In a preceding chapter we have seen that surrender may be carried out at once as a while. Let us not merely thing of this, but actually do it. Yes, this very day, let the call of Christ be the power of a surrender that will be immediate, complete, and everlasting.
The All of The Spirit
The all of God and the all of Christ demand as a necessary consequence the all of the Spirit. It is the work of the Spirit to glorify the Son as dwelling in us and by Him to reveal the Father. How can He do this if He Himself is not all and does not penetrate all with His own power? To be filled with the Spirit, to let the Spirit have all, is indispensable to a true, healthful Christian life.
It is a source of great loss in the life of Christiandom today that the truth is not discerned that the Three-One God must have all. Even the professing Christian often makes it his very first aim to find out what he is and what he desires, what pleases him and makes him happy. Then he brings in God in the second place to secure this happiness. The claim of God is not the primary or main consideration. He does not discern that God must have him at His disposal even in the most trivial details of his life to manifest His divine glory in him. He is not aware that this entire filling with the will and the operation of God would prove to be his highest happiness. He does not know that the very same Christ, who once lived on the earth entirely surrendered to the will of the Father, is prepared to abide and work in like manner in his heart and life now. It is on this account that he can never fully comprehend how necessary it is that the Spirit must be all and must fill him completely.
If these thought have had any influence with you, allow yourself to be brought to the acknowledgment that the Spirit must be all in you. Say from the heart: "I am not at liberty to make any, even the least exception - the Spirit must have all." Then add to this confession the simple thought that Christ has come to restore the all of God, and the Spirit is given to reveal the all of Christ within us. Remember that the love of the Father is eagerly longing to secure again His own supreme place with us. Then your heart will be filled with the sure confidence that the Father actually gives you the fullness of the Spirit.
The All of Faith
"All things are possible to him that believeth." "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:24). The preceding sections of this chapter have taught us to understand why it is that faith is all. It is because man is nothing and has nothing good in his except the capacity for receiving God . When he becomes a believer, that which God reveals becomes of itself a heavenly light that illumines him. He sees then what God is prepared to be for him, and he keeps his soul silent before God and open to God. He gives God the opportunity of working all by the Spirit. The more unceasingly and undividedly he believes, the more fully can the all of God and Christ prevail and work in him.
The all of faith: How little it is understood in the Church that the one and only thing I have to do is to keep my soul open before God that He may be free to work in me. That faith as the willing acceptance and expectation of God's working receives all and can achieve all. Every glance at my own impotence or sin, every glance at the promise of God and His power to fulfill it, must arouse me to the gladness of faith that God is able to work all.
Let such a faith look on Christ today and move you to make renunciation of every known sin and receive Him as One who purifies you. Oh that faith might receive the all of Christ and take Him with all that He is! Oh that your faith might see that the all of the Spirit is your rightful heritage and that your hope is sure that the full blessing has been bestowed on you by God Himself!
If the all of God, the all of Christ, and the all of the Spirit is so immeasurable, if the dominion and power of the terrible all of sin is so unlimited, if the all of your surrender to God and your decision to live wholly for Him is so real, then let your faith in what God will do for you be also unlimited. "He that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).
There is something that can be done today. As the Holy Spirit says: "To day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart" (Psalm 95:7). Today you may receive Christ as One who purifies, baptizes, and fills you with the Spirit.
Yes, today you may surrender your whole being to Him to be forever wholly under the mastery of the Spirit. Today you may acknowledge and appropriate the all of the Spirit as your personal possession. Today you may submit to the requirement of the all of faith and begin to live only and wholly in the faith of what Christ will do in you through the Spirit.
This you may do; this you ought to do. Kneel down at the mercy seat and do it. Read once more the earlier chapter with its directions as to what Christ is prepared to do and surrender yourself this very hour as an empty vessel to be filled with the Spirit. In His own time, God will certainly accomplish it in you.
There is also something, however, that He on His part is prepared to do. Today he is ready to give you the assurance that He accepts your surrender and to seal on your heart the conviction that the fullness of the Spirit belongs to you. Wait on Him to give you this today!
The all of God summons you. The all of sin summons you. The all of Christ summons you. The all of the surrender that Jesus requires summons you. The all of the Spirit, His indispensableness and His glory, summons you. The all of faith summons you. Come and let the love of God conquer you. Come and let the glorious salvation master you. Do not back away from the glorious tidings that the triune God is prepared to be your all. Be silent and listen to it until your soul becomes constrained to give the answer. "Even in me God will be all." Take Christ anew today as One who has given His life that God may be all. Yield your life for this supreme end. God will fill you also with His Holy Spirit.
~Andrew Murray~
(The End)
No comments:
Post a Comment