The appearance of evil is so apparent wherever we turn. Even when I go on the campus, I sense a spiritual leak in myself after a short time there.
Before you go into such a situation, you must be clear that you go there just for the gospel’s sake, for no other purpose. Then you must be in prayer for the Lord to cover and safeguard you.
Sometimes we are not willing to obey what the Lord touches in us; this unwillingness may persist for three or four years. How can we handle this situation?
In Revelation 3:8 the Lord told the church in Philadelphia that they had a little strength. The Lord does not require too much of us. We just have to be faithful to what we are able to do. There is no room for us to be proud, because none of us is wholly obedient to the Lord. Realizing we are so weak, we keep looking to Him for His mercy and grace.
Obedience is a matter of practice. Your obedience will increase by your being obedient. Just obey insofar as you are able, looking to Him for His help.
What shall I do if my parents invite me to do something which has the appearance of evil?
Try to get their sympathy. Tell them you are a Christian and that you love the Lord.
What about praying for others?
Everyone who contacts the Lord normally and properly will have some burden to pray for others, not in a religious way, but under the living guidance of the Lord. If you love the Lord and live by Him, surely a burden to pray for others will come to you. Pray according to this inner burden.
“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psa. 119:103). Whenever we come to the Word, it would be good to pray, “Lord, grant me a sweet taste for Your Word. Make it so precious to me.” When we come to the Word, we come not only with our mind, with our eyes, but also with our heart. Taste is related to the heart. We need a heart which loves and appreciates the Lord’s precious Word.
After I was saved, I found the Bible so sweet. I went to bed reading the Word and left the Bible beside my pillow. Upon awaking in the morning, I would pick up my still open Bible and continue reading where I had left off. If we have this taste for the Word, surely it will bring us life.
“All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16, Gk.). Just as the nature of a table is wood, so the nature of the Word in the Bible is the divine breath. If you consider the Word as only letters on a page, you will use only your mentality in reading it. But because it is God’s breath, we must breathe it in. How do we do this? By praying. When we are taking in the Word for nourishment, we need to pray over the words we read. We should use the very words of the Bible to pray; our prayer will turn the printed matter into breath. The verses, in other words, become Spirit to us.
But how can we say that 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us the Scripture is for breathing? Does not the rest of the verse say, “and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”? Is instruction breathing? Is correction breathing? Is reproof breathing? To argue this way shows blindness. If you use only your mentality when you study the Word, you may read that it is “profitable for correction” and feel that you do need to be corrected and reproved for your attitude toward your wife. This is not the life way to take the Word.
Rather than exercising your mentality, exercise your praying spirit. Do not bring in your thought. Do not interpret. Do not explain. Do not even pray for the Lord to help you to understand the verse. Just breathe all the words into your being. “O Lord, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction. Lord, for instruction in righteousness.” Eventually the verse will be wrought into you as a life supply. Because the nature of the Word is divine breath, when you breathe it in, it becomes life to you. “The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). The words become spirit and life through your prayer, through your breathing.
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