December 22nd — THE DRAWING OF THE FATHER
December 22nd.THE DRAWING OF THE FATHER
"No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." John 6:44
When God draws me, the issue of my wil comes in at once - wil I react on the revelation which God gives - wil I come to Him? Discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intel ectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself. Wil I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I wil , I shal find I am based on Reality that is as sure as God's throne.
In preaching the gospel, always push an issue of wil . Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the wil , not a surrender to persuasive power, a deliberate launching forth on God and on what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I wil not trust God, but only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must stake al blindly. I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to disassociate myself from my old ways of looking at things, and by putting myself right over on to Him.
Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. It is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is a personal one, not an intel ectual one. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own wil to believe, then I begin to get an intel igent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transaction.