Friends, the power of the Lord God is over all them that keep on their hats in prayer, and they do not keep on their hats in prayer neither by the motion, nor the power of God, nor by the spirit of God, but (by an earthly, dark spirit) against it, and them that are in the power of God. . . . <214> . . .
If they, that are and have been in this dark, earthly spirit, had but had a regard to the power of God and his truth, they would have been tender, and afraid of giving any occasion of offence, both to them that are within, and to them that are without, to draw out their minds to look at that which their earthly spirit has promoted; and so to lay stumbling blocks, and set up an idol [Rev 2:14?], and an image to look at, which draws people's eyes from the witness of God in themselves [1 Jn 5:9f]. But the power of God is gone over it, and will break it down. And so, this Belial's spirit [Deut 13:13], which would be without yoke, cries, (to such as in love exhort them, and judge it,) ye lord over us [Psa 12:4]. And so this earthly, dark spirit, (which is gotten above the witness of God [1 Jn 5:9] in themselves, which is not sensible of the moving spirit and power of God,) it sets up its own earthly form, which the power of God never set up, but judges. . . . And thus many of them are darkened with a cankered, rusty spirit, which will corrupt them [James 5:2f], and hath destroyed many. And this is that that has brought the plague of hardness of heart, through which there has been strangeness, and not unity, nor familiarness, nor nighness in the truth; for how should it, when they are gone from that which first convinced them [2 Pet 2:20]? <215> To that all must come, before they have fellowship and true unity in the power and truth of God; which, if that had been minded, would have led to follow, ‘whatsoever things are comely, whatsoever things are decent, whatsoever things are of good report [Phil 4:8],’ and such things as make for peace [Rom 14:19]. But this spirit has followed the contrary, and therefore the power of the Lord God, and the life and truth, are against it, and over it are gone, and reign. . . .
G. F.
Be the first to react on this!
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."