37 - A Minister's Minister
MARTHA WING ROBINSON was first of all a minister’s minister. Although she was used of God to help many laymen, by the nature of her position and circumstances a large proportion of those to whom she was called to help were themselves servants of the Lord. Many of the residents of the Homes were either ministers or training to be ministers in some capacity, while many of the guests were also ministers, evangelists, missionaries, or Christian workers.
Oftentimes the Lord had Mrs. R. give very personal and practical teaching to these people so that they might be more effective. One very fine man with rather unusual gifts was, nevertheless, not as useful in the kingdom of God as he could be. One reason for his inefficiency was that he had certain personal habits in the routine of his daily life which militated against his success.
For such a one the Lord gave Mrs. R. the following instructions: “He is never to wake up and doze, but is to get up at once, and before he goes out or about, be is to give up a few minutes quietly to the Lord. He is not to sit silent, [but] is to get down on his knees [and] touch [the Lord] before doing anything else. Talk to Jesus about grace, soul, light, and life. Looking after trifles before touching God turns his mind [to them] and spoils his day. He is to keep the morning in the touch by giving up the first minutes to the Lord.
“He is idle in the daytime; he pokes. The Lord abominates that pokey time that does nothing, a sort of easy-goingness. It is more wearisome than anything he can do. When he finds nothing to do, he is to definitely take up the Bible and read, or go to his room and definitely pray. When he gets a lazy spell, he is to do some bard talking to the Lord. He takes a little [matter] here and a little matter there, and he doesn’t do much of anything.
"Here the Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart pierced to the root o this man's carelessness: "He doesn't love Jesus enough. He does not pray enough in love. There is not enough unction in his soul for Jesus. He does not say, 'Every time I can, I talk to Jesus about Himself and ask Him to reveal Himself to me.' ... He is to go to sleep in the Lord."
In connection with this last admonition it is interesting to note that in this minister's private journal he wrote out the following rules for himself:
Go to bed at night with thoughts of God. Have thoughts of God when awake at night. Have thoughts of God when awakened in the morning. Believe that each day will be the largest and deepest day (in God) of my life; that each day will be better than the day before - that I will know more of God and be more in God."
How many laymen, as well as ministers, could profit by these selfsame admonitions!
Again, a certain minister was very sensitive. If someone found fault with him or his work or was not cooperative, he was likely to get discouraged and go into a dump. A man of extreme feelings, he was either up on the mountain top or sulking in the shadows in the depths of some valley. As a result, his ministry and those with whom and to whom he ministered suffered greatly. A capable man in many ways, he leaned on himself and often was full of over-confidence, a characteristic common to many. It much teaching and many bitter experiences for him to learn his lessons.
After this man had had one such tumble and then had repented and was honestly endeavoring to overcome his nature and his flesh, the Lord gave him some help by Mrs. R. whereby he was shown how to fight the good fight of faith more successfully and so to triumph completely over all the work of the enemy in his life:
"You ought to say," Mrs. R. wrote, February 12, 1915, " ' Though I get no man's help, I must not omit waiting for God, seeing God, feeling and knowing Him.'
"That is, ...this winter... you just saw the need of getting back... You, alone with God, by prayer, got the light to go through, to pray through to know Jesus, to live for Him... You need now to see this was the way you started to 'walk', and if you keep walking, this method of dealing with God must continue.... God's call.... is 'Come unto Me..... Keep your eyes on Me, and keep only with Me, and deal directly with Me.' Now, if you see that this is your first call of all calls, and will steadily keep your eyes on Jesus, you then will be having to obey a step at a time - all the way, not a few weeks or days.
"Now, if you drop, by some blunder, conscious or unconscious, this attitude of 'go through' , you do not know just how to pick it up again. Were you able to do so - just as soon as you see you are out of touch or tune, or in a little slide - you would do so. You would, if you knew how, step right back, but you do not know how to say, 'I will go back anyhow, right away, in the best way I know how,' and the reason you do not have, at this time, the equipment for steady climbing [is that you have] not cultivated it enough nor seen the value of this steadfastness.
"I would say to you, you ought, therefore, to examine this matter in yourself, and see what is meant by the two paths, LOVE and OBEDIENCE, named to you in the short message this morning, for no Christian can really make a victory in the daily life without understanding both ways and keeping at it, whether the one path or the other be the plainest, for - to put it in other words - the way of following Jesus is like that, the path sometimes very clear, and sometimes very dark and dry.
" I name one path, LOVE. You find prayer delightful, unction of the soul is here, gladness to obey the least will of God, etc. Here naturally you acquire more earnestness and enthusiasm, and seem to acquire more faith, for you naturally do these things by the delight in Him, which the Word of God commands, or which you know to be His will.
"Now, the other path, OBEDIENCE, is just as great, because while the obedience is not greater, it is a difficult path. You have not gone the first path long enough to find all its victories. To really fulfill and keep on this love path, there has to be the wholesome taking of the trial and bearing the cross for Jesus, when things aren't so easy, and there is more trial. Until you bear this test often, you cannot fulfill in love or faith.
"As said, the path of obedience, as being a different path than that of love, is the path where things are not easy, where the unction has turned to dryness, and the glory has faded somewhat, and through mistakes of the natural man, even the sense of the Lord's presence, and that warmth of love, is missing a little.
“Here the young Christian or the unloyal one stops good service. If the consciousness of disobedience is there or if it be not, it makes little difference, the ardent desire to please Jesus seems not to be so great. Up to that time, he has wanted to please God all the time. Here it comes by a sense of duty, and if he be not strong and overcoming, he gives up his hearty climb toward God and acts as if lie would sit down and wait for Jehovah, not wait on Jehovah, but wait till He pulled him out somehow and gave back the love. Almost all this is simple teaching that all Christians learn by the soul as they go on with God.
“Now, at the time such a slide or loss comes, a real earnestness ought to come to the soul as to where the slide started. It may be a neglect of the personal, inward dealing with God. It may be only some temporary ease; perhaps it is a small disobedience overlooked. At any rate, whatever it is, the will of the Father is that the person should take for the reparation of the breach altogether the same steps obediently in prayer and consecrations and doings as brought about the blessing at the very first. To say it in plainer words, each thing you think God wants you to do ought to be done definitely and promptly, just as soon as He wants you to do it, when you don’t feel like it, as earnestly as when you do. Now, that is the type or idea of it, and now we will apply it to you.
“In your own nature, you have the most profound loss by coming to that spiritual slide often, and in it completely defeating the appointment of God over you by not at once picking up and obeying minutely when the feeling of obedience is getting to wane. Here you have made most of your big tumbles; almost all the holiness of your rich experience lies dependent upon what you do on these slides or outgoings from the inner love of God.”
Then the Lord used Mrs. R. to give this minister a little warning, for He saw that he was at “the place where he thinks he now stands.” “By some possibly unwitting slide, ‘The grip of your love and enthusiasm,’ the Lord states to you, ‘has begun to wane a little.’ . . . The Lord says, ‘Go back to that climb by very simple steps, below named.’
“Get to prayer more for yourself earnestly. — Talk to Jesus of your call, that is, your call to obey and live for God, and also the call of your real service in the vineyard. Pray as before, not to fail. — Pray you will go through. — Ask to do it for Him. — Be real. — Do not do it just for one day, but let this be the plan of your spiritual walk with him. — Be sure, as you go through, you recognize, in all the spiritual life before you, a method of inward and persistent seeking and praising prayer, without lapses, will keep you walking. Go on this way till this habit of inward dealing with God and personal love has increased, so that it cannot be broken.
“Here you are thus called to so obey, and so pray, whether you have the enthusiasm or feeling or any part of the enjoyment. . . . I would call your attention to a familiar passage of scripture, which here fits in: Jn. 14:21, ‘He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto Him.’
“I would say all deep and ‘go through’ Christians learn something of this lesson, that is to say, that for very love of God obedience becomes a delight, but that if you do not enjoy that exquisite glory of love, if you will really take the obedience of the deep Christian, and do precisely as deeply toward God because you owe it to Him, before long you will discover the truth of His own statement that that attitude of obedience is love. That that is, therefore, an open door to reception and comprehension and enjoyment of His love, that through this method of stern holiness and lowly faith of believing that He will manifest Himself, you will find Him....
“This wonderful verse that has just been quoted does not belong to the beginnings of Christian grace at all. He who walks straight out into that verse is already in some measure of love, and already in obedience, and having seen the Lord some, opens his heart to desire Him more. . . . Wherefore, working it out, a life following clear through on that verse exercises distinctly and strongly high faith for the MANIFESTATION OF GOD.
“I quoted it, however, as a scriptural statement, and if you will really obey God, you will be showing you are loving anyway in a measure, whether the way seems dark and things dry, or not, and here God will meet you with the witness of His love, waken you up to a greater knowledge of Him.
“When anyone comes to the slides, slips, and back steps, such as you have found are a thorn of your flesh, and a trial in your service, there must be said to God, in such words as mean it: ‘God is the same. I change. He does not. I will therefore do toward Him all that in me lies, as if we saw each other as before, and if I cannot see Him plainly, I know He sees me. I will keep after Him. I go on and obey (follow) and He finds the way through. If I have slipped somewhere, or my natural man has not been subject enough to keep me in the perfect will of God, I will go on again in prayer and be the overcomer I have been appointed to be. He knows when I am in earnest. I don’t have to have men know it.’
“After a while, if you persistently are strong at the time of your tests and stick to the wisdom that says, ‘Hold on; look, you are approaching a slide,’ and if you will cultivate a clear right-about-face victory, the day will come, I say, that this peculiarity of your make-up cannot abide.
“With love to God, make haste, be the vessel herein described or called for, the one that takes tests and goes through.. . . [This teaching] is to be prayed through, or it will be of little value.”