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For our daily walk with its cares and problems God has given us two great powers from heaven
by Andrew Murray
T he Holy Spirit ever leads us to the cross. It was so with Christ. The Spirit taught Him and en abled Him to offer Himself without spot to God. It was so with the disciples. The Spirit, with whom they were filled, led them to preach Christ as the cru cified One. Later on He led them to glory in the fellowship of the cross when they were deemed worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. And the cross directed them again to the Spirit. When Christ had borne the cross, He received the Spirit from the Father, that He might be poured out. When the 3,000 bowed before the crucified One, they received the promise of the Holy Spirit. When the disciples rejoiced in their experience of the fellowship of the cross, they received the Holy Spirit afresh. The union between the Spirit and the cross is indissoluble; they belong in separably to one another. We see this especially in the epistles of Paul. “ Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you . . . Re ceived ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal. 3:1,2.) “ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law . . . that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal. 3:13,14). “ God sent . . . his Son . . . to redeem them that were under the law . . . and . . . hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts” (Gal. 4:4-6). “ And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh . . . If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:24,25). “Ye also are become dead
to the law by the body of Christ . . . that we should serve in newness of spirit” (Rom. 7:4-6). “ For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For . . . God . . . con demned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:2-4). In everything and always the Spir it and the cross are inseparable. Yes, even in heaven. The Lamb, as it had been slain, standing in the midst of the throne had “ seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6). Again: “He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal [Is this other than the Holy Spirit?] proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1). When Moses smote the rock, the water streamed out and Israel drank. When the Rock Christ was actually smit ten and He had taken His place as the slain Lamb on the throne of God, there flowed out from under the throne the fullness of the Holy Spirit. How foolish it is to pray for the fullness of the Spirit if we have not first placed ourselves under the full power of the cross! Just think of the 120 disciples. The crucifixion of Christ had touched, broken and taken possession of their entire hearts. They could speak or think of nothing else, and when the crucified One had shown them His hands and His feet, He said unto them: “ Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” And so also, with their hearts full of the crucified Christ,
now received up into heaven, they were prepared to be filled with the Spirit. They dared to proclaim to the people: “ Repent and believe in the crucified One” ; and they also re ceived the Holy Spirit. Christ gave Himself up entirely to the cross. The disciples also did the same. The cross demands this also from us; it would have our entire life. To comply with this demand re quires nothing less than a powerful act of the will, for which we are un fit, and a powerful act of God of which he may be assured who casts himself, in helplessness, but unre servedly on God. The Spirit and the Cross Why are there not more men and women who can witness, in the joy of their hearts, that the Spirit of God has taken possession of them and given them new power to witness for Him? Yet more urgently arises the heart-searching question to which an answer must be given: “What is it that hinders? The Father in heaven is more willing than an earthly fath er to give bread to his child, and yet the cry arises: “ Is the Spirit straitened? Is this His work?” Many will acknowledge that the hindrance undoubtedly lies in the fact that the Church is too much un der the sway of the flesh and the world. They understand too little of the heart-piercing power of the cross of Christ. So it comes to pass that the Spirit has not the vessels into which He can pour His fullness. Many complain the subject is too high or too deep for them. This is a proof of how little we have appro-
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