We have
more than once seen that God's listening to our voice depends upon our listening
to His voice. (See Lessons 22 and 23.) We must not only have a
special promise to plead, when we make a special request, but our whole life
must be under the supremacy of the word: the word must be dwelling in us.
The testimony of George Muller on this point is most instructive. He
tells us how the discovery of the true place of the word of God, and the
teaching of the Spirit with it, was the commencement of a new era in his
spiritual life. Of it he writes:--
`Now the
scriptural way of reasoning would have been: God Himself has condescended
to become an author, and I am ignorant about that precious book which His Holy
Spirit has caused to be written through the instrumentality of His servants, and
it contains that which I ought to know, and the knowledge of which will lead me
to true happiness; therefore I ought to read again and again this most precious
book, this book of books, most earnestly, most prayerfully, and with much
meditation; and in this practice I ought to continue all the days of my life.
For I was aware, though I read it but little, that I knew scarcely
anything of it. But instead of acting thus and being led by my ignorance
of the word of God to study it more, my difficulty in understanding it, and the
little enjoyment I had in it, made me careless of reading it (for much prayerful
reading of the word gives not merely more knowledge, but increases the delight
we have in reading it); and thus, like many believers, I practically preferred,
for the first four years of my divine life, the works of uninspired men to the
oracles of the living God. The consequence was that I remained a babe,
both in knowledge and grace. In knowledge, I say; for all true
knowledge must be derived, by the Spirit, from the word. And as I
neglected the word, I was for nearly four years so ignorant, that I did not
clearly know even the fundamental points of our holy faith.
And this lack of knowledge most sadly kept me back from walking steadily
in the ways of God. For when it pleased the Lord in August 1829 to bring
me really to the Scriptures, my life and walk became very different. And
though ever since that I have very much fallen short of what I might and ought
to be, yet by the grace of God I have been enabled to live much nearer to Him
than before. If any believers read this who practically prefer other books
to the Holy Scriptures, and who enjoy the writings of men much more than the
word of God, may they be warned by my loss. I shall consider this book to
have been the means of doing much good, should it please the Lord, through its
instrumentality, to lead some of His people no longer to neglect the Holy
Scriptures, but to give them that preference which they have hitherto bestowed
on the writings of men.
`Before I leave this subject, I would
only add: If the reader understands very little of the word of God, he
ought to read it very much; for the Spirit explains the word by the word.
And if he enjoys the reading of the word little, that is just the reason
why he should read it much; for the frequent reading of the Scriptures creates a
delight in them, so that the more we read them, the more we desire to do
so.
`Above all, he should seek to have it settled in his
own mind that God alone by His Spirit can teach him, and that therefore, as God
will be inquired of for blessings, it becomes him to seek God's blessing
previous to reading, and also whilst reading.
`He
should have it, moreover, settled in his mind that although the Holy Spirit is
the best and sufficient Teacher, yet that this Teacher does not
always teach immediately when we desire it, and that therefore we may
have to entreat Him again and again for the explanation of certain passages; but
that He will surely teach us at last, if indeed we are seeking for light
prayerfully, patiently, and with a view to the glory of God.'1
We find in his journal frequent mention made of
his spending two and three hours in prayer over the word for the feeding of his
spiritual life. As the fruit of this, when he had need of strength and
encouragement in prayer, the individual promises were not to him so many
arguments from a book to be used with God, but living words which he had heard
the Father's living voice speak to him, and which he could now bring to the
Father in living faith.