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Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
Being filled with the Spirit is simply this: having our whole nature yielded to His power. When the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it.
The disciples were men who had forsaken all to follow Jesus. They could later say by the mouth of Peter, “We have forsaken all and followed thee” (Matthew 19:27). They left their homes, their families, and their good names. Men mocked and laughed at them.
This is the first step to being filled with the Holy Spirit. We must forsake all to follow Christ.
Many Christians think of Jesus as someone who can save them and help them, but they practically deny Him as Master. “Jesus, I forsake all to follow You.” This is the demand of Christ.
“Oh Christ, let me be filled with the Holy Spirit. I will give up anything and everything. Accept my surrender of all to You!”
Many do not realize that true Christianity consists of an intense, close, personal attachment to Jesus and fellowship with Him every day. Many think of Jesus as their Savior, yet never realize that Jesus ought to be their friend and guide and keeper all day long, their leader and master whom they gladly obey. Many Christians might talk about Him, yet not know what it means to walk with Him.
We need to forsake all for the sake of Jesus. We need to let Him come into our lives and take possession of our hearts. Do we have a life of tender personal attachment to Jesus and joy in Him? I do not ask if you have perfectly achieved this, but I do wonder if we can honestly say, “It is what I am striving after. It is my main desire and goal. It is what I long for above everything else. Jesus Christ must have my heart and my will every moment of every day.”
You work for Him. You try to do good, but all the time you are doing your own work. You, as a Christian, are doing the work, and you look to God to help and bless; but that cannot be. God must first bring each one of us down into the place of death.
If you want to be filled with the Spirit and the risen life of glory, you must first die to self. The apostles were men who had been brought to utter self-despair; they were men who had lost all and were ready to receive all from God in heaven.
Look to God, and expect God to do something. It is not enough to believe. Many people mistake faith for the blessing that faith is intended to bring. By faith, we inherit the promises. Oh, believe and trust God; then look to Him to give the blessing. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Changed by the Spirit of God
No outward instruction, even from Christ Himself or His words in Holy Scripture, can bring us the true and full blessing until the Holy Spirit works it in us.
Jesus was not always with them. They could not be with Him every moment. Friends, the presence of Jesus by the Holy Spirit is meant to be unbroken, continual, and forever.
The true taking away of sin is this: if the light comes in, the darkness is expelled. It is the presence of Jesus, dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit, that can make us holy.
If Christians will seek God’s Word, hear Him, wait upon Him in prayer, and tell Him they are ready for His work, isn’t God able to do far more than He has already done? One thing is needed. The Spirit did it all on the day of Pentecost and afterwards. It was the Spirit who gave the boldness. The Spirit gave the wisdom. The Spirit gave the message. The Spirit gave the converting power.
The one thing we need is the power of the Holy Spirit – “to be filled with the Spirit.”
Here are four very little steps.
- Let everyone who longs for this blessing now say, first of all, “I must be filled.”
- Then, say as the second step, “I may be filled.” It is possible that the promise is for you.
- Thirdly, say, “I must be filled.” To get the pearl of great price, you must sell all; you must give up everything. Are you willing?
- Then comes the last step. “I will be filled.” God wants to give it.
If we entrust ourselves to Jesus, He will not disappoint.
From Carnal to Spiritual
And I, brothers, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. – 1 Corinthians 3:1
Some Christians are carnal and some are spiritual.
Prolonged Infancy
I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food, for until now ye were not able to bear it. – 1 Corinthians 3:2
Now, what are the characteristics of a baby? There are two specific characteristics: a baby cannot help itself, and a baby cannot help others.
For you should now be teaching others, if we look at the time, yet you need to be taught again which are the first elements of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong food. For any one that uses milk is not qualified in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. – Hebrews 5:12-13
There are people who are always wanting to be helped instead of being a help to others.
The second mark of a carnal state is that sin and failure are in control. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? (1 Corinthians 3:3). Then Paul says, For while one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? (1 Corinthians 3:4).
The carnal state is the root of every sin. Take care that Satan does not deceive you with the thought, “But I work for God, and God blesses me, and others look up to me, and I am the means of helping others.”
The carnal state makes it impossible for a person to receive spiritual truth.
Conviction and Confession
The Word of God speaks about two powers of life – the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh is our life under the power of sin. The Spirit is God’s life coming to take the place of our life. What we need, and what the Bible tells us, is to give our whole life away unto death with every idea of strength or power; we must become nothing and receive the life of Christ and of the Spirit to do all for us.
Here are some steps to move from flesh to Spirt:
- You must see the spiritual life.
- You must be convicted of and confess your carnal state.
- You must see that it is but one step from the one to the other.
- You must take the decisive step in the faith that Christ is able to keep you.
The great thing is that we must look to Christ to keep us tomorrow, and the next day, and always. We must get the life of God within us.
God is waiting. Christ is waiting. The Holy Spirit is waiting.
Separated unto the Holy Spirit
Now there were in the congregation that was at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen…and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work unto which I have called them.” And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they released them. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, departed unto Seleucia. – Acts 13:1-4
God has His own plans regarding His kingdom.
Blessed is the man who gets into God’s secrets and works under God, doing God’s work God’s way.
Murray recalled that he was part of opening a mission institute at Wellington. He recalled that it was a fine large building. At the opening services, the principal said something that that stuck with him. The principal remarked: “Last year we gathered here to lay the foundation stone, and what was here then? Nothing but rubbish, and stones, and bricks, and the ruins of an old building that had been pulled down. There we laid the foundation stone, and very few knew what the building was to become. No one knew it perfectly in every detail except one man, the architect. In his mind it was all clear, and as the contractor and the mason and the carpenter came to their work, they took their orders from him, and the humblest laborer had to obey orders. The structure rose, and this beautiful building has been completed. This building that we open today is only laying the foundation of a work that only God knows what it will be.”
God has His workers and His plans clearly mapped out, and our duty is to wait, so God can communicate to us as much of His will as He determines is needful. We simply have to be faithful in obedience and carry out His orders.
We often ask how a person can know the will of God. When people are confused or uncertain of what to do, they often pray very earnestly that God would answer them at once. But God can only reveal His will to a heart that is humble and tender and empty. God can only reveal His will in perplexities and special difficulties to a heart that has learned to obey and honor Him loyally in little things and in daily life.
Do His Work
Our holy partnership with the Holy Spirit in His work becomes a matter of consciousness and of action. What did men of the early church do? They set apart Paul and Barnabas, and then it is written that they were sent forth by the Holy Spirit down to Seleucia. Oh, what fellowship! The Holy Spirit in heaven doing part of the work, and man on earth doing the other part.
We have the key that can unlock the spiritual dungeons of London and New York and Chicago and Washington, D.C. and of all heathendom. However, we are far more occupied with our work than we are with prayer. We believe more in speaking to men than we believe in speaking to God. Doesn’t this convict us when we are too busy to pray or rush through prayer in order to get on with our work or are so caught up with work that we never sit at the feet of Jesus?
Consider the words of David in Psalm 62:5, “My soul, rest thou only in God.” That is our highest and most important work. The Holy Spirit comes in answer to believing prayer.
Peter’s Repentance
Then the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord how he had said unto him, Before the cock crows, thou shalt deny me three times. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. – Luke 22:61-62
In the history of Peter, Christ had said to him, “Thou canst not follow me now” (John 13:36). Peter was not in a proper state to follow Christ, because he had not been brought to the end of himself; he did not know himself, and he therefore could not follow Christ.
Christ previously said to him, “When thou art converted, strengthen Your brethren” (Luke 22:32). As Peter wept bitterly, he reached the point where he was converted from self to Christ.
Murray reflects, “I thank God for the story of Peter. I do not know a man in the Bible who gives us greater comfort. When we look at his character, so full of failures, and at what Christ made him by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is hope for every one of us. But remember, before Jesus could fill Peter with the Holy Spirit and make a new man of him, Peter had to go out and weep bitterly; he had to be humbled.”
Christ told Peter that he must deny self. Self must be ignored and its every claim rejected. That is the root of true discipleship, but Peter did not understand it and could not obey it.
When the last night came, Christ said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, thou shalt deny me three times.” But with self-confidence, Peter said, “Though all men shall be offended in thee, yet I will never be offended. And, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death” (Matthew 26:33; Luke 22:33). Peter meant it honestly, and Peter really intended to do it; but Peter did not know himself.
Peter went out and wept bitterly (Luke 22:62). We cannot realize Peter’s depth of humiliation. But that was the turning point and the change. On the first day of the week, Peter saw Jesus, and in the evening, Jesus met him with the others. Later at the Sea of Galilee, He asked Peter, “Lovest thou Me?” until Peter grieved when the Lord reminded him of his three denials. In sorrow, but in uprightness, Peter answered, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (John 21:15-17).
To be an earnest, godly, devoted, and successful worker is even possible when the power of the flesh is still strong. That is a very solemn truth, and only God knows how many such people have been working for Him in our churches for five, or ten, or twenty years. Peter, before he denied Christ, had cast out devils and had healed the sick.
It is the work of our blessed Lord Jesus to reveal the power of self in us. Jesus can give deliverance from the power of self. What does He ask you to do? He asks only that you should humble yourself before Him.
Absolute Surrender
Then Benhadad, the king of Syria, gathered all his host together; and there were thirty-two kings with him and horses and chariots; and he went up and besieged Samaria and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab, king of Israel, into the city and said unto him, Thus hath Benhadad said, Your silver and Your gold is mine; Your wives also and Your children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to Your word, I am thine and all that I have. – 1 Kings 20:1-4
Murray recalls when he was in Scotland, “I was in a group where we were talking about the condition of Christ’s church and what the great need of the church and believers is. In our group was a godly worker who was very involved in training Christian workers. I asked him what he thought was the great need of the church and what message ought to be preached. He answered quietly and simply and determinedly: ‘Absolute surrender to God is the one thing.’”
That man then began to tell how, if the workers he dealt with were solid on that point, even though they were weak elsewhere, they were willing to be taught and helped and always improved; whereas, others who were not interested in absolute surrender to God often went back and left the work. The condition for obtaining God’s full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.
Do not be afraid that God will ask from you what He will not first give to you. God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you.
If you come and say, “Lord, I yield myself in absolute surrender to You,” even though it is with a trembling heart and with the thought that you do not feel the power, determination, or assurance, it will succeed. Don’t be afraid, but come just as you are, and even in the midst of your trembling, the power of the Holy Spirit will work.
Daniel Whittle wrote a beautiful song, “Moment by Moment.” The chorus says: Moment by moment I’m kept in His love, Moment by moment I’ve life from above; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine; Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.
A life of absolute surrender has two sides. On the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants me to do; on the other side, surrender to let God work what He wants to do. First, to do what God wants us to do. Give yourselves up absolutely to the will of God.
On the other side, come and say, “I give myself absolutely to God, to let Him work in me to will and to do of His good pleasure, as He has promised to do” (Philippians 2:13). Yes, the living God wants to work in His children in a way that we cannot understand but that God’s Word has revealed; He wants to work in us every moment of the day.
Christ Our Life
As Paul says in Colossians 3:4, “Christ is our life.”
If Christ is to be our life, we must look first at Christ before us as our example. He must not only be something hidden in our hearts, but His presence must emanate in every action and in every moment of our existence.
What do we find, then, as we look at Christ? The very root of Christ’s life was absolute surrender to God. As Jesus noted in John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of himself.” Jesus lived a life of absolute surrender to God.
Are you ready to surrender yourself absolutely to God and receive it? Sincerely say, “Lord, I am utterly surrendered to You. I am feeble and trembling, but I surrender, Lord God; it is done. I have received but little of what I know You can give, but as an empty vessel, cleansed and lowly, I place myself at Your feet again, day by day and moment by moment, and I wait upon You.”
The Fruit of the Spirit is Love
The fruit of the Spirit is this: charity [love].
One of the main reasons God does not bless is the lack of love. When the body is divided, there cannot be strength.
Why is it that the fruit of the Spirit is love?
- Because God is love (1 John 4:8). As Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this shall everyone know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
- Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness. Self is the great curse, whether in its relation to God, or to our fellow men, or to fellow Christians.
Jesus Christ said, “As I have loved you…love one another. He did not put that among the other commandments, but He said, in effect, ‘This is a new commandment, the main commandment: love one another as I have loved you.’”
We Cannot. God Can.
When a person fully understands that it is impossible to lead a victorious life on his own yet at the same time says, “I must do it, and I will do it; it is impossible for man, and yet I must do it,” he is beginning to understand God’s truth in this matter.
Consider the person who says, “I really do delight in the law and Word of God. I really do want to do what is good. My heart loves the law of God, and my will has chosen that law.” Can a person like that fail, with his heart full of delight in God’s law and with his will determined to do what is right? Yes. That is what Romans 7 teaches. There is something more needed. Not only must we delight in the law of God after the inward man and will what God wills, but we need a divine power to work it in us. That is what the apostle Paul teaches, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do” (Philippians 2:13).
As we used those words absolute surrender – and absolute surrender to God – weren’t some of you brought to an end of yourselves – to think that you cannot see how you can actually live as a person absolutely surrendered to God every moment of the day?
If you felt that you couldn’t do it, you are on the right road. Let yourselves be led further down the road. Accept that position that you cannot do it and maintain it before God. Fall down and learn that when you are utterly helpless, God will come to work in you not only to will but also to do.
Have you said, “In worship, in work, in sanctification, in obedience to God, I can do nothing of myself, so my place is to worship the omnipotent God and believe that He will work in me every moment”? Oh, may God teach us this!
You must live every day under the power of the Holy Spirit. God wants you to be a living vessel in whom the power of the Spirit is manifested every hour and every moment of your life, and God will enable you to be that.
Continue in the Spirit
Did ye receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the obedient ear of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun by the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? = Galatians 3:2-3
God gives Christians the Holy Spirit with this intention: every day should be lived in the power of the Spirit. A man cannot live a godly life one hour unless by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Religious self-effort always ends in sinful flesh.
How can we get back to the fullness of the love, truth, and power of God and His Spirit? The Galatians had no other way to return but to come back to where they had gone wrong, back from all religious effort in their own strength and from seeking anything by their own work to yield themselves humbly to the Holy Spirit. There is no other way for us as individuals.
You are trying to do in your own strength what Christ alone can do in you. You were trusting in yourself or you could not have failed. If you had trusted Christ, He could not fail.
Kept
One truth is kept by the power of God, and the other truth is kept through faith.
As Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20, “Above all that we ask or think, the all-powerful God is what we must know and trust.” Then, we will live as a Christian ought to live.
We must understand that faith is rest. In the beginning of the faith life, faith is struggling; but as long as faith is struggling, it has not attained its strength. When faith in its struggling gets to the end of itself and throws itself upon God and rests on Him, then joy and victory arrive.
How wonderful to live out the words of Daniel Whittle’s hymn:
Moment by moment I’m kept in His love,
Moment by moment I’ve life from above;
Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine;
Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.
The Vine and the Branches
Focus especially on the words, “ye are the branches.”
A great German theologian wrote two large volumes some years ago to show that all of John Calvin’s theology can be summed up in that one principle of absolute dependence upon God, and he was right. Another great writer has said that absolute, unalterable dependence upon God alone is the essence of the religion of angels, and should be that of men also.
This is the lesson from the vine and the branches. Let every vine you ever see and every bunch of grapes that comes upon your table remind you that the branch is absolutely dependent on the vine. The vine must do the work, and the branch enjoys the fruit of it.
Consider this: if you are something, then God is not everything; but when you become nothing, God can become all, and the everlasting God in Christ can reveal Himself fully. That is the higher life.
Workers, here is your most important lesson: learn to be nothing; learn to be helpless.
Absolute Surrender: The life of the branch is a life of absolute surrender. These words, absolute surrender, are great and solemn words, and Murray is convinced we do not understand their meaning.
Murray concludes, “Oh, friends, we lack this entire surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. The more I speak, the more I feel that one of the most important and necessary points to make clear and explain is this entire surrender. It is often an easy thing for people to come out and offer themselves up to God for entire consecration and to say, ‘Lord, it is my desire to give myself entirely to You.’ That is of great value and often brings rich blessing; but the one question you ought to study quietly is ‘What is meant by entire surrender?’”