His Quickening Breath Will Revive!
"They
shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them."
-JEREMIAH
31:9 [KJV]
Until
God is pleased to pour out upon us the spirit of grace and of
supplications, we cannot worship Him aright; for God is a Spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth; nor
can we without this spirit offer up that spiritual sacrifice which is
acceptable to Him through Jesus Christ. When this spirit has been
once given and kindled in a believer's breast, it never dies out. It
is like the fire upon the brazen altar, which was first given by the
Lord Himself from heaven, and concerning which God gave this command:
"The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall
never go out" [LEVITICUS
6:13]. This fire
might sink low; it might be covered with the ashes of sacrifice, but
it never was suffered to go out for want of supply of fuel.
So
at times it may seem to you as if there were scarcely any spirit of
prayer alive in your bosom; and you may feel as destitute of a spirit
of grace and of supplications as if you had never known its lively
movements and actings. But you will find it drawn out from time to
time by circumstances. You will be placed under peculiar trials,
under which you will find no relief but at a throne of grace; or God
will in tender mercy breathe again upon your soul with His own
gracious Spirit, and by His quickening breath will revive, I will not
say kindle, for it is not gone out, that holy fire which seemed to be
buried under the ashes of corruption, that inward spirit of prayer
which He gave you at regeneration, and which will never cease till it
issue in everlasting praise.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
February
1st, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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