Four Great Truths
Ephesians 3:19
Someone has said, "Why should we not have a perpetual Pentecost?
The Holy Spirit is not withdrawn; but there are few who are empty enough of self to go all the way
with the Holy Spirit, without diverging into fanaticism."
The crying need today is for believers who can not only lead a lost soul to the Saviour,
but can lead a seeking soul into the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)
We must pray that God will help us to enter into the abundant life.
Remember, the fullness of the Spirit is an intregal part of the plan of salvation.
The Lord Jesus died not only that we might be saved, but that we might be filled.
Look at four great truths in relation to the fullness.
What God Claims, I Yield.
This is the first great truth of our message.
There must be a definite act of consecration.
At conversion the keys to our soul are placed in His hands.
We bow down before Him.
At consecration, something more takes place.
Everything in our life is open for His inspection.
Every plan is submitted to Him for approval.
Every room of our heart and mind is open to Him and placed at His disposal.
Some may spend long years incoming to a crisis of surrender.
Some may reach it at a single bound, but every consecrated child of God must know that the act of yielding
is the supreme step that brings him into the fullness of the closer walk with God.
Your experience may have been complicated, confused, and difficult to interpret;
but that act of surrender was the culmination of it all, and the fullness of the Spirit is the outcome of that act.
God demands of us a complete surrender of our heart, our will, and our intellect.
God will reveal to us all that He claims in our lives, if we are sincere and honest.
It is an utter impossibility for us to receive this blessing, if there is one bit of insincerity
or rebellion in our heart and mind.
There must be no mental reservations.
It is not for us to hand over different things in our lives to God as we please.
It is the entire life that God claims.
He not only asks for a complete surrender of the past and the present, but of all that is in the future.
Many are in danger of an assumed dedication because they have not been thorough in the matter of surrender.
It is possible that they made a quick decision being overly pressured without having been alone with God
that He might reveal to them what is involved in this mighty step.
It may take days or even weeks in the preliminary stages alone with God in the secret place,
before they are able to know what His personal claims are for their life.
Remember, God deals with each of us as individuals.
Some may ask for the exact price to pay for this blessing.
Some are disturbed that there is not some exact standard uniform system they must follow.
No one can hand out a printed formula to one and all.
There is no stock answer to this question.
Only our loving heavenly Father can reveal to us the entire cost of consecration.
But I do know -- God demands all.
The decisive battle is nearly always over some apparently trivial issue, but in the sight of God -- nothing is trivial.
Upon this one vital issue in your life may depend the outcome of the whole battle.
Remember that surrender at consecration is an advanced stage and consequently is more difficult
than surrender at conversion.
It is often easier to give up what we see to be morally wrong, than to give up what may be right in itself,
but not be God's will for us.
The act of yielding must be incorporated into a life of submission.
Consecration is only the threshold into the Spirit-filled life.
The act of consecration leads to an attitude, and the daily attitude leads to a fuller and richer life in Christ
as our capacity increases.
What I Yield, God Accepts.
This is the second great truth.
A firm belief in this truth is all important.
I have now definitely presented my body a living sacrifice to the Holy Spirit,
according to the exhortation of Romans 12: 1.
However, until I am sure, by faith, that God has accepted my offering, I can go no further.
I can only continue to cry, "I surrender, I surrender."
There are many who long to be filled and are willing for the things that will bring glory to God in their lives,
who are frustrated and even in despair because they are not conscious of anything revolutionary having taken place.
They continue to cry, "I long to belong wholly to the Lord! I long to be used by Him!
I surrender all I am and have to be, dear Lord."
But they have never looked up and exclaimed by faith, "What I yield, God accepts!
I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for this great truth!"
Once the realization of this great truth of the acceptance of God is established in the mind and heart,
the seeking soul begins to make progress.
Because of the truth that God accepts all that I yield to him, I must be careful to count the cost
before I yield anything for His acceptance.
We must not trifle with the Holy God.
God always reckons as His own that which He has been solemnly invited to take,
and does with it according to His good pleasure.
If we seek to take back and appropriate for our own use that which has been given to God, we are guilty of embezzlement.
The moment we take ourselves off God's altar, that is the moment we become backsliders.
God, not only accepts the full surrender of our lives, but accepts all our possessions.
What a blessing this revelation will bring to our lives.
What God Accepts, He Fills.
This is the third important fact.
Many believers are severely tested by Satan at this point
because they have not had a highly emotional experience of which others have testified.
And this point, the believer must rest on the sure promise of the Word of God:
"If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture has said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
Just as surely as he accepts what I yield to him, He fills it!
There is no stereotyped experience of being filled with the Spirit, just as there is no stereotyped case of conversion.
It is true that the fundamental facts are there, just as they are in the new birth,
but our emotional experiences are not all the same.
Some might have a soul-shaking experience.
Another person might just have a quiet peace and calm within.
What I have yielded, God has accepted, and what He has accepted and has filled for a purpose.
We are filled to do the will of God whatever that may cost us.
Sometimes the will of God may lead to us contrary to our own natural expectations.
There are wide-spread misconceptions as to the nature of the power of the Spirit,
so that many are looking for something they will probably never receive.
It does not mean that when I am filled with the Spirit, I will become a Billy Graham, or...
Many have been keenly disappointed because they have not received a sudden acquisition of power
to do the work which God has assigned to someone else.
God only fills us so that we may have power to do that which He has appointed for us to do.
It does not necessarily follow that when we are filled, the Holy Spirit will call us into a full-time Christian vocation.
The mother must stay at her task.
The father must stay at his job.
The young person must in school.
God may call on some to preach, and may call others to be missionaries;
but, on the other hand, He most probably will keep most of us at home.
To one is given the power of effective utterance.
To another God may give the ministry of intercession.
Another may be given sympathy for the suffering.
God sets the members in the body "as it hath pleased Him" and then imparts to each member
the power to fulfill his own individual function.
Many of these gifts of service are away from the limelight.
Nevertheless, what the world would call as the lesser member receives the same empowerment
to perform his function for the glory of God has does the "more prominent" member.
Oftentimes, it is only as we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit into the pathway of service
that we may expect the annointing power for our service.
Many believers today sat in their cozy arm chairs by a comfortable fire, waiting until they are baptized
with power, when the Lord wants them to go forth in faith, relying on Him!
What God Fills, He Uses.
The fourth important truth.
God is sure to lead you into service the moment your life is filled with Him.
It is one thing to work for God; it is another thing to have God work through us.
Our absolute surrender gives God the chance to work his perfect will through us
God has a plan for your life. (Ephesians 2:10)
The tragedy of the hour is that very few believers are living their lives in the center of the sweet, beloved will of God.
They have planned their own lives.
The Spirit-filled believer has the joy of living the life that has been planned for him by the Father,
and of knowing His constant enabling.
Now, you are in cooperation with the Holy Spirit!
God wants to use you now!
God will use you, but it will be in His way and in His time.
No child of God can really fulfill God's purpose for his life unless he has a vision and an agony,
not only for his next door neighbor, but also for the unsaved all a over the world.
"He was not willing that any should perish;
Jesus, enthroned in the glory above,
Saw our poor fallen world, pitied our sorrow,
Poured out His life for us, wonderful love.
Perishing, perishing, thronging our pathway,
Hearts break with burdens too heavy to bear;
Jesus would save, but there's no one to tell them,
No one to save them from sin and despair."
In conclusion, let me state that there is no once-and-for-all-feeling that ignores a daily renewing.
We cannot go on living and working as if God has entrusted us with an inexhaustible spiritual capital,
upon which we can draw indefinitely.
We must abide in Christ, moment by moment, for the constant manifestation and maintenance
of the fullness of the Spirit.
Murray McCheyne declared:
"I am persuaded that I shall obtain the highest amount of present happiness by maintaining a conscience
always washed in Christ's blood; by being filled with the Holy Spirit at all times,
and by attaining the most entire likeness to Christ in mind, will and heart, that it is possible
for a redeemed sinner to attain in this world."
"Thy sovereign right, Thy gracious claim,
To every fault and every power;
Our lives -- to glorify Thy name,
We yield to Thee in this sacred hour.
Fill every chamber of the soul;
Fill all our thoughts, our passions fill;
Till under Thy supreme control
Submissive rest our cheerful will.
'Tis done; Thou dost this moment come;
My longing soul is all Thine own;
my heart is Thy abiding home;
Henceforth I live for Thee alone.
My outstretched hands to Heaven I lift,
And claim the Fathers promise mine.
Now arise, exulting rise, my soul,
Triumphant sing the Saviour's praise;
His name through earth and skies extol
With all Thy power through all Thine days."
- Frank Bottoms
Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White.
