Under the Call of God
Two encouraging pieces from two books I am working through at present...I believe they will bless both my followers and my teammates.
Evidence Not Seen ~ Darlene Deibler Rose
Darlene Deibler was a remarkable American missionary, who God granted the strength to "be a good soldier for Jesus Christ" throughout the hell of WWII, locked into a Japanese concentration camp in New Guinea. At this particular time, she was in the headquarters of the Japanese secret police on death row. Here is some of her story in her own words.
"...Though grateful to God for my deliverance, the terror of the night and the gravity of the watchman's situation were too critical to allow sleep. The burden of my intercession was on behalf of the watchman, that God would protect him and obliterate from the memory of those lecherous, malevolent reprobates all recollection of the events of that night. Thank God, Saartje and the others from death row had returned to Kampili, for their sakes as well as mine. Though he must have known I was aware of the ruckus and the part he played in my deliverance, the watchman never acknowledged my thank-you whispered from the transom as he passed beneath. Perhaps he trusted no one either. His was a courageous act that put him in a position of extreme peril.
The twenty-seventh Psalm was a great comfort to me that night. I had committed it to memory at Benten Tinggi. Every verse was apropos, but especially verses three and eight. 'Though an host should encampe against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this wil I be confident...When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'
In the soft light of the early morning hours, I repeated these verses aloud. I had spent a restless night wondering if the drunks would reurn. I knew that without God, without that consciousness of His presence in every troubled hour I could never have made it.
'Lord, don't ever leave me or forsake me. Your wonderful presence has made this cell a place of beauty, a sacred place like a chapel lighted by Your presence.'
Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt enveloped in a spiritual vacuum. 'Lord, where have You gone? What have I said or done to grieve You? Why have You withrawn Your presence from me? O Father -' In panic I jumped to my feet, my heart frantically searching for a hidden sin, for a careless thought, for any reason why my Lord should have withdrawn His presence from me. My prayers, my expressions of worship, seemed to go no higher than the ceiling; there seemed to be no sounding board. I prayed for forgiveness, for the Holy Spirit to search my heart. To none of my petitions was there any apparent response.
I sank to the floor and quietly and purposefully began to search the Scriptures hidden in my heart. 'Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee' (Psalm 119:11). God's Word had always been 'a lamp to my feet and a light to my path' (Psalm 119:105). I was aware that if I regarded iniquity in my heart, He would not hear me. I knew of no unconfessed sin in my heart. I believed I John 1:9, that 'if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' I knew my sins had been blotted out, not to be remembered against me (Isaiah 43:25). Did not I John 3:21 state that if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence toward God? My heart did not condemn me, and my confidence was in the Person of my Lord, Who never lies, Who is faithful to His Word. I quoted Numbers 23:19: 'God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He not spoken, and shall He not make it good?'
'Lord, I believe all that the Bible says. I do walk by faith and not by sight. I do not need to feel You near, because Your Word says You will never leave me nor forsake me. Lord, I confirm my faith; I believe.' The words of Hebrews 11:1 welled up, unbeckoned, to fill my mind: 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' The evidence of things not seen. Evidence not seen - that was what I put my trust in - not in feelings or moments of ecstasy, but in the unchanging Person of Jesus Christ. Suddenly I realised I was singing:
'When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.'
I was assured that my faith rested not on feelings, not on moments of ecstasy, but on the Person of my matchless, changeless Saviour, in Whom is no shadow caused by turning. In a measure I felt I understood what Job meant when he declared, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him' (Job 13:15). Job knew that he could trust God, because Job knew the character of the One in Whom he had put his trust. It was faith stripped of feelings, faith without trappings. more than ever before, I knew that I could ever and always put my trust, my faith, in my glorious Lord. I encouraged myself in the Lord and His Word. *"
"*This was as valuable a spiritual lesson as the war taught me, and made even more meaningful by Dr. A. W. Tozer, with whom I shared the experience. I had been reluctant to relate this incident after having Psalm 66:18 thrown at me several times with this added jewel of wisdom: 'No, there must have been some hidden sin or you would have been conscious of His presence.'
'Girl, we have some spiritually ignorant people today,' Dr. Tozer commented. 'We are engage in a spiritual conflict. Do these people not realise it took the Lord twenty-one days to get the answer throught to Daniel because of the opposition of the Prince of Persia, Satan? God sent Michael to fight against and overcome the enemy. It is vital that we understand that Satan has accelerated his activities as prince of the power of the air because he knows his time is short.'"
Copyright (c) 1988 by Darlene Rose
Intercessor (Rees Howells) ~ Norman Grubb
"...When I went home , my friend who had accompanied me to the meeting, but had seen nothing in it, seemed so rough to me. Everyone who was not born again seemed rough. The Saviour became everything to me. He was not only the fairest among ten thousand, but fairest among millions! That love of His had always been there, but before I saw it, there was no response from me; but He had plenty of response after this. Everything of this world was rough, but everything about Him, so holy, pure and beautiful. I changed altogether. None of my old friends could understand what had happened. I had no fellowship with natural things. It wasn't a point of doctrine I saw; no, it was Calvary. It wasn't giving a mental assent; no, the veil was taken back, my eyes were opened, and I saw Him. That night I saw this world as a cursed place, and the thought came to me that I would never touch it again.
The love of the Saviour was revealed to me. You can't explain what a revelation is. I saw that the Saviour and Father, before I should suffer, would rather suffer for me. No natural love is in the same world as His love. It was not merely that the Saviour helped me outside Himself; no, He took my place. I saw every other love so rough in comparison. Self was the motive of it. But I could see that love enduring through the countless ages of eternity. When you receive the Saviour, you receive the love of God. That love flooded my being, and it has flooded my being ever since. I saw that by His coming in to me, He would love sinners through me, as He loved me. It would not be forcing myself to love others, any more than the Saviour forced Himself to love me. No person could be an eney to me, because I had been an enemy to Him before I was reconciled. If I live in the realm where He is, I live to have mercy, and to be kind, to love others. Could the love of God in me do harm to anyone? I had left the world and its folly, and had been born into that Kingdom where there is only the love of God - the most attractive life on the face of the earth."
~ Rees Howells
Evidence Not Seen ~ Darlene Deibler Rose
Darlene Deibler was a remarkable American missionary, who God granted the strength to "be a good soldier for Jesus Christ" throughout the hell of WWII, locked into a Japanese concentration camp in New Guinea. At this particular time, she was in the headquarters of the Japanese secret police on death row. Here is some of her story in her own words.
"...Though grateful to God for my deliverance, the terror of the night and the gravity of the watchman's situation were too critical to allow sleep. The burden of my intercession was on behalf of the watchman, that God would protect him and obliterate from the memory of those lecherous, malevolent reprobates all recollection of the events of that night. Thank God, Saartje and the others from death row had returned to Kampili, for their sakes as well as mine. Though he must have known I was aware of the ruckus and the part he played in my deliverance, the watchman never acknowledged my thank-you whispered from the transom as he passed beneath. Perhaps he trusted no one either. His was a courageous act that put him in a position of extreme peril.
The twenty-seventh Psalm was a great comfort to me that night. I had committed it to memory at Benten Tinggi. Every verse was apropos, but especially verses three and eight. 'Though an host should encampe against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this wil I be confident...When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.'
In the soft light of the early morning hours, I repeated these verses aloud. I had spent a restless night wondering if the drunks would reurn. I knew that without God, without that consciousness of His presence in every troubled hour I could never have made it.
'Lord, don't ever leave me or forsake me. Your wonderful presence has made this cell a place of beauty, a sacred place like a chapel lighted by Your presence.'
Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, I felt enveloped in a spiritual vacuum. 'Lord, where have You gone? What have I said or done to grieve You? Why have You withrawn Your presence from me? O Father -' In panic I jumped to my feet, my heart frantically searching for a hidden sin, for a careless thought, for any reason why my Lord should have withdrawn His presence from me. My prayers, my expressions of worship, seemed to go no higher than the ceiling; there seemed to be no sounding board. I prayed for forgiveness, for the Holy Spirit to search my heart. To none of my petitions was there any apparent response.
I sank to the floor and quietly and purposefully began to search the Scriptures hidden in my heart. 'Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee' (Psalm 119:11). God's Word had always been 'a lamp to my feet and a light to my path' (Psalm 119:105). I was aware that if I regarded iniquity in my heart, He would not hear me. I knew of no unconfessed sin in my heart. I believed I John 1:9, that 'if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' I knew my sins had been blotted out, not to be remembered against me (Isaiah 43:25). Did not I John 3:21 state that if our hearts do not condemn us, then we have confidence toward God? My heart did not condemn me, and my confidence was in the Person of my Lord, Who never lies, Who is faithful to His Word. I quoted Numbers 23:19: 'God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He not spoken, and shall He not make it good?'
'Lord, I believe all that the Bible says. I do walk by faith and not by sight. I do not need to feel You near, because Your Word says You will never leave me nor forsake me. Lord, I confirm my faith; I believe.' The words of Hebrews 11:1 welled up, unbeckoned, to fill my mind: 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' The evidence of things not seen. Evidence not seen - that was what I put my trust in - not in feelings or moments of ecstasy, but in the unchanging Person of Jesus Christ. Suddenly I realised I was singing:
'When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.'
I was assured that my faith rested not on feelings, not on moments of ecstasy, but on the Person of my matchless, changeless Saviour, in Whom is no shadow caused by turning. In a measure I felt I understood what Job meant when he declared, 'Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him' (Job 13:15). Job knew that he could trust God, because Job knew the character of the One in Whom he had put his trust. It was faith stripped of feelings, faith without trappings. more than ever before, I knew that I could ever and always put my trust, my faith, in my glorious Lord. I encouraged myself in the Lord and His Word. *"
"*This was as valuable a spiritual lesson as the war taught me, and made even more meaningful by Dr. A. W. Tozer, with whom I shared the experience. I had been reluctant to relate this incident after having Psalm 66:18 thrown at me several times with this added jewel of wisdom: 'No, there must have been some hidden sin or you would have been conscious of His presence.'
'Girl, we have some spiritually ignorant people today,' Dr. Tozer commented. 'We are engage in a spiritual conflict. Do these people not realise it took the Lord twenty-one days to get the answer throught to Daniel because of the opposition of the Prince of Persia, Satan? God sent Michael to fight against and overcome the enemy. It is vital that we understand that Satan has accelerated his activities as prince of the power of the air because he knows his time is short.'"
Copyright (c) 1988 by Darlene Rose
Intercessor (Rees Howells) ~ Norman Grubb
"...When I went home , my friend who had accompanied me to the meeting, but had seen nothing in it, seemed so rough to me. Everyone who was not born again seemed rough. The Saviour became everything to me. He was not only the fairest among ten thousand, but fairest among millions! That love of His had always been there, but before I saw it, there was no response from me; but He had plenty of response after this. Everything of this world was rough, but everything about Him, so holy, pure and beautiful. I changed altogether. None of my old friends could understand what had happened. I had no fellowship with natural things. It wasn't a point of doctrine I saw; no, it was Calvary. It wasn't giving a mental assent; no, the veil was taken back, my eyes were opened, and I saw Him. That night I saw this world as a cursed place, and the thought came to me that I would never touch it again.
The love of the Saviour was revealed to me. You can't explain what a revelation is. I saw that the Saviour and Father, before I should suffer, would rather suffer for me. No natural love is in the same world as His love. It was not merely that the Saviour helped me outside Himself; no, He took my place. I saw every other love so rough in comparison. Self was the motive of it. But I could see that love enduring through the countless ages of eternity. When you receive the Saviour, you receive the love of God. That love flooded my being, and it has flooded my being ever since. I saw that by His coming in to me, He would love sinners through me, as He loved me. It would not be forcing myself to love others, any more than the Saviour forced Himself to love me. No person could be an eney to me, because I had been an enemy to Him before I was reconciled. If I live in the realm where He is, I live to have mercy, and to be kind, to love others. Could the love of God in me do harm to anyone? I had left the world and its folly, and had been born into that Kingdom where there is only the love of God - the most attractive life on the face of the earth."
~ Rees Howells
Quote:[We need to actually be full ourselves of the love of Christ, to be completely focused on Him and lost in Him and not even catching the slightest glimpse of ourselves in the mirror..]
ReplyDeleteand this at times can seem so terribly hard can't it? i'ts almost as if sometimes even a misdst our belief in God, we do not see past ourselves day in and day out...and yes sometimes it is hard to remember 'not' to base everything on feelings, rather faith in a Savior
who is unchanging...Christ is who we live for :)