George Muller, and the Secret of his Power in Prayer (2)

‘Now the scriptural way of reasoning would have been:  God Himself has condescended to become an author, and I am ignorant about that precious book which His Holy Spirit has caused to be written through the instrumentality of His servants, and it contains that which I ought to know, and the knowledge of which will lead me to true happiness; therefore I ought to read again and again this most precious book, this book of books, most earnestly, most prayerfully, and with much meditation; and in this practice I ought to continue all the days of my life.  For I was aware, though I read it but little, that I knew scarcely anything of it.  But instead of acting thus and being led by my ignorance of the word of God to study it more, my difficulty in understanding it, and the little enjoyment I had in it, made me careless of reading it (for much prayerful reading of the word gives not merely more knowledge, but increases the delight we have in reading it); and thus, like many believers, I practically preferred, for the first four years of my divine life, the works of uninspired men to the oracles of the living God.  The consequence was that I remained a babe, both in knowledge and grace.  In knowledge, I say; for all true knowledge must be derived, by the Spirit, from the word.  And as262 I neglected the word, I was for nearly four years so ignorant, that I did not clearly know even the fundamental points of our holy faith.  And this lack of knowledge most sadly kept me back from walking steadily in the ways of God.  For when it pleased the Lord in August 1829 to bring me really to the Scriptures, my life and walk became very different.  And though ever since that I have very much fallen short of what I might and ought to be, yet by the grace of God I have been enabled to live much nearer to Him than before.  If any believers read this who practically prefer other books to the Holy Scriptures, and who enjoy the writings of men much more than the word of God, may they be warned by my loss.  I shall consider this book to have been the means of doing much good, should it please the Lord, through its instrumentality, to lead some of His people no longer to neglect the Holy Scriptures, but to give them that preference which they have hitherto bestowed on the writings of men.

‘Before I leave this subject, I would only add:  If the reader understands very little of the word of God, he ought to read it very much; for the Spirit explains the word by the word.  And if he enjoys the reading of the word little, that is just the reason why he should read it much; for the frequent reading of the Scriptures creates a delight in them, so that the more we read them, the more we desire to do so.

‘Above all, he should seek to have it settled in his own mind that God alone by His Spirit can teach him, and that therefore, as God will be inquired of for blessings, it becomes him to seek God’s blessing previous to reading, and also whilst reading.

‘He should have it, moreover, settled in his mind that although the Holy Spirit is the best and sufficient Teacher, yet that this Teacher does not always teach immediately when we desire it, and that therefore we may have to entreat Him again and again for the explanation of certain passages; but that He will surely teach us at last, if indeed we 263are seeking for light prayerfully, patiently, and with a view to the glory of God.’ 44     The extracts are from a work in four volumes, The Lord’s Dealings with George Muller.  J. Nisbet & Co., London.

 We find in his journal frequent mention made of his spending two and three hours in prayer over the word for the feeding of his spiritual life.  As the fruit of this, when he had need of strength and encouragement in prayer, the individual promises were not to him so many arguments from a book to be used with God, but living words which he had heard the Father’s living voice speak to him, and which he could now bring to the Father in living faith.

PRAYER AND THE WILL OF GOD.

One of the greatest difficulties with young believers is to know how they can find out whether what they desire is according to God’s will.  I count it one of the most precious lessons God wants to teach through the experience of George Muller, that He is willing to make known, of things of which His word says nothing directly, that they are His will for us, and that we may ask them.  The teaching of the Spirit, not without or against the word, but as something above and beyond it, in addition to it, without which we cannot see God’s will, is the heritage of every believer.  It is through THE WORD, AND THE WORD ALONE, that the Spirit teaches, applying the general principles or promises to our special need.  And it is THE SPIRIT, AND THE SPIRIT ALONE, who can really make the word a light on our path, whether the path of duty in our daily walk, or the path of faith in our approach to God.  Let us try and notice in what childlike simplicity and teachableness it was that the discovery of God’s will was so surely and so clearly made known to His servant.

With regard to the building of the first Home and the assurance he had of its being God’s will, he writes in May 1850, just after 264it had been opened, speaking of the great difficulties there were, and how little likely it appeared to nature that they would be removed:  ‘But while the prospect before me would have been overwhelming had I looked at it naturally, I was never even for once permitted to question how it would end.  For as from the beginning I was sure it was the will of God that I should go to the work of building for Him this large Orphan Home, so also from the beginning I was as certain that the whole would be finished as if the Home had been already filled.’

The way in which he found out what was God’s will, comes out with special clearness in his account of the building of the second Home; and I ask the reader to study with care the lesson the narrative conveys:—

‘Dec. 5, 1850.—Under these circumstances I can only pray that the Lord in His tender mercy would not allow Satan to gain an advantage over me.  By the grace of God my heart says:  Lord, if I could be sure that it is Thy will that I should go forward in this matter, I would do so cheerfully; and, on the other hand, if I could be sure that these are vain, foolish, proud thoughts, that they are not from Thee, I would, by Thy grace, hate them, and entirely put them aside.

‘My hope is in God:  He will help and teach me.  Judging, however, from His former dealings with me, it would not be a strange thing to me, nor surprising, if He called me to labour yet still more largely in this way.

‘The thoughts about enlarging the Orphan work have not yet arisen on account of an abundance of money having lately come in; for I have had of late to wait for about seven weeks upon God, whilst little, very little comparatively, came in, i.e. about four times as much was going out as came in; and, had not the Lord previously sent me large sums, we should have been distressed indeed.

‘Lord!  how can Thy servant know Thy will in this matter?  Wilt Thou be pleased to teach him!

December 11.—During the 265last six days, since writing the above, I have been, day after day, waiting upon God concerning this matter.  It has generally been more or less all the day on my heart.  When I have been awake at night, it has not been far from my thoughts.  Yet all this without the least excitement.  I am perfectly calm and quiet respecting it.  My soul would be rejoiced to go forward in this service, could I be sure that the Lord would have me to do so; for then, notwithstanding the numberless difficulties, all would be well; and His Name would be magnified.

‘On the other hand, were I assured that the Lord would have me to be satisfied with my present sphere of service, and that I should not pray about enlarging the work, by His grace I could, without an effort, cheerfully yield to it; for He has brought me into such a state of heart, that I only desire to please Him in this matter.  Moreover, hitherto I have not spoken about this thing even to my beloved wife, the sharer of my joys, sorrows, and labours for more than twenty years; nor is it likely that I shall do so for some time to come:  for I prefer quietly to wait on the Lord, without conversing on this subject, in order that thus I may be kept the more easily, by His blessing, from being influenced by things from without.  The burden of my prayer concerning this matter is, that the Lord would not allow me to make a mistake, and that He would teach me to do His will.

‘December 26.—Fifteen days have elapsed since I wrote the preceding paragraph.  Every day since then I have continued to pray about this matter, and that with a goodly measure of earnestness, by the help of God.  There has passed scarcely an hour during these days, in which, whilst awake, this matter has not been more or less before me.  But all without even a shadow of excitement.  I converse with no one about it.  Hitherto have I not even done so with my dear wife.  For this I refrain still, and deal with God alone about the matter, in order that no 266outward influence and no outward excitement may keep me from attaining unto a clear discovery of His will.  I have the fullest and most peaceful assurance that He will clearly show me His will.  This evening I have had again an especial solemn season for prayer, to seek to know the will of God.  But whilst I continue to entreat and beseech the Lord, that He would not allow me to be deluded in this business, I may say I have scarcely any doubt remaining on my mind as to what will be the issue, even that I should go forward in this matter.  As this, however, is one of the most momentous steps that I have ever taken, I judge that I cannot go about this matter with too much caution, prayerfulness, and deliberation.  I am in no hurry about it.  I could wait for years, by God’s grace, were this His will, before even taking one single step toward this thing, or even speaking to anyone about it; and, on the other hand, I would set to work tomorrow, were the Lord to bid me do so.  This calmness of mind, this having no will of my own in the matter, this only wishing to please my Heavenly Father in it, this only seeking His and not my honour in it; this state of heart, I say, is the fullest assurance to me that my heart is not under a fleshly excitement, and that, if I am helped thus to go on, I shall know the will of God to the full.  But, while I write this, I cannot but add at the same time, that I do crave the honour and the glorious privilege to be more and more used by the Lord.

‘I desire to be allowed to provide scriptural instruction for a thousand orphans, instead of doing so for 300.  I desire to expound the Holy Scriptures regularly to a thousand orphans, instead of doing so to 300.  I desire that it may be yet more abundantly manifest that God is still the Hearer and Answerer of prayer, and that He is the living God now as He ever was and ever will be, when He shall simply, in answer to prayer, have condescended to provide me with a house for 700 orphans and with means to support them.  This last consideration is the 267most important point in my mind.  The Lord’s honour is the principal point with me in this whole matter; and just because this is the case, if He would be more glorified by not going forward in this business, I should by His grace be perfectly content to give up all thoughts about another Orphan House.  Surely in such a state of mind, obtained by the Holy Spirit, Thou, O my Heavenly Father, wilt not suffer Thy child to be mistaken, much less deluded.  By the help of God I shall continue further day by day to wait upon Him in prayer, concerning this thing, till He shall bid me act.