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 A Ministry dedicated to preserving the truth and accuracy of the infallible Word of God. |
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| The Way to Pentecost: Chapter 2 "" | |
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The Way to Pentecost
The Way Into the Blessing
There are many who have not because they ask not, and there are others who ask and have
not because they ask amiss. There are many who miss the Blessing because they do not seek it, but
there are those who seek and do not find. There are believers who are deeply concerned about the
failure and disappointment of their religious experience and their lack of effectiveness and power.
They yearn for a fullness of Life in Christ that never comes. They pray, and nothing happens. They
seek, and somehow always miss the way. They cry unto the Lord in secret, and that which seems to
come so easily to others does not come to them. They confess their need, and seek the prayers and
counsel of others. They obey injunctions, repeat avowals of faith, and claim according to
instructions, but the emotion passes and all is as before with the added disappointment, and
another dart has been added to the quiver of the enemy. It may be as real and as easy to others as
they affirm, but to them there is no answering reality to their faith, and they lose heart. They miss
the blessing, but they cannot give it up. It must be there, for others have it; and it must be for them,
for with God there is no respect of persons. So periodically there come a sense of hunger and a
deep want of soul, and again the quest begins, and again the way is missed.
Our Lord prayed that we might be sanctified by the Truth, and I expected to find in the
Scriptures the way into the Blessing. Even there the way was not easy to find, for I was seeking an
explanation rather than an experience. There were no definitions, no explanations, and no
interpretation of processes. My search was for a practical solution of a work wherein I had failed.
I had energy, and lacked power. I had ideas, and I had words of my own and other people's, but
there came no convicting, converting result. The blessing I sought was power. The blessing God
had for me began farther in and deeper down. Power was conditioned. The Truth that sanctifies
begins with cleansing of heart and motive, a life surrendered to the Divine Will, and a personality
possessed by and filled with the Holy Spirit, and I very nearly missed the way.
The children of light walk in the light, and in obedience to the light there is conscious
fellowship with the God of Life, Light, and Love, "and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth
us from all sin."
The test of obedience is often a trial to sense and reason, and still more to freedom and
pride. The decisive battle is nearly always over some apparently trivial issue. The story of the
Fall is true to the experience of life, when it makes the destiny of the race turn upon the eating of an
"apple." The occasion may be trivial, but the issues are momentous. It is no business of ours to go
scenting idols for the burning, but the Spirit searches every honest seeker and convicts, condemns,
and commands; and there is generally a bonfire when the Fire of God falls. They are not things
wrong in themselves that are condemned, for this Blessing is for believers, and they that are born
of God do not keep sinful things in their lives. Their condemnation does not turn upon the law of
right and wrong, but upon the ethical and spiritual claims of a surrendered life. So it is wide of the
mark to ask, What wrong is there in these things? They are judged by the standard of Consecration
and the Law of the Spirit of Life, and they must go, however profitable, however pleasant, and
however right.
The first step is to repent. "And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:38). There is a repentance of believers as well as of sinners. When men
begin to pray for the blessing of Pentecost the answer begins in conviction of sin. The things of
which they are convicted, as we have said, are not transgression of the law, but sins of the spirit.
The things of which the believer is convicted are not in themselves sinful, but they are kept in
disobedience to God's will. Things are not surrendered, indulgences retained against light,
possessions held for selfish ends -- these must all be surrendered to the supreme authority of
Christ. For until He is exalted, crowned, glorified, there can be no Pentecost.
The second step is to ask. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him"
(Luke 11:13). There must be definite asking for the specific gift. I was talking with a farmer in
Lincolnshire a few years ago about prayer, and he said all the preachers he heard just now were
urging people to pray and come to prayer-meetings. "But," he said, "to my mind, desire has a good
deal to do with praying, and praying is a slack business when desire is lacking." There must be
desire that is focused into petition. "Ye have not," says James, "because ye ask not," and there are
thousands of believers who have never definitely asked for the Blessing. God waits to give, but He
is a God of discretion, and waits to be asked. "I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. For this,
moreover will I be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them."
We must be careful not to ask amiss. Nothing hinders faith so effectually as a wrong
motive. "How can ye believe, which receive the glory of one another, and the glory that cometh
from God ye seek not?" James traces the failure of prayer to the same source: "Ye ask, and receive
not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures." The pleasures may be lawful
and laudable enough, but God will not give the glory of His Son to another, and the mission of the
Spirit is to glorify the Son. If the power is sought for success m Christian service merely, it will
not be given. Christ must be supreme in affection and aim.
The third step is to receive. When the consecration is complete the act of faith is quite
simple. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" is the all-inclusive command. It is the word used in the Upper
Room when our Lord gave them the Bread that symbolized His Body -- "Take." There is a point at
which asking becomes foolishness. Faith claims and takes. "Therefore I say unto you, all things
whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them." Take
God at His Word.
The fourth step is the continuous life of obedience.
Jesus Christ identifies faith with obedience, and in the Acts of the Apostles obedience is
made the condition of receiving and retaining the Spirit. "And we are witnesses of these things;
and so is the Holy Ghost, Whom God hath given to them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32). Abiding
fullness depends upon obedience to the ever-widening circle of illumination. The blessing of
Pentecost may be lost, and it is always lost when obedience fails. The Spirit-filled must be
Spirit-ruled. We are ministers of the Spirit through Whom the supply is conveyed. Those who are
greatly used of God have no monopoly of the Holy Ghost; they are mighty through God because the
Spirit has a monopoly of them.
Again I say this extraordinary gift is for ordinary people. All may be filled as full and as
truly as the hundred and twenty on the day of Pentecost. The conditions are the same for all.
Repent, Ask, Receive, Obey. |
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