The Father Draws to the Son

The Father Draws to the Son

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him . . . .” John 6:44.

“If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” John 12:26.

“Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” 1 Cor. 15:28.

Here we can see how deep the trust relationship is between the Father and the Son, and we can also see how faithful the Son is.

It was a different matter with Satan. He was an anointed cherub, but when he was entrusted with much, he exalted himself because of his beauty. Ezek. 28:13-17.

We have to serve the Son if our life is to be of any value. All our work must go in the direction of drawing to Him. Then we will enter into the Father’s work of putting everything in subjection to the Son. These works will not burn up.

The Father could subject all things to the Son because the Son always glorified the Father; and the Son is so faithful that once all things have been made subject to Him, He will subject Himself to the Father.

All of us want to be entrusted with much by God. The Son has shown us the way to do it. However, there are many who follow Satan on his way. They have been entrusted with a revival or care for a flock of souls, and right away they begin to gather to themselves. They act like Diotrephes. 3 John 9-10. The fact that one draws to oneself instead of to the Son is the cause for most of the splits in the various assemblies.

The Father will only honor someone who is truly Jesus’ servant. Paul exhorts us not to do anything through vainglory. Phil. 2:3. All the glory you receive because of your talents and abilities is just vainglory. No other glory is of any value than that which the Father gives you because you serve the Son, and He tests you before He honors you. He will entrust you with great ministries if you are faithful in the various humiliations. That is the reason that after a servant in the church has been found blameless, he must first be proved; and after that he can serve in the church. 1 Tim. 3:8-10.

You can’t even entrust the maintenance of a meeting hall to many capable and talented people simply because they seek their own and want some honor for it. Paul thanked Christ Jesus because He considered him faithful and put him into the ministry. 1 Tim. 1:12.

Jesus Himself was despised because He was always faithful in giving the glory to the Father. He was not going to please the flesh, the great men, or the lords of this world. He put a cross over all charm, and He had an appearance which no one desired. Isa. 53:2.

There are only a few servants of the Lord who have managed to stay under a cover of reproach. Most of them have done what Satan did after they were entrusted with much, and it has gone with them as it did with Satan. God cast him down to the earth, but He did not deprive him of his splendor. He laid him before kings that they might gaze at him. This has been the fate of today’s religious groups. They feel honored when the great men of this world show up at their conferences and general assemblies and if they have speakers and members who can shine with titles and the wisdom of this world. What is that but to be cast down to the earth? Every one of them strives to put off the cover of reproach so that the world can gaze at them.

What is a preachers’ conference with the main speakers’ pictures in worldly newspapers other than a competition for vainglory and oratorical skills? Why not look the truth in the eyes? Perhaps someone can wake up and see that we are living in the last days about which the apostle prophesied and said that people will have a form of godliness but deny its power! 2 Tim. 3:1-5. Can’t we hear the complaints everywhere that there is so little power? Perhaps most people think of signs and wonders in this connection, but wasn’t it victory over sin and a disdain for the glory of this world that was on the apostles’ hearts? 1 John 2:15-18. If there is little power to perform signs and wonders, we can be sure that there is even less power for victory over sin and disdain for this world.

Yet how can there be any power when people are cast down to the earth, when the reproach of Christ—the offense of the cross—has been taken away? Wasn’t the entire glory of the tabernacle hidden under a badger skin? Ex. 26:14. It was under this cover that God revealed Himself. We, too, must be preserved under the reproach of Christ and consider it greater riches than the treasures of Egypt if we want to be filled with God’s power and have revelations of the Spirit.