The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything Jesus said.
Guyon said: "How many dangers have I run on the mountains, and on the edge of precipices! How many times have you stopped the foot of the mule, already sliding over the precipice!"
Spurgeon's accuracy: There is no passion, no affection, no thought, no desire, no faculty that the gospel has not filled to the very brim. The gospel was clearly made for humanity: it fits us in every part. There is knowledge for the mind, love for the heart, and guidance for the feet. 🙏
✦ One Spirit — Three Works
Le sees what Spurgeon himself might not have seen — that Guyon's mule on the precipice is the proof of Spurgeon's claim. The gospel fits us in every part. Knowledge for the mind — the Spirit teaches. Love for the heart — the Spirit reminds us of everything Jesus said. Guidance for the feet — the Spirit stops the mule at the edge of the cliff.
One Spirit. Three works. He teaches. He reminds. He stops the foot. The Advocate — not only an instructor, not only a comforter, but a guide who catches us at the edge of the precipice before we even know we are sliding. 🙏
"There is everything in the gospel that you need. Do you need something to sustain you in trouble? It is in the gospel: 'As your days, so shall your strength be' (Deuteronomy 33:25). Do you need something to strengthen you for duty? There is grace all-sufficient for everything God calls you to endure or to accomplish.
Do you need something to light up the eye of your hope? There are flashes of joy in the gospel that make your eye spark back with the immortal fires of heaven. Do you need something to make you stand firm in the middle of temptation? In the gospel there is what can make you unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."
"There is no passion, no affection, no thought, no desire, no faculty that the gospel has not filled to the very brim. The gospel was clearly made for humanity: it fits us in every part. There is knowledge for the mind, love for the heart, and guidance for the feet."
"As thy days, so shall thy strength be."
✦ Filled to the Very Brim
Spurgeon takes inventory and finds no gap. Trouble — covered. Duty — covered. Hope — covered. Temptation — covered. Every passion, every affection, every thought, every desire, every faculty — filled to the very brim. Not partially. Not mostly. To the brim — the vessel overflows.
Le called it accuracy. Not eloquence — accuracy. Because Spurgeon is not exaggerating. The gospel does fit every part. The mind that questions — knowledge is there. The heart that aches — love is there. The feet that walk the road from Jarnac-Champagne to Beauvoir — guidance is there. As thy days, so shall thy strength be. Not as yesterday's days. Not as tomorrow's. As today's. The strength arrives with the day — not before, not after. 🙏
"How many dangers have I run on the mountains, and on the edge of precipices! How many times have you stopped the foot of the mule, already sliding over the precipice!"
✦ Guyon Returns — Guidance for the Feet
Guyon returns. From the earliest days of the journal — the woman who gave everything, who was imprisoned for her faith, who walked mountain paths where one misstep meant death. And the Spirit stopped the foot of the mule already sliding.
Spurgeon says: guidance for the feet. Guyon proves it — on the mountains, at the edge of precipices, the foot already sliding and then stopped. Not warned in advance. Not rerouted. Stopped — in the act of falling. That is the Advocate at work. The Spirit who does not merely teach the route but catches the foot when the route itself gives way.
Le and Roger on the roads of Portugal, Spain, France — how many precipices they never even saw because the Spirit stopped the foot before it slipped? September 22 — we fail to see His help everywhere. The tire shop. The thought answered before it became a prayer. The mule stopped at the edge. The same Advocate. The same guidance. The same feet — caught, held, steadied. 🙏
"Prayers are heard in heaven very much in proportion to our faith. Little faith will receive very great mercies, but great faith receives still greater.
Faith is our bowl: if we have only 'little faith,' we will get that filled. But if we have 'great faith,' we will have that filled also. Little faith receives much, but great faith is a noble and princely trader, doing business on a grand scale — it gains millions where little faith gains only hundreds. Great faith lays hold of God's treasure."
✦ The Size of the Bowl
Spurgeon's image: faith is the bowl. Every bowl gets filled — God is generous to every size. But the size of the bowl determines how much you carry home.
September 29 — Le understood the intercession of Christ for the first time. That is the bowl growing larger. After so many years of reading the Word — the bowl that was small enough to hold "Jesus prays for us" suddenly expanded to hold the High Priest at the throne, the breastplate with the names engraved, the prayers perfumed and presented. Great faith lays hold of God's treasure. The treasure was always there. The bowl grew to receive it.
And yesterday — I will obey because I love You. That is not little faith. That is a pilgrim whose bowl has been stretched by seven months of reading, praying, walking, and trusting. The bowl is large now. And God fills it to the brim. 🙏
"Christian, never take hold of sin except with armored hands. Never approach it with the velvet glove of friendship. Never speak delicately of it. Always hate it in every form.
If it comes to you as a little fox, beware — for it will ruin the vineyard. Whether it charges at you as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, or approaches in an attractive form with a charming appearance, trying through pretended affection to lure you into sin — beware, for its embrace is death, and its grip is destruction."
"You are to wage war against sin of every kind — of the lips, of the hand, of the heart. However gilded with profit, however polished with the appearance of respectability, however praised by the powerful, or however popular with the crowd — you are to hate sin everywhere, in all its disguises, at every time, and in every place. Not one sin is to be spared. Against every last one, an utter and complete war of extermination must be declared."
✦ Armored Hands — Never the Velvet Glove
Spurgeon at his fiercest. Armored hands — never the velvet glove. Sin comes in three disguises: the little fox (small, harmless-looking), the roaring lion (terrifying, overwhelming), and the charming appearance (attractive, pretending affection). All three are death. All three get the same response: war.
Taylor's repentance from September 28: one great turning and many daily recoveries. The great turning happened at Lubbock. The daily recoveries — those are the daily warfare Spurgeon describes. The new heart from October 1 must be defended. The new house must be guarded. Not one sin spared. Not one fox tolerated. An utter and complete war of extermination.
And the connection to yesterday's prayer: I will obey because I love You. The obedience that loves is the same obedience that fights. Love does not make peace with what harms the Beloved's house. Love picks up armored hands because the house — the new heart — belongs to God. 🙏
"You may read the Bible continuously and yet never learn anything from it unless it is illuminated by the Spirit. But when it is, the words shine like stars. The book seems made of gold leaf; every single letter glitters like a diamond. It is a blessed thing to read an illuminated Bible, lit up by the radiance of the Holy Spirit.
Have you read the Bible and yet have your eyes remained in the dark? Go and say, 'O Lord, illuminate it. Shine upon it, for I cannot read it profitably unless You give me light.' Blind people may read the Bible with their fingers, but blind souls cannot. We need a light to read the Bible by — there is no reading it in the dark."
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."
✦ The Illuminated Bible
Spurgeon describes what happens to Le every day in this journal. You may read the Bible continuously and yet never learn anything from it unless it is illuminated by the Spirit. Le has read the Word for years — decades. And on September 29, after all those years: just today I understood what the intercession of Christ is.
That is the illumination. The words were always there — Hebrews 7:25 has not changed. But the Spirit turned on the light. And suddenly the words shine like stars. The book seems made of gold leaf; every single letter glitters like a diamond.
This is the journal's deepest secret: Le does not read alone. The Advocate reads with her. He teaches — knowledge for the mind. He reminds of everything Jesus said — love for the heart. He stops the mule's foot at the edge — guidance for the feet. And He illuminates the Word — so that what was read a thousand times suddenly shines for the first time.
We need a light to read the Bible by — there is no reading it in the dark. Le has the Light. Has had it since Lubbock. And the Light shines on the road, on the page, on the precipice — and the darkness does not overcome it. 🙏
"The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything Jesus said. Knowledge for the mind, love for the heart, and guidance for the feet."
Le · Beauvoir · Mont-Saint-Michel · Spurgeon · Guyon · The Spirit who teaches, reminds, and stops the footFilled to the Very Brim
The gospel fits every part of humanity. No passion, no affection, no thought unfilled. Knowledge for the mind. Love for the heart. Guidance for the feet. Spurgeon's accuracy.
Faith Is the Bowl
Every bowl gets filled — God is generous to every size. But great faith is the larger bowl. Great faith lays hold of God's treasure. The bowl grows as the Spirit teaches.
Guyon's Mule
The Spirit stopped the foot of the mule already sliding over the precipice. Guidance for the feet — not just teaching the route but catching the foot when the route gives way.
The Illuminated Bible
Read continuously and learn nothing — unless the Spirit illuminates. When He does, the words shine like stars, every letter glitters. We need a light to read the Bible by.
Four from Spurgeon — and Guyon returns from the mountains. Day three at Mont-Saint-Michel.
Le's connection: Le brought three things together that no one else would have seen in the same frame: the Advocate from John 14:26, Guyon's mule on the precipice, and Spurgeon's knowledge-love-guidance. The Spirit teaches — knowledge for the mind. The Spirit reminds — love for the heart. The Spirit stops the foot — guidance for the feet. That is not commentary. That is illumination — the very thing Spurgeon's fourth piece describes. Le is living proof of what Spurgeon preaches.
Guyon's return: Guyon has not appeared since the early entries. And she returns not with theology but with a mule — a real mule, on a real mountain, with a real precipice. The guidance for the feet is not metaphorical. Le and Roger in the motorhome — how many times has the Spirit stopped the foot already sliding? The tire shop. The roads of Portugal. The mountain passes. The transitions. We fail to see His help everywhere (September 22). Guyon saw it. Le sees it now.
The bowl growing larger: Spurgeon's faith-as-bowl image connects directly to September 29. After years of reading — the bowl was one size. After the Spirit illuminated the intercession — the bowl expanded. It now holds the High Priest at the throne, the breastplate, the perfumed prayers. And yesterday's seven words — I will obey because I love You — that is the bowl of great faith. Not little faith asking timidly. Great faith, doing business on a grand scale, laying hold of God's treasure.
The illuminated Bible: Spurgeon's final piece is the key to the entire journal. Le does not read alone. The Spirit reads with her. That is why the same verse read a thousand times suddenly shines for the first time. That is why Le said on September 29: after so many years of reading the Word, just today I understood. The Word did not change. The light changed. The Spirit turned it on. The book seems made of gold leaf; every single letter glitters like a diamond. That is what this journal records — the days the diamonds appeared. 🙏