Once more you have the power of the Spirit demonstrated, and this illustration should indeed strengthen your faith; that faith which has been cut at and torn at by the most dangerous powers of darkness there could be. But that faith should be put upon so strong a basis that nothing should be able to touch it anymore. It is for you to respond in the way God expects.
God has laid a deep obligation upon you and all. You shall rise above sorrow and doubt, and the distrust of others, and be free. Put your whole confidence in God and He will never fail you! It is that half-confidence which gives the shadows their chance; it is that moment of hesitation when the mind asks if the power of will good be strong enough to overcome these terrible powers of evil. It is in those moments of hesitation that much damage is done and you reap sorrow as a consequence.
It is essential to put doubts of all kinds on one side and to be certain that what has been said is not going to be worked out in some obscure, tangled-up way which entirely escapes your imagination. You have been given clear words; plain sentences. You have been told what the future holds and those words are not to be challenged.
There has been too much of the wrecking process lately. Try and put a stop to it once and for all. You must understand that the Spirits are not only your guides and leaders, fighting for God, but they are also fighting for the spirit within you. Two things separate to you, maybe, but one and undivided to them.
Those free from the flesh are not in a position to say to you that after all this preparation, this struggle of soul and this postponement of joy, that it has all been a mockery, and that they only said this, that and the other to urge you on. If the guides and helpers had adopted such an attitude you would indeed have good reason to hate and despise them. Even now God’s children sometimes shrink from Him as a child from a great but stern and unbending father. They feel that God expects too much, that He fails to remember your spiritual youth, and that the pace is altogether too great.
In the first place, work of this nature is not given to those who are in their spiritual babyhood. It would be useless, it would be absolutely against the Spirits methods in the Spirit World. Only when people have reached a certain stage of development are they suitable weapons to use for God, and very often even then, when put to the test of the fire, the strength is not yet sufficient to fight through.
God is your protector and your guide, and He has not brought you this far to leave you now in your doubts and your misgivings. You are coming with Him to the end of the journey and nothing in your world or in His shall prevent it. God has given you into the Spirits charge and in doing so invested them with power and with the necessary protection. To those who have asked themselves what the future holds, go back on your old records and re-read them. You don't do it sufficiently. Busy days pass all too quickly; a host of details take your attention, the mind is tired and harassed and the effort is often too great. And so the shadows use the physical mind, with its capacity for forgetting those things it should remember and remembering those things which are best forgotten, to wound you again and again, and in so doing they strike directly at the Heart of the Saviour.
In the Bible you have illustrations of faith over and over again. You remember the words spoken to Thomas by the Lord: "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." In those words you have your direction, you have your warning, and you cannot turn from it.
Once more build up the foundation of the pedestal on which faith rests! The enemy, under cover of darkness, has been undermining that which you failed to notice. But when the grey days go on and events seem so fixed of changing then the test comes, and you look around and see that damage has been done.
More and more you must understand the necessity for watchfulness, prayerfulness, and the constant rededication of heart, mind, and body to God. It is the only thing that can save you on a work of this kind. You cannot take liberties with yourself when you are out on the higher reaches. You have nothing upon which to hold when the wind blows cold, nothing but the Christ within you. But that is stronger than all the elements together!
That is the position and you cannot ignore it. You have got to realise that your supports are now down and that you are face to face with your real self. It is a serious thing, and yet, as with all big things, it is so simple. It just means that in place of those supports, which often failed in the time of need; in place of the shelter of the wood, though even there the storms beat in upon you and drove you from point to point, you have the God within you. All the other things are now left behind and you are called upon to stand up, emancipated and free, with your hands outstretched to the Christ, and there is no one else to bring you through. It has got to be done; these tests have got to be faced. You have got to learn to know your real self, the self which belongs to God. Until that real self is in harmony with the physical self, which as yet does not sufficiently recognise its Master, sorrow intervenes.
Once you can adopt the attitude that with the Christ you are secure and nothing can touch you, nearly all the worries of your life would disappear, never to return. It is a most difficult attitude to attain; it is the highest of all and only available to those who have bought and paid for it. Not to happy-go lucky people who shelve their own responsibilities off on to Almighty God; they have much to learn in the days to come, and that is not the faith to which you should aspire. Your attitude should be that God is your Father and that you are His child; therefore nothing that is not of Him can touch you. And nothing can touch you if only you believe!
If you saw someone you loved well in danger, if not of destruction then of great unhappiness, would you not speak with determination yourself in order to prevent that which is preventable, and that which is entirely against the will of the Father? Do not think that God does not have you in His heart. Could you get the smallest idea of what you mean to Him, what your anxieties cost Him in thought and in prayer; what the sad days represent to your guide, you would not accuse Him of being a leader rather than a close and tender companion.
Build up the love between you and God more and more. Do not allow it to grow thin, and do not think that God is far removed from you. Let Him into the personal side of your life, and be certain that what concerns you in the smallest way is a thing of great importance to Him.
Bring things through to a successful conclusion. When the promises are worked out you do not want you to have the bitterness of regret from which you cannot escape if you do not trust God more. It will not be easy then for you to forgive yourself your doubts. In the happy moments the remembrance of them will come back, like little whips of remorse, and the longing will rise up in your heart! This is not God’s wish. He wants the joy when it comes to have no shady corners; He wants it all to be bright and uniform, and He wants you to feel that there is nothing that you have reason to reproach yourself with in any way at all.
Soon the greatest argument of all will be in your own possession, and then you will see indeed that you belonged to God and God belonged to you, and that you were all united in love with the Christ Your Lord and Saviour.
If you could see things as they are you would know that each day has been a triumph over the body, its woes and its weaknesses. A triumph in God's sight, because of the faith in which you gather together, and because you left it in His hands to do as He thought best.
In going through your heart and mind in some there is a sense of hesitation and misgiving. Is it not reasonable to you, having suffered so much, that God has you under His protecting wing and there is nothing strong enough to divide you ever again. You must remember that these are the training days and the shadows are not easy to circumvent. They have had all the advantage, so you think, but you will recollect that only to the spiritually tried and tested are such tests given. In itself it is a sign of progress, and you are not to think anything but that you are right with God and that God understands you and His Love does not fail. Put all other things than these out of your mind and be certain that in His sight you are His devoted and obedient child.
There are very few who do not read with delight the story of the Christ and how He gathered the children to His knee and taught them simple things and impressed upon their hearts His own personality. You too have been gathered to the knee of the master and He has been talking to your spirit while your mind has been listening to others. In the busy life, the discord and the triviality which so often comprise the days of those upon earth, recall what has been said by God. That is the real you, the spirit within you, which is gathered to the side of the Christ and is listening and drinking in with love the words which come from Him. Separate yourself more and more from the world and link yourself more closely still to the Spirit knowing that that is your right environment, and that the earth is but the training ground; the forcing house which produces the flowers of the Spirit in all their beauty and sweetness. Do not let your heart be troubled ever again. Put on the whole armour of the Christ and go forward with renewed courage and be certain that God has spoken. He is in command and the Holy Spirit is working through your life and in your life. What was, shall be and will be, in the sense that God looks after His own, has prepared a place for those that love Him.
Gather around you God’s love and let Him take you in, shutting the cold and the dreariness outside. That is His heart's desire, for you belong to God and God belongs to you.
