transmit to another the virtue of my life, I
simply transmit to another the life-power that is in me.The life of God that flows through me is transmitted to
another. And so it was with Jesus.
The fact that people brought handkerchiefs and aprons to Paul, and they became impregnated with the Spirit of
God and the people were healed when they touched them, is a demonstration in itself that 'any material
substance' can become impregnated with the same living Spirit of God! [I believe this is absolutely true ...
reality, Father]!
Y 4
Y DIVINE POWER IN
GOSPEL PAPERS
Y In my church in South Africa we published a paper in lots of ten thousand.
We had the publishers send them to the tabernacle, and there we laid them out in packages of one or two
hundred all around the front of the platform. At evening service I would call certain ones of the congregation that
I knew to be in contact with the living God to come and kneel and lay hands on those packages of papers. Then
we ask God that not only would the words in the papers be a blessing to those who received them, and that the
message of Christ should come through the words printed on the paper, but we also asked God to make the
'very substance of the paper itself become filled with the Spirit of God. In the files in my tabernacle are
thousands of letters from all parts of the world from people telling me that when they received our paper, the
Spirit came upon them and they were healed. Or, they received the paper and were saved.
One woman wrote from South America, saying, "I received your paper. When I received it into my hands, my
body begin to vibrate so I could hardly sit on my chair, and I didn't understand it. I laid the paper down, and
after awhile I took it up again; as soon as I had it in my hands I shook again. I laid it down and took it in my
hands a third time; presently the Spirit of God came upon me so powerfully that I was baptized in the Holy
Ghost.
This quality of the Spirit confuses the philosophers. It shows the clearest distinction which characterizes the real
religion of Jesus Christ, and sets it apart from all other religions and all other ministries! The ministry of the true
Christian is the ministry of the Spirit. If we minister anything else but the Spirit, it is not of God.
See what the Spirit ministered in the life of Jesus and Peter and Paul. He not only ministers words to another,
but he ministers the Spirit in all it's realms. It is the Spirit of God that inhabits the words, that speaks to the spirit
of another and reveals Christ in and through him.
Y by John G. Lake
Y SheepShed
Sent
SheepShed
"The Ultimate Test of True Christianity"
Y GRAPES OF THRONES
&
FIGS OF THISTLES
Y The test of the Spirit, and the only test of the Spirit Jesus ever gave, is the ultimate and final test, He said,
"You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thrones, or figs of thistles?"
Mt 7:16
If you want to test whether any present outpouring of the Spirit of God is real, pure baptism of the Holy Spirit
or not, test it by the fruits that it produces. If it is producing in the world, as we believe it is, a consciousness of
God so high, so pure, so true, so like Christ, then it is the Holy Spirit Himself. No other test is of any value
whatever.
The ultimate test to your own soul of the value of a thing that you have in your heart is the common test which
Jesus gave, "You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thrones, or figs of thistles?"
Men tell us in these days that sin is what you think it is. Well, it is not! Sin is what God thinks it is! You might
think according to your own conscience, but God thinks according to His. God thinks according to a heavenly
purity of His own nature. Man thinks in accordance with that degree of purity that his soul realizes. But the
ultimate test is in God.
When men rise up in their souls aspiration to the place of Gods thought, then the character of Jesus Christ will
be evident in their life; the sweetness of His nature, the holiness of His character, the beauty of crowning glory
that not only overshadowed Him, but that radiated from Him. The real life of the Christian is the inner life, the
life of the reborn spirit and soul. "For out of the heart," said Jesus. "proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." These are the things common to the flesh of man. Out of the
spirit and soul of man, likewise, proceeds by the same law, the beauty, virtue. peace. power and truth [truth's
reality] of Jesus, as the spirit and soul knows it.
Mt 15:19.
He whose soul and spirit is joined to Christ may now, today, this hour, shed forth as a benediction upon the
world the glory and blessing and peace and power of God, even as Jesus shed it forth to all men to the praise of
God.
Y THE EARTHLY
&
HEAVENLY MATERIALITY
Y One of the most difficult things to make people understand is that the Spirit of God is a tangible substance; it
is the essence of Gods own substance! We are composed of water and earth. This may sound a little crude, but
the actual composition of a human being is about sixteen buckets of water and one bucket of earth. I am glad
there is one good bucket of mud in us! Water is a composition of gases,
Y 2
so you can see how much gas there is in mankind. But we are not all gas.
The composition of the personality of God has a personality and a being and is a substance different from mans.
Spirit is a substance. The bodies of the angels are of some substance. They are not the same character of
materiality as our own, for ours is an earthly materiality, but the materiality of heavenly things is of a heavenly
materiality. In other words, heavenly materiality is of Spirit.The Word says, "God is 'a' [not some]Spirit: and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
John 4:24.
The spirit of man must contact and know the real Spirit of God. We do not know God with our flesh, with our
hands or with our brains. We know God with our spirit. The knowledge of God that our spirit attains may be
conveyed to us through the medium of our mind. The effect of God in our body comes through the medium of
the spirit of man, through the mind of man into the body of man.
There is a quickening [making alive] by the Spirit of God so that mans body, a mans soul and mind, and a mans
spirit become blessed,
pervaded and filled with the presence of God Himself in us. The Word of God is wonderfully clear along these
lines: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." Why? Because he trusts in Thee."
That is the peace that a Christian knows whose mind rests in God in perfect trust.The Word of God says also
that our flesh shall rejoice. Not our mind, but our very flesh shall rejoice.The presence of God is to be a 'living'
presence, not only in the spirit of man, nor in the mind of man alone, but also in the flesh of man, so that God is
known in all areas of his life. We must know God in our very flesh; we must know God in our very mind; and
we must know God in our spirit. [God's Spirit must leaven the whole lump! Yeast, dear Saint, does not always
mean sin].
Mt 13.
The medium by which God undertakes to bless the world is through the transmission of Himself by the Spirit.
The Spirit of God is His own substance of being, the very nature and quality of the presence of God.
Consequently, when we speak of the Spirit of God being transmitted to man, we are not talking about an
influence, either spiritual or mental. We are talking about the transmission of the living substance and being of
God into your being and into mine.
Not a mental effect, but a living substance, the living being and actual life transmitted, imparted, coming from
God into our being.
This is the secret of abundant life of which Jesus spoke. He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it
more abundantly." That is, the living life of the Spirit of life! [Not your expensive cars, clothes and magnificant
homes]! The reason we have more abundant life is that, receiving God into our being, all the springs of our being
are made alive by His living presence.
Consequently, we become the receipients of the energy of God in addition to our normal energy, by receiving
His being, His nature, His life into ours.
John 10:10.
Y THE RADIATING GLORY OF
TRANSFIGURATION
Y It's True! The tremendous capacity of the human being to receive God is demonstrated by some of the
incidents in the
Y 3
Word of God. The most remarkable in the Scriptures is the transformation of Jesus Himself, when the Spirit of
God came upon Him so powerfully that it radiated from His being until His clothes became white and glistening,
and His face shown as the sun [light].
One must be the receipient of the light, glory and power of God before he can manifest it. Jesus demonstrated
these two facts: The marvelous capacity of the nature of man to receive God into his being, and the marvelous
capacity of the nature of man to reveal God! In the glory shining through His clothes, in the glistening of the
glory of God upon His countenance, He demonstrated mans capacity to reveal God! Thank you Father for the
Spirit of revelation.
Y THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN
HANDKERCHIEFS & CLOTHES
Y The human being is the most wonderful and marvelous instrument of all the creation of God in its capacity to
receive and reveal God. Paul received so much of God into His being that when men brought him handkerchiefs
and women brought him their aprons, and he took them into his hands, the handkerchiefs and aprons became
impregnated with that living Spirit of God. When they were carried to one who was sick or possessed of devils,
the Word says when they laid the handkerchiefs or aprons on them the Spirit of the Living God passed from the
handkerchiefs or aprons into the sick, and the sick were healed and the devils were cast out.
People have been so in the habit of putting Jesus in a class by Himself that they have failed to recognize that He
has made provision for the same Holy Spirit of God that dwelt in His own life, and of which He Himself was a
living manifestation, to inhabit your being and mind, just as He inhabited the being and mind of Jesus or Paul.The
word to us is: Receive & Reveal God the Father in the Son!
The story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment is a familiar one. Knowing how His whole
being radiated that wondrous, blessed Life of God, of which He Himself was the living manifestation, she said
within herself, "If I may but touch His garment," and as she did so there flowed into her body the life giving
stream. She 'felt' in her body that she was made whole of that plague. Conscious that something had flowed
from Him, Jesus asked, "Who touched My clothes?"
Mt 9:21.
His disciples replied, "You see the multitude
pressing You. and You asked, Who touched Me?" But Jesus knew someone had touched Him with a touch of
faith, for 'virtue' went out of Him." The Greek word used here for virtue means 'life' or the substance of His
being, living power of God, the very nature and being of God. If I transmit to another the virtue of my life, I
simply transmit to another the life-power that is in me.The life of God that flows through me is transmitted to
another. And so it was with Jesus.
The fact that people brought handkerchiefs and aprons to Paul, and they became impregnated with the Spirit of
God and the people were healed when they touched them, is a demonstration in itself that 'any material
substance' can become impregnated with the same living Spirit of God! [I believe this is absolutely true ...
reality, Father]!
Y 4
Y DIVINE POWER IN
GOSPEL PAPERS
Y In my church in South Africa we published a paper in lots of ten thousand.
We had the publishers send them to the tabernacle, and there we laid them out in packages of one or two
hundred all around the front of the platform. At evening service I would call certain ones of the congregation that
I knew to be in contact with the living God to come and kneel and lay hands on those packages of papers. Then
we ask God that not only would the words in the papers be a blessing to those who received them, and that the
message of Christ should come through the words printed on the paper, but we also asked God to make the
'very substance of the paper itself become filled with the Spirit of God. In the files in my tabernacle are
thousands of letters from all parts of the world from people telling me that when they received our paper, the
Spirit came upon them and they were healed. Or, they received the paper and were saved.
One woman wrote from South America, saying, "I received your paper. When I received it into my hands, my
body begin to vibrate so I could hardly sit on my chair, and I didn't understand it. I laid the paper down, and
after awhile I took it up again; as soon as I had it in my hands I shook again. I laid it down and took it in my
hands a third time; presently the Spirit of God came upon me so powerfully that I was baptized in the Holy
Ghost.
This quality of the Spirit confuses the philosophers. It shows the clearest distinction which characterizes the real
religion of Jesus Christ, and sets it apart from all other religions and all other ministries! The ministry of the true
Christian is the ministry of the Spirit. If we minister anything else but the Spirit, it is not of God.
See what the Spirit ministered in the life of Jesus and Peter and Paul. He not only ministers words to another,
but he ministers the Spirit in all it's realms. It is the Spirit of God that inhabits the words, that speaks to the spirit
of another and reveals Christ in and through him.
Y by John G. Lake
Y SheepShed
Sent
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