Experiencing the Holy Spirit # 1

[It's amazing what one can find on the internet. I just found a wonderful book, very understandable book, by Andrew Murray entitled "Experiencing the Holy Spirit." It is so understandable, so enlightening, so worthy that I had to bring it to you with this first installment. This book is even better than Tozer's explanation of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and why it is so necessary that we all have the "fullness" of the Spirit residing within each of us. There is quite a large difference between having the Holy Spirit within and having the "FULLNESS" of the Spirit. One thing is certain, we will never have a true revival in our churches until we, as true believers, heed the words of Rev. Murray.  I pray that you will be as delighted with this series as I have been.]


Experiencing the Holy Spirit # 1

Preface

In all our studies of the work of the blessed Spirit, and in our pursuit of a life in His fullness, we will always find the sum of Christ's teaching in these wonderful words: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). As we are convicted of the defectiveness of our faith in Christ and as we understand that believing in Him means a yielding of the whole heart, life, and will, we can confidently count on receiving the Holy Spirit's power and presence. When Christ becomes all that God has made Him to be for us, the Holy Spirit can then flow from Christ to do His blessed work of leading us back to know Him better and to believe in Him more completely.

The book of Hebrews speaks of Christ in His heavenly glory and power as the object of our faith. The Holy Spirit reveals the way into the Holiest by the blood of Christ and invites us by faith in Christ to have our life there. As we yield our hearts to the leading of the Spirit to know Christ and to believe in what is revealed, the Spirit can take possession of us. The Spirit was given to reveal Christ, and every fully accepted revelation of Christ gives the Spirit room to dwell and work within us. This promise will surely then be fulfilled: "He who believes in Me ... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." May God lead us to this simple and full faith in Christ, our great High Priest and King in the heavens, and so into a life in the fullness of the Spirit.

Introduction

This book brings a simple but solemn message. The one thing needed for the church in its search for spiritual excellence is to be filled fully with the Spirit of God. In order to secure attention to this message and attract the hearts of my readers to its blessing, I have laid particular emphasis on certain main points:

1. The will of God for every one of His children is that they live entirely and unceasingly under the control (guidance) of the Holy Spirit.

2. Without being filled with the Spirit, it is impossible for an individual Christian or a church to ever live or work as God desires.

3. In the life and experience of Christians, this blessing is little used and little searched for.

4. God waits to give us this blessing, and in our faith we may expect it with the greatest confidence.

5. The self-life and the world hinder and usurp the place that Christ ought to occupy.

6. We cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit until we are prepared to yield ourselves to be led by the Lord Jesus - to forsake and sacrifice everything for this "pearl of great price" (Matt. 13:46).

We have such a poor idea of the unspiritual and sinful state that prevails in the church that, unless we take time to devote our hearts and our thoughts to the real facts of the case, the promise of God can make no deep impression on us. I have presented the subject in various aspects to prepare the way for the conviction that this blessing is in truth the one thing needed; and to get possession of this one thing, we ought to say good-bye to everything else we hold dear.Owing to the prevailing lack of the presence and operation of the Spirit, it takes along time before these spiritual truths concerning the need, the fullness, and the reality of the Spirit's power can obtain mastery over us.

Every day ought to be a Pentecostal season in the church of Christ. Christians cannot live according to the will of God without this blessing. I cannot exhort you, my readers, strongly enough to continue this search for spiritual excellence by calling on God in the confidence that He will answer.

When we read the book of Acts, we see that the filling with the Spirit and His mighty operation was always obtained by prayer. Recall, for example, what took place at Antioch. When the Christians were engaged in fasting and prayer, God regarded them as prepared to receive the revelation that they must separate Barnabas and Saul. It was only after they had once more fasted and prayed that these two men went forth, sent by the Holy Spirit. (see Acts 13:2-3). These servants of God felt that the blessing they needed could come only from above.

To obtain the blessing we so greatly need, we, in like manner, must liberate ourselves as far as possible from the demands of the earthly life. Let us never become weary or discouraged but ask that the Holy Spirit may again assume His rightful place and exercise full dominion in us. In addition, let us pray that He may again have His true place in the church, be held in honor by all, and in everything reveal the glory of our Lord Jesus. To the soul who diligently searches and prays in sincerity according to His Word, God's answer will surely come.

Nothing searches and cleanses the heart like true prayer. It teaches one to ask such questions as these: Do I really desire what I pray for? Am I willing to cast out everything to make room for what God is prepared to give me? Is the prayer of my lips really the prayer of my life? Am I willing to wait on Him, in quiet trust, until He gives me this supernatural gift - His own Spirit?

Let us pray continually, coming before God with supplications and strong crying as His priests and the representatives of His church. We can depend on Him to hear us.

Believer, you know that the Lord is a God who often hides Himself. He desires to be trusted. He is often very near to us without our knowing it. He is a God who knows His own time. Though He tarries, wait for Him. He will surely come (Habakkuk 2:3).

How The Blessing Is To Be Taught

"And it happened ... that Paul .... came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" (Acts 19:1-2).

About twenty years after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this incident took place. In the course of his journey, Paul came to Ephesus and found in the Christian church some disciples in whom he observed that there was something lacking in their belief or experience. Accordingly he asked them the question, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" Their reply was that they had not even heard of the Holy Spirit. They had been baptized by disciples of John the Baptist with the baptism of repentance, with a view to faith in Jesus as One who was to come, but they were still unacquainted with the great event of the outpouring of the Spirit or the significance of it. They came from a region of the country into which the full Pentecostal preaching of the exalted Saviour had not yet penetrated.

Paul took them at once under his care and told them about the full Gospel of the glorified Lord who had received the Spirit from the Father and had sent Him down to this world so that every one of His believing disciples might also receive Him. Hearing this good news and agreeing with it, they were baptized into the name of this Saviour who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Paul then laid his hands on them and prayed, and they received the Holy Spirit. They obtained a share in the Pentecostal miracle and spoke with other tongues.

In these chapters, it is my desire to bring to the children of God the message that there is a twofold Christian life. The one is that in which we experience something of the operations of the Holy Spirit, just as many did under the old covenant, but we do not yet receive Him as the Pentecostal Spirit, as the personal indwelling Guest. On the other hand, there is more abundant life, in which the indwelling just referred to is known and experienced. When Christians come to fully understand the distinction between these two conditions, they will find the will of God concerning them.

Therefore, it is a possible experience for each believer, having confessed the sinfulness and inconsistency that still marks our lives, to dare to hope that the Christian community will once more be restored to its Pentecostal power. With our focus on this distinction, let's ponder the lessons presented in this incident at Ephesus.

Do Not Rest Prematurely

For a healthy Christian life, it is indispensable that we be fully conscious that we have received the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

Had it been otherwise, Paul would never have asked the question, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" These disciples were recognized as believers. This position, however, was not enough for them. The disciples who walked with the Lord Jesus on earth were also true believers, yet He commanded them not to rest satisfied until they had received the Holy Spirit from Himself in heaven. Paul, too, had seen the Lord in His heavenly glory and was by that vision led to conversion. Yet even in his case, the spiritual work the Lord required to have done in him was not completed. Ananias had to go to him and lay his hands on him so that he might receive the Holy Spirit. Only then could be become a witness for Christ.

All these facts teach us that there are two ways in which the Holy Spirit works in us. The first is the preparatory operation in which He simply acts on us but does not yet take up His abode within us, though He leads to to conversion and faith and ever urges us to all that is good and holy. The second is the higher and more advanced phase of His working, when we receive Him as as abiding gift, as an indwelling Person who assumes responsibility for our whole inner beings. This is the ideal of the full Christian life.

~Andrew Murray~

(continued with # 2 - "Where Do We Stand?"