1004 异象与真实
…就是…蒙召做圣徒的… 《哥林多前书 1:2》
为你能够看到你尚未所是来感谢神。你已有了异象，但你一点都还没有达到异象实现的样式。当我们在山谷，正是证明自己是否被拣选之处，我们大多数人却退缩回头。如果我们要成为异象中的形状，我们还没有准备好去面对必然会来的碰撞和挫伤。我们已看到自己不是什么、神要我们成为的所是，但我们愿意被打造成异象中的样式而被神使用吗？击打总是以最平凡、日常的方式，通过凡夫俗子而来。
有时我们确实知道神的目的是什么。让异象变成真实的品格取决于我们，而不在于神。如果我们更喜欢在山顶放松并活在异象的回忆中，那么我们在人类生活组成的平凡事物中，就真的一无用处。我们必须学习倚靠所见的异象去活，而非只是活在狂喜和有意识地默想神之中。这意味着在异象的光中过我们真实的生活，直到异象的真理确实在我们身上实现。我们的每一个训练都是朝这个方向进行，要学习为神让我们知祂的要求而感谢神。
当神说做的时候，我们小小的「我是」总是生闷气、不高兴。让你小小的「我是」在神的震怒和义愤中枯萎——「我是自有永有的…打发我到你们这里来。」（出埃及记3:14）。祂必须主宰一切。意识到神不仅知道我们住在哪里，而且还知道我们爬进的沟渠，那不是很刺透我们吗？祂会以闪电般速度追捕我们，没有人像神那样更认识人了。
来自章伯斯的智慧
圣经是事实的联系，其中的真实性必须经过考验。生活可能会一帆风顺一段时间，突然间却发生丧亲之痛，或某个危机；单恋或新恋，灾难，生意倒闭，或令人震惊的罪，而我们再次打开圣经，神的话就直接触动我们心灵，我们会说：「哎呀，我以前在那里怎么从未见过呢！」《神手之荫》
1004 The Vision and The Reality
…to those who are…called to be saints… —1 Corinthians 1:2
Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.
There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.
Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation— “I AM WHO I AM…has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Bible is a relation of facts, the truth of which must be tested. Life may go on all right for a while, when suddenly a bereavement comes, or some crisis; unrequited love or a new love, a disaster, a business collapse, or a shocking sin, and we turn up our Bibles again and God’s word comes straight home, and we say, “Why, I never saw that there before.” Shade of His Hand, 1223 L