By John Thiel, mp3

The Holy Spirit is here now to answer our prayer and His wooing voice speaks and says my son, my daughter, give me thine heart.

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

We have come to know that this person speaking to us is our loving, loving God. He is wooing by demonstration of His love. Wooing our hearts so that we may fall in love with Him. Then He says, when I have your heart, let your eyes observe my ways. Once He has our hearts, the connection of love is to observe His ways so that I may willingly do them. This has been our contemplation as we have been considering this principle of falling in love with God. How that God’s infinite love captivates our hearts and constrains, compels us to obey Him, to embrace His way of love. Our last study was a new commandment I give you that you may love one another as I have loved you. As we meditated on this, and in my conversation with souls afterwards, I received a huge burden upon my heart that after all the love that God has shown us that is to motivate me, to compel me to follow and embrace that love toward one another, that although He has attracted my heart we still have a problem. That problem is what I want to deal with in this study.

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Our eyes may observe His ways as we were reading in the scripture reading, but they are so high. We have seen them, He has revealed them to us. His love, His way is so high that while we may behold His ways, how to transfer them into action is the problem. To love perfectly as God loves us, how successful have you been? To fulfil precisely the way that God deals with us we deal with one another, why is it so hard? How can I get out of my trappings of my own human condition? The very struggle that I am addressing here is the struggle that apostle Paul initially met. Everyone who falls in love with God meets this.

Romans 7:15 For that which I do I allow not:

or I know not

Romans 7:15 for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Can you see the problem? Is it your experience? You see the love of God, you see what you should be to your loved ones, to the church, you see what you should be, but do you do it precisely like that? The very thing I wished I could do, I keep on failing. I love Him, I want to do what He says but I can’t; I do the opposite. Is this our experience? Notice that apostle Paul when he is speaking this, has already fallen in love with God. You can read it in verses 22-23.

Romans 7:15 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

I love Him, I delight in His law. As it says, day and night David says in Psalms, Thy law is my meditation day and night, but there is something in me that keeps on preventing me from really doing the thing that my heart desires to do.

Have you ever experienced this? You see an ugly characteristic in another person and you feel sorry for that person and wish that you could speak kind, compassionate words to them as Jesus did, but there is such a situation where you somehow become affected negatively and you don’t do it. You wanted to, but you don’t do it. In the church there are some people that don’t do what I expect them to do and Jesus loves them eventhough they do that, now I have to love them. I can’t. Wife, husband, you look at each other, you’re living under each other’s skin almost, can you love them as Jesus loved them? Do you? The good I want to do, I don’t. The very evil thing that I don’t want to do, I go along and mouth them off and tell them off and get frustrated with them. If I don’t do it with my mouth, I do it with my mind. It is the exact opposite of what I want to do. As I see us struggling with all these things it is the burden of my heart.

Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

This is the theme of our meditation. The ‘how’ of God’s love. How to perform it, how to really perform it. This is serious, because if we don’t break out of this condition we will not be ready for Jesus to come, who is coming very soon. I love Him, I want to be with Him, but I’m not performing and I won’t perform in heaven either. It says, even in heaven we will find fault if we were there, so I must know how.

Religion consists in doing the words of Christ; not doing to earn God’s favor, but because, all undeserving, we have received the gift of His love. {MB 149.2}

We have received the gift of His love. We admire Him, we love Him. Now we are called upon to do.

Christ places the salvation of man, not upon profession merely, but upon faith that is made manifest in works of righteousness. {MB 149.2}

This is what salvation is about. Not merely in profession that I love Him, but in works of righteousness manifest.

Doing, not saying merely, is expected of the followers of Christ. It is through action that character is built. {MB 149.2}

It is through repeated action that a character is built.

“As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14. Not those whose hearts are touched by the Spirit, not those who now and then yield to its power, but they that are led by the Spirit, are the sons of God. {MB 149.2}

What is that saying? Every now and then my heart is warmed towards a brother or a sister and I’m sweet, then next minute something comes up and I’m not. Not every now and then, but being lead continually by this love, having it operating within us in action all the time.

Do you desire to become a follower of Christ, yet know not how to begin? Are you in darkness and know not how to find the light? {MB 149.3}

There’s the question. You see it, you observe His ways, your heart is filled with love and still there is something that prevents you from action entirely all the time abiding in that action. Apostle Paul expressed it so well, didn’t he? Let us explore the enabling word to find the how. The apostle comes to this crescendo of overwhelming weakness in himself and says:

Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Can you identify with him? O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Here is the cry. When you are very deeply entwined with your own deep appreciation of God’s call upon you and me, as you feel this and you have tried before and fallen flat on your face and haven’t known how, you go back and forth, the good I want to do I can’t and the evil which I don’t want to do I do, I speak un-Christlike, I act un-Christlike here and there. Every now and then I succeed and then I fail again. There comes a point in your experience where it comes to a crunch. O I am so wretched! How can I stop this?

It is not enough to perceive the loving-kindness of God, {SC 19.1}

We have done that, haven’t we? We perceive it. It is not enough.

to see the benevolence, the fatherly tenderness, of His character. {SC 19.1}

Haven’t I described it in the readings of our past studies, what Jesus was like? I want to be like that.

It is not enough to discern the wisdom and justice of His law, to see that it is founded upon the eternal principle of love. Paul the apostle saw all this when he exclaimed, “I consent unto the law that it is good.” “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” But he added, in the bitterness of his soul-anguish and despair, “I am carnal, sold under sin.” Romans 7:16, 12, 14. He longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” Romans 7:24, margin. Such is the cry that has gone up from burdened hearts in all lands and in all ages. To all, there is but one answer, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. {SC 19.1}

Romans 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is a how there. We are to behold the how. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, that is the how. Let us explore ‘through Jesus Christ’. The one whom we have seen loves us so much that He gave Himself, He sacrificed His Godhead joy to place Himself where we are, as we have described it, so that He might win our hearts. Now He says, you have a problem still? You love me with all your heart and you still don’t know how to act? I am here to show you. To win our hearts, to show us how, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps.

1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

He will not only draw our hearts so that we will give Him our hearts, He will not only cause us to observe His ways, but now He shows us a love that comes down to the level where I am and shows me, in my hopeless condition, how. What does He show me? How do I do it? Children, how can you obey your parents perfectly? Parents, how can you obey God, that new commandment, perfectly? How?

The Example of Jesus

John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily,

I love those two words. Truly, truly, I am trying to show you something.

John 5:19 I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself,

Is that right about you? Is that right about me? I can’t. I’m trying and I can’t, I can do nothing of myself. Here is His example. What does He do?

John 5:19 but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

How do you do it? You love Him, you love God, God was in Christ reconciling us to himself. You love God, the Father. Jesus is there beside me saying, I’m just as weak as you. I’m just as powerless as you. What am I doing? Follow my steps. I am looking to the Father, I can’t do a thing, so Father, I am looking at you. As He stands there looking, He says, what I see the Father do is what I do. for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. Look at the love, keep on looking. As you look, copy.

John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing:

He is speaking your and my condition. He is saying, I can’t love as God loves, I have to follow God, I have to look at Him. As He looks at Him, He says,

John 5:30 as I hear,

He actually sees and hears the Father.

John 5:30 I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Isn’t that clear? What are we doing? Our ways are not God’s ways. We want our ways, we want to pursue what my will is, but Jesus said, I can of mine own self do nothing. I will hear what He says and I will do what He says:

John 5:30 because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Let’s read the words of Jesus time and time again because we want to know how.

John 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

Isn’t that beautiful? Jesus is giving us the example. He is totally bereft, He has put himself there, of doing anything of His own, He is simply copying, hearing, listening and whatever the commandment comes from the Father, He speaks. Nothing of Himself, nothing at all. He will speak to me what I should say and what I should speak. When somebody does and says something to you that makes you want to say something. What was that Father, what should I say now? That is how we will speak kindly, compassionately, and courteously one to another. What do I say here, Lord? Then I speak, as Jesus said, not mine own words, but that which the Father has spoken.

John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

I know that His commandment is life everlasting, I know whatever He says is everlasting. I know that it is love, it is the purity of it and therefore I will just listen to everything He commands me and that is it. That is how He did it through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Looking to the Lamb

John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Jesus is our example, we are to follow in His steps. This is the answer.

Isaiah 50:4 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

50:5 The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

Here is Jesus speaking again. This is how He could see what the Father was doing and hear what the Father was saying so that He could copy it. Have you ever heard something from God and you go inside of yourself, oh no; that is rebellious. Jesus was not rebellious, He realised that of Himself could do nothing so that anything that came from Himself would have been turned to rebellion. He said, Lord I need you to enlighten me. Every morning the Father woke Him up and He spent time listening, watching, looking. As He meditated and stood close to the Father that was in Him, as He was communicating, He spoke as the learned. He spoke a word in season because He opened His ear and was not in one item rebelling against what the Father said, because the Father’s words are eternal life. I want that, don’t I? Here is the action. This is the example that Jesus gave.

What I am sharing with you today is life and death; it is more than just information. This is the action.

Where many have erred, was in not being careful in following God’s ideas, but their own. {HP 147.3}

Whatever it is, we are not careful to follow God’s ideas. This is where we err.

not being careful in following God’s ideas, but their own. {HP 147.3}

Take that into action, into everything that God wants us to do, to love as He loved, to behave as He behaved. I relinquish my own way.

Christ Himself declared, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5:19). So utterly was He emptied of Himself that He made no schemes and plans. {HP 147.3}

I have a scheme, I want to do something, I want to work for the Lord, I’m going to do this, or that. No, Jesus did nothing like that. He was so utterly emptied of self that He made no schemes and plans.

He lived accepting God’s plans for Him, and the Father day by day unfolded His plans. {HP 147.3}

Morning by morning He awoke him, and unfolded to Jesus God’s plans and He was not rebellious. It is exactly what God has said I will do today. If it feels like I am doing something wrong, as with the example of Abraham. Go and slay thy son. Walk with God as Jesus walked and look what He did.

If Jesus was so wholly dependent, and declared, “Whatsoever I see the Father do, that I do,” how much more should human agents depend upon God for constant instruction, so that their lives might be the simple working out of God’s plans! … {HP 147.3}

Our own way must be overcome. Pride, self-sufficiency, must be crucified and the vacuum supplied with the Spirit and power of God…. Did Jesus Christ, the Majesty of heaven, have His way? Behold Him in travail of soul in Gethsemane, praying to His Father. What forces these blood drops of agony from His holy brow? Oh, the sins of the whole world are upon Him! It was separation from the Father’s love that forced from His pale and quivering lips the cry, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39). Three times was the prayer offered, but followed by “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). This must be our attitude—Not my will, but Thine, O God, be done. This is true conversion. {HP 147.4}

Did you notice that in what I have been reading there, Jesus engaged with His Father? He engaged in a relation, in a constant relation with the Father. He had to constantly be in tune to see and to hear the Father. This is the first step of how. If I am not constantly seeing the Father or seeing Jesus and I don’t have that relation constantly, then in all that I want to do for Him I will fail. You and I, as Moses did, need to learn this.

The Example of Moses

Hebrews 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

The relationship with someone who is invisible. It is the mystery of iniquity that we need a human being to come between Jesus and us so that we will follow the human being instead of Jesus because the human being is the one we can see, Jesus is invisible. Can you see Him? People have said this to me. I can’t see Him, how can I have a relationship with someone I don’t see? I need that relationship with Someone who is invisible. Moses endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Is there such a thing as seeing somebody that is invisible? There is, and we want to know how.

For the honor of God and the deliverance of His downtrodden people, Moses sacrificed the honors of Egypt. Then, in a special sense, God undertook his training…. He had yet to learn the lesson of dependence upon divine power. He had mistaken God’s purpose. It was his hope to deliver Israel by force of arms. For this he risked all, and failed. {SD 94.2}

I’m going to be the redeemer of Israel, he thought to himself. I am going to go and start. What happened? He failed. He probably thought, that’s it, it’s finished, I am not going to be able to do this work. How many of us with our own plans and our own expectations are disappointed many time over? How many times do we want to be disappointed? How many times is everything going to fail around us like Moses? Until we learn what we are to learn from Moses’ example here.

In defeat and disappointment he became a fugitive and exile in a strange land…. Apparently cut off forever from his life’s mission, he was receiving the discipline essential for its fulfilment…. {SD 94.2}

There he was in the wilderness looking after the sheep and now he was getting what God wanted him to get. It was quite in the opposite way. My ways are not your ways, so just resign.

He must obtain the experience that would make him a faithful, long-suffering shepherd to Israel…. In the stern simplicity of the wilderness … Moses gained that which went with him throughout the years of his toilsome and care-burdened life,—a sense of the personal presence of the Divine One…. {SD 94.2}

At first he was going to save Israel because he heard what God was wanting him to be and he went along and did it. He failed. Why? Because he did not sense the divine presence of God in his actions, he didn’t do what Jesus did. Do you and I? How easily we have our own little ideas and our own little ways, just like Moses. We do not follow the sense of the divine presence of God in my system.

When misunderstood and misrepresented, {SD 94.2}

What do we do when we are misunderstood and misrepresented? You never listen to me, I am always misunderstood. These kind of words we often say, if not think. I am continually being misunderstood here. When will people listen to me? No.

when called to bear reproach and insult, to face danger and death, he was able to endure “as seeing him who is invisible.”73 {SD 94.2}

I am not going to succeed here, but God is, I see Him and what He does works. What I do fails all the time. Isn’t that right? Everything the you have tried and I have tried to do fails, but when you fall into the wilderness discipline there comes an experience where you are in love with God and you love His presence and now He can start to train us for heaven. Remember, we are travelling to the Promised Land like Moses and the Israelites.

Moses stands forth superior in wisdom and integrity to all the sovereigns and statesmen of earth…. {SD 94.3}

Why was he superior? Why was he more superior than all the statesmen and all the wise of the world? Because he was in the presence of the unseen and he listened as Jesus did; he learned that. To speak only that and to do only that which God directs; there is the wisdom of the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Don’t you want that? You can only get it in His presence, that love, a sense of the personal presence of the Divine One. What are the results of that?

In order to keep the world in its proper subordination it is necessary to have more than a mere casual, nominal faith in Christ. Many might give assent to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God and yet fail to have saving faith. Jesus must be all in all to the soul. You must believe in Him as your personal and complete Saviour.10 {TMK 165.4}

There it is. We must be conscious of the divine personal presence. We must have a personal and complete Saviour. You might have a personal relationship with Him today and then you are off on your own again; a personal again then you are off on your own again. How many times have we done this? We have had a precious experience, we have testified of it, the Lord has been so close, a personal Saviour, then we leave Him behind. Sr White says, we are in the presence of God in our worship then we go off to do what we want to do. We have left Him behind. A personal and complete Saviour in everything.

Let us follow the direct counsel demonstrated in Moses. Moses learned. He learned not to rely on himself.

The work of sanctification begins in the heart, and we must come into such a relation with God that Jesus can put His divine mold upon us. {TMK 165.2}

We must come into such a relation as Moses had to learn in the wilderness. It took him forty years. We have to learn it in a few short months.

Emptied Of Self

We must be emptied of self in order to give room to Jesus, {TMK 165.2}

This is what we learned before; that is what Jesus did, He was totally nothing of His own.

but how many have their hearts so filled with idols that they have no room for the Redeemer of the world. {TMK 165.2}

We don’t worship idols, do we? No.

The world holds the hearts of men in captivity. They center their thoughts and affections upon their business, their position, their family. They hold to their opinions and ways, and cherish them as idols in the soul. {TMK 165.2}

My ways are not your ways. Moses had a way, it wasn’t God’s way. We cherish our opinions and ways as idols. There is so much to think about in those few lines.

We must be emptied of self. {TMK 165.2}

This is a step by step process. We must be emptied of self, but is that all? Let us understand how to empty myself of self. Can self empty itself of self?

But no man can empty himself of self. We can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work. . {COL 159.3}

You will never consent for Christ to accomplish the work if you still don’t feel where Apostle Paul was when he says, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? While I still think I can do something here or I scheme and plan here and there, while I am still doing that I can’t yet consent for Christ to do it. When I have come to the realisation that everything I do is a failure, as Moses had to discover, when that comes fully to my consciousness then, because I love Him, I can consent for Him now to accomplish this work. What will be my language? Not the language of the lips, the language of the soul.

Then the language of the soul will be, Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. . {COL 159.3}

Remember our scripture reading? My son, give me thine heart. Now I have come to the point, Lord, I can’t even give it but you take it. I give you the right to just take it against my own self. Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it.

It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, . {COL 159.3}

Such a relation that He can mold me.

fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul. {COL 159.3}

Isn’t that the quest we want? We want that love to flow, His love to flow. Lord, here I am. I am going to make more of a hash, I am going to lose everything, I am going to lose the church, I am going to lose my family, I am going to lose everything if I don’t surrender to you, so Lord, take over.

The Language of the Soul

It is not only at the beginning of the Christian life that this renunciation of self is to be made. At every advance step heavenward it is to be renewed. {COL 159.4}

Do we do it? This is the how. There is a pouring out in the language of the soul and we let self be completely emptied and I make no plans, I make no schemes, there is nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing: empty. After I have permitted God to empty me, can you run on empty? The world uses that term, you cannot run on empty. What has to happen?

We must be emptied of self. But this is not all that is required, {TMK 165.2}

In our desire to know how, We must be emptied of self. But this is not all of the how.

for when we have renounced our idols, the vacuum must be supplied. {TMK 165.2}

There is a vacuum there, it must be filled, it must be supplied.

As you empty the heart of self you must accept the righteousness of Christ. {TMK 165.3}

What is that? His love.

Lay hold of it by faith…. {TMK 165.3}

How does that happen?

If you open the door of the heart, Jesus will supply the vacuum by the gift of His Spirit, {TMK 165.3}

Now we look for the results. When we let that happen, what will happen? When self is empty, when the Holy Spirit comes in what is the result?

and then you can be a living preacher in your home, in the church, and in the world. {TMK 165.3}

What sort of a preacher? Not with words, but with the life. You will then be empowered by the Holy Spirit and you will give the loud cry, because you will be a living preacher.

You can diffuse light, because the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are shining upon you. Your humble life, your holy conversation, your uprightness and integrity, will tell to all around that you are a child of God, an heir of heaven, that you are not making the world your dwelling place, but that you are a pilgrim and a stranger here, looking for a better country, even an heavenly…. {TMK 165.3}

This is where we need to be brethren and sisters because Jesus is about to come. This is the only way by which we can have it, total and absolute resignation and doing what Jesus gave us the example of. What did He say about the Holy Spirit? When we open our hearts the Holy Spirit comes in and we are then in the unseen presence of the divine.

Filling the Vacuum

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,

Moses saw Him that was invisible. The world can’t see Him. They say, how can you do that? I can’t see God. The Holy Spirit must come to you to see him.

John 14:16 neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

14:18 I will not leave you comfortless (margin reading: orphans): I will come to you.

You will not run on empty, you will not feel bereft when you give up self. That is what it feels like, I can’t make any schemes, I can’ make any plans, I have nothing left any more. One person said to me, I feel so vulnerable. Exactly. If that individual would not have gone back to feel less vulnerable by filling themselves with their own way there would be joy now. You will feel so vulnerable, self feels like it’s no longer holding the reins. This is precisely where we should be. That is what Jesus says, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;

He is selfless.

John 16:13 but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

16:15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

You will not do anything but what He shows. You will do as Jesus did, you will see, you will hear the invisible, as Moses did when he discovered it in the wilderness after making his terrible mistakes.

John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

You will see Jesus. You will have Him, you will be seeing the invisible. Now, with the Holy Spirit doing that inwardly, you are to run on full, as did Jesus. This is the amazing prayer that apostle Paul prayed about the great love, as he was praying for this.

Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

You and I may find that. You can run on full, not on empty, but full of what?

This is the amazing prayer that apostle Paul prayed about the great love, as he was praying for this.

Ephesians 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

That is what we need. We must empty and be filled with all the fullness of God, then we will have those beautiful results that Jesus exercised, that the love with which He has loved us will pulsate through us because we are filled with all the fullness of God by the Holy Spirit, that we have opened our hearts to receive.

In the hope that we hold, after we have come to love God and see how He loves us, we have a hope that we can love as He commanded us to love. How can I do this?

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Here is the beautiful answer, If you open your heart, if you empty and become a vacuum, and feel vulnerable, and open your heart to the Holy Spirit, let Him in and now you will be filled with all the fullness of God, which is the love by the Holy Spirit. We hope for it, it doesn’t make us ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Let me summarise. Jesus showed us how, He watched the Father and He listened for God, the Father’s directions. Like Moses He was beholding the invisible. To appropriate what He has heard and listened and seen, self must get out of the way. I see it, I observe, but self gets in the way, so self must be emptied, a vacuum must be formed and then the breath of heaven comes in. Do you know how you actually breathe? You muscles open the chest and the diaphragm goes down and there is a vacuum, then the air flows in. That is how you breathe. We think we suck air in, but we don’t, we simply make a vacuum. When self is vacuumed out, the Holy Spirit can flow in. Isn’t the Holy Spirit the breath of God? It’s so simple, that is how, but self can’t be emptied of self, remember; it’s what you have found in Jesus.

We open our heart to the Spirit, we make a vacuum, we open it to Him now to flow in, then our experience will be as Moses’ experience was after the wilderness.

Moses stands forth superior in wisdom and integrity to all the sovereigns and statesmen of earth…. He was generous, noble, well-balanced; he was not defective, and his qualities were not merely half developed. He could successfully exhort his fellow-men, because his life itself was a living representation of what man can become and accomplish with God as his helper…. {SD 94.3}

He was a living representation of that.

He spoke from the heart and it reached the heart. He was accomplished in knowledge and yet simple as a child in the manifestation of his deep sympathies. Endowed with a remarkable instinct, he could judge instantly of the needs of all who surrounded him…. Of the man who is noted for his meekness, Christ says, He can be trusted. Through him I can reveal Myself to the world. He will not weave into the web any threads of selfishness.74 {SD 94.3}

Why? Because he is empty and God can trust him. Where does God want us as His church to be today? We are to represent God perfectly as did Moses.

If you open the door of the heart, Jesus will supply the vacuum by the gift of His Spirit, and then you can be a living preacher in your home, in the church, and in the world. {TMK 165.3}

Just like Moses was.

You can diffuse light, because the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness are shining upon you. {TMK 165.3}

Isaiah 60:1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

Your humble life, your holy conversation, your uprightness and integrity, will tell to all around that you are a child of God, an heir of heaven, that you are not making the world your dwelling place, but that you are a pilgrim and a stranger here, looking for a better country, even an heavenly…. {TMK 165.3}

May this be us is my prayer.

Amen.