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Do You Know Your Lord?, July 23
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that
believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. ... He that hath the Son hath life; and
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
1 John 5:10-12
.
While we know Christ in one sense, that He is the Saviour of the world, it
means more than this. We must have a personal knowledge and experience in
Christ Jesus, an experimental knowledge of Christ, what He is to us, and what
we are to Christ. That is the experience that everyone wants. Now, I cannot
have it for any of you, nor can you have it for me. The work that is to be
done for us, is to be through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God upon
human minds and human hearts. The heart must be purified and sanctified.
I need not tell any of you that it is so, because you know it. Not one of us
needs to feel a doubt as to where we are, or to think, “I wish I knew where I
stood before God,” but, by living faith, we must sink ourselves in God; and
when we do that, His life will shine upon us. There is not a particle of need
of our being in a state of inefficiency and coldness. What is the matter with
us? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” It shall be given him.
There are no “ifs” nor “ands” about it. “But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering” (
James 1:5, 6
).
You pray, and ask God for wisdom, strength, and efficiency, and feel that
you must have them. But perhaps, right after that prayer, it will seem as
though a hellish shadow of Satan was cast right athwart your pathway, and
you see nothing beyond. What was that? Why, the devil wanted to obscure
your faith.... But there is no necessity for you to do that. Is feeling to be our
criterion, or is it to the word of the living God? Are we to sink our faith in
the cloud? That is what Satan wants us to do....
I have had that cloud settle upon me at times, but I knew that God was
there just the same.... “Ask in faith, nothing wavering.” Don’t let one single
suggestion of the devil come in. It is to be “nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of the sea” (
Verse 6
). The Lord will do great things
for us if we will only show our trust in Him.—
Manuscript 93a, July 23, 1899,
.
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