THE FULLBLESSING-HOW IT IS OBTAINED BY US Part 2
The wisdom of the fathers
THE FULL BLESSING-HOW IT IS OBTAINED BY US ??Part 2?
?You do not as yet have this blessing. This is the second step towards it. You may perhaps put the question why it should be necessary to cherish this conviction. I will tell you briefly the reasons why I consider it of importance. The first is that there are many Christians who think that they already have the Holy Spirit, and that all they require is to be more faithful in the endeavour to know and to obey Him.?
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They think that they are already standing in God's grace, and that they only need to make a better use of the life they possess. They imagine that they have all that is necessary for continued growth.?
On the contrary, it is my deep conviction that such souls are in a sickly state and that they have need of a healing as divine and effective as that which the blind and lame received from the Lord on earth. Accordingly, just as the first condition of my recovery from disease is the knowledge that I am sick, so it is absolutely necessary for them to discover and acknowledge that they do not live the life of Pentecost, that they do not walk in the fulness and the joy of the Spirit, that they do not possess the full blessing which is indispensable for them if they are to please God in everything.?
Once this first conviction is made thoroughly clear to them, they will be prepared for another consideration namely, that they ought to acknowledge the guiltiness of their condition. They ought to see that if they have not yet rendered obedience to the command to "be filled with the Spirit," this defect is to be ascribed to sluggishness, and self-satisfaction, and unbelief.?
They should be induced to acknowledge with shame that they have despised what God had prepared for them. When once the confession that they have not yet received the full blessing is deeply rooted in them, there will spring from it a stronger impulse to attain to it.?Take, then, this thought and let it work in you with power: "No: it is true that I do not as yet have the full blessing."?
(from "the Full Blessing of Pentecost" by Andrew Murray)