Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul (book report)

Introduction:

The author has spent countless hours contemplating the declension and revival of religion in the soul and has in my opinion opened the reader to much self realization and self examination. From the potential dangers, the acts of faith and love to the authority gained in prayer, the charge to accuracy in Gods word and more self examination in the orders of being a fruitful Christian and not failing to mention His wonderful restoration and keeping and staying power the Lord unfolds a good work in these pages that have opened my mind to a deeper thought of God and deeper thought of His Words.

Incipient Declension:

In spite of all of God's goodness and all of his mercies that he has given to us, the believer still has a strong and continual tendency towards backsliding. The tendencies of backsliding have great potential and are constantly working against the believer, even to the point where one will “deify the graces of the Spirit” (p.10) This is a great danger. Of course the grace given to the Christian is sustained by God himself and indestructible. Nothing can cause God's grace to fail. Yet, in some fashion because of sin these gifts of grace may decay in the soul. The author encourages the examination of another doctrine “The life of God in the Soul of Man”. Christ dwelling in many by faith and giving man the new life, new birth etc. Christ living in man giving the zeal to endure all as in the life of the apostle Paul. This new life of God in the Soul of Man is all in all given by Christ and upheld by his great permanence. In this new life the believer is hidden in Christ and very secure in Christ Yet, the incipient declension is an internal decay of those initial graces and God's inward power anew and afresh. The declension is thus hidden, subtle and unsuspected. Sin wears on the believer in such a subtle manner as Delilah's nagging found Samson to awaken without the presence of the Lord. Not that God's divine grace was eroded but the health of grace in the soul. It's “vigour and exercise” (p.14). Not that God's grace is eroded but rather that sin has grown like weeds causing decay. Maybe no standards of holiness have been compromised yet the deep worship of God is not present. That the deep desires for Christ have been overshadowed by formal religion. Christian service may remain the same or even incline however the truth, love and power are seemingly ignored and self examination neglected. Thus, joy is gone along with the heartfelt worship that should encompass each believers heart. The qualities of revival are nourishing the soul, desiring profound hunger in the soul for God. Taking Christ as the Bread and Living Water of life. Mere prayer and bible reading are not revival but, deeply longing in prayer for the blood of Christ confessing sin at the cross and “nearness to the throne” (p.18). It should be understood that the Lord does not withdraw himself without cause yet the believer has ignored the promptings of the Spirit. Has given no heed to the movement and dealings of God. Or, has payed little attention and care to those things most important to God. To seek revival one should realize exactly the true state of his soul. Honestly examine oneself in light of the scriptures realizing that God does not examine the outward man but the inward man of the heart. The deepest confines of thought are transparent before Him. After this examination as God would examine the next step is to make no pardon but to bring all to the cross and ask forgiveness. To turn from this wickedness and submit all to the Saviour who is faithful to forgive and cleanse if we confess. Conviction, humiliation, godly sorrow and confession are the elements found in Hosea 14:1-2 outlining the path of true return to God. This is where sin may be entirely mortified and forsaken, for nothing less will do. Though all elements of revival may be present for a moment because of some great dealing of God true revival must display continual and constant exercise of these elements with profound and fervent execution. To be filled anew with the Holy Ghost continually is great remedy, His filling and great joy that comes with His presence should be our mainstay. Not of feeling but of the deep rooted truth in love. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the warmth that melts the iced heart. This meditation of love for Christ is great cause for revival. And finally one must desire earnestly in praise and prayer for the Lord to revive. To desire with fervent heat to be new like a fruitful vine or fig tree.

Declension in Love:

This declension is not hidden but obvious outwardly. While the backslider may make excuses, self deceive or declare to be at peace the love waxed cold is obvious to those discerning. Love is really the cornerstone of the graces and if love is affected then all other graces of the Spirit will suffer. Love of God is the supreme commandment, choice and exercise. To love first anything lower is to deify that object and break this supreme ability. To love God with all heart, mind and soul is to rest all moral direction and every aspect of decision upon the guidance of God our Creator.



Supreme happiness comes from loving God supremely thus deliverance from supreme misery. Love is the main theme of the gospel, without love there would be no death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Love is what motivates and prompts one to the place of salvation. Love from God is what sustains us in spite of ourselves. No mere act of holiness, Christian service or following the law can compare to the command of our Lord “if ye love me, keep my commandments” Jn14:15. Obedience is simply fruit of that love. Love conquers everything that attempts to destroy a man: fear, shame, delay etc. Love is that which the Lord forgave our sins, cleanses us, fills us, makes us whole, answers our prayers, gives us desire and provides every aspect of victual spiritual and physical even to exceeding
abundance. The author describes it as deeper than any ocean and broader than any sea. This love is cultivated in the soul by immersion in God's presence, truth, self-examination, prayer, daily walking with the Lord etc. (p.46). The love is named a breastplate protecting the vital organs of man (what great illustration). Sin is the great offender of God while love is the great offender of sin. When God becomes less that our supreme love declension is apparent. Any coldness or deviation from the supreme love Christ-ward is surely declension. Any loss of reverence, coldness, disobedience is a great mark that love has declined. Hard thoughts of God's actions or dealings are sure marks of declension. These are results of changing ones meditations and contemplations and viewing things and events with wrong perspectives. It is abnormal for God to pour out His love only seldom upon His people and a sure sign of great danger, the author point that it's a miserable existence to not have continual communion with God. But, a tender walk with God should be the life of each. To desire strongly to please our Father and to have continual fellowship with him, to be grieved at the thought or desire of sin, to run from pride and lust with expediency. To have affections abnormally set upon creature things is idolatry. Such sin is most grievous to God and places love upon another whether the object be visible or invisible. To look upon God's dealings with hardness or heart shows great lack of understanding and faith. But faith sees God's heart is love and He deals with us lovingly no matter the circumstance and He will momentarily relieve all struggles, pains etc. The believer should seek out those causes of declension in love and crucify those hellish sins, draw upon God's love and seek all provision of love direct from He who is love and seek constant guidance, forgiveness and every provision from Christ who first loved us. Relying heavily upon the work of the Holy Spirit and his dealings is the clear path and giving oneself with fervor to the love of God the love that makes hot that love which had once waxed cold. To stay near the source who is Christ.

Declension in Faith:

Faith (as the author points out) is a grace that is often mistaken and disputed over. Although, faith is simple as shown in scripture. Faith is often discussed yet a favorite grace for Satan to distort. Faith isn't simply to believe in a doctrine but to believe in The Doctrine. If a man travels through life believing the wrong thing about salvation he must start over and follow truth. Faith offers security in that we can stand fast with full assurance in all that we do if it is by faith then we shall receive those blessings and provisions He is faithful to give. Faith involves movement and action as we “walk by faith”, it is the way to follow Christ and to live the life that Christ intends for us. Faith is the shield that quenches the fiery darts of Satan and the devils. Faith is purifying as exercising faith draws us closer to God. It will cause the word to roll around in the mind and become like lifeblood fixing the eyes on the Saviour. Faith is the way of salvation. Faith may possibly be the most assailed and attacked of the graces given. Even the patriarchs and champions of the faith were at times swayed by the slightest attack. Prayer is the place where faith is built up and fortified. The spiritual prayer is essential in the building of faith. If the prayer lacks or declines the faith is sure to follow. Time in prayer is essential. It is essential to take time away from the secular to focus on the holy and spiritual. If enough time is not submitted for prayer then surely faith will suffer declension. Basing decisions upon logic alone leaves no room for faith. Logic is good but often times it will fail us. Doubt of God and His word is the great enemy of faith and one should consider how great a God we trust in, He who holds all of creation in His hands. Faith is built by exercise and buy continually gazing upon Jesus, He who is able. The more we look at Jesus the stronger our faith will grow (p.80). Again, the author points to the need for revival and it's origin in the Holy Spirit bringing one to a place of self examination. No sin is welcome in God's presence and His manifest presence demands complete holiness. This communion comes with Christ's blood. Although many have made the mistake of having faith in faith when properly our faith must be wholly resting upon the Saviour. Though ones faith may be weak Christ can lift him up. Just looking unto Jesus or touching the hem of His garment is the remedy. To believe on the one who saves, delivers, makes new... is to look trusting in Him who is able to meet all of our needs beyond comprehension. And, then to commit with full assurance all cares unto the Lord and know He has heard, this is evidence, this is the substance. Simply, to believe.


Declension in Prayer:

Prayer could be marked as the most cause for decay because of it's primary function in connecting us to God. Prayer was described by one as such -- “I open my bible, and God talks with me; I close my bible, and then I talk with God”.
It is communion of the best sort, it is the created speaking with the Creator as a friend and much more. God the father is the object of our prayer, Christ mediator and Holy Spirit as author. It's a beautiful picture. It is the best part of the spiritual life. Prayer is the means by which we ask, praise, adore, and confess; yet, prayer may decline. The prayer may become a routine or only about one aspect or two. Maybe to only pray for ones needs, or to only give thanks and to make a habit of prayer that becomes dull and cold. Such prayers are lifeless and lack the heat and fervency of those with the Spirit anew. They lack the splendor of God and His majesty, true realization of the wonders of God Creator and Sustainer of all things. Lack of imagery of who He is and how wonderful He is. Without brokenness, contrition and pure confession the prayers become vain repetitions. Backsliding is always gradual and by degrees, this backsliding starts with a declension in the fervency, giving up some seemingly small thing such as the true self examination and confession may still be present without previous intensity. Next, some other facet is stripped and then another until a point of deep hardheartedness and lack of realization. The continual fervent prayer of a righteous man may begin to experience small gaps followed by subtly larger gaps. Next could be family prayer and finally social prayer. Then the believer is left only praying for things that are temporal and cares not for the soul or the word of God nor the souls of others. Now this backsliding has moved the believer subtly further from prayer and subtly further from God. Next the spiritual duties lose their excitement and become listless duties. And slowly the sweetness of prayer and spiritual works are forgotten and rather satisfied by things not of Heaven but things of this World. Business affairs and the normal of every day life have taken the place of communion with the Creator. To avoid these sins one should never restrain prayer from Christ, always look to Him with great fervency and desire to be near to the holy. “ An accumulation of daily crosses” (p.101) is the best way to stay on track with prayer. Constantly self examining, always loathing the offense and carefully watching in prayer. Prayer should be examined frequently to ensure full effect and revival. Exercises of the heart, depth of truth, great adoration of the Savior, much thankfulness, much praise all from a pure heart having washed hands seeking always the atoning blood of Christ. Keeping fast to the prayer closet, praying with the family, and in public. Realizing the depth of need, the true need of self, that I am a mere beggar with nothing, utterly destitute and shameful. Searching out and removing of the things that stop and hinder prayer, hidden sin, unrepented sin, unpardoned sin, and a worldly mindedness. To be revived in prayer requires allowing the Holy Spirit to do what He will. That our prayer be unhindered and continued by obedience in those areas in which He would deal and those corruptions we would tend to ignore. That there be no resistance against God, slothfulness in repentance and that He would be trusted in His divine dealings. Realizing that a season of trial or suffering from loss is time of deep repentance and deep self examination much needed to revive the prayer. The poor, the oppressed, the burdened and the humbled are all able to come to God's mercy seat.

Declension in Connexion with Doctrinal Error:

The church has been entrusted with guarding and preserving the truth against the forces of evil in a world that is filled with moral corruption. God's word is divine truth yet it is unknowable to the carnal mind. The unsaved cannot fully comprehend scripture but they are like a blind person looking at a masterpiece painting unable to see anything. But the author emphasizes that the truth of the word is lifeless without the Holy Spirit which gives life. For example the 3,000 who were saved on Pentecost heard the sermon but needed the Spirit to give the life through the sermon which He also gave. The Spirit enlightens the heart which was in such darkness. Intellect alone can look upon scripture and a man can leave as unchanged as ever. The bible repeatedly points to sanctification, being separate from the world and unto God. The truth always points the believer towards holiness. Holiness is unmistakable as it wars against the old man and promotes the new man which longs for the truth. False doctrine is exactly opposite always drawing the mind off the Creator and into any diversion. False doctrine always causes decay and declension. The word (truth) the the one thing that God hath exalted above His own name. One who has moved away from the truth will display hardness, lack of understanding for spiritual things, moral decay, loss of joy amongst other losses. These losses are result of any compromise of the fundamental doctrine, departure of any kind from the truth of God, slipping in conviction. This renders one useless, powerless, without effect and nigh unusable to the Master. Without returning to the truth and having all conviction established in it one will become like the scattered churches of Europe who left the doctrines fervently preached by those reformers and martyrs who gave so much for the truth. Their resolve should be our example to defend the truth even with our lives if need be. Denying our own unrighteous desires and adopting God's righteous truth is surely a work of the Spirit if we have the Spirit and if He by His truth deal with the responsive, humble and contrite heart. The greatest declension (might I contest) is that of compromising the gospel, the death, burial, resurrection, deity, humanity of Christ. To tread under foot the blood of God the Son. To undervalue or deny Christ must be the worst declension of any kind. Another, the denying or ignoring the work of the Holy Spirit, to devalue or neglect the office of God's great power towards men speaking of Christ. The revival comes from fearlessly maintaining the truth by speaking it, separation, holiness etc. And might I add to realize the low estate of man and the unfathomable highness of God.




On Grieving the Spirit:

The great danger here is to think too low of the Spirit but oppositely one may not thing too high of the Spirit because of His great office, person and work. Grief exposes Gods extreme hatred of sin (p.129). To grieve Him is to go against God's commands, to ignore His voice, reject or gloss over his promptings. This causes withering, decay, coldness etc. The lukewarmness is awful to God and His soul has no pleasure in those who draw back. God looks highly upon His work in the believer and to stop or slow that work is surely grievous. His work is that of perfecting, or giving great joy, delivering from sin, exposing those areas of sin. Denying and undervaluing these works are surely grievous as is much more. Revival surely lies in heeding promptly to the Spirits dealings, valuing so much His work of speaking of Christ, comfort, conviction, bearing witness of that truth in mens hearts, speaking of the Bread of Life. Coming to the cross with all and forsaking all sin at the cross, leaving all pride, lust, contempt, evils and revering the Lord as God the Holy Spirit with full fervor and honest realization. Following his leadings and allowing Him to move us along the righteous narrow path as He sees fit, not frustrating the grace of God. Waiting with all patience which is given by Him, ministering with all fervent hotness as given by Him and embracing His dealings with wholeheartedness, forsaking all that would stop or divert attentions.

The Fruitless and the Fruitful Professor:

The illustration found in John 15 of the vine is the authors model for this subject. The presence of Christ causes a nearness and likening to God's attributes. Not by just profession and outward actions but by the continual inward change and the display of spiritual fruit. If a dead branch is grafted into a living tree it may look genuine but as time will show it will never bear any fruit. The fruitless has hardheartedness, lifelessness, and shows no self loathing, no self abasement, no genuine humility. Among these are Simon Magnus, Demas and Judas Iscariot. All were just pretenders of the faith never having any good fruit. These have works of only wood, hay and stubble and will find themselves cast into the fire likewise if unsaved. The reasons are many, maybe no true repentance, pharisees only living to a letter of the law, apostates, dead letters, clouds without rain. But the fruitful are they who abide in Christ and show forth those good works. The faithful have the connection to the one who supplies their lifeblood. This is why they bear much fruit. The change is continual and they are constantly fed by the vine. They take the cross and respond to the will of God, conform to His life, His death and His resurrection. The fruitful branch is then pruned as God would cut off the parts as He sees fit and cares for the the fruitful believer in such a way as to cause the most choice production of fruit as known in Galatians 5:22-23. Even those with the closest walk with God need pruning. Areas of the heart still need to be pruned and sin driven out much like the Canaanites when God's people inhabited the promised land. The land was theirs but the former inhabitants had yet to be utterly driven out. This purging is strengthening to the believer and causes faith to be built along with all aspects of the spiritual life. One seemingly small sin could lead to such fruitlessness. The secret of bearing fruit is to always be seeking to know Christ more. If he deals with a person then He treats them as a son. The Lords dealings are a good thing, His chastisement, rebuke, mercy, judgment. The more pruned the believe is the more fruit he can bear and the better that fruit.



The Lord the Restorer of His People:

If examined in a single the believer would surely display much fault, much sin. Inability to do the holy things, and constant wavering and fight between natures. It's almost as if we walk a fine line with unholiness constantly pressing us to fall in yet the grace of God our great sustenance in spite of our constant failures. Our sinfulness must far exceed our realization of the fullness of that sinfulness. But, God still choses to renew and to restore us. He continually desire to work in spite of our tendencies toward opposing the cross and being the enemy of God. Everything that comes from within a man and everything surrounding a man is unfavorable to grace. It's like we are our own worst enemy and truly contemptible in the sight of God but He looks at us with the judgment of Christ as given innocence. To be restored to the innocence that Adam was created with but something even more not only do we have the Tree of Life but Christ the great life giver dwells within. The backsliding can be traced to the roots of unmortified sin to the leniency on sin itself. The believer should rather fall at God's feet and repent of all sin and all unrighteousness. Evict sin and flee from all idolatry and stay in the goodness of God's correction. He is the great restorer and He takes pleasure in restoring His saints, it does require chastisement, correction, some of this will be hot and very uncomfortable for sin. The mind must be changed by this chastisement but it's all because of our own deep declension. This restoration is like having the new view of Christ like at the cross for the first time ever, but beholding his majesty afresh and anew continually.

The Lord, The Keeper of His People:

Salvation is God's gift to men in spite of men's selves, He is the one who payed for it and He who gives it. Everything God does is majestic and supreme and as he keeps His people it is no less significant and no less complete. Our tendencies to wander are to be always outmatched by His wonderful power. The believer has no ability to keep himself but is totally in weakness. Our sinful desires are such that we desire to think and act independent of God, the heart is very deceptive. Even Adam who was created perfect in the midst of God's presence could not keep himself but he too wandered from absolute holiness to absolute corruption. In an instant his inability to keep himself was exposed and he knew his nakedness. God now uses this weakness as strength, the believer must realize his deep need for Christ to keep him as he realizes his unprecedented weakness. Sin is the great conqueror of men and all the angels that fell. The believer should pay exacting attention to his heart and give no mercy to sin and no lax in judgment. No place should be regarded but automatic eviction is the Lords way. Realizing that man is a worm and utterly contemptible and that God in the abundance of His grace desires such blessings for such an undeserving race. The trial and the revealing of the inward sins are ways of Gods grace. The exposing of all evils confined in the heart and the allowance of devilish attacks shows the true need of the afflicted. The affliction presses one back to God. Christ can keep his people from falling and He is not willing that any sin but, that all would walk upright as the Lord would desire. His power is given to us against sin in unprecedented measures yet through self reliance sin takes occasion. Relying on Him will never cause failure but freedom, because he upholds all things by the word of his power.

Conclusion:

To fall wholly upon Christ is to be kept as surely as is possible. His staying power is amazing and He is all powerful to keep His people. No declension is beyond Gods extending reach. Yet, pride would always desire to rob God of His wonderful outworkings and one could easily by pride reject the working of the Holy Spirit, continually run from the grace of God, frustrate the grace of God, ignore the words of truth, walk in faithlessness, gradually cease to love, embrace apostasy and hold the truth of God in unrighteousness, worship Him not as God, become altogether fruitless and with no use and by lust and pride reject the wonderful restoration and keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our purpose on the earth is to glorify God, our purpose in eternity is to glorify God, what if we missed one of these opportunities? What great love we have been given and are continually given to motivate repentance and inspire the Lords work to take precedence in our lives. The book is much more exhaustive than this paper yet might it inspire one to read the work of Octavius Winslow as it is inspiring, thorough, engaging and speaks to the heart in a direct manner like arrows fired at their target hitting bulls eye with each release.