Monday, July 23, 2012

Experiencing the Holy Spirit # 46

The Key to the Secret


"Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28)


When we speak of entire consecration, we are frequently asked what the precise distinction is between the ordinary doctrine of sanctification and the preaching of that gracious which has begun to prevail in the Church in recent years. One answer that may be given is that the distinction lies solely in the little word "all". That word is the key to the secret. The ordinary method of proclaiming the necessity of holiness is true as far as it goes, but sufficient emphasis is not laid on this one point of the "all".


Why then is the fullness of the Spirit not more widely enjoyed. That little word "all" suggests the explanation. As long as the "all" of God, of sin, of Christ, of surrender, the soul cannot enjoy all that God would have it be.


Let us consider the full Pentecostal blessing from this standpoint. Do this in a spirit of humble waiting on God and with the prayer that He would make us, by His Spirit, feel where the evil lies and what the remedy is. Then we will be ready to give up everything in order to receive nothing less than everything.


The All of God


The answer lies in the very being and nature of God that He Himself must be all. From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. As God, He is the life of everything. Everything that exists serves as a means for the manifestation of the goodness, wisdom, and power of God in His direct and continuing operation.


Sin consists in nothing but this, that man determined to be something and would not allow God to be everything. The redemption of Jesus has no other aim than that God should again become everything in our heart and life. In the end, even the Son will be subjected to the Father that God may be all in all. Nothing less than this is what redemption is to secure. Christ Himself has shown in His life what it means to be nothing and to allow God to be everything. As He once lived on the earth, so does He still live in the hearts of His people. According to the measure in which they receive the truth that God is all will the fullness of the blessing be able to find its way into their life.


The all of God: This is what we must seek. In His will, His honor, and His power. He must be everything for us. There should be no movement of our time, no word of our lips, no movement of our heart, or no satisfying of the needs of our physical lie, that is not the expression of the will, glory, and power of God. Only the man who discerns this and consents to it can rightly understand what the fullness of the Spirit must effect and why it is necessary that we should forsake everything if we desire to obtain it. God must be not merely something, not merely much, but literally all.


The All of Sin


What is sin? It is the absence or separation from God. Where man is guided by his own will, his own honor, or his own power; where the will, the honor, and the operation of God are not manifested, sin must be at work. Sin is death and misery because it is a turning away from God to the creature.


Sin is in no sense a thing that may exist in man along with other things that are good. No, as God was once everything, so has sin in fallen man become everything. It now dominates and penetrates his whole being, even as God should have been allowed to do. His nature in every part of it is corrupt. We still have our natural existence in God. All is in sin and under the influence of sin.


~Andrew Murray~


(continued with # 47)

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