Experiencing the Holy Spirit # 9

Experiencing the Holy Spirit # 9

How Your Blessing May Be Increased

"He who believes in Me shall never thirst" (John 6:35)

"He who believes in Me ... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38)

Can the full blessing of Pentecost be still further increased? Can anything that is full become still fuller? Yes, undoubtedly. It can become so full that it always overflows, especially this blessing of Pentecost.

The above words of our blessed Lord Jesus point us to a double blessing. First, Jesus says that he who believes in Him will never thirst. He will always have the satisfaction of having his needs met. Then, He speaks of something that is grander and more glorious. Whoever believes in Him, "out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" to quench the thirst of others. It is the distinction between full and overflowing. A vessel may be full and yet have nothing left over for others. When it remains full and has something for others, there must be in it an over-brimming, ever-flowing supply. This is what our Lord promises to His believing disciples. At the outset, faith in Him gives them the blessing that they will never thirst. But as they advance and become stronger in the faith, it makes them a fountain of water out of which steams flow to others. The Spirit who at first only fills us will overflow out of us to souls around us.

The rivers of living water can be compared with many fountains on earth. When we begin to open them, the stream is weak. The more the water is used, and the more deeply the source is opened up, the stronger the water flows. In the realm of the spiritual life, let us discover what is necessary to secure the fullness of the Spirit constantly flowing from us. Several simple steps may help us in reaching this knowledge.

Hold Fast to What You Have

First, see to it that you do not misunderstand the blessing God has given you. Be sure that you do not form any wrong ideas of what the full blessing is. Do not imagine that the joy and power of Pentecost must be felt and seen immediately. No, the church at present is in a dead-and-alive condition, and restoration often comes slowly.

At first, one receives the full blessing only as a seed. The quickened soul has longed for it; he has surrendered himself unreservedly for it; he has believed in silence that God has accepted his consecration and fulfilled His promise. In this faith he goes on his way, silent and happy, saying to himself, "The blessing of the fullness of the Spirit is for me."

But the actual experiences of the blessing did not come as he had anticipated. The result was that he began to fear that his surrender was not a reality, only a transient emotion. He feared the real blessing was something greater and more powerful than he had yet received. The result is that very soon the blessing becomes less instead of greater. Through discouragement, he moves farther back rather than forward.

The cause of this condition is simply lack of faith. We are bent on judging God and His work in us by sight and feeling. We forget that the whole process is the work of faith. Even in its highest revelations in Christians who have made the greatest progress, faith rests not on what is to be seen of the work of God or on the experiences of it, but on the work of God as spiritual, invisible, deeply hidden, and inconceivable.

Do you desire in this time of discouragement to return to the true life according to the promise? My advice is this: if you know that you have given yourself to God  with a perfect heart, then rest in silence before Him and hold fast your integrity. Do this, and you will know God.

If you are sure that you have set yourself before God as an empty, purified vessel, then continue to regard yourself so and keep silent before Him. If you have believed that God has received you to fill you as a purified vessel - purified through Jesus Christ and by your entire surrender to Him - then abide in this attitude day by day. You may expect the blessing to grow and begin to flow. "Whoever believes ... will not be put to shame" (Romans 9:33).

Persevere in Self-denial

In your surrender you have said in truth and uprightness that you are prepared to sacrifice and forsake everything in order to win this pearl of the kingdom of heaven. This consecration was acceptable to God. But you have not yet fully understood the importance of the words you have used. The Lord still has much to teach you concerning what the individual self is, how deeply rooted it is in your nature, and how utterly corrupt as well as deeply hidden it is.

Be willing to make room for the Spirit by a constant, daily denial of the self-life. You may be sure that He will always be willing to come and fill the empty place. You have forsaken and sacrificed everything as far as you know, but keep your mind open to the teaching of the Spirit. He will lead you farther on and let you see that when the sacrifice of everything becomes the rule in His church, then the blessing will again break forth like an overflowing stream.

It is surprising how sometimes a very little thing may hinder the continuance in the increase of the blessing. It may, for example, be a little disagreement between friends, where they are not willing to forgive and bear with one another at once according to the law of Christ. Or it may be some unobserved yielding to oversensitiveness or to ambition that is not prepared to take the lowest place. Or it may be the possession or use of earthly property as if it were our own.

It may also be in connection with things that are lawful and in themselves innocent, which, however, do not harmonize with us in our claim of being led by the Spirit of God. For here, like the Lord Jesus in His poverty, we are bound to show that the heavenly portion we possess is itself sufficient to satisfy all our desires. Or it may be in connection with questionable things, in which we give way too easily to the lust of the flesh.

Christian, do you really desire to enjoy the full measure of the blessing of the Spirit? Then, before temptation comes, train yourself to understand the fundamental law of the imitation of Jesus and of full discipleship, and forsake all. Allow yourself to be strengthened and drawn into the observance of it by the sure promise of the "hundredfold in this life." (Matthew 19:29). A full blessing will be given you, a measure "shaken together, and running over" (Luke 6:38).

Sacrifice and Giving

"God is love" (1 John 4:8). His whole being is nothing but a surrender of Himself in love to be the life of the creature and to make the creature participate in His holiness and blessedness. He blesses and serves all who live. His glory as God is that He puts all that He has at the disposal of His creatures.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God's love, the Bearer, Bringer, and Dispenser of the love. What God is as invisible in heaven, He was as visible on earth. He came, He lived, He suffered, and He died only to glorify the Father, to let it be seen how glorious the Father is in His love. He came to show that in the God head there is no other purpose than to bless men, to make them happy, and to show that the highest honor and blessedness of any being is to give and to sacrifice.

The Holy Spirit came as the Spirit of the Father and the Son to make us partakers of this divine nature. The Spirit pours out the love of God in our hearts (Romans 5:5) to secure the indwelling of the Son and His love to such an extent that Christ may be formed within us, and our whole inner man will bear the imprint of His likeness.

Hence, when any soul seeks and receives the fullness of the Spirit, is it not perfectly evident that he can enjoy this blessing only as he is prepared to give himself to a life in the service of love? The Spirit comes to expel the life of self and self-seeking. The fullness of the Spirit presupposes a willingness to consecrate ourselves to the blessing of others as the servants of all. The Spirit is the outflowing of the life of God. If we will only yield ourselves to Him, He will become the river of living water, from the depths of  our hearts.

Christian, if you want the blessing increased, begin to live only so that the love of God may work through you. Love everyone around you with the love of God that is in you through the Spirit. Love the children of God cordially, even the weakest and most perverse. Exercise and exhibit your love in every possible way. Love the unsaved. Present yourself to the Spirit to love Him. Then love will constrain you to speak, to work, to give, and to pray.

If there is no open door for working, or if you do not have the strength for it, the door of prayer is always open, and power can be obtained at the mercy seat. Embrace the whole world in your love, because Christ, who is in your heart, belongs also to the unsaved. The Spirit is the power of Christ for redeeming them. Like God and Jesus and the Spirit, live wholly to bless others. Then the blessing will stream forth and become overflowing.

Let Jesus Christ Be Everything

You know what the Scripture says: "All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Corinthians 1:20). When the Lord spoke of "rivers of living water", He connected the promise with faith in Himself: "He who believes in Me ... out of his heart will flow rivers." If we only understood that word "believes" rightly we would require no other answer than this to the question as to how the blessing may be increased.

Faith is primarily a seeing by the Spirit that Jesus is nothing but a flowing fountain of divine love. The Spirit Himself always flows from Him as the Bearer of the life that this love brings and that always streams forth in love. Then it is an embracing of the promise, a taking hold of the blessing as it is provided in Christ, a resting in the certainty of it, and a thanking God for what he is yet to do.

Thereafter, faith is keeping the soul open so that Christ can come in with the blessing, take possession and fill all. Faith becomes the most fervent and unbroken communion between the soul and Christ, who obtains His place and is enthroned in the heart.

Learn the lesson that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God. Let every doubt, every weakness, every temptation find you trusting, rejoicing, and counting on Jesus always to work all in you.

A believer can encounter and strive against sin in two ways. One is to endeavor to ward it off with all his might, seeking his strength in the Word and in prayer. In this form of conflict, we use the power of the will. The other is to turn at the very moment of the temptation to the Lord Jesus in the silent exercise of faith and say to Him, "Lord, I have no strength. You are my Keeper."

This is the method of faith. "This is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith" (1 John 5:4). Jesus, who is in Himself the one thing needed, can maintain the work of His Spirit in us. When we exercise faith without ceasing, the blessing will flow in us without ceasing.

Christ must be all to us every moment. It is of no avail to me that I have life on earth unless that life is renewed every moment by my breathing fresh air. Similarly, God must actually renew and strengthen the divine life in me every moment. He does this for me in my union with Christ. Christ is simply the fullness of God, the life of God, and the love of God prepared for us and communicating themselves to us. The Spirit is simply the fullness of Christ, the life of Christ, and the self-communicating love of Christ surrounding us as the air surrounds the body.

Let us believe that we are in Christ, who surrounds us in His heavenly power, longing to make the rivers of His Spirit flow forth through us. Let us endeavor to obtain hearts filled with the joyful assurance that the almighty Lord will fulfill His word with power. Our only choice is to see Him, to rejoice in Him, to sacrifice all for Him. Then His word will become true: "He who believes in Me ... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

~Andrew Murray~

(continued with # 10 - In Search of the Full Manifestation