Walking Uprightly Kathryn Kuhlman

Today I have a question I'm going to put to you, which I think is important to every human being. And I propose to have a very serious talk with you about it. And the question that I want to ask is just this. Are you getting what you want from life? Really now? Life is a very serious thing. Life is very important. Every human being is important. This thing of life is really something. You as an individual and if only you as a person could know how important you are to God. how important you can be to this world, how important you can be to those around you, with those with whom you associate. And the longer I live, the more I realize how vitally important life really is. And I'm glad that I started to give of myself. early in life. I'm asking you, are you, as an individual, a father, perhaps a mother there in that home, perhaps a businessman, a young person, perhaps a young person still in school, perhaps a young person who's graduated, perhaps you're someone unemployed, Are you getting what you want from life? Perhaps it would be a good idea, fantastic as it sounds, to muffle every telephone, to stop the motor of every car, to halt all activity for an hour someday, just to give people a chance to ponder for a few minutes on what it is all about. Why are they living? And what do they really want? I think this is a very wise suggestion. But the sad fact is that many people have no clear idea what do they want in life. And many others who think they know what they want are not getting it. There's so much confusion out there. You get on the freeway. Some of you people really... It takes you an hour to go to work in the morning. It takes you an hour or longer than that to come home in the busy traffic. You get home at night completely exhausted. During the hours that you spend at work, there's confusion, there's noise. There's uncertainty until finally you forget that you are an individual. You get caught up in all this confusion. You get caught up in the swiftness of life and living. You get caught up in the noise. You don't realize it. You really don't realize it. Now just consider, in 24 hours, how much quietness and stillness is there in your life. Maybe you live on a busy street. I always remember what one of Dave Wilkerson's young dope who had been delivered from dope. And Dave Wilkerson took him off the streets of New York because all the kid ever knew was the noise of New York City. And after he was converted and after Dave Wilkerson brought him real salvation through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, he took him to the farm at Raresburg. And a couple of weeks later, I was out on the farm. And I was talking with him and he said, you know, Catherine Kuhlman, this quietness is driving me out of my mind. Oh, he said. The first week I thought I would climb the walls. This quietness. He said, do you want to know something? This is the first time in my life. that I have ever been where it's really quiet. You know, he says it's scary. I've never forgotten that. The quietness almost gave him a nervous breakdown, you know, because he was so used to the unnatural that sometimes I think, you know, We breathe in so much pollution that if we ever got someplace in the world where there was no pollution, the cleanness of the air would hurt our lungs, would really hurt us to breathe. Because we've lived in the unnatural so long that the pureness of the natural and the right way, to breathe and live is foreign to us. That's the reason. Honestly, I know it sounds fantastic. I know it. But, uh, do you go to bed at night? There's no telephone ringing, and yet you'd swear the telephone was ringing because you've heard that telephone ring all day long. Uh -huh. You're sure that there's the motor of a car running outside. There's no motor of any car running outside. But you've been in that traffic so long. You lie down at night and you're still dodging the cars. You're still on the freeway. You're still on the highway. Do you know what I'm talking about? Uh -huh. The clerk behind the counter has so struggled with the public. for eight hours until the poor soul is lying there trying to sleep and she's still trying to satisfy an unreasonable customer. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Exactly. It's a sad fact that many people have no clear idea what they want in life. They really have never stopped long enough to think whether or not they are getting what they really desire from life. I believe that. Some folks never get a grip on success. The main thing they really want. Because there's so many other things, they won't. let go of. What does that mean? It means that a great many people never do get what they want because they cling to wrong ideas, wrong attitudes, wrong approaches, wrong ways of living. In order to make your life a success, and I dare say there isn't a single human being this very hour, but what really. when they get quiet long enough and are honest with themselves. But what wants to be a success, I don't think any person really wants to be a failure. I mean that. Every person really wants to be a success. Now, the Bible is a marvelous book for many reasons, and one is that it tells the truth. And the Bible says, no good thing will he, that's the Lord, withhold from them that walk uprightly. Do you want to know what that really means? Oh, it's so simple. There it is. The one who has all power in heaven and earth, the one who has perfect wisdom, the one who knows man, the one who is the great creator, the one who cannot lie, the one who is absolute truth says, No good thing will he, the Lord, withhold from them that walk uprightly. And how do you describe a man who walks uprightly? It's one who knows what is right and what is wrong and holds to that which is right. In all of this confusion, in all of this noise, having been caught up, In a generation that is just loaded with frustration, sometimes I think we forget what is right and what is wrong. Our morals have gone out the window. We really don't quite face the fact of thievery. What is stealing? We get the idea that anything that you can get your hands on without being caught is rightfully yours. It's just like that. There was a time when I was a girl in Concordia, Missouri. Dear me, if you took another youngster's pencil, it was his. And if you took it, that was stealing. If you took something out of another kid's lunch pail, that was stealing. If you took something that was not rightfully yours, that was stealing. And as children, we knew what was stealing. We didn't have to say, Mama, is this mine or is this his? We knew and we had a conscience about it, too, let me tell you. And if we took something that was another kid's, I'll tell you, we couldn't sleep all night. Our poor little conscience is, oh, you know, he would just like that. Even do a piece of candy. You wanted it. It was his. You took it without asking for it. And then you prayed, oh dear God, don't let me die. I've stolen, it's swallowed now. Please keep me from dying. Because you knew you had stolen. Now remember, febri is still febri. Adultery is still adultery. Lying is still lying. The word of God has not been... altered for this generation, and sometimes I think we have lost sight entirely as to what is right and what is wrong. Anything that we do and can't get by with is right, is the attitude of this present generation. Do you know what I say is right? It's the Word of God. Here it is. It's strange how many people today seem to have the notion that a person can permit himself any kind of wrong thing and get away with it. And if you can get away with it, it's right. It doesn't work that way. The Lord will withhold nothing from the man who walks uprightly. The man who doesn't walk uprightly is defeating himself. And if you are living contrary to God's laws, you may feel as though you're getting away with it, but you're not. You are absolutely defeating yourself. Oh, you say, I got away with it. I got by with it. Nobody will ever know. All right. Let's suppose no one will ever know. Suppose you'll never get caught. But you still have to live with yourself. And if you're living contrary to God's laws, my friend, you're def... Beating yourself. So if you want to get from life what you really want, get right with yourself and right with God. Learn to be honest with yourself. And with God's help, eliminate from your living, from your thinking, anything that is morally wrong or psychologically unhealthy. You've got to do it. Oh, if I could only somehow. I wish I had the ability. I wish I had the vocabulary. I wish I could do something to get men and women to understand that, first of all, you've got to be true to yourself. You've got to live with yourself. I have to know that. Kathryn Kuhlman is right on the inside. Before I can go out and face the world. Before I can stand on that stage and preach about the power of the Holy Ghost. I have to first of all live with Kathryn Kuhlman. And know that inside of me, I'm right. I'm clean. looking at myself in the mirror. Oh, it may not be a beautiful face that I see, because recently I decided that they aren't making mirrors like they used to make them. But anyway, regardless of what I see in the mirror, I can say to the one whose face I see, well, I'm not doing a perfect job. I have my faults. I have my failures. And I'm sorry. But Catherine Kuhlman, you're doing the best that you know how. I don't know how better to do it. I want to grow. I want to be a better person today than I was yesterday. I want to be more like my master today than I was yesterday. I want to be a better person tomorrow than I am today. I think there's also something further intended by the statement that the Lord will not withhold any good thing from the person who walks uprightly. To walk uprightly rightly means to walk in right ways. You can't walk in wrong ways. You can't walk with wrong people. You can't have wrong thoughts. As a man thinketh, so is he, the Bible says. You cannot have wrong thoughts. At the same time, walk uprightly. You can't do it. It's amazing what the mind, really the mind governs the entire body. The mind can be your master. Know that. Success or defeat can literally depend on your mind. If it's wrong thinking, you're not going to walk uprightly. If there's wrong thoughts, wrong thinking, there'll be wrong living. As a man, think it. And this comes from the highest authority in heaven and earth, and therefore it cannot be argued. This is the word of God. What are your thoughts, my friend? If this very moment you can tell me what your thoughts are, I can tell you whether or not you're walking uprightly or whether you're walking the wrong way. To walk uprightly. means to walk in right ways. Wonderful Jesus. Make the simple words real to hearts. Amen.