Being Still Enough To Hear His Voice

Some twenty years ago a friend gave me a book entitled True
Peace. It had an old medieval message and this one primary
thought—that God was waiting in the depths of my being to
speak to me if I would only be still enough to hear His voice.
 
I assumed this would not be a difficult thing to do, so I tried
to be still. No sooner had I begun to do so than complete pandemonium seemed to break loose. 

Suddenly I heard a thousand voices and sounds from without and within, until I could hear nothing except these incredible noises. 

Some were my own words, my own questions, and even my own prayers, while others were temptations of the Enemy, and the voices of the world’s turmoil.
 
In every direction I turned, I was pushed, pulled, and confronted with indescribable unrest and overwhelming noises.
 
I seemed compelled to listen to some of them and to respond in some way. 

But God said, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10) 

Then my mind was filled with worries over my responsibilities and plans for tomorrow, and God said again, “Be still.”
 
As I listened and slowly learned to obey, I shut my ears to every other sound. 

Soon I discovered that once the other voices ceased, or once I ceased to hear them, “a gentle whisper” (1 Kings 19:12) began to speak in the depths of my being. 

And it spoke to me with an inexpressible tenderness, power, and
comfort.
 
This “gentle whisper” became for me the voice of prayer, wisdom, and service. 

No longer did I need to work so hard to think, pray, or trust, because the Holy Spirit’s “gentle whisper” in my heart was God’s prayer in the secret places of my soul. 

It was His answer to all my questions, and His life and strength
for my soul and body. 

His voice became the essence of all knowledge, prayer, and blessings, for it was the living God Himself as my life and my all.
 
This is precisely how our spirit drinks in the life of our risen Lord. 

And then we are enabled to face life’s conflicts and responsibilities, like a flower that has absorbed the cool and refreshing drops of dew through the darkness of the night. 

Yet just as dew never falls on a stormy night, the dew of His grace never covers a restless soul. 

~A. B. Simpson~

Don't Indulge In The Flesh If You Would Live In The Power Of Your Risen LORD!

Vanish for ever all thought of indulging the flesh if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. 

It were ill that a man who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" said the angel to Magdalene. 

Should the living dwell in the sepulchre? Should divine life be immured in the charnel house of fleshly lust? 

How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of Belial? 

Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are delivered: have you also escaped from the more secret and delusive lime-twigs of the Satanic fowler? 

Have you come forth from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from carnal security? 

Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of avarice? 

Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God. 

If you be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by Him, do not suffer all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. 

Follow after holiness; it is the Christian's crown and glory.  

An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell's laughter, heaven's abhorrence. 

The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. 

O Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God's priest: act as such. You are God's king: reign over your lusts. 

You are God's chosen: do not associate with Belial. Heaven is your portion: live like a heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be holiness in the life.

Lord, I desire to live as one Lord, I desire to live as one Who bears a blood-bought name, As one who fears but grieving Thee,
And knows no other shame.

~Charles Spurgeon~

Children Of Israel "GO FORWARD"!

Exo 14:15  And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward:

Exo 14:16  But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.

Dear child of God, just imagine that triumphal march! Picture
the excited children being constantly hushed and restrained
by their parents from their outbursts of wonder.

Think how the women must have experienced an uncontrollable excitement as they found themselves suddenly saved from a fate worse than death.Imagine how the men who accompanied them must have felt ashamed and admonished for mistrusting God and for complaining against Moses.

And as you envision the Red Sea’s mighty walls of water, separated by the outstretched hand of the Eternal in response to the faith of a single man, learn what God will do for His own.

Never dread any consequence resulting from absolute obedience to His command. 

Never fear the rough waters ahead, which through their proud contempt impede your progress.
 
God is greater than the roar of raging water and the mighty
waves of the sea.“The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the
Lord is enthroned as King forever” (Ps. 29:10). 

A storm is simply the hem of His robe, the sign of His coming, and the evidence of His presence.
 
Dare to trust Him! Dare to follow Him! Then discover that the forces that blocked your progress and threatened your life
become at His command the very materials He uses to build your street of freedom.

~F. B. Meyer~
 
Have you come to the Red Sea place in your life, Where, in spite of all you can do, There is no way out, there is no way back,
There is no other way but through?
 
Then wait on the Lord with a trust serene Till the night of your fear is gone.
 
He will send the wind, He will heap the floods, When He says to your soul,“Move on.”
 
And His hand will lead you through...clear through  Ere the watery walls roll down, No foe can reach you, no wave can touch, No mightiest sea can drown.

The tossing billows may rear their crests, Their foam at your feet may break, But o’er the seabed you will walk dry ground In the path that your Lord will make.
 
In the morning watch, ’neath the lifted cloud, You will see but the Lord alone, When He leads you on from the place of the sea
To a land that you have not known.

And your fears will pass as your foes have passed, You will be no more afraid.

You will sing His praise in a better place, A place that His hand has made.

~Annie Johnson Flint~

Being Made Ready For Your Place In The Temple

Zec 6:13  Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
 
Christ himself is the builder of his spiritual temple, and he has built it on the mountains of his unchangeable affection, his omnipotent grace, and his infallible truthfulness. 

But as it was in Solomon’s temple, so in this; the materials need making ready. 

There are the “Cedars of Lebanon,” but they are not framed for the building; they are not cut down, and shaped, and made into those planks of cedar, whose odoriferous beauty shall make glad the courts of the Lord’s house in Paradise. 

There are also the rough stones still in the quarry, they must
be hewn thence, and squared. All this is Christ’s own work. 

Each individual believer is being prepared, and polished, and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ’s own hand
performs the preparation-work. 

Afflictions cannot sanctify, excepting as they are used by him to this end. 

Our prayers and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashioneth our hearts aright.
 
As in the building of Solomon’s temple, “there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house,” because all was brought perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy. 

So is it with the temple which Jesus builds; the making ready is all done on earth. 

When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no planing us with suffering. No, we must be made meet here.

All that Christ will do beforehand; and when he has done it, we shall be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death, and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to abide as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.

Beneath his eye and care, The edifice shall rise, Majestic, strong, and fair, And shine above the skies.”


~Charles Spurgeon~

The People Shall Dwell Alone

Num 23:9  For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

Not reckoned among the nations. Oh, that is glorious! That puts Israel not only apart from the nations, but on top of the nations. 

Now, if there has been one thing which Satan has ever tried to do with the people of God in all ages, it has been to get them reckoned among the nations. I speak solemnly and carefully. 

Right at the very heart of Christendom as we have it today is the desire to be recognized. Recognition!

Everything that organized Christianity does is to gain recognition. What are all these churches? I mean, in this instance, all these elaborate and imposing buildings. They are to gain recognition. They are in order to be reckoned something. 

To what end is all the procedure, the advertisement, and the much else besides? It is in order to get recognition, to be accredited here on this earth, to be reckoned. 

Yes, that is Satan's triumph. That is where spiritual power has gone out. That is where the Church has ceased to be something to be reckoned with up there. It has, in spirit, come down here, to be reckoned among the nations. 

If only Satan can get the people of God into a position where they are taken up by this world, written up by this world, made something of by this world, he has triumphed and pulled the Church down out of its heavenly place and made it an earthly thing. 

That is the principle right through the Old Testament. That too is seen to be the trouble in the Revelation. God will not have it. Satan's success is along that line. He has pulled the Church out of the heavens. Somewhere he has made it touch earth, form a link in some way with earth.

What we have just said does touch us in so many ways, yes, in countless things, this question of being reckoned among the nations in principle, this coming down from the heavenly position.

The Lord never meant His Church on this earth to be something that would be taken up by this world, to be something that would be reckoned among the things of this world, recognized and accredited by this world.

What He meant, and what obtained when things were right, was that the world itself could not bear the presence of the Church, did not want it. That is the power of the Church to testify against the world.

~T. Austin Sparks~

GOD SEES AND HEARS EVERYTHING

Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

All men, openly profane men, who are enemies to Christ, and his people, are under his eye and notice; he knows their persons, he sees their actions, even those that are most secretly devised and performed against him, and his saints; and he takes such notice of them, as to bring them into judgment for them.

He knows formal professors of religion, and upon what foot they have taken up their profession, and how they keep their lusts with their profession. He can distinguish between profession and grace; and he knows and observes the springs and progress of their apostasy:

And as for true believers, he knows their persons, and knows them to be his; he sees their sins and their weaknesses; he takes notice of their graces, and observes their wants; and there is nothing in them, or belongs to them, but what is before him, even the secret desires of their souls. 

~John Gill~  

Psa 33:13  The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. 

Where his throne and temple are, upon the earth and men, and things in it, he beholdeth all the sons of men; the evil and the good; which is contrary to the sense of many wicked men, who imagine he takes no notice of what is done here below; but his eye is upon all, upon all the workers of iniquity, how secret soever they may be.

And not only his eye of Providence is upon good men, but his eye of love, grace, and mercy; and he has a special and distinct knowledge of them: 

~John Gill~ 

Pro 5:21  For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. 

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord---Both good and bad; the ways of a chaste and virtuous man, who cleaves to his own wife and shuns the harlot, which are approved of by the Lord.

And the ways of a lewd man, all the impure thoughts, desires, and contrivances of his mind, and all the steps he takes to commit lewdness, and all the filthy actions he is guilty of, these are all open and naked to the omniscient God:

The adulterer seeks the twilight, and flatters himself with secrecy, not considering that the eye of God is upon him; there are many, that, were their filthy actions known to men, they would be ashamed of them; and this consideration greatly deters from them, and puts them upon secret ways of committing them; Much more should the consideration of the divine omniscience weigh with them to avoid them.
 
And he pondereth all his goings; he not only sees them, but takes notice of them, and observes them, and ponders them in his mind, and lays them up there, in order to bring to an account for them hereafter; yea, he weighs them in the balance of justice, and will proportion the punishment unto them, according to the rules of it; when it must go ill with those that follow such lewd practices.

~John Gill~ 

Psa 139:4  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 

For there is not a word in my tongue---Expressed by it or upon it, just ready to be spoken; before it is formed there; while it is in the mind, and not expressed, and even before that.

But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether; the whole of it, from whence it springs; the reason of it, what is designed, or the ends to be answered by it. 

The Lord knows the good words of his people, which they speak to him in prayer, even before and while they are speaking them; and what they say to one another in private conversation.

There is a great God in heaven who sees all things, and governs all things.

~John Gill~
















                                                                       

Divine Cultivation

I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day (Isaiah 27:3).
 
When the LORD Himself speaks in His own proper person rather than through a prophet, the word has a peculiar weight to believing minds.

It is Jehovah Himself who is the keeper of His own vineyard; He does not trust it to any other, but He makes it His own personal care. Are they not well kept whom God Himself keeps?

We are to receive gracious watering, not only every day and every hour "but every moment." How we ought to grow! How fresh and fruitful every plant should be! What rich clusters the vines should bear!

But disturbers come; little foxes and the boar. Therefore, the LORD Himself is our Guardian, and that at all hours, both night and day. What, then, can harm us? Why are we afraid! He tends, He waters, He guards; what more do we need?

Twice in this verse the LORD says, "I will." What truth, what power, what love, what immutability we find in the great "I will" of Jehovah!

Who can resist His will? If He says "I will," what room is there for doubt? 

With an "I will" of God we can face all the hosts of sin, death, and hell. 

O LORD, since Thou sayest, "I will keep thee," I reply, "I will praise Thee!" 

~Charles Spurgeon~

We Love A Smooth Path

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Isaiah 40:4 

We all want ease. We love a smooth path. We would like to be carried to heaven in a flowery bed of ease to enjoy every comfort that earth can give or heart desire and then, dying without a pang of body or mind, find ourselves safe in heaven! But that is not God's way.

If in your road heavenward, no valley ever sank before you~if no mountain and hill ever rose up in sight~if you encountered no crooked path through the dense forest, and no rough places, with many large stones and many a thorny brier in the tangled forest~it would not seem that you were treading the way which the saints of God have ever trod nor would it appear as if you needed special help from the Lord or any peculiar power to be put forth for your help and deliverance.

But being in this path, and that by God's own appointment, and finding right before your eyes~valleys of deep depression which you cannot raise up~mountains and hills of difficulty that you cannot lay low~crooked things which you cannot straighten~and rough places which you cannot make smooth~you are compelled, from felt necessity, to look for help from God. 

These perplexing difficulties, then, are the very things that make yours a case that the gospel of grace is thoroughly adapted. If you could at the present moment view these trials with spiritual eyes and feel that they were all appointed by unerring wisdom and eternal love and were designed for the good of your soul you would rather bless God that your pathway was so planned, that you had now a valley now a mountain now a crook and now a thorn. 

These very difficulties in the road are all productive of so many errands to the throne of grace. They all called upon you, as with so many speaking voices, to beg of the Lord that He would manifest Himself in love to your heart!

~J. C. Philpot~

But Our Coward Flesh Shrinks From Them!

Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10  

What benefit is there in afflictions? Does God send them without an object in view? Do they come merely, as the men of the world think, by chance? No! There is benefit intended by them.

The branch cannot bear fruit unless it be pruned. The love of sin cannot be cast out~the soul cannot be meekened, humbled, softened, and made contrite~the world cannot be embittered~the things of time and sense cannot be stripped of their false hue and their magic appearance except through affliction. 

Our greatest blessings usually spring from our greatest afflictions~they prepare the heart to receive them~they empty the vessel of the poisonous ingredients which have filled it, and fit it to receive gospel wine and milk.

To be without these afflictions~these griefs~these trials~these temptations is to write ourselves destitute of grace.

But our coward flesh shrinks from them! We are willing to walk to heaven but not to walk there in God's way. 

Though we see in the Scripture that the path to glory is a rough and rugged way yet when our feet are planted in that painful and trying path, we shrink back~our coward flesh refuses to walk in that road. 

God therefore, as a sovereign, brings those afflictions upon us which He sees most fit for our profit and His glory, without ever consulting us, without ever allowing us a choice in the matter. 

And He will generally cause our afflictions to come from the most unexpected source, and in a way most cutting to our feelings~in the way that of all others we would least have chosen and yet in a way which of all others, is most for our profit. 

God deals with us like a surgeon dealing with a diseased organ.

How painful the operation! How deep the knife cuts! How long it may be before the wound is healed! Yet every stroke of the knife is indispensable!

A skillful and faithful surgeon would not do his duty if he did not dissect it to the very bottom.

As pain before healing is necessary, and must be produced by the knife~so spiritually, we must be wounded and cut in our souls, as long, and as deeply as God sees needful, that in His own time we may receive the consolation. 

Do the afflictions we pass through humble us? Do they deaden the love of the world in our hearts? Do they purge out hypocrisy? Do they bring us more earnestly to the throne of grace? Do they discover to us sins that we have not before seen? Do they penetrate into our very hearts? Do they lay bare the corrupt fountain that we carry within us? Do they search and test us before a heart-searching God? Do they meeken and soften our spirit?

~J. C. Philpot~

Causes Of Heart Wanderings-Self Confidence

Another cause of backsliding is self-confidence, or leaning on native or acquired strength.

The soul which has been highly favored of God, or is possessed with strong natural traits, will instinctively lean upon itself, until it has been thoroughly mortified. 

This was the case with Peter, who was so confident of the inherent magnanimity of his character that he vowed, though all the others should forsake Christ, he would never forsake Him. 

Young converts in their first love make extravagant assurances of heroism; and oftentimes, in the first glow of the sanctified state, the human mind will fancy itself quite strong.

It takes many a lesson to burn into us the reality of our utter nothingness.

Self-confidence has so many forms to it. Like the atmosphere, it adapts itself to all zones and seasons of human life.

Christians often unconsciously confide in their experience, instead of leaning only on the Holy Spirit, who makes the experience. 

The Lord warned the Jews that when they should enter the land of Canaan, and should eat and become full, that they were to beware, lest thou forget the Lord."

A full stomach has a poor memory; it waxes fat and kicks.

This teaches us that even in the Canaan life we are not to depend upon our experience. If we do, we shall lose it.

Soul whiteness is like a snowflake -- if you lean on it, it dissolves. 

Because we have been endowed with grace, or strength, or wisdom, or some success, it is no guarantee that these endowments will continue unless we depend alone on the source from which they flow.

~G. D. Watson~