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So long as there is some thought of personal advantage, some idea of acquiring the praise and commendation of men, some aim at self-aggrandizement, it will be simply impossible to find out God’s purpose concerning us.
If you do not know what you ought to do, stand still until you do. And when the time comes for action, circumstances, like glowworms, will sparkle along your path. 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.
The sleeper who turns restlessly is near awakening and will find that already the light of the morning is shining around the bed on which slumber has been indulged too long. “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14).
Cease to consider how you feel, and build on the immovable rock of what Jesus is, and has done, and is doing, and will do for you, world without end.
In His sight we are not what we feel, but what we will.
that is where you went wrong, and you will never get right till you go right back through the weary years to the point where you dropped the thread of obedience and perform that one thing that God demanded of you so long ago, but on account of which you left the narrow track of implicit obedience.”
if you are quiet, you may become aware of the presence in your soul of permitted evil.
When your desires flag, take the Bible in hand and begin to turn each text into petition; or take up the tale of your mercies, and begin to translate each of them into praise.
believe that the Word is the wire along which the voice of God will certainly come to you if the heart is hushed and the attention fixed. “I will hear what God the Lord will speak” (Psalm 85:8).
And I say again and again, “Jesus, You are here. I am not worthy that You should abide under my roof; but You have come. Assert Yourself. Put down all rule, and authority, and power. Come out of Your secret chamber, and possess all that is within me, that it may bless Your holy name.”
“I cannot; but Christ is in me, and He can,”
all trials were intended to reveal and unfold the wealth hidden within us,
reckon on God’s faithfulness. If He bids you step out onto the water, He knows that He can bring you safely back to the boat.
If you cannot see Him, look toward the place where you think He is.
We must have cast our sins on Him before we can cast our cares.
We must also feed faith with promise, for this
food is essential to make it thrive.
The Lord would never have sent us to His work without first calculating His ability to carry us through.
Roll the responsibility of your way on God (Proverbs 16:3), and expect that He will make known to you any alteration that He desires in a way so unmistakable that, though you are dull and stupid, you may not mistake it.
Get into the presence of Jesus, and you will not be left to hazy questioning and doubtful disputations, but will be told clearly and unmistakably His will, and always definitely about one point at a time.
Dare to repeat it often, though you do not feel it, and though Satan insists that God has left you, “You are with me.” Mention His name again and again, “Jesus, Jesus, You are with me.” So you will become conscious that He is there.
Oh! let me touch You! Let me dwell in unbroken contact with You, that out of You successive tides of divine energy may pass into and through my emptied and eager spirit, flowing, but never ebbing, and lifting me into a life of blessed ministry, which shall make deserts blossom like the garden of the Lord.
Prayer
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.
It is when water stands that it becomes clear and reveals the pebbly beach below. Be still, and know that God is within you and around you. In the hush of the soul the unseen becomes visible and the eternal real. The eye dazzled by the sun cannot detect the beauties of its pavilion till it has had time to rid itself of the glare. Let no day pass without its season of silent waiting before God.
You ask, then, how I knew that He was present. Because He was a quickening power. As soon as He entered, He awoke my slumbering soul. He moved and pierced my heart, which before was strange, stony, hard and sick, so that my soul could bless the Lord, and all that is within me praised His Holy Name.”
He never leads us through a place too narrow for Him to pass as well;
It was when the early Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit that they spoke the Word of God with boldness and gave witness with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
There would be a joy, a power, a consciousness of the Lord Jesus, a habitual rest in the will of God, which would be a joyful discovery to us, if only we refused to be satisfied with anything less than the full indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Lay claim at once to the covenanted portion, and thank God for having cast your lot in an age of such marvelous possibilities.
God will not find water for us to use to turn our own water-wheels.
We must not be content with the Spirit without the Word, or with the Word without the Spirit. Our life must travel along these two, as the locomotive along the parallel rails. The Word is the chosen organ of the Spirit; and it is only by our devout contact with it that we shall be enabled to detect His voice. It is by the Word that the Spirit will enter our hearts, as the heart of the sun passes into our chambers with the beams of light that enter the open casement.
God walks in the glades of Scripture, as of old He walked in those of Paradise.
He is the Spirit of love; and He loves us too well to cause grief, unless there is a reason, which we would approve of if we knew as much as He.
