Chapter 50 - Miscellaneous

My mother used to say: “To discipline a child, you have to go back to its mother and grandmother: (wise) I never had a problem child in school.

Anything we hold and retain becomes a snare. The enemy came to Jesus, but had nothing to hang on to.

You can listen and not hear, and you can look, and not see! What do you see when you look?

Signs are for unbelievers to arouse them to a consciousness that there is something dramatic around. We, as believers, don’t need an earthquake.

A mystic is one who has discovered a life in God—independent of his natural life. That is mystical, because it is above the natural.

The first place we find fear in the Bible is in Gen. 3:10. Fear doesn’t belong in the vocabulary of a Christian. It is a word that has been added to our vocabulary through sin and failure. Fear is the disorganizing element. The love of God is creative. “Perfect love casteth out fear.” Love will beget and beget. When Peter walked on water—fear broke down the whole thing. Fear is always the disorganizing element in any field in God. “Fear hath torment”, because it is the antithesis of love. Love is trust.

“For we know that all things work together for good . . .” (Rom. 8:28) He can make sickness, death, all things, even hell; He can make even the wrath of the devil to praise Him!

I am always afraid of the magnitude of a thing. He deals with a minority, a remnant, etc.

Things of the Spirit are mystically sweet.

Things of God in creation are silent, usually; filled with mystery; sweet.

Things of the enemy are most always destructive and noisy!

Satan is walking around seeking whom he may devour. The Lord is walking around finding somebody who would be interested in Him.

“God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which am prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.” (Eph. 2:10 Moffatt’s Tr.)

In regard to dealing with a wayward minister, I feel I am not touching the Lord’s anointed; I am correcting a piece of flesh!

The books of Revelation and Daniel are cryptic writings which take a peculiar, special adaptation for. an interpretation in that field.

Duplicate idea: Jacob constrained the angel to bless him, and on the Emmaus Road, the disciples constrained Jesus to come in.

God’s way: (1) Opens prison door for Paul and Silas.

(2) Puts John on Patmos—not out.

One He delivers, the next one He doesn’t—that’s God’s way.

“Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die: Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal and take the name of my God in vain.” In other words: Deliver me from the abundance which would make me too independent, so I would forfeit my dependence. But don’t let me be so starved that I can’t live.

Never be afraid of your limitation, but don’t try with all your might and main where it won’t stretch. Give it to God. He can take a limitation, and make it to bless five thousand. That is the kind of God we have. Put your limitation of five loaves and two fishes into the hands of God, and say, “Oh, Lord, here it is.”

Mary at Cana. (She is always present, and His disciples; she is always there!) Mary: “They have no wine.” (John 2:1-4)—There is no “Mother” in Jesus’ answer to her! He calls her: “woman”—flesh. She is an ambitious mother, patriotic, and defends the Lord, and tries to shine up His glory;—proving God!

Don’t stand there to explain God, and defend God. We are not called to defend Him; we are called to worship God, and love Him. But it is so much easier to try to defend Him than it is to worship Him. It is so much easier to prove Him, than to walk with Him.

DAY: what does it mean in the Genesis creation? We get into trouble if we are not careful. The Hebrew word for “day” in Genesis is “Yom”—It really means an indefinite period of time. It does not set a time limit at all; it merely means a period. It may be twenty-four hours; a year; a thousand years. We say, “that day” meaning twenty-four hours. We cannot always do that in Bible study.

Once I had just a little wish; it made me think of David, when he was hunted as a partridge on a mountain, and he just gave a little expression of a secret wish, but God saw that secret wish in him which desired to have a drink of water from his own home well in Bethlehem. Soldiers heard it, endangered their lives, and went way back in there and got it. It broke David’s heart; he didn’t feel worthy even to drink it. He poured it out as a libation, giving it to God. “l am not even worthy to drink it.” It was a fresh touch he had with God; a fresh avenue was opened. That is like these little wishes we have sometimes. God is interested in the most casual and unlikely incidents; in most incidental things which would pass almost unobserved. He is concerned with them, and causes the things to work together.

We are under a curse—God cursed the earth; “Cursed be the EARTH” for man’s doings, and all the animals had to go into a subjection for which they were not accountable. I never go to a zoo, and see a poor lion, but I always feel apologetic. I say, “Poor thing; God never made you like that, never in the world; your ferocity; your ugliness; your blood thirst; all is a result of sin in the world. God never created you to jump on something and kill it—never in the world.” A curse—a judgment is upon ALL creation for man’s sake.

“I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11 should read, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be independent of it—I have learned in any condition to be independent of it”—I will not allow it to harass me, torment me, or disturb me. I will gain out of it what God wants me to have, but I will be above it. I will in any kind of a condition be released from it.

Psychiatrists can pull it all apart, but they can’t put it back together, because they have no kingpin. The Lord can put it together, because lie is the greatest Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, and Psychologist in the universe. He can analyze us perfectly. He can take us all apart, and He can !to step by step in every item in our beings. Then He says, “I can put you all together”—not around the ego, but around the Christ; not ego-centric—that would damage the whole thing—but Christ-centered. He says, “Now let Me have all your faculties, and I will even put them together in the power of the Spirit, in a new-formed personality, in its correct shape.”

He redeemed the nation Israel out of Egypt—a separation to God. The Red Sea opened to let them out of Egypt’s power, and closed behind them to keep them out! As long as a man is governed by the world Spirit, he can know but little of communion with God. “I will dwell in them” is closely followed by the precept, “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” (2 Cor. 6:16, 17)

God spoke to Moses, and under the authority of God, the children of Israel could go right through the Red sea, because they were in divine order, under a special word. The Egyptians “assayed” to do likewise. They saw how the Israelites got along beautifully, BUT they didn’t have any “spoke”. God had spoken to the Israelites—God had not spoken to the Egyptians. Therefore, they couldn’t have the miracle, although they assayed to do likewise. They didn’t have any Word from God. You have to have the Word from God for your authority. The Egyptians Said, “Why, they went through, why can’t we?” They tried it, and drowned!

Don’t make things synonymous which are not Synonymous, such as nature and character. The lovely new nature is a gift, but the character which He is after, is built. How? Through testing and proving. That is why gradation is all through the New Testament. Gradation is mentioned with regard to food, milk, meat, strong meat, and there is gradation when it speaks of babes, children, little children, grownup sons, fathers and mothers in Israel.

People right in this city can’t be alone five minutes nor still five minutes. We’ve got to get a TV going, and a radio going, and a band going, and a hum dum going and a . . . . They live in that environment. Why? Because they would be scared to death to be five minutes in the Presence of God. There is no adjustment for them. They have become so exposed to these horrible things that they don’t know what’s the matter with them. So they take pills, and jump off bridges, and do anything.

The enemy cannot touch us as redeemed property, abiding in Him, walking consciously with God, only as God sees good.—It was God Who gave the permission that Peter should be sifted. It was God Who gave the permission that Job should be tested. That was all under the permissive providence of God. The devil hath desired . . . but God hath given him permission, the power, to test and prove them.

1 Cor. 1:30: “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”—The Holy Spirit is seeking to conform us to His image. All the victories He won belong to me now because I am in Him. He is made unto me all that. So we don’t have to struggle too hard.

“For with God nothing is ever impossible, and no Word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.” (Luke 1:37 A.N.T.) We have to have the Word from Him first.

Never take the initiative in moving into anything unless you have the Word of God to garrison you.