In their heart,
the Living Book of the living
was manifest,
The book which was written in thought
and in mind of the Father and,
from before the foundation of the All,
is in that incomprehensible part of him.

The Gospel of Truth

You need not wait until a dire hour to make this plea for I am always available to thee. You do not have to do any of this alone. Help is available. Aid, comfort and wisdom untold are all awaiting the word from you, the word of acceptance of My love into your heart, the word asking for My will to be done as you set aside your own. I am your Loving Father and you have been the defiant teenager determined to do things your way and all alone. I gave you this independence and I do not take it away. It can only be by your choice that you come to Me and choose to see things My way.

Excerpted from the book Listen Hear, A Divine Love Story by Debra Clemente

John 14:12-17 King James Version (KJV)

12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. 13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

In the power of the Holy Ghost resteth an ability to know God, and to please him. It is he, that purifieth the mind by his secret working. He enlighteneth the heart to conceive,worthy thoughts of Almighty God."  ~George Stanley Faber

A PRACTICAL TREATISE
THE ORDINARY OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

PREFACE

Every person, who is in the least degree acquainted with the corruption of the human heart, will readily acknowledge, that his own unassisted abilities are totally unequal to the task of faithfully serving God. Repeated violations of the most solemn resolutions of amendment have shown him his weakness ; and his numerous lapses have wofully convinced him, that he stands in need of some divine conductor to lead him in safety through the perilous journey of life. Such a guide is promised in Scripture to every sincere Christian.

 We are not to suppose, that the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit were confined to the apostolic age. Human nature is much alike, at all periods, and in all countries. Though Christianity is now established, and though miraculous interference is no longer necessary to the well-being of the Church ; yet the present race of men will never be essentially better than their heathen predecessors, so long as they rest satisfied with having only outwardly embraced the religion of the Messiah. A mere hypocritical and external profession of faith cannot be pleasing to that God, who regards motives no less than actions. A radical change must take place in the heart, as well as an outward reformation in the manners; and this change can only be effected by the agency of some superior power. The heart is as much averse now to the genuine practice of piety, as it was in the days of the Apostles; and, though we have no longer to combat the horrors of persecution, we have still to struggle with the unwillingness and corruption of the soul. If the whole of religion consisted in the bare belief of certain tenets and in the due observance of certain ceremonies, we should find very little difficulty in becoming thoroughly religious characters. But,

when we are called upon to begin the work of self- reformation: when we are required to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength ; when we are enjoined to prefer, upon all occasions, his will to our own, and to sacrifice our bosom sins, our darling vices, upon the altar of Christianity; then commences the struggle: the inbred venom of our nature immediately shows itself; our very spirit rises both against the law and the lawgiver; and we discover the utter impossibility of working any change in our affections merely by our own efforts. No human arguments can persuade a man to love what he hates, and to delight in what he detests. Submission they may perhaps teach him; but it will be the sullen submission of a slave, not the cheerful acquiescence of a son. To produce this change is the peculiar office of the Holy Spirit; and, since none but he can produce it, his ordinary influence is absolutely and universally necessary at present, and will be equally so even to the very end of the world.

In the following pages, I have endeavored to state what appears to me the plain doctrine of Scripture and the Church of England. Though we are repeatedly assured by the word of God, that of ourselves we can do no good thing; yet we. are never represented as mere machines, subjected to an overwhelming and irresistible influence. The aid of the Holy Spirit is freely offered unto all; nor does that blessed Person

cease to strive even with the most profligate, till they have obstinately rejected the counsel of God against themselves. The still small voice of conscience, which is in effect the voice of God, long continues to admonish them: and the extreme difficulty, which they find in silencing it, sufficiently shows how unwilling the Almighty is that any should perish. All that will, may be saved; for our Lord hath expressly declared, that, whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast him out. Let none therefore despair on the ground of their being rejected by a tremendous and irreversible decree of exclusion: for surely, if such a decree existed, God's repeated expostulations with sinners for slighting his gracious offers, when at the same time they lay under a fatal necessity of slighting them, would be a solemn mockery, unworthy of a being of infinite mercy and holiness.

In fact, the general experience of mankind perfectly agrees with scripture. There never yet was a good man who did not find that he both required and received divine assistance to enable him to overcome his corruptions; and there never yet was a bad man, who did not perceive somewhat within him forcibly restraining him from the commission of sin, and warmly urging him to the practice of holiness. Half of the follies and vanities of the world are mere contrivances to silence this troublesome monitor. Men love darkness rather than lights simply because their deeds are evil.

Reverend George Stanley Faber
May 31, 1800