Discovery by Devotion - Chambers, Oswald
October 8, 1916, Zeitoun, Sunday morning Service
And i set my face unto the lord god, to seek by prayer and supplications. Daniel 9:3
1. The determination to concentrate
and i set my face . . .
We discern spiritual truth not by intellectual curios- ity or research, but by entreating the favour of the lord, that is, by prayer and by no other way, not even by obedience, because obedience is apt to have an idea of merit. If we are not concentrated we affect a great many attitudes; but when we set our faces unto the lord god all affectation is gone the religious pose, the devout pose, the pious pose, all go instantly when we determine to concentrate; our attention is so concentrated that we have no time to wonder how we look. This one thing i do . . . Says Paul; his whole attention was fixed on god. Is my mind fixed entirely on god or on service for god? If i am only fixed on the service of god my attention is not held, i am taken up with affectation; but in a great crisis, as in this of denial, there is the determination to concentrate. When i set my face and determine to concentrate i am not devoted to creeds or forms of belief or to any phase of truth, not to prayer or to holiness, or to the spreading of any propaganda, but unto god. We never turn to god unless we are desperate, we turn to common sense, to one another, to helps and means and assistances, but when we do turn to the lord it is always in des- peration (see psalm 108). The desperation of consecration is reached when we realise our indolence and our reluctance in coming to god.
2. The desecration of consecration
Unto the lord god . . .
Belief is not that god can do the thing, but belief in god. If i believe in god i pray on the ground of redemption and things happen; it is not reason- able, it is redemptive. Where reason says there is a mountain, it is impossible, i do not argue and say i believe god can remove it, i do not even see the mountain; i simply set my face unto the lord god and make my prayer, and the mountain ceases to be (see Matthew 17:20). As long as we reason and argue and say it is not sensible, we do not turn to the lord but try to bolster up some conviction of our own. Through the desperation of consecration we not only reach the limit of reason but we get a line of recognition which is other than reasonable, i. E. , we discern Jesus Christ in the most ordinary people and things. Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was jesus. He appeared to be an ordinary fisherman, but john discerned that it was the lord ( john 21:7). When we are concentrated on god we enter on a life of revelation, we begin to penetrate and discover things. To him that overcometh . . . Life is given as we over come over come the tendency to indolence, above all the tendency not to do what we know we should, and instantly we get a revelation.
3. The discipline of consciousness
To seek by prayer and supplications . . .
It is easy to create a false emotion in prayer, nothing easier than to work ourselves up until we imagine we are really concerned about a thing when we are not because it has never been brought to our mind by the holy spirit. That kind of prayer is not natural, we let our emotions carry us away. Prayer is not only to be about big things, but talking to god about everything let your requests be made known. If we try to recall something by our own effort in praying, instantly we get an atmosphere of rebuke about another person. When we concentrate on god that spirit is not present, there is no irrelevant emotion to deflect our attention and we pray about the things the spirit of god brings most naturally to our minds. Ye shall ask what ye will. . . .
We do not ask what our will is in, we develop false emotions, consciousnesses that are not really our own. A false emotion is one we have at rare times. What is ours is the circumstances we are in just now, the people we are with; we have to learn to school our emotions into relationship to god in all these things. The seeking by prayer is determined by the circumstances we are in and by the life we habitually live; we have to concentrate on the ordinary obvious things we are in all the time. We cannot talk to god unless we walk with him when we are not talking. The son of god revealed in me and the epistle of Christ written in my life day by day will give me an expression before god; if i am not walking with god i have to borrow other peoples phrases when i pray. If any man is in Christ there is a new creation (RV mg), everything becomes amazingly simple, not easy, but simple with the simplicity of god.