King's Business - 1913-06

THE KING’S BUSINESS

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your own inability to décide (“lack wis­ dom”) ; third, that you definitely ask God to show you His will ; fourth, that you con­ fidently expect God will show you ; fifth, that you go step by step as He does show you. You have a perfect right to ask God to give you clear light, and if you really desire to Know and do His will, if impres­ sions come to you of which you are not at all sure, you have a right to say, “Heaven­ ly Father, I want to know Thy will and will do it as soon as Thou hast made it clear; make it clear as day,” and you hive a right to wait until He does make it clear as day, and not be at all bothered that you have not done what is not as clear as day ; for “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), and any impression or leading that is not clear is certainly not His leading for you as yet. Whèn men and women want to really obey God in everything, the devil tries to thwart them by bringing in all kinds of impres­ sions that they ought to do things which véry likely are not God’s will at all, but which the devil simply brings in to annoy and to bring people into darkness as he has you. God is a Father and we are His children. If I want my children to do anything, I make it clear, and if one of my children was not sure that I wanted them to do something and therefore should not do it, I should not want my children to be afraid of me or cringe before me, but come to me and ask me to make it plain as day—and I would—and so will God. And if my children made a mistake and failed to d o . the thing I wanted them to do, I would not exclude them from my presence ; I would love them just the same and would want them to be perfectly free with me still; and so does God. (5) Of course the thought of getting a divorce from your husband and leaving husband and child is not of God. I think yoti see that without my going into it. Your present duty is as plain as day. There are a number of other questions which are so plainly answered in what I have already said, I think it would only confuse you to go over fhéfli again. Yoii

Jesus -will yet accept me, although I may have thwarted His life purpose for me?” I háve already answered this in the above, and given ypii much assurance from God’s Word, but I will repeat it briefly: Jesús does not accept you on the ground of your falling in perfectly with God’s will and not thwarting to some extent His life pur­ pose. He saves you solely on the ground of His atoning death, and on the one con­ dition that you believe on Him. You have His own Word for it, that if you come to Him, no matter how much you. may have thwarted His purpose, no mat­ ter what sins you have committed, He will receive you (John 6:37). You say, “Do you think this was the unpardonable sin?” I not only do not think it was, I know it was riot; for God has defined the one only unpardonable siri in His own Word, and according to His own explicit Word, the only sin that has no forgiveness is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, not sin­ ning against the Holy Spirit, but the blas­ phemy against the Holy Spirit. We have all sinned against the Holy Spirit at some time; the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the deliberate attributing to the Devil what we know to ¡be the work of the Holy Spirit. This sirt, of course, you have not committed, and even if you have thwarted God's purpose in the matter of going to China, it does not bear the faintest re­ semblance to the unpardonable sin. (4) You ask, “How can I know the Spirit’s leading from Satan’s?” Let me say, first of all in answering this, that you do not need to go back and decide whether it was the Spirit’s leading that you should go to China. Even admitting that it was and that you resisted or grieved the Holy Spirit in that case, it is done now and cannot be undone, and you are saved just the same and may expect the Spirit to lead you in the future. Now in direct answer to your question would say, that the way to know the Spirit’s leading is found in James 1:5-7. This involves five things: First, that you sincerely desire to know the will of God, and therefore the Spirit’s leading; second, that you realize

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