◄ Personal Preparation ►

I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

Truth is acquired in fellowship with His Word; truth is shared in fellowship with His heart. “It is feared that when we speak of being here for Christ it is often the thought of our service or conduct that is prominent, and therefore it is well to be reminded that there is something over which the Lord Jesus is more concerned than He is over our conduct or our service. It is that ‘garden closed,’ that ‘spring shut up,’ that ‘fountain sealed,’ from which all others but Himself are excluded-the hidden spring of those affections which alone satisfy His heart, or render conduct and service acceptable to Him.” -C.A.C.

“All our trials in service only serve to lead us to know the Father, as we could not know Him otherwise, as ‘the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation’ (2 Cor. 1:3). It is in this school that we acquire the ability to comfort others; so that our personal affliction or personal comfort work unto the same end, even the profit of others for we are their servants for Jesus’ sake.” -J.L.H. 221

“A preparedness is necessary for the Christian soldier who hears his Lord’s words. We have to learn that human energy cannot cross rivers of death, or break down walls of this world’s strongholds; and if we be aroused to follow the Lord, it must be in His own way. Impulse is not faith. Going forward in the mere strength of humanity-acquired knowledge of God’s truth-is not being led of the Spirit. The Father would not have His people act in the excitement of freshly-gained knowledge, and well would it often be, if instead of pushing on in the impulse of newly-acquired truth, there were first a tarrying, as it were, three days, to digest it, to make it, by the power of God’s Spirit, thoroughly part of the new man.” -H.F.W.

“Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1).