THE FULL BLESSING - HOW GLORIOUS IT IS Part 4

The wisdom of the fathers

THE FULL BLESSING - HOW GLORIOUS IT IS Part 4

The coming of the Spirit changed weakness and fear into courage and power. We all know how, from fear rising in his heart at the word of a woman, Peter denied his Lord ; and how that same night all the disciples fled and forsook Him. Their hearts were really attached to Him, and they were sincerely willing to do what they had promised and go to die with Him; but when it came to the crisis, they had neither courage nor power. They had to say : "To will is present with me, but how to perform I find not."

After the blessing of the Spirit of Pentecost, there was no more question of merely willing apart from performing. By Christ dwelling in us God works both the willing and the doing. With what confidence of spirit did Peter on the day of Pentecost dare to preach the Crucified One to thousands of hostile Jews. With what boldness was he able, in opposition to the leaders of the people, to say: "We must obey God rather than men."

With what courage and joy were Stephen and Paul and so many others enabled to encounter threatening and suffering and death: they did this even triumphantly. It was because the Spirit of Christ, the Victor, yea, the Christ Himself, who had been glorified, dwelt within them. It is the joy of the blessing of Pentecost that gives courage and power to speak for Jesus, because by it the whole heart is filled with Him.

(from "The Full Blessing of Pentecost" by Andrew Murray)