3 replies to this topic

[Thinker]

I've heard it said that the deeper life is not what we need but that a normal Christian life should be our goal. It is just possible that most Christian experience today is sub-normal. That would make the normal Christian walk look like a higher quality experience. What are some of the factors in normal Chistian living? First, such an awareness of our exceeding sinfulness before receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord that we would be filled with love and gratitude for His gift of forgiveness and cleansing. Second, a faithful and intensifying immersion in the Word of God with a determination to apply and obey its Truths. We will come to love and value His Word. This will create an appetite for holiness and a loathing of sin. Third, availing ourselves of prayer. We are instructed to come into his Presence and are welcomed. We are able to converse with Him and know that He listens to us. God listens to His children. Fourth, Sharing wisely with others what He means to us and what He has done for us. Fifth, telling Him how much we love Him and worshiping Him from a full heart. Add to these, making maximum use of and participation in a local Bible centered church. Good Christian books and good music are often helps and motivators. However, don't waste a nickel on these unless by someone that walks closely with God. Develop a missionary vision and involvement. Faithfulness in these things is what God uses to develop a normal Christian life that will redound to His glory and honor and abundantly bless us. Ron Pinkham

[childofrevival]

How sad that there is no mention of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Can the "deeper life" be possible without that?

[Travis Richey]

Marvin,

I keep coming back to this question you have asked of us...not because I necessarily want to, but because in my studies, my devotions, sermons at church and radio teachers I listen to...all seem to be pointing to this very thing. Can we do anything apart from the Power of the Holy Spirit? In short, I believe that the answer is an emphatical NO, we cannot fulfill the Will of God without the Power of God at work within us. The Apostle Paul is proof of that throughout his writings...it is in his weakness that there is strength, it is Christ's Power at work within him that allows him to work tirelessly, to overcome all the persecutions, imprisonments and beatings. More than anyone else, Paul is proof of the Power of the Holy Spirit. Christ, in John 15, says that apart from Him we can do nothing. Many places in Scripture we are reminded that only with God are all things possible. It is in and thru the Holy Spirit that both God and Christ dwell in us, and us in them.

I have mentioned several times already about the book "Absolute Surrender" and how it has and is impacting me. We are using this as a study book for a Bible Study at church, and I work through it as a springboard into Scripture. Murray writes of the Power of the Holy Spirit being a Spirit of Love. After all, God is Love. If I may quote from Murray again:

"One of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the want of love. When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. It is only when God's people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see--it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God. Remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. You can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel, and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole. That is literally true of Christ's Church, and if there is one thing we must pray for still, it is this: Lord, melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit; let the Holy Spirit, who at Pentecost made them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. Praise God, we can love each other in a divine love, for "the fruit of the Spirit is love." Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to love more."

We have to be empty of self, empty of our old sinful nature, emptied out of the lusts of our flesh, our eyes, and our pride...in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We cannot serve two Masters, and if we try to be the master of our own life, then we aren't allowing God to be our Master. It is self that stands in the way of the Holy Spirit...our own self that must be put to death daily in order for the Holy Spirit of Love...of selflessness....to live within us and for us to abide in Him.

To quote Murray again:

"Self is the great curse, whether in its relation to God, or to our
fellow-men in general, or to fellow-Christians, thinking of ourselves
and seeking our own. Self is our greatest curse. But, praise God,
Christ came to redeem us from self. We sometimes talk about deliverance
from the self-life--and thank God for every word that can be said about
it to help us--but I am afraid some people think deliverance from the
self-life means that now they are going to have no longer any trouble
in serving God; and they forget that deliverance from self-life means
to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all the day.

And there you have the reason why many people pray for the power of the
Holy Spirit, and they get something, but oh, so little! because they
prayed for power for work, and power for blessing, but they have not
prayed for power for full deliverance from self. That means not only
the righteous self in intercourse with God, but the unloving self in
intercourse with men. And there is deliverance. "The fruit of the
Spirit is love." I bring you the glorious promise of Christ that He is
able to fill our hearts with love."

I've tried to understand before, in my very limited and finite human mind and heart, this concept of the working of, the filling of and power of the Holy Spirit...and Murray's discussion of that Spirit being the Spirit of Love because God IS Love, comes closest to allowing my human self a glimpse of what it might truly be. To have my heart broken by Love, to feel Love for all around me....that is not within me, that can only come from outside of me...from God Himself. I believe this is why Paul prays as he does in Ephesians Chapter 3:
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."


May we all come to know this love, and be filled to the measure with His fulness,
Travis