Looking for Higher Ground

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee" (Psalm 42:1)

Too many want the Holy Spirit in order that they may have the gift of healing. Others want Him for the gift of tongues. Still others seek Him so that their testimony may become effective. All of these things, I will grant, are a part of the total pattern of the New Testament. But it is impossible for us to make God our servant. Let us never pray that we may be filled with the Spirit of God for secondary purposes.

God wants to fill us with His Spirit in order that we should know Him first of all and be absorbed in Him. We should enter into the fullness of the Spirit so that God's Son may be glorified in us.

I try to bathe my soul in the writings and the hymns of the devoted saints of God. I wonder why we ever stoop to read or sing or quote anything but that which is elevated and divine, noble and inspiring. 

When the Holy Spirit comes, He lifts our minds to new ideals and gives us conceptions of things so much in advance of our present experiences that we long for higher ground.

~A. W. Tozer~

_______________________

Who Is Praying?

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Romans 8:26)

The spiritual quality of a prayer is determined not by its intensity but by its origin. In evaluating prayer we should inquire who is doing the praying - our determined hearts or the Holy Spirit? If the prayer originates with the Holy Spirit, then the wrestling can be beautiful and wonderful; but if we are the victims of our own overheated desires, our praying can be as carnal as any other act.

Two examples are given in the Old Testament, Jacob and the prophets of Baal. Jacob's wrestling was a real exercise, and at first it was not Jacob's doing. The wrestling became of divine origin, and the blessed results are known to every Bible student.

The other example does not turn out so well. The prophets of Baal wrestled also, much more violently than Jacob, but they wrestled in the flesh. Their writhings were born of ignorance and superstition and got them nowhere. They were wrong in spite of their zealous praying. Only the Spirit can pray effectively.

This is the spirit of prayer - sincere, humble, believing, submissive. Other prayer than this the Bible does not require - God will not accept.

~A. W. Tozer~