不要消灭圣灵的感动。(帖前五19)
圣灵的声音柔如微风,除非与神完全契合,否则不能听见。圣灵的拦阻来得极其柔细,你若不够敏感,就因不能察觉他的声音而消灭了他的感动,这样你属灵的生命就受亏损。他拦阻的声音总是平静微细的,只有圣徒才听得见。
当心在你个人的见证里,要追述过去说:“许多年前,我得救了。”你若行在光中,就不必追忆,过去一切已经融合在今日与神的合一里了。你若不在光中行,就会变成一个感情用事的信徒;你若活在回忆之中,见证也变得生硬。当心别拿过去行在光中的经历,来缝补你现今不肯在光中行的破洞。圣灵一拦阻,就要停下来回转,否则,你就使他忧伤而不自知。
假设神叫你面临一个重要关头,你就差一点点未能胜过。然后神会叫你再面对同样的情形,不过没有上次那么明显。你若不顺服,渐渐地,你对神的辨认就减弱了,因自己未曾顺服而带来的羞辱却加强。
若你仍继续叫圣灵担忧,终有一天机会(注:危机中寻求和辨识神的声音的机会)不再有,因为你把圣灵忧伤得退去了。但你若在这重要关头中得胜,无边的赞美就要对神升起。对那些不断刺痛神的东西,你绝不应表示同情。会刺伤神的那些东西,你必须撇弃。
祈祷◆噢,主啊,我举目仰望你,将我的盼望、我的祷告呈献给你。求你从高处藉着圣灵的内住使我重新得力,以致神的亮光在今天可以在我们周围和里面点燃起来。愿你按着本身的喜悦,以甜蜜和荣耀来充满这天。
August 13 Quench Not The Spirit
“Quench not the Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19
The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it. The checks of the Spirit come in the most extraordinarily gentle ways, and if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice you will quench it, and your personal spiritual life will be impaired. His checks always come as a still small voice, so small that no one but the saint notices them.
Beware if in personal testimony you have to hark back and say – “Once, so many years ago, I was saved.” If you are walking in the light, there is no harking back, the past is transfused into the present wonder of communion with God. If you get out of the light you become a sentimental Christian and live on memories, your testimony has a hard, metallic note. Beware of trying to patch up a present refusal to walk in the light by recalling past experiences when you did walk in the light. Whenever the Spirit checks, call a halt and get the thing right, or you will go on grieving Him without knowing it.
Suppose God has brought you up to a crisis and you nearly go through but not quite, He will engineer the crisis again, but it will not be so keen as it was before. There will be less discernment of God and more humiliation at not having obeyed; and if you go on grieving the Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, you have grieved Him away. But if you go through the crisis, there will be the pæan of praise to God. Never sympathize with the thing that is stabbing God all the time. God has to hurt the thing that must go.