Prayer of Joy. - November 1
Joy is the message, dear Lord, that bears our prayers to Thee.
Prayer can be like incense, rising ever higher and higher, or it can be like a low earth-mist clinging to the ground, never once soaring.
The Eye that sees all, the Ear that hears all, knows every cry.
But the prayer of real faith is the prayer of Joy, that sees and knows the heart of Love it rises to greet, and that is so sure of a glad response.
Spend. - November 2
Give, give, give. Keep ever an empty vessel for Me to fill.
In future use all for Me, give all you cannot use.
How poor die those who leave wealth! Wealth is to use, to spend, for Me.
Use as you go. Desire to use.
No Limit. - November 3
Unlimited supply, that is My Law. Oh! the unlimited Supply, and oh! the poor, blocked channels! Will you feel this, that there is no limit to My Power?
But man asks, and blasphemes in asking, such poor mean things. Do you not see how you wrong Me? I desire to give you a gift, and if you are content with the poor, and the mean, and the sordid, then you are insulting Me, the Giver.
"Ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." How I can fulfill the promise is My Work, not yours, to consider . . . . Have a big Faith, and expect big things and you will get big things.
I am Beside You. - November 4
In Thy Presence is fullness of Joy; at Thy right Hand there are pleasures for evermore. - Psalm 16:11.
Do not seek to realize this fullness of Joy as the result of effort. This cannot be, any more than Joy in a human friend's presence would come as the result of trying to force yourself to like to have that friend with you.
Call often My Name, "Jesus."
The calling of My Name does not really summon Me. I am beside you. But it removes, as it were, the scales from your eyes, and you see Me.
It is, as it were, the pressure of a loved one's hand, that brings an answering pressure, and a thrill of Joy follows, a real, and a joyful sense of nearness.
Second Advent. - November 5
Jesus, Comforter of all the sorrowing, help us to bring Thy comfort into every heart and life to which Thou art longing to express that comfort through us. Use us, Lord. The years may be many or few. Place us where we can best serve Thee, and influence most for Thee.
The world would be brought to Me so soon, so soon, if only all who acknowledge Me as Lord, as Christ, gave themselves unreservedly to be used by Me.
I could use each human body as mightily as I used My own human body as a channel for Divine Love and Power.
I do not delay My Second-Coming. My followers delay it.
If each lived for Me, by Me, in Me, allowing Me to live in him, to use him to express the Divine through him, as I expressed it when on Earth, then long ago the world would have been drawn to Me, and I should have come to claim My own.
So seek, my children, to live, knowing no other desire than to express me, and to show My Love to your world.
God in Action. - November 6
Power is not such an overwhelming force as it sounds, a something you call to your aid, to intervene in crises. No! Power is just God in action.
Therefore whenever a servant of Mine, however weak he humanly may be, allows God to work through him, then all he does is powerful.
Carry this thought with you through the days in which you seem to accomplish little. Try to see it is not you, but the Divine Spirit in you. All you have to do, as I have told you before, is to turn 'Self' out. A very powerful axe in a Master Hand accomplishes much. The same in the hand of a weak child, nothing. So see that it is not the instrument, but the Master Hand that wields the instrument, that tells.
Remember no day is lost on which some Spiritual Truth becomes clearer. No day is lost which you have given to Me to use. My use of it may not have been apparent to you. Leave that to Me. Dwell in Me, and I in you, so shall ye bear much fruit. The fruit is not the work of the branches, though proudly the branches may bear it. It is the work of the Vine, that sends its life-giving sap through those branches. I am the Vine and ye are the branches.
Self Kills Power. - November 7
Dwelling with Me, desiring only My Will and to do My work, My Spirit cannot fail to pass through the channel of your life, into the lives of others.
Many think it is humility to say they do little, and are of little value to My world. To think that, is pride.
What if the pipe were to say "I do so little, I wish I could be more use." The reply would be "It is not you, but the water that passes through you, that saves and blesses. All you have to do is to see there is nothing to block the way so that the water cannot flow through."
The only block there can be in your channel is 'Self'. Keep that out, and know that My Spirit is flowing through. Therefore all must be the better for coming in contact with both of you, because you are channels.
See this, and you will think it natural to know they are being helped, not by you, but by My Spirit flowing through you as a channel.
Wipe the Slate. - November 8
One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark. - Phil. 3:13.
Forget the past. Remember only its glad days. Wipe the slate of your remembrance with Love, which will erase all that is not confirmed in Love. You must forget your failures, **your **failures and those of others. Wipe them out of the book of your remembrance.
I did not die upon the Cross for man to bear the burdens of his sins himself. "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree."
If you forget not the sins of others, and I bear them, then you add to My Sorrows.
Wonderful Friendship. - November 9
Think of Me as a Friend, but realize, too, the wonder of the Friendship. As soon as man gives Me not only worship and honour, obedience, allegiance, but loving understanding, then he becomes My Friend, even as I am his.
What I can do for you. Yes! but also what we can do for each other. What you can do for Me.
Your service becomes so different when you feel I count on your great friendship to do this or that for Me. . . .
Dwell more, much more, on this thought of you as My friends, and of the sweetness of My knowing where I can turn for Love, for understanding, for help.
New Forces. - November 10
Remember that life's difficulties and troubles are not intended to arrest your progress, but to increase your speed. You must call new forces, new powers into action.
Whatever it is must be surmounted, overcome. Remember this.
It is a race. Nothing must daunt you. Do not let a difficulty conquer you. You must conquer it.
My strength will be there awaiting you. Bring all your thought, all your power, into action. Nothing is too small to be faced and overcome. To push small difficulties aside is to be preparing big troubles.
Rise to conquer. It is the path of victory I would have you tread. There can be no failure with Me.
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding Joy. . . ."
Heaven's Colours. - November 11
Looking back you will see that every step was planned. Leave all planning to Me. Each stone in the mosaic fits into the perfect pattern, designed by the Master Artist.
It is all so wonderful!
But the colours are of Heaven's hues, so that your eyes could not bear to gaze on the whole, until you are beyond the veil.
So, stone by stone, you see, and trust the pattern to the Designer.
The Voiceless Cry. - November 12
Jesus, hear us, and let our cry come unto Thee.
That voiceless cry, that comes from anguished hearts, is heard above all the music of Heaven.
It is not the arguments of theologians that solve the problems of a questioning heart, but the cry of that heart to Me, and the certainty that I have heard.
Every Problem Solved. - November 13
Man has such strange ideas of the meaning of My invitation "Come unto Me." Too often has it been interpreted as an urge to pay a duty owed to a Creator, or a debt owed to a Saviour.
The "Come unto Me" holds in it a wealth of meaning far surpassing even that. "Come unto Me" for the solution of every problem, for the calming of every fear, for all you need - physical, mental, spiritual.
Sick, come to Me for health. Homeless, ask Me for a home. Friendless, claim a friend. Hopeless, a refuge.
"Come unto Me" for everything.
Devious Ways. - November 14
Life is not easy, My children. Man has made of it, not what My Father meant it to be.
Ways, that were meant to be straight paths, have been made by man into ways devious and evil, filled with obstacles and stones of difficulty.
By My Spirit. - November 15
Man is apt to think that once in time only was my Miracle-working Power in action. That is not so. Wherever man trusts wholly in Me, and leaves to Me the choosing of the very day and hour, then there is My miracle-working Power as manifest, as marvellously manifest to-day, as ever it was when I was on earth, as ever it was to set My Apostles free, or to work miracles of wonder and healing through them.
Trust in Me. Have a boundless faith in Me, and you will see, and, seeing, will give Me all the glory. Remember, and say often to yourselves, "not by might, nor by Power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord."
Dwell much in thought upon all I accomplished on Earth, and then say to yourselves, "He, our Lord, our Friend, could accomplish this now in our lives."
Apply these miracles to your present day needs, and know that your Help and Salvation are sure.
Union is Power. - November 16
Where two or three are gathered together in My Name there am I in the midst of them. - Matt. 18:20
Claim that promise always. Know it to be true that when two of My lovers meet I am the Third. Never limit that promise.
When you two are together in My Name, united by one bond in My Spirit, I am there. Not only when you meet to greet Me, and to hear My Voice.
Think what this means in Power. It is again the lesson of the Power that follows two united to serve Me.
Quiet Lives. - November 17
Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. - Matt. 25:23.
These words are whispered in the ears of many whom the world would pass by unrecognizing. Not to the great, and the world-famed, are these words said so often, but to the quiet followers who serve Me unobtrusively, yet faithfully, who bear their cross bravely, with a smiling face to the world. Thank Me for the quiet lives.
These words speak not only of the passing into that fuller Spirit Life. Duty faithfully done for Me does mean entrance into a Life of Joy - My Joy, the Joy of your Lord. The world may never see it, the humble, patient, quiet service, but I see it, and My reward is not Earth's fame, Earth's wealth, Earth's pleasures, but the Joy Divine.
Whether here, or there, in the earth-world, or in the spirit-world, this is My reward. Joy. The Joy that carries an exquisite thrill in the midst of pain and poverty and suffering. That Joy of which I said no man could take it from you. Earth has no pleasure, no reward, that can give man that Joy. It is known only to my lovers and My friends.
This Joy may come, not as the reward of activity in My service. It may be the reward of activity in My service. It may be the reward of patient suffering, bravely borne.
Suffering, borne with Me, must in time bring Joy, as does all real contact with Me. So live with Me in that Kingdom of Joy, My Kingdom, the Gateway into which may be service, it may be suffering.
Dazzling Glory. - November 18
Arise shine; for thy Light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen; upon thee. - Isa. 60:1.
The glory of the Lord is the Beauty of His Character. It is risen upon you when you realize it, even though on Earth you can do so only in part.
The Beauty of the Purity and Love of God is too dazzling for mortals to see in full.
The Glory of the Lord is also risen upon you when you reflect that Glory in your lives, when in Love; Patience; Service; Purity; whatever it may be, you reveal to the world a something of the Father, an assurance that you have been with Me, your Lord and Saviour.
Hills of the Lord. - November 19
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made Heaven and Earth. - Psalm 121:1, 2
Yes! always raise your eyes, from Earth's sordid and mean and false, to the Hills of the Lord. From poverty, lift your eyes to the Help of the Lord.
In moments of weakness, lift your eyes to the Hills of the Lord.
Train your sight by constantly getting this long view. Train it to see more and more, further and further, until distant peaks seem familiar.
The Hills of the Lord. The Hills whence comes your help. A parched earth looks to the Hills for its rivers, its streams, its life. So look you to the Hills. From those Hills comes Help. Help from the Lord - Who made Heaven and Earth.
So, for all your spiritual needs, look to the Lord, Who made Heaven, and for all your temporal needs look to Me, owner of all this, the Lord Who made the Earth.
Mysteries. - November 20
Your Hope is in the Lord. More and more set your hopes on Me. Know that whatever the future may hold it will hold more and more of Me. It cannot but be glad and full of Joy. So in Heaven, or on earth, wherever you may be, your way must be truly one of delight.
Do not try to find answers to the mysteries of the world. Learn to know Me more and more, and in that Knowledge you will have all the answers you need here, and when you see Me Face to Face, in that purely Spiritual world, you will find no need to ask. There again all your answers will be in Me.
Remember, I was the answer in time to all man's questions about My Father and His Laws. Know no theology. Know Me. I was **The Word **of God. All you need to know about God you know in Me. If a man knows Me not, all your explanations will fall on an unresponsive heart.
Radiate Joy. - November 21
Not only must you rejoice, but your Joy must be made manifest. "Known unto all men." A candle must not be set under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light to all who are in the house.
Men must see and know your Joy, and seeing it, know, without any doubt, that it springs from trust in Me, from living with Me.
The hard dull way of resignation is not My Way. When I entered Jerusalem, knowing well that scorn and reviling and death awaited Me, it was with cries of Hosanna, and with a triumphal procession. Not just a few "Lost Cause" followers creeping with Me into the City. There was no note of sadness in My Last Supper Talk with My disciples, and "when we had sung a psalm" we went out unto the Mount of Olives.
So trust, so conquer, so joy. Love colours The Way. Love takes the sting out of the wind of adversity.
Love. Love. Love of Me. The consciousness of My Presence, and that of My Father. We are one, and He - God - is Love.
Only Love Lasts. - November 22
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. - 1 Cor. 13:1.
See that only Love tells. Only what is done in Love lasts, for God is Love, and only the work of God remains.
The fame of the world, the applause given to the one who speaks with the tongues of men and of angels who attracts admiration and compels attention, it is all given to what is passing, is really worthless, if it lacks that God-quality, Love.
Think how a smile, or word of Love, goes winged on its way, a God-Power, simple though it may seem, while the mighty words of an orator can fall fruitless to the ground. The test of all true work and words is - are they inspired by Love?
If man only saw how vain is so much of his activity! So much work done in My Name is not acknowledged by Me. Ask for Love. Turn out from your hearts and lives all that is not loving, so shall ye bear much fruit, and by this shall all men know ye are My disciples, because ye have Love one toward another.
Earth's Furies. - November 23
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. - John 16:33.
Then you may ask why have you, My children, to have tribulation if I have overcome the world.
My overcoming was never, you know, for Myself, but for you, for My children. Each temptation, each difficulty, I overcome as it presented itself.
The powers of evil were strained to their utmost to devise means to break Me. They failed, but how they failed was known only to Me, and to My Father, Who could read My undaunted Spirit. The world, even My own followers, would see a Lost Cause. Reviled, spat upon, scourged, they would deem Me conquered. How could they know My Spirit was free, unbroken, unharmed?
And so, as I had come to show man God, I must show him God unconquered, unharmed, untouched by evil and its power. Man could not see My Spirit untouched, risen above these Earth furies and hates, into the Secret Place of the Father. But man could see My Risen Body, and learn by that, that even the last attempt of man had been powerless to touch Me.
Take heart from that, for you must share My tribulations. If evil is to leave you unchallenged you must be evil. If evil challenges you, if trials press sore, it is because you are on My side, and, as My friends, exposed to the hate of evil.
But be of good cheer. You walk with Me. I conquered evil at every point, though man could only see it proved, beyond all doubt, when I rose from the dead. And in **My conquering **Power you walk un-harmed to-day.
Suffer to Save. - November 24
Take each day's happenings as work you can do for Me. In that Spirit a blessing will attend all you do. Offering your day's service thus to Me, you are sharing in My Life-work, and therefore helping Me to save my world.
You may not see it, but the power of vicarious sacrifice is redemptive beyond man's power of understanding here on earth.
The Heavenly Beggar. - November 25
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. - Rev. 3:20.
Oh, ponder again these words and learn from them My great humility.
There is that gracious invitation, too, for those who yearn to realize a joy, a rest, a satisfaction they have never found in the world and its pursuits. To them the pleading answer to their quest is "Come to Me and I will give you rest."
But to those who do not feel their need of Me, who obstinately reject Me, who shut the doors of their hearts so that I may not enter, to those I go, in tender, humble longing. Even when I find all closed, all barred, I stand a Beggar, knocking, knocking, The Heavenly Beggar in His Great Humility.
Never think of those who have shut you out, or forgotten you, that now they must wait, you have no need of them. No! remember that, the Heavenly Beggar, and learn of Me, humility.
Learn too the value of each man's happiness, and peace and rest, to Me, his God; and learn, and learning, pray to copy, the Divine Unrest until a soul finds rest and peace in Me.
My Beauty. - November 26
The prophet realized the Truth of My later saying, "He that hath ears to hear; let him hear", which might be rendered "he that hath eyes to see; let him see."
The God who was to be born upon Earth was not to be housed in a body so beautiful that men would follow and adore for the beauty of His Countenance.
No! He was to be as one whom the world would despise, but, to the "seeing" eye, the Spirit that dwelt in that body should be so beautiful as to lack nothing. "Yet when we shall see Him, there is no Beauty that we should desire Him."
Pray for the "seeing" eye, to see the Beauty of My Character, of My Spirit. Nay, more, as faith saw the Beauty of the Godhead in One who had no form or comeliness, so pray to have that faith to see the Beauty of My Love in My dealings with you, in My actions. Till, in what the world will distort into cruelty and harshness (the discipline that is the hallmark of discipleship), you with the eyes of faith, will see ALL that you could desire.
Know Me. Talk to Me. Let Me talk to you, so that I may make clear to your loving hearts what seems mysterious now and purposeless ("having no form nor comeliness.")
Not Thwarted. - November 27
Not our wills but Thine, O Lord.
Man has so misunderstood Me in this. I want no will laid grudgingly upon My Altar. I want you to desire and love My Will, because therein lies your happiness and Spirit-rest.
Whenever you feel that you cannot leave the choice to Me, then pray, not to be able to accept My Will, but to know and love Me more. With that knowledge, and the Love, will come the certainty that I know best, and that I want only the best for you and yours.
How little those know Me who think I wish to thwart them. How often I am answering their own prayers in the best and quickest way.
The Way of the Spirit. - November 28
Jesus, we come to Thee with Joy.
The Joy of meeting Me should more and more fill your lives. It will. Your lives must first of all be narrowed down, more and more, into an inner circle life with Me (the three of us), and then, as that friendship becomes more and more engrossing, more and more binding, then, gradually, the circle of your interests will widen.
For the present do not think of it as a narrow life. I have My Purpose, My Loving Purpose, in cutting you away from other work and interests, for the time.
To work from large interests and a desire for great activities and world movements, to the inner circle life with Me, is really the wrong way. That is why so often, when, through all these activities and interests, a soul finds Me, I have to begin our Friendship by cutting away the ties that bind it to the outer and wider circle. When it has gained strength, and learned its lesson in the inner circle, it can then widen its life, working this time from within out, taking then to each contact, each friendship, the inner circle influence.
And this is to be your way of life.
This is The Way of the Spirit. Man so often misunderstands this.
When Two Agree. - November 29
If two of you shall agree.
I am the Truth. Every word of Mine is true. Every promise of Mine shall be fulfilled.
First, "gathered together in My Name", bound by a common loyalty to Me, desirous only of doing My Will.
Then, when this is so, I am present too, a self-invited guest, and when I am there and one with you, voicing the same petition, making your demands Mine, then it follows the request is granted.
But what man has failed perhaps to realize is all that lies behind the words. For two to agree about the wisdom of a request, to be certain it should be granted, and will be granted (if it is My Will and should be granted), is not the same as two agreeing to pray that request.
From Self to God. - November 30
The Eternal God is thy refuge. - Deut. 33:27.
A Place to flee to, a sanctuary. An escape from misunderstanding, from your 'Self'. You can get away from others into the quiet of your own Being, but from yourself, from the sense of your failure, your weakness, your sins and shortcomings, whither can you flee?
To the Eternal God your refuge. Till in His Immensity you forget your smallness, meanness, limitations.
Till the relief of safety merges into Joy of appreciation of your refuge, and you absorb the Divine, and absorbing, gain strength to conquer.