A Tree of God's Own Planting

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

September 9, 2011


 *2011-09-08 - A TREE OF GOD'S OWN PLANTING*

*From “George Muller of Bristol” by Dr. A.T. Pierson, p. 107*


 The second paragraph of this account relates the 4 stages of *all steps* in
the life of George Muller: *much prayer*; *meditation on the Word*; *searching
of his own heart*; and *patient waiting to know the mind of God*. As a
result, 50,000 *exact answers* to prayer came in the next 60 years,
amounting financially to over $8 million prior to 1900 in the support of
10,000 orphans; plus the various divisions of “The Scriptural Knowledge
Institute for Home and Abroad”.


 The reason I share this, that it might encourage great carefulness in what
we pray for. Rees Howells only prayed for those things that the Spirit laid
on his heart after the same type of care to accurately ascertain the Will of
God - before launching out in the prayer of faith. I fear many today take a
desire, and then make declarations of faith on the basis of this desire,
without *first* using the 4 careful steps of George Muller. His prayers and
those of Rees Howells were *always* answered in most extraordinary ways.
They both believed 1 John 5:14-15 *“And this is the boldness which we have
toward him, that, if we ask anything **according to his :will**, he **hears*
* us; **15** and if we **know that he hears us** whatever we ask, **we know
that we have** the petitions which we have asked of him” (NNT).*


 True prayer is always Asking and *Receiving*. John R. Rice wrote a book by
this title to express this same confidence. Now see how Mr. Muller walked
this principle out: J.A.Watt


 “The time was now fully come when the divine Husbandman was to glorify
Himself by a product of His own husbandry in the soil of Bristol [England].


 On February 20, 1834, George Muller was led of God to sow the seed of what
ultimately developed into a great means of good, known as “The Scriptural
Knowledge Institution, for Home and Abroad.” As in all other steps of his
life, this was the result of much prayer, meditation on the Word, searching
of his own heart, and patient waiting to know the mind of God.


 A brief statement of the reasons for founding such an institution, and the
principles on which it was based, will be helpful at this point. Motives of
conscience controlled Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik in starting a new work rather
than in uniting with existing societies already established for missionary
purposes, Bible and tract distribution, and for the promotion of Christian
schools. As they had sought to conform personal life and church conduct
wholly to the scriptural pattern, they felt that all work for God should be
carefully carried on in exact accordance with His known will, in order to
have His fullest blessing. Many features of the existing societies seemed to
them *extra*-scriptural, if not decidedly anti-scriptural, and these they
felt constrained to avoid.


 For example, they felt that the end* proposed* by such organizations,
namely, *the conversion of the world* in this dispensation, was not
justified by the Word, which everywhere represents this as the age of the
outgathering of* the church* from the world, and not the ingathering* of the
world* into the church. To set such an end before themselves as the world's
conversion would therefore not only be unwarranted by Scripture, but
delusive and disappointing, disheartening God's servants by the failure to
realize the result, and dishonoring to God Himself by making Him to appear
unfaithful.


 Again, these existing societies seemed to Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik to
sustain a *wrong relation to the world* - mixed up with it, instead of
separate from it. Any one by paying a certain fixed sum of money might
become a member or even a director, having a voice or vote in the conduct of
affairs and becoming eligible to office. Unscriptural means were commonly
used to *raise money*, such as appealing for aid to unconverted persons,
asking for donations simply for money's sake and without regard to the
character of the donors or the manner in which the money was obtained. The
custom of *seeking patronage* from men of the world and asking such to
preside at public meetings, and the habit of *contracting debts*, - these
and some other methods of management seemed so unscriptural and unspiritual
that the founders of this new institution could not with a good conscience
give them sanction. Hence they hoped that by basing their work upon
thoroughly biblical principles they might secure many blessed results.


 First of all, they confidently believed that the work of the Lord could be
best and most successfully carried on within the landmarks and limits set up
in His word; that the fact of thus carrying it on would give boldness in
prayer and confidence in labor. But they also desired the work itself to be
a witness to the living God, and a testimony to believers, by calling
attention to the objectionable methods already in use and encouraging all
God's true servants in adhering to the principles and practices which He has
sanctioned.


 On March 5th at a public meeting a formal announcement of the intention to
found such an institution was accompanied by a full statement of its
purposes and principles, in substance as follows:

1. Every believer's duty and privileges to help on the cause and work of
Christ.

2. The patronage of the world is not to be sought after, depended upon, or
countenanced.

3. Pecuniary aid, or help in managing or carrying on its affairs, is not to
be asked for or sought from those who are not believers.

4. Debts are not to be contracted or allowed for any cause in the work of
the Lord.

5. The standard of success is not to be a numerical or financial standard.

6. All compromise of the truth or any measures that impair testimony to God
are to be avoided.


 Thus the word of God was accepted as counselor, and all dependence was on
God's blesssing in answer to prayer.


 The *objects* of the institution were likewise announced as follows:

1. To establish or aid day-schools, Sunday-schools, and adult-schools,
taught and conducted only by believers and on thoroughly scriptural
principles.

2. To circulate the Holy Scriptures, wholly or in portions, over the widest
possible territory.

3. To aid missionary efforts and assist laborers, in the Lord's vineyard
anywhere, who are working upon a biblical basis and looking only to the Lord
for support.


 To project such a work, on such a scale, and at such a time, was doubly an
act of faith; for not only was the work already in hand enough to tax all
available time and strength, but at this very time this record appears in
Mr. Muller's journal: “*We have only one shilling left.” *Surely no advance
step would have been taken, had not the eyes been turned, not on the empty
purse, but on the full and exhaustless treasury of a rich and bountiful
Lord!


 It was plainly God's purpose that, out of such abundance of poverty, the
riches of His liberality should be manifested. It pleased Him, from whom and
by whom are all things, that the work should be begun when His servants were
poorest and weakest, that its growth to such giant proportions might the
more prove it to be a plant of His own right hand's planting, and that His
word might be fulfilled in its whole history: *Isaiah 37:3 “I the Lord do
keep it: I will water it every moment: Lest any hurt it, I will keep it
night and day.”*


 Whatever may be thought as to the need of such a new organization, or as to
such scruples as moved its founders to insist even in minor matters upon the
closest adherence to scripture teaching, this at least is plain, that for
more than half a century it has stood upon its original foundation, and its
increase and usefulness have surpassed the most enthusiastic dreams of its
founders; nor have the principles first avowed ever been abandoned. With the
Living God as its sole patron, and prayer as its only appeal, it has
attained vast proportions, and its world-wide work has been signally owned
and blessed.


 On March19th Mrs. Muller gave birth to a son, to the great joy of his
parents; and, after much prayer, they gave him the name of Elijah - “My God
is Jah” - the name itself being one of George Muller's life-mottoes. Up to
this time the families of Mr. Muller and Mr. Craik had dwelt under one roof,
but henceforth it was thought wise that they should have separate lodgings.


 When at the close of 1834, the usual backward glance was cast over the
Lord's leadings and dealings, Mr. Muller gratefully recognized the divine
goodness which had thus helped him to start upon its career the work with
its several departments. Looking to the Lord alone for light and help, he
had laid the corner-stone of this “little institution”; and in October,
after only seven months' existence, it had already begun to be established.
In the Sunday-school there were one hundred and twenty children; in the
adult classes, forty; in the four day-schools, two hundred and nine boys and
girls; four hundred eighty-two Bibles and five hundred and twenty Testaments
had been put into circulation, and fifty-seven pounds had been spent in aid
of missionary operations. During these seven months the Lord had sent, in
answer to prayer, over one hundred and sixty-seven pounds in money, and much
blessing upon the work itself. The brothers and sisters who were in charge
had likewise been given by the same prayer-hearing God, in direct response
to the cry of need and the supplication of faith.


 Meanwhile *another object* was coming into greater prominence before the
mind and heart of Mr. Muller: it was the thought of *making some permanent
provision for fatherless and motherless children*.


 An orphan boy who had been in the school had been taken to the poorhouse,
not longer able to attend on account of extreme poverty; and this little
incident set Mr. Muller thinking and praying about orphans. Could not
something be done to meet the temporal and spiritual wants of this class of
very poor children? Unconsciously to himself, God had set a seed in his
soul, and was watching and watering it. The idea of a definite orphan work
had taken root within him, and, like any other living germ, it was springing
up and growing, he knew not how. As yet it was only in the blade, but in
time there would come the ear and the full-grown corn in the ear, the new
seed of a larger harvest.


 Meanwhile the church was growing. In these two and a half years over two
hundred had been added, making the total membership two hundred and
fifty-seven; but the enlargement of the work generally neither caused the
church life to be neglected or any one department of duty to suffer
declension - a very noticeable fact in this history.


 The point to which we have now come is one of double interest and
importance, as at once a point of arrival and of departure. The work of
God's chosen servant may be considered as fairly if not fully inaugurated *in
all its main forms of service*. He himself is in his thirtieth year, the age
when his divine Master began to be fully manifest to the world and to go
about doing good. Through the preparatory steps and stages leading up to his
complete mission and ministry to the church and the world, Christ's humble
disciple has likewise been brought, and his fuller career of usefulness now
begins, with the various agencies in operation whereby for more than
threescore years he was to show both proof and example of what God can do
through one man who is willing to be simply the instrument for Him to work
with. Nothing is more marked in George Muller, to the very day of his death,
than this, that he so looked to God and leaned on God that he felt himself
to be nothing, and God everything. He sought to be always and in all things
surrendered as a passive tool to the will and hand of the Master Workman.


 This point of arrival and of departure is also a point of *prospect*. Here,
halting and looking backward, we may take in at a glance the various
successive steps and stages of preparation whereby the Lord had made His
servant ready for the sphere of service to which He called, and for which He
fitted him. One has only, from this height, to look over the ten years that
were past, to see beyond dispute or doubt the divine design that lay back of
George Muller's life, and to feel an awe of the God who thus chooses and
shapes, and then uses, His vessels of services.”


 (Dr. Pierson then reviews the more important steps in the process by which
the divine Potter had shaped His vessel for His purpose, educating and
preparing George Muller for His work. He then follows with 24 of these
steps.)



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