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“The Hidden Life of Faith in the Smitten Rock”

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The Hidden Life of Faith in the Smitten Rock

Pastor and author A.W. Tozer

October 3, 1954

In chapter 33 of the book of Exodus, verses 21-22. The Lord said, behold, there is a place by me. And thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passes by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by.

Now, here in this chapter are the sections of the two chapters, which we read this morning, there is depicted one of the most charming and beautiful scenes found anywhere in the entire Bible. And this I would not say as a type of anything, but I would say that it is a marvelously beautiful illustration. It doesn’t preach to us maybe, but it seems to us. And it seems to us the song of the hidden life, I will hide thee in a clift of the rock while my glory passeth by. And it sings to us of the hidden life of faith, the song of the man and or a woman who has found the hiding place in the smitten rock.

Now, faith in the gospel oracle, has certain clear specific results. And I might say that faith is a gift of God to contrite hearts. It is not a conclusion drawn from facts. It is a spiritual ability imparted by the Holy Ghost. I keep bearing down on this wherever I go and telling the people, because it is one of the doctrines that has been lost by a de-emphasis. It is not denied, it is de-emphasized, with the result that it, for all practical purposes does not exist as a valid Christian doctrine today, that faith is not a conclusion. We do not say, you believe God wrote the Bible. Yes. This text is in the Bible. Therefore, did God write that text? Yes. If God wrote the Bible, this text is in the Bible, and God is true, therefore, is that text true? Yes. Well then, you’re a believer.

Now, that is one kind of faith, certainly that’s a kind of intellectual conclusion drawn from a set of facts. But faith in the gospel oracle, the faith that transforms men, is a gift of God, a spiritual ability to trust Christ, imparted by the Holy Spirit to the penitent man and withheld from every other sort of man.

Now, the man of faith, that is, who has this real faith, this imparted faith, enters an immortal kingdom at once. He is born into the Kingdom of God, and he joins a select circle. He joins the circle of the elect. It is not the ecumenical circle that we hear about so much recently. It is more than that. It’s bigger than that. It is the select circle. It is the circle of the elect, of those who’ve entered that immortal kingdom. And when a man thus does enter that Kingdom, he becomes what I might call a God-hidden man. I will hide thee said God. I will put thee in a clift of the rock. And this was, I repeat, perhaps not a type, but at least a beautiful illustration of the God-hidden life.

Now, I want to say four or five things about this man of faith, that he is a God-charmed man. If he’s a real Christian and hasn’t been wrongly taught, he lives in the center of the miracle, and he becomes in one very real sense, a true Bible mystic. He feels that the whole world is his. And he comes into accord with it. When our Lord Jesus Christ was in the wilderness, it said that he was among the wild beasts. And I suppose the average reader of that passage, might pity the Lord or say, how wonderful that he was protected by the beasts. But G. Campbell Morgan, in his book, “The Crisis of the Christ,” he says this, that it’s all wrong to think that our Lord was surrounded by beasts bent upon destroying him. He said that those beasts dated back to the early creation, and that they recognize their maker, and that they were tame in His presence; that they could not harm the one from whose hand they had come. So that the Lord among the beasts was as safe as the Lord among the angels. Now, I add that sentence. That was not from his book. But the idea is there that it was perfectly safe there as He would have been in heaven, because the beasts of the forest shall honor Me, says God. And they glorified Him by lying down at the feet of his Son.

Now, this God-charmed man sees the miracle, where everybody else sees no miracle at all, only the crass laws of nature and matter and form. But the true child of God sees the miracle everywhere. It is not a sign of senility or a sign that a man’s mind is bad, when he insists upon seeing God in a drop of water or a grain of sand, and of hearing the voice of God in the sighing of the wind or in the roar of the storm. God is in His world and He is in charge of it. And the God-charmed man finds God there. He is charmed and entirely safe. It was said about Jesus, you remember, that His hour was not yet come. They could not harm him while he walked among them, because His hour was not yet come. He was a charmed man and bore a charmed life.

In the Old Testament, there’s that passage, typical again, or at least a picture of how a sample of how things are, where Elisha was in Dothan the city, and his servant became frightened because the Syrian king had sent a great host with chariots and horses and soldiers against him. There they were surrounding the city, a great host. The margin says, a heavy host. I don’t know how many that would be. And the young, inexperienced man, who hadn’t learned that he was living a charmed life, and inhabited a perpetual miracle, he came running in excitedly to his master and said, O Master, Master, they’re surrounding us. There is a great host.

And the old experienced man said, don’t worry young fellow. They that are with us are more than they that are against us. O Lord, he said, open his eyes and let him see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man. And he looked and lo, in the mountains were horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha. And Elisha went on and prayed, O God, send these men in and make them temporarily blind and they became temporarily blind. And he led them into Samaria, and captured the whole army. These two men, this preacher and his associate, they led the whole army in and captured them. And the young associate, full of zeal and some ignorance said, Father, what will we do? Kill them? No, he said, give them something to eat and send them back home. He had inhabited a miracle too long. He didn’t need to kill men. And he said, now Lord, let them see. And every man saw and said, how did we get here? They were in Samaria, captured.

Now, that’s an example at least. It’s a sample of how God works. I have a lot of illustrations drawn from church history which I shall not at this moment give you, but which couldn’t be given in proof of the fact that the man of God lives a charmed life. And I repeat what I have often said and hold as a part of my living creed. That if a man obeys God, he cannot die until his work is done, if he obeys God. Now, if he leaves the way and goes among the wolves of his own deliberate sinful intention, I have no hope then that he shall fulfill the will of God. But if he obeys God and goes where God sends him, he is a safe man until he’s ready to die. And who wants to live five minutes after the Lord says, come up hither. Who wants to be asleep when the clock rings and the voice of the Lord says, come on.

Now, he is not only a God-charmed man with a charmed life, but he’s a God-defended man. I get great help from Moses. When Moses used to get into a sudden jam with Israel, Cora, or somebody was after him. It said in solemn, slow language, the Shekinah cloud came and stood before the tent of meeting. And Moses stood back behind that cloud, and the angry, murderous men and women that surrounded him, withdrew like wolves when the woodsmen builds a huge roaring fire. You could see their eyes shining in the dark, but not a one of the murderous crew dare come through the circle of light, the God-defended man.

And the Scriptures says, woe to that man by whom the offenses come. And he says again, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every tongue that rises against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. If the tongue that rises against thee is a true tongue, and what he says about you is true. The Lord won’t condemn that tongue. But if it’s not true, the Lord will condemn that tongue. And then He says, I will go before thee.

L.B. Compton, whom I quote sometimes as being one of the greatest preachers I’ve ever heard, an uneducated southerner from North Carolina. This man had experiences, that if they were written up in the slow, stately language of the King James version, might well be misunderstood as a last chapter from some of the books of the Bible, Compton at one time was sued by a rich townsman for something or other for which he was not to blame. And his friends came and said, you know, this man has influence on his side. He has everything on his side. Why do you not hire a lawyer and get your witnesses going and do something. He said, I can’t. God won’t let me. All God will let me do is pray.

So, he prayed, and it came right down to the wire, I believe the day or not more than the day before the suit was to be aired in court, and everybody knew who’d win. A poor preacher, what could he do against an influential townsman who had brought suit against him. It would have meant the loss of everything to the man of God. But he waited on God in holy prayer. And the day before, or the same day, I’ve forgotten which. But a few hours before the trial was to come up in court, there was a call. Would this preacher please come down and pray for a man who was desperately ill? He hurried down and you’ve guessed it. The desperately ill man was the man who was suing him in court. He got down on his knees beside the bed and prayed for his deliverance and the suit was called off and everything was made up. And everybody said, what has God wrought?

The man is a God-defended man when he belongs to this charmed circle. But he’s also a God-taught man said Paul, in Corinthians 2:7, we speak the wisdom which is of God, the hidden wisdom, a mysterious wisdom, which was ordained by God before the world for your salvation. And that wisdom of God sometimes leads men in a way that we know little of.

I think I’ll tell you what I heard at conference. I spent three days of last week at conference. A good brother, a man without much education, but a deeply spiritual man of God, a Swede by the name of Olson preached and he told us this story. And it’s so good that I must share it with you. He said that when he was a younger preacher and was on the radio, singing, he says he doesn’t do it anymore. He’s found he can’t, but then he didn’t know it. And he was singing. He said, he got a call one day saying, would you please come out to such and such a home just outside the city, and have a little meeting with us there? So, he said, sure, he would. And he took his guitar, if you please, and some hymnbooks and a friend, and they drove out.

When he got there, the yard was full of cars, and the house was full of people jammed and sitting around in borrowed chairs. He said when he walked in, they looked at him as if he was a stranger. But he said that God had sent him, so he passed the hymn books around and got the key on the old guitar, and everybody sang. Then he said, he asked his friend to testify, which he did. Then he said he launched in and preached a rather, I don’t suppose very eloquent, nor very learned, but a good gospel sermon. And he gave the altar call, and they went down on their knees everywhere and began to pray. And some of them found God.

After he gathered up his hymn books and started for the car, somebody ran out and said, Brother Olson, come back and pray for my sister. He said, are you saved? She said, No. Is your sister No. Well, he said, you’ll both get saved before I’ll pray for her to be healed. So, he got them both saved. And he said that he personally knows that a large number of those who were saved that day, still are walking with God and some of them have died, but lived for God down to the end of their days. And he said after he had gotten safely away and the circumstances were known, he had gotten in the wrong house. And it was a family reunion of the Nelson clan. And nobody expected him. But being good Scandinavians, they had enough religion somewhere to let him have his way.

Now, that’s what I mean, a God-taught man. Here was a simple-hearted fellow that wouldn’t know a Greek root from a root of ginseng, or carrot. But he did know the voice of God when he heard it. He says, I pretty near faint when I think about that now after these years. Oh, brother, he said, was I ashamed. But the Lord had had his way with a man who was simple enough. And God spoke to him in the mystery which was before the foundation of the world. And the man that’s hidden is a God-led man without a doubt, because he is led by a kind of instinct if he’s a prayerful man.

I have read some touching stories, and have reason to believe they’re true. They’re not all quite alike, but they have one central likeness, the story of the instinct of animals. I read not long ago of a female, a dog they had had around the place and she was much appreciated and loved by all of them. But something happened, and they sold her. And they took her hundreds of miles across the continent west. Three weeks went by, and at the end of about those 21 days, she came limping in, the pads of her feet bleeding and sore. And she herself a complete wreck and skin and bones, but came in and put her nose across the threshold and lay down and looked up and whimpered. She was back home. How did she find her way over the unknown highways for hundreds of miles. Nobody can tell you that.

Out on the steps of Russia when a man is lost, he doesn’t try to find his way home. He speaks to his horse, puts the reins on her mane and braces himself against the storm. And she finds her way home. The bird finds his way back to Capistrano, and nobody knows how. There is a spiritual instinct that’s like that. You’re so puzzled your brain doesn’t tell you a thing. You comb your intellect, nothing registers. No bell rings. And after a few years have gone by, you see you did the right thing. Why did you do the right thing? There is a hidden mystery which is ordained before the foundation of the world. And the instinct of the Holy Ghost in the breast of a man will keep him right.

I’ve been meeting men from all over the world, literally, meeting men. and I find a wonderful thing. I find that God is speaking to them about the same thing He’s been speaking to me over the last ten years and is saying to me the same thing. And I get letters from people and they’re hearing the same voice and going the same direction. A few aren’t. Occasionally, somebody will barge in and take over, who is in the rut and who has heard no voice for years, except the hard voice of authority or theology. But those who’ve listened and know the sound of the other world, they’re saying about the same thing here and there.

Brother Dave Enloe met me and did some red capping for me yesterday morning in the station downtown, and told me of a Christian businessman, one of the leaders of the CBMC, who was hearing from God on the same thing he’s been talking to you and me on. Another man writes me from Addis Ababa. That’s the way you pronounce it? Close enough. And way over there, and tells me in a long letter, what God’s been saying to him. The same thing He’s been saying to us.

And I run into the Africa Inland Mission crowd at Keswick. And we pray and talk together, and I find God’s been saying the same thing. He’s not saying it to everybody, but he’s saying it to enough. And now comes our Keswick here in the city of Chicago. How’d that get here? Twenty years ago, they couldn’t have got past Cicero, or Hammond. The theological police who would have been down there and had them all in jail. Nobody who would believe in a second work of grace and the victorious life could have ever gotten where we’re getting. But we’re in there now. And they’re bringing men here who believe that very doctrine. And I am to have the joy of being on their program and preaching that which this church has stood for, for 25, nearly 26 years of my full ministry. God’s speaking and there’s a mysterious wisdom that’s moving among men. And God is saying, if you don’t get life among your bones, you’ll rattle yourself to death. And He’s beginning to give life back to us again. And if the Lord will let some of us live a while longer, and keep on and keep low, good and right, I believe the day will come when we will yet direct evangelical Christianity away from Hollywood and away from hard dispensationalism back to the charm life. The Spirit-filled life, the God-blessed life.

Now, I may be too optimistic, but I am hoping. I might say he’s a God-fed man, though I’m going to skip that, the hidden manna. I will give you the hidden manna. And didn’t Elijah get fed by the ravens.

And the sixth is, he’s a God-privileged man. How privileged he is, this man of mystery. For he knows and is not known of anybody. It says that in 1 Corinthians, the second chapter, that we are, how does it word it there exactly? I read so many versions I don’t always remember how a given version reads. He that is spiritual, judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who knoweth the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him. But we have the mind of Christ. And here is the God-privileged man. This man of mystery who lives in the circle, hidden under the hand of God. And he lives a life too deep for the flesh to analyze him.

I’ve just been reading a book over the last couple of weeks, an exposé, really, of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis, you know, that has spawned this psychiatry, and psychiatry and I don’t get along. But for 25 years, I have been familiar with psychoanalysis. And they’re supposed to know all there is to know, you know, about your insides. But brethren, there is a place where Sigmund Freud and his followers never penetrated. When they come up and begin to take us apart and pull us bone from bone to see what makes us tick, the Holy Ghost comes down as a cloud and fire and they stand and stare and say, behold these Christians, what weird people they are. We can’t analyze them. They won’t talk. They pray. They know God in a mystery.

And I might point out that he’s a God-enriched man. I will give you says the Holy Ghost the treasures of darkness. If Shakespeare had written that, he would have said, the treasures of life. Who would have thought of the treasures of darkness. It took God to think of that. I will give you the treasures of darkness, not in the darkness do men usually hope to find treasure, but in the light. But God says, I will enrich you by the darkness. And the very troubles that come to you are the dark clouds that will break in blessing on your head.

And I close with the text, I flee unto Thee to hid me. Will you this morning, find the hidden place? Maybe you’ve had a tough week this week. It doesn’t always go as well for you as it might. Maybe you’ve had a tough week. Well, and maybe you didn’t acquit yourself quite as well as you wish you had, and you feel a bit low about it this morning. Don’t stop there, and don’t let that get you down. I will flee under Thee to hide me. Moses didn’t always come off in the most saintly fashion, but he was a god-hidden man. Will you be? From every stormy wind that blows, from every swelling tide of woes, there is a calm and sure retreat. It’s found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place then all the world more sweet. It is the bloodstained mercy seat. Will you find that mercy seat with me this morning?

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Tozer Talks

“God Manifesting Himself in Adversity-Message 2”

March 15, 1959

This is the second and last in a little series, sermons, series of tools that could be called a series on God appearing in adversity. Numbers, the twentieth chapter. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation. I think I’d better break in right here and say, don’t be worried about anything, because that’s just a stiff north wind and it’s rattling things. Everything is well built; it won’t fall down. But it just noisy. Nobody’s bothering anything. It’s just the wind. They tell me on the Northside, they’ve got snow. God spared us out here up to now.

Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD! And they didn’t wish anything of the sort, but that was the way of getting at Moses. Why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? Wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. They could have been over in the land if they had gone. Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces, at least Moses and Aaron did. And the glory of the Lord appeared unto them.

God appearing in adversity is the name of this two, this little series of two sermons. I pointed out that if we were the kind of people we ought to be, and that we’re going to be sometime when we’re perfected, we wouldn’t need adversity to drive us to God. God could appear to us in prosperity. But being the kind of people we are, there seems to be a little spiritual law that God appears to His people in adversity more clearly than He does in prosperity. It was so with Moses. As long as everything went alright, they just went on. And when Moses got in a jam, then he ran for the door or the Tent of Meeting. And then the glory of God came down; and Moses had a visitation. God revealed Himself to Moses. And I pointed out last week that this is true all through the Scriptures; that it is not just an isolated instance, but that it’s true all through the Bible.

Now, Moses endured adversity. And Moses was a liberator. For 400 years, the people had been in Egypt, and for maybe 350 years they had been slaves. When they first went down there, they were not slaves. They were given rather a fine reception as long as the pharaoh that knew Joseph was alive. But when the one died that knew Joseph and the new one arose, and a new generation arose, then they put the Jews under bondage. And they had been under that bondage now for seven generations we would say now, seven generations, 350 years, or perhaps more than seven generations.

And now comes the man of God, Moses, sent by the Lord God to deliver them completely, and he did. He had been successful in everything he had tried up to now. He had done the impossible. He had pulled out a small nation of slaves out from the midst of a great nation and the job was just about parallel to one man going over and liberating Czechoslovakia from the Russians. For Egypt was, if not the greatest, one of the very greatest nations in all the world at that time, and was very populous, very rich, very powerful. And Israel was very poor, very plain, and very weak, scattered about everywhere, a nation of slaves.

And Moses came and did the impossible. He went in in the name of the great I Am that I Am, and delivered the Jews from their Egyptian bondage, led them across the sea into the wilderness on their way to the Holy Land. And yet, do you know that Moses had to endure from the very people that he was liberating who still had lash marks on their backs, who still had teeth knocked out, that were knocked out by the handle of the slave driver’s whip. Who still had eyes couldn’t see because of the brutality they got, and who were limp because of the beatings they had taken; they still bore upon them the marks of their slavery and bondage and oppression. And the very man that was sent of God to lead them out, had to take from them, impudence and abuse, and disobedience and threats against his very life.

Now there we see something that’s been true also in all history. All you have to do is read the Bible and you’ll find the whole human race. Don’t you Dutch people lean back and say, well, that wouldn’t be us. You’re just like everybody else. And you Swedes too, and you Scotsman and Englishman, and we mixtures who hardly know what we are. We’re all like. Humanity is all alike. Ukrainians are like that too, Brother Fetlock. We’re all like, we’re all alike. And it’s in us. It’s the devil in us, in the human race. And the result is that we don’t know our friend.

And when a Man stands up to keep us free, we scorn Him and condemn Him and spit upon Him. And when a man stands up and smiles and bows and kisses babies, with the firm intention of putting us under everlasting bondage, we make a great hero out of him. But if he’s dead long enough, then we glorify Him as we do Lincoln, and Washington. But what Washington had to go through, read history and see. The abuse Lincoln had to take, go down and ask for the old files of the newspapers, back to the days of Lincoln and see the cartoons, lampooning this fellow, calling him an ignorant ape. He had to endure it, then. But after it’s over, and where he’s dead long enough, then we make heroes out of him. That’s all you have to do is be dead long enough, and they discover you are all right. But if you happen to be alive, and you’re on the side of freedom and liberty, they’re against you. And they were against Moses. So he had to take their incidence. There wasn’t one of them there worthy to shake hands with him, and yet they scolded him, abused him as if he was a common dog, and even threatened his life.

We have right in our own United States of America now, men who are dangerous man, because their tendencies and direction is toward centralized government and ultimate dictatorship. And yet, they’re the big heroes. We have serious minded, noble men who stand against all that, and they have to take a barrage of continual abuse from everybody, including the newspapers and radio commentators.

Now, it was a painful thing. It must have been a painful thing for Moses here; it must have been painful and discouraging, and at times, as I’ve said, dangerous. But in it all, there was a personal manifestation of God. And I don’t want to introduce my own personal feelings into this, but I’d like to tell you this much. I’d like to tell you that I have a covenant with God. That if He can manifest himself more fully to me by bringing discouragements and adversity, then I want it. I want it.

Now, I don’t know how much I’d be able to take. I might be like a little farm boy asking his Daddy whether he can push this wheelbarrow, and he couldn’t even lift a wheelbarrow. He’s asking for more than he’s able to bear and I don’t want to ask for more than I’m able to bear. But I think all of us together ought to unite in this, O God, let us have enough adversity to drive us to Thee. And don’t spare us Lord, except remember, were made of dust and don’t put more of a load on the dust than the dust can take, but put all we can bear. Because it’s in adversity that God appears.

A personal manifestation of God came to Moses when the people were against Moses in the time of adversity. And Moses got the confirmation of his divine call. You know, that’s a good thing. There are those who say, well, it’s all faith and by faith and there we stand we let it faith. Naked faith as Wesley scornfully called it. But the men nowadays without scorn call it naked faith. But I noticed that in the Scriptures, men were human enough, even though they were prophets and seers and kings and priests and liberators, they had to have an occasional renewal of their commission. They had to have God sometimes pat their head and say, remember, I’m on your side, and remember, I called you. And Moses had to have that. And Moses did have that. Don’t ever try to get more spiritual than the apostles and the prophets my brethren, never try it.

I read books occasionally or hear sermons droning over the radio. A fellow was trying to make us more spiritual than the prophets. They are always saying, now, the key word is. There are no keywords in the Scriptures. There aren’t any. Nobody needs to come to me and say, the key word here. There are no key words anywhere. A man gets a letter from his girlfriend, he’s way over there in Germany or Japan, serving his country in uniform, and he gets a letter from the girl he’s going to marry. So, he goes over and sits down on his bunk and looks for the keyword. He doesn’t do anything of the sort. He reads it to see what she has to say.

A man’s uncle dies and the lawyer calls him in and starts to read the will. He has reason to believe he’s inherited a lot of money. And he stops him and says, now let’s go about this in a proper manner. Let’s rightly divide this, find the key word. A lawyer would laugh at him. Find the key word? He said, aren’t you interested in knowing you have $100,000 coming. How do you care how it’s worded? These brethren who go in for the keywords and who insist upon you just believing the keyword, and then gritting your teeth and bearing it until the Lord comes.

I don’t go along with them at all brethren. I believe the Lord is coming and I believe there are times when you have to live by faith that’s as cold and hard as a rock. But that’s only occasionally. Most of the time, faith blooms and blossoms and brings forth fruit. And it shows evidence and has confirmation from God if it’s real faith. And Moses did, Moses had his call. He had his call. He could have said, I have my call; I know where I’m going, but God came and confirmed his call and assured him and gave him courage and help. Don’t try to be more spiritual than Moses. A lot of men try to get us to be more spiritual than Moses was, or Paul. I’ll be satisfied if I can, if when I walk up and stand alongside of Moses, I’d be satisfied if I can see over his shoe sole. At least I’ll be happy and surprised.

Well, I’d like to say to you that the cup of adversity is for everybody. You’re going to have to drink it friends, you’re going to have to drink it. Don’t try to get out of it and don’t think, well, if I can just hold on until the bell rings, I’ll make it. The man who fights by hanging on, waltzing with his partner, till the bell saves him. No, it won’t work that way dear friend. It won’t work that way. Break loose and put up your fists because you’re in a fight and you’re in trouble. And you’re here and the devil is here and the flesh is here and sin’s here and the world’s here and you’re here, and you’re not in heaven yet. And there’s a battle on and so don’t try to get out of it. Don’t try to get out of it because you’ll only find that you’ve gotten in worse at last.

The cup of adversity is for everybody, and we being who we are and what we are, that’s most necessary that we notice that; that we being who we are and what we are and the world being what it is. Too much and too long continued prosperity is not good for us for numbers of reasons. One is, that it obscures the vision of God. For some strange reason, the happy, prosperous Christian who’s having no trouble at all, slowly, the vision of God is obscured. And God has to send a thunderstorm and wind to rattle the windows of the house and strike the tree over yonder, and rain till the gutters run. And then when that’s all over the air is clear again, and the vision of God comes back. That has to be. I wish it didn’t you know. I wish that the Lord could walk with us as He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day, but usually it isn’t the cool of the day when the birds are singing and everything’s quiet that God appears usually when you’re being abused and threatened and in trouble or there’s adversity of some sort. But that cup of adversity is for everybody.

Did you know that brutal and heart wounding adversity does two or three things? It disengages us from the snares of mortality. It disengages us from the world. Everything down here is mortal. Keep it in mind friend, keep it in mind. Keep it in mind. Everything down here is mortal. One of the seven sages of antiquity gained his earthly immortality by this saying, this too must pass away. And everything must pass away and you mustn’t forget it. Don’t get carried away by the new chrome trimming. Don’t get carried away by the new picture window. Don’t get carried away by the new style. Don’t get carried away by the six lane highways and a wonderful view. I don’t say you can have those things. It’s perfectly alright with me. If you can afford them, have them and you won’t bother me. Only one thing, don’t let him get you. You drive your car, but see to it that no car drives you! Own your home, but see to it no home owns you.

And adversity disengages us from all of this and shakes it off. And the man whose fine clothes has begun to own him. When you get to cancer, he finds that clothes aren’t that much after all. When he loses his business or his wife dies, or his child becomes a delinquent, or his business goes to pieces, or his property value goes down until he loses money and he’s in trouble, or his neighbor next door threatens to break his neck and he can’t make up with him and he’s can’t get things straightened out. The fellow is in trouble. He wants to live for Christ and he’s determined to live for Christ, but from one direction or another, troubles coming. That disengages him. He doesn’t like it, but it disengages him. It cuts him all the way around.

Somebody said a consecrated man was a man that God could pass his hand the whole way around and not find any strings any place. The man is completely separated from everything all the way around, and adversity does that. I wish I could tell you prosperity did, but it doesn’t. Prosperity tends to make the skies cloud over and the vision of God dim. Adversity does the opposite. There will be a day when there’ll be no adversity anywhere and you and I perfected. We will be able to live as the angels live and shall be like the angels in heaven, said Jesus, but not now.

So, I say this brutal adversity not only disengages you, but it prevents the fatal mistake of receiving this world as your final home. And there was never truer hymn written, it’s Doggerel alright, I’ll admit it. But there never was a truer song written than the one that says this world is not my home. This world is not my dwelling place. What is the rest? I don’t know, but it’s good song, second rate song, but it’s a good one. This isn’t your home friend. It was your home one time.

What is your home? See all these people moving up and down the street here going out to get cigarettes and then a Sunday paper and go back in sit down. And when they’re weary of the Sunday paper, they turn on the TV. That’s how they spend their Sundays. And then the afternoon they’ll begin to drink. This is their home. Or, see these fine people out in Beverly Hills or up on the north coast. A $1000 or $1500 a month for an apartment, maid service, and three or four cars out there in front waiting for them. But this is their home. And that’s the most terrible thing you can say about a man. This is his home, fallen earth, full of bones. This is his home. And if you could send a chemist out and let him analyze the surface of the earth, all around the Earth, he’d find blood and hair and gristle and bones. Human blood and hair and gristle and bones, the evidence that this fallen world is man’s poor home.

But when you became a Christian, you changed at homes. When you became a Christian, you were born from above. That’s why the Bible says except a man be born again, from above, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. We were born the second time; we’re born from above. Our homes all together changed. This is no longer our own. God and the kingdom and the presence of God, that’s our home. And there we go. Now, you’re living here for a while. You’re living here, just as a man might go up into the north woods to fish and live up there two weeks. That isn’t his home. He’s just living there while. Just as a soldier in the barracks somewhere in Japan or Germany, he’s living there a while, but that isn’t his home. He longs for the hotdog stand and the country crossroad and the winding highway and the long corn stalks of Iowa. He wants to see his country again. It’s not beyond many a boy to weep after he has gone to bed at night. He’s got a bass voice and big strong fellow and he wouldn’t let anybody know how homesick he is. But he’s homesick and he wants to go home.

For the world has its home and this is it. Reality may be revealed by the degree of comfort he takes in the world. If he feels this is his place. If this is his home, why he’s not much of a Christian. I listen to interviews sometimes, and they are people who have come from other countries here. When they get interviewed by the newsman and when somebody asks somebody from another country, do you think you’d like to stay in America? And they say, oh no, no, I like to visit here, but I have my friends back at my home. I’m proud of them. I’m glad for them. Breathes there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, Scott said, this is my own, my native land. And our native land is above. Our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for a Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Your spirituality and your preparedness to meet the Lord may be determined by how much you feel at home here. If this is your home, you can have it. But Abraham refused. He saw Jesus’ day and was glad and looked forward and looked in faith way beyond our time yet. He wouldn’t build a city; he built a tent.

Now, another thing that adversity does and hardships and when things begin to break against you, as a church, or as an individual, or as a family. It opens a door in through which God can walk, shining and healing and fragrant. God walks into the door of adversity, smiling and shining and healing and sweet and fragrant and reassuring. So, I don’t think we ought to back out on it. I think we ought to pray, lead us not into temptation O Lord, but send us whatever is good for us. My times are in my hands. My God, I wish them there. And I don’t want to take my future out of the hands of God. I don’t want to take the future of this church out of the hands of God.

So I say you must expect a little trouble down the way. But if you look for God in it, you’ll find Him. Go to the tent of meeting. Don’t try to fight it with your bare knuckles. Run to the tent of meeting. Go where God meets with men. Get down on your knees and you’ll see a cloud and a fire, and you’ll hear God’s speak. Take the long view of everything. You know, faith always takes the long view. Men go up and down the country preaching a short view of faith, a myopic faith. A man has a wart on his hand and he prays for it and it’s instantly healed. He’s got a he’s got a short new faith. And they make a career out of that, make money out of it and buy farms from the sickness of the people, because they’ve got a short view of everything. Their faith is a short, myopic view; get up close.

No, Faith is long-range my brethren. Faith takes the long view of things and says, wait a minute here now. We’ve got to think about tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, maybe next century if the Lord tarries. Whether He tarries or not, take the long view. When trouble comes, don’t look at the trouble, look above it or over past it. Take the long view of things; for faith takes the long view and God will appear to you and to your heart. And you will live and understand it. You will live and understand it. Did you know there’s another little old song that isn’t much of a song but there’s truth in it, “We’ll understand it better by and by. There are things you don’t understand now that you will understand them by and by. You will know why it all was. And at that time, you will thank God with all your heart. You’ll thank God that it was so.

I knew of an instance of a woman. She was a little bit severe. And she said to one her family, now, you’re working, you pay in. They made her pay and she did pay. And she had to pay and her mother said now, it’s alright, you’re living here, you’ve got to pay. She did pay, paid in every week. And when she got married, her mother gave it all back to her and said, I wasn’t keeping that. I had that in the bank for you. You know, you know that this is the way God does things. God frowns a bit and says, now, come on, obey. We say God, I don’t see how I should, you expect that of me. I’ve got woes enough. And God says you’re here and you’re accepting my blessing and my grace. Do as I say, and we do as He says, then crisis comes and God says, here it is. I didn’t want it. I just wanted to know I could have it and hand it back to you, with interest.

Well, you will be the richer if you listen to what I tell you. You’ll be the poorer if you don’t. And I repeat what I said as I closed last Sunday, that over the next months, we may see more of God than we have over the last years. But I’ll tell you something else, we’ll see more trouble too.  We’ll see more adversity over the next weeks, months than we’ve seen for a while, but we’ll see more of God.

I was reading an old hymn book this morning, 159 years-old, and I ran unto a hymn I never heard sung. Maybe some of you have sung it, but I never did and never heard it. It was written by John Newton. One of the few Calvinistic mystics that ever lived in the world. And here is what he said and I will read it and close my sermon. He said though troubles assail and dangers affright, though friends should all fail and foes all unite, yet one thing secures us whatever betide, the promise assures us the Lord will provide. The birds without barn or storehouse are fed, from them let us learn to trust for our bread. His saints what is fitting shall ne’er be denied, so long as it’s written the Lord will provide. When Satan appears to stop up our path and fills us with fears we triumph by faith. He cannot take from us though oft he has tried, the heart cheering promise the LORD Will Provide. He tells us we are weak, our hope is in vain. The good that we seek we ne’er shall obtain. But when such suggestions our graces have tried, this answers all questions the Lord will provide. No strength of our own nor goodness we claim, our trust is all thrown on Jesus’s name. That’s the way he pronounced it then. In this our strong tower for safety we hide, the Lord is our power the LORD Will Provide. When life sinks apace, and death is in view, The word of His grace Shall comfort us through; Not fearing or doubting, With Christ on our side, We hope to die shouting, “The Lord will provide.”

Ah Brother, they were Christians in those days. They faced up to death and trouble and then looked up and said, well thank God it’s still written, the Lord will provide. God appears in adversity brethren. So, if you see adversity on the horizon, look a little further and you’ll see God. Amen.

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“God Manifesting Himself in Adversity”

March 8, 1959

About 14 years ago, I preached on a text, and I want to preach on that text again because it seems very appropriate to this hour. And I am going to divide it up into two sermons and to have sermons from the sixth verse of the twentieth chapter of Numbers this morning and next Sunday morning. There will be two distinct and separate sermons, but will be united and related to each other as twin sisters might be related, separate, individual, and complete in itself, but related closely to another.

Now, the twentieth chapter of Numbers. Suppose we just read that together. Why don’t you join me in reading that and then you’ll feel you at least have the Word if the sermon that follows isn’t much good. Chapter twenty of Numbers, verses one to six, everybody. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation: and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord! And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink. And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. Now we’ll stop there. And verse six is the one that will get most of our attention.

Moses went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, if you have any other version beside the King James, that is, almost any other, all others which I’m acquainted. That says the tent of meeting. It was a tent in the middle of the camp where God met with Moses, or with Israel; where God revealed Himself. It was the tent of meeting, called your tabernacle and the meeting of the congregation. So, we have a tent of meeting, a place where God met people.

Now, what I want to say to you, and I want to take two sermons to say it. It is that God manifests Himself to people in varying degrees of intensity and clarity, but that usually, He manifests Himself in adversity. I wish we were better Christians than we are. I wish we were such good Christians that God would manifest himself in prosperity, but He usually doesn’t. He usually manifests Himself when you’re in trouble. That’s because you are like you are. And that’s because I’m the kind of man I am. And Moses and Israel were the people they were. And so, God manifested Himself in the time of Moses’ difficulty. They were on Moses. They were grumbling and criticizing. And it was all but a riot.  If they just had a leader or two, there could have been a riot.

Now, this is repeated with slight variation throughout the Old Testament, the history of the Old Testament. If you go back, say to Abraham and learn how Abraham and the hour of great trouble, in the hour when he lay at night for the sacrifice, the deep sleep. The birds came down just before he went into that deep sleep. The birds came down and he had to keep them away from the sacrifice. There, with deep sleep and darkness upon him, God revealed Himself and said, Abraham, don’t be afraid. Your seed will be like the sand by the seashore.

Later on, Jacob when he was in trouble on his way traveling across the dreary wilderness, waist and howling, God appeared to him by a ladder set up from earth to heaven. Later on, when Jacob was about to meet his brother Esau and was afraid, God met him again by the river. He changed him from Jacob to Israel. You can trace the whole history of Israel down through and practically every time when a man was in trouble, under pressure, if he was the right kind of man, then God made Himself known.

There are two or three reasons why He doesn’t make Himself known at other times. One is, a man doesn’t need it so much when he’s not in trouble. The second is, we are not focused toward, our souls aren’t focused toward when we’re not in trouble. And then, maybe a third reason would be that God wants us to walk by faith most of the time and trust Him there even when He’s not manifesting Himself. I think probably that’s the most important of the three reasons.

Now, the glory of the Lord appeared to the man Moses. He went over by the tent of meeting. He separated himself a little from Israel and went over by the tent of meeting and waited to see what God would do. And the glory of the Lord appeared there unto Moses. Now don’t ask me to explain what the glory of the Lord is because I cannot do it. No man can do it. God is what the theologians call, inscrutable. God is what the theologians call incomprehensible. And God cannot tell us what He is. He can only tell us what He is like. And thus He is translating downward into understandable human terms, or the best God could do. Not because God was unable, but because we were unable to take it. The finest French chef that ever cooked up a meal, and what a terribly prosaic way to talk about the doings of a French chef in cooking up a meal. But the finest French chef that ever prepared a gourmet’s delight; if he were feeding a three-month-old baby, he’d have to translate himself downward into the terms the baby could take. He would have to give him the formula and follow it closely. And all of those spices and those fine sauces that he took such delight in and made many French sounds of joy over, he couldn’t use them on the baby. He would have to translate himself downward into infant terms. And it wouldn’t be his fault. He might easily be in great demand in hotels and restaurants around the world, but the baby wouldn’t care. He could only take milk. Perhaps just a bit of juice at it.

And so God, who brings angels to their knees and causes the seraphim and cherubim to cover their faces and cry holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Yet, we being such infants, God has to translate Himself downward to us and put Himself in terms we can understand. So, he says, the glory of the Lord appeared unto Moses. I suppose that glory was a light. I suppose that glory was a sound. I suppose that that glory was a hidden and yet revealed something too terrible and wonderful for Moses to understand, but terrible enough to keep Israel at a distance and wonderful enough to bring Moses to his knees. This was God seeking to show Himself to human eyes and being unable to do it because of human sin. For Always remember that human sin is a cataract on the human eye. And even when it’s removed, even when we’ve been delivered by the blood of the Lamb, we still have somewhat of the veil over our faces until the time that we shall see Him as He is, and shall be transformed and glorified, and be given a body like under His glorious body.

Now, here is the second thing I want to tell you. The first being that God manifests Himself in adversity, but the second thing is, He doesn’t manifest Himself to everybody in adversity. There are those to whom He cannot manifest Himself in adversity. But Moses happened to be, by the grace of God, one to whom He could. He could appear to Moses because Moses was the kind of man that could receive the impression.

You let two people go out on a day, two men go out. Let an artist and hunter go out on the same Fall Day. And the artist, even though he’s carrying a gun, he’d probably never get a shell in the chamber. He’ll be so busy admiring the landscape, the color of those leaves over there, and that yellow oak, and those fiery red maple leaves, and that green, silver stream that flows between those brightly colored hills, and that little farm cottage down there. He will never see a rabbit because he, nature can manifest itself to him. He can see and feel; the very clouds talk to him and the wind across his cheeks says something. But the hunter, who has paid tremendous, lots of money for clothing that he doesn’t need, just a pair of overalls and a new shirt would do, but he’s all fixed up. And he has himself a big gun with the stock all engraved. He’s proud of that and hangs it over the mantel. And he goes out there and sees nothing but rabbits. And if he doesn’t see a rabbit, he comes home absolutely dejected and miserable. He’s ashamed to go home. I didn’t get a thing. I wasted a day. And the man who is susceptible, who is impressionable comes home and talks for a week about the glories of that wondrous landscape. It just depends on what kind of impressionability there is there if nature can talk to you or can’t talk to you. And when a man wants to shoot a poor, little harmless bunny rabbit and the rabbit doesn’t cooperate, he can be miserable. But that’s all he sees.

I went hunting one time with a one-eyed man for rabbit.  By the end of the day, the one-eyed man had all the rabbits and I had the exercise. But he was kind enough to give me the rabbits. I thought I’d let you know I wasn’t against hunting; I was just illustrating.

Now, Moses happened to be one to whom He could appear. But you know, most people, God can’t show Himself, even in adversity He can’t. The three things about Moses I want to talk about and make it brief. One is, that Moses was God-hungry and the second that Moses was a man of faith, and the third that Moses was an obedient man. Now these three, Moses was God hungry. Never forget that Moses said, O God, show me thy glory. And it was the seeking after the glory of God, the manifestation of the glory of God. That was why God could reveal Himself. The rain falls on the sidewalk and runs off again. Rain falls on the poor and thirsty earth and sinks away, and you can almost hear the earth enjoying it. God pours Himself out upon a congregation and the poorest, thirsty hungry hearts receive Him with delight. But there are always those who sit around the edges, hardened, critical and steely of countenance, and the waters of Shiloh run off from them and never a drop of it sinks in.

Moses was a God-thirsty man. Most of us have learned to live with mortality. We’ve learned to live with time We’ve learned to live with temporal things. Moses hadn’t. Moses had to have God or Moses would have died. And then Moses was a man of faith, and the curse of unbelief lies upon us too much. Moses was a man of faith. He believed God. He dared to believe God. He made some mistakes. Sure, he did and you’ll be able to criticize Moses if you’re looking for faults. It certainly didn’t come through one hundred percent. Right in this very chapter here, Moses made mistakes. But Moses nevertheless was a believing man and a man of faith. And God can reveal Himself to a man of faith just as the waves of radio can reveal it themselves to the tube that sensitive.

Even while I’m talking to you now, everything is going through this building. George Washington wouldn’t have believed this, but you know it’s true. Abraham Lincoln would have smiled and told a joke about it, but it’s true. Our speeches, sermons, newsmen are telling about the latest time that Khrushchev cleared his throat and how everybody in the West leap to attention. And there’s everything going on. And of course, there’s a lot of jazz and other stuff. We’re glad we don’t have to hear it, going right through this building now. But you’re not sensitive enough to hear it. If you had a tube, a few tubes properly arranged, and a few other little gadgets, you’d hear it.

Do you remember that lady that claimed that her hair pins were sensitized so she can hear radio. It was in the newspapers about two years ago and there was big talk about it. I think she was kidding with her fingers crossed and her tongue in her cheek and was having some fun with the newspaper man. She said, my bobby pins are sensitive. And she said I can hear a radio program. I’m tuned in. Well, I don’t know where she is now. Maybe she is tuned in. But there’s such a thing as having God manifesting Himself and we don’t know it, God’s speaking and we don’t hear it, God shining and we don’t see it, God revealing himself and we don’t know it, because we meet God’s overtures in cold unbelief.

If you ever have the experience riding around on buses. I have had this experience quite a number of times. You feel good you know. Maybe something’s nice has happened, or it’s stopped snowing and you feel good and you would like to say hello to the driver. You’d like to comment. But he turns a fishy pale, cold, foreboding eye on you and you go on and get off at your stop and don’t say a word. Something dies inside of you. Something nice that you would have liked to passed on, but you can’t.

Sometimes there will be a driver that will be so friendly and he’ll talk and speak to you when you get on. Out here on 95th Street and there road over to Vincents, one driver fought all the way over with a passenger about a dime. All the way over he fought. If he hadn’t been a big fellow and I hadn’t been afraid what he would do, I’d offered him a dime and told him keep still. But he fought all the way over about a dime. And I transferred to Vincents and other man driving; and when I got on the man said, good morning. I paid my fare and I stooped over him and said, what a difference between you and that last driver. And I told him what I told you about that last driver. He said, that don’t pay, that don’t pay. I said, you know it’s fun riding a bus with a fellow like you driving. And I said to this man, thank you. He said, well I try to be friendly.  Well, he was. But you never know whether to let yourself go in a friendly overture for fear you will get spiked.

So God, always the friendly God wanting to manifest Himself and to show Himself to people. But some, God gets cut off that harsh and hard. We meet him with a stony stare and unbelief. Others, simple-hearted people believe, and God can manifest Himself. Moses was a man, simple in his faith, though profoundly educated, and a great man, yet he had the simple faith of a child.

And Moses was an obedient man and I want you to know that this man intended to go on with God if it cost him everything. He gave up a place close to the throne, you know. He gave up being a prince in Egypt to go along with the covenant of the seed of Abraham and went out and spent forty years keeping sheep when he could have had those forty years shaking hands with the plenipotentiaries and ambassadors from all over the world. He allowed his religion to cost him something, Moses did. The trouble is now, our religion doesn’t cost us anything. It’s cheap. Cheap grace, cheap faith, cheap heaven, cheap eternal life, cheap Savior. And Moses, it cost him something. In our day, religious people go floating around, making decisions, passing judgment, writing stuff, making speeches, but it never cost them a dime. It cost Moses everything.

I tell you; it is futile to try to have religious comforts and appropriate religious consolation without obeying spiritual laws. No use to try. And that is the great woe of our time. This happens to be the most religious period that I can remember. One dear friend of mine, who is now in heaven, he was a preacher and he wasn’t too much of a preacher, but he rose one day in oratory and said, this is the worst world I’ve ever lived in. And I often say, I hope it’s the worst one he’ll ever see. And I think it is, because he was a good man; and he’s no doubt with his Lord. But all I can say is this is the worst period that I’ve ever lived in when it comes to religion. We’ve got more religion now. It’s running out people’s ears. But it’s an ominous and deadly thing, because it is an effort to appropriate spiritual comforts without obeying spiritual laws. It’s trying to get God to help you without obeying God, and it’ll never work. It will never work.

Moses didn’t try it. He wanted help from God and he went God’s way. He withdrew himself and went over and stood by the tent of meeting and said, I don’t know what you mean to do God, but if you don’t do something, they will. And God came down and stood in a cloud and manifested Himself to Moses and the people. And the people shrank back in fear and Moses knelt in holy awe. Moses would have to pay the price for this. The unregenerate heart, the traditional Christian, the social Christian, the poetic Christian, the psychological Christian, the nominal Christian, they want comfort, they want God’s comfort, but they don’t want God. They want God’s peace, but they don’t want God’s cross. Moses wanted both and he got both. And a man will not obey our own God and Christ, let him prepare to live and die by himself. Let him prepare to live and die alone. And let him prepare for judgment alone.

How could the prodigal son hope for a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet and a robe on him.  How could he hope for it, if he stayed in the foreign country? He had to come home to get it. His father had rings and he had robes and he had shoes and he had orchestras and music and ready to have a feast and a party. But the boy had to come home. He said, I will arise and go to my father. But in America, we’re staying in the far country and still wanting God’s ring and God’s robe and God shoes. And the same fellow that will be sponsored by cigarettes and booze, will sing all God’s children got shoes. All God’s children got wings. He wants God’s wings and God’s shoes, but he won’t pay the price of obedience to God’s Word. Moses would.

The prodigal had to come home and we have to too. We have to be obedient. But you know, for everybody that believes, and I know that the majority, if not all of you here today are believing men and women. And I believe that you are wanting to be obedient men and women. And in a greater measure than most places, I would say I think your God-hungry men and women. I pray it may be so.

So, what I have to say and what I’ve said applies to you. Because, while we’re not like Moses in degree, we are like Moses in kind, you see. There’s a difference between degree and kind. Two men stand over there, one of them, four foot, five inches tall. The other one, six foot four. They’re the same in kind, but they’re not quite the same inside. So, a man can be a believer, an obedient believer, and a God-hungry believer, and still not be the stature of Moses. Nobody claims to be. We only claim we want to be, and we are growing. So, I’m not looking for perfection. I’m only saying I hope that you’re God-hungry and that you’re obedient and that you’re believing. And if you are, you have a right to claim this, God appearing in adversity.

I’m going to close with this thought. I want to leave it with you. I dare to prophesize; I dare to do it. I dare to tell you this, that over the next few months, you’re going to see more of God than you’ve seen over the last few years. Do you know why? Too much prosperity, too much peace, too much getting along, too much enjoying ourselves, too much spiritual pleasure. It’s all good and all right. But the Lord said, well, that crowd over there on the corner, they’ve enjoyed themselves tremendously, and it’s wonderful, we’re glad, but they’re going to have to learn that I appear in adversity.

So, you will see more of God over the next few months than you’ve seen over the last few years, and if I’m mistaken about it, write me off as no true prophet. But I think I’m right. God appears to people that are hungry for Him to appear. He appears to people who will pay the price. He appears to the daring people. You’ve all heard the old story of the colored brother when they said, he believed God, you know. And they said, if God told you to jump through that wall, what would you do? He said, it would be my business to jump and God’s business to have a hole in that wall.

And that’s what I say. We must believe in God, and it’s God’s business, if we dare to trust Him. If you don’t put God to the test so to speak, and dare to go out and be adventurous, you will never be able to see the glory of the Lord in the land of the living. Even this morning, even this morning here, the Lord’s table, this sweet time of fellowship around the Lord’s table, when we touch and handle things unseen. And the invisible presence of the Most Holy One is with us. It takes a certain amount of adventure, a certain amount of believing, a certain daring approach to God and thirst after God. If you don’t have it, you sit and shrug your way through another communion service. But if you have it, you can drink of that same drink, and eat of that same bread.

I pray that we may this morning have faith and obedience, and a bit of daring and a yearning after God. For if we have, He will manifest Himself. And the tighter the squeeze, the more He will manifest Himself. The greater the trouble, the greater the manifestation. That’s always been like that and it’s that way today.

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