by T. Austin-Sparks
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1941-42, Vol. 19-1 - 20-2.
The ground of the testing for us is that His Kingdom now is not a Kingdom to be seen, His power now is not a power which is being outwardly displayed, His glory now is something which is in the heart in a spiritual relationship and knowledge of Himself. It is what He is, what we know Him to be. The Church has to stand for that against this other. It comes down to us in our lives every day, is pressed home to us, and is going to be pressed home - to be able at all times to stand under intense trial and say, "Thine is the kingdom". Trial in this particular respect from the Evil One's standpoint would have as its objective the inducing of us to have the kingdom as on the lines of this world and lose it as on God's lines; for that is exactly what it meant in the case of the Lord Jesus. That is the essence of the enemy's pressure and assault, to bring us down and to cause us so to compromise for an easier way as to come into present possession of a kingdom on earthly and temporal lines, and miss the great thing which God has reserved in heaven for us.
