Letter from Norman
Phyllis my dear,
Your letter has followed down to me on this tour. You know I always like to exchange letters with you. You are such a plain searcher and digger, and you share your searchings with me.
Of course you are right, dear, this “trying” life is way off, because it is really Satan’s independent “try-try” spirit expressed by us as if us. But as you realize it is God’s good negative way of giving us a “good” dark which can then be replaced by a perfect light.
But, dear, the “stone of stumbling” you are always being tripped up on is that you hope God may sometime bring you to this release, but meanwhile you must struggle and suffer. SOMEHOW the Spirit will open your eyes to the given fact that all this is already yours. That Satan-spirit of “try, try” was cast out on Jesus’s body on Calvary, of course representing our bodies (2 Cor. 5:14 & 21, and then Rom. 6:6, 7 & 11). You see you are still assessing your experience by your feelings and appearances. You’ll never get through that way, and by that deceit. You and we have to BELIEVE. Our only “obedience” is what Paul called us to–to the “obedience of faith” Rom. 1:5 & 16:26, almost the first and last verses of Romans–just obeying not by works but by solidly believing what He has told you to believe in His Word!
Dear, there’s no other way and you foolishly “suffer” till you “obey” by believing. And believing means from your heart and will saying a thing is what the Scripture says it is, and keep saying it as fact, and bearing witness to it, no matter how you or others “feel.” So you say, I am the love of God (Christ in me). And don’t say “I need that kind of love”! And don’t wait for a heart of flesh, but SAY “I have that heart because it is HE as me,” even though you feel it is still a heart of stone! No other way, love.
So I’ve got to keep “getting at” my Phyllis pen-friend until you “Obey” and simply say and say and say those facts about yourself–that that “try-try” spirit of independent self has been put out of you at Calvary, and the Spirit of truth, HE HIMSELF in you as you, fixed for eternity is the fact. And as you keep saying it, the Spirit will confirm it to you and you’ll write and tell me so–John 5:10.
Loving you as ever,
Norman
p.s. I left my glasses in the car when Sandie drove on to friends yesterday, so have to do this by magnifying. Thank God for some good seeing in this my ninetieth year!
