First Meeting
(January 30, 1964 P.M.)
Well, I can only repeat the words of my
wife by saying, how glad I am to be with you again! The
very precious times that we had together on my last two
visits have remained fresh as a very joyous remembrance.
But I want to thank you, dear friends, for the very warm
welcome that you have given us. Manila always gives us a
very warm welcome. And I tell you that only two days ago,
we left the freezing cold in London; and we got on the
airplane with all our winter clothes on. When we arrived
in Manila, we arrived with a very warm welcome, in more
ways than one. I do not think the heat of the weather
here is greater than the warmth of your welcome, when we
looked out of the plane at the airport yesterday and saw
that crowd of happy faces, and heard those happy voices,
and felt those happy hands. You would need to be in our
place to understand what I mean when I thank you for the
warm welcome. And that is the first thing that I want to
say to you. I hope that when we go away, you will not
have grown cold towards us.
Now let me say a little word about how it
is that we have come and why it is that we have come. I
have received quite a number of pressing invitations to
come to Manila for nearly two years past. During that
time, the invitations have become stronger and stronger.
Perhaps you wonder why I have waited for nearly two
years. The explanation is a very important one, and it is
going to be one of those very vital matters in our time
together. We have not delayed so long because we did not
want to see you, nor was it because we did not want to
come and try and help you. But you know, dear friends, we
are the prisoners of Jesus Christ. We cannot go where we
would like to go. And we cannot move when we would like
to move. When we made Jesus "Lord," we made Him
"Lord" of all our movements and all our time.
Remember that the Apostle Paul on two occasions did try
to go in certain directions. He thought it would be a
good thing to go into Bithynia. There was great need in
Bithynia, and no doubt the people there were pressing him
to come to them, but he said, The Spirit of Jesus would
not allow us to go (Acts 16:7). He felt the same about
Asia. He began to move in the direction of Asia; and Asia
was a very needy part of the world. The churches in Asia
were going to be the seven churches to which we have the
Letters in the Book of the Revelation. But at that time,
he was forbidden to preach the word in Asia. You see, it
is not need that governs. It is not when we feel we ought
to do something that that is the time to do it. It is not
when we think it would be a good thing to do this.
The Lord's time is a very important thing.
If you get out of the Lord's time, you may spoil the
whole thing. The Lord knows all about the need. The Lord
knows all about the people's invitations. But the Lord
says, "Not now. I have My time for that." He
did not tell Paul why he could not go into Bithynia and
Asia. He just told him not to go then. He simply said,
"No, not now." And Paul, being the prisoner of
Jesus Christ, knew that he could not move until the Lord
moves. I hope you recognize that that is a very important
principle in all the things of the Lord. It may be quite
a good thing, it may be quite a right thing, and it may
be a thing that the Lord is going to do, but it must be
in the Lord's time. Now, if I had come a year ago or two
years ago, something very important might have been lost
for two years. And I would have gone away, saying,
"No, we have not got there yet." Evidently the
time has not come. But that is not the end of our story.
We are here. At last, we are here. And
that is not because of the pressing invitation, that is
because as we continually waited on the Lord, we had the
sense that the Lord was saying, "Now is the
time." You know, a very great many things are
necessary when it is a matter of going from one side of
the world to the other, especially when you get to be so
very, very old. We are not young any longer. We used to
travel about the world quite a lot. It did not mean so
much in our younger days. But it is not so easy nowadays.
We are getting old. However, that only makes it more
important to go with the Lord. And as soon as we felt
that the Lord's time had come, we began to get those
various tokens from the Lord which confirmed that. I will
not trouble you with all the details, but I think this
evening I have learned for the first time what the Lord
said to my wife. If she told me about that word from the
Lord, I do not remember her telling me. But I went to the
Lord and asked Him for a word for me. I said, now Lord,
it is very important that you give me a word to go on.
One morning I was reading my Bible, I was reading a
chapter that I know very well, I was reading chapter
fifty-two of the prophecies of Isaiah. I did not know
that I was going to get the Lord's answer to my prayer in
that chapter. But as I read on, I came to this verse, and
it was as though the Lord said, 'That is My word for you
over Manila.' And the words are these: "The Lord
will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your
reward'' (Isa. 52:12).
So, the Lord said that as we went, we
should find that He was always ahead of us. We should
find that He had gone before. And then there were a lot
of things to leave behind. Quite a lot of
responsibilities, and we had to have those taken care of.
But the Word said, "the God of Israel will be
your reward.'' The Lord will be before you and the
Lord will be behind you. Do you think you could want
anything better than that? Well, we have come on the
strength of that word; and we are expecting to find the
Lord before us every day.
Now, what is it that is in my heart as to
this time which we shall be here? I do want you to
understand this that I am going to say now. I hope that
it will not disappoint you. I do not feel that the Lord
has brought me here to give you a lot more teaching as
teaching. I mean, I do not feel that I have come to give
you something that I have studied from the Word of God,
to give you a number of addresses on some subjects. It is
not something that I have got from someone else, neither
from books nor men. I feel that the Lord wants me to
speak out of experience. Experience is a very valuable
thing. There are plenty of people who can give us
wonderful Bible addresses. But experience is far more
important than that. And, as you understand, we have had
a long experience with the Lord.
Personally I have been in the Lord's work
for a good bit over fifty years. There has been FIFTY
years of very wide and very deep spiritual experience
in the school of the Lord. He has sought to teach me
things in my own life. And the main thing that He is
teaching me are the principles upon which He works. I
shall have much to say to you about that. But I do want
to put the emphasis here. It is not theory that I am
going to give you. It is not something studied up for
meetings. It is that which comes out of practical
experience under the hand of the Lord. Therefore, it is
going to be very practical.
I am sure you have got plenty of theory.
You have a great deal of teaching. Perhaps I could not
teach you much more than you know. But perhaps these gray
hairs speak for themselves. They speak of deep experience
in the school of God. What I have to say to you, is what
God has done in me. You are not going to have an easy
time, dear friends. You are going to be faced up with
very practical issues. Now if you do not mean business
with the Lord, do not come to these meetings. I shall
take it that all who come, really do mean business with
God.
You have been taught a great deal about
God's purpose. I expect if you were asked, every one of
you could put down on a piece of paper what you know to
be the purpose of God. But there is one thing more
important than the purpose of God. It is how God realizes
His purpose. It is almost more important to know how God
fulfills His purpose than it is to know what His purpose
is. God has a way, not only an end; and it is very
important to know the ways of God as well as the end of
God. If there is one thing that we have learned more than
another thing in God's school, it is this. God's ways are
very different from our ways. So often we would do a
thing in a certain way, and the Lord would say,
"That is not My way. Your ways are not My ways. My
thoughts are not your thoughts. I have My own ways of
doing what I want done." You just cannot say,
"I know the Lord wants such and such a thing done,
and therefore, I am going to do it!" The Lord says,
"Wait a minute, I have a way of doing that, and My
way is just as important as My object." And I think
the Lord wants us to learn something of His ways in these
days together - to learn those spiritual laws which
govern the purpose of God.
Only one last word, especially to the
young people, and to everybody else. This learning of
God's ways is a life-long business. I do not know it all.
I have not yet learned it all. I have still to learn a
great deal of God's way. The Lord is constantly having to
say to me, 'No, not that way.' 'No, not at this time.'
This is a life-long education. But the Lord is very
faithful with us. If we are really in His hands, He will
teach us His ways. You know the word to Israel was this:
"that to Israel the Lord showed His works, but to
Moses and Aaron, He showed His ways." And the ways
are very much more important than the works. Moses and
Aaron were honored servants of the Lord, and the Lord
showed them His ways. To all the people, He could only
just show His works. Will you be satisfied with just
seeing the works of the Lord? Or would you rather be in
the secret of the Lord? The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him; and He will show them His ways (Psa.
25:14; 103:7). The other people will only see His works.
May I ask that in these days, you will set
your hearts upon knowing the ways of the Lord. For that
is really the most important thing. Now, I only intended
to give you a word of greeting, to thank you for your
welcome, and to tell you that a lot of people in London
said, 'Give the friends over there our greetings.' And as
you can see, I have gone a long way beyond that. But I
hope that I have not wearied you.