Be filled with the Spirit!
We cannot expect to have the Holy Spirit’s fullness in our lives-
– if we are quite content to live without it.
Check your motives!
If we seek the Holy Spirit merely for our own happiness or comfort or liberty of soul-
– it will be very unlikely that He will be given.
His one passion is the glory of the Lord Jesus.
He can only abide with those who are willing to be at one with Him in this.
“Can two walk together except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3.
But if you are motivated simply by the desire that the Lord Jesus may be magnified in you-
– whether by life or death;
– if you long above all that men should turn away from you to Him,
– then rejoice, because you are near blessing beyond words.
If your motives fall below this standard-
– trust Him to enlighten and purify them.
Offer Him free entrance to your heart.
Consider the Scriptures!
We must not be content to have the Spirit without the Word or the Word without the Spirit.
Our lives must travel along these two-
– as the locomotive travels along parallel rails.
It is only by our devout contact with the Word that we shall be able to detect the Holy Spirit’s voice.
It is by the Word that the Spirit will enter our hearts-
as the heat of the sun passes into our homes when its beams of light enter the open windows.
We need a revival of Bible study.
There is no better way of communing with God than to walk to and fro in your room or in the open air with your Bible in hand, meditating on it and turning its precepts and promises into prayer.
Commit to Christ!
The Holy Ghost is in us, and by this means Christ is in us, for He dwells in us by the Spirit, as the sun dwells in the world through its rays of light.
But we must perpetually yield to Him-
– as water yields to the vessel that holds it.
This is not easy.
It can only be accomplished by incessant self-examination and putting to death our self-life
– that is, making self, rather than Christ, the focus of our life.
We must allow the One to increase-
– while the other decreases.
There is nothing trivial in this life.
A look, a word, a refusal, may be enough to grieve Him in ourselves and to quench Him in others.
Do not shrink back afraid of what He may demand.
He is the Spirit of love, and He loves us too well to cause grief unless there is a reason.
Commune with the Spirit!
Receive Him by faith!
Just as you once obtained forgiveness and salvation by faith, so now claim and receive the Holy Spirit’s fullness.
Wait quietly but definitely before God in prayer, for He gives His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
Then reverently appropriate this glorious gift, rise from your knees and go on your way, believing that God has kept His word.
There may not be the sound of rushing wind or the tangible feeling of His presence.
Do not look for these any more than the young convert should look to his feeling as an evidence of God’s acceptance.
But believe, in spite of how you feel, that you are filled.
The feeling will sooner or later break in upon your consciousness.
And you will rejoice with exceeding great joy; and all the fruit of the Spirit will begin to show themselves in your life.
Be filled with the Spirit!
(PA)