Empire's End by Jerry Jenkins, James S. MacDonald Page B

mighty of the world; and the base things and the things that are despised of the world My Father has chosen, that no flesh should be proud in His presence. But you are in Me. As it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
    So don’t worry about excellence of speech or wisdom when you declare the testimony of My Father. You need know nothing except Me and Me crucified. You may be weak and fearful, even trembling, and your preaching may not be persuasive. But in My Spirit and with power, My Father will be manifest through you
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    It is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But My Father will reveal them to you through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, the deep things of God. No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God
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    The natural man does not receive the things of God. They are foolishness to him, because they are spiritually discerned. He who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the L ORD that he may instruct Him?”
    Some you will have to speak to not as spiritual people but as carnal, as to babes. Feed them milk and not solid food until they are able to receive it. Where there are envy, strife, and division, people are carnal and behave like mere humans
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    As a wise master builder, lay the foundation and let another build on it. But let each take heed how he builds. For no other foundation can anyone lay than the one that is laid, which is Me. If anyone builds on this foundationwith gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become clear, because it one day will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort it is. If anyone’s work endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet as through fire
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    You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, My Father will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy
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    I knew the instruction for that day had ended, and I felt a profound change in me. As one might imagine, hearing the very voice of God humbles a man to the point where he feels like a worm, lower than low. All the while I was in communion with God I felt the depth of my unworthiness, of my sin, of my wretched lostness.
    Yet in the silences that followed, even in the silences He allowed between revelations to me, it was as if my Creator knew me—as David of old had exulted about Him—and knew my frame and remembered that I was dust. In those moments He warmed me, filled me, comforted me with His presence. I was overwhelmed by His love and forgiveness.
    I, of all people, had no right, no claim to His endless, immeasurable mercy. I had been the chiefest of sinners, a murderer, and I had not seen myself for who I was, had not shown remorse, regret, or sorrow. I had not repented when He showered me with grace—only when was I faced with my depravity and could do nothing more than receive His righteousness.
    I had read the ancient Scripture without understanding, and now it was as if God’s own light of truth shone on it from heaven and made clear as crystal for me the meaning and the object, about whom this had been written: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the L ORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
    Enraptured by the truth that there was nothing I could have done about my sin and that God had laid upon Jesus
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iniquity, all I could do was lie in the sun and weep. Unable to frame words, I merely praised my Savior until my eyes were dry.
    When I reached my work table an hour later, trying to refocus on things temporal, I prayed God would soon tell me specifically what He wanted me to preach in His name. Where was I to go, to whom