WONDERFUL PRAYERS

Part IV

Therefore, in the second place it is so necessary that God shall teach His people by a way of stripping and breaking off, so that man finds only death in himself. We read of Job, what a deep way God caused him to go through, and finally answered Job out of the whirlwind, to bring him on that place, that he cried out: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye seeth Thee: Wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5–6.

What lessons must be learned, to be set outside, and to fall outside, to be made susceptible for the ministration of Christ. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 4:11, “For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” It is so necessary to learn to know the depth of our heart, the depth of Satan and the depth of sin, so that a little may be understood of what Paul wrote in Rom. 11:33, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” God has His honor in view, and will also receive the honor of all His labors.

It is the special work of God the Spirit, to glorify Christ in the heart of His people, in all things whereunto He was chosen and given by the Father. And that can only come to pass, because God will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord (Zeph. 3:12). We want no misery, no poverty and no lack of anything. The enmity in the heart is opposed to that. We fight against it and do all we can to remain standing. But God touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint and he halted upon his thigh (Gen. 32). And Mephibosheth never got the use of his feet back again, but remained lame on both his feet. And that is why they pray these strange prayers. Those people just cannot become converted. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God. They do try, but the Bible says: “neither indeed can be.” And even though those people are delivered by grace from the dominion of sin, the tormenting power of sin remains as long as they live. The strife remains until the end, a strife which caused Paul to lament: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Roman 7:24).

They are perfect in Christ, but never perfect in themselves on this side of the grave. From the workhouse they are brought into the poor house so that they shall become poor in spirit, because for such are the divine promises. Yea, not only to become poor, but to remain poor, and as we read in Eccl. 4:14: “He that is born in His Kingdom becometh poor.” They become aware that they can give themselves nothing. They cannot find anything in themselves, for, they cannot come under God nor unto God, unless the Spirit of God brings them there. There come times that there is not even a longing after Christ, no need for Him, that everything is so quiet, so cold, unfeeling and loveless. Sometimes they are in doubts whether it has ever been true in their heart and life, and now why all this?

So that all the riches in Christ shall be declared and applied in their heart. Self must fall away, so that Christ shall be all and in all. They must learn this by loss and disgrace:

Thou art, O God, our boast, the glory of our power;
Thy sovereign grace is e’er our fortress and our tower.
We lift our heads aloft, for God, our shield, is o’er us.

Ps. 89:8 Psalter 422:6

But now their hope is not based upon their frames, and in their pleasant emotions; neither in the many experiences which they have had, but Christ is their hope of glory, for God is our stay, the strength of my spirit, my portion for aye. The firmness and assurance of their salvation does not depend upon their uncertain frames but hes in a Triune God. If God did not vouch for His own work, and if Christ was not the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end, Who is and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty, then it would be eternally lost. From man’s side it is being barely saved, but from God’s side it is surely saved. Nothing in us, but all in Him; thus we come in Jerusalem. Blessed are they who may be in the school of Jesus. How unteachable and unsusceptible they may be, and learn to know themselves as such more and more, diplomas are not given, because their foolishness is revealed more and more. But it becomes a wonder for their souls, that they have never been expelled from that school. And that the Lord Jesus continues to instruct, and to have compassion with their weakness.

Here everything is taken away from man; and here it becomes a lost and cut off matter, but here they receive everything back again, so that they are dissolved in God’s good-pleasure, and are well grounded in Christ, and the Holy Spirit assures them of eternal life, and henceforth in this life, prepares and makes them heartily willing. May the Lord bless these few lines to His honor, and as: Sinners are by Him instructed, in the way untrod before. We read in Ps. 12:1: “Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men”. The church triumphant becomes continually greater, and the church militant smaller. Ledeboer already sang in his days: God gathers in His furniture, and what remains is inferior.

Still a church shall remain. Christ shall never be without subjects. And those people, the living members of that church, will need instruction as long as they wander about here in Mesech. Therefore it will always be a praying and supplicating life here, but also the necessity until the end, what Christ shall fulfil in them: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shall go: I will guide thee with Mine eye” (Ps. 32:8). That the Lord may comfort and encourage His people with these few words. Give honor to God.

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