I enjoined that if any man would follow Me he should deny himself and take up his cross.
The denial thus impressed upon My disciples as necessary was not a mere matter of discipline, of giving up, of going without.
It was a total repudiation of any claim the self might make, ignoring it, refusing to acknowledge it.
Not once was this to be done, but daily; there was to be a daily recrucifixion of any part of the self-life not already completely dead.
Trials and troubles may seem to overwhelm you. They cannot do more than work My Will, and that Will you have said is your Will.
Do you not see that you cannot be destroyed? From now a new Life is opening out before you. Yours to enter into the Kingdom I have prepared for you.
The sunlight of My Presence is on your paths. Trust and go forward unafraid. My Grace is sufficient for all your needs.
In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
Psalm 56:11
“Lest perhaps you should let them slip” — “Hold fast that thou hast.” Each Truth learned has to be cemented to your being by obedience.
Your soul-character is like a building. It IS a building (the Temple) in which the God-Spirit can make a Home.
Bricks lying on the ground separate are useless; placed together, united, they form a building. So obedience is the mortar by which Truths are retained and become a part of the being. Truths which would otherwise be lost.
So every Truth I give you must be lived out.
We seek Thee as Thou hast told us.
And seeking you shall find. None ever sought My Presence in vain. None ever sought My Help in vain.
A breath of desire and My Spirit is there — to replenish and renew. Sometimes weariness and exhaustion are not signs of lack of spirit but of the guiding of the Spirit.
Many wonderful things would not have happened but for the physical weariness, the mind-weariness of My servants, which made the resting apart, the giving up of work, a necessity…
Though My Way may seem a narrow way it yet leads to Life, abundant Life. Follow it. It is not so narrow but that I can tread it beside you.
Never too lonely with such companionship. A comrade infinitely tender, infinitely strong, will tread the way with you.
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way,
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Matthew 7:14
You see Me sometimes as the Man of Sorrows.
Behold Me, too, in the Majesty of My Godhead.
Not always can Man disregard My Wishes and break My Commands.
I view the desecration of My Image, I see the ruin of the kingdom of earth which was to have been the Kingdom of the Lord. I see passions let loose and innocence spoiled, and man clamoring for the mastery.
Then the Man of Sorrows walks a King with flashing eyes, as He sees the downtrodden, the oppressed, the persecuted and the persecutor, the tyrant and the weak.
How long shall I have the patience? HOW LONG?
Our Lord, we know that Thou art great and able to deliver us.
I am your deliverer. Trust in Me absolutely. Know that I will do the very best for you. Be ready and willing for My Will to be done.
Know that with Me all things are possible. Cling joyfully to that truth.
Say many times, “All things are possible with My Master, My Lord, My Friend.”
This truth, accepted and firmly believed in, is the ladder up which a soul can climb from the lowest of pits to the sublimest of heights.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from
the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out
of thine hand, O king. Daniel 3:17
Many are wondering why their desire for righteousness is not satisfied according to My Promise. But that Promise was on condition that there should be hunger and thirst. If the Truths I have given have not been absorbed, there can be no real hunger for more.
So, when you miss the Joy-Light on your path, when the vision seems lost, and the Voice silent, then ask yourself, have you failed to live out the lessons that you were taught?
Live out My teaching in your lives, and then, hunger for more, come to Me, Bread of Life, Food of your souls.
See not the small trials and vexations of each hour of the day. See the one purpose and plan to which all are leading. If in climbing a mountain you keep your eyes on each stony or difficult place, as you ascend, seeing only that, how weary and profitless your climb!
But if you think of each step as leading to the summit of achievement, from which glories and beauties will open out before you, then your climb will be so different.
The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’
feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. Habakkuk 3:19
Many are speaking on about Me, and they marvel that their words have no force. They are not My Words, they are words about Me. Oh, and how different.
The world is surfeited with words about Me.
The world needs to see Me, not to hear of My Power, but to see it in action. Not to hear of My Peace, but to see that it keeps My followers calm, unruffled, and untroubled, no matter what the outward circumstances.
Not to hear of my Joy, but to see it, as from hidden depths of security, where true Power and Peace abide, it ripples to the surface of the life, and is revealed to those round about.
Because you have both longed to save My World I let you have that training that shall fit you to save.
Take your pains and sufferings, difficulties and hardships — each day, both of you, and offer them up for one troubled soul, or for some prayer specially needed to be answered.
So the beauty of each day will live on after the trouble and distress, difficulty and pain of the day have passed.
Learn from My Life of the suffering that saves others. So, you will sing in your pain. Across the grayest days there are the gleams of Sunlight.
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings;
that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also
with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:13
