Jesus Will Keep the Blessing
The law that prevails at every stage in the progress of the Kingdom of God is: "Be it unto you according to your faith." The faith which you had when you first received the Lord Jesus was as small as a grain of mustard seed. It must, in the course of the Christian life, become so enlarged that it will see and enjoy more of the fullness that is in the Lord.
Paul wrote to the Galatians: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God" (Galatians 2:20). His faith was a broad and boundless as were the needs of his life and work.
In everything and at all times, without ceasing, he trusted in Jesus to do all. Paul's faith was as wide and abundant as the energy that flows from Jesus. He had given his whole life to Jesus, and he himself lived no longer. By a continuous and unrestricted faith, he gave Jesus the liberty of energizing his life without ceasing and without limitation.
The fullness of the Spirit is not a gift that is given once for all as a part of the heavenly life. It is rather a constantly flowing stream of the river of the water of life that issues from beneath the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is an uninterrupted communication of the life and the love of Jesus, the most personal and intimate association of the Lord with His own on the earth. Jesus will certainly do His work of keeping if faith discerns this truth and cleaves to it with joy.
Closer Fellowship With Jesus
Jesus keeps this blessing in fellowship with Himself. The single aim of the blessing of Pentecost is to reveal Jesus as Saviour, so that He may exhibit His power to redeem souls in us and by us here in the world. The Spirit did not come merely to occupy the place of Jesus, but only to unite the disciples with their Lord more completely than when He was on earth.
The power from on high did not come as a power which they were henceforth to reckon as their own. The power was inseparably bound up with the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Every operation of the power was a direct working of God in them.
The fellowship which the disciples had with Jesus on earth, followed Him, receiving His teaching, doing His will, and participating in His suffering was still to be their experience, only in greater measure.
It is no different with us. The Spirit in us will always glorify Jesus and make it known that he alone is to be Lord. Close communion with God in the inner chamber, faithfulness in searching His Word and seeking to know His will in the Scriptures, sacrificing time and business to bring us into touch with the Saviour - are all indispensable for the enrichment of the blessing. He that loves His fellowship above everything will have the experience of His keeping.
~Andrew Murray~
(continued with # 29 - "For The Obedient")
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