Sword of the Spirit

The Full Blessing of Pentecost - The One Thing Needful By Andrew Murray How glorious it is (Excerpts - continued 4) "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." ACTS ii. 4. It is the blessing of Pentecost that gives power to bless others. The divine power of the exalted Jesus to grant repentance and the forgiveness of sins is exercised by Him through His servants whom He sends forth to proclaim these blessings. The minister of the gospel who desires to preach repentance and forgiveness through Jesus with success in winning souls, must do the work in the power of the Spirit of this Jesus. The chief reason why so much preaching of conversion and pardon is fruitless lies in the fact that these elements of truth are presented only as a doctrine, and that preachers endeavour to secure a way to the hearts of their audience in the power of merely human earnestness, and reasoning, and eloquence. But little blessing is won by these means. It is the man that makes it his chief desire t

The Full Blessing of Pentecost - The One Thing Needful By Andrew Murray How glorious it is (Excerpts - continued 3) "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." ACTS ii. 4. The blessing of Pentecost makes the whole Word of God new. How distinctly do we see this fact in the case of the disciples. As with all the Jews of that age, their ideas of the Messiah and the kingdom of God were utterly external and carnal. All the instruction of the Lord Jesus throughout three long years could not detach their minds from them. They were utterly unable to comprehend the doctrine of a suffering and dying Messiah or the hope of His invisible spiritual dominion. Even after His resurrection He had to rebuke them for their unbelieving spirit and their backwardness in understanding the Scriptures. With the coming of the day of Pentecost an entire change took place. The whole of their ancient Scriptures opened up before them. The light of the Holy Spirit in them illumined the Word. In the preach

Does God Use Means In Healing? By John G. Lake By the term “means” is understood the varied remedies, medicines and potions commonly used by the world at large and prescribed for the sick—in short, Materia Medica.  This should be an extremely easy question for anyone to decide. The world has always had her systems of healing. There were one thousand and one systems of healing evolved in all the centuries. They were mankind’s endeavor to alleviate suffering.  They existed in the days of Jesus, just as they exist today.  The ancient Egyptians used them and were as proficient in the practice as our modern physicians. Indeed their knowledge of chemistry in some respects seems to have superseded ours, as they were able to produce an embalming substance that preserved the human body and kept it from dissolution. The public commonly believes that medicine is a great science, and that its practice is entirely scientific. Whereas, so great a man as Professor Douglas McGlaggen, who occupied the

The Full Blessing of Pentecost - The One Thing Needful By Andrew Murray How glorious it is (Excerpts - continued 2) "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." ACTS ii. 4. The coming of the Spirit changed weakness and fear into courage and power. We all know how, from fear rising in his heart at the word of a woman, Peter denied his Lord; and how that same night all the disciples fled and forsook Him. Their hearts were really attached to Him, and they were sincerely willing to do what they had promised and go to die with Him; but when it came to the crisis, they had neither courage nor power. They had to say: "To will is present with me, but how to perform I find not." After the blessing of the Spirit of Pentecost, there was no more question of merely willing apart from performing. By Christ dwelling in us God works both the willing and the doing. With what confidence of spirit did Peter on the day of Pentecost dare to preach the Crucified One to thousands of hosti

The Full Blessing of Pentecost - The One Thing Needful By Andrew Murray How glorious it is (Excerpts - continued 1 ) "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost." ACTS ii. 4. It is just because so many preachers and so many Christians keep their minds occupied only with the external Christ on the Cross or in heaven, and wait for the blessing of His teaching and His working without understanding that the blessing of Pentecost brings Him into us, to work Himself all in us, that they make so little progress in sanctification. Christ Himself is of God made unto us sanctification: and that in no other way than by our living and being moved and existing in Him, because He lives and abides in our heart and works all there. ~ An overflowing of the heart with the love of God is also a part of the blessing of Pentecost. Next to pride, lack of love or, as we may put it in one word, lovelessness was the sin for which the Lord had so often to rebuke His disciples. These two sins have in tr

A word of Wisdom: The Way, the Truth and the Life John 14:6-7 KJV Jesus saith unto him,  I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. [7] If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. The Way is to obey and act on the Word of God, that is, Jesus Christ, to deny youself to absolutely surrender to the Holy Spirit in you, just as Jesus did, for the glory of the Father, in the love of God, God's kind of love. The Truth is in the righteousness, peace and joy in the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus. The Life is according to how Jesus showed us; to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted,  to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind,  to set at liberty them that are bruised,  And to preach the acceptable year of the Lord; of a life abiding in Christ. John 4:23-24 KJV But the hour cometh, and now is,  when the true worshi

The Full Blessing of Pentecost  - The One Thing Needful By Andrew Murray How glorious it is (Excerpts) "They were all filled with the Holy Ghost."  ACTS ii. 4.  Whenever we speak of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and desire to know what it precisely is, our thoughts always turn back to the day of Pentecost.  There we see as in a mirror how glorious the blessing is that is brought from heaven by the Holy Spirit and with which He can fill the hearts of men.  There is one fact which makes the great event of the day of Pentecost doubly instructive this, namely, that we have learned to know very intimately the men who were then filled with the Spirit, by their intercourse for three years with the Lord Jesus.  Their infirmities and defects, their sins and perversities, all stand open to our view.  But the blessing of Pentecost wrought a complete transformation.  They became entirely new men, so that one might say of them with truth:  "Old things have passed away: behold, a

The Full Blessing of Pentecost - The One Thing Needful By Andrew Murray  How it is to be taught (Excerpts - continued 4) The most urgent need of the Church is that of men who shall be able to bear testimony to this blessing. Whether it be of teachers like Peter and Paul, of deacons like Philip, or of ordinary believers like Ananias who came to Paul, this is our first need. It furnishes abundant reason why teachers and members of congregations should unitedly call upon God, that alike in preaching and pastoral intercourse there may be more manifest proof that those who preach Christ Jesus may preach Him as John the Baptist did, as the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. It is only the minister that stands forth as a personal witness and living proof of the ministry of the Spirit whose word will have full entrance into the hearts of the people and exercise full sway over them. The first disciples obtained the baptism on their knees; on their knees they obtained it for others. It wil