A Message...[by rev. B H Clendennen]

May 2009

Dear Friends,

I have never written a letter that I felt more to be the will of God than the letter you are now reading. The principles laid down here will, if put into practice, bring you into a relationship with the Lord that you never dreamed possible.

We look to the Apostle Paul to see the principles at work. His life was a marvelous spiritual triumph in the face of unparalleled difficulties, suffering and mutilations. Nothing could shorten his life until his work was finished, and he could say, “I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7). “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” (Phil. 1:23-24). The Apostle Paul was not only a pattern of our spiritual life, he was a striking example of our right to receive the life of the Lord Jesus Christ into our mortal bodies and take Him for our physical strength as truly as for our spiritual needs.

What was the secret of that marvelous life? The answer involves the whole doctrine of divine healing and reveals to us its deepest and highest principles. We must approach every divine truth from its proper standpoint. Promises meant for our benefit may be beyond our reach because we approach them from the wrong direction, and because we are not standing on the ground of faith. In our text, Paul discloses the standpoint from which he was able to trust God for his body. It was because his life was not his own, but so dedicated to Jesus that he could say, “For me to live is Christ...” (Phil. 1:21). It was because he did not want to live for his own sake, but for the sake of his Lord, and for the sake of others, that he could say with confidence, “I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith” (Phil. 1:25).

Paul had so completely renounced his own will in the matter of life or death that he claimed divine healing not because it was his will, but because it was the will of his Master. This is expressed in his words to the elders of Ephesus, “...neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” He counted his life dear, but not for himself. He would have preferred to go to be with the Lord, but he counted it dear because the Lord needed him.

This is the ground of faith. This is the only place where we have a right to claim any of God's promises. So long as we want the blessings for ourselves they are selfish blessings. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and His promises will be made good in you. When we relinquish our rights and claims and take everything only for Christ, then we can take anything from God because it is for God we are taking it. Our prayer should be; “God bring me to the point where I can let go even of life itself, as a personal desire, and then take it back as God's will and God's choice. It is Isaac laid down and then given back as God's Isaac and no longer ours. We gain by losing, we lose by holding. The surrendered life is the only safe life. Letting go is twice possessing.

We are less than ten thousand strong yet in sixteen years and eight months we have made disciples in more than one hundred and fifty countries, and have become one of the greatest missionary movements of all time. If only half of us would put the above principles to work in our lives two things would happen. First, we would experience a relationship with God that others only dream about; we would prosper materially because God knows we would pour it back into His Kingdom. Second, we together will finish the course; we will take this “Gospel of the Kingdom” into all the world.

There has never been a greater time for the preaching of the gospel. A cry from around the world is begging us to come. I have just recently returned from Brazil being invited by Pastor and President Jose Wellington of the Assemblies of God. The invitation was to preach and present the School of Christ to three thousand Pastors representing over one million church members. There were times during the conference when it seemed that the second Chapter of the Book of Acts would be repeated; Brazil is ripe for the harvest. Through this conference the door has been opened for the School of Christ to minister to the seventeen thousand Preachers of the Assemblies of God in Brazil. The possibilities are unlimited; we can and will touch the lives of millions. Your sacrificial gift will assure that the job is done.



His bondservant,