The Larger Christian Life Part 1

BLJ: We continue to look at the writings of J.M. Hames as we want to live a victorious life, in this world, now, not just someday in the future.


THE LARGER CHRISTIAN LIFE

"Be ye enlarged." -- (Bible).

The law of growth and enlargement is the fundamental thing in our holy religion. This principle holds good in nature, as well as in grace. Whatever ceases to grow, begins to die. Stagnation brings corruption and death.

Whenever the soul ceases to grow and get new revelations from God, decay and death set in. A healthy soul should be like a healthy, growing boy outgrowing alt of his old clothes. If we are living in the will of God, we should be continually getting new revelations from God, new touches of fire, fresh anointings.

One of the weaknesses of the present day Holiness Movement is that we haven't laid the proper stress on spiritual progress after sanctification. God does a lot for us at the mourner's bench; but that is only the beginning. After we die to self and sin, we should not stay in the tomb of death, but enter into the resurrected life; a life of undisturbed peace and soul rest; a life of a victorious march which goes from strength to strength, and glory to glory. "Be ye enlarged."
Let us notice what is meant by being enlarged. First, we need a larger heart. There is a beautiful passage in 1 Kings 4:29, where it says, "God gave Solomon 'largeness of heart.'" Unless our hearts keep pace with our heads, we will become lop-sided and unbalanced in our religious experience. The religion of the Bible deals with the deepest part of our nature -- the conscience, the will, and the heart. The heart forces are the greatest forces in the universe of God. When God wants to move a nation, He raises up big-hearted men -- a Wesley, a Booth, and a big soul like Charles G. Finney. The men who move the world Godward today are men who have largeness of heart.

The heart is the fountainhead in the religious life, and when it is made pure, there flows out from its many streams into the home, the church, and the world. The term "heart" from the Bible standpoint, embraces the affection, conscience and will. Understand, we are not treating man according to the School of Psychology; but as the Bible sees him.

The heart is the seat of affection. The affection was originally made to take hold of God. But alas! sin has torn our affections loose from that high and heavenly state. They are perversely abused and degraded. "Like the vine designed to cling to the trellis work, or climb the oak, thus mounting heavenward; but which, torn from its support, twines its tendrils around clumps of grass or weeds of earth, so the affections, having swung loose from God, turn to the low objects of time." Now what God does when He starts to make a saint, is to gently unwind our affections from the low and earthly things, wash them from all sinful desires, and turn the warm gulf stream of the Holy Ghost within, softening, sweetening the affections, and lifting to things above.

The heart has to do with the conscience. How important this is since there is no such thing as vital Christianity without a quickened, purged conscience. When conscience is thus cleansed, it is made to echo the voice of God, and respond to the touch of the Holy Ghost.

The heart, from a religious standpoint, has to do with the will. The will is the power to choose the King upon the throne, The will must be broken from its obstinacy, turned to God, and then divinely strengthened to choose that which pleaseth Him.

An enlarged heart from the scriptural standpoint, means a clean heart, purified affection, a purged conscience, a conquered will. Such a heart becomes a channel through which ,God can pour rivers of Living Water to bless a broken, bleeding world.

Second, we need a larger vision. All real progress begins here. The day-dreamers, and men of vision, have harnessed up nature and made it our servant. The modern machine has taken the place of toil, sweat, and hardship -- all because someone saw a better way. The American frontiers have given away to modern civilization.

In like manner, there is a spiritual vision. There are possibilities of faith which almost stagger our imaginations. Pentecostal skies are loaded. God is only wasting for the man of faith to connect onto the heavenly resources, that revival fires be kindled to the ends of the earth. There are possibilities within the human heart, which lie buried beneath the surface of our being, only waiting for the touch of the quickening Spirit. Out in the West lie millions of acres of barren land. Beneath this soil lie riches of untold wealth.

All that is needed is one single element to turn this Sahara desert into wealth and beauty. That element is water. Let the mountain stream be turned into this land of waste, and lo! you have a Paradise. How true this is spiritually!

"Thousands of preachers and servants of God are yet almost totally ignorant of their religious capabilities. Oh, what an enormous waste is lying unknown and idle in the Church! How many tame, dry, formal preachers there are in the land who just barely creep along with dull sermons, little dry prayer meetings, no revivals under their ministry! Has God made a mistake in calling men to preach? No. All these preachers possess vast, latent, undreamed-of capabilities of victory, power and zeal, if they were only fully sanctified and baptized with fire. Oh, the baptism of fire takes hold of the great depths of the soul, and lifts it beyond crutches and babyhood.

"Many believers are like those Alps on whose northern sides the sunshine has never fallen, and the deep ravines whose nature has never known the possibilities of fruit. To be filled with the Spirit, to be drinking every day deeper and yet deeper of the nature of God, will purify, adorn and expand every God-given capability of man."