February 13, 2009

• Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

  As way of introduction, I know there are a variety of differences in beliefs about the Holy Spirit. It is our heavenly Father's desire that as His children we might see our need for the oft-forgotten, oft-neglected third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. I'm not attempting to write a theological treatise on the Spirit here, but my prayer is that God would show us we are indeed poor and needy and can do nothing apart from Him and we should be bold and ask Him for what He so wishes to give us, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

  ~Karen

  
  

  Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life. Acts 4:20.
  
  ...I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Acts 20:27.
  
  I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Matthew 3:11-12.
  
  And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:9-13.
  

  I've been listening to and reading Oswald Chambers' biography "Abandoned to God" by David McCasland.

  There's a chapter in the book entitled "Dark Night of the Soul," a period of time which Chambers called "four years of hell on earth." Near the end of that time Chambers became "very desperate" and claimed the gift of the Holy Spirit [1]:

  I see now that God was taking me by the light of the Holy Spirit and His Word through every ramification of my being. The last three months of those years things had reached a climax, I was getting very desperate. I knew no one who had what I wanted; in fact I did not know what I did want. But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud.

  Then Luke 11:13 got hold of me—"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"

  But how could I, bad motivated as I was, possibly ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit? Then it was borne in upon me that I had to claim the gift from God on the authority of Jesus Christ and testify to having done so. But the thought came—if you claim the gift of the Holy Spirit on the word of Jesus Christ and testify to it, God will make it know to those who know you best how bad you are in heart. And I was not willing to be a fool for Christ's sake.

  But those of you who know the experience, know very well how God brings one to the point of utter despair, and I got to the place where I did not care whether everyone knew how bad I was, I cared for nothing on earth, saving to get out of my present condition.

  Now, first of all, I will tell you I am as cautious and wary as anyone about "claiming" things in the name of Jesus. I'm not advocating a name it and claim it gospel or a prosperity gospel or anything like that. I'm also not advocating our seeking a particular experience or a particular gift of the Spirit for the Spirit is given according to the sovereign will of God (though it is true Paul does tell us to seek to prophesy). Our first intent must to seek the Giver and trust Him to work as He wills and distribute the gifts as He wills. I'm also not advocating seeking the Holy Spirit so we can make much of ourselves or to put the Spirit at the center of all things for we know that the Spirit is given to us to make much of Jesus. The Spirit comes to point us to Christ and bring glory to Christ, never to Himself. The Spirit is self-effacing; He doesn't come to bring attention to Himself.

  When we are born again into God's family, we are baptized into Christ through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works in us to birth new life and belief into our dead and unbelieving souls. But then Jesus tells us to ask our Father for the Spirit. So this asking for the Holy Spirit is something that takes place once we are already in the family, subsequent to our conversion, once the Spirit has made us sons and daughters of God, for it is only at that point we can call God "Abba, Father" through the witness of the indwelling Spirit.

  Jesus encourages us to ask for our heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit. As Jesus taught His disciples how to pray He told them to pray for daily bread for their bodies. After He tells His disciples to ask, seek and knock, He reminds us that His Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Can we not therefore conclude that in addition to asking for daily bread for our bodies we ought to be asking for daily bread for our souls? And can you not agree that feeding our souls is infinitely and eternally more important than feeding our bodies?

  Some Christians are a little (or more than a little) wary of the Holy Spirit and become dumbfounded when you talk about asking for the Spirit or praying for the baptism of the Spirit, as if that's some kind of 20th century invention from California or some screwy theology or something that's obsolete. Because of false, inaccurate teachings, abuses or negative experiences, people sometimes become hesitant when the topic of the Holy Spirit comes up. Oh, yes, and by the way, He's not a topic: He's the third person of the Trinity. The Father, Son and Spirit. Three-in-one—not two-in-one. Brothers and sisters, we simply cannot deny our need of Him out of fear.

  What we should fear is not asking for Him!

  Jesus Himself tells us when we ask the Father He will give the Spirit to us. The early church tarried in prayer and asked. Of course, as we ask, we must always keep in mind that God is sovereign and the Holy Spirit moves as He wills in His way and time. We can never expect our prayers to manipulate God. Yet, can we not say that our heavenly Father and loves us and He certainly delights in giving good gifts to His children? Is not the gift of the Spirit part of God's provision for us to live a godly and a holy life? Is not the gift of the Spirit part of our inheritance as children of God? Would we dare to say we are sufficient in ourselves and think we can turn our backs on our Father and say we don't really have any need for this gift He has promised to us and wants to give us? Does not the Father know what His children need? Does not Jesus Himself? Why would Jesus tell us to ask for the Spirit if we didn't have any need to ask for the Spirit? Are we saying that we know better than our Father and Jesus?

  How can we expect to live a holy life, a sanctified life, a life like Jesus, the life God has intended for us, if we do not open ourselves up to continually receiving of God's Spirit? How can we expect to be His witnesses apart from the power of His Holy Spirit? The Spirit Himself is our life. In ourselves we have no life, no power, no strength. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

  When was the last time you asked your heavenly Father for the Holy Spirit?

  About the baptism of the Spirit, filling of the Spirit, immersion in the Spirit, the pouring out of the Spirit, baptism by fire or whatever you want to call it: My point here is that we need a continuing connection to the Spirit, a continuous refilling, a sustained abiding in the Vine, because without the Spirit we have no life.

  Last night I tried to cut a piece of ham with my electric knife, I pushed the button, but nothing happened. I could have pushed that button all night long with all my might and nothing would have happened. Why not? Because it wasn't plugged in! I'd put the blades in, I had the ham all ready to cut, but I'd forgotten to plug the cord into the wall outlet. (This is what happens when you get old...) Unless the knife is plugged in, it can't function as it was intended. In a similar way, if we're not plugged into the Spirit, if we're not opening ourselves up to all He has for us, which includes our asking for His Spirit, we can't expect to function as God has intended.

  My laptop battery is a generic brand so when the charge gets too low, the laptop doesn't merely revert to sleep mode, it shuts down. So the other day while using my laptop, I'd ignored the notice that came on about the battery charge going too low (certainly concentrating intently on writing something very important, no doubt!) and didn't plug it, so, of course, the computer turned off and I lost all the work I'd been doing. 

  

  I realize the laptop analogy is not quite accurate, of course, since Jesus said the Spirit would abide with us forever, but I think you see my point here. In order to be fruitful and fulfill the work God has for us, we must continue to abide in the Vine and one way of doing so is by our asking for the Spirit.

  I believe John Piper has hit it on the head in his description of the baptism of the Holy Spirit [2]:

  Baptism with the Spirit is a broad, general statement about the activity of Jesus plunging us into the fullness of the Spirit in whatever measure at any point in your life it is. Which is why I pray for it almost every day....We need it [the baptism of the Spirit] all the time!

  Piper's point is that the Spirit is not for one point in time, not limited to one particular event or one particular incident. No matter what your theological bent on the Spirit, if you are a child of God, if you are born of the Spirit, I think you can agree that

  We need it [the baptism of the Spirit] all the time!

  Do you pray for the baptism of the Spirit regularly?

  Have you ever prayed for the baptism of the Spirit?

  A few years ago God began to give me a desire to pray for the Holy Spirit in a way I'd not done previously. Not very long after that my life as I knew it began falling apart. My soul was shaken. My world was rocked. God began stripping away my façade of goodness and my self-sufficiency. He began stripping away many of the relationships and things I held dear. Would I say it was heart-wrenching and heart-breaking? Yes, yes! But would I not also say it was all necessary to bring me to my knees before my Lord? Yes, yes! For I know that God orchestrated it all so I might come to the end of myself and enter into deeper fellowship with Him and begin to rely on Him in a way I'd not done before. To begin to see He was far more glorious than I ever imagined. To see my sin as exceedingly sinful and His grace as truly amazing. I'm on a journey I can't stop because He is propelling me forward. There are times when I've said to (yelled at) Him, "It's too hard!" but then He reminds me His grace is sufficient and the things that are impossible for me are possible with Him. So then I come to my senses and say, "No, no. I can't go back! I don't want to. Don't let me go back to the way I was!" I had spent years being a "nice Christian," but I was pretty lukewarm most of the time. I don't want the shell of Christianity without the fire.

  This video fireplace touts itself as:

  "No logs to haul! No ashes to clean! No muss! No fuss!"
  
  It looks nice
  There may be no muss or no fuss
  Yeah, but it ain't real!
  There's no real fire!

  I don't want Barbie and Ken Christianity with no real life or breath. I don't want a form of godliness that denies the power or is void of fire! I've begun to taste and drink of the fountain of living waters and can't settle for broken cisterns and stagnant water any more. As Matt Redman has written, "Life's too short to be lukewarm."

  When I've felt strongly led to pray for the Spirit, I sometimes forget shaking and rocking often take place afterwards. So as I'm praying, when I do recall that such shaking may occur, I find myself stopping mid-sentence and interrupting myself and mentally pinching myself and asking, "What am I doing?! What am I saying?! Do I know what this means?!" Yes, I do know, well, at least somewhat. One thing I do know that shaking of one sort or another is bound to come sooner or later. But along with the shaking, rocking and stripping, comes new life, new breath and new light into my complacent, dull and dark soul. It's kind of like a controlled burn for my soul. I need it so new life can continue to grow up in me and through me. For there is no doubt that when the Spirit comes, we will not remain unchanged.

  How can I not help but pray? How can I not pray for the Spirit to come and purify me and burn away and empty me of all that it is not Him and have His way in me as He desires so my life might be a pleasing aroma, a burnt offering wholly given over to my Redeemer, to be used as He desires all to His glory? So that the one I call Lord is truly my Lord. After all He has purchased me and bought me with His blood, so I am no longer my own so I am no longer to live to myself but to and for Him alone.

  Through my study of Exodus and Leviticus in BSF, God has been strongly impressing on me the need to be holy and sanctified to Him alone [3] and how I continue to fall short in my sanctification to Him.

  Last week I came across an article by R.A. Torrey about Dwight Moody, "Why God Used D.L. Moody" (HT: Christians in Context). First off, I know I'm not a Moody and will never be one and I do know it can be dangerous to compare ourselves to others. That said, I found myself reading about Moody and realizing how much I am holding back from God. Of course, this was all just a reiteration of God's messages to us from Exodus and Leviticus:

  • We are His people ransomed by Christ's blood from the bondage of sin, Satan and death. He is our Lord and therefore we are to be His people who serve Him and Him alone and have no other gods beside Him.
  • We are to be holy because He is holy.

  I wrote notes in the margins of the article such as: "Lack of surrender accounts for lack of power. Lack of power proves there is a lack of surrender."

  Torrey wrote, "I know that he (Moody) was a man who belonged wholly to God." I wrote next to that: "Can God say that about me? What parts of me do not belong wholly to Him? What do I continue to hold back from my Master, the One who bought me and owns me. Psalm 116."

  It was then I came to a point similar to Chambers:

  If what I have is all the Christianity there is, the thing is a fraud.

  It so "happened" that God gave me opportunity that very afternoon to spend some concerted time in prayer in a quiet secluded place. I felt like Jacob who wrestled all night with God and said, "I won't let You go unless you bless me." Or like Moses who pleaded with God, "If You don't go with us, then it's not worth it. I'm going to chuck it all." Or like Moses who was emboldened to ask God, "Please show me Your glory."

  Or like Chambers, I was saying,

  If what I have is all the Christianity there is, the thing is a fraud.

  As I prayed, I wrote my prayers down in my journal.

  If I only ask You to empty myself of all self-sufficiency, which I surely know I must, I must then no longer rely on self but on You wholly. Will the Father not provide food and drink for His own children? Yea, but I doubt You.
  
  It is certainly "safer" to rely on self, but there will be no power as I do so.
  
  Self keeps coming alive again. How many times must I take up my cross and follow You? Has not the body of sin been crucified so I might not longer be controlled by it?
  
  I feel no power.
  
  Might I be so bold as Mr. Chambers who took the promise of the Spirit BY FAITH ALONE? Certainly You have told us to come to Your throne where we will find mercy and grace to help in time of need. I am unworthy, yet You have promised to give Your Spirit to all who believe and ask. Indeed, not one of us is worthy.
  
  Do I have it—You—the Baptism? I cannot travel on apart from Your filling. Dare I say, "Show Me Your glory,"—for I have seen Your glory—just in my being able to come to You—that is Your glory—making the Way for me to approach You, O God, in Your infinite holiness.
  
  I take You, Jesus, by faith. Do I know what that means? No, not really, only I know I cannot minister apart from Your fullness and I know You have promised to give me all I need.
  
  Your glory is that You look on one such as I, of such mean estate, and yet You are still mindful of me.
  

  While I was praying I was reminded (there's some overlap here in these things): 1) Being baptized in His Spirit isn't about what I feel or see but about taking Him at His Word and accepting and receiving His promises by faith; 2) Feelings never accurately determine the reality of the thing; 3) I just needed to trust Him; and 4) I shouldn't wait or look for a visible sign or feeling but that I would see evidence of His Spirit working in me.

  I believe it was later that evening I was thinking more about taking the promise of the Holy Spirit by faith alone and then I remembered: Is not that just what we do with the promise of salvation? Don't we take God at His Word which tells us that our sins which are scarlet will be whiter than snow when we bring them to the cross of Christ? Can we not do the same with His promise about the Holy Spirit? Should we not do the same and take Him at His Word? Will God not give His Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Does not the Father love us and does our heavenly Father not delight to give His children good gifts?

  Long story short, over the past week, God began rocking my world again, more specifically shaking my soul. He has shown me how I am truly bad, bad like Whitefield and Piper—far, far worse than I could see. Once again he is stripping away any inkling I had of my goodness and how desperately I need His power. I'm feeling much like the bruised reed of Isaiah 42 about which Alan Redpath wrote[4]:

  Perhaps the bruised reed speaks of some heart today, crushed by the consciousness of sin and failure, but the revelation of a nature which you possess which seems to have a skin like an onion, for every time you remove one layer there is another inside which is even more offensive that the last. How conscious we are of this evil nature! Far behind in our experience is the sense of complacency about our imagined goodness––that has all gone.

  Indeed.

  Through His Holy Spirit
  God is continuing to peel away more and more layers of the onion,
  my evil nature.

  

  You certainly know that when you cut and peel the layers of an onion, you cry. I'm crying. I'm mourning over my sin. I'm grieving because I am bad and yet I'm rejoicing because through the Lord Jesus Christ, my God has been so good to me and I know I deserve absolutely none of it. Through the blood of Jesus I've been reconciled to God, therefore instead of hearing condemnation, my God speaks comfort to me. The Lamb who lived and died for me so I might be justified by faith and have peace with God, continues to intercede for me at God's right hand. My Lord who gave all for me deserves nothing less from me than all of me. "Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee." How often do I sing such words and render lip service to God in worship and still hold back and do not give my all, my whole self to Him?

  It is the work of the Spirit to convict us of sin, to show us how utterly abominable our sin is to our Savior and how He had to be punished for each and every one of our sins. It is the work of the Spirit to show us how we are falling short in our sanctification. It is the work of the Spirit to bring us to repentance. It is the work of the Spirit to revive and sanctify us and circumcise our hearts so we might live wholly unto Him.

  How can I say I love Him if I covet what He does not choose to give me?
  How can I say I love Him if I go a-whoring after other gods?
  How can I say I love Him if I do not willingly submit to the way He has chosen for me?
  How can I say I love Him if I greedily hold onto what He does give me?
  How can I say I love Him if I do not keep His commandments?

  I can't.

  Karen, do you love Me?

  My sin would be too much to bear but for my Jesus,
  for my Jesus bore my sin for me.

  The one who has bathed does not need to wash,
  except for his feet, but is completely clean.

  If we confess our sins,
  he is faithful and just
  to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

  The Spirit's fire burns within us to purify us, to show us our sin so we might repent of our sin and forsake it. He shows us where we've compromised with sin and not gotten rid of all the leaven. We sometimes leave a speck or two. We figure it will do no great harm. Yet the next thing we know we have a big bunch of leaven gone out of control in our soul, no different than the bull in the china shop. Apart from the softening and enlightening of Holy Spirit, we can be deceived and hardened and blinded to even the biggest and vilest sins in our lives. He shows us how we've tried to make a deal with the devil, and juggle and drink from the cup of devils and the cup of the Lord simultaneously, to love God and mammon, to have one foot in heaven and one in hell.

  We owe God all of us. We are to be given over wholly to Him because we belong wholly to Him. So when I make such compromises, no matter how small, and don't give God all of me, it is idolatry, it is blatant sin. I am no different than the Israelites who gave their golden ornaments to fashion an idol. The gifts of God which were to be devoted to the building of the tabernacle, were tossed into the fire and molded into a golden calf. Brothers and sisters, that's just what we do when we devote any part of us to any other thing but God Himself. We are to be the tabernacle of God's Spirit, wholly given over to Him and Him alone.

  The Spirit comes to us make us holy, to purify us, to burn away all the imperfections and impurities, to make us like Him, to make us wholly His, to conform us into the image of Jesus. Therefore, any speck of leaven and any bit of dross has got to be dealt with. For it is only then that our profession of love for our Savior begins to become reality. It is only then that Christ can be formed in us. Otherwise we're just playing at being Christians. And it's an easy game to play. To make little compromises here and there. To hide our idols like Rachel. To take spoils that are not ours like Achan. To protect our interests and lie like Abram. To become impatient and not wait on God's timing like Saul. To covet and take what's not ours like David. To lust for power and manipulate like Jeroboam. To disobey God's direction like Jonah. To tell God we know what is best and deny our Lord like Peter. Yes, that's me. I'm bad like Rachel. I'm bad like Achan. I'm bad like Abram. I'm bad like Saul. I'm bad like David. I'm bad like Jeroboam. I'm bad like Jonah. I'm bad like Peter. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. I love the Bible because it reminds us continually we are all bad. And I love the Holy Spirit because He tells us the same thing. He leads me into all truth. Praise God that He shows me the truth about my sin. Yes, I don't like to hear it but I need to hear it. And I must hear it, otherwise I will not be able to run the race of holiness God has set before me. I must hear it so I can confess my sin and receive cleansing and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. If I don't I can never be a vessel honorable and holy, sanctified and useful to the master for every good work.

  I can't help but once again quote from Matthew Henry's commentary on Psalm 116. I so love this passage of Scripture and Henry's commentary on it. It brings me back and reminds me why Christ shed His precious blood on the cross for me.

  O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. Psalm 116:16, KJV.

  Henry wrote:

  He that procured the release of a captive took him for his servant. "Lord, thou hast loosed my bonds; those sorrows of death that compassed me, thou hast discharged me from them, and therefore I am thy servant, and entitled to thy protection as well as obliged to thy work." The very bonds which thou hast loosed shall tie me faster unto thee. Patrick.

  God's desire for His children is our continuing sanctification. We are to be holy as He is holy. However, though we readily call Jesus our Savior (for certainly He is), we often conveniently ignore the fact that He is also our sanctifier (Heb. 2:11). We want some cushy concept of salvation without the sanctifying fire. We sometimes enjoy our sin. We do all we can to justify it or excuse it. We turn a blind eye to it. We make compromises with sin. We nurture our sin. But thanks be to God, the Spirit won't let us remain in our sin. As we walk in the Spirit, we cannot remain in our sin, we cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh. The Spirit will show us the truth about sin: that it is an abomination against God. We will increasingly hate the sin in us and plead with God to have mercy on us and make us holy because we see that in ourselves there dwells no good thing. I know I can do nothing in my own strength to make myself holy. It is only as Christ dwells in me can I begin to walk a life that is holiness to the LORD. Christ did not die so I could remain in my sin. He died so I might grow more and more like Him, the one who was perfectly holy and without spot or blemish. And when we become increasingly sanctified to God and live lives of holiness to the Lord we will bring glory to God for it is only through the power of God that we can be holy. He alone gets the praise, honor and glory, not us. Any good we end up doing, though we are working, yet it is God's grace effectually working in us: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. I Cor. 15:10.

  We finished up with the book of Leviticus earlier this week. I was sobered as I read this in the book's final chapter:

  And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the LORD, all that any man giveth of such unto the LORD shall be holy. Leviticus 27:8, KJV.

  Here God is talking about the beasts Israel should be giving Him–that they should be holy. If God speaks about the beasts in that way, how much more so does that apply to us?! For indeed all that we give to the LORD should be holy. God will not accept our half-hearted, half-baked, hypocritical offerings of lip-service worship. He does not delight in offerings that cost us nothing and finds them an abomination (e.g.-see Isaiah 1). He wants all of us, He wants our whole-hearted obedience, not our outward forms and ceremonies. We are to be holiness to the LORD, wholly sanctified and set apart to God, ready to be burnt up, to be spent and poured out for Him as the Lord Jesus was poured out for us. People like Mr. Moody should not be the exception, they can and should be the rule because the Spirit who indwelt Mr. Moody indwells us today and is still available to us today.

  I heard this exchange on this week's episode of "Lost":

  John Locke: Richard said I am going to die. Am I gonna die?
  
  Christian Shephard: I suppose that's why they call it a sacrifice.
  

  When we are Christ's, we are going to die because we are called to be living sacrifices to Him. The Spirit helps us to die to self and to live to God, to fulfill God's command to us to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him.

  John Wesley [5] wrote about the power of the Holy Spirit made available to us to sanctify us and make us holy:

  The inward power of the Spirit has made you free—really, actually free—from the law or power "of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). This is liberty, true gospel liberty, experienced by every true believer. This is not freedom from the law of God, or the works of God, but from the law of sin and the works of the devil. See that you stand fast in this real, not imaginary, liberty. Take heed that you "be not entangled again," by means of these vain boasters, "in the yoke of" that vile "bondage of sin," from which you have cleanly escaped. (Gal. 5:1). . . .

  ...Do not say: "I can do nothing." If so, then you know nothing of Christ. Then you have no faith. For if you have faith, if you believe, then you "can do all things through Christ who strengthens you" (Phil. 4:13). You can love Him and keep His commandments; and to you His "commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3). Grievous to them that believe? Far from it! They are the joy of your heart.

  Show then your love for Christ by keeping His commandments, by blamelessly walking in all His ordinances. Honor Christ by obeying Him with all your might, by serving Him with all your strength. Glorify Christ by imitating Christ in all things, by walking as He walked. Trust in Christ to live and reign in your heart. Have confidence in Christ that He will fulfill in you all his great and precious promises. That He will work in you all the good pleasure of His goodness, and all the work of faith with power. Cleave to Christ, until His blood has cleansed you from all pride, all anger, all evil desire. Let Christ do all. Let Him who has done all for you, do all in you.

  Will you not pray with me for the baptism of the Spirit, so that the Spirit would come into our lives and make us holy as He is holy all to His praise, honor and glory?

  

  Brothers and sisters in Christ, can we not recognize that the current malaise, powerlessness, ineffectiveness and superficiality in the church as a whole and in our own souls can only be remedied by our praying for an outpouring of God's Holy Spirit? If the 21st century church continues to rely on the power and ingenuity and wisdom of men to restore and revive the church, we are only turning our backs on the fountain of living waters. Why should we be going back again and again to broken cisterns where we will only find stagnant waters which can never bring life to dead places? Our best fleshly efforts cannot regenerate a single dead soul, revive a single dull soul, enlighten a blind soul, speak truth to a deceived soul or renew a sin-laden soul.

  Can we truly live the life God has intended for us if we believe the Pentecostal blessing of Acts 2 was only for first century believers?

  Only as the Spirit comes and purifies us and fills us and ignites us, can we begin to live and walk as we were intended, as God's royal priesthood and holy nation. Only as the Spirit shakes us and turns us upside down can we begin to go out and turn the world upside down so His Kingdom might come and His will might be done and His Name might be hallowed.

  Are we content to remain dry and parched? Should we not be asking God to pour out His Spirit upon us?

  Are we content to remain cold or lukewarm? Should we not be asking God to baptize us with Fire, with His Spirit?

  Have you come to the point Chambers did? Have you come to the end of yourself that you say along with me:

  If what I have is all the Christianity there is, the thing is a fraud.

  My beloved brothers and sisters, there is no hope of revival in the church except through God's life in the Spirit.
  
  Are you thirsty? Are you parched? Are you tired of the stagnant waters? Are you seeing the broken cisterns are useless? Will you come with me to the fountain of Life and drink with me there? Come and drink. There's plenty of room for you and for me there, and the fountain will never run dry. Will you kneel with me and go back to our God and plead for Him to pour down His Holy Spirit upon His church and immerse us in Him that we might drink deeply from His well so we might be filled to overflowing and He might bubble up in us so we might overflow with rivers of living waters so wherever the river flows, the inner city, the suburbs, the country, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth, for wherever God's people continue to drink of His Spirit there will be new life springing up.

  Here is a poem/prayer Oswald Chambers wrote [6] not long before he claimed the Holy Spirit by faith. It's my prayer and I hope it becomes yours as well.

  PRAYER PLEADING
  by Oswald Chambers
  (September 30, 1901)

  O take my heart, my Saviour,
  Move its inward springs for me,
  Till Thy life in my behaviour
  Springs in actions constantly.

  O my Saviour, I am mourning
  For a living touch with Thee;
  Let Thy Spirit's pure adorning
  Mould Thy character in me.

  O do hear me, O do hear me,
  Else I think my heart will break;
  In its longing, be Thou near me,
  And my burning thirst—oh slake!

  O Lord Jesus, hear my crying
  For a consecrated life,
  For I bite the dust in trying
  For release from this dark strife.

  You may also be interested in reading:
  

  • Naphtali News: God speaking to me about my failures & the one thing needful (a post on the Holy Spirit)
  • Things To Look for in a Church, # 4: An Orthodox Spirit-Filled People
  • Bible Reading-Mark 16: (8) Kingdom-Obsessed People believe the stone is rolled away
  • trusting the eagles' wings (reliance on the Holy Spirit)
  • Blessed dependence ~ "Leaning upon her beloved"
  • The Day of Pentecost ... the first of a series (Martyn Lloyd-Jones on revival)

  ---

  Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

  [1] David McCasland, "Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God" (Grand Rapids, Mi: Discovery House Publishers, 1993), 84-85.

  [2] From the audio of John Piper's "This Is He Who Baptizes with the Holy Spirit." I'd highly recommend your listening to this message; if you've not have time to listen, at least check out the text, though Piper's actual sermon includes much more than the text that's available on the website. This message is one in his series on the book of John which he began last fall.

  [3] For example, please see my posts: Pressing on in the New Year, Fourth Sunday of Advent: Are you preparing Him room? and Bible Reading: Job 2:1 - "Again" (To press on we must always be mortifying sin | John Owen).

  [4] Alan Redpath, "Faith for the Times: Studies in the Prophecy of Isaiah: Chapters 40 to 66: Part I: The Promise of Deliverance" (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell, 1972), 54. (See also my post Dealing with past sins & guilt: Godly guilt does not break the bruised reed.)

  [5] John Wesley, "Holiness Is Not Legalism."

  [6] McCasland, 315.

  • 3:05 PM
  • 11 Comments