Page 39 - Living Epistles

trying to disobey and do its own will.

Other groups went through safely without a coincidence. My mother related
this about one group. They were being led by the Lord. He was instructing
them and the moon was shining, but it was still quite dark. The path they were
on was quite wide, and worn. They were on the passage that the Lord had
directed them to. All of a sudden the Lord said them, "Turn to the right my
children". This was just a little path going into the bush to the right, so they
stopped there. A couple of the brethren said, "Well, why should we go to the
right? This is a very big path, and it's very easy to walk for our children. We
have children. We have our kettles here with water. If we go through the bush
we'll be scratching ourselves and we will be doing this and that. It'll be very
hard to walk for us and mothers with their children." And so they started
reasoning. They said, "No, let's go straight." After that, of course, there was no
more voice of the Lord. So they went straight. Do you think they disobeyed?
They just walked straight!

Anyway, they were the ones that were to lead. Not very long after this they
came into a wet area and they came into a very big swamp. Those two brethren
who had taken over the leadership, and had rejected the leadership of the
Lord, the divine leadership of the Lord, happened to fall into the swamp. As
they started sinking in the mud, they cried, "Lord help us." People had to take
off their shirts and quickly make a rope and throw it to them so that they could
save them from certain death. That's what it means to disobey the Lord; when
you want to do things your own way, and not the Lord's way.

When they came to the shore, they were all soaking wet. The people started to
weep and cry bitterly. "Lord forgive us. We disobeyed Your voice, Lord. We
wanted to go on the easier path. Lord forgive us, Lord." They were repenting
and praying for a couple of hours and there was no voice of God. Eventually,
as they were really broken down and really crying before the Lord, the Lord
spoke to them in a very stern rebuke.

He told them, "Never, never disobey the commandments of the Lord when He
wants to lead you to safety." So the Lord forgave them and the Lord told them
to go back to the point that they had to turn. This time they had to turn left.
When they turned left at that little, wild path, it led around that big swamp
and they went all around that big area. They went around in a circle, but they
were all on a dry ground. When they came to the other side, there were
animals coming to drink at that swamp.