The Full Blessing of Pentecost: How it is to be taught
The Full Blessing of Pentecost
- The One Thing Needful
By Andrew Murray
By Andrew Murray
How it is to be taught
(Excerpts)
"And it came to pass that Paul came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples,
He said unto them,
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?"
ACTS xix. 1-2.
There is a twofold Christian life.
The one is that in which we experience something of the operations of the Holy Spirit, just as many did under the old covenant,
but do not yet receive Him as the Pentecostal Spirit, as the personal indwelling Guest,
concerning whom we know that He has come to abide permanently in the heart.
On the other hand, there is a more abundant life, in which the indwelling just referred to is known and the full joy and power of redemption are facts of personal experience.
It will be only when Christians come to understand fully the distinction betwixt these two conditions, and discern that the second of these is in very deed the will of God concerning them, and therefore a possible experience for each believer;
when with shame and confusion of face they shall confess the sinful and inconsistent elements that still mark their life:
that we shall dare to hope that the Christian community will once more be restored to its Pentecostal power.
~
For a healthful Christian life, it is indispensable that we should be fully conscious that we have received the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
Had it been otherwise, Paul would never have put the question:
"Have ye receive the Holy Spirit since ye believed?"
These disciples were recognised as believers.
This position, however, was not enough for them.
The disciples who walked with the Lord Jesus on earth were also true believers, yet He commanded them not to rest satisfied until they had received the Holy Spirit from Himself in heaven.
Paul too had seen the Lord in His heavenly glory and was by that vision led to conversion; yet even in his case the spiritual work he required to have done in him was not thereby completed.
Ananias had to go to him and lay his hands upon him that he might receive the Holy Spirit.
Only then could he become a witness for Christ.
All these facts teach us that there are two ways in which the Holy Spirit works in us.
The first is the preparatory operation in which He simply acts on us but does not yet take up His abode within us,
though leading us to conversion and faith and ever urging us to all that is good and holy.
The second is the higher and more advanced phase of His working when we receive Him as an abiding gift, as an indwelling Person,
concerning whom we know that He assumes responsibility for our whole inner being, working in it both to will and to do.
This is the ideal of the full Christian life.
He said unto them,
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?"
ACTS xix. 1-2.
There is a twofold Christian life.
The one is that in which we experience something of the operations of the Holy Spirit, just as many did under the old covenant,
but do not yet receive Him as the Pentecostal Spirit, as the personal indwelling Guest,
concerning whom we know that He has come to abide permanently in the heart.
On the other hand, there is a more abundant life, in which the indwelling just referred to is known and the full joy and power of redemption are facts of personal experience.
It will be only when Christians come to understand fully the distinction betwixt these two conditions, and discern that the second of these is in very deed the will of God concerning them, and therefore a possible experience for each believer;
when with shame and confusion of face they shall confess the sinful and inconsistent elements that still mark their life:
that we shall dare to hope that the Christian community will once more be restored to its Pentecostal power.
~
For a healthful Christian life, it is indispensable that we should be fully conscious that we have received the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.
Had it been otherwise, Paul would never have put the question:
"Have ye receive the Holy Spirit since ye believed?"
These disciples were recognised as believers.
This position, however, was not enough for them.
The disciples who walked with the Lord Jesus on earth were also true believers, yet He commanded them not to rest satisfied until they had received the Holy Spirit from Himself in heaven.
Paul too had seen the Lord in His heavenly glory and was by that vision led to conversion; yet even in his case the spiritual work he required to have done in him was not thereby completed.
Ananias had to go to him and lay his hands upon him that he might receive the Holy Spirit.
Only then could he become a witness for Christ.
All these facts teach us that there are two ways in which the Holy Spirit works in us.
The first is the preparatory operation in which He simply acts on us but does not yet take up His abode within us,
though leading us to conversion and faith and ever urging us to all that is good and holy.
The second is the higher and more advanced phase of His working when we receive Him as an abiding gift, as an indwelling Person,
concerning whom we know that He assumes responsibility for our whole inner being, working in it both to will and to do.
This is the ideal of the full Christian life.
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