YIELDEDNESS And THE SECRETS OF GOD

The baptism of Jesus must bring us to have a single eye to the
Glory of GOD; everything else is wasted time and wasted energy.
 
Beloved, we can reach it; it is a high mark but we can get to it.
 
You ask how? "What wilt thou have me to do?"

That is the plan. It means a perfect surrender to the call of GOD, and perfect obedience. 

A dear young Russian came to England. He did not know the
language, but learned it quickly and was very much used and
blessed of GOD;

And as the wonderful manifestations of the Power of GOD were seen, they pressed upon him to know the secret of his power, but he felt it was so sacred between him and GOD he should not tell it...

But they pressed him so much he finally said to them: "First GOD called me, and His presence was so precious, that I said to GOD at every call I would obey Him, and I yielded, and yielded, and yielded, until I realized that I was simply clothed with another power altogether...

And I realized that GOD took me, tongue, thoughts and everything, and I was not myself but it was Christ working through me.
 
How many of you today have known that GOD has called you over and over, and has put His hand upon you, but you have not yielded?

How many of you have had the breathing of His power within you, calling you to prayer, and you have to confess you have failed?
 
If GOD can have His way today, the ministry of somebody will
begin; it always begins as soon as you yield.

Paul had been bringing many people to prison, but GOD brought Paul to such a place of yieldedness and brokenness that he cried out, "What wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6). 

Paul´s choice was to be a bondservant for Jesus Christ. 

Beloved, are you willing that GOD shall have His way today? 

GOD said, "I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name´s sake" (Acts 9:16).

But Paul saw that these things were working out a far more exceeding weight of glory.

You people who have come for a touch from GOD, are you willing to follow Him; will you obey Him? 

What Wilt Thou Have Me Do?

~Smith Wigglesworth~

Trust And Rest

Psa 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

The word trust is the heart word of faith. It is the Old Testament word, the word given to the early and infant stage of faith. 

The word faith expresses more the act of the will, the word belief the act of the mind or intellect, but trust is the language of the heart.

The other has reference more to a truth believed or a thing expected.

Trust implies more than this, it sees and feels, and leans upon a person, a great, true, living heart of love.

So let us "trust also in him," through all the delays, in spite of all the difficulties, in the face of all the denials, notwithstanding all the seemings, even when we cannot understand the way, and know not the issue; still "trust also in him, and he will bring it to pass."

The way will open, the right issue will come, the end will be peace, the cloud will be lifted, and the light of an eternal noonday shall shine at last.

Trust and rest when all around thee  Puts thy faith to sorest test; Let no fear or foe confound thee, Wait for GOD and trust and rest.

Trust and rest with heart abiding, Like a birdling in its nest, Underneath His feathers hiding, Fold thy wings and trust and rest.

TRUST In The LORD!

Psa 22:4  Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

Psa 22:5  They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
 
O what a blessed thing it is to have in one's own bosom a secret trust in Jesus..that whilst so many are looking to something in themselves or in one another, resting their eternal salvation on works that really are but the sports of a child, the saint of GOD is reposing upon the LORD of life and glory!

On him he hangs his hope, and in him he puts his trust.

These the LORD will honor; nor will he ever disappoint their hope or put their confidence to shame.

Whoever trusted in the LORD and was confounded?

If you are enabled to trust in him, to believe his faithful word, to discard all creature confidence and to hang the weight of your soul~and O what a weight is that!~upon a faithful, covenant-keeping GOD, he will never leave, fail, or forsake you. 

You may find it hard to trust in him at all times or indeed at any time. You may feel a want of something sensible--something to see or hear, distinct from faith. Look Not for this.

We walk by faith, not by sight. It must be a naked trust in an invisible GOD.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our GOD.

And if you are enabled so to trust, he will make it manifest sooner or later in your own conscience that you are one of the righteous;

Light will beam upon your path; glory will dawn upon your heart, and you will have the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul.

~J. C. Philpot~

Open The Trenches

2Ki 3:16  And he said, Thus saith the LORD, Make this valley full of ditches.
 
2Ki 3:17  For thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts.
 
2Ki 3:18  And this is but a light thing in the sight of the LORD: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hand. 

To human thinking it was simply impossible, but nothing is hard for GOD.

Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and apparently impossible, the floods came stealing in all night long; and when the morning dawned, those ditches were flooded with the crystal waters, and reflecting the rays of the morning sun from the red hills of Edom. 

Our unbelief is always wanting some outward sign.

The religion of many is largely sensational, and they are not satisfied of its genuineness without manifestations, etc.; but the greatest triumph of faith is to be still and know that He is GOD.

The great victory of faith is to stand before some impassable Red Sea, and hear the Master say, "Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD," and "Go forward!"

As we step out without any sign or sound-not a wave-splash and wetting our very feet as we take the first step into its waters, still marching on we shall see the sea divide and the pathway open through the very midst of the waters.

If we have seen the miraculous workings of GOD in some marvelous case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance, I am sure the thing that has impressed us most has been the quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness which came to us as we stood in the presence of this Mighty GOD and felt how easy, it was for Him to do it all without the faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.

It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey.

The ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some supernatural source. What a lesson for our faith!            

Are you craving a spiritual blessing? Open the trenches, and God will fill them.

And this, too, in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected ways.

Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and expect God to work although we see no wind or rain.

~A. B. Simpson~

The Mourner Comforted

By the valley of weeping we come to Zion. One would have thought mourning and being blessed were in opposition, but the infinitely wise Savior puts them together in this Beatitude.

What He has joined together let no man put asunder. Mourning for sin - our own sins, and the sins of others is the LORD's seal set upon His faithful ones.

When the Spirit of grace is poured upon the house of David, or any other house, they shall mourn.

By holy mourning we receive the best of our blessings, even as the rarest commodities come to us by water.

Not only shall the mourner be blessed at some future day, but Christ pronounces him blessed even now.

The Holy Spirit will surely comfort those hearts which mourn for sin.

They shall be comforted by the application of the blood of Jesus and by the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost.

They shall be comforted as to the abounding sin of their city and of their age by the assurance that God will glorify Himself, however much men may rebel against Him.

They shall be comforted with the expectation that they shall be wholly freed from sin before long and shall soon be taken up to dwell forever in the glorious presence of their LORD. 

~Charles Spurgeon~

THE LORD FAITHFUL, AND HIS WORD TRUE TO THE LAST

Jos 23:14  And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.

There is no testimony to the faithfulness of GOD in His Word so convincing and touching as that of the dying believer.

If ever a man is sincere, it is then. If ever the veil is laid aside and the soul appears real and undisguised, be it a saint or a sinner, it is at that solemn moment.

No motive now exists for the false, and no cloud can conceal the true; the coin that has passed current with many for genuine is now found to be counterfeit, and that which many regarded as counterfeit - even the possessor himself - proves to be genuine!

Nature now appears to be but nature; and grace, vindicating its true character, proves itself grace.

The specious hope dies, and the true hope gathers life; the false faith sinks, and the real rises; 

And the timid believer, who went doubting and trembling all the way to Jordan's brink, plunges boldly into the river, and passes over to the other side, with the paean of triumph breathing sweetly from his lips, "O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?" 

Such is the picture which the position of Joshua now presents to our view.

He is standing upon the sunny slope, and before the soles of his feet smite the cold waters, he casts a back glance upon all the way the LORD his GOD had brought him...

And in words the most emphatic and impressive, testifies to the divine faithfulness and unchanging love of his covenant GOD in making good all His great and precious promises He had so graciously given, "Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD, your GOD, spoke unto you; all are come to pass." 

Such is the divine assurance with which we conclude our daily thoughts.

What more precious truth, blended with sweeter melody, could linger upon the ear as we close the volume than this...GOD'S faithfulness in the fulfillment of His Word?

Let us look at this truth as confirmed by the experience, first, of the living, and then of the dying believer, for both are GOD'S witnesses. 

What is the life of the child of GOD but a continuous experience of the truth of His Word, and the veracity of His promises? 

You have, perhaps, been placed in trying circumstances; resources have lessened and demands have increased;

Your faith has been sharply tried; your spirits depressed; the sky has lowered and the waters have risen...

But lo! the Spirit, the Comforter, has guided you to some precious promise which has just met your case.

It has touched your heart, moistened your eye, uplifted the pressure, and your whole soul has been, as it were, absorbed in GOD.

And now the harp that hung sad and mute upon the willow is taken down, and thrills with a new song of praise and thanksgiving to the faithfulness of GOD in the fulfillment of His Word. 

Yes, my soul, you can testify to the truth that every sweet invitation and precious promise and loving word of Jesus, upon which He causes your soul to rest in its grief and desolation, has come to pass - not one word has failed.

This is a clear proof of God's veracity in the making good His every word of promise.

Has He not promised to provide for you? then trust Him.

Has He not pledged Himself to guide you? then commit your way to Him.

Has He not undertaken to save you? then believe His Word and pray - "Say unto my soul, I am your salvation." 

Soon the living witness to the faithfulness of the LORD in His Word will become the dying one.

When heart and flesh are failing - when the solemn curtain of eternity is rising...

When the eye is darkening, and the pulse is sinking, and earth is receding...

And eternity is nearing, and, heaven is opening, oh, then, like Joshua, you shall testify to the unchanging love and faithful word...

And precious comforts and secure supports of your covenant GOD and redeeming Savior, as He gently leads you down the valley, radiant with His presence, resounding with your song - up the delectable mountains, home to your Father's House..."Forever with the Lord!"

 ~Octavius Winslow~

Treasures And Pleasures!

Gen 15:1  After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
 
God is a satisfying reward: God is a whole ocean of blessedness, so that the soul, while it is bathing in it, cries out in a divine ecstasy, "I have enough!"

Here is fullness but no excess. Psalm 17:15, "I shall be satisfied when I awake with Your likeness."

That is...when I awake out of the sleep of death, having my soul embellished with the illustrious beams of Your glory - I shall be satisfied.

In God there is not only sufficiency but redundancy; not only the fullness of the vessel but the fullness of the fountain!

In God, this Ark of blessedness, are all good things to be found. 

Therefore Jacob, having God for his reward, could say, "I have enough!" or, as it is in the original, "I have all!" Genesis 33:11.

God is all marrow and fatness. He is such an plenteous reward as exceeds our very faith.

If the Queen of Sheba's heart fainted when she saw all King Solomon's glory...what would it have done to have beheld the astonishing and magnificent reward which God bestows upon His favorites!

God is a suitable reward: The soul, being spiritual, must have something comparable and suitable to make it happy and that is God.

Light is no more suitable to the eye, nor melody to the ear than God is to the soul.

He pours spiritual blessings into the soul, Ephesians 1:3. He enriches it with grace,  feasts it with His love, and  crowns it with heavenly glory!

God is a pleasant reward: He is the quintessence of delight! He is all beauty and love!

To be feeding upon thoughts of God is delicious. Psalm 104:34, My meditation on Him shall be sweet.

It is delightful to the bee to suck the flower. Just so, by holy musing, to suck out some of the sweetness in God, carries a secret delight in it.

To have a prospect of God only by faith is pleasant. 1 Peter 1:8, In whom believing, you rejoice.

Then what will the joy of vision be when we shall have a clear, personal sight of Him and be laid in the bosom of divine love! 

What a delicious reward will God be in Heaven! This will be better felt than expressed.

The godly, entering upon their celestial reward, are said to enter into the joy of their Lord, Matthew 25:21.

Oh, amazing! The saints enter into God's own joy! They have not only the joy which God bestows but the joy which God enjoys!

God is a transcendent reward: The artist, going to paint the picture of Helena, not being able to draw her beauty drew her face covered with a veil...

Just so, when we speak of God's excellencies we must draw a veil.

He is so super-eminent a reward, that we cannot set Him forth in all His luster and magnificence.

Put the whole world in scale with Him and it is as if you should weigh a feather compared to a mountain of gold. 

God is far better than all other things put together! He is better than the world and better than Heaven! 

He is the original cause of all good things.

Nothing is sweet without Him. He perfumes and sanctifies our comforts!

God being an infinite reward, there can be no defect or scantiness in it.

There is no lack in that which is infinite.  

Some may ask, "Is God sufficient for every individual saint?" Yes!

If the sun, which is but a finite creature, disperses its light to the universe then much more God, who is infinite, distributes glory to the whole number of the elect.

As every person enjoys the whole sun to himself, so every believer possesses the whole God to himself.

The Lord has land enough to give all His heirs.  

Throw a thousand buckets into the seamand there is water enough in the sea to fill them.

Just so, though there are millions of saints and angels there is enough in God to fill them.

God is an infinite reward, and though He is continually giving out of His fullness to others yet He has not the less.

His glory is imparted not impaired. It is a distribution, without a diminution.

God is an honorable reward: Honor is the height of men's ambition. Aristotle calls it the greatest of blessings.

What greater dignity than to be taken up into communion with the God of glory, and to possess a kingdom with Him, bespangled with light, and seated with Christ upon His throne, above all the visible orbs!

God is an everlasting reward. Mortality is the flaw of all earthly things. But God is an eternal reward.

Eternity cannot be measured by years nor ages. Eternity makes glory, weighty.

Psalm 48:14, "This God is our God forever and ever!" 

Oh, saints of God, your praying and repenting are but for a while...but your reward is forever!

As long as God is God, He will be rewarding you!

Hosea 2:19, "I will betroth you unto Me forever." God marries Himself to His people, and this admits of no divorce.

God's love for His elect is as unchangeable as His love for Christ!

God is my portion forever! Psalm 73:26. This portion cannot be spent because it is infinite; nor can it be lost because it is eternal.

In God are treasures which can never be emptied and pleasures which can never be ended.

Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

~Thomas Watson~

Upper Springs

Joshua 15:18  And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou?
 
Joshua 15:19  Who answered, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.

There are both upper and nether springs. They are springs, not stagnant pools.

There are joys and blessings that flow from above through the hottest summer and the most desert land of sorrow and trial.

The lands of Achsah were "south lands," lying under a burning sun and often parched with burning heat.

But from the hills came the unfailing springs, that cooled, refreshed and fertilized all the land.

There are springs that flow in the low places of life, in the hard places, in the desert places, in the lone places, in the common places, and no matter what may be our situation, we can always find these upper springs.
     
Abraham found them amid the hills of Canaan. Moses found them among the rocks of Midian.

David found them among the ashes of Ziklag when his property was gone, his family captives and his people talked of stoning him, but "David encouraged himself in the Lord."

Habakkuk found them when the fig tree was withered and the fields were brown, but as he drank from them he could sing: "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation."
     
Isaiah found them in the awful days of Sennacherib's invasion, when the mountains seemed hurled into the midst of the sea...

But faith could sing: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. 

God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved.
     
The martyrs found them amid the flames, and reformers amid their foes and conflicts...

And we can find them all the year if we have the Comforter in our hearts and have learned to say with David: "All my springs are in thee."

How many and how precious these springs, and how much more there is to be possessed of God's own fulness!

 ~A. B. Simpson~
     

The Changed Conditions Of Eternity

A great philosopher has written in his books that we should view all things sub specie oeternitatis.

The boys who are learning Latin will tell us what that means: it means that we ought to consider things under the light, so to speak, of eternity.

Now, I feel that it was under that eternal light that Jesus was moving when He spoke this parable.

And why? Because we are told the beggar's name, but we are not told the name of the rich man.

When a great man gives a public banquet, the newspapers tell us all about it...

We get the names of the host and of all his guests, and we hear, too, how the ladies were dressed;

But we never dream of finding in the newspaper the names and addresses of the poor around the gates.

But when Jesus tells the story of this feasting, and tells it as it is written in the books of GOD, the beggar is named and a noble name he had - and the host is only "a certain rich man."

Here the one man is great and he is known; the other is a beggar and a nuisance.

Here the one man has everything he wants; the other lives and dies in want of everything.

But yonder, in the world beyond the grave, where the wrong is righted, and GOD'S strange ways are justified, Lazarus lies upon the bosom of peace, and the rich man bitterly reaps what he has sown.

Do you see the contrast between the now and then?

Do you mark the complete reversal of the lots?

It is by such unveiling's of eternity, that Christ has eased the problems of the world.

~George H. Morrison~

The Light Of Their Souls Cannot Be Extinguished!

Psa 66:9  Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

It is indeed an unspeakable mercy for the heirs of promise that the life given them in Christ and communicated by the Holy Spirit to their souls cannot be extinguished.

It may sink very low--one can hardly say how low, but so low as to sink out of sight and almost out of feeling;

And yet if it has once been breathed into the soul from the mouth of GOD, it can never die.

Still it is most desirable that this divine life should be maintained in strength and vigor, and not sink so low as to be scarcely perceptible either to ourselves or others...

For if so, we have little comfort of it in our own breast, and are of little use or service to the people of GOD.

It is a sad thing to be satisfied with a low, lean, and lifeless state of soul, or be placing our religion in external activity and zealous attention to forms and mere externals, just to preserve a clean outside, when within there is little else but darkness, bondage, and death.

How the LORD seems, as it were, obliged to plunge us into trials and afflictions to bring us out of carnality and death, and to keep us from settling on our lees like Moab!

~J. C. Philpot~

A Call Of Warning

You have no power to say, "I'll hear the trumpet tomorrow." 

It may not blow tomorrow.

You haven't got the control of the trumpet, GOD has.

And GOD'S Holy Spirit is the breath by which the trumpet sounds.

And you cannot order the Holy Spirit to speak to you another time.

He says, "Today if you will hear, today... I guarantee nothing after today, I call today." 

Today if you will hear His voice..." Yes it's love, it's mercy, but it is solemn warning.

There seems to be two tones mingling in this sound, it's a joyful sound, it's a joyful sound, how blessed, how pleasant is the Gospel sound, it's the Gospel sound and 'Gospel' means 'good news'.

It's good news sounding forth: GOD has, by His Son, His Son's death, His Son's bearing of our sin and our judgement, GOD has provided redemption.

That's good news for you, dear friends, for you He's provided. That's the joyful sound.

 The psalmist speaks of the joyful sound and they're blessed who hear the joyful sound. And yet, and yet, mingled with the joyful sound there is a solemn sound.

The Bible speaks of solemn festivities; solemn festivities, the mingling of joy and solemnity because of the tremendous issues that are involved.

And you would not have me do other than tell you that it is, it is a solemn and a very terrible thing to close your heart and your ears to GOD speaking.

There's a lot involved, a lot involved, oh, everything is involved!

I remember so well some years, yes many years ago, I was visiting in the house of a friend and there came to that house that evening a man and we got talking after the evening meal.

And he said, "I, somehow or other, I felt I'd got to come over here tonight."

He'd come right across from the other side of the village. "Somehow I felt I'd got to come over here tonight, I don't know why, I can't explain it at all, but there it is."

So I said, "Oh well, probably as we talk on we will discover why." And I began to talk to him. 

It wasn't very long before we discovered the why, GOD had some interest in that life for which I'd been brought there that night.

And I said "What about it?" and he said, "Well, I must go away and think about it."

Well, I said, "Don't think too long, arrive at a conclusion as quick as you can."

He went away, we didn't hear anything of him for a little while.

Strangely enough, I was in that same home some few weeks afterwards and the same man arrived at the same time!

He looked a little sheepish when he found I was there again, and at any rate I was for business. 

Before long I came down and said "Well, what about that matter?" it came out, "You said that you believe that GOD had brought you right across the city for that thing, that night.

What about it?" And he said, "Yes, I thought about it, and then I went to consult someone about it and asked them..." (a minister by the way, a minister whom he happened to know)... 

And he said 'Oh don't you worry about those things. Don't worry about those things, don't you become fanatical. It's alright, it's alright.'

Well, I said, "Oh, so it's this man or it's GOD! 

You said that you believed that GOD had brought you and spoken to you and raised an issue and then you allow man to contradict GOD and say 'it doesn't matter what GOD says.'

Well, we got down and again he came to it and he said, "I can't get away from it, I believe, I believe that's what GOD wants."

He got right to the point again, but he wouldn't give in; he wouldn't have that transaction.

He went away again, and it was some months before I saw him and for the third time this thing happened, and still he didn't respond to GOD.

And then sometime afterward I happened to be right on the other side of the city and was walking along a certain road and I saw a man coming toward me on a cycle and he got within recognition distance of me and saw who it was and wheeled round on his cycle and went for dear life.

And I heard later that that man had gone headlong into sin and lost all hope, down deep into a lost condition. 

Don't run that risk.

When GOD speaks, when GOD brings you where the trumpet is sounding it's a very, very big thing that is at stake:

Whether you respond or whether you say,"Well, I'll think about it" or "I must ask So-and-so about it and see what they say." Or any other kind of prevarication.

No, no, the LORD says "Today, if you will hear His voice..." While it is today... everything may hang upon that.

I'm not trying to be emotional, I'm not trying to be sensational, but I am saying that the trumpet sounds, the trumpet sounds...

You've heard it, the Spirit of GOD speaking to you and telling you tonight what GOD wants where you are concerned.

He wants you to Himself as one of His redeemed ones in the enjoyment of that redemption.

It is for you to say, "Yes I hear and I respond, I come, I answer the call."

May GOD so influence you that you will do that.

~T. Austin Sparks~