Absolute Surrender Part 1

ABSOLUTE SURRENDER.

by Andrew Murray.

"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have" (1 Ki. 20:1-4).

What Ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender; and what Ahab gave was what was asked of him-absolute surrender. I want to use these words: "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have," as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of G.o.d ought to yield himself to his Father. We have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely-the condition of G.o.d's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise G.o.d! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what G.o.d will do for us, and to the blessing G.o.d will bestow.

Absolute surrender-let me tell you where I got those words. I used them myself often, and you have heard them numberless times. But in Scotland once I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is; and there was in our company a G.o.dly worker who has much to do in training workers, and I asked him what he would say was the great need of the Church, and the message that ought to be preached. He answered very quietly and simply and determinedly: "Absolute surrender to G.o.d is the one thing."

The words struck me as never before. And that man began to tell how, in the workers with whom he had to deal, he finds that if they are sound on that point, even though they be backward, they are willing to be taught and helped, and they always improve; whereas others who are not sound there very often go back and leave the work. The condition for obtaining G.o.d's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.

And now, I desire by G.o.d's grace to give to you this message-that your G.o.d in Heaven answers the prayers which you have offered for blessing on yourselves and for blessing on those around you by this one demand: Are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His hands? What is our answer to be? G.o.d knows there are hundreds of hearts who have said it, and there are hundreds more who long to say it but hardly dare to do so. And there are hearts who have said it, but who have yet miserably failed, and who feel themselves condemned because they did not find the secret of the power to live that life. May G.o.d have a word for all!

Let me say, first of all, that G.o.d claims it from us.

G.o.d Expects Your Surrender.

Yes, it has its foundation in the very nature of G.o.d. G.o.d cannot do otherwise. Who is G.o.d? He is the Fountain of life, the only Source of existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing good but what G.o.d works. G.o.d has created the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the flowers, and the trees, and the gra.s.s; and are they not all absolutely surrendered to G.o.d? Do they not allow G.o.d to work in them just what He pleases? When G.o.d clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to G.o.d as He works in its beauty? And G.o.d's redeemed children, oh, can you think that G.o.d can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered? G.o.d cannot do it. G.o.d is life, and love, and blessing, and power, and infinite beauty, and G.o.d delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him; but ah! this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders G.o.d. And now He comes, and as G.o.d, He claims it.

You know in daily life what absolute surrender is. You know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service. I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly. This coat is absolutely given up to me to cover my body. This building is entirely given up to religious services. And now, do you expect that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration, G.o.d can work His work, every day and every hour, unless you are entirely given up to Him? G.o.d cannot. The Temple of Solomon was absolutely surrendered to G.o.d when it was dedicated to Him. And every one of us is a temple of G.o.d, in which G.o.d will dwell and work mightily on one condition-absolute surrender to Him. G.o.d claims it, G.o.d is worthy of it, and without it G.o.d cannot work His blessed work in us.

G.o.d not only claims it, but G.o.d will work it Himself.

G.o.d Accomplishes Your Surrender.

I am sure there is many a heart that says: "Ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much!" Someone says: "Oh, I have pa.s.sed through so much trial and suffering, and there is so much of the self-life still remaining, and I dare not face the entire giving of it up, because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony."

Alas! alas! that G.o.d's children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts. Oh, I come to you with a message, fearful and anxious one.

G.o.d does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; G.o.d is willing to work it in you. Do we not read: "It is G.o.d that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13)? And that is what we should seek for-to go on our faces before G.o.d, until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting G.o.d Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong, to conquer what is evil, and to work what is well-pleasing in His blessed sight. G.o.d Himself will work it in you.

Look at the men in the Old Testament, like Abraham. Do you think it was by accident that G.o.d found that man, the father of the faithful and the Friend of G.o.d, and that it was Abraham himself, apart from G.o.d, who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion? You know it is not so.

G.o.d raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory.

Did not G.o.d say to Pharaoh: "For this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power" (Ex. 9:16)?

And if G.o.d said that of him, will not G.o.d say it far more of every child of His?

Oh, I want to encourage you, and I want you to cast away every fear.

Come with that feeble desire; and if there is the fear which says: "Oh, my desire is not strong enough, I am not willing for everything that may come, I do not feel bold enough to say I can conquer everything"-I pray you, learn to know and trust your G.o.d now. Say: "My G.o.d, I am willing that Thou shouldst make me willing." If there is anything holding you back, or any sacrifice you are afraid of making, come to G.o.d now, and prove how gracious your G.o.d is, and be not afraid that He will command from you what He will not bestow.

G.o.d comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you. All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus. He lived a life of absolute surrender, He has possession of you; He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit. You have hindered and hindered Him terribly, but He desires to help you to get hold of Him entirely. And He comes and draws you now by His message and words. Will you not come and trust G.o.d to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself? Yes, blessed be G.o.d, He can do it, and He will do it.

G.o.d not only claims it and works it, but G.o.d accepts it when we bring it to Him.

G.o.d Accepts Your Surrender.

G.o.d works it in the secret of our heart, G.o.d urges us by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak it out, and we have to bring and to yield to Him that absolute surrender. But remember, when you come and bring G.o.d that absolute surrender, it may, as far as your feelings or your consciousness go, be a thing of great imperfection, and you may doubt and hesitate and say: "Is it absolute?"

But, oh, remember there was once a man to whom Christ had said: "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth"

(Mark 9:23).

And his heart was afraid, and he cried out: "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief" (Mark 9:24).

That was a faith that triumphed over the Devil, and the evil spirit was cast out. And if you come and say: "Lord, I yield myself in absolute surrender to my G.o.d," even though it be with a trembling heart and with the consciousness: "I do not feel the power, I do not feel the determination, I do not feel the a.s.surance," it will succeed. Be not afraid, but come just as you are, and even in the midst of your trembling the power of the Holy Spirit will work.

Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears feeble? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, "through the eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14), offered Himself a sacrifice unto G.o.d. The Almighty Spirit of G.o.d was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He prayed!

Externally, you can see no sign of the mighty power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of G.o.d was there. And even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of G.o.d's Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.

And when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that G.o.d does now accept of it. That is the great point, and that is what we so often miss-that believers should be thus occupied with G.o.d in this matter of surrender. I pray you, be occupied with G.o.d. We want to get help, every one of us, so that in our daily life G.o.d shall be clearer to us, G.o.d shall have the right place, and be "all in all."

And if we are to have that through life, let us begin now and look away from ourselves, and look up to G.o.d. Let each believe-while I, a poor worm on earth and a trembling child of G.o.d, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here, and no one knows what pa.s.ses through my heart, and while I in simplicity say, O G.o.d, I accept Thy terms; I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others, I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender-while your heart says that in deep silence, remember there is a G.o.d present that takes note of it, and writes it down in His book, and there is a G.o.d present who at that very moment takes possession of you. You may not feel it, you may not realize it, but G.o.d takes possession if you will trust Him.

G.o.d not only claims it, and works it, and accepts it when I bring it, but G.o.d maintains it.

G.o.d Maintains Your Surrender That is the great difficulty with many. People say: "I have often been stirred at a meeting, or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself to G.o.d, but it has pa.s.sed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades, and after a time it is all gone."

But listen! It is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of. When G.o.d has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when G.o.d has accepted your surrender, then G.o.d holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?

In this matter of surrender there are two: G.o.d and I-I a worm, G.o.d the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty G.o.d now? G.o.d is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love; Moment by moment I've life from above.

If G.o.d allows the sun to s.h.i.+ne upon you moment by moment, without intermission, will not G.o.d let His life s.h.i.+ne upon you every moment?

And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted G.o.d for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to G.o.d in that trust.

A life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. I do not deny that.

Yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. But by the grace of G.o.d, by the power of G.o.d, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined, and a life that is possible for us, praise G.o.d! Let us believe that G.o.d will maintain it.

Some of you have read the words of that aged saint who, on his ninetieth birthday, told of all G.o.d's goodness to him-I mean George Muller. What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness, and of all the blessing which G.o.d had given him? He said he believed there were two reasons. The one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before G.o.d day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of G.o.d's Word. Ah, yes, a good conscience is complete obedience to G.o.d day by day, and fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d every day in His Word, and prayer-that is a life of absolute surrender.

Such a life has two sides-on the one side, absolute surrender to work what G.o.d wants you to do; on the other side, to let G.o.d work what He wants to do.

First, to do what G.o.d wants you to do.

Give up yourselves absolutely to the will of G.o.d. You know something of that will; not enough, far from all. But say absolutely to the Lord G.o.d: "By Thy grace I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment of every day." Say: "Lord G.o.d, not a word upon my tongue but for Thy glory, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Thy glory, and according to Thy blessed will."

Someone says: "Do you think that possible?"

I ask, What has G.o.d promised you, and what can G.o.d do to fill a vessel absolutely surrendered to Him? Oh, G.o.d wants to bless you in a way beyond what you expect. From the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen, what G.o.d hath prepared for them that wait for Him (1 Cor. 2:9). G.o.d has prepared unheard-of things, blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. They are divine blessings. Oh, say now: "I give myself absolutely to G.o.d, to His will, to do only what G.o.d wants."

It is G.o.d who will enable you to carry out the surrender.

And, on the other side, come and say: "I give myself absolutely to G.o.d, to let Him work in me to will and to do of His good pleasure, as He has promised to do."

Yes, the living G.o.d wants to work in His children in a way that we cannot understand, but that G.o.d's Word has revealed, and He wants to work in us every moment of the day. G.o.d is willing to maintain our life. Only let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike, and unbounded trust.

G.o.d Blesses When You Surrender.

This absolute surrender to G.o.d will wonderfully bless.

What Ahab said to his enemy, King Ben-hadad-"My lord, O king, according to thy word I am thine, and all that I have"-shall we not say to our G.o.d and loving Father? If we do say it, G.o.d's blessing will come upon us. G.o.d wants us to be separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates G.o.d. Come out for G.o.d, and say: "Lord, anything for Thee." If you say that with prayer, and speak that into G.o.d's ear, He will accept it, and He will teach you what it means.

I say again, G.o.d will bless you. You have been praying for blessing.

But do remember, there must be absolute surrender. At every tea-table you see it. Why is tea poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and given up for the tea. But put ink, or vinegar, or wine into it, and will they pour the tea into the vessel? And can G.o.d fill you, can G.o.d bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. Let us believe G.o.d has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for G.o.d, and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart: "O G.o.d, I accept Thy demands. I am thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace."

You may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves in His sight, and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort. Bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. Then, as you bow before Him, just accept G.o.d's teaching that in your flesh "there dwelleth no good thing" (Rom.

7:18), and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. You must deny self once for all. Denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.

When was Peter delivered? When was the change accomplished? The change began with Peter weeping, and the Holy Spirit came down and filled his heart.

G.o.d the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. We have the Spirit of G.o.d dwelling within us. We come to G.o.d confessing that, and praising G.o.d for it, and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit.

And then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man, and that He would fill us with His mighty power. And as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out.

Let us bow before G.o.d in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole Church. No words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of nominal Christians, or of professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of G.o.d or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to G.o.d, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to G.o.d's will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of G.o.d's people around us, and to humble ourselves. We are members of that sickly body, and the sickliness of the body will hinder us, and break us down, unless we come to G.o.d, and in confession separate ourselves from partners.h.i.+p with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we give up ourselves to be entirely and wholly for G.o.d.

How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! How much work, day by day, in which human energy-our will and our thoughts about the work-is continually manifested, and in which there is but little of waiting upon G.o.d, and upon the power of the Holy Spirit! Let us make confession. But as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for G.o.d among us, let us come back to ourselves. Who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh, and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? There is deliverance.

I heard of one who had been an earnest Christian, and who spoke about the "cruel" thought of separation and death. But you do not think that, do you? What are we to think of separation and death? This: death was the path to glory for Christ. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. The cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. Do you love Christ? Do you long to be in Christ, and not like Him? Let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth-death to self, and fellows.h.i.+p with Christ. Separation-do you think it a hard thing to be called to be entirely free from the world, and by that separation to be united to G.o.d and His love, by separation to become prepared for living and walking with G.o.d every day? Surely one ought to say: "Anything to bring me to separation, to death, for a life of full fellows.h.i.+p with G.o.d and Christ."

Come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus. Then trust Him. Do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ-Christ crucified and risen and living in glory-into your heart.

"THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE"

I want to look at the fact of a life filled with the Holy Spirit more from the practical side, and to show how this life will show itself in our daily walk and conduct.

Under the Old Testament you know the Holy Spirit often came upon men as a divine Spirit of revelation to reveal the mysteries of G.o.d, or for power to do the work of G.o.d. But He did not then dwell in them. Now, many just want the Old Testament gift of power for work, but know very little of the New Testament gift of the indwelling Spirit, animating and renewing the whole life. When G.o.d gives the Holy Spirit, His great object is the formation of a holy character. It is a gift of a holy mind and spiritual disposition, and what we need above everything else, is to say: "I must have the Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am really to live for G.o.d's glory."

You might say that when Christ promised the Spirit to the disciples, He did so that they might have power to be witnesses. True, but then they received the Holy Spirit in such heavenly power and reality that He took possession of their whole being at once and so fitted them as holy men for doing the work with power as they had to do it. Christ spoke of power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.

I wish now to dwell upon the pa.s.sage found in Gal. 5:22: "The fruit of the Spirit is love."

We read that "Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. 13:10), and my desire is to speak on love as a fruit of the Spirit with a twofold object. One is that this word may be a searchlight in our hearts, and give us a test by which to try all our thoughts about the Holy Spirit and all our experience of the holy life. Let us try ourselves by this word. Has this been our daily habit, to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love? "The fruit of the Spirit is love." Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? In claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love.

Oh, if this were true in the Church of Christ how different her state would be! May G.o.d help us to get hold of this simple, heavenly truth that the fruit of the Spirit is a love which appears in the life, and that just as the Holy Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will be filled with real, divine, universal love.

One of the great causes why G.o.d cannot bless His Church is the want of love. When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. In the time of their great religious wars, when Holland stood out so n.o.bly against Spain, one of their mottoes was: "Unity gives strength." It is only when G.o.d's people stand as one body, one before G.o.d in the fellows.h.i.+p of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see-it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of G.o.d. Remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. You can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel, and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole. That is literally true of Christ's Church, and if there is one thing we must pray for still, it is this: Lord, melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit; let the Holy Spirit, who at Pentecost made them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. Praise G.o.d, we can love each other in a divine love, for "the fruit of the Spirit is love." Give yourselves up to love, and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit, and He will teach you to love more.

G.o.d Is Love Now, why is it that the fruit of the Spirit is love? Because G.o.d is love (1 John 4:8).

And what does that mean?

It is the very nature and being of G.o.d to delight in communicating Himself. G.o.d has no selfishness, G.o.d keeps nothing to Himself. G.o.d's nature is to be always giving. In the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. G.o.d communicates life to His creatures. And the angels around His throne, the seraphim and cherubim who are flames of fire-whence have they their glory? It is because G.o.d is love, and He imparts to them of His brightness and His blessedness. And we, His redeemed children-G.o.d delights to pour His love into us. And why? Because, as I said, G.o.d keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity G.o.d had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that G.o.d had was kept back. "G.o.d is love."

One of the old Church fathers said that we cannot better understand the Trinity than as a revelation of divine love-the Father, the loving One, the Fountain of love; the Son, the beloved one, the Reservoir of love, in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit, the living love that united both and then overflowed into this world. The Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son is love.

And when the Holy Spirit comes to us and to other men, will He be less a Spirit of love than He is in G.o.d? It cannot be; He cannot change His nature. The Spirit of G.o.d is love, and "the fruit of the Spirit is love."

Mankind Needs Love Why is that so? That was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ's redemption came to accomplish: to restore love to this world.

When man sinned, why was it that he sinned? Selfishness triumphed-he sought self instead of G.o.d. And just look! Adam at once begins to accuse the woman of having led him astray. Love to G.o.d had gone, love to man was lost. Look again: of the first two children of Adam the one becomes a murderer of his brother.

Does not that teach us that sin had robbed the world of love? Ah! what a proof the history of the world has been of love having been lost!

There may have been beautiful examples of love even among the heathen, but only as a little remnant of what was lost. One of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.

The Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven as the Son of G.o.d's love.

"G.o.d so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). G.o.d's Son came to show what love is, and He lived a life of love here upon earth in fellows.h.i.+p with His disciples, in compa.s.sion over the poor and miserable, in love even to His enemies, and He died the death of love. And when He went to Heaven, whom did He send down? The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness and envy and pride, and bring the love of G.o.d into the hearts of men. "The fruit of the Spirit is love."

And what was the preparation for the promise of the Holy Spirit? You know that promise as found in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel.

But remember what precedes in the thirteenth chapter. Before Christ promised the Holy Spirit, He gave a new commandment, and about that new commandment He said wonderful things. One thing was: "Even as I have loved you, so love ye one another." To them His dying love was to be the only law of their conduct and intercourse with each other. What a message to those fishermen, to those men full of pride and selfishness!

"Learn to love each other," said Christ, "as I have loved you." And by the grace of G.o.d they did it. When Pentecost came, they were of one heart and one soul. Christ did it for them.

And now He calls us to dwell and to walk in love. He demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. True love cannot be conquered by anything in Heaven or upon the earth. The more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it all and shows its true nature. This is the love that Christ commanded His disciples to exercise.

What more did He say? "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).

You all know what it is to wear a badge. And Christ said to His disciples in effect: "I give you a badge, and that badge is love. That is to be your mark. It is the only thing in Heaven or on earth by which men can know me."

Do we not begin to fear that love has fled from the earth? That if we were to ask the world: "Have you seen us wear the badge of love?" the world would say: "No; what we have heard of the Church of Christ is that there is not a place where there is no quarreling and separation."

Let us ask G.o.d with one heart that we may wear the badge of Jesus'

love. G.o.d is able to give it.

Love Conquers Selfishness "The fruit of the Spirit is love." Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.

Self is the great curse, whether in its relation to G.o.d, or to our fellow-men in general, or to fellow-Christians, thinking of ourselves and seeking our own. Self is our greatest curse. But, praise G.o.d, Christ came to redeem us from self. We sometimes talk about deliverance from the self-life-and thank G.o.d for every word that can be said about it to help us-but I am afraid some people think deliverance from the self-life means that now they are going to have no longer any trouble in serving G.o.d; and they forget that deliverance from self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all the day.

And there you have the reason why many people pray for the power of the Holy Spirit, and they get something, but oh, so little! because they prayed for power for work, and power for blessing, but they have not prayed for power for full deliverance from self. That means not only the righteous self in intercourse with G.o.d, but the unloving self in intercourse with men. And there is deliverance. "The fruit of the Spirit is love." I bring you the glorious promise of Christ that He is able to fill our hearts with love.