How Fully It Is Assured To Us By God
"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" (Luke 11:13)
When Jairus came to the Lord Jesus to entreat His help for his dying daughter, he had already learned that she had died. Jesus said to him: "Fear not: believe only" (Luke 8:50). Face to face with a trial in which man was utterly helpless, the Lord called on him to put his trust in Him. One thing could help him: "only believe."
Thousands of times that word has been the strength of God's children. Where man was concerned, all hope was lost and success appeared to be impossible. Here also, we have need of this word. The wonder-working power of God can make this exceeding grace a reality within us. Be silent before God. Hear the voice of Jesus saying to you: "Be not afraid, only believe: God will do it for you."
God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him much more readily than an earthly father will give his children bread. We must have firm confidence in the Father to give His child His full heritage. God is spirit. He desires in His eternal love to obtain full possession of us, but He can do this i no other manner than by giving us His Spirit. As surely as He is God, He will, child of God, fill you with His Holy Spirit.
Without that faith you will never succeed in your quest of this blessing. That faith will give you the victory over every difficulty. Therefore, "be not afraid: only believe." Hear the voice of Jesus: "Said I not unto thee that if thou believest thou shalt see the glory of God?"
How Does This Blessing Come?
Preliminary questions arise at once in connection with this subject and tempt us to understand everything about it before we expect the blessing.
The first is: Where does this blessing come from, from within or from above? Some earnest Christians will say at once that "it must come from within." The Holy Spirit descended on the earth on the day of Pentecost and was given to the Christian community. At the moment of true conversion, He comes into your heart. We have therefore no longer to pray that He may be given to us. We have simply to recognize and use what we already have. He will entirely fill us from within. The fountain of living water is already there. It has only to be open and every obstruction cleared, and the water will stream forth from within.
On the other hand, a few may say, "No, it must come from above." When, on the arrival of the day of Pentecost, the Father freely gave the Spirit, He did not give Him away beyond His own control. The fullness of the Spirit still remains in God. God gives nothing apart from Himself to work without or independently of His will.
He Himself works only through the Spirit, and every new and greater manifestation of the Spirit's power comes directly from above. Long after the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came down again from heaven at Samaria and Caesarea. In His fullness He is in heaven still, and it is from God in heaven that the fullness of the Spirit is to be waited for.
I entreat you not to allow yourself to be held back. God understands your petition. He knows what you need. Believe that God is prepared to fill you with His Spirit. Let your faith look up to Him with unceasing prayer and confidence, and He will give the blessing.
There must be a definite resolve to place the whole life unreservedly under the control of the Spirit and a conviction of faith that God has accepted this surrender. In the majority of cases this is done at once. It must at last come to this, perhaps after a long course of seeking and praying, that the soul will present itself to God for this blessing in one definite, irrevocable act and believe that the offering is then sanctified and accepted on the altar. Whether the experience of the blessing comes at once and with power or quietly and gradually, the soul must maintain its act of self-dedication and simply look to God to do His own work. When it happens, the believer will know immediately when it occurs!
~Andrew Murray~
(continued with # 41)
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