'This absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless.
You may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliver-
ance as you would desire to have, but humble yourself 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 your heart and to bring you into the dust be-
fore Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's
teaching that in your flesh "dwells no good thing," and that
nothing will help you except that another life comes in.
You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every
moment be the power of your life. (Are you still with me,
reader?)
When was Peter delivered? The change began with Peter
weeping, and ended with the Holy Spirit coming down to
fill his heart.
God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. We
have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. We now ask the
Father 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. God says to us, "I will do it all for you, dear
one."
How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the
flesh and in the power of self! How much work is done 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 waiting upon God, and upon the power of
the Holy Spirit! Who is there who truly longs to be deli-
vered 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?
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? Let death be to you
the most desirable thing on earth--death to self. 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.
Surely one ought to say: "Anything to bring me to separa-
tion, to death, for a life of full fellowship with God and
Christ."
Trust Him! Do not worry yourselves with trying to under-
stand all about it, but come in the living faith of Christ,
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 very being.' Andrew Murray
Reader, just think of the Christians around you. He is not
speaking "of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians,
but of the thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are
not living a life in the power of God or for His glory. So
little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so
little perception of the truth that a Christian can be utterly
surrendered to God's will. We are members of a sickly body
that is worldly and cold toward each other."
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! This was written either late in the 19th
century or early in the 20th century. What would Andrew
Murray say about the church today? After reading this,
does it not put a whole new slant on the God's purpose in
our suffering? Paul says, "...until Christ be formed in you."
You may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliver-
ance as you would desire to have, but humble yourself 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 your heart and to bring you into the dust be-
fore Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's
teaching that in your flesh "dwells no good thing," and that
nothing will help you except that another life comes in.
You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every
moment be the power of your life. (Are you still with me,
reader?)
When was Peter delivered? The change began with Peter
weeping, and ended with the Holy Spirit coming down to
fill his heart.
God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. We
have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. We now ask the
Father 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. God says to us, "I will do it all for you, dear
one."
How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the
flesh and in the power of self! How much work is done 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 waiting upon God, and upon the power of
the Holy Spirit! Who is there who truly longs to be deli-
vered 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?
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? Let death be to you
the most desirable thing on earth--death to self. 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.
Surely one ought to say: "Anything to bring me to separa-
tion, to death, for a life of full fellowship with God and
Christ."
Trust Him! Do not worry yourselves with trying to under-
stand all about it, but come in the living faith of Christ,
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 very being.' Andrew Murray
Reader, just think of the Christians around you. He is not
speaking "of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians,
but of the thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are
not living a life in the power of God or for His glory. So
little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so
little perception of the truth that a Christian can be utterly
surrendered to God's will. We are members of a sickly body
that is worldly and cold toward each other."
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! This was written either late in the 19th
century or early in the 20th century. What would Andrew
Murray say about the church today? After reading this,
does it not put a whole new slant on the God's purpose in
our suffering? Paul says, "...until Christ be formed in you."
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