Unknown Graces

"When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person" (Job 22:29)

"No one was ever filled with the Holy Spirit without knowing it. The Holy Spirit always announces Himself to the human consciousness." What is the nature of this "announcement"? Of what does it consist? How may we recognize it? Is it some kind of physical evidence, or what?

There is such a thing as the secret workings of the Spirit in the soul of man, for a time unknown and unsuspected by the individual. In fact, most of the fruits of the Spirit are unsuspected by the man in whom they are found.

The most loving, most patient, most compassionate soul is unlikely to be aware of these graces.  Others will discover the operations of the Spirit within him long before he will and will thank God for his sweet Christian character while he may at the same time be walking in great humility before God, mourning the absence of the very graces that others know he possesses.

There is an inseparable connection between a holy heart and a holy life. A holy life can no more proceed from an unholy heart, than a pure stream can flow from an impure fountain.

~A. W. Tozer~

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Halfway To the Peak

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve ... as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15)

The world mediocre comes from two Latin words and literally means "halfway to the peak." This makes it an apt description of the progress of many Christians. They are halfway up to the peak. They are morally above the hardened sinner but they are spiritually beneath the shining saint.

Do we really think that this halfway Christian life is the best that Christ offers  - the best that we can know? In the face of what Christ offers us, how can we settle for so little? Think of all that He offers us by His blood and by His Spirit, by His sacrificial death on the Cross, by His resurrection from the dead, by His ascension to the right hand of the Father, by His sending forth of the Holy Spirit!

O Jesus, come and dwell in me,
Walk in my steps each day,
Live in my life, love in my love,
And speak in all I say;
Think in my thoughts, let all my acts
Thy very actions be,
So shall it be no longer I,
But Christ that lives in me.

~A. W. Tozer~