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TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
September, 1941
we say to the Lord, “Every other room but this room—this room is locked, and You can not enter in; I am going to keep the key,” you will ask in» vain to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Is there something which you love better than you love the Lord Jesus Christ? If He asked for it, would you yield it? Is there something that He shows you is contrary to Him and that hinders or nullifies the testimony of your life and keeps you from power in service ? Would you yield that? “ Thirst . . . Come . . •. Drink” How may this fullness be obtained ? God’s way is very simple. Man’s way is complex. Man’s way is long fastings,, agonizing prayer, and “ tarrying” meet ings, sometimes even all night; asking and never receiving, seeking and never obtaining. Friends, the trouble is that we make conditions that God never makes! If we would only fulfill the conditions that God gives us, we would have this precious experience. It is on the same basis as we receive the wonderful experience of salvation. What are the conditions? We find them in John 7:37: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” They are three. “If any man thirst . . .” Now let us get the meaning of that word “thirst.” It is a simple word, but it is not as simple as it sounds. It is the very op posite of self*-satisfaction and self- complacency. If any one facing this truth is a part of the church of Laodicea, a church that says, “I am rich, and in creased with goods, p,nd have need of nothing,” then this experience is not for you. That attitude does not indicate thirst. Thirst is not a mere, desire to have something that we know we ought to have and that we want because some one else has it. We can have a wrong ulterior motive even in wanting power. We may be wanting power so that others will talk about what a wonderful spiritual personality we have or what power in prayer. God will never give this gift unless we are really thirsty. What is thirst? “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” . The Infilling of the Holy Spirit [ Continued from Page 338] will reveal sin to us, convict us of it,' and constrain us to confess it. And any person reading these lines will pray in vain to be filled with the Holy Spirit if that one is unwilling to give up any sis that God reveals in his life. God the Holy Spirit cannot presence Himself in His fullness in the place where sin is. , A man who was the head of a great Christian organization was in a week end conference where we were thinking together of this great truth. He told some one that he longed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but he said, “There is a. sin in my life that I love', and I won’t give it up.” And he did not1give it up, and he was not filled with the Holy Spirit. Neither will you be, my friend, if there is any sin you love and hold on to and are unwilling to deal with by confession, that God may for give and cleanse you. The second reason for the lack of fullness is an unyielded life. Christ must be Lord of our life as well as Saviour of our soul. If we make, any reserva tion, if we have any locked doors, if Giving Up and Giving Out A missionary told me that on her way home from China a worldly young woman on the boat came to talk with her, wanting to be saved. And the missionary was unable to make plain to her how to be saved. Why did she lack that power ? There was a sin in her life. She knew it was there. She was unwilling to give it up. It was unconfessed. The missionary went on home, and was on the point of sending In her resignation indicating that she would not go back to China, when God met her and brought her into the blessed, precious experi- ence of being infilled with the Holy Spirit. Then He did a won derfully gracious thing. Out of the great city of London with its mil lions of people, He brought to her again that woman whom she had met on the boat, and she won her to Christ. Unfilled with the Holy Spirit, shp had no power; filled with the Spirit, she had power to win that person to Christ. Now she is back in China, and God is using her in a marvelous way, —RUTH PAXSON. incrusted by sin that he doubts whether this experience is possible for him. I plead with you who are winning souls, present the truth of the infilling of the Holy Spirit! And you who have no specific Christian work—perhaps you are a housewife living in your home and community—go out and tell some one else about it. In a conference in Holland, a woman received the infilling of the Spirit one day, and right during that conference she won four other people to the Lord Jesus Christ, Two other women went back to their church, and they told this truth to their pastor. He received the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and with in a few weeks six other people received the fullness of the Holy Spirit through the faithful witness of these three re garding this wonderful truth. Won’t you make it known ? There is no truth needed today so desperately in the Church of Jesus Christ as this truth we are considering here. Excuses That Reveal Unbelief Secondly, unbelief is a cause for the lack of fullness. We know the truth intellectually, doctrinally, theoretically, theologically, and almost every way but experimentally. And why? We see "that they were net able to enter in because of unbelief” (Heb. 3:19, R.V.). Constant ly I hear such things as this which some one wrote, “My case and my cir cumstances are so different!” A woman wrote to me the other day: "I think if I were giving all my time to Christian work, I could live such a life as that”—implying that it is only for those who are out In definite Chris tian work. How partial God would be if that were true!. And then another woman said to me recently, “Miss Pax- son, you are not a mother,” intimating that it was her two dear children that kept 'her from being filled with the Spirit. It is too bad, is it not, that God would give this blessed experience to us spinsters and not to mothers who need it so desperately! And then there is another excuse that I have been given time and’ again: “My church doesn’t teach it.” Does your Bible teach it ? Which do you put first, your church or your Bible ? Two Barriers to the Spirit’ s Infilling There are two subjective reasons for the lack of fullness in the realm of ex perience. The first of these is uncon fessed sin. Christ, the Holy One, has been made unto us our sanctification, and the Holy Spirit has been made un to us our Sanctifier. We have God the Son and God the Spirit indwelling us for the purpose of making us holy. The Holy Spirit is in us to separate us from the devil, the world, and the flesh. He
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