INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS - PART # 3

GO WITH WHAT YOU KNOW 
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (PSALM 90:14)
This morning pray, "Lord, I am waiting for You to direct me." While you honor the Lord by listening for His response, you may hear Him speak something specific to you right away. It may seem as though He inscribes direction in your spirit for the day. The devil may tell you that it wasn't really God who spoke to you. Or while you are waiting to hear from God, Satan may tell you that you are wasting your time. It is important to know the truth of God's Word so that the direction God sows in your heart will not be snatched away from you through doubt. God may not lay out a blueprint for your day, but He will direct your path, if you acknowledge Him in all of your ways (See PROVERBS 3:6).  


PRAY AND LISTEN !!!!!!
Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for on You do I lean and in You do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my inner self to You.            (PSALM 143:8)
We need to pray and then stop and listen. Sometimes we can hear God as a still, small voice from deep within our heart. Many times God will speak through our inner witness so that we "just know" the truth and it sets us free. Suddenly we know what we should or shouldn't do. King David has a lot to say about seeking God in the morning. He prayed in the morning and then watched and waited for God to speak to his heart. I like knowing that God is listening for our prayers. He likes it when we listen to His answer too.   


DON"T BE TOO BUSY !!!!!
It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness. 
                       (LAMENTATIONS 3:22__23)
If we are too busy to spend time with God, then we are just too busy, and we are asking for a disaster in our life. We need to ask God to show us things we can get rid of in our life that aren't bearing any fruit. In His Word God says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light . . . Live purposefully . . . making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil" (EPHESIANS 5:14__16). God wants us to be strong in the power of His might and to be ever filled with the Holy Spirit.  



CRAVE GOD"S PRESENCE !!!
My soul yearns for You [O Lord] in the night, yes, my spirit within me seeks You earnestly; for [only] when Your judgments are in the earth will the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God).                         (ISAIAH 26:9)
If we hunger enough, we will get something to eat. And if we can't eat before we leave home, we will go to a drive-thur at a fast-food restaurant. Or we will call a place that delivers food to bring us something to eat. 
If we are hungry enough for God, we will find a way into His presence. We should be so hungry for the presence of God the we absolutely will not go out of our house or tackle any kind of project until we have spent some time with Him.
  



FORM GODLY HABITS !!!!!
Fix these word of mine in your hearts and minds . . . talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days . . . may be . . . as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.          (DEUTERONOMY 11:18__21)
Waiting for God's direction each day is something you may have to make yourself do at first, but through practice, it will become natural to begin your day this way. New habits are formed by being consistent. Seeking God first in the morning will soon be something you can't do without. When God wanted His people to remember something, He told them to write it down.You may have to post reminders to seek the Lord around your house in order to follow through with your new intention. But he consistent to seek God first every day, and He will make your successful. (See JOSHUA 1:7__9).  



EXPECT SOMETHING NEW !!
 In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. (PSALM 5:3)
If you get up and do the exact same thing every morning, you may get pretty bored after a month or so. But seeking God when you first wake up is never boring. He will always have a new revelation ready for you to hear. Keep your expectation fresh by changing what you do in your time with God. You might worship the Lord with singing one morning, listen to Christian music another morning, read God's Word the third morning, sit in His presence or confess His Word the following morning. Let the Holy Spirit lead you as you learn to enjoy starting your day with God.

LISTEN FOR HIS PURPOSE !!!
Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that he should choose. He himself shall dwell at ease . . . The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him. 
                        (PSALM 25:12__14)
It is God who wakes us each morning. If He didn't keep us alive overnight, it wouldn't matter what kind of an alarm clock we had! The prophet said, "God wakens me morning by morning, and He wakens me for a purpose so that I can hear; I am like a disciple who is taught" (See ISAIAH 50:4). 
Before you even get out bed, listen to hear what God has to say to you. It will be a good day if you start it with a ready ear, taking time to listen to Him. God is eager to reveal today's plan to you.     

START OUT JOYFULLY !!!!
You try the heart and delight in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things. And now I have seen with joy Your people who are present here offer voluntarily and freely to You. O Lord . . . keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the mind of Your people, and direct and establish their hearts toward You. (1 CHRONICLES 29:17__18)
My husband always seems happy. Within five minutes of walking, Ben is humming, singing, or listening to music as he gets ready for the day. Tears ago I didn't want music on in the morning. I didn't want singing or humming or noise of any kind. I wanted silence so I could think. Today I still need a little more quiet than Ben does in the morning. But we have both found the way to start our day our right. We set our hearts and minds to follow God. And it works.   


REJOICE TODAY !!!!!
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; yearn for and seek His face and to be in His presence continually! [Earnestly] remember the marvelous deeds which He has done, His miracles, and the judgment He uttered. (1 CHRONICLES 16:10__12).
Many people don't realize how important the morning is, especially those first moments of time that we are awake. God calls the sun to rise for us. He is eager for us to wake up and talk to him again. David the psalmist talked a lot about mornings, saying "This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it" (See PSALM 118:24). David didn't always feel like rejoicing, but he decided to rejoice in God's new day. As soon as you get up, look at yourself in the mirror, smile, and say, "I am going to have a good day because Jesus loves me."   

GET REST !!!!!!
As for me, I will continue beholding Your face in righteousness (rightness, justice, and right standing with You); I shall be fully satisfied, when I awake [to find myself] beholding Your form [and having sweet communion with You]. (PSALM 17:15)
Each evening the sun sets on all of our problems and on all of the mistakes we made that day. But something marvelous happens to us as we sleep__the Lord gives us rest physically, mentally, and emotionally. We are renewed and rejuvenated to face the next day. Today we may wake up with the same problems we had when we went to bed, problems that yesterday we felt we just couldn't take anymore. But somehow today, after proper rest and sleep, we think, I can do it; can face it again. God promises to renew our strength when we rest in Him.  

GET IN THE FLOW !!!!
You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light. O continue Your loving-kindness to those who know You, Your righteousness (salvation) to the upright in heart. (PSALM 36:8__10)
I have never been much of a swimmer. I may not be the best at fighting the current, but I can float. It is the best at fighting the current, but I can float. It is wonderful just to trust the water to keep us up and go with the flow. We can trust God to keep us afloat through the rapids and lead us to still waters. The Bible says God's mercy and loving-kindness are "new every morning" (See LAMENTATIONS 3:22__23). His mercy isn't just there waiting for us; it is new, fresh, flowing, and powerful every new day. We need to get in the flow of God's river of life early each day and learn to float on the power of His presence.   


 AVOID THE SLINGERS !!!!
O God, You are my God, earnestly will I seek You; my inner self thirsts for You . . . in a dry and weary land where no water is . . . I have looked upon You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.                (PSALM 63:1__3)
There were people in the Bible called slingers who defeated their enemies by slinging stones and throwing dirt into their wells, contaminating their life source of water (See 2 KINGS 3:25). We all know people who sling accusation, judgment, criticism, and faultfinding at others. We certainly don't want slingers in our life, and we don't want to become slingers either. Don't be a slinger who contaminates your own faith or the faith of those around you. Spending time with God will fill you with "living water" (See JOHN 7:38). You will be edified and become a source of encouragement for others all day long.


KEEP IN TOUCH WITH GOD !
Blessed (happy, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes] . . . But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night. (PSALM 1:1__2)__Keep in touch with God today; stay tuned to His voice. You may have a plan for the day, but God may lead you in totally different direction if you are sensitive to the Holy Ghost. Be brave enough to flow with what you feel in your heart God wants you to do. today is going to be a good day. Listen for the voice of God to lead you. Be determined to walk in the Spirit and stay in the flow of God'd leading today. 

GET UP AND GET GOING !!!!
I am weary with my groaning; all night I soak my pillow with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping . . . Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. (PSALM 6:6__8)
Even before we are totally awake, Satan is bidding to deceive us and is ready to plant defeating thoughts in our mind. He wants us to be hopeless, faithless, and negative. He definitely doesn't want us to be positive when we get up. He wants us to have a bad attitude and be selfish and self-centered, full of hatred, bitterness, resentment, doubt, unbelief, and fear__to be mad at everybody. But thank God, through Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed from all of those negative patterns. We can resist the devil and trust God's power in order to live victoriously today. 


START YOUR DAY RIGHT !!!!
When I said, My foot is slipping, Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, held me up (PSALM 94:18)
Some people seem to start their day on the "wrong foot." They feel all right when they wake up, but as soon as something goes wrong, they lose their footing and walk with a "loser's limp" the rest of the day. Once they are off to a bad start, it seems they never catch up. If someone offends us early in the morning, our anger can keep us defensive all day. If we start the day rushing, it seems we never slow down. But today our feet can be firmly planted in God's Word. There will be no "bad day" when God's Word supports, strengthens, and directs us. 

BE HAPPY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Lord is my Strength and Song; and He has become my Salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents and private dwellings of the [uncompromisingly] righteous: the right hand of the Lord does valiantly and achieves strength! 
                                  (PSALM 118:14__15)
Happiness is the result of a radical, outrageous relationship with God. If we want to walk in victory, we have to put some time into our relationship with the Lord. There is much to discover about His plan for us. Our contentment won't last if we are not obeying God by seeking Him with our whole heart. God wants us to really talk to Him and pay attention to His answer. Spend enough time with Him this morning to walk in victory all day. 

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS !!!!!! PART # 2

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS !!!!!!!!
I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (MATTHEW 28:20)
A storm on the Sea of Galilee was akin to a sumo wrestler's belly flop on a kiddy pool. The northern valley acted like a wind tunnel, compressing and hosing squalls onto the Lake. Waves as tall as ten feet were common. . . . [Yet] from the center of the storm, the unwavering Jesus shouts, "I am." Tall in the Trade Tower wreckage. Bold against the Galilean waves. ICU, battlefield, boardroom, prison cell, or maternity ward__whatever your storm, "I am." 


Every perfect gift is from God.  (JAMES 1:17) An itinerant preacher from Nazareth can do something for the hurt that is in your heart. Maybe you're trying to rebuild an estranged relationship. . . . Maybe you've been trying to find God for longer than you can remember. There was something about this Nazarene preacher that made people cluster around him like he was God's gift to humanity. He is your gift as well. 

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and that his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 JOHN 4:10)
Does God love us because of our goodness? Because of our kindness? Because our great faith? No, he loves us because of his goodness, kindness, and great faith. John says it like this: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us."


 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth. 
         (JOHN 16:13)
Envision a father helping his son learn to ride a bicycle, and you will have a partial picture of the Holy Spirit. The father stays at the son's side. He pushes the bike and steadies it if the boy starts to tumble. The Spirit does that for us; he stays our step and strengthens our stride. Unlike the father, however, he never leaves. He is with us to the end of the age.

God is so great, greater than we can understand! (JOB 36:26)
We may search out the moment the first wave slapped on a shore or the first star burst in the sky, but we'll never find the first moment when God was God, for there is no moment when God was not God. He has never not been, for He is eternal. God is not bound by time. 

God's business is putting things right. (PSALM 11:7)
We don't see Jesus settling many disputes or negotiating conflicts. But we do see him cultivating inward harmony through acts of love:
washing the feet of men he knew would betray him, . . . honoring the sinful woman whom society had scorned. he built bridges by healing hurts.  


I will also give to each one who wins the victory a white stone with a new name written on it.   (REVELATION 2:17) _You may not have known it, but God has a new name for you. When you get home, he won't call you Alice or Bob or Juan or Geraldo. The name you've always heard won't be the one he uses. When God says he will make all things new, he means it. You will have a new home, a new body, a new life, and you guessed it, a new name.

Receive the kingdom God has prepared for you since the world was made. 
          (MATTHEW 25:34)
The problem with this world is that it doesn't fit. Oh, it will do for now, but it isn't tailor-made. We were made to live with God, but on earth we live by faith. We were made to live forever, but on this earth we live but for a moment. We were made to live holy lives, but this world is stained by sin. This world wears like a borrowed shirt. Heaven will fit like one tailor-made.

Don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. (MATTHEW 6:34)
God liberated his children from slavery and created a path through the sea. He gave them a cloud to follow in the day and a fire to see at night. And he gave them food. . . . Each morning the manna came. Each evening the quail appeared. "Trust me. Trust me and I will give you what you need." The people were told to take just enough for one day. Their needs would be met, one day at a time.

You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on you. (ISAIAH 26:3)
Have you got God figured out? If so, then listen. . . .Hear the rocks meant for the body of the adulterous woman drop to the ground. . . .Listen to the window from Nain eating dinner with her son who is supposed to be dead. . . .God . . . doing the strangest of things. Stretching smiles where there had hung only frowns. Placing twinkles where there were only tears. 

You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it. (MATTHEW 6:27)
Anxiety is an expensive habit. Of course, it might be worth the cost if it worked. But it doesn't. Our frets are futile. Worry has never brightened a day, solved a problem, or cured a disease. God leads us. God will do the right thing at the right time. And what a difference that makes.

Your faith makes you offer your lives as a sacrifice in serving God.
      (PHILIPPIANS 2:17)
When we face struggles, we often wonder, why? Years from now, though, we may realize that it was those struggles that taught us something we could not have otherwise learned__that there was a purpose in our pain. God's purpose is greater than your pain, and he has a greater purpose than your problems.

  Love . . . does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. (1 CORINTHIANS 13:6)
Isn't it good to know that even when we don't love with a perfect love, God does? He always nourishes what is right. He always applauds what is right. He has never done wrong, led one person to do wrong, or rejoiced when anyone did wrong. For he is love, and love "does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoice with the truth."


In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (GENESIS 1:1)
Of all we don't know about the creation, there is one thing we do know__God did it with a smile. He must've gad a blast. Painting the stripes on the zebra, hanging the stars in the sky, putting the gold in the sunset. What creativity! . . .
Like a whistling carpenter in his workshop, he loved every bit of it. He poured himself into the work. So intent was his creativity that he took a day off at the end of the week just to rest.   

I expect and hope . . . to show the greatness of Christ in my life here on earth, whether I live or die. (PHILIPPIANS 1:20)
It would have been nice if God had let us order life like we order a meal. I'll take good health and a high I Q. I'll pass on the music skills, but give me a fast metabolism. . . .Would've been nice. But it didn't happen. When it came to your life on earth, you weren't given a voice or a vote. But when it comes to life after death, you were. In my book that seems like a good deal. Wouldn't you agree??? 

 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (GALATIANS 5:14) __Jesus went to great pains to be as human as the guy down the street. He didn't need to study, but still went to the synagogue. He had no need for income, but still worked in the workshop. . . . And upon his shoulders rested the challenge of redeeming creation, but he still took time to walk ninety miles from Jericho to Cana to go to a wedding. As a result, people liked him.

 What is impossible with men is possible with God. (LUKE 18:27)
The rich young ruler thought heaven was just a payment away. It only made sense. You work hard, you pay your dues, and "zap"__your account is credited as paid in full. Jesus says, "No way." What you want costs far more than what you can pay. You don't need a system, you need a Savior. You don't need a resume, you need a Redeemer. For "what is impossible with men is possible with God.

 Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it__because it does. (1 CORINTHIANS 14:1)
Loosen up. Don't you have some people to hug, rocks to skip, or lips to kiss? . . . Someday you are going to retire; why not today? Not retire from your job, just retire from your attitude. Honestly, has complaining ever made the day better? Has grumbling ever paid the bills? Has worrying about tomorrow ever changed it? Let someone else run the world for a while.

I will come back and take you to be with me.
             (JOHN 14:3)
We don't know when Christ will come for us. We don't know how we will come for us. And, we really don't even know why he would come for us. . . . Most of what we have is faith. Faith that he has ample space and a prepared place and, at the right time, he will come so that we can be where he is. He will do the taking. It's up to us to do the trusting. 

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you. (ROMANS 15:7)
Grace makes three proclamations. Dealing with my neighbor is God's responsibility. I must speak; I must pray. But only God can convince. (And he does.) . . . Dealing with my neighbor is God's responsibility. I must speak; I must pray. But only God can convince. (And he does.) . . . God loves me and makes me his child. God loves my neighbor and makes him my brother. 

The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them. (LUKE 19:10)
God will do what it takes__whatever it takes__to bring his children home. He is the shepherd in search of His lamb. His legs are scratched, His feet are sore, and His eyes are burning. He scales the cliffs and traverses the fields. He explores the caves. He cups His hands to His mouth and calls into the canyon. And the name He calls is yours. 

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 
      (1 PETER 3:18)
The path of righteousness is a narrow, winding trail up a steep hill. At the top of the hill is a cross. At the base of the cross are bags. Countless bags full of innumerable sins. Calvary is the compost pile of guilt. Would you like to leave yours there as well? 

  Ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. (MATTHEW 7:7)
Countless copies of Scriptures sit unread on bookshelves and nightstands simply because people don't know how to read it. What can we do to make the Bible real in our lives? The clearest answer is found in the words of Jesus. "Ask and God will give it to you." The first step in understanding the Bible is asking God to help us.

INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHTS !!!!!!!!!!

In Christ there is all of God in a human         (COLOSSIANS 2:9)

Jesus was not a godlike man, nor a manlike God. He was God-man. . . . The maker of the world with a bellybutton. . . .
What do we do with such a person? We applaud men for doing good things. We enshrine God for doing great things. But when a man does God things? One thing is certain, we can't ignore him. Why would we want to?

Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. 
(PHILIPPIANS 2:6) _Need more patience? Drink from the patience of God (2 PETER 3:9). Is generosity an elusive virtue? Then consider how generous God has been with you (ROMANS 5:8). Having trouble putting up with ungrateful relatives or cranky neighbors? God puts up with you when you act the same. "He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked" (LUKE 6:35).
                 Can't we love like this???



I know those I have chosen (JOHN 13:18) _Would you choose a wanted murderer to lead a nation out of bondage? Would you call upon a fugitive to carry the Ten Commandments? God did. . . . Called his name through a burning bush. Scared old Moses right out of his shoes! . . . The reassuring lesson is clear. God . . . uses people to change the world. People! Not saints or superhumans or geniuses, but people.


If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 JOHN 4:12)
God loves you. Personally. Powerfully. Passionately.Others have promised and failed. But God had promised and succeeded. He loves you with an unfailing love. And His love__if you will let it__can fill you and leave you with a love worth giving.


Thank God! He deserves your thanks. His love never quits.   (PSALM 136:1)
If I know that one of the privileges of fatherhood is to comfort a child, then why as I so reluctant to let my heavenly Father comfort me? Why do I think he wouldn't want to hear about my problems? ("They are puny compared to people starving in India.") Why do I think he is too busy for me???


I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me.
           (PSALM 86:7)
You can talk to God because God listens. Your voice matters in heaven. He takes you very seriously. When you enter His presence, the attendants turn to you to hear your voice. No need to fear that you will be ignored. Even if you stammer or stumble, even if what you have to say impresses no one, it impresses God, and He listens.

The heavens tell the glory of God.
           (PSALM 19:1)
If you were the only person on earth, the earth would look exactly the same. The Himalayas would still have their drama and the Caribbean would still have its charm. The sun would still nestle behind the Rockies in the evenings and spray light on the desert in the mornings. If you were the sole pilgrim on this globe, God would not diminish its beauty one degree. Because he did it all for you.

God is our protection and our strength. He always help in time of trouble. 

             (PSALM 46:12)

Ever feel as if you need to get away? So did Jesus. (MARK 1:35).
Ever have so many demands that you can't stop for lunch? He can relate. (MARK 6:31). . . .
Do your friends ever let you down? When Christ needed help, his friends dozed off. (MATTHEW 26:40) . . . .
When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. Why? He knows how you feel. He's been there. . . . So go to him.

DO YOU SEE YOUR CALLING ???

DO YOU SEE YOUR CALLING !!!!
"Separated unto the gospel." (ROMANS 1:1)
Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the Gospel of God. The one thing that is all important is that the Gospel of God should be realized as the abiding Reality. Reality is not human goodness, nor holiness, nor heaven, not hell; but Redemption; and the need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers we have to get used to the revelation that Redemption is the only Reality. Personal holiness is an effect, not a cause, and if we place our faith in human goodness, in the effect of Redemption, we shall go under when the test comes. Paul did not say he separated himself, but, "when it pleased God who separated me. . . ." Paul had not a hypersensitive interest in his own character. As long as our eyes are upon our own personal whiteness we shall never get near the reality of Redemption. Workers break down because their desire is for their own whiteness, and not for God. "Don't ask me to come into contact with the rugged reality of Redemption on behalf of the filth of human life as it is; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes." To talk in that way is a sign that the reality of the Gospel of God has not begun to touch me; there is no reckless abandon to God. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul is unconscious of himself, he is recklessly abandoned, separated by God for one purpose__to proclaim the Gospel of God (ROMANS 9:3)


THE DILEMMA OF OBEDIENCE !!!!!!!
"And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision"
               (1 SAMUEL 3:15)
God never speaks to us in startling ways, but in ways that are easy to misunderstand, and we say, "I wonder if that is God's voice?" Isaiah said that the Lord spake to him "with a strong hand," that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Nothing touches our lives but is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His hand or only mere occurrence? Get into the habit of saying, "Speak, Lord," and life will become a romance. Every time circumstances press, say, "Speak, Lord"; Recall the time when God did speak to you. Have you forgotten what He said? Was it Luke 11:13, or was it 1Thessalonians 5:23? As we listen, our ear gets acute, and, like Jesus, we shall hear God all the time. Shall I tell my "Eli" what God has shown to me? That is where the dilemma of obedience comes in. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences__I must shield "Eli,"  the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli; he had to decide that for himself. God's call to you may hurt your "Eli"; but if you try to prevent the suffering in another life, it will prove an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own peril that you prevent the cutting off of the right hand or the plucking out of the eye. Never ask the advice of another about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will nearly always side with Satan. "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood."

BUT IT IS HARDLY CREDIBLE THAT ONE COULD BE SO POSITIVELY IGNORANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Who art thou, Lord?" (ACTS 26:15)The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand." There is no escape when Our Lord speaks, He always comes with an arrestment ounderstanding. Has the voice of God come to you directly? If it has, you cannot mistake the intimate insistence with which it has spoken to you in the language you know best, not through your ears, but through your circumstances. God has to destroy our determined confidence in our own convictions. "I know this is what I should do"__and suddenly the voice of God speaks in a way that overwhelms us by revealing the depths of our ignorance. We have shown our ignorance of Him in the very way we deyermined to serve Him. We serve Jesus in a spirit that is not His, we hurt Him by our advocacy for Him, we push His claims in the spirit of the devil. Our words sound all right, but our spirit is that of an enemy. "He rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." The spirit of our Lord in an advocate of His is described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Have I been persecuting Jesus by a zealous determination to serve Him in my own way? If I feel I have done my duty and yet have hurt Him in doing it, I may be sure it was not my duty, because it has not fostered the meek and quiet spirit, but the spirit of self-satisfaction. We imagine that whatever is unpleasant is our duty! Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God."


BUT IT IS HARDLY CREDIBLE THAT ONE COULD SO PERSECUTE JESUS !!
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" (ACTS 26:14) __Am I set on my own way for God? We are never free from this snare until we are brought into the experience of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. Obstinacy and self-will will always stab Jesus Christ. It may hurt no one else, but it wounds His Spirit. Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed and set upon our own ambitions, we are hurting Jesus. Every time we stand on our rights and insist that is what we intend to do, we are persecuting Jesus. Whenever we stand on our dignity we systematically vex and grieve His Spirit; and when the knowledge comes home that it is Jesus Whom we have been persecuting all the time, it is the most crushing revelation there could be. Is the Word of God tremendously keen to me as I hand it on to you, or does my life give the lie to the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Jesus is conscious of one thing only__a perfect oneness with the Father, and He say, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that I can be easily put upon, easily over-reached, easily ignored; but if I submit to it for His sake, I prevent Jesus Christ being persecuted.

LOOK AGAIN AND THINK !!!!!!
"Take no thought for your life."
        (MATTHEW 6:25)
A warning which needs to be reiterated is that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, will choke all that God puts in. We are never free from the recurring tides of this encroachment. If it does not come on the line of clothes and food, it will come on the line of money or lack of money; of friends or lack of friends; or on the line of difficult circumstances. It is one steady encroachment all the time, and unless we allow the Spirit of God to raise up the standard against it, these things will come in like a flood. "Take no thought for your life." "Be careful about one thing only," says our Lord, "Your relationship to Me." Common sense shouts loud and says, "That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink." Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." How much evil has begun to threaten you today? What kind of mean little imps have been looking in and saying__Now what are you going to do next month__this summer? "Be anxious for nothing," Jesus says. Look again and think. Keep your mind on the "much more" of your heavenly Father.


LOOK AGAIN AND CONSECRATE !!!!
"If God so clothe the grass of the field. . .shall He not much more clothe you?"
          (MATTHEW 6:30)
A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple. How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus? By receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, obeying Him as He brings the Word of God, and life will become amazingly simple. "Consider," says Jesus, "how much more your Father Who clothes the grass of the field will clothe you, if you keep your relationship right with Him." Every time we have gone back in spiritual communion it has been because we have impertinently known better than Jesus Christ. We have allowed the cares of the world to come in, and have forgotten the "much more" of our Heavenly Father. "Behold the fowls of the air"__their main aim is to obey the principle of life that is in them and God looks after them. Jesus says that if you are rightly related to Him and obey His Spirit that is in you, God will look after your "feathers." "Consider the lilies of the field"__they grow where they are put. Many of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere. Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after all the other things. Has Jesus Christ told us a lie? If we are not experiencing the "much more" it is because we are not obeying the life God has given us, we are taken up with confusing considerations. How much time have we taken up worrying God with question when we should have been abso-lutely free to concentrate on His work? Consecration means the continual separating of myself to one particular thing. We cannot consecrate once and for all. Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?  



LEAVE ROOM FOR GOD !!!!!!
"But when it pleased God. . . ."               (GALATIANS 1:15)
As workers for God we have to learn to make room for God__to give God "elbow room." We calculate and estimate, and say that this and that will happen, and we forget to make room for God to come in as He chooses. Would we be surprised if God came into our meeting or into our preaching in a way we had never looked for Him to come? Do not look for God to come in any particular way, but look for Him. That is the way to make room for Him. Expect Him to come, but do not expect Him only in a certain way. However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that at any minute He may break in. We are apt to overlook this element of surprise, yet God never works in any other way. All of a sudden God meets the life, "When it was the good pleasure of God. . . ." Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes.


THE OVERMASTERING DIRECTION !!!!!
"I have appeared unto thee for this urpose."
                 (ACTS 26:16)
The vision Paul had on the road to Damascus was no passing emotion, but a vision that had very clear and emphatic directions for him, and he says, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." Our Lord said, in effect, to Paul__Your whole life is to be overmastered by Me; you are to have no end, no aim, and no purpose but Mine. "I have chosen him." When we are born again we all have vision, if we are spiritual at all, of what Jesus wants us to be, and the great thing is to learn not to be disobedient to the vision, not to say that it cannot be attained. It is not sufficient to know that God has redeemed the world, and to know that the Holy Spirit can make all that Jesus did effectual in me; I must have the basis of a personal relationship to Him. Paul was not given a message or a doctrine to proclaim, he was brought into a vivid, personal, overmastering relationship to Jesus Christ. Verse 16 is immensely commanding, "to make thee a minister and a witness." There is nothing there apart from the personal relationship. Paul was devoted to a Person not to a cause. He was absolutely Jesus Christ's, he saw nothing else, he lived for nothing else. "For I determined not to kown anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."



TRANSFORMED BY INSIGHT !!!!!!!
"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image." (2 CORINTHIANS 3:18)
The outstanding characteristic of a Christian is this unveiled frankness before God so that the life becomes a mirror for other lives. By being filled with the Spirit we are transformed, and by beholding we become mirrors. You always know when a man has been beholding the glory of the Lord; you feel in your inner spirit that he is the mirror of the Lord's own character. Beware of anything which would sully that mirror in you; it is nearly always a good thing, the good that is not the best. The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God. Let everything else__work, clothes, food, everything on earth__go by the board, saving that one thing. The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God. We have to maintain ourselves in the place of beholding, keeping the life absolutely spiritual all through. Let other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never allow anything to obscure the life that is hid with Christ in God. Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him. It is the one thing that is apt to fluctuate but it ought not so. The serverest discipline of a Christian's life is to learn how to keep "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord."


WHAT AM I LOOKING AT ?
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved."
                 (ISAIAH 45:22)
Do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and save us? He says__Look unto Me, and be saved. The great difficulty spiritually is to concertrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult. Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere. The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is, in effect__Narrow all your interests until the attitude of mind and heart  and body is concentration on Jesus Christ. "Look unto Me." Many of us have a mental conception of what a Christian should be, and the lives of the saints become a hindrance to our concentration on God. There is no salvation in this way, it is not simple enough. "Look unto Me" and__not "you will be saved," but "you are saved." The very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him. We get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying, "Look up and be saved." The difficulties and trials__the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God. Rouse yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him. "Look unto Me," and salvation is, the moment you look. 



RECALL WHAT GOD REMEMBERS !!!!!!
"I remember. . .the kindness of thy youth." (JEREMIAH 2:2)
Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes. It is a great thing to think that Jesus Christ has need of me, "Give Me to drink." How much kindness have I shown Him this past week? Have I been kind to His reputation in my life? God is saying to His people__You are not in love with Me now, but I remember the time when tou were, "I remember. . .the love of thine espousals." Am I as full of the extravagance of love to Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He find me recalling the time when I did not care for anything but Himself? Am I there now, or have I become wise over loving Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no account of where I go? or am I watching for the respect due to me; weighing how much service I ought to give? If, as I recall what God remembers about me, I find He is not what He used to be to me, let it produce shame and humiliation, because that shame will bring the godly sorrow that works repentance.


ARE YOU FRESH FOR EVERYTHING ????
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (JOHN 3:3)
Sometimes we are fresh for a prayer meeting but not fresh for cleaning boots! Being born again of the Spirit is an unmistakable work of God, as mysterious as the wind, as surprising as God Himself. We do not know where it begins, it is hidden away in the depths of our personal life. Being born again from above is a perennial, perpetual and eternal beginning; a freshness all the time in thinking and in talking and in living, the continual surprise of the life of God. Staleness is an indication of something out of joint with God, "I must do this thing or it will never be done." That is the first sign of stalrness. Are we freshly born this minute or are we stale, raking in our minds for something to do? Freshness does not come from obedience but from the Holy Spirit; obedience keeps us in the light as God is in the light. Guard jealously your relationship to God. Jesus prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one"__nothing between. Keep all the life perennially open to Jesus Christ, don't pretend with Him. Are you drawing your life from any other source than God Himself? If you are depending upon anything but Him, you will never know when He is gone. Being born of the Spirit means much more than we generally take it to mean. It gives us a new vision and keeps us absolutely fresh for everything by the perennial supply of the life of God.


VISION AND DARKNESS !!!
". . .An horror of great darkness fell upon him." (GENESIS 15:12)
Whenver God gives a vision to a saint, He puts him, as it were, in the shadow of His hand, and the saint's duty is to be still and listen. There is a darkness which comes from excess to light, and then is the time to listen. Genesis 16 is an illustration of listering to good advice when it is dark instead of waiting for God to send the light. When God gives a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will make you in accordance with the vision He has given if you will wait His time. Never try and help God fulfill His word. Abraham went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all selfsufficiency was destroyed; there was no possibility left of relying on common-sense ways. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not of displeasure. Never pump up joy and confidence, but stay upon God (ISAIAH 50:10__11). Have I any confidence in the flesh? Or have I got beyond all confidence in myself and in men and woman of God; in book and prayers and ecstasies; and is my confidence placed now in God Himself, not in His blessing? I am the almighty God"__El-Shaddai, the Father-Mother God. The one thing for which we are all being disciplined is to know that God is real. As soon as God becomes real, other people become shadows. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever perturb the one who is built on God.

IT IS THE LORD !!!!!!
"Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God." (JOHN 20:28)
Give Me to drink." How many of us are set upon Jesus Christ slaking out thirst when we ought to be satisfying Him? We should be pouring out now, spending to the last limit, not drawing on Him to satisfy us. "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me"__that means a life of unsullied, uncompromising and unbridled devotion to the Lord Jesus, a satisfaction to Him wherever He places us. Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. The greatest comperitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. It is easier to serve than to be drunk to the dregs. The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him. We are not sent to battle for God, but to be used by God in His battlings. Are we being more devoted to service than to Jesus Christ?


THE VOCATION OF THE NATURAL LIFE !!!!!
"But when it pleased God. . .to reveal His Son in me. . ." (GALATIANS 1:15__16)
The call of God is not a call to any particular service; my interpretation of it may be because contact with the nature of God has made me realize what I would like to do for Him. The call of God is essentially expressive of His nature; service is the outcome of what is fitted to my nature. The vocation of the natural life is stated by the apostle Paul, "When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him" (sacramentally express) "among the Gentiles." Service is the overflow of superabounding devotion; but, profoundly speaking, there is no call to that, it is my own little actual bit and is the echo of my identification with the nature of God. Service is the natural part of my life. God gets me into a relationship with Himself whereby I understand His call, then I do things out of sheer love for Him on my own account. To serve God is the deliberate love-gift of a nature that has heard the call of God. Service is expressive of that which is fitted to my nature: God's call is expressive of His nature; consequently when I receive His nature and hear His call, the voice of the Divine nature sounds in both and the two work together. The Son of God reveals Himself in me, and I serve Him in the ordinary ways of life out of devotion to Him.



THE VOICE OF THE NATURE OF GOD !!!!!
"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send?" (ISAIAH 6:8)
When we speak  of the call of God, we are apt to forget the most important feature, viz, the nature of the One Who calls. There is the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, the call of the great ice barriers, but these calls are only heard by the few. The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God's nature, not of our nature. There are strands of the call of God providentially at work for us which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threasing of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God. The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my affinities and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah's soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.



DO YOU WALK IN WHITE !
"Buried with Him. . .that. . .even so we also should walk in newness of life."
              (ROMANS 6:4)
No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a "white funeral"__the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crisis of death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. There must be a "white funeral," a death that has only one resurrection__a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life, it is one with God for one purpose, to be a witness to Him. Have you come to your last days really? You have come to them often in sentiment, but have you come to them really? You cannot go to your funeral in excitement, or die in excitement. Death means you stop being. Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying, "baptized into His death." Have you had your "white funeral," or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul? Is there a place in your life marked as the last day, a place to which the memory goes back with a chastened and extraordinarily grateful remembrance, "Yes, it was then, at that 'white funeral,' that I made an agreement with God," "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." When you realize what the will of God is, you will enter into sanctification as naturally as can be. Are you willing to go through that "white funeral" now? Do you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends upon you.


CALLED OF GOD !!!!!!
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."
                 (ISAIAH 6:8)
God did not address the caaiah; Isaiah overheard God saying, "Who will go for us?" The call of God is not for the special few, it is for everyone. Whether or not I hear God's call depends upon the state of my ears; and whatI hear depends upon ny disposition. "Many are called but few are chosen," that is, few prove themselves the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ whereby their disposition has been altered and their ears unstopped, and they hear the still small voice questioning all the time, "Who will go for us?" It is not a question of God singling out a man and saying, "Now, you go." God did not lay a strong compulsion on Isaiah; Isaiah was in the presence of God and he overheard the call, and realized that there was nothing else for him but to say, in conscious freedom, "Here am I, send me." Get out of your mind the idea of expecting God to come with compulsions and pleadings. When our Lord called His disciples there was no irresistible compulsion from outside. The quiet passionate insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men with every power wide awake. If we let the Spirit of God bring us face to face with God, we too shall hear something akin to what Isaiah heard, the still small voice of God; and in perfect freedom will say, "Here am I; send me."

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ALONE WITH GOD ????
"When He was alone. . .the twelve asked of Him. . ."  (MARK 4:10)
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone by affliction, heartbreak, or temptation, by disappointment, sickness, or thwarted affection, by a broken friendship, or by a new friendship__when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are dumbfounded, and cannot ask one question, then He begins to expound. Watch Jesus Christ's training of the twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were perplexed. They constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly expounded things to them; but they only understood after they had received the Holy Spirit (See JOHN 14:26). If you are going on with God, the only thing that is clear to you, and the only thing God intends to be clear, is the way He deals with your own soul. Your brother's sorrows and perplexities are an absolute confusion to you. We imagine we understand where the other person is, until God gives us a dose of the plague of our own hearts. There are whole tracts of stubbornness and ignorance to be revealed by the Hoy Spirit in each one of us, and it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now, or are we taken up with little fussy notions, fussy comradeships in God's service, fussy ideas about our bodies? Jesus can expound nothing until we get through all the noisy questions of the head and are alone with Him.


HAVE YOU BEEN ALONE WITH GOD ??????
"When they were alone, He expouded all things to His disciples."  (MARK 4:34)
Our Solitude with Him. Jesus does not take us alone and expound things to us all the time; He expounds things to us as we can understand them. Other lives are parables. God is making us spell out our own souls. It is slow work, so slow that it takes God all time and eternity to make a man and woman after His own purpose. The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We do not know envy when we see it, or laziness, or pride. Jesus reveals to us all that this body has been harbouring before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to lookin with courage? We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves; it is the last conceit to go. The only One Who understands us is God. The greatest curse in spiritual life is conceit. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we shall never say, "Oh, I am so unworthy," God will keep narrowing us in until He gets us alone. Wherever there is any element of pride or of conceit, Jesus cannot expound a thing. He will take us through the disappointment of a wounded pride of intellect, through disappointment of heart. He will reveal inordinate affections__things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. We listen to many things in classes, but they are not an exposition to us yet. They will be when God gets us alone over them.



WHAT MY OBEDIENCE TO GOD COSTS OTHER PEOPLE !!!!!!
"They laid hold upon one Simon. . . and on him they laid the cross."
If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people's plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it, "You call this Christianity?" We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be paid. Our human pride entenches itself on this point, and we say__I will never accept anything from anyone. We shall have to, or disobey God. We have no right to expect to be in any other relation than our Lord Himself was in (See LUKE 8:2__3).
Stagnation in spiritual life comes when we say we will bear the whole thing ourselves. We cannot. We are so involved in the universal purpose of God that immediately we obey God, others are affected. Are we going to remain loyal in our obedience to God and go through the humiliation of refusing to be independent, or are we going to take the other line and say__I will not cost other people suffering? We can disobey God if we choose, and it will bring immediate relief to the situation but we shall be a grief to our Lord. Whereas if we obey God, He will look after those who have been pressed into the consequences of our obedience. We have simply to obey and to leave all consequences with Him. Beware of the inclination to dictate to God as to what you will allow to happen if you obey Him.


THE OPENED SIGHT !!!!
"To open their eyes. . .that they may receive. . . ." (ACTS 26:18)
This verse is the grandest condensation of the propaganda of a disciple of Jesus Christ in the whole of the New Testament. The first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, "that they may receive remission of sins." When a man fails in personal Christian experience, it is nearly always because he has never received anything. The only sign that a man is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our part as workers for God is to open men's eyes that they may turn themselves from darkness to light; but that is not salvation, that is conversion__the effort of a roused human being. I do not think it is too sweeping to say that the majority of nominal Christians are of this order; their eyes are opened, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is one of the neglected factors in our preaching today. When a man is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People register their vows, and sign their pledges, and detemine to go through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, viz, remission of sins. Then there follows the second mighty work of grace__"and inheritance among them which are sanctified." In sanctification the regenerated soul deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God's interest in other men.


INTERCESSORY INTROSPECTION !!!!!!
"And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless."
      (1 THESSALONIANS 5:23)
Your whole spirit . . ." The great mystical work of the Holy Spirit is in the dim regions of our personality which we cannot get at. Read the 139th Psalm; the Psalmist implies, "Thou art the God of the early mornings, the God of the late at nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea; but, my God, my soul has further horizons than the early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature__Thou who art the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot trace, dreams I cannot get at__my God, search me out." Do we believe that God can garrison the imagination far beyond where we can go? "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin"__if that means in conscious experience only, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been made obtuse by sin will say he is not conscious of sin. Cleansing from sin is to the very heights and depths of our spirit if we will keep in the light as God is in the light, and the very Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirits. It is only when we are garrisoned by God with the stupendous sanctity of the Holy Spirit, the spirit, soul and body are preserved in unspotted integrity, underseving of censure in God's sight, until Jesus comes. We do not allow our minds to dwell as they should on these great massive truths of God.


DOES MY SACRIFICE LIVE !!!!!
"And Abraham built an alter. . .and bound Isaac his son." (GENESIS 22:9)
This incident is a picture of the blunder we make in thinking that the final thing God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, viz, sacrifice our lives. Not__I am willing to go to death with Thee, but__I am willing to be identified with Thy death so that I may sacrifice my life to God. We seem to think that God wants us to give things! God purified Abraham from this blunder, and the same discipline goes on in our lives. God nowhere tells us to give up things for the sake of the only thing worth having__viz, life with Himself. It is a question of loosening the bands that hinder the life, and immediately those bands are loosened by identification with the death of Jesus, we enter into a relationship with God whereby we can sacrifice our lives to Him. It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a "living sacrifice," to let Him have all your powers that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus. This is the thing that is acceptable to God.



INTIMATE WITH JESUS !!!
"Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known Me?" (JOHN 14:9)
These words are not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus is leading Philip on. The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (See LUKE 10:18__20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come__"I have called you friends." Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. The whole discipline of life is to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we know Him? Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go away"__in that relationship, so that He might lead them on. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to step more intimately with Him. Fruit bearing is always mentioned as the manifestation of an intimate union with Jesus Christ (JOHN 15:1__4). When once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The saint who is intimate with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the impression that Jesus is having unhindered way, because the last abyss of his nature has been satisfied by Jesus. The only impression left by such a life is that of the strong calm sanity that Our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.


WORSHIP !!!!!!
"And [he] pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar." (GENESIS 12:8)
Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard a thing for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. God will never let you hold a spiritual thing for yourself, it has to be given back to Him that He may make it a blessing to others. Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world. Abraham pitched his tent between the two. The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. Rush is wrong every time, there is always plenty of time to worship God. Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three stages in spiritual life__worship, waiting and work. Some of us go in jumps like spiritual frogs, we jump from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God's idea is that the three should go together. They were always together in the life of Our Lord. He was unhasting and unresting. It is a discipline, we cannot get into it all at once.



THE AFTERWARDS OF THE LIFE OF POWER !!!!
"Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards."
                  (JOHN 13:36)
And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, Follow Me." Three years before, Jesus had said, "Follow Me," and Peter had followed easily, the fascination of Jesus was upon him, he did not need the Holy Spirit to help him to do it. Then he came to the place where he denied Jesus, and his heart broke. Then he received the Holy Spirit, and now Jesus says again, "Follow Me." There is no figure in front now saving the Lord Jesus Christ. The first "Follow Me" had nothing mystical in it, it was an external following; now it is a following in internal martyrdom (JOHN 21:18). Between these times Peter had denied Jesus with oaths and curses, he had come to the end of himself and all his self-sufficiency, there was not one strand of himself he would ever rely upon again, and in his destitution he was in a fit condition to receive an impartation from the risen Lord. "He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." No matter what changes God has wrought in you, never rely upon them, build only on a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives. All our vows and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to carry them out. When we have come to the end of ourselves, not in imagination but really, we are able to receive the Holy Spirit. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost"__the idea is that of invasion. There is only one lodestar in the life now, the Lord Jesus Christ.

WHY CANNOT I FOLLOW THEE NOW ?????
"Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now???  (JOHN 13:37)
There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God's guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt__don't.
In the beginning you may see clearly what God's will is__the severance of a friendship, the breaking off of a business relationship, something you feel distinctly before God is His will for you to do, never do it on the impulse of that feeling. If you do, you will end in making difficulties that will take years of time to put right. Wait for God's time to bring it around and He will do it without any heartbreak or disappointment. When it is a question of the providential will of God, wait for God to move. Peter did not wait on God; he forecast in his mind where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it. "I will lay down my life for Thy sake." Peter's declaration was honest but ignorant. "Jesus answered him. . . The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice." This was said with a deeper knowledge of Peter than Peter had of himself. He could not follow Jesus because he did not know himself, of what he was capable. Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.


CLOUDS AND DARKNESS !!
"Clouds and darkness are around about him."
        (PSALM 97:2)
A man who has not been born of the Spirit of God will tell you that the teachings of Jesus are simple. But when you are baptized with the Holy Ghost, you find "clouds and darkness are round about Him." When we come into close contact with the teachings of Jesus Christ we have our first insight into this aspect of things. The only possibility of understanding the teaching of Jesus is by the light of the Spirit of God on the inside. If we have never had the experience of taking our commonplace religious shoes off our commonplace religious feet, and getting rid of all the undue familiarity with which we approach God, it is questionable whether we have ever stood in His presence. The people who are flippant and familiar are those who have never yet been introduced to Jesus Christ. After the amazing delight and liberty of realizing what Jesus Christ does, comes the impenetrable darkness of realizing Who He is. Jesus said, "The words that I speak unto you," not the words I have spoken, "they are spirit, and they are life." The Bible has been so many words to us__clouds and darkness__then all of a sudden the words become spirit and life because Jesus re-speaks them to us in a particular condition. That is the way God speaks to us, not by visions and dreams, by by words. When a man gets to God it is by the most simple way of words.


WILL YOU GO OUT WITHOUT KNOWING !!!!!!
"He went out, not knowing whither he went" (HEBREWS 11:8)
Have you been "out" in this way? If so, there is no logical statement possible when anyone asks you what you are doing. One of the diffculties in Christian work is this question__"What do you expect to do?" You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder__you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake it is to be a "going out," building in confidence on God. "Take no thought for your life, . . . nor yet for your body"__take no thought for the things for which you did take thought before you "went out." Have you been asking God what HE is going to do? HE will never tell you. GOD does not tell you what HE is gong to do; HE reveals to you Who HE is. Do you believe in a miracle-working GOD, and will you go out in surrender to HIM until you are not surprised an atom at anything HE does?
Suppose GOD is the GOD you know HIM to be when you are nearest to Him__what an impertinence worry is! Let the attitude of the life be a continual "going out" in dependence upon God, and your life will have an ineffable charm about it which is a satisfaction to Jesus. You have to learn to go out of convictions, out of creeds, out of experiences, until so far as your faith is concerned, there is nothing between yourself and God.


LET US KEEP TO THE POINT !!!!!!!
"My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage." (PHILLIPPIANS 1:20)
My Utmost for HIS Highest. "My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed." We shall all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus on the point He has asked us to yield to HIM. Paul says__"My determination is to be my utmost for HIS HIGHEST." To get there is a question of will, not of debate nor of reasoning, but a surrender of will, an absolute and irrevocable surrender on that point. An over-weaning consideration for ourselves is the thing that keeps us from that decision, though we put it that we are considering others. When we consider what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God HE does not know what our obedience will mean. Keep to the point; HE does know. Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only__My Utmost for HIS HIGHEST. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for HIM and for HIM alone. My Undeterredness for HIS HOLINESS. "Whether that means life or death, no matter!" (See 1:21.) Paul is determined that nothing shall deter him from doing exactly what God wants. God's order has to work up a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. HE brings us to the place where HE asks us to be our utmost for HIM, and we begin to debate; then HE produces a providential crisis where we have to decide__for or against, and from that point the "Great Divide" begins. If the crisis has come to you on any line, surrender your will to HIM absolutely and irrevocably.