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Move Forward, December 14
Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.
Deuteronomy 2:3
.
“Go forward” was the word of the Lord to Israel as they stood with the Red
Sea before them and Pharaoh’s host pressing hard after them. They obeyed, and
as Moses smote the water swith his rod, lo, they parted and stood up on one side
as a wall, making a path over which the people passed in safety. With faith and
trust let us go forward in the word that the Lord has given us, assured that He will
be with us as our Helper and Protector.
Go forward, not in self-sufficiency and self-exaltation, yet filled with faith and
hope and courage. Angels of God are guarding His faithful ones. If they keep
the way of the Lord, they will receive all needed help. Much of the Lord’s work
has, in the beginning, been small, despised by those who desire to see it carried
forward from the first with strength and importance. But the Lord must test His
workers, many of whom are not able to bear success, who should it come to them,
would exalt self.
Let God be praised and magnified. Let men walk in humility before Him,
glorifying Him, not themselves. Those who work most successfully for God are
those who are much in prayer, who place their entire dependence on Him.
In many cases the dearth of means felt is in accordance with God’s plan, that
His work may be carried forward in the same way that the Majesty of heaven
carried it forward. Economy, self-denial, and self-sacrifice are ever to be revealed.
Until the end of time the church will have to strive with difficulties, that God’s work
may stand out pure and clean, untainted with fraud or intrigue. Every institution
God will cleanse by driving out the buyers and sellers.
Believe in God, and walk in His counsel. You may be permitted to struggle
with difficulties, and then the Lord reveals His power and wisdom in answer to
humble prayer. Have confidence in Him as a prayer-hearing, prayer-answering
God.... He will reveal Himself to you as a God who can help in every emergency....
The ministry of the Word does not rest merely upon those who preach the
Word, but upon all who read and hear the Word. The hearts of God’s people are to
be so filled with the love of Christ that their words of thanksgiving and praise will
warm other hearts in need of help. This is service that all can perform, and the
Lord accepts it as offered to Himself. He makes it efficacious, by imparting to the
earnest worker the grace that reconciles man to God.—
Manuscript 158, December
14, 1902
, “Fragments.”
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