You may have appropriated more spiritual knowledge and power than
anyone on this planet had so many heavenly visitations that
your house is knee-deep in angel feathers yet in the vastness
of God there is still more. From the day of his conversion, Charles
Finney had overwhelming experiences with God and was mightily
used. A full quarter of a century later, after participating in
most of the revivals for which he is now famous, he entered a
new level of Gods holiness.
Though your present endowment be enormous, of greater value is
a yearning for more. I would rather have a man on my platform,
not filled with the Holy Ghost, said old-time Pentecostal, Smith
Wigglesworth, but hungry for God, than a man who has received
the Holy Ghost but has become satisfied with his experience.
Only the Lord knows if in the realm beyond your present experience
is something you critically need for your divine assignment. For
Hudson Taylor a momentous spiritual discovery came after fifteen
years of missionary endeavor. In the words of one writer, he
was transformed.
This issue is not the theological minefield it is often made out
to be. Though many of us believe Christians receive every spiritual
gift at conversion, the practical outworking is that regardless
of when or how we think we were endowed, we need heavy duty prayer,
faith and revelation for the rest of our lives to discover and
live in the power of just a fraction of our enormous inheritance.
As his closest friends, the disciples shared a unique intimacy
with the Son of God. Besides having front pew whenever he preached,
Christ confided in them, sharing spiritual secrets hidden from
the crowds. For three intensive years they devoured his precious
words.
Not only did they witness his power, they were often active participants.
Peter walked on water and hooked the money-hungry fish. They cast
out demons. They hauled in the net miraculously teeming with fish.
They amassed much practical experience while ministering in twos.
(Eg, Matthew 10:1 ff) Finally, they spoke with, and even handled,
their Lord newly risen from the grave.
Yet still they were sidelined. They needed a further experience
the Spirits empowering before they were ready for effective
service. (Luke 24:48-49)
The One who hears the prayers of the frail gave power to the strong.
The impact shook the planet. Moody preached the same sermons but
suddenly hundreds were being converted. He declared he wouldnt
return to his earlier days if offered the entire world.
V. Raymond Edman, fourth president of Wheaton College, devoted
an entire book to his thesis that truly effective Christians are
those who have been reduced to discouragement, dissatisfaction
and defeat until finally entering a new spiritual dimension that
transformed their ministry. To prove his point Edman focused on
the spiritual crises of twenty famous Christians, including Andrew
Murray, John Hyde, Eugenia Price, Oswald Chambers, Charles Trumbull,
Handley C. G. Moule, Walter Wilson and Major Ian Thomas. Yet even
his twenty, he said, was but a tiny selection from a vast multitude.
After thirteen crammed years as an ordained minister Francis
Schaeffer became so aware of spiritual deficiencies within him
that he devoted a long winter to seeking God and re-examining
his entire spiritual life. Schaeffer maintained that what he gained
spiritually from this crisis played a critical role in the fruitfulness
of his later years.
It is undeniable that vast numbers of people have exploded into
ministry because of a full, no-tongues-barred, pentecostal experience.
Yet there are also innumerable tongue-speakers who seem less effective
than they could be, and certainly less effective than thousands
of outstanding non-pentecostals.
Malcolm Smith a tongue-speaker from his early teens and a pastor
thoroughly conversant with Scripture could have continued to
impress his loyal congregation, yet he resigned, overwhelmed by
the consciousness that the power in his preaching fell far short
of that of the first apostles. Finally, after much prayer and
anguish, a truth he had paid lip service to for years broke through
his darkness. God is All. Malcolms only contribution was
yieldedness. It suddenly dawned he had been trying to serve God
in his own strength. An outstanding ministry was born that day.
I cannot nominate which truth you must surrender to. The critical
factor in your life might be an experience frighteningly foreign
to you, or a truth so familiar that you imagine you are living
it. We can only maximize our fruitfulness by appropriating every
spiritual truth.
More Power
It was hardly a contest: two elderly ladies on their knees, versus
a confident evangelist in the prime of manhood. They wanted Dwight
Moody to have the Spirits power. He thought he already had it.
But for him to resist was to pit his power of positive thinking
against their prayers to the invincible Lord of every universe.
A worn-out pop-gun versus a nuclear arsenal might have been less
one-sided.
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