“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.”
WE continue our look at Chapter 62, The Spirits Ministry, in A Guide to Spiritual Growth, considering the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit.
NOTE: There are several axioms in the C/L. In the previous comment, Mile Stanford pointed out but two. One can be summed up in “Not I, but Christ” when he once again pointed us to the problem of self. I’ve heard it said that the DNA of sin is self and the root of self is pride. The only place that self by design can and has been effectively dealt with is the Cross (Rom. 6:1-14).
THE second axiom Miles pointed us to is that the Christian Life is the process of becoming. There are no short cuts, silver bullets, or quick solutions to truth growth. The life of a disciple is the life of discipline unto growth in Christ. Our “just do it” – easy access, quick fix culture just doesn’t get this, nor want to. We want what we want, and we want it now! The really crazy thing is…. I’ve discovered over the years that it is usually easier – and oftentimes quicker- to do it the hard way upfront than have to go through the “do-over” process attempting to correct a short-cut or so-called easy-fix. We had an old Edison saying that went, “There is never enough time to do it right the first time; but always enough make it right the second.” I can recall many a delay in a generating units planned returned to service after a major maintenance outage due to a “hurry-up” to meet a return to service deadline because someone decided to short-cut or circumvent the process with a quick-fix. The result was usually a painfully long and frustrating wait to correct the mistake and make things right! Which reveals the other side of the axiom coin: the “do-over” is usually a great deal more painful, difficult, and just plain messy.
So, the point here: focus on “becoming” as purposed and designed; doing the process and its daily disciplines as a disciple of Christ. Learn Him! Stay away from the shortcuts, the easy answers, and “so-called” quick fixes; you never know where they are going to lead, and they usually come apart in the end in a rather messy fashion. -Selah, think about it!
So, with that, let us now see what more our author has to say on the work of the Holy Spirit.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 62—The Spirit’s Ministry – Part 3
Spirit-control – continued.
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.
“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). “Unto them which are called … Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24).
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to have His life manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Cor. 4:11). That growth is transmitted by the Spirit of the Lord, from glory to glory transforming us into the image of the Son (2 Cor. 3:18). And growth of the new is always balanced by the Spirit’s application of the death of the Cross to the self-life. Surrender of self is no substitute for the death of self. The one is to glory in self, the other is to glory in the Cross (Gal. 6:14).
The trend in deeper life teaching has not only been moving away from the Cross to center upon Spirit-filling, but has gone beyond this to focus upon the responsibility of the Christian. It is, “yield, surrender, abandon, obey, separate, consecrate, cease from sin, cast out self,” or the Holy Spirit will neither be able to function nor fill. What this amounts to is a mighty believer, but a weak and helpless Spirit of the living God. This emphasis on human responsibility may have seemed quite harmless once, but it is far from that now.
The Lord Jesus was explicit in explaining to the disciples just what the Spirit’s ministry was to be on behalf of His own. He said, “I will send him unto you” (John 16:7), and that He did, at Pentecost (Acts 2:4). He also informed them that “He shall not speak of himself … he shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show [transmit] it unto you” (John 16:13, 14). He laid down no conditions; all was to be through the faith by which they lived. True faith is centered in the Word, including faith for growth. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17).
Spirit-motivated …to be continued
