The Deeper Christian Life # 12

The Deeper Christian Life # 12

Or, think of the need of the world. If you were to send out missionaries full of the Holy Spirit, what a blessing that would be! Why is it, that many a missionary complains in the foreign field, "There I leaned how weak and how unfit I am!" It is because the churches from which they go are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Someone said to me a few weeks ago, "They talk so much about the volunteer movement and more missionaries; but we want something else, we want missionaries filled with the Holy Spirit." If the church is to come right, and the mission field is to come right, we must each begin with Himself. It must begin with yourself and say, "O God, for Thy sake; O God, for Thy church's sake, O God, for the sake of the world, help me! I must be filled with the Holy Spirit."

What folly it would be for a man who had lost a lung and a half, and had hardly a quarter of a lung to do the work of two, to expect to be a strong man and to do hard work, and to live in any climate. And what folly for a man to expect to live - God has told him he cannot live - a full Christian life, unless he is full of the Holy Spirit! Jesus wants us to come and to receive the fulfillment of the promise, "He that believeth in Me,streams of water shall flow out from him." Oh, begin to say, "If I am to live a right life, if I am in every part of my daily life and conduct to glorify my God, I must have the Holy Spirit - I must be filled with the Spirit." Are you going to say that? Are you going to say that? Talking for months and months won't help. Do submit to God, and as an act of submission say, "Lord, I confess it, I ought to be filled, I must be filled, help me!" And God will help you. 

And then comes the second step, I may be filled. The first had reference to duty; the second has reference to privilege - I may be filled. Alas! So many have got accustomed to their low state that they do not believe that they may, they can, actually be filled. And what right have I to say that you ought to take these words into your lips? My right is this - God wants healthy children. I saw today a child of six months old, as beautiful and chubby as you could wish a child to be, and with what delight the eyes of the father and the mother looked upon him, and how glad I was to see a healthy child. And of; do you think that God in heaven does not care for His children, and that God wants some of His children to live a sickly life? I tell you, it is a lie! God wants every child of His to be a healthy Christian; but you cannot be a healthy Christian unless you are filled with God's Spirit. Beloved, we have got accustomed to a style of life; and we see good Christians - as we call them - earnest men and women, full of failings; and we think, "Well, that is human; that man looses his tempter, and that man is not as kind as he should be, and that man's word cannot be trusted always as ought to be the case; but - but -" And in daily life we look upon Christians and think, "Well, if they are very faithful in going to church and in giving to God's cause, and in attending the prayer meeting, and in having family prayers, and in their profession." Of course we thank God for them and say, "We wish there were more such," but we forget to ask, "What does God want?" Oh, that we might see that "it is meant for me and for everyone else." My brother, my sister, there is a God in heaven who has been longing for these past years, while you never thought about it, to fill you with the Holy Spirit. God longs to give the fullness of the Spirit to every child of His.

They were poor heathen Ephesians, only lately brought out from heathendom, to whom Paul wrote this letter, - people among whom there still was stealing and lying, for they had only just come out from heathendom, but Paul said to every one of these, "Be filled with the Spirit." God is ready to do it; God wants to do it. Oh, do not listen to the temptation of the devil, "This is only meant for some eminent people, - a Christian who has a great deal of free time to devote to prayer and to seeking after it, - a man of a receptive temperament, - that is the man to be filled with the Spirit. Who is there that dare say, "I cannot be filled with the Spirit." Who will dare say that? If any of you speak thus it is because you are unwilling to give up sin. Do not think that you cannot be filled with the Spirit because God is not willing to give it to you. Did not the Lord Jesus promise the Spirit? Is not the Holy Spirit the best part of His salvation? Do you think He gives half a salvation to any of His redeemed ones? Is not His promise for all, "He that believeth in me, rivers of water shall flow out of him"? This is more than fullness - this is overflow; and this Jesus has promised to everyone who believes in Him. Oh, cast aside your fears, and your doubts, and your hesitation, and say at once, "I can be filled with the Spirit; I may be filled with the Spirit. There is nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell, can prevent it, because God has promised and God is waiting to do it for me." Are you ready to say, "I may I can, I can be filled with the Spirit, for God has promised it, and God will give it"? And then we get to the third step, when a man says, "I will have it; I must have it; I may have it; I will have it." "No, I won't have it; I long for it"!

~Andrew Murray~

(continued with # 13)