By John Thiel

What does it mean to totally give over to God and His way?We have touched on this in the past but we need to be reminded of it frequently.The question is – what really is Gods way when we completely surrender ourselves to Him?

Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk [therein].

This is the invitation theLord gives us.Ask this question. Ask for the old paths, the good way.As you stand in the ways, at the cross roads we constantly come across different intersections that leads to the road to eternal life.We ask time and time again, Lord, I’ve come to another intersection, dowe stay on the old path or do we deviate on to a new path?The reason we need to ask the question in ourselves and to the Lord show me, is because of our extreme danger.

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.

I cannot emphasise strongly enough this dilemma that we face as individuals and as a body and as a people on this planet.If I go by my own senses, my own mind construction that is the human nature then to the way I am going is endangered by thinking I’m going the right way.My perceptions will constantly be deceptive to me.

As it says, there is a way that seemeth right but the end thereof are the ways of death.Every man in his own mind walks a path that is accommodating to his own mental perceptions.It seems so right.None of us need deceive ourselves that just because it seems right to me it is right.It seems right.It is a deception that it seems so right.We need to choose a different path that seems right to me, we need to choose a path that David chose.Each one of us needs to carefully examine what is written here.

Psalm 119:30 I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid [before me].

We need to remember the words of Jesus.I can of my own self do nothing.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

David said thy judgements have I laid before me.God’s judgments are not our judgements.God’s ways are not our ways, they are higher.They are a path that does not make sense to us in our senses on this planet.David has experienced enough to say in Psalm 119, I have chosen the way of truth.His son Solomon qualified what that meant.

Proverbs6:23For the commandment [is] a lamp; and the law [is] light; and reproofs of instruction [are] the way of life:

If we are going to choose the path that is the way of life, it has to do with the commandments of God and the law.It is the paths of reproofs of instruction all the way along this path.If I choose the path of truth, it is the path that is not the way of my own perception.It is the way of Gods instructions and reproofs because our ways are not his ways and therefore my path is to be constantly instructed and reproved.Am I prepared to walk that path as I ask, show me the old paths? That is the good way, the old path that God has instructed. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.Jesus qualifies it very well with inspiration.The path that David chose, the path of truth, reproofs of instruction.Jesus illuminated that path.

Matthew 7:13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

This links up with Proverbs, there isa way that seems right.Many there be that go in thereat.

Proverbs 7:14Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The Strait Gate

A few people find it.What is a strait?If you were travelling along the south coast a little further down of Australia, if you go straight through you hit Tasmania.If you want to get around it, is to through that straight gate.The Bass Straitis a narrow path through which you have to find your way.

That strait gate is a bottle neck.Everyone has to come together and go through single file through that gate.It is a way of thinking different to everyone’s thinking.As you walk through, you walk a narrow path thereafter.It has to do with the way that we think and conclude.We are in this constant need of asking again and again, is this the way of the Lord?Is this way I’m thinking and functioning?Is this way that I’m choosing in my family?Whatever it is, is this the way of the Lord?The only way you can be sure is to be actually very meek and humble in your own mind so you are prepared to have thine own way Lord.Am I really honestly in the depth of my secret little heart prepared to let go of every way which is not the direct instruction of God’s word?

We will have a study by which we can discover a pattern we need to follow to get that path straight.We have to find the exact path.We are to examine closely our choice of mind activity.To come very meekly and humbly before the Lord and recogniseI must not pursue my own frame of mind.It is different to Gods.It is a way of life that is the way of reproof of instruction.Jesus as he speaks of this way, personifies it so we can see it as to what it means.

John14:6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

This is the path of life that he chose that Solomon spoke about.You can see how those texts with Psalms and Proverbs link perfectly with this one that Jesus personifies that path in himself.As I want to understand what that path is, I will see it in Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

As Jesus personifies the way, the way we can find to the heavenly kingdom and to our heavenly father, he is the author of that way and we are to look to him to understand that path.What was the path?He endured the cross.

Hebrews5:7Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Jesus mapped out what seems right and what is right.When you seem to know what you have to do, do you follow the path of obedience or your own making?When we think we are right, it is not a path of obedience.If it is the way of Jesus, it is the way of obedience as it is the way of reproof of instruction.This is what the Christians of today are not willing to pursue.I meet that continually.There is a way that has been laid out for us and it is a different way from what I’m comfortable with.I have to keep asking, Lord how I deal with this and that situation?I would act like this and that and have to ask, is this your way?To walk along the path of reproof and instruction, Jesus did it with strong crying.

Hebrews5:8Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

If Jesus didn’t ask for guidance, he would have gone in the way of death.Each one of us need to do that.To come into the old paths by pleading and learning, and crying to God that I don’t deviate one single degree.

In aeronautics a plane takes offand if the path is set one degree out, you end up the wrong way.That is what happened with the plane that started off for the north pole crashed into Mount Erebus. The computer readings were out.

There is a way which seemeth right when we start off but it is not the way.The plain description of Jesus life as given is what we need to be prepared to follow.

1 John 2:6He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Total submission like Jesus.Learning by the things which he suffered.If you have your own way do you suffer?Not at all, that is the way I like to go, but to go in Gods way is suffering.He came right to the point where was walking to Gethsemane and he was swaying with terrible anguish.O Lord if it be possible relieve me from this.

Job met that same experience that you know so well.

Job 23:10But he knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Jesus was tried and the way to come forth as gold is to be tried in the path of reproof of instruction.If I set my mind along this willing submission, I know I am on the right path.

Frequently the very best evidence that we can have that we are in the right way is that the least advance costs us effort and that darkness shrouds our pathway. It has been my experience that the loftiest heights of faith we can only reach through darkness and clouds. . . .{TDG 212.1}

To advance along that path is always going to be a suffering, a trial, a reproof of instruction.A correcting of my own ways of thinking. If each one of us is prepared to do that it says we shall find rest.It is an apparent contradiction.I know it is true as I’ve had to follow a path that was not my own comfort zones.I remember my youthful desires that I wanted to pursue, they are still within me.They are part of my makeup.Not my way but thine be done.We all need to do that and as we do, we find blessed fellowship. All of us need to reach for this.

Philippians3:9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

 3:10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

That is the path there will be a fellowship with Jesus.A fellowship of his sufferings and we can all enjoy a fellowship of suffering together.We today living in these last days as a corporate body, there is a prophetic picture. Sr White saw this company and it is up to you and me if we are included.If we choose to walk in the old path.That path where we will find truth rest.

A train of cars was shown me, going with the speed of lightning. The angel bade me look carefully. I fixed my eyes upon the train. It seemed that the whole world was on board, that there could not be one left. Said the angel, “They are binding in bundles ready to burn.” Then he showed me the conductor, who appeared like a stately, fair person, whom all the passengers looked up to and reverenced. I was perplexed and asked my attending angel who it was. He said, “It is Satan. He is the conductor in the form of an angel of light. He has taken the world captive. They are given over to strong delusions, to believe a lie, that they may be damned. This agent, the next highest in order to him, is the engineer, and other of his agents are employed in different offices as he may need them, and they are all going with lightning speed to perdition.”{EW 88.2

I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in an opposite direction, and I saw a little company traveling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly united, bound together by the truth, in bundles, or companies. Said the angel, “The third angel is binding, or sealing, them in bundles for the heavenly garner.” This little company looked careworn, as if they had passed through severe trials and conflicts. And it appeared as if the sun had just risen from behind a cloud and shone upon their countenances, causing them to look triumphant, as if their victories were nearly won.{EW 88.3}

It seemed the whole world was on board the train.Have you ever been told you are narrow-minded?Praise the Lord.I am walking the narrow path way and it is going to get more narrow yet.

Do we want to be in that company?Have you already experienced this narrow path and what sort of a conflict takes place in your mind as you keep on travelling along that path and you keep narrowing your mind something that you can’t accommodate in your natural mind.

Amen.