Listener: I write these words in semi-desperation. After an extended walk on the Mountain yesterday, I have descended deep into the valley. I have not experienced the Presence of Holy Spirit today. My entire being is experiencing … what I cannot describe. It is not death, but it is an absence of Life. His Voice has become as necessary to me as the air that I breathe. My mind knows that He is always present and that He is present now, but I need to experience His Presence. I have sought Him in prayer…I have sought Him in Communion, I have not yet sought Him in the Word, perhaps because I cannot bear the thought that I may not experience His Presence there either. Those of you who walk in His Presence understand; those of you who do not walk with Him cannot even begin to understand my despair. Holy Spirit: Early this morning I called the Listener to go to the Mountain and later to come to the computer, but neither call was received. Now, in the afternoon, in desperation, the Listener has typed the words “The Holy Spirit speaks,” expressing hope by typing these words, but having not yet heard My Voice. Now I will speak. Listener you are exhausted in mind and body, but your spiritual state is the most important aspect of your failure to hear My Voice. You battle the physical and the mental in the flesh, and you have not even recognized the spiritual battle. The harder you fight in the flesh, the more difficult it becomes for you to overcome. I have allowed this to progress without intervening in order to demonstrate to you and to those to whom you write that, although all of you frequently declare that I Am your strength, you still tend to rely overmuch on your own strength. Listener, yesterday I blessed you exceedingly with My Presence and My protection. I gave you a strong and inspiring message for Daily Bread…I also provided an opportunity for you to witness to what I Am doing in your life, and then protected your life when I enabled both you and the other driver to stop before a head-on collision occurred. I Am the same yesterday, today and tomorrow…I change not. But you do change from day to day, and, as a human being, in the words of one of those songs that you love to quote, you are “prone to wander.” Last night your late wandering into the world through meaningless television was relatively harmless, but this morning when you slept through My call to the Mountain, your self-condemnation was not harmless. Your primary problem today has been that, although you made frequent pleas to hear My Voice…you still did not ask Me to fight your battles or even to give you the strength to fight. Perhaps even more important, you did not recognize the nature of the true battle…your failure to fully surrender everything to Me. I have assured you that the Daily Bread is My responsibility; today your thoughts and actions were the result of your attempt to assume that responsibility. Now, you have once again become the message. You know that a visual expression of a concept is more readily remembered that a verbal expression. Today you are a visual expression of the results of failing to deny all aspects of self and to rely on Me for all of your needs…and also an encouragement to those who encounter the same problems that you faced today. Listener responds: Lord, even words of chastisement are welcome when they are Your Words. Thank You!
