Desire 455
Him its all sufficiency. The power to welcome and endure solitude is
the spirit’s power. When we locate human ways by which to soften
our burdens we are adhering to the soul. God desires us to maintain
silence, letting those crosses He has arranged for us work out His
purpose. Each time we open not our mouth in suffering, we witness
the cross working. To be dumb is the cross! He who loosens not his
tongue truly tastes its bitterness! Nevertheless his spiritual life is
nourished by the cross!
God’s AimGod aims to have His people dwell exclusively in the spirit,
willing to offer their soul life completely to death. To attain this
objective He will have to touch severely their natural desire. God
wants to destroy their natural inclinations. How often He does not
allow His child either to do or to possess things which in themselves
are not bad (they may in fact be quite legitimate and good), simply
because, as the result of emotional impulses, he wants them for
himself. If a Christian walks according to his personal aspirations he
cannot avoid being rebellious towards God. Our Lord’s aim is to
destroy absolutely the believer’s craving for anything besides
Himself. The Lord is not concerned with the nature of a thing; He
only asks what directs him to this thing—his own desire or the will
of God? The best work or walk, if it arises out of one’s desire and not
from intuitive revelation, has positively no spiritual value before
God. Many works which God had intended to lead His child into He
must temporarily suspend because that one is motivated by his own
wish. God will begin to lead His child again to these works once he
has completely yielded to Him. God longs for His will (made known
in our intuition) to be the guiding principle of our life and labor. He
does not want us to heed our own propensity even when it seems to
agree with His purpose. What we ought to heed is God’s will; what
we must deny is our own desire. Here is the wisdom of God. Why
does He forbid us to follow our inclination even when it coincides