If one were starting a voyage across the great Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, one would find it quite essential to have a compass to guide his vessel safely over. The starless nights and the hidden sun would take from him all sense of direction as soon as he lost sight of land. He would not know north from south, or east from west. His greatest and most essential need--the compass--would be his only means of a safe crossing.
Every person apart from God's Holy Spirit is traveling on the expanded sea of destiny without a compass--God's device for determining direction. Reader, do you have that guiding Spirit, that holy impulse, that righteous instinct, which at all times whispers like a still small voice, saying: "You are on course--this is the way--this is the right direction"? Why should anyone refuse this all-important director, the only divine instrument of travel?
In spring and summer the martins fly in and soon begin to hatch their young ones here in North Carolina. Before cool weather reaches here, these birds, with their young, head back south, whence they came. They know, not only when to come and when to leave, but they know also the course to take. They have their "bird-compass", and they use it.
Believer, God has a divine compass for you and for me, a recipe that has never failed when put in use. Man's way of directing himself is, at this present time, being spelled out, and we can look about us today and see the immense confusion among the peoples of this earth. Where is God's compass today, that infinite discretion which led our forefathers to the shores of this great land of ours? Has this prodigious Spirit of direction closed shop? No! He is still around, waiting to be called upon.
Man's own spirit is being taught and trained to take over the reins of leadership. I just wonder what God thinks of this change-over. Paul, indeed, gave us an appropriate answer when he said: "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Cor. 3:19). This serves as comment on what God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 44, and verses 24 and 25: "I am the Lord that....turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish."
Yes, my reader, wisdom, though its price be above rubies, when disassociated with the divine leadership of God, becomes a liability rather than an asset. In fact, the more material wisdom one accumulates without possessing the true compass of God, the more one becomes illiterate and confused. The only way a child of God can be strong and vital in his spiritual life, is to live daily conscious of the fact that he associated with his Maker, and is entitled to superhuman escort.
Jesus had our need of celestial guidance in mind at the time he made the following proclamation: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). If we who believe, my friends, stand in this confused and evil world today without the holy Dove of supernatural instinct, with his mysterious, inner voice and his celestial, invisible insight, we are far behind the little martin, which is able to compass his way from north to south and back again in safety.
The wisdom of this world is completely inadequate to take us across the troublesome sea of life and land us on heaven's eternal shore. It is only when one accepts the prescription of the Holy Spirit (the Spirit which is evidenced by speaking in tongues when it comes into the human body), that one receives the glow of a constructive, spiritual understanding, which gives one a true sense of purpose, a correct sensibility of direction - - - God's one and only compass, which renders a real apprehension of the mysteries of the spiritual life that is pleasing to God. This is the miracle of receiving the holy Ghost baptism, and a continued trust in that Spirit each day: a developed faculty of discerning spiritual things.
It was never intended that the wisdom of this world should be able to solve the immoderate, emotional inner-problems that fall upon the children of God. This type of wisdom can merely serve to confuse the believer, and to drive him deeper into the black pitch of despair and hopelessness. The inadequacy of the wisdom of man can never deliver one soul from the shackles of sin and shame.
May I challenge you, my friend, to a formula so childlike and so simple; yet ridiculed and scorned by many who have become fools through much learning--that you, if you are in earnest, may find, not only peace with God, but also a discretion and an inspiration which will take you securely over every sea of danger and disaster. Moreover, it will land you on that eternal shore, where sin, sickness, and crime will be known and practiced no longer.
This formula has not only saved my life many times, but has also given me a hope that shall never perish and a light that shall never go out. This formula is in perfect harmony with the words of our dear Savior, who has emphatically said: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 18:3).
You will have no trouble in defining the kingdom of heaven when once you feel the ecstasy of the power of God entering your mortal body, and hear the ecstatic expressions of the Holy Spirit, as he proclaims vocally that your body is now the temple of God. It will seem as if someone had held over your head a magic wand and had told you to make a wish. And the wish had, at last, come true. Yes, praise God, your greatest desire will readily be realized and you, for the first time in your life, will find yourself satisfied and entertaining a peace known exclusively by the Spirit-filled believer.
It is Paul who tells us that "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). Please remember that the divine Chaperon stands ready to lead and to guide everyone who will accept his leadership. Don't think that I am asking you to engage in some new experiment. This is God's fixed, conventional method, which he has been using ever since the Day of Pentecost.
Follow God's compass - the holy Ghost that will lead you into all truth. It is the way of God that will never fail you. May I say, in conclusion, this holy Ghost is the most miraculous and marvelous formula that mankind has ever known; and it springs from the same source of wisdom that directs and guides the little insignificant martin from this state southward before the first chilly breeze of autumn comes sweeping in.
Questions? E-mail them to: GSAVELLI@aol.com
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