耶和华在路上引领我……(创二十四27)
我们应该与神合一到一个地步,不必一天到晚求他指引。成圣就是成为神的儿女,而儿女的生命就是顺服--一旦不顺服,就立刻直觉地感到一种隔膜。在属灵的范畴里,这隔膜是圣灵的一个警告。当圣灵警告,我们就该立即停下来,在心灵里更新,好知道神的旨意。我们若是神的灵重生的,仍不住求神引我到这里、到那里,就是敬虔的流产。“耶和华引领我”,回顾过去,我们可以处处看见神奇妙无比的安排。我们若是从神生的,就必归荣耀给神。
在非凡的事上容易看见神的作为,可是只有在属灵上有操练,才会在每一细节上看见神。永远不要认为偶然的事是在神的旨意以外;要随时随地明白神奇妙的安排。
当心不要盲目地迷恋自己的信念,而不是忠于神。“我永不做那件事”--若你是个圣徒的话,很可能你不能不做。世上从来没有比我们的主更前后矛盾的人,但他从不违背父神。圣徒唯一要持守的,不是一套原则,乃是神的生命。这属神的生命不断增加对神心意的认识。做狂热主义者容易,做忠心耿耿的人难,因为要效忠神,需要一种出奇的谦卑;尤其是对于我们的宗教自负而言。
祈祷◆“凡有智慧的……也必思想耶和华的慈爱。”主啊,那是多么美好!为着你的荣耀,请赐给我这个记号。今天,我仰望你;愿你的恩惠和美善丰厚地临到我们。
November 14: Discovering Divine Designs
“I being in the way, the Lord led me. . .” Genesis 24:27
We have to be so one with God that we do not continually need to ask for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God, and the natural life of a child is obedience – until he wishes to be disobedient, then instantly there is the intuitive jar. In the spiritual domain the intuitive jar is the monition of the Spirit of God. When He gives the check, we have to stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind in order to make out what God’s will is. If we are born again of the Spirit of God, it is the abortion of piety to ask God to guide us here and there. “The Lord led me,” and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design, which, if we are born of God, we will credit to God.
We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the culture of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never allow that the haphazard is anything less than God’s appointed order, and be ready to discover the Divine designs any where.
Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God. I shall never do that – in all probability you will have to, if you are a saint. There never was a more inconsistent Being on this earth than Our Lord, but He was never inconsistent to His Father. The one consistency of the saint is not to a principle, but to the Divine life. It is the Divine life which continually makes more and more discoveries about the Divine mind. It is easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God.