BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing e magazine May 2019 | Page 2

Page 2
May 2019 | www.bymonline.org
The Full Blessing
Of
Pentecost
Andrew Murray
Jesus said: “If you love Me, you will keep My
commandments. And I will pray the Father and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may be
with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth” (John
14:15-17).
Let us see how the blessing of Pentecost was for
the first time given from heaven. What was the
disposition of heart that fitted the disciples for
receiving the Spirit? Then we shall know for all
coming time what remains to be done by ourselves to
enjoy the same blessing. The first disciples serve us
as examples and forerunners on the way to the
fullness of the Spirit.
What was there in them which enabled them to
become the recipients of these heavenly gifts and
made them fit objects of the unspeakable grace that
in them first of all the Three-One God came to take
up His abode? The right answer to this question will
help us not a little on the way to be filled with the
Holy Spirit. What do we find in these first disciples?
In the first place, there is the fact that they were
deeply attached to the Lord Jesus
The Son of God came into the world in order to
unite the divine life which He had with the Father
with the life of man, and thus to secure that the life of
God should penetrate into the life of the creature.
When He had completed the work in His own person
by His obedience, and death, and resurrection, He
was exalted to the throne of God on high. This was in
order that in spiritual power in the might of the all-
penetrating sovereign presence of God, His disciples
and His Church might participate in His very own
life.
We read that the Holy Spirit “was not yet given”
because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). It
was only after His glorification that the Holy Spirit,
as the Spirit of Godhead, united with manhood. Only
then could the Spirit of the complete indwelling of
God in man be given. It is the Spirit of the glorified
Jesus that the disciples received on the day of
Pentecost, the Spirit of the Head, penetrating all the
members of His body.
It is evident without proof that if the fullness of the
Spirit thus dwells in Jesus, a personal relationship to
Him is the first condition for the reception of the full
gift of the Comforter. It was to attain this end that the
Lord Jesus throughout all His three years' work on
earth kept the disciples in such close converse with
Himself. He desired to attach them to Himself. He
wanted them to feel themselves truly one with Him.
He wanted them to identify themselves with Him as
far as this was possible. By knowledge and
fellowship, by love and obedience, they became
inwardly knit to Him. This was the preparation for
participating in the Spirit of His glorification.
The lesson that is here taught us is indeed
extremely simple, but it is one of profound
significance. There are not a few Christians who
believe in the Lord and are very zealous in His
service, who eagerly desire to become holy and who
yet do not succeed in their endeavor. It seems
oftentimes as if they could not understand the
promise of the Spirit. The thought of being filled
with the Spirit exercises but little influence upon
them. The reason is obvious. There is lacking in their
religion that personal relationship to the Lord Jesus.
They have not that inward attachment to Him, that
perfectly natural reference to Him as the best and
nearest Friend, as the beloved Lord, which was so
characteristic of the disciples. This, however, is