The Plane of Spiritual Vigor

In 1917 Oswald Chambers delivered a message titled "The Plane of Spiritual Vigor." It is recorded in the book, The Place of Help:

"Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (1 Pet. 4:1).

"Peter is dealing with the dangers that beset the spiritual man, dangers of which the average man is unaware. As long as a man sets out to be merely healthy-minded, the further he keeps away from Jesus Christ the better. The spiritual man must deliberately enter into the zone where he suffers in the flesh. If I am to be identified with Jesus Christ in this life, I must lay my account with the fact that I am going to be troubled in the flesh in a way I would not be if I were not so related to Him, because the last stake of the enemy is in the flesh.

The Discipline in the Flesh

"Therefore, since Christ suffered . . . in the flesh."

Suffering

"How did Jesus Christ suffer in the flesh? Not because He was diseased or because He was more delicately strung than we are, but because He was differently related to God, He suffered 'according to the will of God,' that is, He let almighty God do His whole will in and through Him without asking His permission; He did not live in the flesh from the point of view of realizing Himself. Any number of us suffer in the flesh who have not ceased from sin, but Peter's meaning is, 'he who has suffered in the flesh [as Christ suffered in the flesh] has ceased from sin.'

"God will not shield us from the requirements of saints. When once we are related to life as Jesus was on the basis of redemption, He expects us to be to other people what He has been to us, and that will mean suffering in the flesh because it entails losing the aim of self-realization and basing everything on Christ realization, and as soon as we do that, other people will wipe their feet on us. No man is designed by nature to take the wiping of other people's feet, he can only do it when he can say with the apostle Paul, 'I know how to be abased.' Beware of the line of thinking which has sympathy with your sufferings but has no sympathy with Jesus Christ. Arm yourself with the mind of Christ, and the very suffering you go through will benefit others.

The Discipline in the Mind

"Arm yourselves also with the same mind."

Strenuousness

Some people have on an armor of innocence, like Tennyson's knight, whose 'strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure'; others have on an armor of love. Paul says, 'Put on the whole armor of God.' Don't rely on anything less than that, clothe yourself with your relationship to God, maintain it. If you do not arm yourself with the armor of God, you are open to interferences in your hidden personal life from supernatural powers which you cannot control; but buckle on the armor, bring yourself into real living contact with God, and you are garrisoned not only in the conscious realm but in the depths of your personality beneath the conscious realm. 'Praying always,' says Paul. Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time, and the amazing thing is that we don't pray more. Prayer is a complete emancipation, it keeps us on the spiritual plane. When you are at one with another mind there is a telepathic influence all the time, and when born from above the communion is between God and yourself; keep that going, says Peter. 'Arm yourselves also with the same mind.'

"Are you neglecting prayer? No matter what else is neglected, switch back at once; if you don't you will be in a dangerous influence to the people round about you. Watch the snare of self-pity--'Why should I go through this?' Be careful, you are in a danger spot. I feel as if Jesus Christ were staggered with surprise at some of us, amazed at the things we say to Him, astonished at our attitude to Him, at the sulks we get into, because we have forgotten to arm ourselves with the same mind.

The Discipline in the Experience

"For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin."

Sanctification

"The characteristic of the life now that you have ceased from sin is that you no longer do the things you used to do. 'For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles . . . . In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you' (1 Pet. 4:3-4). 'Let all that finish for you,' says Peter, 'stand now on a new basis, on the plane of the spiritual. See that you remain in identification with the sufferings of Jesus, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ.' That is the plane of spiritual vigor.

"How am I going to maintain my relationship to God on the spiritual plane, and keep the broad horizon that will help other men? 'He who believes in Me,' says Jesus, 'out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' The radiating influence from one person rightly related to God is incalculable; he may not say much, but you feel different, the pressure has gone, you are in contact with one who is on a different plane.

"Arm yourselves with the mind of Christ, maintain your life on the plane of 'spiritual vigor, and you will find that other people will suck nourishment and sustenance for their life out of you. Virtue will go out of you, and if you do not remain true to Jesus, you will collapse; there must be the continual supply, the continual drawing on the unsearchable riches of Jesus."