WE began looking last time at Chapter 62, The Spirit’s Ministry, in Miles Stanford’s Complete Green Letters, Part – Five, A Guide to Spiritual Growth. Though for many, this is a settled matter in understanding the doctrine of the Spirit, for others it is not. I am amazed when I bump into an individual or Christian who looks to a validating experience or some kind of encounter for their assurance or comfort rather than the strengthening grace of God’s word, principles and promises. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. In this celebrity, entertainment, instant gratification, and feelings driven culture, we have ceased to be a people who are given to diligent and disciplined study and reliance in the Word.
THOSE encounters however, are a reminder of the importance of getting it right in what we are looking at here, …so let’s get to it, picking where we left off in our reading in the previous comment.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
*********
Chapter 62 — The Spirit’s Ministry – Part 2
Anti-Spirit
There is no denying that many believers are suddenly filled with the Spirit for reasons which are related primarily to service. Such instances, however, are not meant to be the norm, nor are they to be the means of growth into the image of the Lord Jesus. The misguided insistence upon seeking an experience has wrecked, and is wrecking, untold numbers of lives, whether that experience be “by faith” or “by conditions.” It matters not whether it be a “baptism of the Spirit,” a “second blessing,” “higher life,” “entire sanctification,” or “tongues.” No such experience is able to establish a Christian in the life that is Christ. Rather, all tend to turn him from Christ and establish him but deeper in the life that is self.
Experience-centered attainment fosters spiritual pride, which in turn causes divisions among children of God. The Holy Spirit unites, in Christ; self divides, in selfish experiences. At best, there is a concentration upon self and the Spirit, rather than upon Christ and the Cross.
We have noted that the emphasis in conference ministry has shifted from crucifixion to surrender. The Holy Spirit, however, does not fill the Christian on the basis of yieldedness. The old life is enmity against God and will never surrender, hence the Spirit must minister the death of the Cross to that nature. The new life has only love for God, and will always yield, hence the Holy Spirit freely ministers the life of Christ to that nature.
Spirit-control
Apart from occasional and special instances, the Spirit controls and fills the believer as a result of the growth that He gives. It is not a matter of surrender so as to get and to have, but of growth in Christ so as to be and to give. It is not to be powerful or gifted, but to be weak and dependent. He will see to that.
…to be continue
