God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength.
--C.H. Spurgeon

Empowerment

Work on, dear friend, and wait on, for it is no business of yours to correct your Maker’s arrangements. He who placed you where you now are, knew what he was at. Look at your infirmities with another eye. No longer allow them to distress you; but the rather glory in them because they afford room and space for the divine power to rest in you and work by you. Listen no more to the wailings of your trembling flesh, which cries, “Alas, I am weak,” but hear the voice of him who saith “I am God Almighty.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Satan And The Mind

How much control if any does Satan have over a believer's thoughts? Does he have any influence at all?
How does Satan tempt the Christian? Certainly, we are tempted by our own flesh and our own sinful desires. But Satan can have an influence. How does this happen? The Bible says that Satan has the ability to blind the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).  It also speaks of unbelievers following Satan (Ephesians 2:2) via some influence presumably to the person's intellect. Does he have the same access to believers? If he is able to tempt it must be through some mental influence within the subject being tempted. What other mechanism is there to our temptation from outside ourselves? So it seems Satan can bring thoughts into our minds from outside of ourselves that are unwanted or uninvited. All of us have experienced ideas and images popping into our heads unwanted. Not that these all are from the "prince of the power of the air." Our flesh also I believe can bring this about. So the scripture says we are to "take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)." Why? Because thoughts which arise, either spontaneously or through Satan's influence, can be disobedient to Christ. We do not have control over every thought that pops into our heads, but we have control over what we dwell on mentally. And temptation is not sin....although Satan would like us at times to believe otherwise.

Some thoughts I found from other believers on the subject:

These thoughts, if you hate them, are none of yours, but are injections of the Devil, for which he is responsible, and not you. If you strive against them, they are no more yours than are the cursings and falsehoods of rioters in the street.  C. H. Spurgeon

Amongst all the devices that Satan makes use of, there is none by which he grieves the children of God worse, than his troubling you with blasphemous, profane, unbelieving thoughts; and sometimes to such a degree, that they are as tormenting as it is to be physically tortured. G. Whitefield

Let me just see if I can clarify it now. We believe that Satan is not omniscient. He does not know everything. I believe he is subject to the revelation of God, and he is subject to objective observation within whatever objective means within his sphere. He can perceive what is going on, but I don't think there is anything in the Bible to indicate he is omniscient. He is infinitely intelligent, tremendously intelligent. But, intelligence is a capacity that is fed by revealed information. Do you know what I mean by that? God is omniscient in the sense that He intrinsically knows everything, and it does not have to be any information. But, Satan knows what he knows because God has revealed that to him within the framework of his intelligence. So, I don't think there is anything to indicate that Satan can read your mind. But, Satan can influence your mind. But, I think, primarily, it is by external things that may trigger thought patterns. But, it is also true that demons can come in and Satan can come in. And if they can come into a believer, there is a sense in which they must be able directly to affect the thinking process somehow, but that is for one who is given over to Satan to some extent.  John MacArthur

From The Gospel Coaltion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqzj_TKosG8

Proof

“The proof that Christ came into the world should be that His followers are holy! Let their character be blameless and harmless, their conduct so devoted and so full of self-sacrifice that it shall be a constant memorial of that Redeemer whose name they profess.”

Charles Spurgeon

Creation's Purpose?

“The material universe is but scaffolding for the Church of Christ. It is but the temporary structure upon which the amazing mystery of redeeming love is being carried on to perfection.”

C. H. Spurgeon

Fascinating comment by Spurgeon. Contemplate this fact....that all of creation is put forth by God for the body of Christ. I would add that the creation is also purposed to point to the amazing magnificence of God's glory. It is subject to futility for a time, because of sin, but not forever.

Questions About Christianity

“If the Gospel of God is true, it can stand any quantity of questioning. I am more afraid of the deadness and lethargy of the public mind about religion than any sort of enquiry or controversy about it. As silver tried in the furnace is purified seven times, so is the Word of God—and the
more it is put into the furnace, the more it will be purified—and the more beauteously the pure ore of Revelation will glitter in the sight of the faithful.”— Charles Spurgeon

The Covenant of Grace

Below is a transcript from a Spurgeon sermon where he describes this covenant and then wonders what it would have been like to be to hear this covenant being made.

“Now, in this covenant of grace, we must first of all observe the high contracting parties between whom it was made. The covenant of grace was made before the foundation of the world between God the Father, and God the Son; or to put it in a yet more scriptural light, it was made mutually between the three divine persons of the adorable Trinity. I cannot tell you it in the glorious celestial tongue in which it was written: I am fain to bring it down to the speech which suiteth to the ear of flesh, and to the heart of the mortal. Thus, I say, run the covenant, in ones like these:”

"I, the Most High Jehovah, do hereby give unto my only begotten and well-beloved Son, a people, countless beyond the number of stars, who shall be by him washed from sin, by him preserved, and kept, and led, and by him, at last, presented before my throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. I covenant by oath, and swear by myself, because I can swear by no greater, that these whom I now give to Christ shall be for ever the objects of my eternal love. Them I will forgive through the merit of the blood. To these will I give a perfect righteousness; these will I adopt and make my sons and daughters, and these shall reign with me through Christ eternally."

Thus run that glorious side of the covenant. The Holy Spirit also, as one of the high contracting parties on this side of the covenant, gave his declaration,

"I hereby covenant," saith he, "that all whom the Father giveth to the Son, I will in due time quicken. I will show them their need of redemption; I will cut off from them all groundless hope, and destroy their refuges of lies. I will bring them to the blood of sprinkling; I will give them faith whereby this blood shall be applied to them, I will work in them every grace; I will keep their faith alive; I will cleanse them and drive out all depravity from them, and they shall be presented at last spotless and faultless."

This was the one side of the covenant, which is at this very day being fulfilled and scrupulously kept. As for the other side of the covenant this was the part of it, engaged and covenanted by Christ. He thus declared, and covenanted with his Father:

"My Father, on my part I covenant that in the fullness of time I will become man. I will take upon myself the form and nature of the fallen race. I will live in their wretched world, and for my people I will keep the law perfectly. I will work out a spotless righteousness, which shall be acceptable to the demands of thy just and holy law. In due time I will bear the sins of all my people. Thou shalt exact their debts on me; the chastisement of their peace I will endure, and by my stripes they shall be healed. My Father, I covenant and promise that I will be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. I will magnify thy law, and make it honourable. I will suffer all they ought to have suffered. I will endure the curse of thy law, and all the vials of thy wrath shall be emptied and spent upon my head. I will then rise again; I will ascend into heaven; I will intercede for them at thy right hand; and I will make myself responsible for every one of them, that not one of those whom thou hast given me shall ever be lost, but I will bring all my sheep of whom, by thy blood, thou hast constituted me the shepherd—I will bring every one safe to thee at last."

-Charles Spurgeon-

Rest

Plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in His immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated.



C. H. Spurgeon

Cheap Grace

If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness." -C.H. SPURGEON