Fall 1994

The Voice of God
John Wright Follette

We all live on different spiritual levels and what may feed one may not satisfy another. Spiritual hunger must be created in us so God can meet us.

When He gives, the Word distinctly says, He gave "<I>to every man according to His several ability<D>" Matt 25:15b. Thus, what He gives is governed by the individual, not God, who gives according to the receptivity and capacity of the individual.

A new born baby is a perfect child. But that baby has no consciousness of the adult he will become. And the Lord does not require it of him. But this will progressively change as the child gradually discovers the potential and capacity that is within him.

Often, when the Lord "knocks" on the door of our comfort and security, we may think He will upset all we have carefully arranged in the pattern of our lives. Rather, He desires to release us into a new higher level of spiritual capacity and experience.

This does not mean that our whole personality will develop in one leap, but it is a symbol of the process of our becoming. No one "becomes" all he is intended to be in an instant, it is a progressive matter. It is like a child, he is born, but he is not a grown, functioning person.

Always remember, never confuse your "potential" with your present experience. I mean by this, a word that holds a potential quality, but has not materialized. For instance, I can hold in my hand a little apple seed that looks very insignificant. I am also correct in saying it is a tree full of apple blossoms and fruit.

When I deal with the seed, I am dealing with it as "potentially" a tree. But there is a terrific process involved. Some do not see this and rejoice in being an "apple seed" as they think they are already a tree with apples on it. We must not get our "potential" confused with our present reality.

This is the way we grow in grace. All of us love the truth, but none of us has exhausted it. It is just too big. We have little glimpses of it which are adequate for the place in which we are presently moving.

Once the Lord showed me a great arc in the sky that was over me and said, this is like truth. You can't embrace all that truth in an instance, but whatever truth is adequate and needed for you will come into your heart. Do not become discouraged if you cannot contain the whole spectrum of it. Truth is never ours until it is personalized in our life experience. Otherwise we are looking at it as an objective relationship that we give assent to.

For instance, it is true that "Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the world." This is an objective truth. But when this becomes a personal reality in my life experience, I can say, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God, MY Savior." Now it has become personalized in me and has become a possessive reality. Any truth, even the truth we give assent to today, that has not yet been personalized within us, is not really ours.

Truth comes by revelation and the heart must be continually conditioned to receive it. Truth stands before us unveiled and we come into the presence of that revelation. We only get from that revelation what the heart has built up its capacity to receive.

Then we go back again to that same beautiful revelation. What has happened? The reception of that truth has wrought within me a miracle and is building within me a capacity for its receptivity, that when I go back again to that same truth, I receive something more from it. This is spiritual enlargement, but the truth is always the same. What has changed? The truth? No, I have changed.

Remember our first reactions to the Word and how wonderful it was? Now years later we read it again and get an entirely different reaction? This is a sign of spiritual growth.

Truth brings two reactions. The first is a negative reaction, because truth becomes very revealing and it will slay us. But it does not intend that we remain dead. Truth's counterpart is a resurrection. There can be no Easter morning with its resurrection, unless there has first been a Friday of crucifixion. This is God's order.

I found this to be so tremendous that I did not want it to be any other way. It became a reality to me when I began to sense the fruitage of it. I did not want to surrender the process and get it any other way.

THE POET'S PRICE

I caught a flash of truth one day,
How daring ignorance can be
And shut it up within my heart
A flame that danced and sang for me
It scorched hypocrisy and sham
And from earth bondage set me free
Its beauty searched my trembling soul
And barred my inner self to me
In spite the pain I loved the flame
Which woke within my hungry heart
Ten thousands songs I cannot sing
Too subtle for my broken heart
And wretched I, devoid of shame
Reach out my bony hand for tole
To let the gazing public see
The fleeting shadows of my soul
And while they gaze, they call for salt
I piped upon a broken reed
For I must pipe to earn my bread
Mine is a hungry heart to feed
The alms I gather as I pass
The vain consumes both night and day
My heart gets little for its song
But feeds upon the ashes grey
Oh flash of truth, Oh cleansing flame
Thy burning cannot do me ill
Though captive to thy mystic power
I hold thee a captive still.