Days of Heaven on Earth

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Let us say no to the flesh, the world and the love of self, and learn the holy self-denial of which so much of the life of obedience consists. We must make no provision for the flesh, give no recognition to our lower life. We must say no to everything earthly and selfish. How very much of the life of faith consists in simply denying ourselves.

We begin with one great yes to God, and then we conclude with an eternal no to ourselves, the world, the flesh and the devil.

Nearly every commandment of the Decalogue is a Thou shalt not. In First Corinthians 13, with its beautiful picture of love, most of the characteristics of love are in the negative-what love does not, thinks not, says not, is not. And so you will find that the largest part of the life of consecration is really saying no.

I am not my own,

I belong to Him.

I am His alone,

I belong to Him.

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The literal translation of that phrase in Hebrews is, "all things are stripped and stunned." Such is the force of the Greek words. The figure is that of an athlete in the Coliseum who has fought his best in the arena, and has at length fallen at the feet of his adversary, disarmed and broken down in helplessness. There he lies, unable to strike a blow or lift his arm. He is stripped and stunned, disarmed and disabled, and there is nothing left for him but to lie at the feet of his adversary and appeal to him for mercy.

Now this is the position to which God wants to bring us, where we shall cease our struggles and our attempts at self-defense or self-improvement and throw ourselves helplessly upon the mercy of God. This is the sinner's only hope, and when he thus lies at the feet of mercy, Jesus is ready to lift him up and give him that free salvation which is waiting for all.

This, too, is the greatest need of the Christian who seeks a deeper and higher life-to come to a full realization of his nothingness and helplessness and to lie down, stripped and stunned, at the feet of Jesus.

Scripture
All things are naked and opened unto the eyes Of him with whom we have to do—Hebrews 4:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 17, 2011

Abraham's faith reposed in God Himself. He knew the God he was dealing with. It was a personal confidence in One whom he could utterly trust.

The real secret of Abraham's whole life was in his friendship with God. He knew God to be his great, good and faithful Friend. Taking Him at His word, he stepped out from all that he knew and loved and went forth upon an unknown pathway with none but God.

In addition to trusting in the Word of God, have we learned to lean our whole weight upon God, the God of infinite love and power, our covenant God and everlasting Friend?

We are told that Abraham glorified God by this life of faith. The truest way to glorify God is to let the world see what He is and what He can do. God does not so much want us to do things as to let people see what He can do. God is not looking for extraordinary characters as His instruments, but He is looking for humble instruments through whom He can be honored throughout the ages.

Scripture
Abraham believed God—Romans 4:3

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 16, 2011

God loves to take the worst of lost men and make them the most magnificent memorials of His redeeming love and power. He loves to take the victims of Satan's hate and the most fearful examples of his power to destroy and use them to illustrate and illuminate the possibilities of divine mercy and the creativity of the Holy Spirit.

He loves to take the things in our own lives that have been the worst, the hardest and the most hostile to God, and to transform them so that we shall be the opposites of our former selves.

The sweetest spirits are made from the most stormy and self-willed; the mightiest faith is created out of the wilderness of doubts and fears; the divinest love is transformed out of stony hearts of hate and selfishness.

The grace of God is equal to the most uncongenial temperaments and to the most unfavorable circumstances. Its glory is to transform a curse into blessing and show to men and angels of ages yet to come that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20).

Scripture
Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, . . . I will make thee . . . a joy Isaiah 60:15


Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, October 15, 2011

True faith drops its letter in the post office box and lets it go. Distrust holds onto a corner of it and wonders why the answer never comes.

In my desk are some letters that I wrote weeks ago. But there was some slight uncertainty about the address or the contents so they are yet unmailed. As yet they have not done me or anyone else any good. They will never accomplish anything until I let them go out of my hands and trust them to the postal system.

This is the case with true faith. it hands its case over to God and then He works.

There is an appropriate verse in Psalm 37: Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he [worketh] (v. 5). But He never works until we commit.

Faith is a receiving-or still better-a taking of God's proffered gifts. We may believe and come and commit and rest, but we will not fully realize all our blessing until we begin to receive and come into the attitude of abiding and taking.

Scripture
Faith is . . . the evidence of things not seen—Hebrews 11:1

Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, October 14, 2011

If when it seems your old self has come back, you listen to it, fear it, believe it, it will have the same influence upon you as 'f it were not dead. It will control you and destroy you. Instead, simply ignore it and say: "You are not I, you are Satan trying to make me believe that my old self is not dead. I refuse you. I treat you as a demon power outside of me, I detach myself from you." The evil thing will disappear, the shadow will vanish, the wand of faith will dispel the troubling spirit and send it back to the abyss. In its place we will find Christ there instead with His risen life to back up our confidence and seal our victory.

Satan can stand anything better than neglect. If we ignore him he becomes disgusted and disappears. Jesus turned His back upon him and said, Get thee behind me, Satan. So let us refuse him, and we shall find that he will be compelled to act according to our faith.

Once I believed I must always be stumbling

For my old nature was poisoned with sin;

Now there's a mightier Power upholds me,

Cleansing and keeping and dwelling within.

Scripture
Get thee behind me, Satan Matthew 16:23

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, October 13, 2011

The flesh is incurably bad. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It can never be any better. It is no use trying to improve the flesh. We may educate it all we please. We may train it by the most approved methods, we may set before it the brightest examples, we may pipe to it or mourn before it we may treat it with encouragement or severity. But its nature will always be incorrigibly the same.

The wild hawk which the little child captures in its infancy and tries to train in the habits of the dove will fasten its cruel beak upon the gentle fingers that caress it, showing the old wild spirit of fear and ferocity. So the flesh is a hawk by nature, and it can never be made a dove. For the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

The only remedy for human nature is to destroy it and receive instead the divine nature. God does not improve man. He crucifies the natural life with Christ and creates the new man in Christ Jesus.

Scripture
The carnal mind is enmity against God—Romans 8:7

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The life of Jesus Christ brought into our heart s by the Holy Spirit operates there as a new law of divine strength and vitality. it counteracts, overcomes and lifts us above the old law of sin and death.

Let us illustrate these two laws by a simple comparison. By the law of gravity my hand naturally falls upon the desk and lies there, attracted downward by that natural law which makes heavy bodies fall to the earth.

But there is a stronger law than the law of gravity-my own life and will. Through the operation of this higher law-the law of vitality-I can defy the-law of gravity, lift my hand and hold it above its former resting place and move it at my will. The law of vitality has freed me from the law of gravity.

Precisely so the indwelling life of Christ Jesus, operating with the power of a new law, lifts me above and counteracts the power of sin in my fallen nature.

Scripture
The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free—Romans 8:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Holy Spirit becomes to the consecrated heart the Spirit of intercession. We have two Advocates. We have an Advocate with the Father, who prays for us at God's right hand. We also have the Holy Spirit, the Advocate within who prays in us, inspiring our petitions and presenting them, through Christ, to God.

We need this Advocate. We know not what to pray for and we know not how to pray as we ought, but He breathes in the holy heart the desires that we may not always understand, the, groanings which we could not utter.

God understands, and He, with a loving Father's heart, is always searching our hearts to find the Spirit's prayer and to answer it. He finds many a prayer there that we have not discovered, and answers many a cry that we never understood. And when we reach our heavenly home and read the records of life, we shall better know and appreciate the infinite love of that Divine Friend who has watched within as the Spirit of prayer and breathed out our every need to the heart of God.

Scripture
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God—Romans 8:2

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 10, 2011

The Holy Spirit is the only one who can kill us and keep us dead. Many Christians try to do this disagreeable work themselves, and they are going through a continual crucifixion but can never accomplish the work permanently. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, and when we really yield ourselves to the death, it is delightful to find how sweetly He can execute the sentence.

They tell us that by the touch of the electric spark life is extinguished almost without a quiver of pain. However this may be in natural things, we know the Holy Spirit can touch with celestial fire the surrendered thing, after it is really yielded up to the sentence of death, and slay it in a moment. The yielding is our business, and it is God's business to execute the sentence and to keep it constantly operative.

May we not live in the pain of perpetual and ineffective suicide, but reckoning ourselves dead indeed, let us leave ourselves in the hands of the blessed Holy Spirit. He will slay whatever rises in opposition to His will and keep us true to our heavenly reckoning and filled with His resurrection life.

Scripture
If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live—Romans 8:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 09, 2011

Peace be unto you. These words are a type of Jesus' first appearing to our hearts when He comes to bring us His peace and to teach us to trust Him and to love Him.

But there is a second peace which He has to give. Jesus said unto them again, Peace be unto you. There is a "peace," and there is an 44 again peace." There is a peace with God, and there is the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7). It is the deeper peace that we need before we can serve Him or be used for His glory.

While we are burdened with our own cares, He cannot give us His. While we are occupied with ourselves, we cannot be at leisure to serve Him. Our minds will be so filled with our own anxieties that we would not be equal to the trust which He requires of us. Before He can entrust us with His work, He wants to deliver us from every burden and anxiety.

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?

The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?

To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Scripture
Peace be unto you—John 20:21

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, October 08, 2011

Some day even you, trembling faltering one, shall stand upon those heights that Joshua knew. As you look back upon all you have passed through, all you have narrowly escaped, all the perils through which He guided you, the stumblings through which He guarded you and the sins from which He saved you; you will shout, with a meaning you cannot understand now, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb (Revelation 7:10).

Some day He will sit down with us in that glorious home, and we shall have all the ages in which to understand the story of our lives. He will read over again this marked old Bible with us, He will show us how He kept all these promises, He will explain to us the mysteries that we could not understand, He will recall all the finished story. Then I am sure we will cry: "Blessed Christ! you have been so true, you have been so good! Was there ever love like this?" And then the great chorus will be repeated once more-There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken; . . . all came to pass.

Scripture
There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken—Joshua 21:45


Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, October 07, 2011

How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about us. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electroplate or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our lives, we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, Let him curse; . . . It may be the Lord will . . . requite me good for his cursing this day (2 Samuel 16:11-12).

Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies. Soon their lives become one little whirl of petty warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. We may disperse the hornets, but we will probably get terribly stung and get nothing for our pains, for even their honey is not worth a search.

God give us more of Jesus' Spirit. When he was reviled, [he] reviled not again; . . . but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously (1 Peter 2:23).

Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself (Hebrews 12:3).

Scripture
He opened not his mouth Isaiah 53:7

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, October 06, 2011

It is a great thing to learn to take God first. Then He can afford to give us everything else without the fear of its hurting us.

As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God, it is an idol. When you become satisfied with God, however, everything else so loses its charm that He can give it to you without harm. Then you can take just as much as you choose and use it for His glory.

There is no harm whatever in having money, houses, lands, friends and children if you do not value these things or ones for themselves.

If you have been separated from them in spirit and become satisfied with God Himself, then they will become to you channels to be filled with God and to bring Him nearer to you. Then every little lamb around your household will be a tender cord to bind you to the Shepherd's heart. Then every affection will be a golden cup filled with the wine of His love. Then every bank, stock and investment will be but a channel through which you can pour out His benevolence and extend His grace.

Scripture
Epbraim, he hath mixed himself—Hosea 7:8

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, October 05, 2011

God calls us to victory. Have you given up the conflict, have you surrendered? Have you said, "This thing is too much?" Have you said, "I can give up anything else but this?"

If you have, you are not in the land of promise. God intends that you accept every difficult thing that comes into your life. He has started with you, knowing every difficulty, and if you dare to let Him, He will carry you through not only to be a conqueror but "more than conquerors."

Are you looking for all the victory God has for you? God gives His children strength for the battle and watches over them with a fond enthusiasm. He longs to fold you close and say to you, "I have seen thy conflict, I have watched thy trials, I have rejoiced in thy victory; thou hast honored Me." Remember what he told Joshua at the beginning, There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee (Joshua 1:5). And again, His word to us is, Fear . . . not, for I am with thee (Isaiah 41:10).


Scripture
He that triumphed gloriously-Exodus 15:1


Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, October 04, 2011

God's sweetest memorial is the transformed thorn and thistle blooming with flowers of peace and goodness where once recriminations grew.

God is waiting to make just such memorials in your life out of the things that are hurting you most today. Take the grievances, the separations, the strained friendships and the broken ties which have been the sorrow and heartbreak of your life and let God heal them. Allow Him to give you grace that can make you right with all those with whom you have been wrong. You will wonder at the joy and, blessing that will come out of the things that have caused you nothing but regret and pain.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God (Matthew 5:9). The everlasting employment of our blessed Redeemer is to reconcile the guilty and the estranged from God. The highest and most Christlike work that we can do is to be like Him.

Shall we go forth to dry the tears of a sorrowing world, to heal the brokenhearted, to bind up the wounds of human lives, and to unite heart to heart and earth to heaven?

Scripture
Instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree—Isaiah 55:13

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, October 03, 2011

There are some things good without being perfect. You do not need to have a whole regiment firing outside your room to wake you. It is quite enough that your alarm clock rings. it is not necessary to fret about everything; it is quite enough if the devil gets your mind rasped with one little worry, one little thought which destroys your perfect peace.

It is like the polish on an exquisite table top. One scratch will destroy it; and the finer it is, the smaller the scratch that will deface it. And so your rest can be destroyed by a very little thing. Perhaps you have trusted in God about your future salvation; have you trusted Him about your present business or earthly cares, your money and your family?

What is meant by the peace [that] passeth all understanding? (Philippians 4:7). It does not mean a peace no one can comprehend. It means a peace no amount of reasoning will bring. You cannot get it by thinking. There may be perfect bewilderment and perplexity all around the horizon, yet your heart can rest in perfect security because God knows, He loves, He leads.

Scripture
The little foxes, that spoil the vines—Song of Solomon 2:15

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, October 02, 2011

The procedure was very significant. God gave the land to the other tribes of Israel, but He gave Himself to the Levites. There is such a thing in the Christian life as an inheritance from the Lord, and there is such a thing as having the Lord Himself for our inheritance.

Some people receive a sanctification from the Lord that is of much value, but variable and often impermanent. Others have learned the higher lesson of taking the Lord Himself to be their keeper and their sanctity, and abiding in Him they are kept above the vicissitudes of their own states and feelings.

Some receive from the Lord large measures of joy and blessing and times of refreshing. Others, again, learn to take the Lord Himself as their joy.

Some people are content to have peace with God, but others have taken the peace of God, which passeth all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

Some have faith in God, while others have the faith of God. Some have many touches of healing from God, others have learned to live in the very health of God Himself.

Scripture
Moses gave not any inheritance: the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said unto them—Joshua 13:33

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, October 01, 2011

Christ's great purpose for His people is to train them to know the hope of [their] calling, and . . . the riches of the glory of their inheritance, . . . and what . . . the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe (Ephesians 1:18-19).

Let us prove, in all our varied walks of life and scenes of conflict, the fullness of His power and grace, and thus shall we know in the ages to come . . . the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Are we thus following our Teacher in the school of faith, and finishing the education which is to fit us for a far more exceeding and eternal weight, of glory? (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Little can we now dream what these lessons will mean for us some day when we sit with Him on His throne and share with Him the power of God and the government of the universe. Let us be faithful students now, and soon with Him we, too, will have endured the cross, despising the shame, and shall sit down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

Scripture
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace—Ephesians 2:7

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, September 30, 2011

The dove is in the cleft of the rock-the riven side of our Lord. There is comfort and security there. It is also in the secret places of the stairs. It loves to build its nest in the high towers to which men mount by winding stairs for hundreds of feet above the ground. What a glorious vision is there obtained of the surrounding scenery. It is a picture of ascending life.

To reach our highest altitudes we must find the secret places of the stairs. That is the only way to rise above the natural plane. Our lives should be ones of quiet mounting with occasional resting places; but we should be mounting higher, step by step. Not everyone finds this way of secret ascent. It is only for God's chosen. The world may think we are going down. We may not have as much public work to do as formerly. Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). It is a secret, hidden life. We may be hardly aware that we are growing, until one day a test comes and we find we are established.

Have you arrived at the place where Christ is keeping you from willful disobedience? Does the consciousness of sin make you shudder? Are you lifted above the world?

Scripture
0 my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs�Song of Solomon 2:14

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, September 30, 2011

The dove is in the cleft of the rock-the riven side of our Lord. There is comfort and security there. It is also in the secret places of the stairs. It loves to build its nest in the high towers to which men mount by winding stairs for hundreds of feet above the ground. What a glorious vision is there obtained of the surrounding scenery. It is a picture of ascending life.

To reach our highest altitudes we must find the secret places of the stairs. That is the only way to rise above the natural plane. Our lives should be ones of quiet mounting with occasional resting places; but we should be mounting higher, step by step. Not everyone finds this way of secret ascent. It is only for God's chosen. The world may think we are going down. We may not have as much public work to do as formerly. Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). It is a secret, hidden life. We may be hardly aware that we are growing, until one day a test comes and we find we are established.

Have you arrived at the place where Christ is keeping you from willful disobedience? Does the consciousness of sin make you shudder? Are you lifted above the world?

Scripture
0 my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs—Song of Solomon 2:14



Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, September 29, 2011

We can bring Christ into common things as fully as into what we call religious services. It would seem that the highest application of divine grace is to bring it down to the ordinary matters of life. God is, therefore, far more honored in this than even in things that are more especially sacred.

In Romans 12, which is the manual of practical consecration, just after the apostle speaks of ministering in sacred things, he begins to discuss the common, social and secular affairs into which we are to bring our consecration principles. We read: Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord (vv. 10-11).

God wanted the Levites scattered all over the cities of Israel. He wants our workshops, factories, kitchens, nurseries, editors' rooms and printing offices as much as our pulpits and prayer closets. He wants us to be just as holy at high noon on Monday or Wednesday as in the sanctuary on Sunday morning.

Scripture
Call not thou common-Acts 10:15. There is nothing unclean of itself—Romans 14:14

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, September 28, 2011

0ur trials are great opportunities. Too often we look on them as great obstacles. It would be a heaven of rest if each of us would recognize every difficult situation as one of God's chosen ways of proving to us His love and power. It would be an inspiration of unspeakable power if, instead of calculating upon defeat, we should begin to look around for the messages of His glorious manifestations. Then indeed every cloud would become a rainbow and every mountain a path of ascension and a scene of transfiguration.

If we will look upon the past, many of us will find that the very time our heavenly Father has chosen to do the kindest things for us and give us the richest blessings has been the time when we were under great pressure and hemmed in on every side. God's jewels are often sent to us in rough packages, but within we find the very treasures of the King's palace and the Bridegroom's love.

Fire of God, thy work begin,

Burn up the dross of self and sin;

Burn off my fetters, set me free,

And through the furnace walk with me.

Scripture
The trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold—1 Peter 1:7



Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Are you above self and self-pleasing in every way? Have you risen above circumstances so that you are not influenced by them? Are you above sickness and the evil forces around that would drag down your physical life into the quicksands? These forces are all around and if yielded to would quickly swamp us. God does not destroy sickness or its power to hurt, but He lifts us above it.

Are you above your feelings, moods, emotions and states? Can you sail immovable as the starsthrough all sorts of weather?

A harp will give out sweet music or discordant sounds as different fingers touch the strings. If the devil's hand is on your harp strings what hideous sounds they will produce. But let the fingers of the Lord sweep over them, and they will breathe out celestial music.

Are you lifted above people, so that you are not bound by or to anyone except in the Lord? Are you standing free in His glorious life?

I am risen with Christ, I am dwelling above;

I am walking with Jesus below,

I am shedding the light of His glory and love

Around me wherever I go.

Scripture
The glorious, liberty of the children of God—Romans 8:21

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Monday, September 26, 2011

We often ask the question, "Why didn't God help me sooner?" It is not His order. He must first adjust us to the situation and cause us to learn our lesson from it. His promise is, I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. He first must be with us in the trouble until we grow quiet. Then He will take us out of it. This will not come until we have stopped being restless and fretful about it and have become calm and trustful. Then He will say, "It is enough."

God uses trouble to teach His children precious lessons. They are intended to educate us. When their good work is done, a glorious recompense will come to us through them. He does not regard them as difficulties but as opportunities. They have come to give God a greater interest in us and to show how he can deliver us from them. Without difficulties we cannot have a mercy worth praising God for. God is as deep, and long, and high as our little world of circumstances.

Scripture
I will be with him in trouble—Psalm 91:15

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Sunday, September 25, 2011

Let us learn the secret of our faith. It is the faith of Christ, springing in our hearts and trusting in our trials. So shall we always sing, The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20). If we keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), we shall discover that instead of struggling to appropriate the promises of God, we shall lie down upon them in blessed repose, and be borne up by them with the faith which is no more our own than the than the promises upon which it rests. Each new need will find us leaning again on Him for the grace to trust and to overcome.

Further, we see here the true spirit of prayer. It is the Spirit of Christ in us. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee (Psalm 22:22). Christ still sings these praises in the trusting heart and lifts our prayers into songs of victory! This is the true spirit of prayer.

Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi turned prayer into praise, night into day-the night of sorrow into the morning of joy. When Jesus, the spirit of faith is in us, He will also become the spirit of praise.

Scripture
The faith of the Son of God—Galatians 2:20

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Saturday, September 24, 2011

The Word of God creates what it commands. When Christ says to any of us Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you (John 15:3), we are clean. When He says no condemnation (Romans 8:1) there is none, though there may have been a lifetime of sin before. And when He says, mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds (2 Corinthians 10:4), then the weak are strong. This is faith's part-to make it real.

A French commander thanked a common soldier who had saved his life and called him captain. Although he was only a private, the man took the commander at his word, accepted the new name and was thereby constituted indeed a captain.

Why not take God's creating words of justification, sanctification, power and deliverance and thus make real the mighty promise, He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. . . . But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength (Isaiah 40:29, 31).

Scripture
God . . . calleth those things which be not as though they were由omans 4:17

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Friday, September 23, 2011

It is very reasonable that God should expect us to trust Him for our bodies as well as our souls. If our faith is not practical enough to bring us temporal relief, how can we be schooled to depend upon God for anything that involves serious risk?

It is all very well to talk about trusting God for the distant and future prospect of salvation after death. There is scarcely a sinner in a Christian land who does not trust to be saved some day, but there is no grasp in faith like this. It is only when we come face to face with positive issues and overwhelming forces that we can prove the reality of divine power in a supernatural life. As an education to our spirits as well as a gracious provision for our temporal bodies, God has always trained His people to recognize Him as the supply of all their needs, and to look to Him as the Physician of their bodies and the Father of their spirits. Have we learned the meaning of Jehovah-rophi? (see Exodus 15:23-27). Has it changed our Marah of trial into an Elim of blessing and praise?

Scripture
I am the Lord that healeth thee-Exodus 15:26

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Thursday, September 22, 2011

How true is our text for us all! How many things there are that seem to be stronger than we are, but blessed be Jesus' name they are all in subjection under Him, and we see Him crowned above them all.

Jesus is our Head, our representative, our other self, and where He is we shall surely be. Therefore when we fall to see something that God has promised, and that we have claimed in our experience, let us look up and see it realized in Him and claim it in Him. Our side is only half the circle; the heavenly side is already complete. The rainbow, the upper half of which we cannot see, shall one day be all around the throne and include the other hemisphere of all our now unfinished life.

By faith, then, let us enter into all our inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes to the north, south, east and west, and hear Him say, All the land that thou seest, to thee will I give it (Genesis 13:15). Let us remember that the circle is complete, that the inheritance is unlimited and that all things are put under His feet.

Scripture
We see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus—Hebrews 2:8-9

Inspirational Readings by A.B. Simpson
Days of Heaven on Earth
Wednesday, September 21, 2011

It is a good thing to learn to depend upon God to work through our feeble resources and yet, while so depending, to be absolutely faithful and diligent and not allow our trust to deteriorate into indolence.

We find no sloth or negligence in Gideon or his three hundred; though they were weak and few, they were completely loyal, and everything in them-down to their last breath-was ready for God to use. Faint, yet pursuing was their watchword as they followed and finished their glorious victory. They did not rest until the last of their enemies was destroyed, and even their false friends were punished for their treachery and unfaithfulness.

God still calls the weakest instruments. When, however, he chooses and enables them, they are no longer weak but mighty through God (2 Corinthians 10:4) and faithful through His grace to every trust and opportunity. "They trust," as Dr. Chalmers used to say, "as though all depended upon God, and work as though all depended upon themselves."

Teach me, my blessed Master, to trust and obey.

Scripture
Faint, yet pursuing—Judges 8:4