Simplicity is the secret of
seeing things clearly. A saint
does not think clearly for a
long while, but a saint ought
to see clearly without any difficulty.
You cannot think a spiritual muddle clear,
you have to obey it clear. In intellectual
matters you can think things out, but in spiritual
matters you will think yourself into
cotton wool. If there is something upon
which God has put His pressure, obey in that
matter, bring your imagination into captivity
to the obedience of Christ with regard to it
and everything will become as clear as daylight.
The reasoning capacity comes afterwards,
but we never see along that line, we see like
children; when we try to be wise we see nothing
(Matthew 11:25).
The tiniest thing we allow in our lives
that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit
is quite sufficient to account for spiritual
muddle, and all the thinking we like to spend
on it will never make it clear. Spiritual muddle
is only made plain by obedience.
Immediately we obey, we discern. This is humiliating,
because when we are muddled we know the reason
is in the temper of our mind. When the
natural power of vision is devoted to the Holy Spirit,
it becomes the power of perceiving God's will and the
whole life is kept in simplicity.
My note: how wise is this teaching! We cannot
know what is the good and perfect will of God
through our reasoning, but it is revealed as
we obey God. Our walk of faith is a walk of
childlike trust, holding our Father's hand,
knowing that all that He has for us, and leads
us into, is from a heart filled with unutterable
love and compassion for us.
Reasoning with our minds allows us to lead ourselves.
Obedience puts all that concerns us back where
it belongs: into the hands and under the authority
of Jesus.
Oswald Chambers
obeying God
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