TRIBUTE TO FRANCES

I would like to talk about how much this book has been a blessing in my life. You see, Frances was the one playing the piano at Dorothy Matthews house when I got saved. She glanced over after I had just been touched by heaven with a big loving grin, not missing a beat in the songs, as if to say"what do you think of that!?" She was a great friend and confidant, and will be greatly missed. A wonderful woman of God just quietly going about her Father's work. She went home to be with the Lord @ age 91 just this past July. So many excerpts from her books have touched me through the years, but this one stands out the most. "HEAD INTO THE WIND".................O My beloved, be not anxious concerning tomorrow. Thou shalt encounter nothing of which I am not already cognizant. My mercy is concealed within every storm cloud. My grace flows beneath every cross-current. My wisdom has conceived a solution to every perplexity. I have deliberately set obstacles in thy path to test thy prowess. I shall not always cause favorable winds to blow upon thy barque, for then ye would be at ease and would soon grow soft and dull. It is when the wind is high and the waves are threatening that ye become alert and keen, and thus I can strengthen your spiritual fiber. The storm is not a thing to fear but rather to welcome. Ye shall learn to head into the wind with sheer delight as soon as ye have made the discovery that in the time of stress and strain, ye have the clearest revelations of Myself. Was in not true of the disciples? Looking out across the raging water, what did they see? Was it not Jesus? Jesus coming unto them! To have had this happen only once, would have been worth weathering many storms. In the midst of the multi-heated fiery furnace, what saw the three Hebrew lads? Was it not the living form of Jesus Christ Himself having come to join company with them? Yea, He shone so bright His brilliance obliterrated the sight of the flames! Nay, ye need have no fear. Ye need not fear the fickleness of providence ~~ for behind all that looks to thee like utter chaos, I have a plan which is working for good in thy behalf. Ye need never fear as to whether I will be faithful to thee, for if I have never failed anyone else, why would I fail thee? Ye have an innumerable company of spectators cheering thee from the ramparts of heaven, reminding you of what I did for them, and encouraging you that the struggle is not interminable, but surprisingly soon it shall end in victory for you also ~~ if ye endure faithful. Do ye fear the weakness within thine own self? Lo I have put it there to drive thee to Myself. I may never answer thy prayers to be made strong, but I will give you the same promise I gave Paul, that in your weakness I will be your strength. For it is still true that My grace operates most effectively when ye have a conscious sense of need ~~ yea, even a desperate awareness of your own complete helplessness. Miracles burst forth out of the moist, cold soil of human tragedy. Moist with tears, and cold with hopelessness. I never get a chance to do miracles for you when you are occupied with self-realization ~~ while ye are entertaining ideas about what wonderful thing I am going to make out of you. I do not use you for material for miracles; I make miracles out of My own Being. I allow you to watch Me after ye thoroughly understand that it is I who am supernatural, not you. You do not have to be other than what I created you : human. You are only obligated to do that for which I created you: glorify Me. Stand back! Let God be God. Let man be man. Once ye accept your limitations and settle the fact once and for all that I will never ask you to perform Herculean feats, ye can begin to learn what I really have in mind for you. I am not discouraged with you, but ye will become discouraged with yourself if ye are not able to comprehend the truth of what I taught through Paul, that it is the foolish whom I use to confound the wise, and the things which are nothing, to shatter man's pride in the things which he has made himself. I am the Ruler, and I will reign. Ye can resist Me, but it shall inevitably be to thine own destruction. Love Me and trust Me, and stay in a place of humility. As it is written, "Humble thyself under the mighty hand of God, and He will raise thee up." Mind you, He will do it. Ye need not raise yourself. You need only stay humble.