Dear Friends,
A. W. Tozer once said, “I think you will agree with me when I say that many people are confused about the Spirit of God.” What Christian who has walked in church circles for any length of time could disagree?
That’s why I want to offer some helpful thoughts regarding the Holy Spirit from well-known saints, past and present. I trust you might find them useful in helping you listen to His guidance, respond to His leading, walk in His power, exercise His gifts, and be transformed by His presence in your life. Enjoy.
“The Holy Spirit is not enthusiasm. Some people get enthusiastic and imagine it is the Holy Spirit. Some who get all worked up over a song imagine that this is the Spirit, but this does not necessarily follow. Some of these same people go out and live just like the sinful world. But the Holy Spirit never enters a man and then lets him live just like the world that hates God. In fact, that is the reason most people do not want to be filled with the Holy Spirit – they want to live the way they want to live and merely have the Holy Spirit as a bit of something extra. I tell you that the Holy Spirit will not be just an addition. The Holy Spirit must be Lord, or He will not come at all.” A. W. Tozer (1867-1963)
“Wherever the Holy Spirit dwells, His presence creates a hunger for holiness. His office is to magnify Christ, and it is He who gives the believer a desire to be like Christ. The natural man has no such passion. But in the Christian, the Spirit of God begins to carry out the will of God to make the child of God like the Son of God (Romans 8:29). And He who began this good work in the life of a believer, ‘will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).” Donald Whitney (1954- )
“Beware if when giving personal testimony you have to harken back and say, “Once, so many years ago, I was saved.” If you are walking in the light, there is no harking back. The past is transfused into the present wonder of communion with God. If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian who lives on memories. Your testimony has a hard, metallic note. Beware of trying to patch up a present refusal to walk in the light by recalling past experiences when you did walk in the light. Whenever the Spirit convicts, call a halt and get the thing right, or you will go on grieving Him without knowing it.”
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
“One is not led when he goes his own way. It is only when an influence distinct from ourselves determines our movements that we can properly be said to be led… Spiritual leading itself is not a leading of ourselves by ourselves, but a leading of us by the Holy Ghost. The declaration of its reality is the declaration of the reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart, and the subjection of the activities of the Christian heart and life to the control of this extraneous power. He that is led by the Spirit of God is not led by himself, or by any element of his own nature – native or acquired – but is led by the Holy Ghost. He has ceased to be what the Scriptures call a ‘natural man’ and has become what they call a ‘spiritual man.’ That is, to translate these terms accurately, he has ceased to be a self-led man and has become a Spirit-led man – a man led in all his activities by the Holy Ghost, which Paul emphasizes when he declares that the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14).” B. B. Warfield (1851-1921)
“The moment you seriously try to live differently, according to Christ’s directions, you find you can’t. With all your will-power you find you haven’t got it in you to live that sort of life for more than a very short time, and even then it’s a rather strained sort of performance. Probably that’s why so many have tried to be Christians and then given it up. Well, what’s the answer? You may be sure that Christ didn’t take all the trouble to outline this plan for life just to make us look silly. He’s not that sort of Person. No, the answer is that we need something, some inner reinforcement, a new drive, and power inside, before Christianity becomes a working proposition. That is exactly what He promised should be available. His own Spirit, God the Holy Spirit – the name does not matter – is available to help us to make the change-over, and to keep us on the new level of living. Heaven knows, that doesn’t mean we become saints overnight! But it does mean that instead of giving up Christianity as an impossible dream, we learn, little by little, to make it come true.”
J. B. Phillips (1906-1982)
The Christian life (the Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered life) cannot be lived apart from the indwelling power and assistance supplied by the Holy Spirt. Dependence on the Spirit, and surrender to the Spirit, and communion with Christ through the Spirit, is absolutely essential!
That’s why Jesus can say that “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) and Paul can say in Romans 8:9, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) he does not belong to Christ.” There are few things we need to be more familiar with than the Person, work, and ways of the Holy Spirit!
A. W. Tozer once said, “I think you will agree with me when I say that many people are confused about the Spirit of God.” What Christian who has walked in church circles for any length of time could disagree?
That’s why I want to offer some helpful thoughts regarding the Holy Spirit from well-known saints, past and present. I trust you might find them useful in helping you listen to His guidance, respond to His leading, walk in His power, exercise His gifts, and be transformed by His presence in your life. Enjoy.
“The Holy Spirit is not enthusiasm. Some people get enthusiastic and imagine it is the Holy Spirit. Some who get all worked up over a song imagine that this is the Spirit, but this does not necessarily follow. Some of these same people go out and live just like the sinful world. But the Holy Spirit never enters a man and then lets him live just like the world that hates God. In fact, that is the reason most people do not want to be filled with the Holy Spirit – they want to live the way they want to live and merely have the Holy Spirit as a bit of something extra. I tell you that the Holy Spirit will not be just an addition. The Holy Spirit must be Lord, or He will not come at all.” A. W. Tozer (1867-1963)
“Wherever the Holy Spirit dwells, His presence creates a hunger for holiness. His office is to magnify Christ, and it is He who gives the believer a desire to be like Christ. The natural man has no such passion. But in the Christian, the Spirit of God begins to carry out the will of God to make the child of God like the Son of God (Romans 8:29). And He who began this good work in the life of a believer, ‘will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).” Donald Whitney (1954- )
“Beware if when giving personal testimony you have to harken back and say, “Once, so many years ago, I was saved.” If you are walking in the light, there is no harking back. The past is transfused into the present wonder of communion with God. If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian who lives on memories. Your testimony has a hard, metallic note. Beware of trying to patch up a present refusal to walk in the light by recalling past experiences when you did walk in the light. Whenever the Spirit convicts, call a halt and get the thing right, or you will go on grieving Him without knowing it.”
Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
“One is not led when he goes his own way. It is only when an influence distinct from ourselves determines our movements that we can properly be said to be led… Spiritual leading itself is not a leading of ourselves by ourselves, but a leading of us by the Holy Ghost. The declaration of its reality is the declaration of the reality of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart, and the subjection of the activities of the Christian heart and life to the control of this extraneous power. He that is led by the Spirit of God is not led by himself, or by any element of his own nature – native or acquired – but is led by the Holy Ghost. He has ceased to be what the Scriptures call a ‘natural man’ and has become what they call a ‘spiritual man.’ That is, to translate these terms accurately, he has ceased to be a self-led man and has become a Spirit-led man – a man led in all his activities by the Holy Ghost, which Paul emphasizes when he declares that the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14).” B. B. Warfield (1851-1921)
“The moment you seriously try to live differently, according to Christ’s directions, you find you can’t. With all your will-power you find you haven’t got it in you to live that sort of life for more than a very short time, and even then it’s a rather strained sort of performance. Probably that’s why so many have tried to be Christians and then given it up. Well, what’s the answer? You may be sure that Christ didn’t take all the trouble to outline this plan for life just to make us look silly. He’s not that sort of Person. No, the answer is that we need something, some inner reinforcement, a new drive, and power inside, before Christianity becomes a working proposition. That is exactly what He promised should be available. His own Spirit, God the Holy Spirit – the name does not matter – is available to help us to make the change-over, and to keep us on the new level of living. Heaven knows, that doesn’t mean we become saints overnight! But it does mean that instead of giving up Christianity as an impossible dream, we learn, little by little, to make it come true.”
J. B. Phillips (1906-1982)
The Christian life (the Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered life) cannot be lived apart from the indwelling power and assistance supplied by the Holy Spirt. Dependence on the Spirit, and surrender to the Spirit, and communion with Christ through the Spirit, is absolutely essential!
That’s why Jesus can say that “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) and Paul can say in Romans 8:9, “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) he does not belong to Christ.” There are few things we need to be more familiar with than the Person, work, and ways of the Holy Spirit!
Lord Teach Us Your Ways, Pastor Jeff
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