"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

The Gospel and Authentic    New Testament Ministry , Part VI  by Miles Mckee   In authentic New Testament ministry, the Holy Spirit and the Gospel are never reckoned as competitors.  Paul writes,   “Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so ... I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ .” (Romans 15:19).   To the Thessalonians he writes, “ For our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, --”   (I Thessalonians1:5) .   The Spirit and the Gospel, therefore, must not be seen as two truths competing for our loyalty. There is only one focal point - the Christ event...the Gospel (John 16:13) .   When Paul preached the Gospel, he preached in the power of the Spirit. Under Spirit anointed Gospel preaching, God sovereignly commanded the light to shine in the darkness. As a result, people were supernaturally translated from the kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of God’s ...

"My Beloved is mine." -Song of Solomon 2:16 [KJV] Here is a knowledge worth more than heaven and earth. For heaven and earth shall pass away, but this knowledge endureth for ever. O happy souls who are favoured with it, give fresh glory to your Beloved to-night. Ye who are seeking it, rejoice. For He hath said, “every one who seeketh findeth”   (Matthew 7:8.) Happy Job was favoured with it, when he was in heaviness through manifold temptations—broken in the place of dragons, and covered with the shadow of death. Then he must have utterly fainted, had he not believed.  Time was, when Job could say, my health, my wealth, my honours, my children, my comforts, but a period came when all these were taken from him. He had nothing within nor without to stay his soul upon, but the word of the Lord, and the Lord revealed in the word. This was his support and his glory. Though I have lost all things, I have my Redeemer still. He lives. I know it. While He l...

"Fear not: I have the keys of hell and of death." -Revelation 1:17, 18 [KJV] Is it Jesus, all precious, all lovely, all powerful Jesus, that saith this? He who hath redeemed my soul from hell, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling? And hath Jesus, my Husband, my Brother, my Redeemer, the keys both of hell and of death? Why then it is impossible for any to open death's door one moment before that He gives the appointment. And doth He command me to fear not? Oh then, my soul, dismiss all anxiety about thy departure.  Thy time is in Jesus' hands; the keys are hanging at thy Redeemer's girdle. Never fear, neither to die as thou hast lived, and art living, in a believing frame in Jesus. This is as much suited to a dying time, as it is to a living time; for with this thou mayest go out of the world, as safe as living in it. "To live is Christ, and to die is gain."  God's covenant love, and God's covenant promises in Jesus, are th...

"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." -Colossians 3:2 [KJV] How are we to set our affection on things above? Can we do this great work of ourselves? No; it is only the Lord Himself manifesting His beauty and blessedness to our soul, and letting down the golden cord of His love into our breast, that draws up our affections, and fixes them where He sits at God's right hand. In order to do this, He captivates the heart by some look of love, some word of His grace, some sweet promise, or some divine truth spiritually applied.  When He thus captivates the soul, and draws it up, then the affections flow unto Him as the source and fountain of all blessings. We are not flogged into loving Him, but drawn by love into love. Love cannot be bought or sold; it is an inward affection that flows naturally and necessarily towards its object and all connected with it; and thus, as love flows out to Jesus, the affections instinctively and necessari...