Brimming with the Spirit
Today there is no reason for our remaining longer in doubt. We have every right to expect our Lord to grant to His Church the spiritual gifts which He has never in fact taken away from us, but which we are failing to receive only because of our error of unbelief. -A.W. Tozer
After a man is convinced that he can be filled with the Spirit he must desire to be.
If. . . your soul cries out for God, for the living God, and your dry and empty heart despairs of living a normal Christian life without a further anointing, then I ask you: Is your desire all-absorbing? Is it the biggest thing in your life? Does it crowd out every common religious activity and fill you with an acute longing that can only be described as the pain of desire? If your heart cries "Yes" to these questions you may be on your way to a spiritual breakthrough that will transform your whole life.
Before there can be fullness there must be emptiness. Before God can fill us with Himself we must first be emptied of ourselves.
The infilling itself is not a complicated thing. While I shy away from "how to" formulas in spiritual things, I believe the answer to the question "How can I be filled?" may be answered in four words, all of them active verbs. They are these: (1) surrender, (2) ask, (3) obey, and (4) believe.
Surrender: ". . . Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. . . And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,. . . (Romans 12:1,2).
Ask: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13).
Obey: "We are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32).
Believe: "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2).
True faith invariably brings a witness.
-A.W. Tozer; Keys to The Deeper Life; pp. 48-57
After a man is convinced that he can be filled with the Spirit he must desire to be.
If. . . your soul cries out for God, for the living God, and your dry and empty heart despairs of living a normal Christian life without a further anointing, then I ask you: Is your desire all-absorbing? Is it the biggest thing in your life? Does it crowd out every common religious activity and fill you with an acute longing that can only be described as the pain of desire? If your heart cries "Yes" to these questions you may be on your way to a spiritual breakthrough that will transform your whole life.
Before there can be fullness there must be emptiness. Before God can fill us with Himself we must first be emptied of ourselves.
The infilling itself is not a complicated thing. While I shy away from "how to" formulas in spiritual things, I believe the answer to the question "How can I be filled?" may be answered in four words, all of them active verbs. They are these: (1) surrender, (2) ask, (3) obey, and (4) believe.
Surrender: ". . . Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. . . And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,. . . (Romans 12:1,2).
Ask: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13).
Obey: "We are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts 5:32).
Believe: "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2).
True faith invariably brings a witness.
-A.W. Tozer; Keys to The Deeper Life; pp. 48-57
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