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     1. My Heart Is Stirred Whene’er I Think of Jesus   (2:47)
     2. II Corinthians 12:9   (14:59)
     3. All I Need   (2:44)

II Corinthians 12:9-10.  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  ¹⁰Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

II Corinthians 4:7.  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Galatians 2:20.  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

“…my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  That’s a lesson that we all ought to learn, and which is very difficult to learn unless we really love Jesus Christ with all our hearts.  And then we’ll find out that His strength “is made perfect in weakness,” and that our weaknesses—all of them—are vessels to be filled with the excellency of His power—like this sickness our brother Wink tells about.  It was just another occasion for them to find out how wonderful Jesus is, and how able He is.

And when the Lord Jesus Christ says, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” it means that His grace is there to fill every need of your daily life.  We attach too much importance to ourselves when we think that we’ve got to do this, and we’ve got to do that, and we have to present something to God.  The thing that I need to present to God is an empty vessel that has no plans and no power in itself, but that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ at every turn of the way. 

And whatever problems come my way, they’re introduced to me that I might know how wonderfully Jesus Christ can solve them.  As long as I dilly-dally with them and try to solve them myself, I may feel very important, and finally go down in the struggle with an unsolved problem.  But if I see Jesus Christ over my problem, and I stand aside and I say, “Now, Jesus, how are You going to solve that?  I’ll be very much interested to see how You’ll do it, and I haven’t got the least question in my mind that Your grace won’t be sufficient for this problem.  Why, that’s why You’ve brought it to my attention.”  It looks very much as if it was my problem, but it isn’t—never! 

I may be found in a storm that seems to swallow my boat, but that storm is not to drown me.  He is the Master of that storm; wake Him up.  He says, “O ye of little faith, how is it that ye have so little faith?  Why, this storm has been allowed by the Father to make you see what a wonderful Savior you have.”  And so as I look to Him instead of looking at the storm, like Peter did, I can walk on the waves.  And I’ll find how very marvelously His grace is sufficient for me at this time.

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Doesn’t it say, “Surely Himself took our infirmities”?—our infirmities.  Doesn’t it say, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases”?  That scripture can only be fulfilled as all your diseases are brought to Him to be healed by Him.  Why, Jesus Christ is the healing of all your diseases.  Jesus Christ is the answer to all your prayers.  Jesus Christ is the guarantee that God gives you that every promise made by Him in the Bible shall be fulfilled.  “For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God by us.”

And that’s why He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” those who don’t attach any importance to themselves, but they see the great King.  Why, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The King is here, ready to reign.  He has “all power over all flesh.”  God has given it to Him.

As long as you allow yourself to be troubled with your flesh, or you allow sin or the devil to have charge of your flesh, you’re going to be very much disappointed and defeated.  But let Jesus Christ come upon the scene.  Turn it over to Him.  Give yourself “a living sacrifice” into the hands of this great Savior, and see what’ll happen.  Presently, you’ll find this flesh crucified.  Jesus Christ, thank God, has got all power over all my flesh.  It isn’t mine anymore; I’ve turned it over to Him.  And, thank God, in my very weaknesses I triumph.  “I glory in my infirmity” because there the power of Christ has a chance to manifest itself.

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The very strength of the Son of God is mine—is perfected in my weakness.  Let me no longer dishonor God by complaining over my weakness.

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While it humbles you deeply to see that you can’t and you don’t and you don’t know, Jesus Christ can and He does know.  And that creates within you that simple abandonment to the Son of God where you learn to say, “Not I, not I, not I, not I, not I, but Christ, but Christ!”  It is really “but Christ”!  Christ really comes and shines through this negative.  He really comes into His own.  He really comes and reigns where sin reigned before, and where weakness defeated me.  There the strength and power of the Son of God is manifested, and little by little I wake up and I say, “Isn’t He wonderful?”  Yes, He is wonderful!  And you will never know how wonderful Jesus is until you’ve accepted Him like that, until you’ve settled it between yourself and God that it isn’t your self but Christ.

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What have all our own efforts amounted to but to make us realize how very helpless we are—what great fizzles we are?  Have you ever come to the conclusion that all your own efforts in the ministry amount to nothing but defeat?  Oh, my God, how many, many ministers still minister in the flesh!  They do things by their own minds; they think they know how to teach people; they think they understand the Bible.  They have never capitulated; they’ve never come to the place of utter abandonment to God and utter self-abnegation and absolute poverty of spirit where they have really acknowledged that God alone knows and they don’t know, and that it must be Christ in them, and that without Him, they can do nothing.

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When He was crucified, He was simply abandoned to the Father—He simply did the Father’s will.  And that glory He has communicated to you and to me.  He says, “Even so, he that eateth Me shall live by Me.”  Oh, wonder of wonders, I don’t have to live my own life anymore!  His grace supplies me with life abundant.  Why should I struggle to live when Jesus Christ pours in His own life like a mighty Amazon river, moment by moment—when in my very weaknesses, He wants to perfect His strength?

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Your very nothingness meets the almightiness of God and becomes a vessel to be filled with Him.  That’s what God’s waiting for.  And He doesn’t ask how little you are, but He asks whether you believe it—whether you really want to come down.  He says, “Thus saith the High and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity: I dwell in the high and lofty place, with him also that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.”  And if we’re wise at all, we’re going to strive to come down, and we’re going to welcome trials that come our way—whatever they may be.

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Oh, how many, many people of God are constantly defeating the Lord, and defeating His plans because they’re not willing to fight “the fight of faith”!  They want to fight all right!—but not the fight of faith that lets Jesus Christ manifest His victory in their defeat, His strength in their weakness!  Oh, nobody likes to say, “Not I.”  Nobody likes to see themselves like that unless you’ve seen the King.  Oh, once you’ve seen Him, you fade out of sight, you deny yourself, you don’t want anymore to do with this self life.  You count it “but refuse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Oh, to “know Him and the power of His resurrection” is still the call over every life in this little room.  And where is God going to find a people that will enter in upon His plans?  Today there’s a great dearth among the people of God.  But you’d be surprised if you knew how few people have this life that they must have Jesus Himself.

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If He’s the most desired of your heart and the best Beloved, hang onto Him like that.  He won’t leave you; He’ll come.  And O my God, I know the sons of God will come forth one of these days, and I trust very speedily.  Oh Jesus!  And who are they?  Why, they are the ones whose lives are “hid with Christ in God,” who are crucified with Him, who are “dead with Him but whose lives are hid with Christ in God,” who mind “the things that are above, where Christ sitteth.”  O Jesus, I pray Thee, anoint mine eyes this morning with eyesalve that I might see.  Make me to see Thee, Lord.  Jesus, Jesus Jesus!

Early experiences with a camera.  “This is a negative.  What you’ve got to do is make a copy; let the sunlight shine through it.  And that’s what you are and I am: we’re negative; everything’s upside down in our lives, and all our own efforts and all our own strength is negative. Everything we’ve done has been crooked and cockeyed.  But let the sunlight of His grace shine through it, and there will be a purpose and a reason for everything in your life, and you’ll find out that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’  Your very weaknesses turn into strength, and your very defeats turn into victory.”    (from 5:03)

Audio Quality: Poor

The original tape is marked #148.  We ran light hiss reduction, slowed the recording to 105.25% of the original duration, applied the DeHummer, 8 filter, -30dB at 56.85Hz, a second DeHummer, 4 filter, -30dB at 58.50Hz, and compression.  The start sample in the original file for these operations was 78000000.  A few long pauses were shortened.

The original media and project files are available upon request.