The Full Blessings of Pentecost: How it is obtained by us - Part 4 of 7

The Full Blessings of Pentecost

By Andrew Murray

How it is obtained by us - Part 4 of 7

"And be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess;
but be filled with the Spirit;"
EPH. v. 18.

I cannot grasp this blessing in my own power.

Whenever a Christian begins to strive for this blessing,
he generally makes a variety of efforts to reach after
the faith,
and obedience,
and humility,
and submission
which are the conditions of obtaining it.

Then, when he does not succeed, he is tempted to blame himself, and if he does not become utterly discouraged, he rouses himself to still stronger effort and greater zeal.

All this struggling is not without its value and its use.
It has its use, however, in other ways than are commonly anticipated.
It does the very work that the law does that is to say,
it brings us to the knowledge of our entire impotence;
it leads us to that despair of ourselves in which we become willing to give to God the place that belongs to Him.

This lesson is entirely indispensable.
"I can neither bestow this blessing on myself nor take it.
It is God alone that must work it in me."

The blessing of Pentecost is a supernatural gift, a wonderful act of God in the soul.
The life of God in every soul is just as truly a work of God as when that life was first manifested in Jesus Christ.

A Christian can do as little to bring the full life of the Spirit to fruition in his soul as the virgin Mary did to conceive her supernatural child.
Like her, he can only receive it as the gift of God.

The impartation of this heavenly blessing is as entirely an act of God as the resurrection of Christ from the dead was His divine work.

As Christ Jesus had wholly and entirely to go down unto death, and lay aside utterly the life He had,
in order to receive a new life from God,
so must the believer abandon all power and hope of his own to receive this full blessing as a free gift of divine Omnipotence.

This acknowledgment of our utter impotence, this descent into true self-despair, is indispensable if we would enjoy this supreme blessing.