W. Ian Thomas > Quotes

“To be in Christ -- that is redemption; but for Christ to be in you -- that is sanctification!”
― Major W. Ian Thomas

“Make sure it is God's trumpet you are blowing-
if it is only yours it won't wake the dead,
it will simply disturb the neighbours.”
― W. Ian Thomas

“All of Christ in all of you. You can never have more. You need never have less.”
― W. Ian Thomas

“We may understand again, therefore, from this picture, that God's purpose in the cross of Jesus Christ was two-fold: first that we might be forgiven, being saved from sin's penalty because Christ died for us, and secondly, that we might be delivered from sin's power, because this old sinful nature, called the flesh, died with Him.”
― Major W. Ian Thomas

“Although Jesus Christ was Himself the Creative Deity, by whom all things were made, as man He humbled Himself--set aside His divine prerogatives and walked this earth as man -- a perfect demonstration of what God intended man to be--the whole personality yielded to and occupied by God for Himself.”
― Major W. Ian Thomas

“To so many people, the Lord is in danger of being no more than a patron saint of our systematic theology instead of the Christ Who is our life.”
― Major W. Ian Thomas

“Godliness is not the consequence of your capacity to imitate God but the consequence of His capacity to reproduce Himself in you. It is not self-righteousness but Christ-righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith—a faith that by renewed dependence upon God releases His divine action to restore the marred image of the invisible God.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Mystery of Godliness: Experiencing Christ in Us

“Again, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17), and here the word to pray does not mean to beg or to plead as if God were unwilling to give--but simply to expose by faith every situation as it arises, to the all-sufficiency of the One who indwells you by His life.”
― Major W. Ian Thomas

“o be entirely honest, I know of nothing quite so boring as Christianity without Christ.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“Good works" are those works that have their origin in Jesus Christ--whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence (Rom. 12:1, 2).”
― Major W. Ian Thomas

“You and I, however, were so created that by anything and everything we do, we are saying to our Creator either “God, I love you,” or “God, I could not care less.” The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions, and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“I may wish to return to my home in England, and I stand in New York, but ever since I was born I have been bound to this earth by a law that I have never been able to break--the law of gravity. I am told, however, that there is another law, a higher law, the law of aero-dynamics, and if only I will be willing to commit myself in total trust to this new law, then this new law will set me free from the old law. By faith I step into the plane, I sit back in the rest of faith, and as those mighty engines roar into life, I discover that the new law of aero-dynamics sets me free from the law of gravity.”
― W. Ian Thomas

“True repentance says, “I cannot,” and true faith adds, “But God, You can!”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“Sin also is defined in the Bible as faithless independence: “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14: 23). It is an attitude of “lawlessness” (1 John 3: 4). In light of this understanding of sin, what then does repentance involve? Repentance means stepping out of independence back into dependence, and the measure of your repentance will be the measure of your dependence. Every area of your life in which you have not learned to be truly dependent on God is an area of your life in which you have not as yet repented.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“He had to do what He did (redeem) that you might have what He is (life). Here is the “much more” of your salvation: Christ in the present tense! Not what He was—that would condemn you. And not just what He will be—that would only tantalize you. But He gives you all the overwhelming adequacy of all that He is right now for every step of the way and for every bend in the road.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Mystery of Godliness: Experiencing Christ in Us

“Christ died for us so that He, risen and alive, might now come and dwell within us, so that we might no longer be egocentric, self-oriented, living only for our own interests: “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5: 15). Never be sorry for your self. Just be sorry for your sin! All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. ROMANS 3: 23”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“This is the divine vocation into which you have been redeemed: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2: 10). You are called and created in Christ Himself for a preordained life of good works. This vocation can be fulfilled only in the energy and power of the One who indwells you now by His Spirit, just as He once walked only in the energy and power of the Father who indwelt Him through the Spirit. Of Himself He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself” (John 5: 19), and of you He says, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15: 5). Therefore expect and allow Christ to work in and through you just as Christ, in His life on earth, expected and allowed the Father to work in and through Him. Expect Him to do this … and He will. Just say “Thank You”—and let Him surprise you! For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. JOHN 5: 26”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“He had to be what He was (perfect) to do what He did (redeem). Only by virtue of His own sinlessness could Christ die vicariously for those whose sin His life had condemned morally. God has done what the law could not do! He”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Mystery of Godliness: Experiencing Christ in Us

“Normality for a human being is when God can be seen by anything and everything which that person does and says and is.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me

“To get light from an oil lamp, filling it first with oil is entirely reasonable. To get a car to provide you with transportation, filling the tank with gas is completely logical. In the same way, divine logic affirms that obtaining righteousness from a man or woman happens only when that person is filled with God. Oil in the lamp, gas in the car … and Christ in the Christian. It takes God to be a man, and that is why it takes Christ to be a Christian, because Christ puts God back into a man, the only way we can again become functional.”
― W. Ian Thomas, The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me