Week 40 Sunday
Week 40 Sunday
On Possessing the Spirit
Luke 24:49; Acts 2:37-39
This matter of the Holy Spirit in Christianity is so important that we must spend another week upon it. The church has in large measure tried to bypass Pentecost and go after its problems without the “tarrying.” Consequently, it is exhausting itself against the problems of the day. Had the disciples tried to bypass Pentecost, we would never have heard of them again. They would have exhausted themselves against the problems of that day.
A river in California starts toward the sea but never gets there; it is lost in the sands. The spiritual life of many is like that. It starts, but it is lost in the sands of surrounding life; it doesn’t get to its destination, its destination of contagion. It doesn’t “get across.” It doesn’t “get across” because it doesn’t “get” us.
Halford Luccock said that “when a respectable middle-class Christian goes Christian—that’s news.”* When the semi-barren disciples surrendered to the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it became news—good news to the world. That can happen now.
But the question is asked: Doesn’t every Christian possess the Holy Spirit? And the answer is yes. But the difference is probably this: In the new birth, you have the Holy Spirit; in the fullness, the Holy Spirit has you. Before Pentecost, the disciples had the Holy Spirit, but after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit had them. In Galatians 5:16-18 (Moffatt), we see three stages: (1) “The life of the Spirit,” (2) “the passion of the Spirit,” (3) “the sway of the Spirit.” These are the three stages: “The life of the Spirit” is when new life is introduced within us by the Spirit. “The passion of the Spirit” is when the new life bursts periodically into passionate operation. “The sway of the Spirit” is when the Holy Spirit exercises a perpetual control over surrendered powers and capacities.
O Spirit of the living God, I have found life through you, and sometimes it bursts into a passion for souls and for sacrifice; but I want most of all to have you in perpetual sway over me, a continuous possession and power. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Today I shall be Spirit-saved, Spirit-saved and Spirit-stayed because Spirit-obeyed.
*Halford E. Luccock (1885–1961) was a professor of homiletics at Yale Divinity School. No published source for the quotation was found.
Week 40 Monday
The Subconscious Cleansed
Acts 11:15-17; 2 Corinthians 7:1
We saw yesterday that the three stages as found in Galatians 5:17-18 were the life of the Spirit, the passion of the Spirit, and the sway of the Spirit. We must return to our meditation upon these stages.
In conversion there is introduced into the soul a new life, the life of the Spirit; you are born of the Spirit. The birth of the Spirit may be very, very quiet like “an effortless sunrise.” There are no fixed patterns, “God’s Spirit blows wherever it wishes” (John 3:8 CEB)—differently in different persons. And yet the effects are substantially the same, “You hear its sound”—the sound of new life and victory. Life is on an essentially higher level.
In this new life are moments of the passion of the Spirit. There are moments when the passion of the Spirit is upon you; you feel deeply, sacrifice really, and are passionately Christian. But this is periodic; it comes and goes. The passion of the Spirit is succeeded by the passion of the flesh, and these two are antagonistic, “The two are at issue, so that you are not free to do as you please” (Gal. 5:17 Moffatt). The passion of the Spirit and the passion of the flesh cancel each other out, and you are divided, ineffective.
The reason for this clash? Probably this: The passion of the flesh is the unconverted subconscious mind. The three driving urges reside in the subconscious: self, sex, and the herd. These urges, through innate propensities and human habit, drive for completion—fulfillment apart from and sometimes contrary to the new life of the Spirit. The life of the Spirit is in the conscious mind. So conscious and subconscious mind are at cross-purposes.
This produces an up-and-down type of living. Sometimes the life of the Spirit is on top, and sometimes the passion of the flesh. The spiritual life is unstable. We alternate between cold and hot; we do not maintain the “spiritual glow.” A little boy, deeply impressed by Niagara Falls, tried to take some of it, roar and all, back to his home in a bottle. As he poured it out before the family, he sighed, “Oh pshaw, it’s died.” When we try to hand on the wonder and power of the new life, it often dies in the pouring out. It doesn’t get across.
O Spirit of God, I want to know the continuing fullness of the Spirit. I want you, not as a periodic action, but as a continuing atmosphere. I want you as a Presence, always there and always available. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “He who has begun the good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6 Moffatt).
Week 40 Tuesday
Conscious and Subconscious Unified
Ephesians 4:1-7
We saw yesterday that the passion of the flesh and the passion of the Spirit war within and leave us a house of Mansoul divided against itself. Is this the normal Christian state, the best that Christianity can do—leave you a divided soul until the final release in death?
Some would reply in the affirmative and point to the seventh chapter of Romans as the normal Christian state, “I find another law in my members which conflicts with the law of my mind and makes me a prisoner to sin’s law that resides in my members” (Rom. 7:23 Moffatt). But this is not Christianity at all. It is entirely sub-Christian, for it is a description of Paul under the Law, fighting it out with sin.
Christianity begins with the closing verses of the seventh chapter and the opening verses of the eighth, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? God will! Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . .The law of the Spirit brings the life which is in Christ Jesus, and that law has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 7:24-25; 8:2 Moffatt). This life of victory is normal Christianity.
What has happened? The Holy Spirit has taken possession of the subconscious mind, has cleansed, redirected, and dedicated the three driving urges of self, sex, and the herd. Those urges are still there, for the person is not depersonalized. The self is there, but no longer at the center, no longer controlling life. The self is a Spirit-controlled self. Sex is still there, but no longer at the center, controlling the rest of life. The life is not sex-controlled, but Spirit-controlled. The herd urge is still there, but no longer fastened on such entities as class or race or nation as supreme loyalties. Now it is fastened on the kingdom of God as the supreme loyalty, and all other loyalties are subsidiary to that absolute loyalty. The urges are under “the sway of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:13 Weymouth). So now, conscious mind and subconscious mind are under one sway and control. The wrong attitudes that have fastened themselves around the legitimate urges are cleansed away, and the urges are now redeemed, harmonized, and dedicated. Therefore, the person is a unit and therefore a power—no longer pulling the self to pieces, but pulling his or her load toward one end under one Power.
O living Spirit, I want my whole being to be redeemed. Your work is in the area of the subconscious, an area I can’t control. So I turn it over to you, for you to cleanse, control, and redirect. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Out of the wealth of his glory to grant you a mighty increase of strength by his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16 Moffatt).
Week 40 Wednesday
To Be Spirit-possessed Is to Be Self-possessed
Philippians 2:1-5
We saw yesterday that when surrendered to the Spirit we become inwardly harmonized and hence outwardly effective. One of the reasons the disciples couldn’t get the evil spirit out of the lad (see Mark 9) may have been because they were upset and jealous about not being in the inner circle of the three who were on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus. They were jealous within and powerless without.
When you are Spirit-possessed, then you are self-possessed. For there is an affinity between the Spirit and the self. When we most belong to the Spirit, we most belong to ourselves. It is said of the disciples on the day of Pentecost, “The Spirit enabled them to express themselves” (Acts 2:4 Moffatt). This is true self-expression. It is life reduced to the natural because it is life raised to the Supernatural. All extraneous inhibitions, fears, self-consciousness, and complexes are cleaned away, and the life is now normal, natural, and unaffected.
This surprised the disciples and their enemies. They couldn’t understand people who did not cow before insolent might or despise the weak and broken. Their speech, cleansed from the devious, took on a new directness and power. Could speech be more reduced to simplicity and directness than these words from a formerly devious Peter, “Then Peter, filled with the holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we are being cross-examined today upon a benefit rendered to a cripple, upon how this man got better, you and the people of Israel must all know this, that he stands before you strong and well, thanks to the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead’ ” (Acts 4:8-10 Moffatt). No wonder “they were astonished to notice how outspoken Peter and John were” (v. 13). They were outspoken, for they were inspoken; the Spirit had spoken harmony and coordination to every part of their inmost beings.
When something happens to us, then something happens through us. A bishop asked a man of rather mediocre ability why it was that he was always being sought by large churches. He replied, “I am a small man, but I have a great God.” And the great God had him.
O Spirit divine, I come to you for an empowering. I want not a momentary uplift but a permanent lifting up of my entire being on a higher level of life. Fill me with yourself so that I may shed all self-consciousness and fears and stand up unafraid and effective. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am among those who know the enraptured indistinction between themselves and the Divine Being.
Week 40 Thursday
Steps to Receive the Holy Spirit
John 7:37-39; Galatians 3:2
We now come to the place where you not only see but seek. You want to know the truth of the Holy Spirit as a fact in your own life. You are not content to see others used of the Spirit and yourself bypassed. You put yourself into line for the fulfillment of God’s promise. “You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off” (Acts 2:38-39).
(1) Say to yourself, God has come a long way in approaching me. God has come through an incarnation, an atoning death, a resurrection, down to the door of my heart. Having come so far, I know God will come the full way; God will come within me. The Holy Spirit is God coming within me. Here God changes the with to in. I am grateful for the with, but I cannot be satisfied this side of the in.
(2) Again, say to yourself, I know I would not be called to the Way without being provided with power to walk in the Way. If this were not true, then the Christian faith would be an irritation, an exasperation. We see something we would follow but cannot. The Christian faith would then be a mockery instead of a mastery. But every syllable of the Christian faith is sincerity. Would it reverse itself at the place where it counts, at the place of power to put it into operation?
(3) As I search the Scriptures, I note that the Holy Spirit is given on four conditions: (1) I must ask—“How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (Luke 11:13). (2) I must accept the Holy Spirit by an act of appropriating faith—“By faith we might receive the promised Spirit” (Gal. 3:14 Moffatt). (3) But I cannot accept the gift of the Holy Spirit without paying the price of that gift, the gift of myself. If God gives Godself, then I must give myself. (4) I must obey God—“The holy Spirit which God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32 Moffatt). I must therefore ask, accept, give, and obey. I am now committing myself with all my being to do those four things.
O God, I am now committed. I set my face to seek with all my being for your highest gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit. I am not entering this quest lightly; I enter it with no reservations, no halfway attitudes. I set my face and my life to seek and to find. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “By all your participation in the Spirit” (Phil. 2:1 Moffatt). I do participate in the Spirit, for I am possessed by the Spirit.
Week 40 Friday
The Steps of Appropriating Faith
Acts 2:1-4; 8:14-17
Four steps in receiving and retaining the Holy Spirit: I must ask, I must receive by faith, I must give myself, and I must obey.
These four steps I am now taking. First, I am asking. But Jesus gave three stages of intensity: ask, seek, knock. The asking is intensified into seeking, and the seeking into knocking. The knocking means that I am on the threshold, right on the verge of entering. There is nothing but a door between me and entering. And that door turns out to be Christ, “I am the door” (John 10:9). The door in that case is not a barrier but a means of entrance; it is an open door.
Second, I am entering by faith. As a child of God I am heir to the best the Lord has—Godself. I take the gift of the Holy Spirit, and I take it now. I do not ask for evidence; God’s character is enough. I rest on God’s character and not on my feelings. My feelings come and go, but God’s character remains forever. “The one who is calling you is faithful and will do this” (1 Thess. 5:24 CEB). I rest on God’s faithfulness and not on my faith, not on what I do but on what God is.
I take this ladder of faith, “Now the confidence we have in him is this, that he listens to us whenever we ask anything in accordance with his will; and if we know that he listens to whatever we ask, we know that we obtain the requests we have made to him” (1 John 5:14-15 Moffatt). Here are the steps: (1) confidence, “the confidence we have in him”; confidence in the character of God as seen in Christ; (2) conversing, “we ask anything”; (3) condition, “in accordance with his will”; (4) conviction, “we know that he listens to whatever we ask”; (5) consequence, “we know that we obtain.”
And now I am taking those steps. I have confidence in the character of God. I converse with God and tell of my need. I believe the condition is met, that this is according to God’s will. I have the conviction that God hears and that, consequently, I am now possessed and filled by the Spirit. I know that faith will turn to fact and the fact to feeling. I take the step of faith; the fact takes place, and the feeling will be a by-product. I am talking faith to God.
O Lord, I am talking faith to you. I “have access by faith into this grace” (Rom. 12:2) wherein I now stand. I am receiving into every fiber of my being your Spirit as the permanent cleanser and controller of my life. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “The God who gave you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8 Moffatt). God has given me the Holy Spirit—now.
Week 40 Saturday
The Last Steps—Self-giving and Obedience
Acts 4:29-33; 5:32
We come now to the two remaining steps in the receiving of the Holy Spirit: self-giving and obedience.
Perhaps we should have put the step of self-giving before the act of receiving faith. It belongs before. You cannot accept the gift of the Holy Spirit without involving the prior gift of yourself. And yet it belongs after the acceptance too. For it is a once-for-all giving, and yet it is a continuous giving. It is like being married; there is a completed act when each gives the self to the other in marriage, and yet marriage is a continuous process of mutual self-giving. It is crisis and continuity.
But, you ask, how shall I know I have given myself? Silence the heart before God and see if anything arises to the surface unsurrendered. If nothing arises, then you must take it for granted that there is nothing left behind. To be sure that everything is covered, tell God you surrender all you know and all you don’t know. If anything unsurrendered is shown to you in the future, then that belongs to God too.
And now the continuous obedience. God is in control. God uses you as the instrument of God’s purposes, provided you cooperate. We retain the Holy Spirit as long as God retains control. When we take over, God quietly steps out—not completely out—but God shuts off the sense of divine presence and power until we decide to give over the reins again. “To these facts we bear witness, with the Holy Spirit which God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32 Moffatt, emphasis added). The “obey” is present and continuous.
The difference between the secular outlook and the Christian is this: Know thyself, accept thyself, develop thyself—that is pagan (secular). Surrender thyself, discipline thyself, obey Another Self, the Spirit of God—that is Christian. You lose your life and find it again. The story is told that an African patient, puzzled by Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s presence, asked, “Why did you come?” The doctor replied, “Jesus sent me.” Where Jesus sends, the Spirit sways.
O Spirit of the living God, I consent—gladly consent—to your sway, for your sway is my way, my deepest way. For I am made for your sway. In that sway, I find my life and my fulfillment. Your will and my will are not alien but affinities. I thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “As we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Moffatt).