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Excerpts from Spurgeon
“Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant?”
- Num_11:11
Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not: the paste gem dreads to
be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It
is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends
are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and
the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden. When “tribulation
worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope,”
the Lord is honoured by these growing virtues. We should never know
the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched; nor enjoy
the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress;
nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed
and beaten; nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly
consumed. The wisdom and power of the great Workman are discovered
by the trials through which his vessels of mercy are permitted to
pass. Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy. There
must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights.
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The
Lord is saying. I am close by, yet you are thinking that there
is not much happening and that I have forgotten you. But I
say today that the programme is still going ahead and my plans
for you have not been altered. Rejoice for your destiny is
set and the target I have planned for you is straight ahead.
Rejoice for I have promised that my plans shall surely come
to pass.
Walking
with Jesus
Part
4
When
we have heeded the Lord and made the effort to take that step
of faith in obedience to His voice, we need to couple our
faith with patience. Its normal in the Christian walk to go
through a process of our faith being tested before our reward
comes.
Heb
10:35-37 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath
great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience,
that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive
the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come
will come, and will not tarry.
Lets
say for instance that you are sick so:-
- You
ask the Lord for healing, and you believe His promise that
if you ask you will receive, if you seek you will find and
if you knock, the door shall be opened.
- You
believe He is wanting to heal you, because you have found
out what His mind is on the matter of the request. When
the leper said "If you want to you can make me clean"
Jesus replied with great tenderness.. .."I want to".
So that's cleared up in your mind..... You know by God's
word that it is the Lord's will to heal you.
- The next
step is you believe that you have received. Jesus said when
you ask anything according to His will, that you should
then believe that you have already received it. I like to
think of my heart as the womb in which the 'egg' (my prayer)
as been fertilised by God's answer. The answered prayer
starts to germinate inside my heart.
- Sometimes
there is a time of waiting, this may be short or long according
to its gestation period. Each answered prayer has its own
time frame for being manifested in the physical. So if it
can't be seen yet does not mean it has not been answered.
Jesus assures us that it certainly has been answered. A
pregnant women does not look like she is having a baby at
the beginning of her pregnancy, but there are major changes
taking place in her body and the event is inevitable.
Isa
66:9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?
saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut [the
womb]? saith thy God.
Matthew 7:7
Matthew 1:40-42
Mark 11:24
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