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The Promises for Guidance Are Unmistakable Psalm 32:8: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go.”
Proverbs 3:6: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct (or make plain) thy paths.”
Isaiah 58:11: “The Lord shall guide thee continually.” It is impossible to think that He could guide us at all if He did not guide us always.
John 8:12: “I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
So long as there is some thought of personal advantage, some idea of acquiring the praise and commendation of men, some aim at self-aggrandisement, it will be simply impossible to find out God’s purpose concerning us.
Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the single eye, and to inspire in your heart one aim alone: that which animated our Lord, and enabled Him to cry, as He reviewed His life, “I have glorified Thee on the earth.” Let this be the watchword of our lives, “Glory to God in the highest.”
It is for the lack of this subordination that we so often miss the guidance we seek. There is a secret controversy between our will and God’s. And we shall never be right till we have let Him take, and break, and make.
God’s impressions within and His Word without are always corroborated by His Providence around, and we should quietly wait until these three focus into one point.
If you do not know what you ought to do, stand still until you do. And when the time comes for action, circumstance:, like glowworms, will sparkle along your path; and you will become so sure that you are right, when God’s three witnesses concur, that you could not be surer though an angel beckoned you on.
If we have fled to Jesus for salvation, sheltering under Him, relying on Him, and trusting Him, though with many misgivings, as well as we may, then we are one with Him for ever.
No number of meetings, no fellowship with Christian friends, no amount of Christian activity can compensate for the neglect of the still hour.
We are His by many ties and rights, but too few of us recognize His lordship. We are willing enough to take Him as Saviour; we hesitate to make Him King. We forget that God has exalted Him to be Prince, as well as Saviour. And the Divine order is irreversible. Those who ignore the lordship of Jesus cannot build up a strong or happy life.
The beloved Apostle speaks of being a partaker of the patience which is in Jesus (Rev. 1:9). So may we be.
your failure to realize and appreciate the fact of God’s love toward you cannot alter its being so.
It is a fact that in Jesus every obstacle has been removed out of the way of your immediate forgiveness and acceptance.
It is a fact that the moment a soul trusts Christ, he is born into God’s family and becomes a child. There is no doubt about this.
You may be a prodigal or inconsistent child, but you are a child. If you were wise you would take the child’s place at the Father’s table, and enjoy His smile. They await you. But if you still remain out in the cold, as the elder brother in the parable, you do not alter the fact that your place is ready for you to occupy when you will.
It is a fact that in Jesus Christ we are seated in heavenly places.
Do not trouble about your Faith; reckon on God’s Faithfulness. If He bids you step out on the water, He knows that He can bring you safely back to the boat.
This feverish haste threatens the religious life.
We must make time to be alone with God.
Care will break the rest of the soul as much as sin does.
It is a good way in dealing with God, and if you are not quite sure of His will, to say that you will stay where you are, or go on doing what you have been doing, until He makes quite clear what He wants and empowers you to do. Roll the responsibility of your way on God (Prov. 16:3, marg.), and expect that He will make known to you any alteration which He desires in a way so unmistakable, that though you are dull and stupid you may not mistake.
Don’t worry about dress, or ornaments, or doubtful things. Satan loves to turn the soul’s attention from Christ to itself.
Get into the presence of Jesus, and you will not be left to hazy questionings and doubtful disputations, but will be told clearly and unmistakably His will, and always definitely about one point at a time.
And so, when no burdens are brought into the soul, but are handed immediately over to the blessed Lord, the peace of God will fill the inner temple.
Do not talk about punishment.—You may talk of chastisement or correction, for our Father deals withus as with sons; or you may speak of reaping the results of mistakes and sins dropped as seeds into life’s furrows in former years; or you may have to bear the consequences of the sins and mistakes of others; but do not speak of punishment. Surely all the guilt and penalty of sin were laid on Jesus, and He put them away forever.
and if He once began to punish us, life would be too short for the infliction of all that we deserve.
His constant war is against the self-life, and every pain He inflicts is to lessen its hold upon us. But we may thwart His purpose and extract poison from His gifts, as men get opium and alcohol from innocent plants.
You will live to recognize the wisdom of God’s choice for you. You will one day see that the thing you wanted was only second best. You will be surprised to remember that you once nearly broke your heart and spilled the wine of your life for what would never have satisfied you
But what shall not Thy presence do for me, if I acquire a perpetual sense of it, and live in its secret place? Surely, in the heart of that fire, black cinder though I be, I shall be kept pure, and glowing, and intense!
My cry, day and night, is for power—spiritual power. Not the power of intellect, oratory, or human might. These cannot avail to vanquish the serried ranks of evil. Thou sayest truly that it is not by might nor power. Yet human souls which touch Thee become magnetized, charged with a spiritual force which the world can neither gainsay nor resist.
God is as much in the world as He was when Enoch walked with Him, and Moses communed with Him face to face. He is as willing to be a living, bright, glorious Reality to us as to them. But the fault is with us. Our eyes are unanointed because our hearts are not right. The pure in heart still see God, and to those who love Him, and do His commandments, He still manifests Himself as He does not to the world. Let us cease to blame our times; let us blame ourselves. We are degenerate, not they.
Remember, then, at the outset, that neither you nor any of our race, can have that glad consciousness of the Presence of God except through Jesus.
It is through the word that we feed upon the Word. And He said, “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him” (John 6:56).
Sir can no more stand against the presence of the Holy Spirit than darkness can resist the gentle, all-pervasive beams of morning light. If, however, He is grieved, or resisted, or quenched so that His power and presence are restrained, there is no deliverance for the spirit—however
But it can, and it will—if we only yield ourselves to its operation.
Like the Apostles of old, we must seek perpetual refillings. They who were filled in the second chapter of Acts were filled again in the fourth. Happy is that man who never leaves his chamber in the morning without definitely seeking and receiving the plenitude of the Spirit!
