Continual Quickening - Part 1 — Ken Baird

It's a pleasure to be with you again, and by means of the miracle of electronics to be with some who will not be present on the auditorium tonight. I approach my subject tonight with fear and trembling.

It's different from what you have heard perhaps before on this subject recently. And I said that the subject was elementary. And a brother said to me after the meeting that it was not quite so elementary and simple as it sounded.

But I think I should attempt it. Nevertheless, on behalf of the Lord, because I think it's something that we all need to know. And if I may give a subject to what I have to say tonight, the subject would be the need for continuous quickening.

The Need for Continuous Quickening

Fear and the doctrine of eternal security. And what I'm going to say tonight does not militate against the doctrine of eternal security. I'm afraid there's some Christians that the Christian life is analogous to, or can be compared at least, with the orbiting of a satellite.

There's a great big blast off that was placed in orbit. And we sail in orbit without any resistance, without any weight, for the rest of our Christian experience. That's not true. In orbit indefinitely, because there's no resistance.

But the Christian meets with continual resistance through his life. He needs to be quickened continually. Now, we'll talk about that and make that a little plainer, because we do have some younger people here tonight.

But I want them to understand this, and they'll be able to understand some of it at least. The psalmist felt the need of continuous quickening. Now, I mean by that the continual life-giving power of the Lord.

Now, I know the moment that we believe in the Lord Jesus, we have everlasting life imparted to us. But that life is not self-sustaining, and the Lord must sustain it. And we can cut ourselves off from the Lord just as effectively after we're saved as before we were saved.

And to be cut off from the Lord is spiritual death. And we need quickening. It's the same thought that the psalmist expresses in the 21st Psalm. He restoreth my soul. It's a continuous... Now, the psalmist in the 119th Psalm gives need for quickening.

And I want to deal with the subject tonight, the need for continuous quickening, under three headings. First of all, the absence of it. And then the means of it. And then the results of it. Here we have the absence of it tonight.

The Absence of Quickening and Spiritual Death

In the 25th verse of the 119th Psalm, My soul cleaveth unto the dust. Quicken thou me according to thy word. My soul cleaveth unto the dust. That is, the dust of death. The scriptures tell us plainly, the Lord tells us, dust thou art, and the dust thou shalt be.

The psalmist says, my soul cleaveth unto the dust. Oh, it's so hard to get rid of the dust. And when he pleads, quicken thou me according to thy word. I need to be quickened. I need to be given life. Now, what does he mean?

Well, we're going to seek to find out what he means. Because he indeed realizes, as we've all realized, that we revert. Even after God saves our souls, we revert. Continually. Even death to our souls.

What do we mean by death, anyway? Death is not annihilation. Death is separation. When we speak of physical death, we speak of the separation of the body and the soul, or rather the soul and the spirit from the body.

The two are separated. I know we think of death as annihilation because of the results of the body. But God is going to raise that dust someday. And that body, though it seems to disintegrate, and carries with it our thoughts of death, yet that's not a picture of death at all.

It's simply separation. Now, spiritual death is separation from God. That's what it is. It's separation from God, and when I'm separated from him, by whatever means the separation takes place, I am reverting to that seat that I was in before God saved my soul.

The psalmist puts it another way, and this time it's David. I suppose that perhaps Daniel is the writer of the 119th Psalm. It's not attributed to David, and there are some who feel that Daniel is the author.

But David has exactly the same feeling. Psalm 28, please. He says in the first verse of the 28th Psalm, unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock. Be not silent to me, lest it all be silent to me. I become like them that go down into the pit.

There is the result of the absence of continuous quickening. I become like them that go down into the pit. He reverts. The child of God can revert right back to where he was before God saved him. He can get back into that state, and I don't think we recognize it, and I don't think we take the proper means of preventing it.

We need to be continually quickened. And if we're not in touch with God, we revert. I think that this would be a good time right now to just simply consider this a little more in detail. Psalm chapter 17, if you please.

Then you'll know what we're talking about. There the Lord in his prayer, in verse 3,. And this is his light eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast chosen, is his light eternal, that they might know thee.

Jesus hath his Son, hath life. And when we get saved, sometimes we say that we receive eternal life. I wonder sometimes if that might not be more accurately stated if we say we enter in upon eternal life.

We come in contact with the Lord in a living contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, and with God our Father, and that is life. Spiritual death is separation from the Lord. And life is contact with the Lord to have him within the focus of the vision of our soul.

It's eternal life to behold him. And the Lord says, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now, for the opposite of this, let's notice 1 Timothy chapter 4.

Chapter 5, I'm sorry. Chapter 5. Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow hath children or nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to require deterrence, for that is good and acceptable before God.

Now, she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is dead whilst she liveth. What does that mean?

God is not in the focus of her soul. God is not before her. And she is dead. Does that mean she's lost her salvation? Oh no. Because it says she's dead whilst she liveth. Yes, she liveth. But she is dead whilst she liveth.

God is not before her. Her eyes, her thoughts have turned to pleasure. The Lord is not her slave. Now, the widow, in verse 5, is paid upon the Lord. She is passed upon the Lord. She is not passed upon the Lord.

She's living in pleasure. And she's dead. Now, she needs to be quickened. And you and I need to be quickened. Our life, indeed, is a life that needs to be sustained by the God who gave it to us. It needs to be quickened by the God who gave it to us.

Notice Psalm 143, if you please. Now, I think before the meeting is over, you're going to find out that this is your experience. I know there's such a deal, perhaps, that you don't understand of what I'm driving at right now.

But I trust with the help of the Lord that we will understand what we're talking about. And we will recognize it in our own experience. The psalmist says in verse 6 of the 143rd Psalm, I stretch forth my hands unto thee.

My soul hurts as after thee. As a thirsty land, felah. A thirsty land is a place of death. Exaggerate. Now, this man, in his experience, he says, My soul hurts as after thee. David could say, My moisture and the psalmist feels, and the psalmist is Simon David, The psalmist feels that long for the Lord.

And then he goes on to say, Hear me, see me, O Lord. He says, My spirit faileth. He's threatening. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. He reverts.

I have heard some people here, particularly at all, but I have heard of some grave disappointments in some people who have professed to be the children of God. Because those who are truly saved by getting away from God and getting them out of their focus can go right back to where they were before God reached them.

The flesh is never saved. The flesh in you and me is not even modified. It's not even inhibited. It's irritated. And it will claim us. Continuous quickening. Now, here are two. And the absence of continuous quickening will cause the soul to revert to death, and it will cause the life to resemble a heathen.

Now, something else it will do. It will fill our souls with bitterness. In the 73rd Psalm, we see an example of this. Let's see what the man in the 73rd Psalm has his eye upon. Some of you know it so well.

Bitterness Caused by Losing Sight of God

Asaph says, Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a dim heart. He says, For me, my feet were almost gone, my depth had well nigh split. For I was envious of the foolish in their depth, but their strength was firm.

Asaph has his eyes in the wrong place. He has his eyes upon the weakest, and their prosperity and desires are not on the Lord. And his soul becomes filled with bitterness. He even hesitates to talk about it in his admiration for the unsaved, or his envy of the unsaved, perhaps we'd better say.

And he doesn't dare talk about it because he has enough conscience that he doesn't want to offend or stumble any other child of God. Verse 15,. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning, in contrast to the ease of the life of the prosperous wicked.

Then he says in verse 15,. If I say I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of my children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God.

Then understood I their end. Now, that poor sacred child, he says in verse 21,. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was put in my reign, so foolish was I in ignorance I was as a thief before thee. Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.

As thou hast told of me by my right hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none that I desire, there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.

My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my fortune forever. Ape has kept his eyes on the Lord. Now, these are the results of the lack of continual prudence. Quantity to the unsaved about us, reverting back to the old ways of death, or how we need to be refined.

How we need to be quickened. The life that we have within us appreciates the things of God, but that life must be spared, it must be sustained. Let's talk about the means of quickening. Certainly it is to apprehend God and to have him before us.

Spiritual Senses and the Means of Quickening

Now, we apprehend things in this life by means of our five senses, and here's something that the boys and girls will be interested in, too. We apprehend and we have consciousness in this life through five senses.

That is, the sense of sight, the sense of hearing, we're using both of those senses right now, the sense of taste, the sense of smelling, and the sense of touch. Now, through the exercise of those five senses, we have what we call consciousness.

Now, take away those senses. What have we got? Well, if we take away those five senses, we're either unconscious or dead. Now, if we take away one of those senses, we've lost something. But God, in all of his wisdom, has made it so that if one sense disappears take, for instance, the sense of sight, then the other senses compensate, and they become more acute and more sensitive so that we can get along quite well.

Now, it would be a terrible thing to lose our sight and to lose our hearing both. That would be awful. It happened once to a little girl by the name of Helen Keller. She's long since passed away. But, that little girl was totally blind and totally dead.

How would you reach a person like that? They would be away from you. How would you reach them? You can't speak a word into their ears. They can't see you. Totally isolated, as if at the bottom of the shaft of a mine or sack in a dungeon with nobody around.

Have you ever tried to contemplate what that would mean? And I think of the wonder of that instructor that brought that little girl out of that oblivion into consciousness with other people so that Helen Keller became, indeed, an uneducated woman, yet even a lecturer.

To the patience of that instructor. Now, that's what happens when we lose our senses. Just as we have physical senses, we have spiritual senses which are the counterparts of our physical senses. Now, through those senses, we have contact with God and we live.

We have consciousness. God-consciousness. I think I told the boys and girls here once about an experience. Trying to ever see the facts. And some people actually have to say, well, I just don't know whether I'm saved or not.

I wonder about a statement like that. Trying to show some boys and girls the foolishness of making a statement like that. Now, maybe I'm talking to somebody here tonight. I don't know. But if I am, you listen.

Have you ever wondered whether or not you're really saved or not? Well, chances are, if you've wondered whether or not you're really saved, you may well not be saved. Do I have to wonder whether or not I'm alive?

I said to one of the little boys in the audience, I said, Philip, are you alive? Well, he looked up and he said, yes. I said, can you prove it? Well, he looked at me and his mouth kind of came open. Well, how do you go about proving that you're alive?

I said, are you alive? Yes. I said, well, prove it. Well, he saw me and he saw me. Well, how was he going to prove that he was alive? And he couldn't answer me. He was sure he was alive, but he couldn't prove it.

Well, a little girl pulled up and she raised her hand and I said, what do you have to say about this? And she says, well, I can see. And oh, it caught on then. And another little child says, well, I can hear.

And another child says, I can feel. Well, you know what they did. They went through the five senses. They knew they were alive because they had those senses. Now, you and I have spiritual senses, and I can't quite understand the person who says they don't know whether or not they're safe.

I can't quite understand that. I know whether I've got physical life or not, and I'm very dogmatic about it. I'm sure I have. Now, should it be any harder to determine whether or not I have spiritual life?

Couldn't be. Because I've got spiritual senses. If you talk about them, notice, if you will, please, in Hebrews chapter 5. These things are basic, but after all, we'd better find out whether we have got spiritual life or not.

It's a good thing. Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14. Just for sake of time, we'll read only the one verse. "...but strongly belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of youth exercise to discern both good and evil.".

Our physical senses can be exercised to discern both good and evil. For instance, if you go to the stove and you forget that you've just turned off the burner and you touch that burner, your senses are exercised right now.

And you've decided that you've discovered something very evil, and you get your finger out of there in a hurry. Now, we have spiritual senses. "...a combination of the functioning of these...". Oh, that's a big word, isn't it?

I used to use big words like that when I was a boy. I think they're okay, but I'm going to have to do it, I guess. I'll use one word for the adults. "...the functioning of those spiritual senses gives us consciousness of God.".

We know we're saved. We know we're saved just exactly as we know we have physical life. Now, the working of our spiritual senses gives us contact with God, and we know he's there, and we know he's listening.

Spiritual Sight and Seeing the Invisible

Now, let's look at some of them. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15. "...wherefore I also, after I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, seek not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.".

"...he may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the witness of the glory of his inheritance in his kingdom, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to those who believe.". Now, the spiritual eyes are enlightened to see some of these things.

We have spiritual eyes. Spiritual eyes that see. Now, look for a moment at 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16. "...for which cause we faint not," I'm going to break in to the text, "...for which cause we faint not, but rather though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is removed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.". Now, here we have that famous paragraph. Well, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

We look at the things that are not seen. How do you do that? Well, spirit's a lifeline, believe me. Now, the things that we can see are not real. Now, don't judge me too quickly on this until you follow me through.

I'm not a mystic, but what I mean is this. If you can see it, it's temporal. Anything that you can see, this picture, this pulpit, anything that you can see is temporal, not going to last. In the end, actually, it's going to be burned up.

Peter talks about that coming day. If you can see it, it's temporal. But, the things which you cannot see are eternal and they're real. I'm talking about the soul. I'm talking about the spirit. That's the real thing.

We talk about real estate. There's no such thing as real estate under the term, under the meaning of the term that we use it for. And, it's very unreal estate. It's perishable. Now, the immediate context is the body.

There's something serious to introduce in verse 16. The apostle says, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. It's the outward man that's perishing.

Now, this body, I can see it, I can feel it. The soul I can't feel, see, and feel with it. The spirit I can't see, it's eternal. It's going to last forever. Notice the context. It goes right on in chapter 5, because we've got a chapter division there.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God. A house not made with hands. Eternal in the heavens. Immediate context. Context is the body. We can see it, therefore, it's coming.

But, ah, there's a body coming for us. That's eternal. It's made without hands. It's amazing what spiritual lifetimes can do. Let's turn to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 3, to Moses, verse 24,. By faith Moses, when he was called, when he was come to Europe, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, receiving the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward.

By faith he pursued Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing him who was invisible. Moses saw him who was invisible. The Lord says of Abraham, Abraham rejoiced to see my day in Zion.

He had good spiritual lifetimes. He could see a long way spiritually. Moses endured as seeing him who was invisible. You and I are encouraged to use our spiritual lifetimes, too. We read, for instance, in chapter 12, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.

Let us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Looking unto Jesus. Yes, God wants him to be within the focus of our spiritual lifetimes. How is that sense working, incidentally? Is it working good? Do we have good spiritual lifetimes? You know, we have spiritual hearings, too.

Hearing the Voice of Christ

We have a sense, spiritually speaking, in our souls that corresponds with a physical sense of hearing. The Lord Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they fall in me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My sheep, the Lord might have put the emphasis this way, my sheep hear my voice. Do you hear his voice? Does the Lord speak to you of me? Do we know he's speaking to us? Now, really now, what do we know about that?

Is that just an expression? Or do we know, on occasion, do these spiritual ears of ours hear the voice of the Lord speaking to us? Not an audible voice. Do we know that the Lord is speaking to us? I think we do.

The Lord Jesus says, at the end of the Laodicean letter, he says, Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear my voice, I will come into him, and talk with him, and he will hear me. Can we hear his voice?

Yes. He said to me on many occasions, You've read that newspaper long enough. Just be sure that you read your Bible just as much as you do the newspaper. And you've read the newspaper long enough. You should read your Bible.

The Lord Jesus knocks on our heart's door, and we're convicted immediately. I ought to be praised. I ought to be reading my Bible. The Lord wants entrance. He wants to speak with me. He wants to have fellowship with me.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and talk with him, and he will hear me. What do we know of this? Does he speak to us? Hear his voice? Do we have the experience of when we have problems, going to the Lord, thistle problems, and asking him for help?

Do we sit down and we open up the Word of God? And right there on the written page is the solution for our problems. As if the Lord were telling us what to do. Do we hear his voice? Does he speak to us out of this Word?

Do you hear the voice of the Lord speaking to you? If you don't, you may not have life. If you can't see the Lord, put fear to your life sight if you can't hear his voice speaking to you. If this Bible doesn't speak to your heart, then you don't have life.

If you don't have it, is it a dry book to you? Is it a dry book to hear his voice? Then you know. I think there's a thing people say. Jeremiah spoke about eating his Word, and it was delicious to his taste.

The Sweetness and Nourishment of God's Word

Some of these times I'm going to sit down and learn this verse like a Sunday school person learns it. I have done that, but I'll teach it again. He says, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and the blessing of my heart.

For I am called by thy name, O Lord of hosts. And then he speaks of food in the Bible, but there's the milk of the Word. I love it. And then there's the strong meat of the Word of God. The milk of Christ in his humility, and the meat of Christ in his invocation, and his glory, spiritual food.

Did you taste it? How about it? You know, we're so anxious to get our three meals a day, and I don't miss them either. I'm right there. I'm right there when the dinner call is given. I don't miss any of my meals.

This book, Good Word Gone, it strengthens us. How about the milk of the Word? When he said of Jeremiah, it was sweet to my taste. The exercise of a spiritual sense. We have more than that. We have the sense of spiritual touch.

Conscience as Spiritual Touch

I think I can probably get at this better in a negative sort of way. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 4, please. Now the Spirit speaketh, in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, seeking lives in hypocrisy, having their conscience sheared with a hot iron.

Now, I think, if you permit me, my views in death, and I don't know what else but permit me to have my views. You can question them, but you must let me have my opinion on this. I think the spiritual sense of touch is a conscience, a tender conscience.

Now, the Apostle speaks here of those who have a seared conscience with a hot iron. You know what happens when you touch, you ladies, if you touch your finger to a hot iron, or you men, perhaps, you pick up a spool that's hot with a hold of a welding iron or something like that.

You know what happens. Your skin gets smooth and shiny, teeth of the board, and you can hardly feel anything. You see, that's just like conscience. Conscience can be used so much that it becomes calloused, it becomes seared.

And, I think that the Christian has a sense of touch in a sort of way. His conscience is his sensitivity, his sensitivity toward the Lord. Do we have a sense of touch? Are we in touch with God, with our conscience?

The Fragrance of Christ in the Christian Life

Now, the spiritual sense of smell is a little bit harder to come by, but I think we've seen it. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. Now, thanks be unto God, which always hosts us to triumph in Christ, making manifest the favor of his knowledge by us in every place.

For we are unto God a each favor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the favor of death unto death, to the other the favor of life unto life. Three people, or three persons, smell the Christian, the smell of God, we hope, about him.

God smells him, first of all, and he smells Christ. The unsaved smell us, and the saved. Now, I'm borrowing this is figurative language, but I think let's talk about the sense of smelling a little bit before we go any farther with it.

I think it's one of the most remarkable senses that we've got. The sense of smelling is so keen, the sense of a skunk, which recalls to your mind, is so, the sense of smell is so keen that I have forgotten my exact figure, but one part in something like a million or a hundred million, I have forgotten which it is, is deservable in a note.

Mr. Skunk has just walked across the scene a mile down there, Mr. Skunk, and it's even more remarkable in animals. You can walk along here in a, and the right kind of dog can follow you hours after you've gone by, or you can't.

It's a remarkable sense, and you know we have a spiritual sense of smell, you can smell a Christian. There's a smell of Christ about him, and you can smell a non-Catholic person too. Others are acquainted, they're aware of the fact that we belong to God.

There's a smell of Christ about him. The exercise of all these spiritual senses gives us God's consciousness, when he is in the focus of these spiritual senses. These are in connection with a life. Now, first of all, you've got to have a life to appeal to.

I've got to have physical life in my body for my senses to appeal to that life, and I've got to have a spiritual life that comes to me when I'm born again. The Spirit of God puts the life of Christ within me, and that life feels after God, and knows God, and moves in a spiritual sphere through his spiritual senses, the counterpart of our physical senses.

All right, now, we've gone a long way to get to this one. What do you see about a person? You neither see, nor hear, nor smell, nor taste, nor feel. You neither see, nor hear, nor smell. We're far gone, aren't we?

He's either unconscious or dead. Now, what do you hear? What do you see about a Christian that never sees the Lord? He's not in the focus of the eyes of our understanding. He doesn't hear his voice, and he doesn't taste his good words.

He doesn't reach any sense of Christ, and he's not full of all. His conscience is not disturbed about his taste before God. What do you say about it? Well, I'll tell you what, you need sickening. You need sickening.

This life, thank God, can be appealed to. But, we need to have Christ before us. We need to be in contact with him. Now, when we are in contact with Christ, and let's get down to the results of continuous sickening, we've talked about the means of it, and the different senses that God has given us that give us contact with him, and how anybody can see, and that they're not sure.

If we have good spiritual senses to apprehend God, we ought to be able to make up our minds whether or not we're saved. Now, here's what happens. Here's what happens when we do get in contact with God.

The Results of Continuous Quickening

Everybody around us knows it. You know, when a child, when a physical child is born into this world, everybody around them knows it. They let you know about it. And, when a person is born into the family of God, I think the same thing is true, too, in another way.

They let you know about it, too. You can tell when a child has really been born into the family of God. Now, can others tell when we have been christened in the presence of the Lord, they certainly can.

I think of Moses, who was on the mount of the Lord. Now, Moses didn't realize it until he came into the camp, and they were afraid of him. When they backed off from Moses, they were afraid of him, because his face was shining.

And, you know, it's possible even for Christians to be afraid of God, if your face is shining. You may not be conscious of it being shining, but when you're in the presence of the God who is light, your face is shining.

Would it marvel at the the aggressiveness of the apostles in the early days, who acknowledged of them that they had been with Jesus? You can tell when they've been with Jesus, and others can tell as well, when we have been christened.

Now, I don't mean that we that we become dynamic, that we become leaders. I think that people can tell when you've been in the presence of the Lord, and they seek your presence, and they enjoy it, because they can smell something of Christ.

You need to be in the presence of the Lord. You need to be holding. You need to be pushing. If spiritual death really is, if you will admit to that definition of spiritual death, that it's separation from God, we may very effectively separate ourselves from him in our lives.

As a matter of fact, haven't you had the experience at the end of the day, when you pull the Lord on your knees, and say, I don't want tomorrow to be like today. I want to get in your presence, and I'm just glad this day's over, and I'm just glad that I can close the day, and Lord, don't let tomorrow be like today.

And we get into the, oh we long for the presence of the Lord. That'd be our experience more and more, to see you out for him, and I'm satisfied to be away from him. I've cut myself off from him, and I've said to myself, and all of you have said this to yourself tonight, I've said to the Lord at the end of the day, Lord, I've been nothing different today than a heathen.

No contact. I've been separated from him by one means or another. Now, that doesn't mean that I've lost my spiritual life. It means that my spiritual senses have not benefited him, not been healed after him.

I need to be present. And this is a continuous act of mind. We'll be blessed when we get into the presence of the Lord. We could talk about the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood. We have to go in before we come out.

But, as we'll be blessed in our lives, we'll be a blessing for the Lord. May God help us to learn things experimentally. And, in the will of the Lord, tomorrow night, or the night, these things have been basic.