God Calling
by Two Listeners
Edited by A. J. Russell
May 16 - 31
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
May 16 - Pray and Praise
I will be much entreated because I know that only in that earnest supplication, and the calm trust that results, does man learn strength and gain peace. Therefore I have laid that incessant, persistent pleading as a duty upon My disciples.
Never weary in prayer. When one day man sees how marvelously his prayer has been answered, then he will deeply, so deeply, regret that he prayed so little.
Prayer changes all. Prayer re-creates. Prayer is irresistible. So pray, literally without ceasing.
Pray until you almost cease to pray, because trust has become so rock-like, and then pray on because it has become so much a habit that you cannot resist it.
And always pray until Prayer merges into Praise. That is the only note on which true prayer should end. It is the Love and Laughter of your attitude towards man interpreted in the Pray and Praise of your attitude towards God.
Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Luke 18:1
May 17 Sorrow into Joy
"Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
My bravest are those who can anticipate the morning and feel in the night of sorrow that underlying Joy that tells of confident expectations of the morning.
But I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians
4:11
May 18 - New and Vital Power
"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." Not for merit was salvation, the promise was to all who looked.
To look is surely within the Power of everyone. One look suffices. Salvation follows.
Look and you are saved from despair. Look and you are saved from care. Look and you are saved from worry. Look, and into you there flows a peace beyond all understanding, a Power new and vital, a Joy wonderful indeed.
Look and keep looking. Doubt flees, Joy reigns, and Hope conquers.
Life, Eternal Life, is yours - revitalizing, renewing.
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10
May 19 - Rescued and Guided
Rest knowing all is so safe in My Hands. Rest is Trust. Ceaseless activity is distrust. Without the knowledge that I am working for you, you do not rest. Inaction then would be the outcome of despair.
My Hand is not shortened that it cannot save. Know that, repeat it, rely on it, welcome the knowledge, delight in it. Such a truth is a hope flung to a drowning man. Every repetition of it is one pull nearer shore and safety.
Let that illustration teach you a great truth. Lay hold of the truth, pray it, affirm it, hold on to the rope. How foolish are your attempts to save yourself, one hand on the rope, and one making efforts to swim ashore! You may relinquish your hold of the rope and hinder the rescuer - who has to act with the greater caution lest he lose you.
The storms and tempests are not all of life. The Psalmist who said "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me" wrote also "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."
Meditate upon that wonder - truth, the three steps safety, security, guidance. (1) "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit" - Safety. (2) "He set my feet upon a rock" - Security (3) "He established my goings" - Guidance. No. 3 is the final stage when the saved soul trusts Me so entirely it seeks no more its own way but leaves all future plans to Me its Rescuer.
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27
May 20 - Win Me - Win All
You will conquer. The conquering spirit is never crushed. Keep a brave and trusting heart. Face all your difficulties in the spirit of Conquest.
Rise to greater heights than you have known before. Remember where I am is Victory. Forces of evil, within and without you, flee at My Presence.
Win Me and all is won. All.
Only be thou strong and very courageous. Joshua 1:7
May 21 - Fling It At My Feet
To see Me you must bring Me your cares and show Me your heart of Trust. Then, as you leave your cares, you become conscious of My Presence.
This consciousness persisted in brings its reward of Me. Through a mist of care no man may see My Face. Only when the burden is flung at My Feet do you pass on to consciousness and spiritual sight.
Remember, obedience, obedience, obedience - the straight and narrow way into the Kingdom.
Not of you must it be said, even in lovingly tender reproach - "Why call ye Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not the things which I say."
Character is chiseled into Beauty by the daily discipline and daily duties done. For in many ways, My disciples must work out their own salvation, though this is not possible without My strength and Help, and without converse with Me.
Even for the Spiritual Life the training is different for different spirits. The man who would fain live a life of prayer and meditation is thrust into the busy ways of life, and the busy man is bidden to rest and wait patiently for Me. O joy, O rest, and in the busy ways be ever at peace.
"And
the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the lusts of other things entering in,
choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." Mark 4:19
May 22 Command Your Lord
Lord, I claim Thy help.
Yes! Claim, be constantly claiming. There is a trust that waits long, and a trust that brooks no delay - that once convinced of the right of a course, once sure of God's guidance, says with all the persistence of a child, "Now." "Make no long tarrying, oh, my God."
You are no longer servants but friends. A friend can command his friend - can know that all the friend, the true friend, has is his by right. That does not mean an idle living at the expense of a friend, but claiming the friend's means: name, time, all that he has, when your supply is exhausted.
Friendship - true friendship, implies the right to appropriate. And in God's service is perfect freedom. Heirs of God - you are joint heirs with Me in the inheritance. We share the Father's property. You have the same right to use and claim I have. Use your right. A beggar supplicates. A son, a daughter, appropriates.
Small wonder when I see My children sitting before My House supplicating and waiting - that I leave them there until they realize how foolish such action, when they have only to walk into their Home and take.
This cannot be the attitude of all. There must be first a definite realization of Sonship.
Therefore
I say unto you, What things soever ye desire,
when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall receive them. Mark
11:24
May 23 Little Frets
Your lack of control is not due to the big burdens, but to your permitting the little frets and cares and burdens to accumulate.
If anything vex you deal with that and get that righted with Me before you allow yourself to speak to, or meet anybody, or to undertake any new duty.
Look upon yourself more as performing My errands and coming back quickly to Me to tell Me that message is delivered, that task done.
Then with no feeling of responsibility as to result (your only responsibility was to see the duty done) go out again, rejoicing at still more to do for My Sake.
Take
us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines;
for our vines have tender grapes. Song of Solomon 2:15
May 24 Abundance
How unseeing the world goes on! How unknowing of your heartaches and troubles, your battles won, your conquests, your difficulties.
But be thankful, both of you, that there is One who knows, One who marks every crisis, every effort, every heartache.
For you both, who are not idle hearers, you must know that every troubled soul I tell you of, is one for you to help. You do not help enough. As you help, help will flow back and your circle of helpfulness will widen more and more, ever more and more.
Just feel that you are two of My disciples, present at the feeding of the five thousand, and that to you I hand out the food, and you pass it on, and ever more and more. You can always say with so few loaves and fishes "We have only enough for our own needs." It was not only My Blessing, but the Passing-on of the disciples that worked the miracle.
Get a feeling of bounteous giving into your beings. They were "all filled." There was a supply over.
I give with a large Hand and Heart. Note the draught of fishes. The net brake, the boat began to sink with the lavishness of My Gift. Lose sight of all limitations.
Abundance is God's Supply. Turn out all limited thoughts. Receive showers and in your turn - shower.
Not
that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves;
but our sufficiency is of God. 2 Corinthians 3:5
May 25 Accomplish Anything
There will be no limit to what you can accomplish. Realize that. Never relinquish any task or give up the thought of any task because it seems beyond your power, only if you see it is not My Will for you. This I command you.
Think of the tiny snowdrop-shoot in the hard ground. No certainty even that when it has forced its weary way up, sunlight and warmth will greet it.
What a task beyond its power that must seem. But the inner urge of Life within the seed compelling it, it carries out that task. The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto this.
And
Jesus said unto them ...
If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ...
nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Matthew 17:20
May 26 Claim More
You are doing your claiming as I have said, and soon you will see the result. You cannot do this long without it being seen in the material. It is an undying law.
You are at present children practicing a new lesson. Practice - practice - soon you will be able to do it so readily.
You see others manifesting so easily, so readily demonstrating My Power. But you have not seen the discipline that went before. Discipline absolutely necessary before this Power is given to My disciples. It is a further initiation.
You are feeling you have learnt so much that life cannot be a failure. That is right, but others have to wait to see the outward manifestation in your lives before they realize this Spiritual Truth.
Hitherto
have ye asked nothing in my name:
ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24
May 27 Roots and Fruits
Remember the lesson of the seed too in its sending a shoot down so that it may be rooted and grounded, while at the same time it sends a shoot up to be the plant and flower that shall gladden the world.
The two growths are necessary. Without the strong root it would soon wither, as much activity fails for lack of growth in Me. The higher the growth up the deeper must be the enrooting.
Many forget this and thus their work ceases to be permanent for Me. Beware of the leaves and flowers without the strong root.
As
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in him; Rooted and built up in him. Colossians 2:6,7
May 28 Test Your Love
A great Love knows that in every difficulty, every trial, every failure, the presence of the loved one suffices. Test your Love for Me by this.
Just to be with Me, just to know I am beside you - does that bring you Joy and Peace? If not, then your Love for Me, and your realization of My Love, are at fault.
Then, if this be so, pray for more Love.
And
be content with such things as ye have;
for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
May 29 Forget
Regret nothing. Not even the sins and failures. When a man views earth's wonders from some mountain height he does not spend his time in dwelling on the stones and stumbles, the faints and failures, that marked his upward path.
So with you. Breathe in the rich blessings of each new day - forget all that lies behind you.
Man is so made that he can carry the weight of twenty-four hours, no more. Directly he weighs down with the years behind, and the days ahead, his back breaks. I have promised to help you with the burden of today only, the past I have taken from you and if you, foolish hearts, choose to gather again that burden and bear it, then, indeed, you mock Me to expect Me to share it.
For weal or woe each day is ended. What remains to be lived, the coming twenty-four hours, you must face as you awake.
A man on a march on earth carries only what he needs for that march. Would you pity him if you saw him bearing too the overwhelming weight of the worn-out shoes and uniforms of past marches and years? And yet, in the mental and spiritual life, man does these things. Small wonder My poor world is heartsick and weary.
Not so must you act.
This
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind ...
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13,14
May 30 The Devil's Death Knell
Our Lord, we praise Thee.
Praise is the devil's death knell. Resignation, acceptance of My Will, obedience to it, have not the power to vanquish evil that praise has.
The joyful heart is my best weapon against all evil. Oh! pray and praise.
You are learning your lesson. You are being led out into a large place. Go with songs of rejoicing. Rejoice evermore. Happy indeed if each day has its thrill of joy.
Talk to Me more during the day. Look up into My Face - a look of Love, a feeling of security, a thrill of Joy at the sense of the nearness of My Presence - these are your best prayers.
Let these smooth the day's work, then fear will vanish, and fear is the grim figure that turns aside success.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. Psalm 50:23
May 31 Prayer Without Words
Lord, hear us, we pray.
Hear and I answer. Spend much time in prayer. Prayer is of many kinds, but of whatever kind, prayer is the linking up of the soul and mind and heart to God.
So that if it is only a glance of faith, a look or word of Love, or confidence, and no supplication is expressed, it yet follows that supply and all necessary are secured.
Because the soul, being linked to God, united to Him, receives in and through Him all things. And the soul, when in human form, needs too the things belonging to its habitation.
Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
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Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25
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