Lesson 49: Kept by the Power of God, part 7

Do you want to enter what people call "the higher life"? Then go a step lower down. I remember Dr. Boardman telling how that once he was invited by a gentleman to go and see some works where they made fine shot, and I believe the workmen did it by pouring down molten lead from a great height. This gentleman wanted to take Dr. Boardman up to the top of the tower to see how the work was done. The doctor came to the tower, he entered by the door, and began going upstairs; but when he had gone a few steps the gentleman called out: “That is the wrong way. You must come down this way; that stair is locked up."

The gentleman took him downstairs a good many steps, and there an elevator was ready to take him to the top; and he said: “I have learned a lesson that going down is often the best way to get up."

Yes, God will have to bring us very low down; there will have to come upon us a sense of emptiness and despair and nothingness. It is when we sink down in utter helplessness that the everlasting God will reveal Himself in His power, and that our hearts will learn to trust God alone.

What is it that keeps us from trusting Him perfectly?

Many will say: “I believe what you say, but there is one difficulty. If my trust were perfect and always abiding, all would come right, for I know God will honor trust. But how am I to get that trust?"

My answer is: “By the death of self. The great hindrance to trust is self-effort. So long as you have got your own wisdom and thoughts and strength, you cannot fully trust God. But when God breaks you down, when everything begins to grow dim before your eyes, and you see that you understand nothing, then God is coming near, and if you will bow; down in nothingness and wait upon God, He will become all."


As long as we are something, God cannot be all, and His omnipotence cannot do its full work. That is the beginning of faith – utter despair of self, a ceasing from man and everything on earth, and finding our hope in God alone.

Next we must understand that faith is REST.

In the beginning of the faith-life, faith is struggling; but as long as faith is struggling, faith has not attained its strength. When faith in its struggling gets to the end of itself, and just throws itself upon God and rests on Him, then comes joy and victory.