The Closed Door
Gateway to Spiritual Fullness
Gateway to Spiritual Fullness
Great Are Thy Works
“Let Thy work appear to Thy servants, and Thy majesty to their children. And
let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and do confirm for us the work
of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:16-17).
“For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad by what Thou hast done, I will sing for
joy at the works of Thy hands. How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy
thoughts are very deep” (Ps. 92:4-5).
From these above verses we can see two sets of hands – “the work of our
(men’s) hands,” and “the works of Thy (the Lord’s) hands.” We understand
and agree that the works of the Lord’s hands are everlasting, the works of
man’s hands are for naught. Interestingly though, Ps. 90:17 attempts to
secure permanence to the works of man’s hands. Is this another one of those
wonderful oxymoron in the Bible through which the Lord intends to convey a
special message?
The entire Bible has but one theme, the entire divine thought has but one
focus -- the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And God the Father probably spent all
of eternity past in intimate fellowship with His Beloved Son about presenting
His dear Son as the center and totality of God’s economy.
God’s plan, in time, began to unfold, and we started to see Christ in every
aspect of God’s work albeit superficially at first as we received the divine life
into our newly regenerated spirit. With each baby-step we took, we enjoyed
Christ as the great benefactor, One who provided and protected at our hours
of need. At this stage of our Christian life, everything was centered on us;
God’s works were all for us. We saw nothing beyond a God who was there to
satisfy our needs and wants, solve our problems and deliver us from troubles –
especially the latter.
Gradually, as we journey along life’s winding roads, mountain tops and deep
valleys, our soul-life frequently gets bumped out of our self-centered orbit
whether we like it or not. With each trial and temptation, affliction and
humbling, God meticulously works to nudge us to the point where we learn to
humble and surrender ourselves and start seeing Christ who is everything,
and who is the center of the universe. We are no longer the center of God’s
plan, Christ is. And what a joy it was, the day we surrendered ourselves and
discovered Christ being all and in all!
As each Christian traverses in life’s winding road, there shall be important
milestones along the way. A journey without milestones is a wayward
journey. Take Jacob for instance. His early journey brought him to a place
he named “Bethel” for an initial vision of God and His house. Though
immature and a novice in spiritual things, the firsthand experience at Bethel
did leave a deep imprint in his life – this was an important milestone.
After amassing much livestock, two wives, children, maids and servants, he
journeyed back to the land of his father’s. At Peniel, by the bank of the river,
he wrestled with an angel all night showing no sign of fatigue. By daybreak
the angel had to touch the hollow of his thigh to cripple him. This tough,
mighty, cunning and shrewd Jacob finally surrendered. The hands that used
to grasp the world now grasped the Lord and would not let go. Jacob became
“Israel.” Another important milestone.
At each milestone, a degree of soul life is dealt with. At each milestone, a
measure of Christ is gained. At each milestone, a change in character and
perception begins to take place.
When we look back at all these milestones in our lives, we will see the hand of
the Lord. We will discover that God’s dealings and our subsequent surrenders
yielded golden nuggets of Christ-like character of lowliness, meekness and
grace. These cumulative milestones are becoming testimony of Jesus along
life’s narrow ways. These milestones represent God’s works to impart
experiential knowledge of Christ and produce His Son’s character in us.
A milestone without something of Christ being formed in us is no milestone at
all. A milestone without something of our soul life being dealt with cannot be
considered a milestone either. These milestones testify that the Lord is doing
a great work in each of us.
It takes divine revelation to see what God is doing in us; and God takes great
delight to grant such revelation for it pleased the Father to “reveal His Son in
me,” so declared Paul in Gal. 1:16. It is the goal of God’s work to reveal Christ,
form Christ and make Him preeminent in us. All of God’s works are
connected with this aim. In fact, it would not be belaboring the point to
highly stress this blessed fact again and again.
The disciples of Jesus are often reflections of our experiences. They thought
they knew Him, but they proved over and over to have known Him but scarcely
and superficially. It was usually the lowly, simple, and overlooked brothers
and sisters who won the Lord’s heart and praise. The high-profile brothers
seemed to always clamor over outward issues: power, glamour and jostling for
positions, while the lowly and simple ones quietly and contentedly drew near
to His feet.
The same Jesus was seen by all, yet only the lowly and the simple really saw
Him.
For three and a half years, Jesus worked on revealing Himself to His disciples,
but their natural and religious concepts kept getting in the way until the
cross of Calvary dealt a final blow to man’s natural mindset. The cross
remains to be the best vantage point today for seeing the full revelation of
Christ and entering into the reality of the works of Christ.
This subjective work of the cross continues, and as long as we surrender to
His works, we shall keep receiving fresher revelations of the beauty of Christ.
When Moses prayed, “Let Thy work appear to Thy servants, and Thy majesty to
their children” in Ps 90:16, he knew that it took far more than merely mental
knowledge or physical perception to see God’s work, it required revelation to
see God’s work. In fact, Moses didn’t just pray this for himself, but for all
(“Thy servants”) to see God’s work resulting in Christ being perceived as the
majestic One.
The Psalmist in Ps. 92:5 also discovered the greatness of God’s works: “How
great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep.” All of the Lord’s
works around us, whether they be miracles, healing, provisions, victories…,
are great works, but none greater than that of inwardly conquering us and
forming Christ within us. The ten plagues in the land of pharaoh, the
miracles of Israel’s 40-year wandering, the defeat of Israel’s enemies…all point
to the fact that while all works done for us outwardly are great works, God’s
people remain an obstinate and stubborn lot on the inside. The greatest work
requires that the self within be dethroned and brought under subjection.
Unless man is brought to the place of surrender and brokenness, he has
scarcely seen God’s “great works” yet.
God’s thought of Christ is very deep, and He stops at nothing to usher us into
a full knowledge and experience of this wonderful Christ. The Enemy, on the
other hand, works with all his might to keep God’s people content with a little
superficial knowledge and experience of Christ. Indeed, nothing is quite as
damaging to the people of God as contentment in mediocrity.
Recently, an older brother in Mexico voiced his concern for the younger
brethren in the assemblies there who seemed to be satisfied with mere
superficial knowledge and experiences of Christ. No doubt, this concern came
from the Lord. When man travails before God with this burden for the depth
of Christ, the Holy Spirit will begin to work. There is nothing that invigorates
the Lord to answer man’s prayers like a deep burden for more of Christ to be
constituted in His saints.
Ezekiel saw something of the depth of Christ in the form of water flowing from
under the threshold of the house of God. Measurements were taken: first a
trickle reaching the ankles, then the knees, then the loins, finally a deep river
that could not be forded (Ezk. 47:1-5).
As indicated in these verses, the increasing depths come with each
measuring. In the same way, our deepening perception of Christ can only
come from the measuring of the Holy Spirit which implies the dealings of the
cross. Such are the works of God.
On the one side, the Holy Spirit measures us often in the form of corrections
and chastening. On the other side, when the chastening result in Christ
being formed in us, we see milestones. How we need the Holy Spirit to
measure us and erect milestones in our journeys!
As more and more milestones are being erected, we are being transformed
“from glory to glory,” and dear saints, this is how we acquire the “beauty of the
Lord” that the Psalmist prayed for in Ps 90:1.
The other day, I wrote to an older brother in the Lord about a deeply stressful
experience I recently went through, the older brother promptly replied,
“Congratulations,” he declared, “you have just had a back-door revival!”
Well, I am not sure about “back-door revival,” I do know that the Lord carried
me through the dark valley as I desperately held on to Him. In the depth of
my agony, I knew the church was not mine but His to protect, the testimony
was not mine but His to uphold. He did it all. Glory to Him!
May we all learn to pray as Moses did, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God
be upon us; and do confirm (give permanence to) the work of our hands; yes,
confirm (give permanence to) the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:17). The way to
acquire the “beauty of the Lord” is to allow the Holy Spirit to do His works of
dealing with the self and impartation of Christ -- “beauty for ashes” was
another way of putting it. .
As the ugly self decreases, the beauty of Christ can then be added, and with
each increase in the measure of the stature of Christ comes the possibility of
the works of the Lord being performed in, through, and out of us thus can
there be the permanence in the “work of our hands.”
How else can the work of men’s hands secure permanence, aside from Christ
Himself doing the work in, through, and out of us?
O, may the precious Lord do His work in us so that, as Paul prayed, “Christ
may be formed” in us (Gal. 4:19)! Just as Paul’s prayer indicates, for Christ to
be formed, travail is needed. No travail, no Christ. As a measurable stature of
Christ is formed in us, His hand begins to work in, through, and out of us
thus giving permanence to “the work of our hands.” It’s still His hand doing
all the work.
May the work of the Lord’s hand result in the beauty of Christ being upon us.
May we also echo the sentiment of the Psalmist, “How great are Thy works, O
Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep.”
Oliver Peng
01/25/2006
“Let Thy work appear to Thy servants, and Thy majesty to their children. And
let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and do confirm for us the work
of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:16-17).
“For Thou, O Lord, hast made me glad by what Thou hast done, I will sing for
joy at the works of Thy hands. How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy
thoughts are very deep” (Ps. 92:4-5).
From these above verses we can see two sets of hands – “the work of our
(men’s) hands,” and “the works of Thy (the Lord’s) hands.” We understand
and agree that the works of the Lord’s hands are everlasting, the works of
man’s hands are for naught. Interestingly though, Ps. 90:17 attempts to
secure permanence to the works of man’s hands. Is this another one of those
wonderful oxymoron in the Bible through which the Lord intends to convey a
special message?
The entire Bible has but one theme, the entire divine thought has but one
focus -- the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And God the Father probably spent all
of eternity past in intimate fellowship with His Beloved Son about presenting
His dear Son as the center and totality of God’s economy.
God’s plan, in time, began to unfold, and we started to see Christ in every
aspect of God’s work albeit superficially at first as we received the divine life
into our newly regenerated spirit. With each baby-step we took, we enjoyed
Christ as the great benefactor, One who provided and protected at our hours
of need. At this stage of our Christian life, everything was centered on us;
God’s works were all for us. We saw nothing beyond a God who was there to
satisfy our needs and wants, solve our problems and deliver us from troubles –
especially the latter.
Gradually, as we journey along life’s winding roads, mountain tops and deep
valleys, our soul-life frequently gets bumped out of our self-centered orbit
whether we like it or not. With each trial and temptation, affliction and
humbling, God meticulously works to nudge us to the point where we learn to
humble and surrender ourselves and start seeing Christ who is everything,
and who is the center of the universe. We are no longer the center of God’s
plan, Christ is. And what a joy it was, the day we surrendered ourselves and
discovered Christ being all and in all!
As each Christian traverses in life’s winding road, there shall be important
milestones along the way. A journey without milestones is a wayward
journey. Take Jacob for instance. His early journey brought him to a place
he named “Bethel” for an initial vision of God and His house. Though
immature and a novice in spiritual things, the firsthand experience at Bethel
did leave a deep imprint in his life – this was an important milestone.
After amassing much livestock, two wives, children, maids and servants, he
journeyed back to the land of his father’s. At Peniel, by the bank of the river,
he wrestled with an angel all night showing no sign of fatigue. By daybreak
the angel had to touch the hollow of his thigh to cripple him. This tough,
mighty, cunning and shrewd Jacob finally surrendered. The hands that used
to grasp the world now grasped the Lord and would not let go. Jacob became
“Israel.” Another important milestone.
At each milestone, a degree of soul life is dealt with. At each milestone, a
measure of Christ is gained. At each milestone, a change in character and
perception begins to take place.
When we look back at all these milestones in our lives, we will see the hand of
the Lord. We will discover that God’s dealings and our subsequent surrenders
yielded golden nuggets of Christ-like character of lowliness, meekness and
grace. These cumulative milestones are becoming testimony of Jesus along
life’s narrow ways. These milestones represent God’s works to impart
experiential knowledge of Christ and produce His Son’s character in us.
A milestone without something of Christ being formed in us is no milestone at
all. A milestone without something of our soul life being dealt with cannot be
considered a milestone either. These milestones testify that the Lord is doing
a great work in each of us.
It takes divine revelation to see what God is doing in us; and God takes great
delight to grant such revelation for it pleased the Father to “reveal His Son in
me,” so declared Paul in Gal. 1:16. It is the goal of God’s work to reveal Christ,
form Christ and make Him preeminent in us. All of God’s works are
connected with this aim. In fact, it would not be belaboring the point to
highly stress this blessed fact again and again.
The disciples of Jesus are often reflections of our experiences. They thought
they knew Him, but they proved over and over to have known Him but scarcely
and superficially. It was usually the lowly, simple, and overlooked brothers
and sisters who won the Lord’s heart and praise. The high-profile brothers
seemed to always clamor over outward issues: power, glamour and jostling for
positions, while the lowly and simple ones quietly and contentedly drew near
to His feet.
The same Jesus was seen by all, yet only the lowly and the simple really saw
Him.
For three and a half years, Jesus worked on revealing Himself to His disciples,
but their natural and religious concepts kept getting in the way until the
cross of Calvary dealt a final blow to man’s natural mindset. The cross
remains to be the best vantage point today for seeing the full revelation of
Christ and entering into the reality of the works of Christ.
This subjective work of the cross continues, and as long as we surrender to
His works, we shall keep receiving fresher revelations of the beauty of Christ.
When Moses prayed, “Let Thy work appear to Thy servants, and Thy majesty to
their children” in Ps 90:16, he knew that it took far more than merely mental
knowledge or physical perception to see God’s work, it required revelation to
see God’s work. In fact, Moses didn’t just pray this for himself, but for all
(“Thy servants”) to see God’s work resulting in Christ being perceived as the
majestic One.
The Psalmist in Ps. 92:5 also discovered the greatness of God’s works: “How
great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep.” All of the Lord’s
works around us, whether they be miracles, healing, provisions, victories…,
are great works, but none greater than that of inwardly conquering us and
forming Christ within us. The ten plagues in the land of pharaoh, the
miracles of Israel’s 40-year wandering, the defeat of Israel’s enemies…all point
to the fact that while all works done for us outwardly are great works, God’s
people remain an obstinate and stubborn lot on the inside. The greatest work
requires that the self within be dethroned and brought under subjection.
Unless man is brought to the place of surrender and brokenness, he has
scarcely seen God’s “great works” yet.
God’s thought of Christ is very deep, and He stops at nothing to usher us into
a full knowledge and experience of this wonderful Christ. The Enemy, on the
other hand, works with all his might to keep God’s people content with a little
superficial knowledge and experience of Christ. Indeed, nothing is quite as
damaging to the people of God as contentment in mediocrity.
Recently, an older brother in Mexico voiced his concern for the younger
brethren in the assemblies there who seemed to be satisfied with mere
superficial knowledge and experiences of Christ. No doubt, this concern came
from the Lord. When man travails before God with this burden for the depth
of Christ, the Holy Spirit will begin to work. There is nothing that invigorates
the Lord to answer man’s prayers like a deep burden for more of Christ to be
constituted in His saints.
Ezekiel saw something of the depth of Christ in the form of water flowing from
under the threshold of the house of God. Measurements were taken: first a
trickle reaching the ankles, then the knees, then the loins, finally a deep river
that could not be forded (Ezk. 47:1-5).
As indicated in these verses, the increasing depths come with each
measuring. In the same way, our deepening perception of Christ can only
come from the measuring of the Holy Spirit which implies the dealings of the
cross. Such are the works of God.
On the one side, the Holy Spirit measures us often in the form of corrections
and chastening. On the other side, when the chastening result in Christ
being formed in us, we see milestones. How we need the Holy Spirit to
measure us and erect milestones in our journeys!
As more and more milestones are being erected, we are being transformed
“from glory to glory,” and dear saints, this is how we acquire the “beauty of the
Lord” that the Psalmist prayed for in Ps 90:1.
The other day, I wrote to an older brother in the Lord about a deeply stressful
experience I recently went through, the older brother promptly replied,
“Congratulations,” he declared, “you have just had a back-door revival!”
Well, I am not sure about “back-door revival,” I do know that the Lord carried
me through the dark valley as I desperately held on to Him. In the depth of
my agony, I knew the church was not mine but His to protect, the testimony
was not mine but His to uphold. He did it all. Glory to Him!
May we all learn to pray as Moses did, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God
be upon us; and do confirm (give permanence to) the work of our hands; yes,
confirm (give permanence to) the work of our hands” (Ps. 90:17). The way to
acquire the “beauty of the Lord” is to allow the Holy Spirit to do His works of
dealing with the self and impartation of Christ -- “beauty for ashes” was
another way of putting it. .
As the ugly self decreases, the beauty of Christ can then be added, and with
each increase in the measure of the stature of Christ comes the possibility of
the works of the Lord being performed in, through, and out of us thus can
there be the permanence in the “work of our hands.”
How else can the work of men’s hands secure permanence, aside from Christ
Himself doing the work in, through, and out of us?
O, may the precious Lord do His work in us so that, as Paul prayed, “Christ
may be formed” in us (Gal. 4:19)! Just as Paul’s prayer indicates, for Christ to
be formed, travail is needed. No travail, no Christ. As a measurable stature of
Christ is formed in us, His hand begins to work in, through, and out of us
thus giving permanence to “the work of our hands.” It’s still His hand doing
all the work.
May the work of the Lord’s hand result in the beauty of Christ being upon us.
May we also echo the sentiment of the Psalmist, “How great are Thy works, O
Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep.”
Oliver Peng
01/25/2006
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