www . bymonline . org | SEPTEMBER 2018
in their spiritual life because they limited their obedience to the mere standard of other Christians or to the conservative opinion of other saints .
God never duplicates the spiritual life in any two persons , and everyone who walks with Him will be called upon to say and do and experience things somewhat unlike them , or any other person . To save His children from aping each other , He will resort to terrific methods of separating and individualizing them ; for He is determined that they shall obey Him , and not each other .
There is a realm of Christian counsel and uniformity of faith and practice ; yet , within this range , the Holy Ghost ordains that all who are made perfect shall follow in an individual orbit . No saint perfectly obeyed God in the world that he did not have to say things and do things that nobody else on earth exactly agreed with . If you perfectly obey God , you will have to do some things outside of the judgments or tastes of your best friends . Nobody on earth could have been found to sanction the offering up of Isaac . Joseph ' s family did not agree with the imprudence of his dreams . If Paul had consulted the eleven apostles , he never would have done the things he did . Daniel went against the advice of all the old , sober heads in refusing the king ' s meat and wine . Perfect obedience must be independent , calm , settled and fearless .
How many thousands of souls have weakened in faith by not obeying God on some point , great or small , just because it did not meet the sanction of the circle of friends in which they moved !
He that makes a path in the air for all the birds , and a channel in the earth for all the streams of water , has ordained the line of obedience for each and every child of His ; and if we yield ourselves up on boundless humility and persevering prayer and utter abandonment to the Holy Ghost , He will lead us along His line , and He will never lead another soul to take just the track He gives us .
The fear of fanaticism has prevented thousands from independent obedience . Some may ask , “ How shall I know that I am not going into fanaticism under the delusion of obedience ?” If , on any line of obedience , however singular it may be to others , you have a lowly spirit , a sweet and tender flow of love , an eye single to pleasing God and not yourself , and a boundless love for others who do not follow your example , you may know you are led of God .
But if , on any individual leading you feel an impetuous , hasty , harsh , uncharitable disposition if you feel something within you that seems to push you in a hurry , or makes you denunciatory of others , or makes you want to force others to do as you do then you may know it is the devil .
It is impossible to be too independent and allfearless as long as the soul is kept in an ocean of lowly , tender , disinterested love supreme love to God and to His Word , and love to our neighbor as to ourself ( Matt 22:36-40 ).
Our Thoughts Are Architects
As another remedy for weak and flagging obedience , I mention , keep the mind stayed on God and the things of His kingdom ( Isa 26:3-4 ; Ps 1:1-6 ). There can be no greater safety in the spirit-life , to keep out the ingress of evil things , than for the mind to be always in a state of divine meditation . The intellect cannot do this of its own power ; but if the spirit-nature is possessed by the Holy Ghost , then the inner spirit , uniting itself to the intellect , can keep it almost constantly on God or His attributes , or the operations of His grace , or the mysteries of His providence , or the revelations of His Word .
Nothing can be more dangerous than sinful wanderings of thought . As all outward sin must necessarily be committed first in the mind , so on the other hand , all enlargements of grace , all the altitudes of devotion , or progress in experience , must first take place in a spiritual thinking of the mind . Our thoughts are architects , which fashion all the bright , glittering castles of grace in which we find our true habitation in the kingdom of God .
We should be careful not to think too much of the past . About the only good thinking of the past can do for us is to serve for the deepening of our humility over its sinfulness , and the widening of our thankfulness because of the overwhelming mercies from the Lord .
But in the fullness of the Spirit , we are not to think of the past in such a way as to be disheartened , or to pine over its loss , or to be entangled with it ; we are to be detached from all things in the past , as a bird may be supposed to be detached from last year ' s nest , which it flies by , unheeding its empty and dilapidated state , because its whole nature is filled with the glory of the present summer ( Phil 3:1-14 ).
PAGE 6