Daily Quickening
by Ray Prinzing

"The end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."                                                                                                                              (1 Peter 4:7)

Little amplification is needed on the phrase, "the end of all things is at hand," for it is a fact that is witnessed to everywhere, that this present age is drawing to a close, we are on the threshold of a new age, and we need to walk softly before Him, prepared for the pangs that birth the new.

The more we develop spiritual sobriety, the more it leads us into a state of being of prayer.  Not just relegated to times of bended knee and asking of petitions, but knowing the seriousness of the hour, our whole being becomes a prayer before God, as with all groaning creation we yearn for our total redemption, and that age of restoration.  Becoming His prayer in the earth, we will have been stripped of all our selfish desires, emptied of all the wants and wishes of the flesh, to become one pulsating, living desire for oneness in His fulness, that HIS KINGDOM might be established in the earth.

Sobriety - the word is a noun, bespeaking of a state or quality of being sober.  Not affected by passion or prejudice, well-balanced, and could be said to be calm, cool, and collected.  One of the phenomenal manifestations of God's remnant, as the pressures of the world increase, will be the fact that they remain peaceable, calm, cool, collected in the midst of it all, to walk on with the royal dignity of a quiet spirit.  This stability is not a self-produced, mind over mater" control of things, but the result of HIS CONTROL in our spirit.  For "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities."  Romans 8:26).

Many have wondered why they are not disturbed by the conditions of the world, as if they were aloof from it all, untouched by its turmoil.  It is not that they do not care, nor are unconcerned of the needs of man, it is simply that they know that God is in control, and this knowledge gives an inward stability. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."  (2 Timothy 1:7).