At Any Moment With God 12/1 Thursday Thoughts

... The Christian ought to have such an unction as to realize at any moment, whether in the presence of others or alone, that he is with God.  He can have a vision in the tramcar, or in the railway train, even if he has to stand with others in front or behind him; or he can have a vision if he is there alone.


-- Smith Wigglesworth

No Storm Can Move Me 11/30 Wednesday Wisdom

A man who is baptized with the Holy Ghost has a Jesus mission.  He knows his vocation, the plan of his life.  God speaks to him so definitely and really that there is no mistaking about it.  Thank God for the knowledge which fixes me so solidly upon God's Word that I cannot be moved from it by any storm that may rage.  The revelation of Jesus to my soul by the Holy Ghost brings me to a placed where I am willing, if need be, TO DIE ON WHAT THE WORD SAYS.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Arranging Things 11/29 Tuesday Truth

Is God the Holy Ghost arranging things for you, or are you arranging things according to your own plan?  A man filled with the Holy Ghost has ceased to be, in a sense; he has come to a rest, he has come to where God is working, to a place where he can "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."  What do I mean?  I mean that such a man has ceased from his own works and abilities and associations.  He will not trust his own heart; he relies only on the omnipotent power of the Most High, he is guided by Another.  The man baptized with the Holy Ghost will always KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE MASTER.

-- Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth: Filled With God 11/28 Monday Meditation

I'm going to return to quoting Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947), whom I had quoted in 2014.  Wigglesworth had a most unusual background.  He was a child laborer in England and did not receive an education.  After their marriage, his wife taught him to read.  He would read nothing but the Bible.   He didn't want anything to compromise his focus on God and his faith in God.  He became a preacher in his 50's when his wife (herself a preacher) forced him into the pulpit and made him preach.  He had one of the world's best-known evangelistic and healing ministries.  He wrote no books, but his sermons were transcribed into books.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wigglesworth

"Filled with God, yes, filled with God, pardoned and cleansed and filled with God." 

Filled with God leaves no room for doubting or fearing.  We have no idea of all that means, to be filled with God... It means you have no fear, for when you are filled with God you are filled with love, and perfect love casts out fear.

Holy Spirit Overlooked 11/24-25 Thursday-Friday Faith

This will be the last post for the week.   Happy Thanksgiving!

“A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives.

By this test the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as held by evangelical Christians today has almost no practical value at all.
In most Christian churches the Spirit is quite entirely overlooked.
Whether He is present or absent makes no real difference to anyone.

Brief reference is made to Him in the Doxology and the Benediction. Further than that He might as well not exist.”

- A.W. Tozer, The Equality of the Three Persons

The Kind of God He Is 11/23 Wednesday Wisdom

"We wonder why we don't have faith;
the answer is,
faith is confidence in the character of God and if we don't know what kind of God God is, we can't have faith."

Aiden Wilson Tozer

Playing at Religion 11/22 Tuesday Truth

Most church people play at religion, as they play at their games!

Religion itself, is the one game most universally played.

The Church has its "fields" and "rules" and its "equipment" for playing the game of religion. It has its devotees, both laymen and professionals, who support the game with their money and encourage it with their presence — but who are no different in life or character from many who take no interest in religion at all!

As an athlete uses a ball — so do many of us use religious words. We throw them swiftly across the field — and learn to handle them with dexterity and grace. We gain as our reward, the applause of those who have enjoyed the game.

In the secular games which people play, there are no moral benefits. They simply are a pleasant activity which changes nothing, and settles nothing of any importance.

Sadly, it is much the same in the game of religion. After the pleasant meeting, no one is basically any different from what he had been before!

"How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will not accept your offerings!" Malachi 1:10

 

- A. W. Tozer

Fear of the Holy Spirit 11/21 Monday Meditation

I'm going to use an A.W. Tozer quote that Pastor Dan used in his sermon on Christian and Missionary Alliance Core Values: "Without the Holy Spirit's Empowerment We Can Do Nothing":

One of the most telling blows which the enemy ever struck at the life of the church was to create in her a fear of the Holy Spirit. 

How Are You Using Your Time? 11/18 Friday Faith

"How are you using your time? Life is short and very uncertain. You never know what a day may bring forth. Business and pleasure, money-getting and money-spending, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—all, all will soon be over and done with forever. And you, what are you doing for your immortal soul? Are you wasting time, or turning it to good account? Are you preparing to meet God?"

- J. C. Ryle

God of the Humble 11/17 Thursday Thoughts

God is the God of the humble, the miserable, the afflicted,, the oppressed, the desperate, and those who have been brought to nothing.

-- Martin Luther

The Habit of Sinning 11/16 Wednesday Wisdom

The habit of sinning takes away the sense of it.  The course of the world takes away the shame of it.

-- John Owen

I Have All Things and Abound 11/15 Tuesday Truth

I have all things and abound; not because I have a good store of money in the bank; not because I have skill and wit with which to win my bread, but because the Lord is my Shepherd.

-- Charles Spurgeon

Increasing Levels of Intimacy With God 11/14 Monday Meditation

It is simply not enough to know about God.  We must know God in increasing levels of intimacy that lifts us up above all reason  and into the world of adoration and praise and worship.

-- A.W. Tozer

Preaching That Hardens Men 11/11 Friday Faith

I am certain that to preach the wrath of God with a hard heart, a cold lip, a tearless eye, and an unfeeling spirit is to harden men, not benefit them.

--Charles Spurgeon

Besetting Sin 11/10 Thursday Thoughts

Without a sincere and diligent effort in every area of obedience -- there will be no successful mortification of any one besetting sin.

-- John Owen

An Infinite God 11/9 Wednesday Wisdom

An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children.  He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.

-- A. W. Tozer

It Costs to be a Christian 11/8 Tuesday Truth

It costs something to be a true Christian.  It will cost us our sins, our sins, our self-righteousness, our ease, and our worldliness.

-- J. C. Ryle

Jesus Christ Had Joy 11/7 Monday Meditation

The Bible talks plentifully about joy, but it nowhere talks about a "happy Christian."  Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not.  Remember, Jesus Christ had joy, and He prays "that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves."

-- Oswald Chambers

No Comfort Like God's Love 11/4 Friday Faith

There is no comfort like the fact of God's infinite, unchanging and eternal love for us! If we can but get this truth into our minds and hearts--it will sustain us in every trial. All the universe is under God's personal sway, and He is our tenderest and dearest Friend, carrying each one of us close in His heart.

Providence is not merely the outworking of a mechanical system, or the beneficent operation of wise and good laws. It is rather--the thoughtful, sleepless, loving care of our Heavenly Father!

-- J. R. Miller

Object of Our Remembrance 11/3 Thursday Thoughts

Christians have many treasures to lock up in the cabinet of memory. They ought to remember their election - "Chosen of God ere time began." They ought to be mindful of their extraction, that they were taken out of the miry clay, hewn out of the horrible pit. They ought to recollect their effectual calling, for they were called of God, and rescued by the power of the Holy Ghost. They ought to remember their special deliverances - all that has been done for them, and all the mercies bestowed on them. But there is one whom they should embalm in their souls with the most costly spices - one who, above all other gifts of God, deserves to be had in perpetual remembrance.  ...   It is Christ's glorious person which ought to be the object of our remembrance. It is His image which should be enshrined in every temple of the Holy Ghost.

-- Charles Spurgeon "The Remembrance of Christ"

Schools Will Be the Gates of Hell 11/2 Wednesday Wisdom

A little break from my usual type of quote, for Reformation Day / All Saints Day / All Souls Day:

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.

--Martin Luther