"I
will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he
come whose right it is; and I will give it him." -Ezekiel 21:27 [KJV]
Are
there not seasons in our experience when we can lay down our souls
before God, and say, "Let Christ be precious to my soul, let Him come
with power to my heart, let Him set up His throne as Lord and King, and
let self be nothing before Him?" Well, we utter these prayers in
sincerity and simplicity, we desire their fulfilment; but oh, the
struggle! the conflict! when God answers these petitions. When our plans
are frustrated, what a rebellion works up in the carnal mind! When self
is cast down, what a rising up of the fretful, peevish impatience of
the creature!
When the Lord does answer our prayers, and strips off all
false confidence; when He does remove our rotten props, and dash to
pieces our broken cisterns, what a storm—what a conflict takes place in
the soul! Angry with the Lord for doing the very work we have asked Him
to do, rebelling against Him for being so kind as to answer those
petitions that we have offered up, and ready to fume and fret against
the very teaching for which we have supplicated Him. But He is not to be
moved; He will take His own way.
"'I will overturn,' let the creature
say, let it think what it will. Down it shall go to ruin, it shall
become a wreck, it shall be overthrown. My purpose shall be
accomplished, and I will fulfil all My pleasure. But I will overturn,
not to destroy, not to cast into eternal perdition, but I will overturn
the whole building to erect a far more goodly edifice. Self is a rebel,
who has set up an idolatrous temple, and I will overturn and bring the
temple to ruin, for the purpose of manifesting My glory and My
salvation, that I may be your LORD and your God.
-preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
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