This article is taken from Issue 1, Called to Surrender the Will
By F. B. Meyer
“…Not I, but Christ liveth in me…”
(Galatians 2:20)
“Be filled with the Spirit” is a positive command, which we must obey for our good, and all God’s commands are enabling’s. He is prepared to make us what He tells us to become. On the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter told the listening crowds that the fullness which had suddenly come on them from the ascended Lord, was not for them only, or for their children, but even for them whom the Lord God shall call (Acts 2:39). Are you one of His called ones? Then rejoice because that fullness is for you! Be not faithless, but believing. Lay claim at once to the covenanted portion, and thank God for having cast your lot in an age of such marvellous possibilities.
The Holy Spirit is in us, and this means Christ is in us; for He dwells in us by His Spirit. But we must perpetually yield to Him, as water to the containing vessel. This is not easy; indeed, it can only be accomplished by the perpetual putting to death of our own self-life. We have chosen Jesus as our Substitute; but have we also chosen Him as our Life? Can we say, like the Apostle Paul: “…Not I, but Christ liveth in me…”? (Gal. 2:20). If so, we must be prepared for all that it involves. We must be willing for the principle of the new life to grow at the expense of the self-life. We must consent for the one to increase, while the other decreases, through processes which are painful enough to the flesh.
The perpetual filling of the Holy Spirit is only possible to those who obey Him, and who obey Him in all things. The promises of the Scriptures are enough to incite us to the uttermost. That rivers of water should flow from us (John 7:38-39); that we should never need to be anxious about our words because they would be given (Mark 13:11); that we should be taught all things, and led into the whole circle of truth (John 14:26); that we should know Christ, and be changed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18); that we should have power (Acts 1:8) – all this is so fascinating that it is impossible not to glow with a holy desire to be charged with the Holy Ghost.
God will do nothing to minister to our pride. He will not give us the Holy Spirit to enable us to gain celebrity, or to procure a name, or to live an easy, self-contented life. Count the cost; yet do not shrink back afraid of what He may demand. They who were filled in the second chapter of Acts were filled again in the fourth. Happy is that man who never leaves his chamber in the morning without definitely seeking and receiving the plenitude of the Spirit! He is the Spirit of love; and He loves us too well to cause grief, unless there is a reason, which we should approve if we knew as much as He.
F. B. Meyer, Public Domain
Taken from Life on the Altar Publications
Issue 1 Summer 2021
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 