Heaven's Calling: A Memoir of One Soul's Steep Ascent

by Leanne Payne

The call that comes to a Christian has a double direction. It is a calling from heaven and it is a calling to heaven. It is a voice which comes from God and calls us to God. It is a call which demands concentrated attention because of both its origin and its destination. A man cannot afford to give a disinterested glance to an invitation to God from God.

real prayer is hard work because it is creative—through it we give birth, as it were, to the will of God, the works of God.

A firm principle in acknowledging that God is always with us is that we seek God alone and never an experience of God.

The one who prays simply cannot be too careful of the heart’s desires, for the Lord loves to honor them.

It is my experience that we are the most useful in the Kingdom when we least know it. In contrast, when it happens that we are conscious of a supernatural working of the Holy Spirit, we know of a surety that it has nothing to do with “our gifts” (or with some title we’ve given ourselves) but with the presence and direct word and/or action of a Holy God.

I started out wanting to obey the Lord. I ended in finding that, once again, the answer is baptismal: I die with Him to my own will, and I rise with Him—in His saving obedience.