Keep, keep that listening ear. "If any man will hear My Voice." Again no merit of yours. Only the ear bent to catch My tones, and to hear the sound of My gentle knocking.
Then listen: "If any man hear My Voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."
What a feast! You think it would have been Joy to have been present at the Marriage Feast of Cana of Galilee, or to have been one of My disciples in the Upper Room, seated with Me at the Last Supper or one of the two at Emmaus, or one of the few for whom I prepared that Lake-side feast!
But oh! at each of these feasts, God-provided and God-companioned as they were, you could not have known the rapture you may know as you hear the knocking and the Voice, and, opening, bid Me welcome to My Feast.
A Feast of tenderest companionship, of Divine Sustenance, truly a Love Feast.
Home-Building. - October 22
You are building up an unshakable faith. Be furnishing the quiet places of your souls now.
Fill them with all that is harmonious and good, beautiful and enduring.
Home-build in the Spirit now, and the waiting time will be well spent.
Hill of Sacrifice. - October 23
You must trust to the end. You must be ready to go on trusting to the last hour.
You must know even when you cannot see . . . You must be ready, like My servant Abraham, to climb the very Hill of Sacrifice, to go to the very last moment, before you see My Deliverance.
This final test has to come to all who walk by Faith. You must rely on Me alone.
Look to no other arm, look for no other help. Trust in the Spirit Forces of the Unseen, not in those you see. Trust and fear not.
Salt of Earth. - October 24
Our Lord, we bless Thee and thank Thee for Thy Keeping Power.
Yes! "Kept by the Power of God" is a promise, and an assurance that holds Joy and Beauty for the believing soul.
The keeping that means security, safety, is wonderful. There is, too, the keeping that implies Life; freshness; purity; the being "kept unspotted from the world."
Then there is the keeping that I ensure, to those of whom I speak as the Salt of the Earth.
"Ye are the Salt of the Earth: but if the salt have lost its savour it is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."
Only in very close contact with Me is the keeping Power realized. That keeping Power which maintains the salt at its freshest and best, and also preserves from corruption, that portion of the world in which I place it.
What a work! Not by activity in this case, but simply by its existing, by its quality.
No Unemployment. - October 25
The Way of conquest over the material, the temporal, which all My disciples should know, is learned by the conquest of the physical, the 'Self'-life, in each of you.
So seek, in all things, to conquer 'Self'. Take this as a very definite Guidance. Circumstances are adverse. Temporal power, as money, needs to be forthcoming.
Then seek daily more and more to obtain this 'Self'-conquest, and you are gaining surely, though you may not see it, conquest over the temporal forces and powers.
Unemployment would cease if man realized this.
If he has not the work let him make himself a conquering force, beginning with the conquest of all evil in himself, then in his home, then in all round him. He will have become a force that will be needed, and must be employed.
There are no idle hours in My Kingdom. Waiting may seem a time of inactivity, as far as the outer world is concerned, but it can, and should, be a time of great activity in the inner life, and on the surrounding material plane.
Deserters. - October 26
You must believe utterly. My Love can bear nothing less. I am so often "wounded in the house of My friends." Do you think the spitting and scorn of My enemies, the mocking and reviling, hurt Me? No! "They all forsook Him and fled." "I know not the man." These left their scars.
So now, it is not the unbelief of My enemies that hurts, but that My friends, who love and know Me, cannot walk all the way with Me, and doubt My Power to do all that I have said.
Days of Conquest. - October 27
I see the loving striving, not the defects. I see the conquest of your particular battle. I count it victory, a glad victory.
I do not compare it with the strenuous campaigns of My great Followers.
For you it is victory, and the angels rejoice, and your dear ones rejoice, as much as at any conquest noted, and rejoiced over, by Heaven.
My children, count the days of conquest as very blessed days.
Glad Surprises. - October 28
Our Lord, we know that all is well. We trust Thee for all. We love Thee increasingly. We bow to Thy Will.
Bow, not as one who is resigned to some heavy blow about to fall or to the acceptance of some inevitable decision.
Bow as a child bows, in anticipation of a glad surprise being prepared for it by one who loves it.
Bow in such a way, just waiting to hear the loving word to raise your head, and see the glory and Joy and wonder of your surprise.
The Hardest Lesson. - October 30
Wait and you shall realize the Joy of the one who can be calm and wait, knowing that all is well. The last, and hardest lesson, is that of waiting. So wait.
I would almost say to-night, "Forgive Me, children, that I allow this extra burden to rest upon you, even for so short a time."
I would have you know this, that from the moment you placed all in My Hands, and sought no other aid, from that moment I have taken the quickest way possible to work out your salvation, and to free you.
There is so much you have had to be taught - to avoid future disaster. But the Friend with whom you stand by the grave of failure, of dead ambitions, of relinquished desires, that Friend is a Friend for all time.
Use this waiting time to cement the Friendship with Me, and to increase your Knowledge of Me.