Spurgeon: September AM
* 09/09/AM
"I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which
thou knowest not."
--Jeremiah 33:3
There are different translations of these words. One version
renders it, "I will shew thee great and fortified things."
Another, "Great and reserved things." Now, there are reserved
and special things in Christian experience: all the developments
of spiritual life are not alike easy of attainment. There are
the common frames and feelings of repentance, and faith, and
joy, and hope, which are enjoyed by the entire family; but there
is an upper realm of rapture, of communion, and conscious union
with Christ, which is far from being the common dwelling-place
of believers. We have not all the high privilege of John, to
lean upon Jesus' bosom; nor of Paul, to be caught up into the
third heaven. There are heights in experimental knowledge of the
things of God which the eagle's eye of acumen and philosophic
thought hath never seen: God alone can bear us there; but the
chariot in which He takes us up, and the fiery steeds with which
that chariot is dragged, are prevailing prayers. Prevailing
prayer is victorious over the God of mercy, "By his strength he
had power with God: yea, he had power over the angel, and
prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto Him: he found Him
in Beth-el, and there He spake with us." Prevailing prayer takes
the Christian to Carmel, and enables him to cover heaven with
clouds of blessing, and earth with floods of mercy. Prevailing
prayer bears the Christian aloft to Pisgah, and shows him the
inheritance reserved; it elevates us to Tabor and transfigures
us, till in the likeness of his Lord, as He is, so are we also
in this world. If you would reach to something higher than
ordinary grovelling experience, look to the Rock that is higher
than you, and gaze with the eye of faith through the window of
importunate prayer. When you open the window on your side, it
will not be bolted on the other.