The Normal Christian Life (14 page)
Do you know, my friends, that the Spirit within you is very God? Oh that our eyes were opened to see the greatness of God’s gift! Oh that we might realize the vastness of the resources secreted in our own hearts! I could shout with joy as I think, “The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere influence, but a living Person; He is very God. The infinite God is within my heart!” I am at a loss to convey to you the blessedness of this discovery, that the Holy Spirit dwelling within my heart is a Person. I can only repeat, “He is a Person!” and repeat it again, “He is a Person!” and repeat it yet again, “He is a Person!” Oh, my friends, I would fain repeat it to you a hundred times:
The Spirit of God within me is a Person!
I am only an earthen vessel, but in that earthen vessel I carry a treasure of unspeakable worth, even the Lord of glory.
All the worry and fret of God’s children would end if their eyes were opened to see the greatness of the treasure hid in their hearts. Do you know, there are resources enough in your own heart to meet the demand of every circumstance in which you will ever find yourself? Do you know there is power enough there to move the city in which you live? Do you know there is power enough to shake the universe? Let me tell you once more—I say it with the utmost reverence: You who have been born again of the Spirit of God—you carry God in your heart!
All the flippancy of the children of God would cease too if they realized the greatness of the treasure deposited within them. If you have only ten shillings in your pocket, you can march gaily along the street, talking lightly as you go and swinging your stick in the air. It matters little if you lose
your money, for there is not much at stake. But if you carry a thousand pounds in your pocket, the position is vastly different, and your whole demeanor will be different too. There will be great gladness in your heart, but no careless jaunting along the road. Once in a while you will slacken your pace, and slipping your hand into your pocket, you will quietly finger your treasure again, and then with joyful solemnity continue on your way.
In Old Testament times there were hundreds of tents in the camp of Israel, but there was one tent quite different from all the rest. In the common tents you could do just as you pleased—eat or fast, work or rest, be joyful or sober, noisy or silent. But that other tent was a tent that commanded reverence and awe. You might move in and out of the common tents talking noisily and laughing gaily; but as soon as you neared that special tent, you instinctively walked more quietly. And when you stood right before it, you bowed your head in solemn silence. No one could touch it with impunity. If man or beast dared to do so, death was the sure penalty. What was so very special about it? It was the temple of the living God. There was little unusual about the tent itself, for it was outwardly of very ordinary material. But the great God had chosen to make it His abode.
Do you realize what happened at your conversion? God came into your heart and made it His temple. In Solomon’s days God dwelt in a temple made of stone; today He dwells in a temple composed of living believers. When we really see that God has made our hearts His dwelling place, what a deep reverence will come over our lives! All lightness, all frivolity will end, and all selfpleasing too, when we know that we are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells
within us. Has it really come home to you that wherever you go you carry with you the Holy Spirit of God? You do not just carry your Bible with you, or even much good teaching about God, but God Himself.
The reason why many Christians do not experience the power of the Spirit, though He actually dwells in their hearts, is that they lack reverence. And they lack reverence because they have not had their eyes opened to the fact of His presence. The fact is there, but they have not seen it.
Why is it that some of God’s children live victorious lives while others are in a state of constant defeat? The difference is not accounted for by the presence or absence of the Spirit (for He dwells in the heart of every child of God), but by this: Some recognize His indwelling and others do not. True revelation of the fact of the Spirit’s indwelling will revolutionize the life of any Christian.
“Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).
This verse now takes us a stage further, for when once we have made the discovery of the fact that we are the dwelling place of God, then a full surrender of ourselves to God must follow. When we see that we are the temple of God, we shall immediately acknowledge that we are not our own. Consecration will follow revelation. The difference between victorious Christians and defeated ones is not that some have the Spirit while others have not, but that some know His indwelling and others do not; and that consequently some
recognize the divine ownership of their lives while others are still their own masters.
Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration is the second. A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ. There may be a practical issue raised by God to test the reality of our consecration. But whether that be so or not, there must be a day when, without reservation, we surrender everything to Him—ourselves, our families, our possessions, our business and our time. All we are and have becomes His, to be held henceforth entirely at His disposal. From that day we are no longer our own masters, but only stewards. Not until the lordship of Christ in our hearts is a settled thing can the Spirit really operate effectively in us. He cannot direct our lives until all control of them is committed to Him. If we do not give Him absolute authority there, He can be present, but He cannot be powerful. The power of the Spirit is stayed.
Are you living for the Lord or for yourself? Perhaps that is too general a question, so let me be more specific. Is there anything God is asking of you that you are withholding from Him? Is there any point of contention between you and Him? Not till every controversy is settled and the Holy Spirit is given His full place can He reproduce the life of Christ in any believer.
An American friend, now with the Lord, whose name we will call Paul, cherished the hope from his early youth that one day he would be called “Dr. Paul.” When he was quite a little chap, he began to dream of the day when he would enter the university, and he imagined himself first studying
for his M.A. degree and then for his Ph.D. Then at length the glad day would arrive when all would greet him as “Dr. Paul.”
The Lord saved him and called him to preach, and before long he became pastor of a large congregation. By that time he had his degree and was studying for his doctorate, but despite splendid progress in his studies and a good measure of success as a pastor, he was a very dissatisfied man. He was a Christian minister, but his life was not Christ-like; he had the Spirit of God within him, but he did not enjoy the Spirit’s presence or experience his power.
He thought to himself,
I am a preacher of the gospel and the pastor of a church. I tell my people they should love the Word of God, but I do not really love it myself. I exhort them to pray, but I myself have little inclination to pray. I tell them to live a holy life, but my own life is not holy. I warn them not to love the world, and though outwardly I shun it, yet in my heart I myself still love it dearly.
In his distress he cried to the Lord to cause him to know the power of the indwelling Spirit. But though he prayed and prayed for months, no answer came. Then he fasted, and asked the Lord to show him any hindrance there might be in his life. That answer was not long in coming, and it was this: “I long that you should know the power of my Spirit, but your heart is set on something that I do not wish you to have. You have yielded to Me all but one thing, and that one thing you are holding to yourself—your Ph.D.”
Well, to you or me it might be of little consequence whether we were addressed as plain “Mr. Paul” or as “Dr. Paul,” but to him it was his very life. He had dreamed of it from childhood, and labored for it all through his youth.
Now the thing he prized above all else was almost within his grasp. In two short months it would be his.
So he reasoned with the Lord in this wise: “Is there any harm for me to be a Doctor of Philosophy? Will it not bring much more glory to Thy name to have a Dr. Paul preaching the gospel than a plain Mr. Paul?” But God does not change His mind. And all Mr. Paul’s sound reasoning did not alter the Lord’s word to him. Every time he prayed about the matter he got the same answer.
Then, reasoning having failed, he resorted to bargaining with the Lord. He promised to go here or there, to do this or that, if only the Lord would allow him to have his doctor’s degree; but still the Lord did not change. And all the while Mr. Paul was becoming more and more hungry to know the fullness of the Spirit. This state of affairs continued to within two days of his final examination.
It was Saturday, and Mr. Paul settled down to prepare his sermon for the following day. But study as he would, he could get no message. The ambition of a lifetime was just within reach of realization, but God made it clear that he must choose between the power he could sway through a doctor’s degree and the power of God’s Spirit swaying his life. That evening he yielded. “Lord,” he said, “I am willing to be plain Mr. Paul all my days, but I want to know the power of the Holy Ghost in my life.”
He rose from his knees and wrote a letter to his examiners, asking to be excused from the examination on the Monday, giving his reason. Then he retired, very happy, but not conscious of any unusual experience. Next morning he told his congregation that for the first time in six years he had no sermon to preach, and explained how it came about. The
Lord blessed that testimony more abundantly than any of his well-prepared sermons. From that time God owned him in an altogether new way; for from that day he knew separation from the world no longer merely as an outward thing, but as a deep inward reality. And as a result, the blessedness of the Spirit’s presence and power became his daily experience.
God is waiting for a settlement of all our controversies with Him. With Mr. Paul it was a question of his doctor’s degree, but with us it may be something quite different. Our complete surrender of ourselves to the Lord generally hinges upon some one particular thing, and God waits for that one thing. He must have it, for He must have our all.
I was greatly impressed by something a great national leader wrote in his autobiography: “I want nothing for myself; I want everything for my country.” If a man can be willing that his country should have everything and he himself nothing, cannot we say to our God, “Lord, I want nothing for myself; I want all for Thee. I will what Thou willest, and I want to have nothing outside Thy will.” Not until we take the place of a servant can he take His place as Lord. He is not calling us to devote ourselves to His cause; He is asking us to yield ourselves unconditionally to His will. Are you prepared for that?
Another friend of mine, like Mr. Paul, had a controversy with the Lord. Before his conversion he fell in love, and as soon as he was saved, he sought to win the one he loved to Christ. But she would have nothing to do with spiritual things. The Lord made it clear to him that his relations with that girl must be broken off; but he was deeply devoted to her, so he evaded the issue, while continuing as before to serve the Lord and to win souls for Him. But he became
conscious of his need for holiness, and that consciousness marked for him the beginning of dark days. He asked for the Spirit’s fullness, that he might have power to live a holy life, but God seemed continually to ignore his request.
One morning he had to preach in another city, and he spoke from Psalm 73:25: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.” On his return home he went to a prayer meeting where, to his surprise, a sister got up and read the very same verse from which, unknown to her, he had just preached, following it with this question: “Can we truly say, ‘There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee?’”
There was power in that word. It struck right home to his heart, and he had to admit to himself that he could not truthfully say he desired no one in heaven or earth apart from his Lord. There and then he saw that, for him, everything hinged upon his willingness to give up the girl he loved.
For some, perhaps, it might not have involved so much, but for him it was everything. So he began to reason with the Lord: “Lord, I will go to Tibet and work for Thee there if I may marry that girl.” But the Lord seemed to care a great deal more about his relationship with that girl than about his going to Tibet; and no amount of reasoning on his part availed to effect any change of emphasis on the part of the Lord.
The controversy went on for several months; and whenever the young man pleaded for the fullness of the Spirit, God still pointed to the same thing. But a day came when His grace triumphed, and that young man looked up to Him and acknowledged, “Lord, I can truly say now ‘There is none
upon earth that I desire besides thee.’” It was the dawn of a new day for him.
A forgiven sinner is quite different from an ordinary sinner, and a consecrated Christian is quite different from an ordinary Christian. May the Lord bring each of us to a definite issue regarding the question of His lordship. If we yield wholly to Him and claim the power of His indwelling Spirit, we need wait for no special feelings or supernatural manifestations, but can simply look up and praise Him that something has already happened. We can confidently thank Him that the glory of God has already filled His temple. “Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you,
which ye have from God
?”