Adam and Eve had this self-life in the purity of their creation; they had
organs of sense. It was to these that Satan made his appeals; to the
feelings in their self-life, not to the feelings in the divine life of
their soul. The will of sense--for such it might be called--overpowered
that higher will of the soul, and they yielded to the will of sense as
aroused by temptation. We who are pure in heart have this same will of
sense. It is this will of sense that must be "kept under." or in control
to the will of God. "Not my will [that is, that lower will of my self
-life]." said Jesus, "but thy will, be done." I will make this plainer as
we go on. I feel like making it as plain and simple as I can, even if
doing so does require time, because here lies the secret of success in the
Christian life. Those who look upon the instructions herein as trifling
will do so to their own spiritual injury.
It is natural for us to avoid hardship and suffering. This is not wrong of
itself; it is wrong only when it conflicts with the will of God. It is not
wrong for you to avoid burning at the stake unless it be God's will that
you should thus end your life. If God wills you to burn at the stake you
must not seek to avoid the ordeal. If we do not watch carefully and live
close to God and keep our body under, the will of sense will grow strong
and cause us to avoid hardships even when God wills us to undergo them. Be
careful that you do not mistake the impulse of sense for the divine will.
One may say he does not believe it to be God's will that he undergo this
suffering when it may be only his own humanity. Out of human sympathy we
may try to dissuade our brother from doing the will of God. At Caesarea
certain brethren tried, out of mere sympathy, to persuade Paul not to go
to Jerusalem, where, it was prophesied, he should be bound and delivered
to the Gentiles. Seeing that he would not be persuaded, they gave place to
that higher will, and said, "The will of the Lord be done."
This is not confined to the greater affairs of life, such as burning at
the stake, but includes the little affairs of every-day life. How easy it
is for man to conclude it is the will of God for him to do a certain thing
when perhaps it is only the will of sense! Remember, God's ways are not as
our ways. It seems to be a most reasonable thing to the minister that he
should go home to his family. How easy it is for him to believe it is
God's will that he should go! At least, it has been so many times with the
writer. He has too often obeyed the human desire and disobeyed God. Such
disobedience, if such it may be called, is not sin, since the will of God
is not known, but it is being led by the impulse of sense and is
detrimental to spirituality. God would have us look more earnestly to him
in order to know his will and not yield so readily to mere human desires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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