IN THE FOOTSTEPS of Isobel Kuhn


“Frustrations.  Those that are from the devil we must refuse in Christ’s name.  Mr. Fraser taught us to pray, ‘If this obstacle is from you, Lord, I accept it.  If it is from the devil I refuse it and all his works in Christ’s name.’”


THIRTY-THREE
“One lecture was on the spiritual battle in the heavenlies.  How [J.O. Fraser] roughed it, and labored, and had given them a written language –– and still there were so few converts, and such as did come were not stable.  Then he wrote his mother in England to gather in the neighbors to pray.  It was only after this prayer group began to function in earnest that ‘the break’ came in the Lisu tribe.  At that time he on the field had been led to resist in Christ’s name the devil and his host who were holding this tribe enchained.

As I was listening I saw plainly that it was true that the Lisu church was born in prayer travail, and I decided that I must also employ this weapon of ‘all-prayer.‘  It is so obviously effective and is attainable to any of us.  I received a life-pattern at that moment for which I have ever been grateful.”
~~~
“It was another chance to search His powers . . .”
~~~
“and He is never at the end of His resources.”

~~~

“At sundry times and divers manners, always the good hand of my God was upon me.  He had wrought wonderfully for Hudson Taylor, but as I looked back over my two years and four months at Moody Bible Institute I felt He had done just as wonderful things for this little, unknown Bible student.  By searching I had found God able and faithful to supply my financial needs.  And He will do this for any of His children who trust and obey Him.”

~~~

“Toward the last evening there were a few who still hung back from full surrender, so the staff called us leaders of the young people to pray all during the evening service.  I can never forget that prayer service.  The Spirit of the Lord came down upon us as in apostolic times, and we all started to pray simultaneously out loud.  As for myself, I was not even conscious of the others.  So lifted up was I into the Lord’s Presence and so burdened for the souls which were hanging back, that it was not until a break came that I suddenly came down to earth and realized that we had all been praying aloud together.  From the upper room where we prayed, down through the treetops, we could see the open-air auditorium.  As we prayed, one after another of the recalcitrant ones got up and went forward in surrender.  The very last, a girl for whom I had held but little hope, has now been for decades a most faithful missionary on a foreign field.  Very truly it was the work of the Spirit of God.”
~~~
“When any child of God decides to step out in absolute obedience to the will of God, there will be a frantic effort by the powers of darkness to block him.  Obstacles will spring up to hinder and discourage that one.  The possibility of obedience will seem more and more hopeless.  When things are the blackest and most discouraging is the very time not to give up.  That kind of namby-pamby surrender will be quickly swamped.  To keep looking at our difficulties will also swamp us.  We need to look resolutely away from the impossibilities and to the Lord.  His help will come, though often it cannot break through to us until the last moment.  It is very important that we be ready and prepared for action up to the last split second.  God does not miss even that split second.  He may seem to be delayed, but He will not be too late for the expectant soul waiting in active faith.”

My Bride waits and trusts and labors in prayer until I have delivered.  I will be found by those faithful to pray through to the Victory.  My Bride will be steadfast, trusting in My Love always.


THIRTY-FOUR
“At last I hit on the plan of asking the Lord to wake me up at two o’clock in the morning, after the house had settled to quiet, when I would arise for an hour’s prayer and Bible study.  This worked wonders.  Always a sleepyhead, it was wonderful to me to be awakened each morning, as I was, and in the quiet of that still hour Christ became so real to me that often I felt I could have touched Him, if I but put out my hand.  I was learning what Dr. A.W. Tozer calls ‘the awareness of His Presence.‘  It satisfied me as nothing on earth had ever done, and filled me with a joy of communion that is inexpressible.  It was in this Arabia that I learned fellowship with Christ, a living Person-to-person fellowship which henceforth became dearer  than anything else in life to me.”
~~~
“The atmosphere was charged with the presence of the One whom I was learning to know and adore, and He was the center of everyone else’s attention too.”
~~~
“Anyone who has ever really known the Lord, even only in reflection, can never be satisfied with less.”
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“‘The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.’ (Deut 33:12)

The words came to me as if spoken, and the tenderness that engulfed me was as the balm of Gilead to my agonized soul.  Slowly I quieted, relaxed, rested back on Him, and drank deeply of His love.  It was a wonderful experience and I was lifted up in spirit so that I no longer cared about any personal humiliation.”
~~~
“And now, as reader and author part, I can find no better words to us than these same, ‘Let us go on.‘  Go on searching and exploring the greatness and dearness of our God.

He has no favorites.  He has said, ‘Ye shall find me when ye search for me with all your heart.‘ (Jer.  29:13)”
~~~
“‘Forgive me, Lord,‘ I bowed my head in contrition. ‘There is no one I want but Thee.  Please comfort me.‘  Then the sense of His Presence so filled the room that it is too sacred to talk about.  Suffice it to say, that I never again looked back, and more and more learned the value of communion alone with Himself.

Dr. Tozer has pointed out how our generation is in danger of missing this sacred joy.  He says, ‘We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God . . . our thought habits are those of the scientist, not those of the worshiper.  We are more likely to explain than to adore.’ Searching is a scientific procedure, but we want to beware, that it does not get into mechanical ruts.  ‘We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another Gospel meeting, or listening to another story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar.’

We need to worship and to adore as well as to analyze and explain.  Mary of Bethany learned much by just sitting at Jesus‘ feet, listening to Him and loving Him.  Our generation’s greatest lack is just here.”

I will surely FILL those who come and worship.  Take the time to find Me.  It will make all the difference between a dead man and one who is alive and bursting with My Spirit’s Power.  Religion is the facts without My Presence.  Find Me.  Know Me.  Worship Me.  And I will return to you all that will truly satisfy.


THIRTY-FIVE
“The heathen around us have not much respect or interest in a smug, ordinary Christianity.  ‘If it costs you nothing, what proof have you that it has any value?’ is their indifferent, shrugging attitude.  But when they see in any life the print of the nails, they are challenged and, like Thomas of old, if they can be made to see Him at that moment, they will fall down and cry, ‘My Lord and my God!’”
~~~
“‘What good thing is there in any of us, anyway?  We have victory over these things only as we bring them one by one to the Cross and and ask our Lord to crucify it for us.’”
~~~
“The only way to be holy is daily to hand over to the Holy Spirit what Dr. Tozer calls ‘the hyphenated sins of the human spirit . . . self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-admiration, self-love, and a host of others like them . . . which can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction.’  As well try to instruct leprosy out of our system.  There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. ‘We must invite the Cross to do its deadly work within us.  We must bring our self sins to the Cross for judgment.’ The Holy Spirit will crucify these things for us, as we hand them over to Him, and then we must accept the suffering involved, rejoicing in the knowledge that His resurrection life will be the final outcome.”
~~~
“Cornelius Vanderbreggen, Jr., once said that Philippians 3:10 –– ‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death‘ –– is experienced in reverse.

1.  We are given a situation wherein we choose to act as Christ would, that is, to be like Him in His death.

2.  In that choice we shall meet with suffering –– but unexpectedly discover deep, sweet fellowship with Him –– the fellowship of His suffering.

3.  In that situation His resurrection power will manifest itself.

4.  The end of the whole matter will be that we have come to know Him, oh, so much better.”
~~~
“And then my mind glanced back many years to that conference in 1924 at The Firs, when Mr. Fraser had poured out his heart about the Lisu tribe, inwardly hoping for one of two brilliant young men who were present.  He got neither, only a girl.  Of what use was a girl?  In God’s unfathomable ways, she was to be the one who brought the needed man into the Lisu work.  Frustrations –– have much to do in conforming us into His image.  Yes, suffering, but also His sweet consoling fellowship in that suffering.  It reveals to us the power of His resurrection, and when He arranges a release for us that no mortal could manipulate –– we come to know Him.”
~~~
“These platforms, or struggles in life, do not necessarily make us stronger Christians.  I want to be sure this is understood.  Many victories do not make a stronger Christian.  It does give us an experience of Christ’s ability to help us, so the next time it’s easier to trust Him.  But it is fatal to think that we have become strong. Oswald Chambers used to say he feared to become forty, for so many once shining Christians seem to grow cold or flabby in their spiritual lives at that age.  Maybe it was because they thought themselves strong and unconsciously released the flesh from the position of crucifixion. 

Platforms do not make us stronger Christians or better Christians but they do make us richer Christians.  Rich in our inner fellowship with Him.  Rich in our confidence that He will be our Rock and our Deliverer in the future.  Rich in the relaxation of the little child who leans back on his father’s breast, confident, secure, and satisfied.”

The Cross comes into each life who belongs to Me to crucify all that keeps us apart.  If you will take up your Cross and follow Me, to that extent you will know Me and the fullness of REST within Me.


THIRTY-SIX
”There have been times when the Word on which I was caused to hope was not clearly from Him.  It might have been the product of wishful thinking.  ‘Lord, keep your servant from presumptuous sins.’  On such occasions I would say, ‘I think the Lord wants me to do thus and so.’  But this promise was clear.  There is difference.  He had promised that His sheep shall know His Voice, and they do.”
~~~
“Whatever is given must be spoken in God’s voice.  And you only learn to discern His voice by experience.  If you want to be able to hear it in the crisis of life you must seek it in the common places of life.  It is not suddenly acquired.”
~~~
“Our refuge must be to get absolutely quiet in the inner man so that God can speak, then direction will be given.  The experience may be compared to tight-rope walking.  The walker must be trained on easy, low ropes first.  When he is trained to throw off all the glamorous outside calls and attend to that one thing, his eye on that one goal, then only he is ready to put his training to the test in the place of danger.  We must learn first, today, now in this smaller easier matter, to walk with our eyes on the Lord only.  Only then can we do it victoriously under the later high tension of danger or excitement.” 

My Bride will be fully trained, fully functional, able to hear My Voice at all times and earnestly, joyously, completely obedient to all that I instruct.  This is how you will know My Bride.  She follows Me perfectly!



* All quotes taken from “By Searching” and “In the Arena” by Isobel Kuhn

IN THE FOOTSTEPS of Oswald Chambers

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