THE SPIRIT-FILLED LIFE
The Spirit-filled life is the outstanding need of the twentieth century church. The incoming of the Holy Ghost would solve all our church problems, fill our empty pews, pay off our church debts and burn our mortgages, and fill our pulpits with holy fire and unction until the sermons we preach would drip with sweetness and power. The pew would be fed, fired and filled; sinners would be converted by the hundreds and thousands; preachers would be raised up with a burning message that would bring upon the church an old-fashioned revival with its blood and fire spirit; a big swath would be cut in the devil's ranks that would
cause hell to put on mourning, while angels would encamp around about God's armies.
Whenever a believer is filled with the Holy Ghost in the fullest sense of the word, he enters into the supernatural realm. The Apostle in describing the Spirit-filled life draws a similarity between being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit. Let us notice a few resemblances:
First. Anyone who is drunk with wine is another person. He laughs, shouts, jumps and says and does things while under the influence of wine that he would never dream of doing in his sober moments. Wine produces a kind of reckless boldness. Just so a believer filled with the Spirit will do and say things and act in a way that is not in keeping with the old life. He is another person. The incoming Holy Spirit will quicken, resurrect and inflame all the dormant gifts of the soul until one stands transfigured before his own eye.
Second. The next analogy we wish to notice between one drunk with wine and one filled with the Spirit is: They both like to talk. A person full of wine will jabber and run his tongue in foolish sayings. Pentecostal wine loosens up the tongue and gives one a glowing and burning message. It is good-bye to dry testimonies, dry prayers and unctionless preaching. You don't have to beg and plead with Spirit-filled people to speak a few words for the Lord. They are like an artesian well, the streams of which rise of themselves. There is no need of priming or pumping to get a little feeling stirred up. The indwelling Spirit keeps the heart singing.
Third. A person filled with wine seems to be proof against injuries. We have seen them fall on ice-covered streets, thrown out of cars, cut, bruised and bleeding in a manner that would have apparently killed an ordinary person, yet the intoxicated man hardly knew he was hurt. The wine seemed to have deadened the pain or to have left him above noticing it. How true this is of the Spirit-filled life. You can hardly kill a true believer who is filled with the holy fire and love. We have seen them flung at from the pulpit, their reputation hacked and mangled by cruel, unkind tongues, yet they seemed not to feel it; anyhow they never complained of being mistreated, but quietly left their case with God.
There is a class of religious professors who are always getting their feelings hurt. Every time you meet them they are nursing some imaginary injury or wound. They are touchy and easily offended. Oh, how they need a killing!
We knew of a sanctified preacher who was set down in a big annual conference. He was attacked from the conference floor, called cranky, and compared to the devil. The humble man of God never replied. A certain bishop who witnessed the whole scene never could get over it. He commented on it for years. We knew another lonely, misunderstood man of God who went to a so-called popular holiness camp. He was even asked not to testify or pray in public. The reason the leader gave was that his experience was getting their best people under conviction and unsettling them. For five days he was criticised, shunned and given the cold shoulder. He took it so sweetly and quietly that on the fifth morning one of the leading preachers arose and said, "Brethren, I have awakened to the fact that I am not sanctified." "For," said he, "had you treated me like you have treated that lonely man of God I would have skinned you alive." This brought other confessions and a great altar service followed.
Oh, how we need a blessing that will save us from getting miffed and feeling sore and slighted at every little unkindness done us.
Fourth. Again, a man drunk on wine will attract attention. A Spirit-filled ministry and church will attract the attention of this mad, pleasure-seeking, hell-going world. A Spirit-filled minister will not have always to preach to empty pews. It was this very thing that brought the multitudes together on the day of Pentecost to see a people filled with heavenly wine.
We will never empty the worldly resorts and fill the vacant churches until we receive a blessing that will lift us out of our ruts and put a heavenly shine on our faces that will make us attractive. Lord, send the fire.
Fifth. One filled with wine has a feeling of being rich and spends his money freely. Some one watched an old miser at a drinking resort. He watched the others drinking until he couldn't stand it any longer. He looked at his money a long time before parting with a small piece. Then as the wine began to have its effect he took out another piece, but didn't hold to it quite so long. Then as he got warmed up he spent more money for drinks. Finally, as he began to feel the full effects of the intoxicating wine, he cried out to the whole crowd: "Come on, boys, every one of you, take one off me. I feel rich."
Let Pentecostal wine fill the church today and finances will come flowing in. All the tithes will be brought in; the empty treasury will be overflowing; missionaries will be sent to the ends of the earth; begging for a little help will be a thing of the past; all arms of the work will be abundantly supplied, revivals will break out that will cause devils to fly back to hell in rage, while the gospel with its full salvation story will march like an army on to victory.
One of the great preachers of the Holiness Movement said some forty years ago, "What the church needs is to get intoxicated with heavenly joy." This is what we are pleading for; and this alone will bring a real, genuine revival. Oh, for the fullness of the Spirit.
The very nature of Christianity demands that we be filled with the Spirit.
1. If Christianity consisted of mere forms, ceremonies and external duties, we would not need much of the Holy Spirit to perform outward duties. But our holy religion consists of tempers, graces, dispositions, Christlikeness and heavenly-mindedness.
Then only think of the things we are commanded to be: "Be kind." "Be holy." "Be tender-hearted." "Be gentle," "Be patient."
"Be kind." Naturally, we are not kind. The natural heart is selfish, hard, crusty and anything but kind. We are exhorted: "In honor preferring one another." No one can live such a high and holy life except by being filled with the Spirit. How many earnest Christians fail right here. They vow that they are not going to get impatient again, nor be unkind; yet with all their effort and human struggling they fail to manifest these graces. But when we are filled with His fullness, it is natural and easy to be kind, gentle, patient, tenderhearted and Christlike in all our manners.
2. The work of the Christian life demands that we be filled with the Spirit. We are commanded to "rejoice evermore," "pray without ceasing," to be "always abounding in the work of the Lord."
It is only as we are filled with the Spirit that we can fulfill such heavenly commands. When the Comforter comes to abide He not only drives out all soul gloom, sorrow and sadness, but starts the artesian well to flowing within and makes the prayer life unceasing. We find it easier to pray without ceasing with His indwelling presence than it is to pray by spells and spasms.
"When the Spirit is put within us it takes the tug out of duty and service. It eliminates the 'must' and puts into us the 'want to.' Duty becomes delight; service is joy, crosses become wings to the soul; love drives our chariot wheels; the yoke is lined with love and is worn with songs."
Let us repeat what we said in the beginning: "The crying need of the church today is the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire." It would pay the pulpit and pew to stop their religious fuss and activities and find an upper room and tarry until Pentecost is fully come.
The incoming Holy Spirit would vitalize all the fundamental truths of the Bible Land make the things of God intensely real. Oh, what unction in preaching under the anointing! The sermon drips with sweetness and power; sinners are convicted, believers fed, salvation flows like a river. Who will pay the price for Pentecost to be repeated?
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