In The Fire Light: "And in the same way He took the cup
after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out
for you is the new covenant in My blood." Luke 22:20
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away!
Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” John 18:11
"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!
But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened
till it be accomplished!" Luke 12:49-50
"With the passages that we have read fresh in our minds,
I think that we are able to see that this last passage gathers them
all into itself, and that what they all bring before us is
the relationship between the cup of the Lord and
the scattering of the fire in the earth.
The Lord joined these two things together, and showed their relationship;
indicating that the scattering of the fire in the earth was dependent upon
the drinking of the cup.
And in so doing, He only indicated and established a law,
a law which history has demonstrated and proved - either
negatively or positively - so deeply, so mightily.
Where there has been no cup there has been no fire:
where there has been the cup, there has always been the fire.
It is the story of all the persecutions, all the sufferings of the people of God,
which have issued in the progress of the Gospel.
It is something that we have to recognize very clearly and
to accept quite definitely, that, right at the very heart of everything
in the purpose of God, there is a cup; and only by
the drinking of that cup is any kind of real spiritual progress,
enlargement, possible. But, to put that in another way,
the drinking of that cup will always issue in spiritual progress
or increase or enlargement or deepening.
It is always gain." From T. Austin Sparks (click on link below)
after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out
for you is the new covenant in My blood." Luke 22:20
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away!
Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” John 18:11
"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!
But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened
till it be accomplished!" Luke 12:49-50
"With the passages that we have read fresh in our minds,
I think that we are able to see that this last passage gathers them
all into itself, and that what they all bring before us is
the relationship between the cup of the Lord and
the scattering of the fire in the earth.
The Lord joined these two things together, and showed their relationship;
indicating that the scattering of the fire in the earth was dependent upon
the drinking of the cup.
And in so doing, He only indicated and established a law,
a law which history has demonstrated and proved - either
negatively or positively - so deeply, so mightily.
Where there has been no cup there has been no fire:
where there has been the cup, there has always been the fire.
It is the story of all the persecutions, all the sufferings of the people of God,
which have issued in the progress of the Gospel.
It is something that we have to recognize very clearly and
to accept quite definitely, that, right at the very heart of everything
in the purpose of God, there is a cup; and only by
the drinking of that cup is any kind of real spiritual progress,
enlargement, possible. But, to put that in another way,
the drinking of that cup will always issue in spiritual progress
or increase or enlargement or deepening.
It is always gain." From T. Austin Sparks (click on link below)