who is to be complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Tim. 3:17. This is truly the Word manifested in the flesh. The Word manifested in the flesh is a precious gift from God. A greater imparting of God Himself to man cannot be imagined. A soul who has walked with God and has learned to know His amazing salvation will joyfully exclaim: “Great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” 1 Tim. 3:16. As He was manifested to mankind in former days, so He must now be manifested in us. That is what He teaches us through His liberating truth. When we walk with God, it frequently happens that God sends penetrating rays of light into our life, truths that cut through our secret and hidden thoughts and interests, portraying them to our inner eye in their proper perspective. Then the battles can become hard. It is as if God presented us with the truth, saying: “Eat it!” and you cannot see a way out. Eating it means death to a considerable part of our self-life; it means surrender on many points where you have been bound. Eat it, and you will eat the truth. What happens now? The thing that was judged by the truth is now separated from you, and the truth becomes your life. The same process takes place in the natural realm. We can eat a piece of bread, and at the end of the day we can ask ourselves: What has become of that piece of bread? It is inside you. And more than that! It has become a part of you. It has become muscles, hair, nails, nerves, and blood. It has been transformed into me. It can no longer be called by its own name. It has become flesh. That is also what happens with God’s Word. We eat it. We assimilate it. What happens to it? It is not something I strenuously hold on to; it becomes me. It is the Word manifested in the flesh. It cannot be separated from me. Jesus says, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” John 6:56. “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven.” Vs. 57-68. Many of His disciples now said, “This is a hard saying; who can hear it.” V. 60. Then many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Eat it! Eat the truth! It costs you something. These are hard words; hard as death against all flesh, but full of Spirit and life for everyone who agrees with them. God has given us exceedingly great and precious promises which He has bound to His truth, His Word, so that we through them may be partakers of the divine nature by fleeing the corruption that is in the world through lust. See 2 Peter 1:4. Divine nature! Manifested in the flesh! This oneness in God is a likeness in essence. For if we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Rom. 6:5. The word “likeness” in the original, omoiøma means to assimilate or to make like oneself. When we water a houseplant and after a few days ask, “What happened to the water?” we must answer, “The water is in the plant.” But that is not all; it has become part of the plant in the same manner as the bread becomes part of us. What an amazing likeness with Christ in His flesh and in His life! We are members of His body! “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Eph. 5:30-32. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor. 3:18. Take note! We are being transformed into the same image. We are not being changed. We are being transformed. Not after the same image so we become only a copy, but we are being transformed into exactly the same image—into a likeness in essence; and in this likeness we proceed from glory to glory. So often we pray, “Jesus, let me be like You.” However, this is truly the deep meaning of being like Jesus. Eat the truth! Eat the read of life. Drink His blood. Even though these are hard words, they are, nevertheless, Spirit and life. Eat the truth! That requires the death of your self-life. Eat it; then you will lose your life and find it again. Then Christ will become your life. The power of Christ will become your power, His virtues your virtues, His wisdom your wisdom; His sufferings your sufferings, His death your death. What a glorious likeness with God’s Son! This is the man of God who is growing up. This is the bride who is becoming one flesh with Him. When He fetches His bride, He will fetch the one who possesses His nature. And she is the one to whom it has been granted to array herself with works of righteousness. She makes abundant use of this right, for she is zealous in adorning herself for her wedding day, which is her day of rejoicing. As the man of God appears, you are partaking of such a glorious salvation that you are willing to give your whole life in order to spread these truths to the joy of every seeking soul. This personal salvation with personally imparted power and virtues, gives us one life with Him. This is the salvation which we will continue to proclaim in Skjulte Skatter. This life can be received only by losing your life. No one loses his life unless he denies himself, takes up his cross daily, and follows Jesus. All false doctrines suffer shipwreck on the cross. All false doctrines always lead you around the cross. There is an old saying about Satan that he goes around the cross when he encounters it. And when he is able to get God’s people to walk around the cross, he quickly adds a few false doctrines that are seemingly better than the hard words on whose account many disciples drew back and no longer walked with Jesus. Paul says that “many . . . are the enemies of the cross of Christ.” It is impossible to have His life revealed in us unless we have given ourselves completely to die with Christ to everything—everything that He may expose in our life. Eat the truth! Eat it, even though the words are ever so hard. It means death to your flesh, but life to your spirit.Aksel Smith

Mrs. Penn-Lewis Then said Joshua, “Open the mouth of the cave, and bring forth those five kings.” And they “brought forth those five kings,” and when they brought them forth, Joshua said unto the chiefs of the men of war: “‘Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings.’ And they came near and put their feet upon their necks. And Joshua said unto them, ‘Fear not, nor be dismayed; be strong and of good courage; for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight.’” (Josh. 10:22-25). It was most important that he get the chiefs to understand how absolutely fearless they must be, by bringing them to close quarters with the enemy. As if he said, “Come, put your feet on!” so did the Lord speak to His disciples. “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall in any wise hurt you.” (Luke 10:19). Put your feet on their necks! But you must bring them out first. There are hidden enemies, as it were, in a “cave” of your life; you must bring them out and face them. If you have things that you are terrified of, ask the Lord to bring them out, so that you may look at them. Do not be afraid of anything but let everything come out. Ask the Lord to expose all the hidden workings of the Adversary; to bring him out of his hiding places and put your feet upon him; “and the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet shortly.” (Rom. 16:20). One hard lesson to learn is how to put our feet on the enemy. I remember fifteen years ago how hard it was to learn it. It necessitated going through one of the great conflicts of my life, but the Lord had to teach me again and again to win the victory over Satan, until I became fearless against him. It came about in this way: I was seeking to help a soul who was terribly misled by the enemy. I did not know then what I know now, and I tried every way I could to set her free, but it was in vain except for intermittent periods of time. The foe tried to make me afraid; but I realized that one shade of fear would mean that he would conquer me. I understood very little about warfare with Satan, but I knew intuitively that I must be fearless and maintain in spirit a fearless attitude to him. I often went then from awful conflict with the power of Satan in her, straight to the platform to speak, with scarcely time to open the Bible to get a message. How often my hearers used to say, “How is it God blesses the message”? But little did they know where I had won my victory before I went to them. This soul I had to bear with year after year, refusing to deliver myself, as I could very easily have done, but God was with me, and answered me again and again as I cried unto Him. One day, for instance, I went to the Lord, and said, “If this poor soul is doing something I ought to know, please bring it to light.” That night she put a letter into my hand, saying “read that!” And I found she had given me a letter written to another, which told me all she was doing. In those days I was learning the Lamb-spirit of Jesus, and I thought if I only had the “Lamb-spirit” she would see it, and I should win her that way; but to my amazement she got worse and worse. I thought the “Lamb-spirit” of Jesus always conquered, but oh, it seemed to me that the more I showed the “Lamb-spirit,” the more the Devil mastered her and conquered. At last, I went to the Lord, and asked Him to show me what to do, and this was the answer: “Put your foot upon the necks of the five kings!” But I shrank from “putting my foot down” and would so much rather that she should have her foot upon me. “Put your foot down”! Ah! But it is easier to be a Lamb than to put your foot down. “Put your foot down”! This was the only message, and I knew that obedience was the only way to victory. So, when that soul came to me again, instead of listening to her with a smile, as if she had done nothing wrong, I said, “God has shown me that I must not ‘smile’ upon you anymore, until you have repented, and put away all that you are doing wrong. This is the last time I dare overlook, and ignore what you are doing, because I see that the Devil is getting a greater hold on you through my forbearance.” From that hour I had to stand firm as a rock, refusing to act as if everything was alright, when I knew she had not put away all that was wrong in her life. I told the Lord that was the hardest thing He had ever given me to do, but I never knew the righteousness of God until that hour. The love of God! Yes, I thought “love” was to overcome everything, but I then saw that righteousness was true love, for the love of God could not injure the loved ones by overlooking sin. I saw that the “Lamb-spirit” had been used by the enemy to make her bolder in wrong-doing, and I had to learn how to resist him in the righteousness of God. My Bible became so alight with the righteousness of God that its words cut like a knife. It seemed as if God kept saying, “I cannot compromise with sin; you must stand against sin; for if you smile on that sin, I hold you to be a partner with it.” And I saw that I was never to compromise with sin by being silent about it, or appearing not to notice it, when I knew a soul was wrong. I understood 1 Sam. 15:29-33, and similar texts as never before, and realized that I must stand with God against sin and be faithful against it at every cost. When you have learned the spirit of the Lamb, and find it easier to yield than to rebuke, the hardest thing for you to do is to put your foot down; but you must do it. God holds you responsible. You must ask God to bring the “kings” of the enemy out for you, and then you must put your foot down upon their necks. Yes, when once you have learned the Lamb-spirit of Jesus, the hardest thing in this whole world is to carry out the righteousness of God. If you have not learned the Lamb-spirit, then the flesh can be very self-righteous and very hard; but if you have learned it, then your heart will be truly broken with love for sinners while you stand with God in righteousness against what they do wrong. This is the way that we must be witnesses for God to-day. It is preachers of righteousness that He, and the world, need. For this cause, children of God, you need to beware of any “supernatural experiences” which dull your sense of right and wrong and render you less acute in spirit and mind to recognize right and wrong. Your growth in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is really manifested by a deepening and more acute sense of what is right and wrong, rather than in ecstatic experiences. As you grow in the knowledge of Christ there will come, into the very depth of your being, an undeviating principle of action which will say, not “do I like this,” nor “do I feel that,” but “is it right?” If a thing is “right” you must do it, and if it is wrong, then you must die rather than do it. In this warfare, it is righteousness that counts; for it is a warfare between the God of Righteousness, and the Prince of wickedness. It is a battle between righteousness and sin, where your “feelings” must not be considered. Since the experience I have named, the righteousness of God has been more beautiful to me, and I could not worship a God that was not righteous. If my God tolerated sin, and smoothed it over, I could not worship Him. If there is anything about your life that is not in accordance with the righteousness of God, then let Him deal with it, for His righteousness is the highest law. In this warfare you must have nothing to do with what to you is wrong. Do not ask other people what is right and wrong, but ask God to make you know what is right and wrong for you; and then be true. Do not give as a reason for any course you take, what “so-and-so says,” but do what God has shown you is right, up to the fullest knowledge of your light obtained from the Word of God; and then happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allowed. Be true! Be true, and do right for right’s sake, not because it benefits you and makes you happy. Be right because it is right, and because God is holy! Amen.