Called Unto Holiness # 20

Fullness of Christ

How May the Fullness be Obtained? (continued)

"Drink". This is an act. Aspiration becomes acquisition by appropriation. Thirst is desire; I want water. To drink is an act; I take water. Just here is where many earnest, seeking souls fall short of this glorious experience. They thirst but they do not drink.

After a meeting where this message was given, a very sad-faced woman stopped to shake hands and said, "Oh, Miss Paxson, I thirst!" I waited to hear the rest of our Lord's blessed invitation and to know she had acted upon it. But she went out still sad-faced. But she returned to the afternoon meeting where we went further into the way of obtaining this fullness. Again she stopped and with a radiant light in her face said, "Oh I thirst and I drink." A letter came from her later in which she said, "I keep on thirsting and drinking and He keeps on satisfying." [Yes! That's what happens!]

In these words is the secret not only of obtaining the fullness of the Holy Spirit but of having that fullness maintained continuously in the life.

"Be not drunk with wine ... but be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).

How does one get drunk? By drinking. How does he stay drunk? By continuing to drink. How is one filled with the Holy Spirit? Our Lord says by drinking of that living water. How does one stay filled? By continuing to drink day by day. Is that not simple for each one of us? May we bow in silence to face a few questions in the presence of the Lord, and answer by a definite yes or no.

Have you ever been filled with the Holy Spirit?

Are you filled with the Spirit now?

Will you be filled today?

Do you purpose to live the Spirit-filled life from now on?

If you thirst and will drink just now, will yo offer to God this simple prayer: "Lord, I thirst; Lord, I come and drink; Lord, I take the gift Thou offerest, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and thank Thee for it."

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 21 - "Wrestlers for Christ")