Quiet Talks on Power Part 8

But perhaps some one is saying, "Have not we all received the Holy Spirit if we are christians?" Yes, that is quite true. It is the Holy Spirit's presence in us that makes us christians. His work begins at conversion. Conversion and regeneration are the two sides of the same transaction. Conversion, the human side: regeneration, the divine side.

My turning clear around to G.o.d is my side, and instantly His Spirit enters and begins His work. But here is a distinction to be made: the Holy Spirit is in every christian, but in many He is not allowed free and full control, and so there is little or none of His power _felt_ or _seen_. Only as He has full sway is His power _manifest_. If at the time of conversion or decision there is clear instruction and a whole-hearted surrender, there will be evidence of the Spirit's presence at once. And if the new life goes on _without break_ there will be a continuance of that power in ever-increasing measure. But many a time, through ignorance, or through some disobedience or failure to obey, there has come a break, a slipping of a cog somewhere, and so an interruption of the flow of power. Many a time lack of instruction regarding the cultivation of the Spirit's friendship has resulted in just such a break. And so a new start is necessary. Then a full surrender is followed by a new experience or, shall I better say, a re-experience of the Spirit's presence. And this new experience sometimes is so sharply marked as to begin a new epoch in the life. Some of the notable leaders of the Church have gone through just such an experience.

Yet, I know a man--have known him somewhat intimately for years--one of the most saintly men it has been my privilege to know. For some years he was a missionary abroad, but now is preaching in this country. His private personal life is fragrant, and his public speech is always accompanied with rare power. In conversation with a young minister at a summer conference, he said he had never known this second blessing or experience on which such stress was being laid there. And I think I can readily understand that he had not. For, apparently, so far as one can see, his first surrender or decision had been a whole-hearted one. He had followed simply, fully, as he saw the way. There had been no break, but a steady going on and up, and an ever-increasing manifestation of the Spirit's presence from the time of that first decision. So that it may be said, quite accurately, I think, that _in G.o.d's plan_ there is no need of any second stage, but _in our actual experience_ there has been a second stage, and sometimes more than a second, too, because with so many of us the connections have been broken, making a fresh act on our part a necessity.

The Real Battlefield.

But now the main topic we are to talk about is making and breaking connections. First, making connections with the source of power. How may one who has been willing to go thus far in these talks go a step further and have power in actual _conscious_ possession?

There are many pa.s.sages in this old Book that answer that question. But let me turn you to one which puts the answer in very simple shape.

John's gospel, seventh chapter, verses thirty-seven to thirty-nine.

Listen: "Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." Then John, writing some fifty years or so afterwards, adds what he himself did not understand at the time: "But this spake He of the Spirit who they that believed on Him were to receive; for not yet was the Spirit given, because not yet was Jesus glorified."

There are four words here which tell the four steps into a new life of power. Sometimes these steps are taken so quickly that they seem in actual experience like only one. But that does not matter to us just now, for we are after the practical result. Four words--thirst, glorified, drink, believe--tell the whole story. Thirst means desire, intense desire. There is no word in our language so strong to express desire as the word thirst. Physical thirst will completely control your actions. If you are very thirsty, you can do nothing till that gnawing desire is satisfied. You cannot read, nor study, nor talk, nor transact business. You are in agony when intensely thirsty. To die of thirst is extremely painful. Jesus uses that word thirst to express intensest desire. Let me ask you--Are you thirsty for power? Is there a yearning down in your heart for something you have not? That is the first step.

No good to offer food to a man without appet.i.te. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst." Pitiable are they that need and do not know their need. Physicians find their most difficult work in dealing with the man who has no desire to live. He is at the lowest ebb. Are you thirsty?

There is a special promise for thirsty ones. "I will pour water on him that is thirsty." If you are not thirsty for the Master's power, are you thirsty to be made thirsty? If you are not really thirsty in your heart for this new life of power, you might ask the Master to put that thirst in you. For there can be nothing before that.

The second word is the one added long afterwards by John, when the Spirit had enlightened his understanding--"glorified." "For not yet was the Spirit given, because not yet was Jesus glorified." That word has two meanings here: the first meaning a historical one, the second a personal or experimental one. The historical meaning is this: when Jesus returned home all scarred in face and form from His trip to the earth, He was received back with great enthusiasm, and was glorified in the presence of myriads of angel beings by being enthroned at the Father's right hand. Then the glorified Jesus sent the Holy Spirit down to the earth as His own personal representative for His new peculiar mission.

The presence of the Spirit in our hearts is evidence that the Jesus whom earth despised and crucified is now held in highest honor and glory in that upper world. The Spirit is the gift of a _glorified_ Jesus. Peter lays particular stress upon this in his Pentecost sermon, telling to those who had so spitefully murdered Jesus that He "being at the right hand of G.o.d _exalted_ ... hath poured forth this." That is the historical meaning--the first meaning--of that word "glorified." It refers to an event in the highest heaven after Jesus' ascension. The _personal_ meaning is this: when Jesus is enthroned in my life the Holy Spirit shall fill me. The Father glorified Jesus by enthroning Him. I must glorify Him by enthroning Him. But the throne of my heart was occupied by another who did not propose to resign, nor to be deposed without resistance. So there had to be a dethronement as well as an enthronement. I must quietly but resolutely place the crown of my life, my love, my _will_ upon Jesus' brow for Him henceforth to control me as He will. That act of enthroning Him carries with it the dethronement of self.

Let me say plainly that here is _the_ searching test of the whole matter. _Why_ do you want power? For the rare enjoyment of ecstatic moods? For some hidden selfish purpose, like Simon of Samaria, of which you are perhaps only half conscious, so subtly does it lurk underneath?

That you may be able to move men? These motives are all selfish. The streams turn in, and that means a dead sea. Better stop before you begin. For thy heart is not right before G.o.d. But if the uppermost and undermost desire be to glorify Jesus and let Him do in you, and with you _what He chooses_, then you shall know the flooding of the channel-ways of your life with a new stream of power.

Jesus Himself, when down here as Son of Man, met this test. With reverence be it said that His highest purpose in coming to earth was not to die upon the cross, but to glorify His Father. That memorable pa.s.sage opening the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, which Jesus applied to Himself in the Nazareth synagogue, contains eight or nine statements of what He was to do, but closes with a comprehensive statement of the underlying purpose--"_that He might be glorified_." As it turned out, that could best be done by yielding to the awful experiences through which He pa.s.sed. But the supreme thought of pleasing His Father was never absent from His thought. It drove Him to the wilderness, and to Gethsemane, and to Calvary.

Is that the one purpose in your heart in desiring power? He might send some of us out to the far-off foreign mission field. He might send some down to the less enchanted field of the city slums to do salvage service night after night among the awful social wreckage[C] thrown upon the strand there; or possibly it would mean an isolated post out on the frontier, or down in the equally heroic field of the mountains of the South. He might leave some of you just where you are, in a commonplace, humdrum spot, as you think, when your visions had been in other fields.

He might make you a seed-sower, like lonely Morrison in China, when _you_ wanted to be a harvester like Moody. Here is the real battlefield.

The fighting and agonizing are here. Not with G.o.d but with yourself, that the old self in you may be crucified and Jesus crowned in its place.

[Transcriber's Note C: Original had "weckage"]

Will you _in the purpose of your heart_ make Jesus absolute monarch whatever that may prove to mean? It _may_ mean great sacrifice; it _will_ mean greater joy and power at once. May we have the simple courage to do it. Master, help us! Thou wilt help us. Thou art helping some of us now as we talk and listen and think.

Power Manifest in Action.

Well, then, if you have won on that field of action, the rest is very simple. Indeed, after a victory there, your whole life moves up to a new level. The third word is drink. "Let him come unto Me _and drink_."

Drinking is one of the easiest acts imaginable. I wish I had a gla.s.s of water here just to let you see how easy a thing it is. Tip up the gla.s.s and let the water run in and down. Drink simply means _take_. It is saying, "Lord Jesus, I take from Thee the promised power.... I thank Thee that the Spirit has taken full control." But you say, "Is that all?" Yes. "Why, I do not feel anything." Do you remember saying something like that when you were urged to take Jesus as your Savior?

And some kind friend told you not to wait for feeling, but to trust, and that when you did that, the light came? Now, the fourth word is _believe_. The law of G.o.d's dealing with you has not changed. Jesus says, "Out of his belly _shall flow_ rivers of living water." You are to believe His word. "But," you say, "how shall I _know_ I have this power?" Well, first, by _believing_ that Jesus has done what He agreed.

He promised the Spirit to them that obey Him. The Holy Spirit fills every surrendered heart. Then there is a second way--you will experience the power as need arises. How do you know _any_thing? Here is this chair. Suppose I tell you I have power to pick it up and hold it out at arm's length. Well, you think, I look as though I might have that much power in my arm. But you do not know. Perhaps my arm is weak and does not show it. But now I pick it up and hold it out--(holding chair out at arm's length)--now you _know_ I have at least that much power in my arm.

Power is always manifest in action. That is a law of power. How did that man by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, who had not walked for thirty-eight years--how did he _know_ that he had received power to walk? _He got up and walked!_ He did not know he had received the power till he got up. Power is shown in action always. Faith acts. It pushes out, in obedience to command. And when you go out of here to-day, _as the need arises_ you will find the power rising within you to meet it.

When the hasty word comes hot to your lips, when that old habit a.s.serts itself, when the actual test of sacrifice comes, when the opportunity for service comes, as surely as the need comes, will come the sense of _His power_ in control. Believe means _expect_.

"Thirst," "glorify," "drink," "believe"--_desire_, _enthrone_, _accept_, _expect_--that is the simple story. Are you thirsty? Will you put Jesus on the throne? Then accept, and go out with your eyes open, expecting, expecting, _expecting_, and He will never fail to reveal His power.

Shall we bow in silence a few moments and settle the matter, each of us, with the Master direct?

Three Laws of Continuous Power.

Power depends on good connections. In mechanics: the train with the locomotive; the machinery with the engine; the electrical mechanism with the power house. In the body: the arm with the socket; the brain with the heart. In the christian life the follower of Jesus with the Spirit of Jesus. We have been talking together about making connections, and I believe some of us have made the vital connection this hour, which means new inflow and outflow of power.

Now there will be time for only a brief word about _breaking_ connections. "But," you say, "we do not want to break connections." No, _you_ do not. But there is someone else who does. Since you have put yourself into intimate contact with Jesus this someone else has become intensely interested in breaking that contact. And this enemy of ours, this Satan, the hater, is subtle and deep and experienced and more than a match for any of us. But greater is He that is now in you than he that is in the world. Satan will do his best by bold attack and cunning deceit to tamper with your couplings.

One of the saddest sights, and yet a not uncommon one, is to see a man who has been mightily used of G.o.d, but whose usefulness is now wholly gone. One can run back through only recent years and recall, one after another, those through whom mult.i.tudes were blessed, but who, yielding to some subtle temptation, have utterly and forever lost their opportunity Of service. The same is true of scores in more secluded circles whose lives, spiritually blighted and dwarfed, tell the same sad story.

These recent instances are but repet.i.tions of older ones. Three times the writer of Judges tells of Samson that "the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him," and then is added the pathetic sentence--"but he wist not that the Lord was departed from him." And between the two occurs the story of an act of disobedience. Twice the same thing is recorded of King Saul, "the spirit of G.o.d came mightily upon him," and the same sequel follows, "the spirit of the Lord had departed." And between the two is found an act of disobedience to G.o.d's command. The ninth of Luke tells a similar story. The disciples had been given power; had used the power for others; were requested to relieve a demonized boy; had tried to; had expected to; but utterly failed, to their own chagrin, and the father's disappointment, amid the surprise and criticism of the crowd. The Master explains that a slipshod connection with G.o.d was at the bottom of their failure. Power is not stored in us apart from G.o.d's presence. It merely pa.s.ses through as He has sway. Once the connection between Him and you is disturbed, the flow of power is interrupted. We do not run on the storage battery plan, but on the trolley plan. Constant communication with the source of power is absolutely essential. The spirit of G.o.d never leaves us. We do not lose His presence. But whatever grieves Him prevents His presence being manifest. The _evidence_ of His presence may be lost through wrongdoing.

So I want to give you in very brief compa.s.s _the three laws_ of the life of power--continued and increasing power. I wish some one had given them to me long ago. It might have saved me many a bad break.

_The first law_ can be put in a single word--_obey_. Obedience is the great foundation law of the christian life. Indeed it is the common fundamental law of all organization, in nature, in military, naval, commercial, political and domestic circles. Obedience is the great essential to securing the purpose of life. Disobedience means disaster.

If you turn to scripture you must read almost every page if you would get all the statements and ill.u.s.trations of obedience and its opposite.

Begin with the third of Genesis, where the first disastrous act of disobedience brought a ruin still going on. Run through the three wilderness books, where the new nation is grouped about the smoking mountain. Listen in Deuteronomy to the old man Moses talking during the thirty days' conference they had in Moab's plains before he was taken away. Then into Joshua's book of victory and the Judges' dark story of defeats, through the kingdom books, and the prophecies, and you will find the changes rung more frequently upon _obedience_ than anything else. The same is true of the New Testament clear to the last column of the last page.

The fact is, every heart is a battlefield whose possession is being hotly contested. If Jesus is in possession Satan is trying his best by storm or strategy to get in. If Satan be in possession whether as a coa.r.s.e or a cultured Satan, then Jesus is lovingly storming the door.

Satan _can_ not get in without your consent, and Jesus _will_ not. An act of obedience to G.o.d is slamming the door in Satan's face, and opening it wider for Jesus' control. Listen with your heart! An act of disobedience, however slight, as _you_ think, is slamming the door of your heart in Jesus' face and flinging it open to Satan's entrance. Is that mere rhetoric? It is cold fact. No, it is hot fact. The first great simple law is obedience.

But someone asks, "How shall I know what--whom, to obey? Sometimes the voices coming to my ear seem to be jarring voices; they do not agree.

Pastors do not all agree: churches are not quite agreed on some matters: my best friends think differently: how shall I know?" Here comes in _the second law_, _Obey the book of G.o.d as interpreted by the Spirit of G.o.d_.

Not the book alone. That will lead into superst.i.tion. Not to say the Spirit without the book He has indited. That will lead to fanaticism.

But the book as interpreted by the Spirit, and the Spirit as He speaks through His book. There is a voice of G.o.d, and a Spirit of G.o.d and a book of G.o.d. G.o.d speaks by His Spirit through His word Sometimes He speaks directly without the written word. But _very, very rarely_. The mental impressions by which the Spirit guides are frequent. But I am speaking now, not of that but of His audible inner voice. He is chary in the use of that. And when he so speaks the _test_ is that, of necessity, the voice of G.o.d always agrees with itself. The spoken word is never out of harmony with the written word. And as He has given us the written word, it becomes our standard of His will. This book of G.o.d was inspired. It _is_ inspired. G.o.d spoke in it. He speaks in it to-day. You will be surprised to find how light on every sort of question will come through this in-Spirited book.

But someone with a practical turn of mind is thinking: "but it is such a big book. I do not know much about it. I read the psalms some, and some chapters in Isaiah, and the gospels and some in the epistles, but I have no grasp of the whole book; and your second law seems a little beyond me." Then _you_ listen to the third law, namely: _time alone with the book daily_. It should be unhurried time. Time enough not to think about time. At least a half hour every day, I would suggest, and preferably the first half hour of the morning, rising at least early enough to get this bit of time before any duty can claim you. It may seem very difficult for some. But it is an absolute essential, for the first two laws depend on this one for their practical force.

When Joshua, trembling, was called upon to a.s.sume the stupendous task of being Moses' successor, G.o.d came and had a quiet talk with him. In that talk He emphasized just one thing as the secret of his new leadership.

Listen: "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein." There are the three laws straight from the lips of G.o.d, packed into a single sentence.

Let us plan to get alone with the Master daily over His word, with the door shut, other things shut out, and ourselves shut in, that we may learn His will, and get strength to do it. And when in doubt _wait_.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] 1 Cor. xii. 13.

[8] Luke xxiv. 49.

[9] That is to make perfectly plain that this experience was for _all_: a very difficult fact for these intensely Jewish disciples to grasp.

(1) Not limited to the original one hundred and twenty, but for the whole body of Jewish disciples--Acts iv.

(2) For the hated half-breed Samaritans--Acts viii.

(3) For the "dogs" of Gentiles--Acts x.

(4) For individual disciples anywhere, and at any distance in time from Pentecost--Acts xix.

[10] Acts i: 8; ii: 17, 33; viii: 15; x: 45; xix: 6.

[11] (1) Luke iv. 18, quo. from Isa. lxi: 1. (2) Acts iv: 27. (3) Acts x: 38. (4) Heb. i: 9, quotation from Ps. xlv: 7.

[12] 2 Cor. i: 21.