1月16日 神本性的呼声

我又听见主的声音，说，我可以差遣谁呢？（赛六8）

说到神的呼召，我们很容易忘记一件最重要的事：就是呼召者的本性。海有海的呼声，山有山的呼声，冰山有冰山的呼声；这些呼声只有少数人听见。呼声是事物本性的一种表现，必须有同样的性情才能接收那呼声。神的呼召是神本性的流露，而不是我们的。神的呼声中，有好些线路是预定给我们用的，所以我们才认得那声音。神的声音透过那线路来呼召我们，别人是呼不出来的。在某些特别的事上，与人磋商斟酌是无济于事，我们必须保持与神的密切关系。

神的呼召不是我们本性的反响；我的喜好倾向于个性，也渺不相涉。如果只一直注视自己的个性，想看自己到底适合做什么，那将永远听不见神的呼召。但当我与神深交，就落在以赛亚的情景里了。以赛亚的心灵因经历了重大的事件，与神密切贴近，他惊异的心灵就录下了神呼唤的声音。我们多半只用耳朵听自己，神所说的，一点也听不进去。我们若一旦进入神呼召的音城里，必然彻底改变。

祈祷◆“让我听见你的声音”——这是我的祈祷。我极其盼望去聆听你、去感觉你，被你的同在所震撼。

January 16 The Voice Of The Nature Of GOD

“I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?” Isaiah 6:8

When we speak of the call of God, we are apt to forget the most important feature, viz., the nature of the One Who calls. There is the call of the sea, the call of the mountains, the call of the great ice barriers, but these calls are only heard by the few. The call is the expression of the nature from which it comes, and we can only record the call if the same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God's nature, not of our nature. There are strands of the call of God providentially at work for us which we recognize and no one else does. It is the threading of God's voice to us in some particular matter, and it is no use consulting anyone else about it. We have to keep that profound relationship between our souls and God.

The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my affinities and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah's soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.