Compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey
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The Boldness of Faith Now, O Lord God... do as Thou hast said (2 Sam. 7:25). Be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me (Acts 27:25). Prayer, when it prevails, has about it a
boldness, a holy audacity, which reminds us of the prophet whose plea was,
"Do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory!" (Jer. 14:21). When a saint understands that prayer has
three intercessors—the interceding Spirit within, the interceding
suppliant, and the interceding Christ before the Throne—he feels himself
but the channel through whom a current passes, whose source is the Holy
Spirit in his heart, whose final outpour is through our great High Priest
into the bosom of the Father. He loses sight of himself in the thought of
the divine stream, and its spring and its ocean. How can he but be bold? Prayer becomes
no more mere lame and timid asking—it is claiming—and laying hold on
blessing! Nay, it is waiting for and welcoming the blessing, as a
returning stream from the heart of God, pouring back into and through the
heart of the suppliant. While he calls, God answers—there is a
converse intercourse, intercommunication (Jer. 33:3). Prayer is not only
speaking to God, but hearing Him speak in return. As a Japanese convert
said, it is like the old-fashioned well, where one bucket comes down while
another goes up—only, in this case, it is the full bucket that descends
from Heaven. —A.
T. Pierson |
Jesus Christ is Victor. Faith is depending on that, or
better yet, on Him! It is not working up your feelings, and saying,
"I must believe;" not that. It is simply fixing my whole thought
on Jesus, the Victor. There He is on the throne. That scarred, crowned,
enthroned Lord Jesus—I have no doubt about Him! That is faith—looking
to Him, resting on what He is, and what He has done, and what He says in
His Word.
There's still another simple word to put in here that
we may keep things in poise. A "taking" faith is a discerning
faith. Those words "obey" and "abide" point to the
close touch with the Master that lets us know what His plans are. The
daily study of His Word reveals to us His will, and trains us to discern
what His particular will is under the circumstance where you must act.
Abiding makes us keen to know what we may take. The whole purpose
underneath everything is to get His great loving will done. There must be
a clear eye before there can be a taking hand.
As I step quietly on, under the gracious guidance of
His Spirit, I am to "take" what I will, in His Name—life after
life, man after man, gold after gold, strength renewed constantly for new
work, anything and everything that is needed and that should be in His
service. And because He is Victor, every hindrance must go, and will go,
before the man who presses forward where He leads in His name.
Shall we go out and take, in Jesus' Name, what belongs to us by the right
of His death and resurrection? —A.
Martin Luther had this boldness with God, and when
Myconius, his helper in the Reformation, lay dying, this courageous man
could not feel this was God's will. Luther replied as follows: "I
command thee in the name of God to live because I still have need of thee
in the work of reforming the church. . . . The Lord will never let me hear
that thou art dead, but will permit thee to survive me. For this I am
praying. . . and may my will be done because I seek only to glorify the
name of God!" When Myconius received the letter he was unable to speak but he recovered and survived Luther by two months. |
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Kneeling We Triumph is a storehouse of precious nuggets on the subject of prayer, compiled from the writings of godly men and women of the past. Consisting of sixty two-page readings, this book will stimulate you to the tremendous possibilities of prayer. Some chapter titles are "Waiting, a Proof of our Faith," "Hush My Heart to Listen," and "When Prayer is a Cry." From the authors' Forward : "Like many other Christian workers who have been anxious to be successful in labor for God, we have been forced to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit alone can effect lasting results. During these past years of heart-searching study, we have gathered together similar conclusions from many God-honored ministers and missionaries who have discovered the secret that the Holy Spirit comes to our aid when, wearied with self-effort, we ask, seek, and knock. We long very much to share with God's children some of these readings and to spread them as widely as possible."
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