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- Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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THE ANDREW MURRAY COLLECTION
Andrew Murray
KARPATHOS COLLECTIONS
Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please consider sharing the good word(s) by leaving a review, or connect with the author.
This book is a work of nonfiction and is intended to be factually accurate.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2016 by Andrew Murray
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Andrew Murray Collection
Absolute Surrender
God Expects Your Surrender
God Accomplishes Your Surrender
God Accepts Your Surrender
God Maintains Your Surrender
God Blesses When You Surrender
“THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE”
God Is Love
Mankind Needs Love
Love Conquers Selfishness
Love Is God’s Gift
Our Love Shows God’s Power
Christian Work Requires Love
Love Inspires Intercession
Separated Unto the Holy Ghost
Peter’s Repentance
Peter The Devoted Disciple of Christ
Peter Living The Life of Self
Peter’s Repentance
Peter Transformed
IMPOSSIBLE WITH MAN, POSSIBLE WITH GOD
Man Cannot
God Can
God Works in Man
“O Wretched Man That I Am!”
The Regenerate Man
The Impotent Man
The Wretched Man
The Almost-Delivered Man
“HAVING BEGUN IN THE SPIRIT”
Receiving The Holy Spirit
Neglecting The Holy Spirit
Lacking The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Yielding to The Holy Spirit
Kept By The Power Of God
Kept Through Faith
“Ye Are The Branches”
Absolute Dependence
Deep Restfulness
Much Fruitfulness
Absolute Surrender
Abide in Christ
Preface
Chapter 1: ALL YOU WHO HAVE COME TO HIM
Chapter 2: AND YOU SHALL FIND REST TO YOUR SOULS
Chapter 3: TRUSTING HIM TO KEEP YOU
Chapter 4: AS THE BRANCH IN THE VINE
Chapter 5: AS YOU CAME TO HIM, BY FAITH
Chapter 6: GOD HIMSELF HAS UNITED YOU TO HIM
Chapter 7: AS YOUR WISDOM
Chapter 8: AS YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Chapter 9: AS YOUR SANCTIFICATION
Chapter 10: AS YOUR REDEMPTION
Chapter 11: THE CRUCIFIED ONE
Chapter 12: GOD HIMSELF WILL STABLISH YOU IN HIM
Chapter 13: EVERY MOMENT
Chapter 14: DAY BY DAY
Chapter 15: AT THIS MOMENT
Chapter 16: FORSAKING ALL FOR HIM
Chapter 17: THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
Chapter 18: IN STILLNESS OF SOUL
Chapter 19: IN AFFLICTION AND TRIAL
Chapter 20: THAT YOU MAY BEAR MUCH FRUIT
Chapter 21: SO WILL YOU HAVE POWER IN PRAYER
Chapter 22: AND IN HIS LOVE
Chapter 23: AS CHRIST IN THE FATHER
Chapter 24: OBEYING HIS COMMANDMENTS
Chapter 25: THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL
Chapter 26: AND IN LOVE TO THE BRETHREN
Chapter 27: THAT YOU MAY NOT SIN
Chapter 28: AS YOUR STRENGTH
Chapter 29: AND NOT IN SELF
Chapter 30: AS THE SURETY OF THE COVENANT
Chapter 31: THE GLORIFIED ONE
Humility
PREFACE
Chapter 1—HUMILITY: THE GLORY OF THE CREATURE
Chapter 2—HUMILITY: THE SECRET OF REDEMPTION
Chapter 3 —HUMILITY IN THE LIFE OF JESUS
Chapter 4—HUMILITY IN THE TEACHING OF JESUS
Chapter 5—HUMILITY IN THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS
Chapter 6 —HUMILITY IN DAILY LIFE
Chapter 7—HUMILITY AND HOLINESS
Chapter 8—HUMILITY AND SIN
Chapter 9 — HUMILITY AND FAITH
Chapter 10- HUMILITY AND DEATH TO SELF
Chapter 11—HUMILITY AND HAPPINESS
Chapter 12—HUMILITY AND EXALTATION
A PRAYER FOR HUMILITY
Lord, Teach Us to Pray
‘Jesus Himself’
The Power of Persevering Prayer
Holy in Christ
PREFACE.
God’s Call to Holiness.
God’s Provision for Holiness.
Holiness and Creation.
Holiness and Revelation.
Holiness and Redemption.
Holiness and Glory.
Holiness and Obedience.
Holiness and Indwelling.
Holiness and Mediation.
Holiness and Separation.
The Holy One of Israel.
The Thrice Holy One.
Holiness and Humility.
The Holy One of God.
The Holy Spirit.
Holiness and Truth.
Holiness and Crucifixion.
Holiness and Faith.
Holiness and Resurrection.
Holiness and Liberty.
Holiness and Happiness.
In Christ our Sanctification.
Holiness and the Body.
Holiness and Cleansing.
Holy and Blameless.
Holiness and the Will of God.
Holiness and Service.
The Way into the Holiest.
Holiness and Chastisement.
The Unction from the Holy One.
Holiness and Heaven.
NOTES.
The Master’s Indwelling
I: CARNAL CHRISTIANS
II: THE SELF LIFE
III: WAITING ON GOD
IV: ENTRANCE INTO REST
V: THE KINGDOM FIRST
VI: CHRIST OUR LIFE
VII: CHRIST’S HUMILITY OUR SALVATION
VIII: THE COMPLETE SURRENDER
IX: DEAD WITH CHRIST
X: JOY IN THE HOLY GHOST
XI: TRIUMPH OF FAITH
XII: THE SOURCE OF POWER IN PRAYER
XIII: THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL
The Ministry of Intercession
THE MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. The Lack of Prayer
CHAPTER II. The Ministration of the Spirit and Prayer
CHAPTER III. A Model of Intercession
CHAPTER IV. Because of His Importunity
CHAPTER V. The Life that can Pray
CHAPTER VI. Restraining Prayer: is it Sin?
CHAPTER VII. Who shall Deliver?
CHAPTER VIII. Wilt Thou be made Whole?
CHAPTER IX. The Secret of Effectual Prayer
CHAPTER X. The Spirit of Supplication
CHAPTER XI. In the Name of Christ
CHAPTER XII. My God will hear Me
CHAPTER XIII. Paul a Pattern of Prayer
CHAPTER XIV. God seeks Intercessors
CHAPTER XV. The Coming Revival
NOTES
Money
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1: Christ’s Estimate of Money
CHAPTER 2: The Holy Spirit and Money
CHAPTER 3: The Grace of God and Money
CHAPTER 4: The Poverty of Christ
Deeper Christian Life
I. DAILY FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
II. PRIVILEGE AND EXPERIENCE
III. CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL?
IV. OUT OF AND INTO
V. THE BLESSING SECURED
VI. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST
VII. A WORD TO WORKERS
CONSECRATION
The School of Obedience
PREFACE
I. Obedience: Its place In Holy Scripture
II. The Obedience of Christ
III. The Secret of True Obedience
IV. The Morning Watch in the Life of Obedience
V. THE ENTRANCE TO THE LIFE OF FULL OBEDIENCE
VI. THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH
VII. The School of Obedience
VIII. OBEDIENCE TO THE LAST COMMAND
NOTE ON THE MORNING WATCH.
The Lord’s Table
PREFACE
PART I
PART II
PART III
APPENDIX
The Power of the Blood of Jesus
CHAPTER 1: What the Scriptures Teach About the Blood
CHAPTER 2: Redemption by Blood
CHAPTER 3: Reconciliation Through the Blood
CHAPTER 4: Cleansing Through the Blood
CHAPTER 5: Sanctification Through the Blood
CHAPTER 6: Cleansed by the Blood to Serve the Living God or Intercourse Through the Blood
CHAPTER 7: Dwelling in “The Holiest” Through the Blood
CHAPTER 8: Life in the Blood
CHAPTER 9: Victory Through the Blood
CHAPTER 10: Heavenly Joy Through the Blood
The Prayer Life
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
The Secret of the Cross
INTRODUCTION
PRAYER
FIRST DAY: THE REDEMPTION OF THE CROSS
SECOND DAY: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE CROSS
THIRD DAY: CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
FOURTH DAY: CRUCIFIED TO THE WORLD
FIFTH DAY: THE FLESH CRUCIFIED
SIXTH DAY: BEARING THE CROSS
SEVENTH DAY: SELF-DENIAL
EIGHTH DAY: HE CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE
NINTH DAY: FOLLOW ME
TENTH DAY: A GRAIN OF WHEAT
ELEVENTH DAY: THY WILL BE DONE
TWELFTH DAY: THE LOVE OF THE CROSS
THIRTEENTH DAY: THE SACRIFICE OF THE CROSS
FOURTEENTH DAY: THE DEATH OF THE CROSS
FIFTEENTH DAY: IT IS FINISHED
SIXTEENTH DAY: DEAD TO SIN
SEVENTEENTH DAY: THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD
EIGHTEENTH DAY: DEAD WITH CHRIST
NINETEENTH DAY: DEAD TO THE LAW
TWENTIETH DAY: THE FLESH CONDEMNED ON THE CROSS
TWENTY-FIRST DAY: JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED
TWENTY-SECOND DAY: TEMPERATE IN ALL THINGS
TWENTY-THIRD DAY: THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY: THE CROSS AND THE SPIRIT
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY: THE VEIL OF THE FLESH
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY: LOOKING UNTO JESUS
TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY: OUTSIDE THE GATE
TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY: ALIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
TWENTY-NINTH DAY: FOLLOWERS OF THE CROSS
THIRTIETH DAY: FOLLOWING THE LAMB
THIRTY-FIRST DAY: TO HIM BE THE GLORY
THIRTY-SECOND DAY: THE BLESSING OF THE CROSS
The Spirit of Christ
PREFACE
Chapter 1: A New Spirit, and God’s Spirit
Chapter 2: The Baptism of the Spirit
Chapter 3: Worship in the Spirit
Chapter 4: The Spirit and the Word
Chapter 5: The Glorified Jesus
Chapter 6: The Indwelling Spirit
Chapter 7: The Spirit given to the Obedient
Chapter 8: Knowing The Spirit
Chapter 9: The Spirit of Truth
Chapter 10: The Expediency of the Spirit’s Coming
Chapter 11: The Spirit Glorifying Christ
Chapter 12: The Spirit Convincing of Sin
Chapter 13: Waiting for the Spirit
Chapter 14: The Spirit of Power
Chapter 15: The Outpouring of the Spirit
Chapter 16: The Holy Spirit and Missions
Chapter 17: The Newness of the Spirit
Chapter 18: The Liberty of the Spirit
Chapter 19: The Leading of the Spirit
Chapter 20: The Spirit of Prayer
Chapter 21: The Holy Spirit and Conscience
Chapter 22: The Revelation of the Spirit
Chapter 23: Spiritual or Carnal
Chapter 24: The Temple of the Holy Spirit
Chapter 25: The Ministry of the Spirit
Chapter 26: The Spirit and the Flesh
Chapter 27: The Spirit through Faith
Chapter 28: Walking by the Spirit
Chapter 29: The Spirit of Love
Chapter 30: The Unity of the Spirit
Chapter 31: Filled With the Spirit
The Two Covenants
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: A Covenant God
CHAPTER 2: The Two Covenants: their Relation
CHAPTER 3: The First Covenant
CHAPTER 4: The New Covenant
CHAPTER 5: The Two Covenant: Sin Christian Experience
CHAPTER 6: The Everlasting Covenant
CHAPTER 7: The New Covenant: A Ministration of the Spirit
CHAPTER 8: The Two Covenants: the Transition
CHAPTER 9: The Blood of the Covenant
CHAPTER 10: Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant
CHAPTER 11: Jesus,the Surety of a Better Covenant
CHAPTER 12: The Book of the Covenant
CHAPTER 13: New Covenant Obedience
CHAPTER 14: The New Covenant: A Covenant of Grace
CHAPTER 15: The Covenant of an Everlasting Priesthood
CHAPTER 16: The Ministry of the New Covenant
CHAPTER 17: His Holy Covenant
CHAPTER 18: Entering the Covenant with All the Heart
Waiting on God
Day 1: THE GOD OF OUR SALVATION
Day 2: THE KEYNOTE OF LIFE
Day 3: THE TRUE PLACE OF THE CREATURE
Day 4: FOR SUPPLIES
Day 5: FOR INSTRUCTION
Day 6: FOR ALL SAINTS
Day 7: A PLEA IN PRAYER
Day 8: STRONG AND OF GOOD COURAGE
Day 9: WITH THE HEART
Day 10: WAITING ON GOD: IN HUMBLE FEAR AND HOPE
Day 11: WAITING ON GOD: PATIENTLY
Day 12: WAITING ON GOD: KEEPING HIS WAYS
Day 13: WAITING ON GOD: FOR MORE THAN WE KNOW
Day 14: WAITING ON GOD: THE WAY TO THE NEW SONG
Day 15: WAITING ON GOD: FOR HIS COUNSEL
Day 16: WAITING ON GOD: AND HIS LIGHT IN THE HEART
Day 17: WAITING ON GOD: IN TIMES OF DARKNESS
Day 18: TO REVEAL HIMSELF
Day 19: AS A GOD OF JUDGMENT
Day 20: WHO WAITS ON US
Day 21: THE ALMIGHTY ONE
Day 22: ITS CERTAINTY OF BLESSING
Day 23: FOR UNLOOKED-FOR THINGS
Day 24: TO KNOW HIS GOODNESS
Day 25: QUIETLY
Day 26: IN HOLY EXPECTANCY
Day 27: FOR REDEMPTION
Day 28: FOR THE COMING OF HIS SON
Day 29: FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER
Day 30: CONTINUALLY
Day 31: ONLY
Be Perfect
PREFACE and PRAYER
Day 1: A PERFECT HEART MAKES A PERFECT MAN
Day 2: WALK BEFORE ME, AND BE PERFECT
Day 3: PERFECT WITH THE LORD YOUR GOD
Day 4: I HAVE WALKED BEFORE YOU WITH A PERFECT HEART
Day 5: LORD, GIVE A PERFECT HEART
Day 6: GOD’S STRENGTH FOR THE PERFECT IN HEART
Day 7: WITH THE PERFECT GOD SHOWS HIMSELF PERFECT
Day 8: PERFECT IN HEART LEADS TO PERFECT IN THE WAY
Day 9: PERFECT AS THE FATHER
Day 10: PERFECTED AS THE MASTER
Day 11: THE PERFECT SELLING ALL TO FOLLOW CHRIST
Day 12: THE PERFECT MAN A SPIRITUAL MAN
Day 13: PERFECTING HOLINESS
Day 14: WE PRAY FOR YOUR PERFECTING: BE PERFECTED
Day 15: NOT PERFECTED, YET PERFECT
Day 16: PERFECT, AND YET TO BE PERFECTED
Day 17: PERFECT IN CHRIST
Day 18: PERFECT IN ALL THE WILL OF GOD
Day 19: CHRIST MADE PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING
Day 20: LET US PRESS ON TO PERFECTION
Day 21: NO PERFECTION BY THE LAW
Day 22: CHRIST HAS PERFECTED US
Day 23: GOD PERFECT YOU IN EVERY GOOD THING
Day 24: PERFECT PATIENCE MAKES A PERFECT MAN
Day 25: THE PERFECT TONGUE MARKS THE PERFECT MAN
Day 26: GOD WILL HIMSELF PERFECT YOU
Day 27: PERFECT LOVE IS KEEPING CHRIST’S WORD
Day 28: PERFECT LOVE IS LOVING THE BRETHREN
Day 29: PERFECT LOVE: GOD ABIDING IN US
Day 30: PERFECT LOVE: AS HE IS, EVEN SO ARE WE
Day 31: PERFECT LOVE: CASTING OUT FEAR
Closing Prayer:
Why Do You Not Believe?
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: The Absolute Necessity of Faith
CHAPTER 2: The Object of Faith
CHAPTER 3: The Seed of Faith
CHAPTER 4: The Language of Faith
CHAPTER 5: The Beginning of Faith
CHAPTER 6: The Spirit of Faith
CHAPTER 7: The Repentance of Faith
CHAPTER 8: The Humility of Faith
CHAPTER 9: The Finding of Faith
CHAPTER 10: The Simplicity of Faith
CHAPTER 11: The Sincerity of Faith
CHAPTER 12: The Penitence of Faith
CHAPTER 13: The Fear of Faith
CHAPTER 14: The Certainty of Faith
CHAPTER 15: The Glorifying of God by Faith
CHAPTER 16: The Power of Faith
CHAPTER 17: The Childship of Faith
CHAPTER 18: The Surrender of Faith
CHAPTER 19: The School of Faith
CHAPTER 20: The Word of Faith
CHAPTER 21: The Thanksgiving of Faith
CHAPTER 22: The Offence of Faith
CHAPTER 23: The Stability of Faith
CHAPTER 24: The Justification of Faith
CHAPTER 25: The Works of Faith
CHAPTER 26: The Obedience of Faith
CHAPTER 27: The Nutriment of Faith
CHAPTER 28: The Tenderness of Faith
CHAPTER 29: The Hand of Faith
CHAPTER 30: The Hindering of Faith
CHAPTER 31: The Gift of Faith
With Christ in the School of Prayer
PREFACE
CHAPTER 1: Lord, teach us to pray or The Only Teacher
CHAPTER 2: In Spirit and truth OR The True Worshippers
CHAPTER 3: Pray to thy Father, Which is in Secret OR Alone with God
CHAPTER 4: After this manner pray or The Model Prayer
CHAPTER 5: Ask and It Shall be Given You or The Certainty of the Answer to Prayer
CHAPTER 6: ‘How much more? ‘ or The Infinite Fatherliness of God
CHAPTER 7: How much more the Holy Spirit OR The All Comprehensive Gift
CHAPTER 8: Because of his Importunity or The Boldness of God’s Friends
CHAPTER 9: Prayer Provides Laborers
CHAPTER 10: Prayer Must Be Specific
CHAPTER 11: The Faith That Takes
CHAPTER 12: The Secret of Believing Prayer
CHAPTER 13: Prayer and Fasting
CHAPTER 14: Prayer and Love
CHAPTER 15: The Power of United Prayer
CHAPTER 16: The Power of Persevering Prayer
CHAPTER 17: Prayer in Harmony with God
CHAPTER 18: Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man
CHAPTER 19: Power for Praying and Working
CHAPTER 20: The Chief End of Prayer
CHAPTER 21: The All-Inclusive Condition
CHAPTER 22: The Word and Prayer
CHAPTER 23: Obedience: The Path to Power in Prayer
CHAPTER 24: The All-Powerful Plea
CHAPTER 25: The Holy Spirit and Prayer
CHAPTER 26—Christ the Intercessor
CHAPTER 27—Christ the High Priest
CHAPTER 28—Christ the Sacrifice
CHAPTER 29: Our Boldness in Prayer
CHAPTER 30: The Ministry of Intercession
CHAPTER 31: A Life of Prayer
Working for God
Introduction
I: Waiting and Working
II: Good Works the Light of the World
III: Son, go Work
IV: To Each one his Work
V: To Each according to his Ability
VI:Life and Work
VII: The Father abiding in Me doeth the Work
VIII: Greater Works
IX: Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works
X: Work, for God works in You
XI: Faith working by Love
XII: Bearing Fruit in every Good Work
XIII: Always abounding in the Work of the Lord
XIV: Abounding Grace for Abounding Work
XV: In the Work of Ministering
XVI: According to the Working of each several Part
XVII: Women adorned with Good Work
XVIII: Prepared unto every Good Work
XIX: Furnished completely unto every Good Work
XX: Zealous of Good Works
XXI: Ready to every Good Work
XXII: Careful to maintain Good Works
XXIII: As His Fellow-Workers
XXIV: According to the Working of His Power
XXV: Laboring more Abundantly
XXVI: A Doer that worketh shall be blessed in Doing
XXVII: The Work of Soul Saving
XXVIII: Praying and Working
XXIX: I Know thy Works
XXX: That God may be Glorified
FOOTNOTES
The True Vine
PREFACE
THE VINE
THE HUSBANDMAN
THE BRANCH
THE FRUIT
MORE FRUIT
THE CLEANSING
THE PRUNING KNIFE
ABIDE
EXCEPT YE ABIDE
THE VINE
YE THE BRANCHES
MUCH FRUIT
YOU CAN DO NOTHING
WITHERED BRANCHES
WHATSOEVER YE WILL
IF YE ABIDE
THE FATHER GLORIFIED
TRUE DISCIPLES
THE WONDERFUL LOVE
ABIDE IN MY LOVE
OBEY AND ABIDE
YE, EVEN AS I
JOY
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
EVEN AS I HAVE LOVED YOU
FIENDSHIP: ITS ORIGIN
CHRIST’S FRIENDSHIP: ITS EVIDENCE
CHRIST’S FRIENDSHIP: ITS INTIMACY
ELECTION
ABIDING FRUIT
PREVAILING PRAYER
Words of God for Young Disciples of Christ
Preface
I. THE NEW LIFE
II. THE MILK OF THE WORD
III. GOD’S WORD IN OUR HEART
IV. FAITH
V. THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD
VI. GOD’S GIFT OF HIS SON
VII. JESUS’ SURRENDER OF HIMSELF
VIII. CHILDREN OF GOD
IX. OUR SURRENDER TO JESUS
X. SAVIOUR FROM SIN
XI. THE CONFESSION OF SIN
XII. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS
XIII. THE CLEANSING OF SIN
XIV. HOLINESS
XV. RIGHTEOUSNESS
XVI. LOVE
XVII. HUMILITY
XVIII. STUMBLINGS
XIX. JESUS THE KEEPER
XX. POWER AND WEAKNESS
XXI. THE LIFE OF FEELING
XXII. THE HOLY GHOST
XXIII. THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT
XXIV. GRIEVING THE SPIRIT
XXV. FLESH AND SPIRIT
XXVI. THE LIFE OF FAITH
XXVII. THE MIGHT OF SATAN
XXVIII. THE CONFLICT OF THE CHRISTIAN
XXIX. BE A BLESSING
XXX. PERSONAL WORK
XXXI. MISSIONARY WORK
XXXII. LIGHT AND JOYFULNESS
XXXIII. CHASTISEMENT
XXXIV. PRAYER
XXXV. THE PRAYER MEETING
XXXVI. THE FEAR OF THE LORD
XXXVII. UNDIVIDED CONSECRATION
XXXVIII. ASSURANCE OF FAITH
XXXIX. CONFORMITY TO JESUS
XL. CONFORMITY TO THE WORLD
XLI. THE LORD’S DAY
XLII. HOLY BAPTISM
XLIII. THE LORD’S SUPPER
XLIV. OBEDIENCE
XLV. THE WILL OF GOD
XLVI. SELF-DENIAL
XLVII. DISCRETION
XLVIII. MONEY
XLIX. THE FREEDOM OF THE CHRISTIAN
L. GROWTH
LI. SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES
LII. THE LORD THE PERFECTER
Like Christ
Preface
1. Like Christ: Because We Abide In Him.
2. Like Christ: He Himself Calls Us To It.
3. Like Christ: As One That Serveth.
4. Like Christ: Our Head.
5. Like Christ: In Suffering Wrong.
6. Like Christ: Crucified With Him.
7. Like Christ: In His Self-Denial.
8. Like Christ: In His Self-Sacrifice.
9. Like Christ: Not Of The World.
10. Like Christ: In His Heavenly Mission.
11. Like Christ: As The Elect Of God.
12. Like Christ: In Doing God’s Will.
13. Like Christ: In His Compassion.
14. Like Christ: In His Oneness With The Father.
15. Like Christ: In His Dependence On The Father.
16. Like Christ: In His Love.
17. Like Christ: In His Praying.
18. Like Christ: In His Use Of Scripture.
19. Like Christ: In Forgiving.
20. Like Christ: In Beholding Him.
21. Like Christ: In His Humility.
22. Like Christ: In The Likeness Of His Death.
23. Like Christ: In The Likeness Of His Resurrection.
24. Like Christ: Being Made Conformable To His Death.
25. Like Christ: Giving His Life For Men.
26. Like Christ: In His Meekness.
27. Like Christ: Abiding In The Love Of God.
28. Like Christ: Led By The Spirit.
29. Like Christ: In His Life Through The Father.
30. Like Christ: In Glorifying The Father.
31. Like Christ: In His Glory.
On Preaching Christ Our Example.
THE ANDREW MURRAY COLLECTION
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
“AND BEN-HADAD THE KING OF Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have” (1 Ki. 20:1-4).
What Ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender; and what Ahab gave was what was asked of him—absolute surrender. I want to use these words: “My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have,” as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of God ought to yield himself to his Father. We have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely—the condition of God’s blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.
Absolute surrender—let me tell you where I got those words. I used them myself often, and you have heard them numberless times. But in Scotland once I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ’s Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is; and there was in our company a godly worker who has much to do in training workers, and I asked him what he would say was the great need of the Church, and the message that ought to be preached. He answered very quietly and simply and determinedly:
“Absolute surrender to God is the one thing.”
The words struck me as never before. And that man began to tell how, in the workers with whom he had to deal, he finds that if they are sound on that point, even though they be backward, they are willing to be taught and helped, and they always improve; whereas others who are not sound there very often go back and leave the work. The condition for obtaining God’s full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.
And now, I desire by God’s grace to give to you this message—that your God in Heaven answers the prayers which you have offered for blessing on yourselves and for blessing on those around you by this one demand: Are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His hands? What is our answer to be? God knows there are hundreds of hearts who have said it, and there are hundreds more who long to say it but hardly dare to do so. And there are hearts who have said it, but who have yet miserably failed, and who feel themselves condemned because they did not find the secret of the power to live that life. May God have a word for all!
Let me say, first of all, that God claims it from us.
GOD EXPECTS YOUR SURRENDER
Yes, it has its foundation in the very nature of God. God cannot do otherwise. Who is God? He is the Fountain of life, the only Source of existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing good but what God works. God has created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the flowers, and the trees, and the grass; and are they not all absolutely surrendered to God? Do they not allow God to work in them just what He pleases? When God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to God as He works in its beauty? And God’s redeemed children, oh, can you think that God can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered? God cannot do it. God is life, and love, and blessing, and power, and infinite beauty, and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him; but ah! this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God. And now He comes, and as God, He claims it.
You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly. This coat is absolutely given up to me to cover my body. This building is entirely given up to religious services. And now, do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, God can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot. The Temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him. And every one of us is a temple of God, in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition—absolute surrender to Him. God claims it, God is worthy of it, and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.
God not only claims it, but God will work it Himself.
GOD ACCOMPLISHES YOUR SURRENDER
I am sure there is many a heart that says: “Ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much!” Someone says: “Oh, I have passed through so much trial and suffering, and there is so much of the self-life still remaining, and I dare not face the entire giving of it up, because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony.”
Alas! alas! that God’s children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts. Oh, I come to you with a message, fearful and anxious one. God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: “It is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13)? And that is what we should seek for—to go on our faces before God, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. God Himself will work it in you.
Look at the men in the Old Testament, like Abraham. Do you think it was by accident that God found that man, the father of the faithful and the Friend of God, and that it was Abraham himself, apart from God, who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion? You know it is not so. God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory.
Did not God say to Pharaoh: “For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power” (Ex. 9:16)?
And if God said that of him, will not God say it far more of every child of His?
Oh, I want to encourage you, and I want you to cast away every fear. Come with that feeble desire; and if there is the fear which says: “Oh, my desire is not strong enough, I am not willing for everything that may come, I do not feel bold enough to say I can conquer everything”—I pray you, learn to know and trust your God now. Say: “My God, I am willing that Thou shouldst make me willing.” If there is anything holding you back, or any sacrifice you are afraid of making, come to God now, and prove how gracious your God is, and be not afraid that He will command from you what He will not bestow.
God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you. All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus. He lived a life of absolute surrender, He has possession of you; He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit. You have hindered and hindered Him terribly, but He desires to help you to get hold of Him entirely. And He comes and draws you now by His message and words. Will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself? Yes, blessed be God, He can do it, and He will do it.
God not only claims it and works it, but God accepts it when we bring it to Him.
GOD ACCEPTS YOUR SURRENDER
God works it in the secret of our heart, God urges us by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak it out, and we have to bring and to yield to Him that absolute surrender. But remember, when you come and bring God that absolute surrender, it may, as far as your feelings or your consciousness go, be a thing of great imperfection, and you may doubt and hesitate and say:
“Is it absolute?”
But, oh, remember there was once a man to whom Christ had said:
“If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).
And his heart was afraid, and he cried out:
“Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:24).
That was a faith that triumphed over the Devil, and the evil spirit was cast out. And if you come and say: “Lord, I yield myself in absolute surrender to my God,” even though it be with a trembling heart and with the consciousness: “I do not feel the power, I do not feel the determination, I do not feel the assurance,” it will succeed. Be not afraid, but come just as you are, and even in the midst of your trembling the power of the Holy Spirit will work.
Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears feeble? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, “through the eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14), offered Himself a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He prayed! Externally, you can see no sign of the mighty power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there. And even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of God’s Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.
And when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that God does now accept of it. That is the great point, and that is what we so often miss—that believers should be thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender. I pray you, be occupied with God. We want to get help, every one of us, so that in our daily life God shall be clearer to us, God shall have the right place, and be “all in all.” And if we are to have that through life, let us begin now and look away from ourselves, and look up to God. Let each believe—while I, a poor worm on earth and a trembling child of God, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here, and no one knows what passes through my heart, and while I in simplicity say, O God, I accept Thy terms; I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others, I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender—while your heart says that in deep silence, remember there is a God present that takes note of it, and writes it down in His book, and there is a God present who at that very moment takes possession of you. You may not feel it, you may not realize it, but God takes possession if you will trust Him.
God not only claims it, and works it, and accepts it when I bring it, but God maintains it.
GOD MAINTAINS YOUR SURRENDER
That is the great difficulty with many. People say: “I have often been stirred at a meeting, or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself to God, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades, and after a time it is all gone.”
But listen! It is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of. When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?
In this matter of surrender there are two: God and I—I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?
Moment by moment I’m kept in His love;
Moment by moment I’ve life from above.
If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission, will not God let His life shine upon you every moment? And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted God for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that trust.
A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not deny that. Yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. But by the grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined, and a life that is possible for us, praise God! Let us believe that God will maintain it.
Some of you have read the words of that aged saint who, on his ninetieth birthday, told of all God’s goodness to him—I mean George Muller. What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness, and of all the blessing which God had given him? He said he believed there were two reasons. The one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of God’s Word. Ah, yes, a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day, and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer—that is a life of absolute surrender.
Such a life has two sides—on the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants you to do; on the other side, to let God work what He wants to do.
First, to do what God wants you to do.
Give up yourselves absolutely to the will of God. You know something of that will; not enough, far from all. But say absolutely to the Lord God: “By Thy grace I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment of every day.” Say: “Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy blessed will.”
Someone says: “Do you think that possible?”
I ask, What has God promised you, and what can God do to fill a vessel absolutely surrendered to Him? Oh, God wants to bless you in a way beyond what you expect. From the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen, what God hath prepared for them that wait for Him (1 Cor. 2:9). God has prepared unheard-of things, blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. They are divine blessings. Oh, say now:
“I give myself absolutely to God, to His will, to do only what God wants.”
It is God who will enable you to carry out the surrender.
And, on the other side, come and say: “I give myself absolutely to God, to let Him work in me to will and to do of His good pleasure, as He has promised to do.”
Yes, the living God wants to work in His children in a way that we cannot understand, but that God’s Word has revealed, and He wants to work in us every moment of the day. God is willing to maintain our life. Only let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike, and unbounded trust.
GOD BLESSES WHEN YOU SURRENDER
This absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless.
What Ahab said to his enemy, King Ben-hadad—“My lord, O king, according to thy word I am thine, and all that I have”—shall we not say to our God and loving Father? If we do say it, God’s blessing will come upon us. God wants us to be separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. Come out for God, and say: “Lord, anything for Thee.” If you say that with prayer, and speak that into God’s ear, He will accept it, and He will teach you what it means.
I say again, God will bless you. You have been praying for blessing. But do remember, there must be absolute surrender. At every tea-table you see it. Why is tea poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and given up for the tea. But put ink, or vinegar, or wine into it, and will they pour the tea into the vessel? And can God fill you, can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. Let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God, and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart:
“O God, I accept Thy demands. I am thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace.”
You may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves in His sight, and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God’s teaching that in your flesh “there dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18), and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.
When was Peter delivered? When was the change accomplished? The change began with Peter weeping, and the Holy Spirit came down and filled his heart.
God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. We come to God confessing that, and praising God for it, and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit. And then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and that He would fill us with His mighty power. And as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out.
Let us bow before God in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole Church. No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God’s will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of God’s people around us, and to humble ourselves. We are members of that sickly body, and the sickliness of the body will hinder us, and break us down, unless we come to God, and in confession separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we give up ourselves to be entirely and wholly for God.
How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! How much work, day by day, in which human energy—our will and our thoughts about the work—is continually manifested, and in which there is but little of waiting upon God, and upon the power of the Holy Spirit! Let us make confession. But as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for God among us, let us come back to ourselves. Who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh, and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? There is deliverance.
I heard of one who had been an earnest Christian, and who spoke about the “cruel” thought of separation and death. But you do not think that, do you? What are we to think of separation and death? This: death was the path to glory for Christ. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. The cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. Do you love Christ? Do you long to be in Christ, and not like Him? Let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth—death to self, and fellowship with Christ. Separation—do you think it a hard thing to be called to be entirely free from the world, and by that separation to be united to God and His love, by separation to become prepared for living and walking with God every day? Surely one ought to say:
“Anything to bring me to separation, to death, for a life of full fellowship with God and Christ.”
Come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus. Then trust Him. Do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ—Christ crucified and risen and living in glory—into your heart.
“THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE”
I want to look at the fact of a life filled with the Holy Spirit more from the practical side, and to show how this life will show itself in our daily walk and conduct.
Under the Old Testament you know the Holy Spirit often came upon men as a divine Spirit of revelation to reveal the mysteries of God, or for power to do the work of God. But He did not then dwell in them. Now, many just want the Old Testament gift of power for work, but know very little of the New Testament gift of the indwelling Spirit, animating and renewing the whole life. When God gives the Holy Spirit, His great object is the formation of a holy character. It is a gift of a holy mind and spiritual disposition, and what we need above everything else, is to say:
“I must have the Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am really to live for God’s glory.”
You might say that when Christ promised the Spirit to the disciples, He did so that they might have power to be witnesses. True, but then they received the Holy Spirit in such heavenly power and reality that He took possession of their whole being at once and so fitted them as holy men for doing the work with power as they had to do it. Christ spoke of power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.
I wish now to dwell upon the passage found in Gal. 5:22:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
We read that “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10), and my desire is to speak on love as a fruit of the Spirit with a twofold object. One is that this word may be a searchlight in our hearts, and give us a test by which to try all our thoughts about the Holy Spirit and all our experience of the holy life. Let us try ourselves by this word. Has this been our daily habit, to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love? “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? In claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love.
Oh, if this were true in the Church of Christ how different her state would be! May God help us to get hold of this simple, heavenly truth that the fruit of the Spirit is a love which appears in the life, and that just as the Holy Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will be filled with real, divine, universal love.
One of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the want of love. When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. In the time of their great religious wars, when Holland stood out so nobly against Spain, one of their mottoes was: “Unity gives strength.” It is only when God’s people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see—it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God. Remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. You can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel, and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole. That is literally true of Christ’s Church, and if there is one thing we must pray for still, it is this: Lord, melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit; let the Holy Spirit, who at Pentecost made them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. Praise God, we can love each other in a divine love, for “the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to love more.
GOD IS LOVE
Now, why is it that the fruit of the Spirit is love? Because God is love (1 John 4:8).
And what does that mean?
It is the very nature and being of God to delight in communicating Himself. God has no selfishness, God keeps nothing to Himself. God’s nature is to be always giving. In the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. God communicates life to His creatures. And the angels around His throne, the seraphim and cherubim who are flames of fire—whence have they their glory? It is because God is love, and He imparts to them of His brightness and His blessedness. And we, His redeemed children—God delights to pour His love into us. And why? Because, as I said, God keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that God had was kept back. “God is love.”
One of the old Church fathers said that we cannot better understand the Trinity than as a revelation of divine love—the Father, the loving One, the Fountain of love; the Son, the beloved one, the Reservoir of love, in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit, the living love that united both and then overflowed into this world. The Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son is love. And when the Holy Spirit comes to us and to other men, will He be less a Spirit of love than He is in God? It cannot be; He cannot change His nature. The Spirit of God is love, and “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
MANKIND NEEDS LOVE
Why is that so? That was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ’s redemption came to accomplish: to restore love to this world.
When man sinned, why was it that he sinned? Selfishness triumphed—he sought self instead of God. And just look! Adam at once begins to accuse the woman of having led him astray. Love to God had gone, love to man was lost. Look again: of the first two children of Adam the one becomes a murderer of his brother.
Does not that teach us that sin had robbed the world of love? Ah! what a proof the history of the world has been of love having been lost! There may have been beautiful examples of love even among the heathen, but only as a little remnant of what was lost. One of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.
The Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven as the Son of God’s love. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). God’s Son came to show what love is, and He lived a life of love here upon earth in fellowship with His disciples, in compassion over the poor and miserable, in love even to His enemies, and He died the death of love. And when He went to Heaven, whom did He send down? The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness and envy and pride, and bring the love of God into the hearts of men. “The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
And what was the preparation for the promise of the Holy Spirit? You know that promise as found in the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. But remember what precedes in the thirteenth chapter. Before Christ promised the Holy Spirit, He gave a new commandment, and about that new commandment He said wonderful things. One thing was: “Even as I have loved you, so love ye one another.” To them His dying love was to be the only law of their conduct and intercourse with each other. What a message to those fishermen, to those men full of pride and selfishness! “Learn to love each other,” said Christ, “as I have loved you.” And by the grace of God they did it. When Pentecost came, they were of one heart and one soul. Christ did it for them.
And now He calls us to dwell and to walk in love. He demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. True love cannot be conquered by anything in Heaven or upon the earth. The more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it all and shows its true nature. This is the love that Christ commanded His disciples to exercise.
What more did He say? “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).
You all know what it is to wear a badge. And Christ said to His disciples in effect: “I give you a badge, and that badge is love. That is to be your mark. It is the only thing in Heaven or on earth by which men can know me.”
Do we not begin to fear that love has fled from the earth? That if we were to ask the world: “Have you seen us wear the badge of love?” the world would say: “No; what we have heard of the Church of Christ is that there is not a place where there is no quarreling and separation.” Let us ask God with one heart that we may wear the badge of Jesus’ love. God is able to give it.
LOVE CONQUERS SELFISHNESS
“The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.
Self is the great curse, whether in its relation to God, or to our fellow-men in general, or to fellow-Christians, thinking of ourselves and seeking our own. Self is our greatest curse. But, praise God, Christ came to redeem us from self. We sometimes talk about deliverance from the self-life—and thank God for every word that can be said about it to help us—but I am afraid some people think deliverance from the self-life means that now they are going to have no longer any trouble in serving God; and they forget that deliverance from self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all the day.
And there you have the reason why many people pray for the power of the Holy Spirit, and they get something, but oh, so little! because they prayed for power for work, and power for blessing, but they have not prayed for power for full deliverance from self. That means not only the righteous self in intercourse with God, but the unloving self in intercourse with men. And there is deliverance. “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” I bring you the glorious promise of Christ that He is able to fill our hearts with love.
A great many of us try hard at times to love. We try to force ourselves to love, and I do not say that is wrong; it is better than nothing. But the end of it is always very sad. “I fail continually,” such a one must confess. And what is the reason? The reason is simply this: Because they have never learned to believe and accept the truth that the Holy Spirit can pour God’s love into their heart. That blessed text; often it has been limited!—“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” (Rom. 5:5). It has often been understood in this sense: It means the love of God to me. Oh, what a limitation! That is only the beginning. The love of God is always the love of God in its entirety, in its fullness as an indwelling power, a love of God to me that leaps back to Him in love, and overflows to my fellow-men in love—God’s love to me, and my love to God, and my love to my fellow-men. The three are one; you cannot separate them.
Do believe that the love of God can be shed abroad in your heart and mine so that we can love all the day.
“Ah!” you say, “how little I have understood that!”
Why is a lamb always gentle? Because that is its nature. Does it cost the lamb any trouble to be gentle? No. Why not? It is so beautiful and gentle. Has a lamb to study to be gentle? No. Why does that come so easy? It is its nature. And a wolf—why does it cost a wolf no trouble to be cruel, and to put its fangs into the poor lamb or sheep? Because that is its nature. It has not to summon up its courage; the wolf-nature is there.
