The word of God links the soul with Christ as He was and is; it just gives one a written Christ. See in Matt. 5: "Blessed are the poor in spirit;" and who so poor in spirit as Christ? "Blessed are the pure in heart;" and who so pure as He? "Blessed are the meek;" and who so meek as He? "Blessed are the peace-makers;" He was the great peace-maker, the very Prince of Peace. The first thing, of course, is to have Him as the living Christ for the salvation of the soul; and then, through the written Word, we get the spiritual perception of what this Christ is. It is the simple expression of Christ Himself, of Him who was the express image of God - "was made flesh, and dwelt among us, so that we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;" and when we thus get the Spirit's testimony to Christ, the heart clings to Him as the "holy" and the "true." Thus the Christ found in the Word governs the affections; for we dare not, and would not, be without or depart from this written Christ. This living link to a living Christ is the only safeguard against them that would seduce you. A holy Christ in whom we have the truth is the blessed strong moral assurance of the soul when a mixed and lifeless Christianity is powerless against delusion, and when the same causes make the professing church incapable of discerning a plain path, when there is not faith enough to do without the world, and mixture is everywhere. Then a holy and true Christ is the assuring guide and stay of the soul. To Timothy Paul said, "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus;" and surely there can be no better knowledge to be got than the knowledge of Christ. This was the point in John's epistle. The father in Christ knew "Him that is from the beginning;" he could tell what the true Christ was; he knew "Him that was holy, Him that was true." It is not development that is needed, but merely the getting back to the simplicity that is in Christ - to know Him truly that was at first revealed, Him that was from the beginning. Therefore if my soul is attached to the Christ of the written Word, the Christ that I have loved down here is the same Christ that I am waiting for to come and take me up there. J. N. Darby.
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit:" One feels that the want of this is the cause of weakness. If we said half as much to one another, and twice as much as we do to God, it would be better. Many a thing that we say to one another, if said to God, would produce a different effect. I never can get out of this place of dependence - praying because my heart longs to pour out and cast itself on God, but not for the sake of praying.
The "perfect law of liberty" is leave to have no will of my own. The greatest bondage is to have to be subject to one's own will; i.e. if we know God's will.
If I have known how perfect the will of God is, I am free to submit myself to Him. Many do not think it a boon to have no will of their own, because they do not know what it is to have to do with a perfect will.