A daily dose of faith

Welcome to the Devotional page of TrumpNewsInternational, a space dedicated to nurturing your spiritual growth. Here, we share daily scriptures and reflections designed to inspire hope and encourage Christians to grow in Christ. Join us as we explore faith and its relevance to our daily lives.

The Holy Spirit’s Power In The Believer

By R. A. Torrey (1856 – 1928)

“...Power belongeth unto God” (Psa. 62:11).  The Holy Spirit is the Person who imparts to the individual believer the power that belongs to God.  This is the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer, to take what belongs to God and make it ours.  All the manifold power of God belongs to the children of God as their birthright in Christ.  But all that belongs to us as our birthright in Christ becomes ours in actual and experimental possession through the Holy Spirit’s work in us as individuals.

    To the extent that we understand and claim for ourselves the Holy Spirit’s work, to that extent do we obtain for ourselves the fullness of power in Christian life and service that God has provided for us in Christ.  Let us study the Word of God, to find out what the Holy Spirit has power to do in men:

    1.  The Holy Spirit has power to reveal Jesus Christ and His glory to man.  “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 12:3).

    When Jesus spoke of the Spirit’s coming He said: “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me” (John 15:26).  It is only as He does testify of Christ that men will ever come to a true knowledge of Christ.

    We will send men to the Word to get a knowledge of Christ, but it is only as the Holy Spirit takes the Word and illuminates it that men ever get a real living knowledge of Christ.  If you wish men to see the truth about Jesus, do not depend upon your own powers of exposition and persuasion, but cast yourself upon the Holy Ghost and seek His testimony.

    2.  The Holy Spirit has power to convict the world of sin.  “When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged” (John 16:8-11).

    It is by showing Jesus and His glory and His righteousness, that the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  Note the sin of which the Holy Spirit convicts, “Of sin, because they believe not on Me.”  You can never convict any man of sin because that is the work of the Holy Spirit.  You can reason and reason, and you will fail.  The Holy Spirit can do it very quickly.

    But it is through us that the Spirit produces conviction.  In John 16:7-8 we read: “...I will send Him unto you, and when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  It is ours to preach the Word and to look to the Holy Spirit to produce conviction.  (See Acts 2:4-37.)

    3.  The Holy Spirit has power to renew men or make men new, to regenerate.  “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).

    Regeneration is the Holy Spirit’s work.  He can take a man dead in trespasses and sins, and make him alive.  He can take the man whose mind is blind to the truth of God, whose will is at enmity with God and set on sin, whose affections are corrupt and vile, and transform that man, impart to him God’s nature, so that he thinks God’s thoughts, wills what God wills, loves what God loves, and hates what God hates.

    No amount of preaching, no matter how orthodox it is, and no amount of mere study of the Word will regenerate, unless the Holy Spirit works.  Just as we are utterly dependent on the work of Christ for us in justification, so we are utterly dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit in us in regeneration.

    4.  The Holy Spirit has the power to give abiding and everlasting satisfaction.  “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14; cf. 7:37-39).

    Water here means the Holy Spirit.  The world can never satisfy.  Of every worldly joy it must be said: “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.”  But the Holy Spirit has power to satisfy every longing of the soul.  The Holy Spirit and He alone can satisfy the human heart.  If you give yourself up to the Holy Spirit’s inflowing or upspringing in your heart, you will never thirst.  Oh, with what joy unutterable and satisfaction indescribable the Spirit has poured forth His living water in many souls.  Have you this living fountain within?  Is the spring unchoked?  Is it springing up into everlasting life?

    5.  The Holy Spirit has power to set us free from the law of sin and death.  “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).

    We all know this law of sin and death.  We have all been in bondage to it.  Some of us are still in bondage to it, but we do not need to be.  God has provided a way of escape.  That way is by the Holy Spirit’s power.  When we give up the hopeless struggle of trying to overcome the law of sin and death, of trying to live right in our strength, in the power of the flesh, and in utter helplessness surrender to the Holy Spirit to do all for us, when we live after Him and walk in His blessed power – then He sets us free from the law of sin and death.

    There are many professed Christians today living in Romans 7.  Some go so far as to maintain that this is the normal Christian life, that one must live this life of constant defeat.  This would be true if we were left to ourselves, for in ourselves we are “carnal sold under sin.”  But we are not left to ourselves.  The Holy Spirit undertakes for us what we have failed to do ourselves (Rom. 8:2-4).

    In Romans 8 we have the picture of the true Christian life, the life that is possible to us, and that God expects from each one of us, the life where not merely the commandment comes, as in the 7th chapter, but where the mighty Spirit comes also and works obedience and victory.  The flesh is still in us, but we are not in the flesh.  We do not live after it.  We “live after the Spirit.”  We, “through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body” (8:13).  We “walk in the Spirit,” and do “not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

    It is our privilege, in the Spirit’s power, to get daily, hourly, and constant victory over the flesh and over sin.  But the victory is not in ourselves, not in any strength of our own.  Left to ourselves, deserted of the Spirit of God, we would be as helpless as ever.  It is all in the Spirit’s power.

    Has the Holy Spirit set you free from the law of sin and death?  Will you let Him do it now?  Simply give up all self-effort to be free from “the law of sin and death” to give up sinning.  Believe in the divine power of the Holy Spirit to set you free, and cast yourself upon Him to do it.  He will do it.  Then you can triumphantly cry with Paul: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

    6.  The Holy Spirit strengthens the believer with power in the inward man.  “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man” (Eph. 3:16).

    The result of this strengthening is seen in verses 17-19.  Here the power of the Spirit manifests itself not merely in giving us victory over sin, but in (a) Christ’s dwelling in our hearts; (b) our being “rooted and grounded in love”; (c) our being made “able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”  It all ultimates in our being “filled with all the fulness of God.”

    7.  The Holy Spirit has power to lead us into a holy life, a life as “sons of God,” a Godlike life.  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

    Not merely does the Holy Spirit give us power to live a holy life, a life well pleasing to God when we have discovered what that life is:  He takes us by the hand, as it were, and leads us into that life.  Our whole part is to surrender ourselves utterly to Him to lead and to mold us.  Those who do this are not merely God’s offspring, which all men are (Acts 17:28), neither are we merely God’s children.  “They are the sons of God.”

    8.  The Holy Spirit bears witness with the spirit of the believer that he is a child of God.  “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16).

    Note that Paul does not say that the Spirit bears witness to our spirit, but with it – “together with our spirit,” is the exact force of the words used.  There are two who bear witness to our sonship: first – our spirit bears witness that we are children of God; second – the Holy Spirit bears witness together with our spirit that we are children of God.

    How does the Holy Spirit bear His testimony to this fact?  Galatians 4:6 answers this question: “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

    9.  The Holy Spirit brings forth in the believer Christlike graces of character.  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).

    All real beauty of character, all real Christlikeness in us, is the Holy Spirit’s work.  It is His “fruit.”  He bears it, not we.

    This life is not natural to us, and it is not attainable by any effort of “the flesh,” or nature.  The life that is natural for us is set forth in the three preceding verses (19-21).  But when the indwelling Spirit is given full control in the one He inhabits, when we are brought to realize the utter badness of the flesh, and give up in helpless despair of ever attaining to anything really good in its power, when we come to the end of ourself and give over the whole work of making us what we ought to be to the indwelling Holy Spirit – then these holy graces of character are His “fruit.”  This is “sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Thes. 2:13).

    10.  The Holy Spirit has power to guide the believer “into all truth.”  “...When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:13).

    No amount of mere human teaching, no matter who our teachers may be, will give us a correct apprehension of the truth.  Not even a diligent study of the Word, either in the English or the original languages, will give us a real understanding of the truth.  We must be taught of the Holy Spirit.  And we may be thus taught – each one of us.

    11.  The Holy Spirit has power to bring to remembrance the words of Christ.  “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).

    This promise was made primarily to the apostles, and is the guarantee of the accuracy of their report of what Jesus said.  But the Holy Spirit does a similar work with each believer who expects it of Him and looks to Him to do it.  He brings to mind the teachings of Christ, and the words of Christ, just when we need them, for either the necessities of our own life or of our service.

    12.  The Holy Spirit (a) reveals to us the deep things of God, which are hidden from and foolishness to the natural man, and (b) interprets His own revelation, or imparts power to discern, know and appreciate what He has taught.  “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit:  for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him?  Even so the things of God none knoweth, no man but the Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.  Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:10-14).

    Not only is the Holy Spirit the author of revelation – the written Word of God – He is also the interpreter of what He has revealed.  How much more interesting and helpful any deep book becomes when we have the author of the book right at hand to interpret it to us!  This is what we always may have when we study the Bible.  The author – the Holy Spirit – is right at hand to interpret.

    To understand the Book we must look to Him.  Then the darkest places become clear.  We need to pray, “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law” (Psa. 119:18).

    It is not enough that we have the objective revelation in the written Word; we must also have the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit to enable us to comprehend it.  It is a great mistake to try to comprehend a spiritual revelation with the natural understanding.

    To understand God’s Word we must empty ourselves utterly of our own wisdom, and rest in utter dependence upon the Spirit of God to interpret it to us.  When we put away our own wisdom, then, and only then, we get the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 3:18; 1:25-28; Matt. 11:25).

    13.  The Holy Spirit enables the believer to communicate to others in “power” the truth he himself has been taught.  “I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

    We not only need the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth in the first place; and in the second place, to interpret to us as individuals the truth He has revealed; but in the third place, we also need the Holy Spirit to enable us to effectually communicate to others the truth He Himself has interpreted to us.  We need Him all along the line.

    One great cause of real failure in the ministry, even when there is seeming success, and not only in the ministry but in all forms of service by Christian men and women, is from the attempt to teach by “inciting words of man’s wisdom,” that is, by the arts of human logic, rhetoric or eloquence, what the Holy Spirit has taught us.  What is needed is Holy Ghost power, “demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”  He must teach us how to speak as well as what to speak.  He must be the power as well as the message.

    14.  The Holy Spirit guides the believer in prayer.  “...Building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 20).

    The disciples did not know how to pray as they ought so they came to Jesus, and said: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).  “We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26), but we have another Helper at hand to help us (John 14:16-17).  “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities” (Rom. 8:26).  He teaches us to pray.

    True prayer is prayer “in the Spirit,” that is, the prayer which the Spirit inspires and directs.  When we come into God’s presence to pray, we should recognize our infirmity, our ignorance of what we should pray for or how we should pray, and in the consciousness of our utter inability to pray aright, look up to the Holy Spirit and cast ourselves utterly upon Him to direct our prayers, to lead out our desires, and to guide our utterance of them.  We must wait for the Holy Spirit, and surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit.  The prayer that God the Holy Spirit inspires is the prayer that God the Father answers.

    15.  The Holy Spirit teaches us to render thanks.  “...Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father...” (Eph. 5:18-20).  One of the most prominent characteristics of the Spirit-filled life is thanksgiving.

     16.  The Holy Spirit has power to inspire in the heart of the believer in Christ worship that is acceptable to God.  “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:3).

    Worship is a definite act of the creature in relation to God.  Worship is bowing before God in adoring acknowledgment and contemplation of Himself.  Someone has said, “In our prayers we are taken up with our needs, in our thanksgivings we are taken up with our blessings, in our worship we are taken up with Himself.”  There is no true and acceptable worship except that which the Holy Spirit prompts and directs.

    17.  The Holy Spirit has power as a guide.  “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.  And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.  So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus” (Acts 13:2-4; cf. 8:29).

    The Holy Spirit calls men and sends them forth to definite lines of work.  How shall we receive the Holy Spirit’s call?  By desiring it, seeking it, waiting upon the Lord for it, and expecting it.  God speaks often in a still small voice.  Only the listening ear can catch it.  Have you definitely offered yourself to God to send you where He will?

    The Holy Spirit also guides in the details of daily life and service, as to where to go and where not to go, what to do and what not to do.  It is possible for us to have the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit at every turn in our lives.

    18.  The Holy Spirit has power to give us boldness in testimony for Christ.  “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

    Many are naturally timid.  They long to do something for Christ, but they are afraid.  The Holy Spirit can make you bold if you will look to Him and trust Him to do it.

God’s Perfect Provision

    Two things are manifest from what has been said about the power of the Holy Spirit in the believer.  First, how utterly dependent we are upon the Holy Spirit at every turn of Christian life and service.  Second, how perfect is the provision for life and service that God has made, and what the fullness of privilege that is open to the humblest believer, through the Holy Spirit’s work.  It is not so much what we are by nature that is important, but what the Holy Spirit can do for us, and what we will let Him do.

    Christian life is not to be lived in the realm of natural temperament, and Christian work is not to be done in the power of natural endowment; but Christian life is to be lived in the realm of the Spirit, and Christian work is to be done in the power of the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Spirit is eagerly desirous to do for each of us His whole work.  He will do for each of us all we will let Him do.

    – From How To Obtain Fullness Of Power In Christian Life And Service.

Led By The Spirit

By Oswald J. Smith (1889 – 1986)

    “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.  And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.  So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed” (Acts 13:2-4).

    Thus the Holy Ghost called Barnabas and Saul, and thus He calls men today.  That is, if they are listening, if they are quiet before Him, if they have placed themselves at His disposal, and are led by Him.  Barnabas and Saul were ministering to the Lord.  They were praying and fasting. The world had been shut out.  They were waiting to know the mind of the Spirit.  When God’s children get into that attitude the Holy Ghost can make known His will and call those whom God chooses.

    But we are so busy.  There is so much rush and hurry.  We have never learned the importance of being still before Him.  He cannot get our ear.  We are unable to hear His voice.  Hence, we think we are in God’s will.  We hope our plan will be His, and we go at our own bidding and fail.

    Yet all the time the blessed Holy Ghost, a Person, with power to choose, speak and send, the One who ought to be recognized as Commander in our lives, is waiting, longing, eager to make known God’s plan for our ministry.  But we will not hear.

    Oh how active was the Holy Ghost in the days of the early church!  But that was because He was given His rightful place and recognized as the One in charge of the work.   How inactive He seems to be today.  This is because He has been slighted and ignored.  Man’s plans have claimed preference over His.  Man’s program has gotten in His way.  Self has usurped His place.  Hence, He can no longer choose and call, equip and send.

    But He is willing, and this is still His work.  He knows us all by name.  Oh may we yield to Him and obey, that God’s program may yet be carried out!

    What a revival followed in the early church!  Oh how churches sprang up!  Souls were saved everywhere.  The Gospel was the power of God unto salvation on every hand.  Saints were established and built up in the faith.  All because the Holy Ghost was recognized and His orders obeyed.

    Thank God, it can be so again.  He is still looking for men, men who will yield implicit obedience.  When He finds a man who will quietly wait until he gets his orders, who will listen to no voice but His, then there will be blessing indeed!

Christ Living In Me!

By Andrew Murray (1828 – 1917)

    How does Christ enable us to live as God wants us to live?  Too often we think of Christ as a Person separate from ourselves who hears and helps us.  Jesus Himself, however, in the parable of the Vine and the Branches speaks about the life that Christ lives in us.  “I am the vine, ye are the branches,” He says in John 15:5.  What can be closer or more intimate than the union between vine and branch?  The very same life and Spirit which are in Christ are to be in us.

    I must believe in the indwelling Savior.  I must know that even as Christ is in heaven, so He is here in me, His branch.  He comes into my innermost life.  He lives within and by living there enables me to live as a child of God.  He comes into my willing and thinking and feeling and living, and lives in me in the power which the omnipresent God alone can exercise.

    When I understand this, my soul bows down in adoration and confidence toward God.  I live in the flesh the life of flesh and blood, but Christ dwelling in me is the true Life of my life.  The Scriptures say it beautifully: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me...” (Gal. 2:20).

    Oh, come and let the living Christ live in you!  To that end, seek to know the life He has set before you in His example.  Not that we will be able to imitate Christ.  But because Christ lived His life for us, and imparts it to us, therefore we can share His life.  If I allow the living Christ to take possession of my will and desires, I can walk even as He walked.

Dependence Upon God

    Look closely at the life of Christ as recorded in Scripture and you will see that the great mark of that life is that He lived in the deepest humility and dependence upon the Heavenly Father.  He said, “I can of Mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30).  In everything He had His life from God.

    From beginning to end of Christ’s earthly ministry, His Father was everything.  If I understand that the Christ who is going to live in me is the Christ who honored God in everything, He will work that same disposition in me.

    He always acknowledged that His life was from God.  “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands,” He said (John 3:35).  Again He added, “So hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself” (5:26).  That was Christ’s starting point.  “My life comes from God.  I come from God.  I have nothing of Myself, and everything I get I must get from God.”

    If Christ took that stand, we ought to do the same.  We ought to say in deep truth, “This new life is a life that I have from God.  He gave it to me.  I have a work of God right in my heart, by the Holy Spirit, in regeneration.  I have a new life from God.”

    And what about that life that God has given?  Who is going to maintain it?  God alone can sustain what He has begun.  He must work it out to completion.

    The highest virtue of any Christian life is to let God have His way.  We need to give God the opportunity of doing His work in us.  We need to come day by day, hour by hour, to the place of absolute dependence upon God.  We need to learn one lesson: “O, God, I have nothing!  I do not know anything.  I am nothing, and I can only do what God enables me to do.”

    And how is Christ to bring me near to God?  He cannot bring me near God in any other way than the way He came Himself.  What was that?  The way of deepest self-abnegation; the way of entire surrender to God.   He was forever expecting God the Father to work in Him.  He looked to Him for strength.  He prayed to Him for guidance.  He cried to Him in His trouble.  God was everything, everything to Him, and Christ was content to be nothing.  Pray God to teach us that if we are to know the power of Christ in us, we need a life of absolute, entire dependence upon God.

United in Christ’s Death

    What does the death of Christ teach us concerning our dependence on God?  It shows us that the life God had given His Son He yielded up entirely to God.  “I do not regard My life as My own,” He said in effect.  “If the Father wants it, however much suffering, however much shame, and however agonizing the suffering of death, I give it to Him.”  That is fair.  That is right.  If everything I have is from God, then everything ought to return to Him.

    It was thus with Christ.  When He was only twelve, remember, He said to Mary, His mother, “Know ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).  Later He was to say, “I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 6:38).  In Gethsemane, in those last hours of anguish before His death, He said to the Father, “Not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

    We as believers have never acknowledged the rights God has.   My whole life comes from Him, and every moment of my life ought to be yielded back to Him.  Every strength I receive in spiritual life comes from God, and everything ought to go back to God so every action will be to God’s glory.

    A Christian who has Christ in him will be truly sacred, a person given up wholly to God.  That is not easy.  Why?  Because self in us is so strong.  Sin has brought us into that fearful condition.  Instead of considering it an honor and a privilege to be nothing and to do God’s will, we have come to look upon it as hard.   We have come to look upon submission of self as a high attainment, something out of reach.  Yet, if a person will give up himself and yield to God, he can experience the life of Christ within him.

    Christ lets us know, “If you want Me to live in you, you must do what I did.  Your own life must be given up to the very death, unto the death of the cross, to be crucified.”  We must be an actual partaker of the death of Christ.   Thus the Word of God says, “If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:5).

    Therefore, I as a Christian must say to God, “I want to lose my life.  I want to die to self.  I want Christ to come into me with His death, and to take me down into it that He may live in me.”

Resurrection Life

    The next step is resurrection.  When Christ laid down His life, God gave it back to Him in far greater glory.  After Christ had gone down into the grave, God lifted Him up, giving Him a new life, infinitely higher and better than the life He laid down.

    Christ’s resurrection teaches me this: that if I am willing to lay down my evil life, my evil will, my heart and its affections, all my power in this world, to give it all up to God, God will give the new resurrection life of Christ in my heart here on earth.  Christ the Living One, who was raised from death, will come and live in my heart.

    Study the grave of Jesus.  What does it mean?  Christ gave Himself up unto death, utter helplessness, to be nothing before God.  There He lay, just allowing God to take His time to do His work.

    What did God do?  He fulfilled His promise, and gave Him a life a thousand times more glorious than His life before Calvary.  If you want Christ really to live in your heart, you want that Christ who went down into the grave.  You want Christ with the resurrected life to come into you, and be one with you, the Christ who was dead and is alive for evermore.  He it is who comes and brings the power of His death in me, so that everything dies to self and sin, and brings the power of His life, so that everything in me can live with a new life from God.   Do not be content with mere thoughts about the presence of Jesus.  Let His coming be a reality.  Let Him be a living presence.

The Full Life

    After His resurrection, Christ ascended into heaven.  God took Him up into the place of power, to share His throne of glory, making Him partaker of the Divine power.  He sent forth the Holy Spirit.

    Many ask, “How can I be a blessing to my fellow men?”  How did Christ become a blessing to the world?  He gave Himself up to God, died to Himself and to His own natural life and waited for God to raise Him up.

    The great question that stirs the church is, “Why are Christians so feeble?”  And the great question with many is, “What can we do to get the full Christian life, to live as God promises we can live?  What can we do to become just such children of God as the Father is able to make us, branches of the Living Vine?”

    What do we have to do?  First, we must look upon this Christ, and ask ourselves, “Am I willing to give up everything that this Christ can live in me?”  How many would say, “Yes, Lord, I would give anything that Christ might take possession of me”?

    Do not be content any longer with a half-hearted Christianity, saying, “I am saved, and pardoned.  I have a little of Christ.  I do my best.”  Oh, come to the full life that God offers!  Let Christ take entire possession.  Let Christ come in – the Humble One, the Obedient One, the Suffering One, the Dying One, the One who lived in dependence upon God – and say, “That shall be my life, if Christ will live it in me.”

    – Condensed from Andrew Murray’s Ministry at Moody.

Lord, Fill Us To Overflowing With Your Spirit

By Rich Carmicheal

    What a blessing it is to focus this issue upon the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit and the impact His presence and power can make in and through our lives.  As the various articles point out, that impact includes revealing Christ and His glory to us, convicting and setting us free from sin, guiding us into spiritual truths, enabling holy living and Christlikeness, renewing us and filling us to overflowing with spiritual life, anointing us and making us bold and effective in ministry, guiding and empowering us in prayer, and bearing in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, and so forth.

    In the article “The Spirit’s Power For Service,” D. L. Moody gives this stirring picture of the potential of the Spirit in our lives: “I would like to see someone full of living water, so full that they cannot contain it, so full that they have to go out and publish the Gospel of the grace of God.  …We must have the Spirit of God resting upon us, and then we will have something that gives the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.”  He reminds us that heaven’s measure is a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over” (Luke 6:38).  He goes on to ask, “Have you this fullness?  If you have not, then seek it.  Say that by the grace of God you will have it, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us these things (12:32).”

    Andrew Murray also draws attention to the Spirit’s precious work in our lives: “The Holy Spirit came as the Spirit of the Father and the Son to make us partakers of this divine nature, to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, to secure the indwelling of the Son and His love in our hearts to such an extent that Christ may verily be formed within us, and that our whole ‘inner man’ shall bear the impress of His disposition and His likeness.”  What glorious work – to make us partakers of the divine nature, to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, to make us like Christ!

    Do you not long for such work in your life?  And do you not long to have rivers of living water flowing from within you?  Do you want to overcome self and sin, and to walk in victory?  Do you want power and boldness in your witness to others?  Do you want to be filled with love, joy, peace, and the other fruit of the Spirit?  Do you want greater revelation of Christ and His glory?

Thirst and Pray

    If you long for such things, you are on the right track, for Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37).  Moody emphasizes the difference thirst makes: “A great many in the church today are like a dreary desert, everything parched and desolate, and apparently no life in them.  They can sit next to a man who is full of the Spirit of God, who is like a green bay tree, and who is bringing forth fruit, and yet they will not seek a similar blessing.  Why this difference?  Because God has poured water on him that was thirsty; that is the difference.  One has been seeking this anointing and he has received it.  When we want this above everything else, God will give it to us.”

    So thirst is vital to be filled with the Spirit!  And so is seeking the Lord through definite prayer.  Consider the instruction of Jesus to His disciples: “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).  They took His words fully to heart, and after He ascended, they gathered in the Upper Room and “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14) until the Day of Pentecost when He, in keeping with His promise, poured out His Spirit upon them.  Their lives were filled with God’s love, power and boldness, and the church began to expand dramatically.  As they continued to pray (2:42; 4:31), the Lord continued to bless and empower them through His Spirit.

    And is not the Lord just as faithful and eager to pour out His Spirit upon us in answer to prayer?  As Jesus Himself reminds us, “…Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seek finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10).  He goes on to say, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (11:13).  Oh let us pray fervently for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives!

    And let us pray with great faith!  We know for certain that it is the Lord’s will for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit – “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39); “…be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).  Therefore, we can pray with great expectation!  “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

Deal Thoroughly with Sin

    As we seek the Lord for the fullness of the Holy Spirit, it is also vital that we deal thoroughly with any sin in our lives.  As R. A. Torrey shares in one of his books, “The Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit and we cannot have both Him and sin.  We must make our choice between the Holy Spirit and unholy sin.  We cannot have both.  It is not enough to renounce one sin or two sins or three sins or many sins, we must renounce all sin.  If we cling to one single known sin, it will shut us out of the blessing.  ...If anyone sincerely desires the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he should go alone with God and ask God to search him and bring to light anything in his heart or life that is displeasing to Him, and when He brings it to light, he should put it away.”

Obedience and Surrender

    Two other keys to entering into the blessing of the Spirit-filled life are obedience and absolute surrender to God.  According to Acts 5:32, the Lord gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.  Again, Torrey has an important word: “The heart of obedience is in the will, the essence of obedience is the surrender of the will to God.  It is going to God our Heavenly Father and saying, ‘Heavenly Father, here I am.  I am Thy property.  Thou has bought me with a price.  I acknowledge Thine ownership, and surrender myself and all that I am absolutely to Thee.  Send me where Thou wilt; do with me what Thou wilt; use me as Thou wilt.’

    “This is in most instances the decisive step in receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit.  …When we can truly say, ‘My all is on the altar,’ then we shall not have long to wait for the fire.  The lack of this absolute surrender is shutting many out of the blessing today.  People turn the keys of almost every closet in their heart to God, but there is some small closet of which they wish to keep the key themselves, and the blessing does not come.”

Look to Jesus in Faith

    Jesus invites us to come to Him and to put our faith in Him for this precious gift.  “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).  He also promises that “whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24).

    Is it not time for us to surrender ourselves completely to Him and His purposes, to put aside anything that may be hindering the outpouring of the Spirit, and to pray fervently and expectantly for the Lord to fill us with rivers of living water?  O Lord, fill us to overflowing with Your Spirit that we may live fully for Your glory and share Your love and life with those around us!

The Spirit’s Power For Service

By D. L. Moody (1837 – 1899)

    In the seventh chapter of John you will find that it says of him that receives the Spirit through trusting in the Lord Jesus, “…out of [him] shall flow rivers of living water” (v. 38).

    There are two ways of digging a well.  I remember as a boy on a farm in New England, there was a well with an old wooden pump.  I used to have to pump the water from that well on washday and to water the cattle.  Many a time I had to pump and pump and pump until my arm got tired.  But they have a better way now.  They don’t dig down a few feet and brick up the hole and put the pump in, but they go down through the clay and the sand and the rock and on down until they strike what they call a lower stream.  Then it becomes an artesian well which needs no labor, as the water rises spontaneously from the depths beneath.

    I think God wants all His children to be a sort of artesian well, not to keep pumping but to flow right out.  Haven’t you seen ministers in the pulpit just pumping, and pumping and pumping?  I have many a time, and I have had to do it too.  I know how it is.  The ministers stand in the pulpit and talk and talk and talk, and the people go to sleep and they can’t arouse them.  What is the trouble?  The living water is not there.  They are pumping when there is no water in the well.  You cannot get water out of a dry well.  You have to get something in the well, or you can’t get anything out. 

    When the Spirit of God is resting upon us for service, we are anointed.  Then we can do great things.  “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,” says God (Isa. 44:3).  Oh, blessed thought!  “...They which do hunger and thirst after righteousness…shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6). 

Outflowing Streams

    I would like to see someone full of living water, so full that they cannot contain it, so full that they have to go out and publish the Gospel of the grace of God.  When a man gets so full he can’t hold any more, then he is ready for God’s service.

    We must have the Spirit of God resting upon us, and then we will have something that gives the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.  We have something that gives the victory over our tempers and our conceits, and over every other evil, and when we can trample these sins under our feet, then people will come to us and say, “How did you get it?  I need this power.  You have something that I haven’t got.  I want it.”

    Oh, may God show us this truth.  Have we been toiling all night?  Let us throw the net on the right side.  Let us ask God to forgive our sins, and anoint us with power from on high.  But remember, He is not going to give this power to an impatient man or to a selfish man, or to an ambitious man whose aim is selfish.  He will not give it till this man is emptied of self, of pride and of all worldly thoughts.  Let it be God’s glory and not our own that we seek, and when we get to that point, how speedily the Lord will bless us for good.  Then will the measure of our blessing be full.

    Do you know what heaven’s measure is?  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (Luke 6:38).  If we get our hearts filled with the Word of God, how is Satan going to get in?  How is the world going to get in?  Heaven’s measure is good measure, full measure, running over.  Have you this fullness?  If you have not, then seek it.  Say that by the grace of God you will have it, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us these things (12:32).

    He wants us to shine down in this world.  He wants to lift us up for His work.  He wants us to have the power to testify for His Son.  He has left us in this world to testify for Him.  He has left us here not to buy and sell and to get gain, but to glorify Christ.  How are you going to do it without the fullness of the Spirit?  That is the question.  How are you to do it without the power of God?

    Christ said, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  On the day of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus Christ was glorified, the Holy Spirit descended in power.  Perhaps some question the possibility of having the power of God now.  They think that the Holy Spirit never came afterward in similar manifestation, and will never come again in such power.

Fresh Supplies

    Turn to Acts 4:31 and you will find the Holy Spirit came a second time at a place where they were, so that the place was shaken and they were all filled with this power.  The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have a fresh supply.  A mistake a great many of us are making is that we are trying to do God’s work with the grace God gave us ten years ago.  If it is necessary, we say, we will go on with the same grace.  What we need is a fresh supply, a fresh anointing and fresh power.  If we seek it and seek it with all our hearts, we will obtain it.

    The early converts were taught to look for that power.  Philip went to Samaria, and news reached Jerusalem that there was a great work being done in Samaria, and there were many converts.  John and Peter went down, and they laid their hands on the converts, and they received the Holy Ghost for service.  That is what we Christians ought to be looking for – the Spirit of God for service that God may use us mightily in the building up of His church and hastening His glory. 

    I firmly believe that the church has laid this knowledge aside, mislaid it somewhere, and so Christians are without power.  Sometimes you can take one hundred members into the church and they don’t add to its power.  That is all wrong.  If they were anointed by the Spirit of God, there would be great power if one hundred saved ones were added to the church.

Water Poured Out on the Thirsty

    A great many in the church today are like a dreary desert, everything parched and desolate, and apparently no life in them.  They can sit next to a man who is full of the Spirit of God, who is like a green bay tree, and who is bringing forth fruit, and yet they will not seek a similar blessing.  Why this difference?  Because God has poured water on him that was thirsty; that is the difference.  One has been seeking this anointing and he has received it.  When we want this above everything else, God will give it to us.  The great question before us now is, do we want it? 

    When I first went to England and gave a Bible reading, about the first that I gave in that country, a great many ministers were there.  I didn’t know anything about English theology, and I was afraid I should run against their creeds.  I was a little hampered, especially on this very subject about the gift of the Holy Spirit for service.  A Christian minister there had his head bowed on his hand, and I thought the good man was ashamed of everything I was saying, and of course, that troubled me.  At the close of my address he took his hat and went away, and then I thought, “Well, I shall never see him again.”  At the next meeting I looked for him and he wasn’t there.  At the next meeting I looked again, but he was absent.  I thought my teaching must have given him offense. 

    But a few days after that at a large noon prayer meeting a man stood up and his face shone as if he had been up in the mountain with God.  I looked at him, and to my great joy it was this brother.  He said he was at that Bible reading, and he heard there was such a thing as having fresh power to preach the Gospel.  He said he made up his mind that if that was for him, he would have it.  He went home and looked to the Master and he never had such a battle with himself in his life.  He asked that God would show him the sinfulness of his heart that he knew nothing about, and he cried mightily to God that he might be emptied of himself and filled with the Spirit.  He said, “God has answered my prayer!”

    I met him in Edinburgh six months from that date, and he told me he had preached the Gospel every night during that time.  He said that he had not preached one sermon but that some remained for conversation, and that he had engagements four months ahead to preach the Gospel every night in different churches.  I think you could have fired a cannon ball right through his church and not hit anyone before he got this anointing, but it was not thirty days before the building was full and aisles crowded.  He had his bucket filled full of fresh water, and the people found it out and came flocking to him from every quarter.  You can’t get the stream higher than the fountain.  What we need very especially is power!

    There was another older minister whom I have in my mind, and he said, “I have heart disease.  I can’t preach more than once a week,” so he had a colleague to preach for him and do the visiting.  He had heard of this anointing, and he said, “I would like to be anointed for my burial.  I would like before I go hence to have just one more privilege to preach the Gospel with power.”  He prayed that God would fill him with the Spirit. 

    I met him not long after that and he said, “I have preached eight times a week on an average, and I have had conversions all along.”  The Spirit came on him.  I don’t believe that man broke down at first with hard work so much as with using the machinery without oil, without lubrication.  It is not the hard work that breaks down ministers, but it is the toil of working without power.

    Oh, that God may anoint His people!  Not the ministry alone, but every disciple.  Do not suppose pastors are the only laborers needing it.  There is not a mother but needs it in her house to regulate her family, just as much as the minister needs it in the pulpit or the Sunday school teacher needs it in his Sunday school.  We all need it together, and let us not rest day or night until we possess it.  If that is the uppermost thought in our hearts, God will give it to us if we just hunger and thirst for it, and say, “God helping me, I will not rest until endued with power from on high!”

    – Adapted from the book Secret Power by D. L. Moody.

Full And Overflowing

By Andrew Murray (1828 – 1917)

    “...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” (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.  This is especially the characteristic and law of the blessing of Pentecost.

    The words of our blessed Lord Jesus above quoted, point us to a double blessing.  First, Jesus says that he who believes in Him shall never thirst.  He shall always have life in himself – that is to say, the satisfaction of all his needs.  Then He speaks of something that is grander and more glorious.  He that believeth in Him, out of his heart shall 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 over for others.  When it continues full, and yet has something over for others, there must be in it an over­brimming, 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 shall never thirst.  But as they advance and become stronger in faith, it makes them a fountain of water out of which streams flow to others.  The Spirit who at first only fills us will overflow out of us to souls around us.

    It is with the rivers of living water as with many a fountain 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 more strongly does the water flow.  I should like to inquire how far this principle holds good in the realm of the spiritual life and to discover what is necessary to secure that the fullness of the Spirit may constantly flow more abundantly from us.  There are several simple directions which may help us in reaching this knowledge.

Hold Fast What You Have

    See to it that you do not misunderstand the blessing which God has given you.  Be sure that you do not form any wrong conceptions of what the full blessing is.  Do not imagine that the animation and joy and power of Pentecost must be felt and seen immediately.  If you know that you have given yourself to God with a perfect heart, and if you know that God really, and with His whole heart, waits to fulfill His promise in you with divine power, then rest in silence before His face and hold fast your integrity.  Although the cold of winter appears to bury everything in death, say with the Prophet Habakkuk: “Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines...yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17-18).

    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, and you may reckon upon it that the blessing will grow and begin to flow.  “...He who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame” (1 Pet. 2:6).

Persevere in Denial and Sacrifice

    If I wish to have a reservoir of water, the greater the excavation I make for it, the wider the space I occupy with it, the greater is the quantity of water I can collect, and the stronger is the stream that flows from it when the sluices are opened.  In your surrender for sanctification or for the full blessing of the Spirit, you have said in truth and uprightness that you are prepared to sacrifice and forsake all in order to win this pearl of the kingdom of heaven, and this consecration was acceptable to God.

    But you have not yet fully understood the full import of the words you have used.  The Lord has still much to teach you concerning what the individual self is, how deeply rooted in your nature, how utterly corrupt as well as deeply hidden it is, as the secret source of many things you both say and do.  Be willing to make room for the Spirit by a constant, daily and entire denial of the self-life, and you may be sure that He will always be willing to come and fill the empty place.

    You have forsaken and sacrificed everything so far as you know, but keep your mind open to the teaching of the Spirit, and He will lead you farther on and let you see that only when the entire sacrifice of everything after the example of Christ comes again to be the rule in His church, shall the full blessing 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 variance between friends, in which they show that they are not willing to forgive and forbear at once according to the law of Christ.  Or it may be some unobserved yielding to undue sensitiveness or to the ambition which 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, or it may be some providing for the flesh in the enjoyment of eating and drinking without the self-denial which Christ always expects at our hands every day.  Or it may be in connection with things that are lawful and in themselves innocent, which however, do not befit us in our profession 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 doubtful things in which we give way too easily to the lust of the flesh.

    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 – namely, Forsake all.  Suffer yourself also to be strengthened and drawn into the observance of it by the sure promise of the “hundredfold in this life.”  A full blessing will be given you, a measure shaken together and running over.

    God is love.  His whole being is nothing but a surrender of Himself in love to be the life of the creature, to make the creature participate in His holiness and blessedness.  He blesses and serves all that lives.  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, the Bringer, the Dispenser of the love.  What God is as invisible in heaven, He was as visible on earth.  He came, He lived, He suffered and died only to glorify the Father – that is, to let it be seen how glorious the Father in His love is, to make it manifest 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, to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, to secure the indwelling of the Son and His love in our hearts to such an extent that Christ may verily be formed within us, and that our whole “inner man” shall bear the impress of His disposition and His likeness.

    Hence, when any soul seeks and receives the fullness of the Spirit, and desires to have it increased, is it not perfectly evident that he can enjoy this blessing only according 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 and as the servants of all, and that in a constantly increasing and unreserved measure.  The Spirit is the outflowing of the life of God.  If we will but yield ourselves to Him, He will become rivers of living water, flowing from the depths of our heart.

    If you will have the blessing increased, begin to live as a person who is left here on earth only in order that the love of God may work by you.  Love all around you with the love of God which 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 will love constrain you to speak, to work, to give, and to pray.  If there is no open door for working, or if you have not the strength for it, the door of prayer is always open, and power can be obtained at the mercy seat.  Like God and Jesus and the Spirit, live wholly to bless others.  Then the blessing shall stream forth and become overflowing.

Let Jesus Be Everything

    The Scripture says: “...That in all things He may have the preeminence.  For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell” (Col. 1:18-19); “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 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 of living water.”  If we only understood that word “believes” rightly, we should 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 the divine love, and that 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, an appropriation of the blessing as it is provided in Christ, a resting in the certainty of it, and a thanking of God for what He is yet to do.

    Thereafter, faith is a keeping open of the soul so that Christ can come in with the blessing and take possession and fill all.  Accordingly, faith becomes the most fervent and unbroken communion between the soul in which Christ obtains His place and Christ Himself, who by the silent, effectual blessing of the Spirit is enthroned in the heart.

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

    There are two ways in which a believer can encounter and strive against sin.  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 the 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. THOU art my Keeper” (Psa. 121:5).  This is the method of faith.  “...This is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith” (1 John 5:4).

    Yes, this is indeed “the one thing needful,” because it is the only way in which Jesus, who is in Himself “The One Thing Needful,” can maintain the work of His Spirit in us.  It is by the exercise of faith without ceasing that the blessing will flow 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 inbreathing of fresh air.  Even so must God actually renew, and uphold, 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, the love of God prepared for us and communicating itself to us.  The Spirit is simply the fullness of Christ, the life of Christ, the self­communicating love of Christ, surrounding us as the air surrounds the body.

    O 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 by us!  Let us endeavor to obtain a heart filled with the joyful assurance that the Almighty Lord will fulfill His word with power, and that our only choice is to see Him, to rejoice in Him, and sacrifice all for Him.  Then shall His word become true: “He who believes in Me...out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  Amen.

    – Condensed from The Full Blessing Of Pentecost.