Friends,—Ye that are the prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ [Philem 1:9] in outward bonds, who witness him by whom the world was made [John 1:3], who is the King of saints [Rev 15:3], and who are his, and come under his dominion and government, ye are not your own [1 Cor 6:19]; but purchased with his blood Acts 20:28], which washes and makes you clean [1 Jn 1:7, Rev 1:5], and justifies [Rom 5:9], whose bodies are his temple [1 Cor 6:19]. Though he suffers you to be imprisoned, yet in his power your bodies are kept, and your spirits also; ye standing witnesses for your master, for your king, for your prophet, for your covenant of light [Isa 42:6], for your wisdom of God [1 Cor 1:24], (him by whom all things were made,) for the word and power, by which all things were made and upheld [Heb 1:3], against the powers of darkness, who are out of the light, out of the truth, who cannot bind, stop nor limit the unlimited power, which is over it, and comprehends it. They who are born of the word [1 Pet 1:23], and in the power which upholds all things, over that, (and the power of the evil one,) have victory, and sing over the false prophet. For the devil was the deceiver [Rev 12:9], who abode not in the truth [John 8:44]; and there is the false prophet, who speaks of his own, and not from the Lord [Jer 23:16]; and there is the beast, that makes the war against the lamb and his saints [Rev 13:7, 17:14] who witness the testimony of Jesus, and the word of God. Therefore mind the word of God, ye children of the light, who are in the light, that comes from the word; mind the word of the Lord, which is as a hammer, and as a fire [Jer 23:29], and sharper than a two-edged sword [Heb 4:12]. And ye who are the Lord's, are not your own; but they who are in their own time, see not the time which is in the Father's hand; their time is always, and they do their own works [Psa 106:39], and not the works of God, which the son of God did [John 10:37f].
G. F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691)
Was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. This was a group the Lord started through the ministry of George Fox. God called him apart from all other forms of Christendom in his day because of the lack of Biblical obedience and holiness.The emphasis in George Fox's ministry was firstly prophetic. He called out the people of God to show them that they had the Holy Spirit of God and could be taught of Him and not to solely rely on the teachings of ecclesiastical leaders. Secondly, he spoke directly to many ministers in his day to show them they were hirelings and did not have a true shepherds heart for the people of God rather they were seeking after financial gain.
Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, the son of Puritan parents. Little is known of his early life, apart from what he wrote in his journal: "In my very young years, I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in young children. Insomuch that, when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly toward each other, I had a dislike thereof raise in my heart, and I said within myself, `If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton.'"
At the age of 19, he gained deep, personal assurance of his salvation and began to travel as an itinerant preacher, seeking a return to the simple practices of the New Testament. He abhorred technical theology, and preached a faith borne of experience, freshly fed and guided by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit.
Fox was persecuted almost daily, yet his power of endurance was phenomenal. He was beaten with dogwhips, knocked down with fists and stones, brutally struck with pikestaves, hard beset by mobs, incarcerated eight times in the pestilential jails, prisons, castles and dungeons--yet he went straightforward with his mission as though he had discovered some fresh courage which made him impervious to man's inhumanity.
He undertook as far as possible to let the new life in Christ take its own free course of development in his ministry. He shunned rigid forms and static systems, and for that reason he refused to head a new sect or to start a new denomination, or to begin a new church. He would not build an organization of any kind. His followers at first called themselves "Children of the Light," and later adopted the name "The Society (or Fellowship) of Friends."
Fox preached and traveled for 40 years throughout England, Scotland, Holland, and America. His life demonstrated the truth of his famous saying, "One man raised by God's power to stand and live in the same spirit the apostle and prophets were in, can shake the country for ten miles around."