The apostle Paul speaks of Aquila and Priscilla; this couple often appears in his letters as “my helpers in Christ Jesus.” Their lives and work will furnish a profitable study. They were working people. They both had the same trade as Paul himself. They had formerly lived in Rome but had recently been banished by a decree of Claudius Cæsar. Acts 18:2. Fugitives from their home, they had to come to Corinth, and it was there that Paul first met them. They were thrown together in the common workshop with such a meeting as takes place every day between fellow-workmen. But out of it came momentous issues for life and eternity. You who complain about your calling or fret about the changes and trials of life, do you not know that these very changes are the divine methods by which God’s purposes of blessing and usefulness concerning you shall be fulfilled. Had Aquila not been compelled to leave Rome and break up his home and business, he would probably have never met with Paul and been called to the knowledge and service of Christ through this providential meeting. Had he not been a working man and pursuing his ordinary vocation he would not have been brought into contact with the apostle. It was in the line of their calling, their common duties, and the providential changes of their life, that God called them. And so, He meets us. Do not murmur at your business but consecrate it. Do not try too hard to run away from it, but, as the apostle has so finely put it, “Let every man in the calling wherein he is called therein abide with God.” Make the-most of your incidental opportunities. Look at every fellow-workman you meet as a possible Paul, Aquila, or Apollos. Recognize the hand of God in the people with whom you are thrown. Accept your ups and downs in life as turns in the great wheel of Providence, and seek chiefly to understand God’s purpose in them and how you can use them for Him. So you will find that every part of life may be sacred and divine, and the meanest toil become glorious service for Him. The details of it are not given, but only the results—we find them gloriously at work for Christ. Paul had a wonderful way of getting his companions converted. A sinner could not long be in his company without coming to his Saviour. Put him in a Philippian prison, and lo, the jailer is heard crying: “What must I do to be saved?” Bring him before Agrippa as a spectacle of curiosity, and lo, the very king exclaims: “You almost persuade me to be a Christian.” Put him on a shipwrecked ship on the Mediterranean, and lo, God gives him all that sail with him. Bind him between two soldiers in the Praetorium at Rome, and soon all the barracks are ringing with the praises of God. Let him enter Aquila’s shop as a tentmaker, and lo, the master is himself at work and preaching the same gospel. God grant us all the blessed art of so impressing people for God that they cannot be in our company without giving their hearts to God.’ Aquila’s conversion came through showing kindness and hospitality to Paul. They (Aquila and Priscilla) perhaps gave Paul a few days’ work, or a room in their house, but they received in return all the wealth of his Master’s love. Their first Christian work was no doubt with Paul in Corinth. There a very glorious revival broke out soon after Paul’s arrival, and many of the Jews and Greeks believed. So useful did they become to the apostle, and so dear that, when he left Corinth after labouring there a year and a half, he took them with him as far as Ephesus. It was here they met Apollos and where they were led into their first distinct personal work for Christ. Listening to him one day in the Jewish synagogue, (Acts 18:24-28) they were deeply impressed with his learning and eloquence, and also with his imperfect knowledge of the truth. They did not, however, criticise or oppose but gently took him to their house and opened up to him the deeper and more spiritual light which they had received. Soon after this we hear how used by God Apollos was, that Paul referred to him in the scriptures with: “I have planted, Apollos watered, God gave the increase.” And in other places how he was the most useful of the apostles. We have here a kind of service most glorious. Aquila and Priscilla did not become great teachers themselves, but they lead Apollos into the light. How many distinguished ministers of the Lord owe their deepest experiences to the influence of some modest Aquila, or even of some consecrated Priscilla. Here is a ministry for everyone. What are you doing, in your house, in your correspondence, in your friendship for the people you can lead nearer to Christ? Are there not some for whom you could pray and lead into a work for God that you can never do? This was the service which seemed to linger most tenderly in the apostle’s memory. “My helpers in Christ Jesus,” “who have for my life laid down their own necks.” “Unto whom not only I give thanks, but likewise all the churches of the Gentiles.” It is great to be able to be a good co-worker and be willing to bear one another’s burdens and enter into the labours of others, happy just to be able to help, even though no one will ever know about it. In the apostle’s list of offices in the church “helps” are mentioned before “governments.” By the ministry of prayer, by giving, and by the ministry of encouragement, and by the countless other ways in which we can help, we can all find the footprints of Aquila and Priscilla, if we want to follow them. It takes great grace to rejoice in another’s work and pour out our lives, like affluent rivers, into great streams. But God knows whence every drop has come, and in the great day of recompense many of the helps shall have the chief reward. Dear friend, are you helping? And when the harvest comes, shall he that sows and he that reaps rejoice together? “He that humbles himself shall be exalted.” The service of Aquila and Priscilla was enlarged and exalted until their home became the very sanctuary of the early church and the starting point of the greatest movements of primitive Christianity. It was there, as we have seen, that the early church in Corinth was nurtured and cherished. It was there that Apollos was led into the light. They were there afterwards when the Church in Ephesus began, for Paul left them there no doubt to prepare the way for his subsequent return and glorious ministry in that place. Dear friend, what is your house in the Church of Christ? How often have His people found a welcome there for His sake? How many souls have found their birthplace in your house while angels have sung over the Sinner that repented? The house was the churches’ only home for many centuries. Perhaps if there were fewer church edifices today, there would be more churches in the house. The church in the house suggests a thought concerning the true spirit of the Christian assembly. It should be a family and a home far more than they often are, characterised by the unity and love of a true household. It is often more like a club or a cemetery. The first Christians made their convocations joyful home gatherings, serving the Lord with gladness, and breaking bread from house to house. There is one congregation we can all have in the church within the house, and that is our own family. How is it, beloved, with your little flock? Is the alter fire steadily burning and the sweet incense filling all the chambers? Is the priest in the sanctuary, the lights in the golden lamp, and the spirit of sacrifice and love ministering at every altar? God sanctify our home life and make every house a little church, and every family a type of heaven. 1) How instructively this example shows us the use we may make of common and secular things; how much God is able to make of our business and our associations in the daily course of life. May the Lord consecrate our callings and our companionships so they cannot touch us in the business of life without being brought nearer to God. 2) Providential changes in our life are divine opportunities for service. Aquila and Priscilla regarded the trying changes of their life as occasions for testimony and work for the Lord. In every place they lived, they left a church behind them, in which their house had been a birthplace. God grant us grace to represent Him wherever we go and to recognise every situation in which He places us as a door of service. The Master told His disciples that when they were brought before kings and councils, “it should turn to them for a testimony.” Walking with Him we shall find all places and all times sacred, and all things but the framework of His plan for us all. 3) What a fine example of personal work. Perhaps they never preached a sermon, but they had three churches at least, and they led to Christ one who may have come to thousands of churches. God help us to be faithful in our personal ministry and to do what He gives us to do with men as we meet them, one by one. 4) The ministry of the home. They may have had a very humble home; often it was broken up. Perhaps it was only an upper room in a foreign city, but it was the Lord own house, it was open for His work and for His children. 5) The ministry of women. The ministry of Pricilla must not be forgotten. It was all womanly. It was never apart from her husband. She is always mentioned with him, but she was no mere cipher. Indeed, we can almost infer from the way the apostle speaks of this beautiful pair that she became, at last, the stronger nature of the two. In the first references to them it is Aquila and Priscilla, but toward the last it is Pricilla and Aquila; and the devoted and faithful woman “of the fruit of her hands and, let her own works praise her in the gates.” Let no man hinder the ministry of the woman within its true limitations. God has ever honoured it and will do so yet more and more: “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears the Lord she shall be praised.”A. B. Simpson

By Aksel Smith The entire secret of an overcoming life is to abide in Christ. Abiding in Christ can best be illustrated by its opposite. Example: One day I discover that I am dry in my spirit. I have no desire to pray; God’s Word does not taste good. This dryness is accompanied by all kinds of things, such as boredom, lack of patience, dissatisfaction, and perhaps a little bit of hypocrisy because one would rather not appear to be dry. Then I can ask myself: “Where am I now? Am I in Christ?” It can’t possibly be that dry in Christ? On the contrary, there it is not dry, for Jesus says that out of the lives of those who believe in Him will flow rivers of living water. And Paul says that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Therefore: I have come to the wrong place. There are no rivers flowing here. My mind and my thoughts are in totally different places than in Christ. Despite the fact that I am a child of God, the words “Abide in Me” do not apply to my life. Can you be a child of God without abiding in Christ? In 1 Corinthians 1:30 we read that of Him we are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You can, in Christ, have accepted justification by faith. This is an act. However, many people have not known Him for the purpose of sanctification. As soon as you lay hold of Christ for sanctification, you enter into a continual process that lasts a lifetime. Once you get to know Christ for sanctification, you get rid of your own striving for holiness like most people do who have received Him only for their justification. (Now there are some people who believe that just as justification is an act, so sanctification is also an act; and as soon as they have tasted Christ for sanctification, they believe that they are complete. This is the very widespread, false holiness doctrine that Satan has used much in our days.) Abiding in Christ for sanctification is a very sensitive state. Jesus gave this exhortation, “Abide in Me,” to His disciples, who were clean because of the words He had spoken to them. Paul speaks about the peace of God that is to keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Are our thoughts always in Christ? No! You can wake up to the fact that your thoughts have fed greed and self-indulgence, having gone hither and thither in outward things. It is even worse when a person’s heart has entirely or partly lost that intimate contact with Christ. “One day I sensed some heaviness over me. By examining the matter, I came to the conclusion that I was glad, but I could not rejoice properly because of this oppressive sensation that was over me. It was as if my spirit had sunk a little bit below normal, and that it was under pressure. Then I asked myself: ‘Is there any pressure on my spirit when I am in Christ? No! There is liberty!’ I denied this pressure; the feeling of being under pressure vanished immediately and my heart was filled with rejoicing and joy.” I can come to a meeting where the Spirit is shut out. An oppressive atmosphere hangs over the entire assembly. I sense this pressure, and the more I sense it, the more noticeable it is. Then something rises up in me. Is there such pressure in Christ? No! There is liberty! Whether this pressure originates from myself, from others, or from Satan’s spiritual hosts, I know this: Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church. Eph. 1:20, 22. In Him this is also under my feet. In Him is liberty. I deny this pressure on my spirit and place myself in Him. That is where I gain the victory. Often one goes to people, asking for advice concerning dryness and pressure and too little zeal. Some people say, “Read more.” Others say, “Pray more!” And so you strive and read and pray and drill your spirit into deeper darkness. In Christ there Is Redemption. In Him there is liberty. Is there despondency in Christ? Is there discouragement in Christ? Is there impatience and murmuring? Is there restlessness? Is there lukewarmness? NO! Ask yourself when you are in any of these states: Is this in Christ? No! Then where have I ended up? Acknowledgment calls out in your inner being: “I have been unfaithful!” Again you went in to Him with your mind and your thoughts. Then peace and joy returned, and despondency and discouragement vanished. Abiding in Christ is a delicate relationship. We must exercise the utmost faithfulness in order to abide there. “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” As soon as this intimate connection with the Anointed One has been severed, and our thoughts and mind begin to wander and become dry, we notice that a process has begun within us. Being dry is the same as beginning to wither. Look at the natural branches, follow the direction, and notice that it leads to death. Cast out and burned! Soon such a person feels that he has been cast out of this intimate connection with Christ, cast out of the true relationship with fervent children of God, and he soon finds himself in the last row where he is as the salt that has lost its flavor. He is disgusted by his own lukewarmness; he is not good for the ground or for fertilizer. A branch on the vine is only good for bearing fruit. Otherwise it is burned. See Ezekiel 15:3-4. The secret of an entire life’s growth and of its entire blessedness is in this: “Abide in Me!” Examine your life and see how impotent you are and how true it is what Jesus says: “Without Me you can do nothing.” Perhaps you pray at the meeting. You want to be glad, but you cannot manage it; you try to be sincere, but it doesn’t succeed either; you want to be humble, and you adapt your voice with enthusiasm to fit the various circumstances, whether it be with moaning or whatever seems to fit best. Finally you realize that the whole thing is hypocrisy and dishonesty. Next time, you want to be true. You want to be as you are. You don’t want to have anything to do with a performance. Now you are going to be honest. And you begin to pray, but that doesn’t work either. You try to be true and honest, but nothing succeeds. Then you give up the whole performance, and you see once more that Christ has become for us wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption. Back to Him—the gift from God—and into His Spirit. Oh, then I could pray; then rivers of light flooded me; then I saw with clear, anointed eyes that I could neither be truly humble, truly glad, truly crushed, nor truly honest without being in Him. In the Spirit I now see that I was a liar through and through and totally incapable. Now I have found the Spirit of truth, the Spirit which the world cannot receive. Now I know Him, and He will from now on abide in me and I in Him. See John 14:17. Now I could pray, testify, and live in the Spirit of truth; both my prayers and my life became true. Let us understand what it means to abide in Him. Most people are not firmly established in Him. We have been chosen to be in Him. Peter says that we must be diligent to make our calling and election sure. We must put on the whole armor of God in order to abide in Christ. We must be awake and pray and take up the battle against all uncleanness. Jesus says, “Abide in Me, and I will abide in you.” The condition for Him to abide in us is that we abide in Him. It is our responsibility to fulfill the condition; it is His responsibility to fulfill the promises. Our battle is to fulfill the condition; the victory is in Christ’s promise. Abiding in Him is the one necessary thing. Take care of this one thing. It simplifies life! Once you know this secret, you will not seek out many inventions in order to please God. God’s intimate fellowship is with those who abide in Him. The Key to the Epistle to the Ephesians is precisely this. Read Ephesians 1:3. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Abide therefore in Him where the blessings are.) Verse 4: Chosen in Him. (Make your election sure.) Verse 6: He predestined us to the praise of the glory of His praise in the Beloved. Verse 7: In Him we have redemption through His blood. Verse 10: He will gather together in one all things in Christ. (In Him the believers become one. When they are in Him, the lusts in their members do not wage war.) Verse 11: We have obtained an inheritance in Him. (In Christ we have a share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. Through the Spirit of revelation we get to know how rich the glory of this inheritance is.) Verse 13: In Him we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Chapter 2, verse 6: We have been raised up together and placed together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse 10: We have been created in Christ Jesus. Verses 12-13: In Christ we have come near by the blood of Jesus, near to the promises, and near to the covenants and right of citizenship. Verses 20-21: Jesus Christ Himself is the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple of the Lord. Verse 22: In whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. Just look at the glories we meet by abiding in Him. When we meet in Him, the result is unity. In Him we are joined together. In Him we grow together, even into a holy temple. This is the fellowship of the saints. This is what we are working for. This is not a faction; this is not a sect; it is the fellowship of believers in the Spirit. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. The Son is a gift. Since all things serve unto salvation and life, and unity and edification is in this gift, all our boasting is excluded. Can we receive a gift by striving for it? No; for then it would be a reward for our works. But now we see that it is a gift; therefore all things are by grace. This means that all bondage is excluded, and if you wanted to obtain anything by striving, everything would just end up in the darkest misery. God, who has given us such a gift, is infinitely good. May we make this gift our own.

The supreme need of every spiritual worker is that he should discern the “stream” of the Spirit and follow that stream. “Machinery” which is no longer lubricated by God—or is out of the stream of the Spirit—gives a spiritual worker a sense of stagnation, whilst outside of it he may find a stream. The “stream” of the Spirit is more to some than others through keen spiritual discernment. The supreme question today is where is the “stream” of the Spirit, and where is it flowing? The Holy Spirit is working toward transformation. He is preparing to leave the world and to ascend, and they who will go with Him find the anointing only upon the heavenly call. Workers often are not able to discern between the demons obstructing them from carrying out work, and God checking them from going on in any specific direction. If they think it is the opposition of the devil when it is the Spirit of God saying “stop,” in their wrong interpretation and effort to “go forward in spite of demoniacal hindrances,” they will descend from working after the Spirit, into drawing upon their own mental and physical resources, and so lose the stream—or anointing—of the co-working Spirit of God. They will then go on against the will of God, and into a false fight, and a conflict which has no victory. Workers in the face of spiritual obstruction, needing to discern whether it is of God, or of the enemy, should watch the effect of the attitude they take on their own spirit, e.g., going forward with God by prayer and service in the face of demon-obstruction, brings liberation of spirit, and going forward without God puts pressure on our spirit—a sense of heaviness and deadness of spirit, a loss of “spring” and liberty of spirit.