BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing e magazine May 2019 | Page 4

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which so hampers us as secret reliance on something
in ourselves or in the Church around us which we
imagine can help us! On the other hand, there is
nothing that brings so much blessing as entire
despair of ourselves and of all that is upon the earth,
in the way of teaching us to turn our hearts only and
wholly to heaven and to partake of the heavenly gift
which comes thence.
They received and held fast the promise of the
Spirit given by the Lord Jesus
In His farewell address on the last night of His
sojourn on earth, Jesus comforted His disciples in
their sorrow over His departure with one great
promise namely, the mission of the Holy Spirit from
heaven. This was to be better than His own bodily
presence among them. It would be to them the full
fruit and power of His redemption. The divine life
yea, He Himself, with the Father was to make abode
within them. The unheard-of wonder, the mystery of
the ages, was to be their portion. They were to know
that they were in Him and He in them. At His
ascension from the Mount of Olives, this promise of
the Spirit was the subject of the last words He
addressed to them.
May 2019 | www.bymonline.org
fast; or rather, the promise held them fast and would
not let them go. They all had only one thought:
something has been promised to us by our Lord; it
will give us a share in His heavenly power and glory;
we know for certain that it is coming. Of what the
thing itself was or of what their experience of it was
to be, they could give no account. It was enough for
them that they had the Word of the Lord. He would
make it a blessed reality within them.
It is just the same disposition that we have so much
need of now. To us also, even as to them, has the
Word of the Lord come concerning the Spirit who is
to descend from the throne in the power of His
glorified life. “He that believeth in Me…out of his
heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).
For us also it is the one thing needful to hold fast that
word; to set our whole desire upon the fulfillment of
it; to lay aside all else until we inherit the promise.
The word from the mouth of Jesus concerning the
reception of the Spirit in such measure that we shall
be endued with power from on high must animate
and fill us with strong desire, with firm and joyful
assurance.
They waited upon the Father until the
performance of the promise came and they were
filled with the Spirit
The ten days of waiting were for them days in
which they were continually in the Temple “praising
and blessing God” and “with one accord in prayer
and supplication” (see Acts 1:14). It is not enough
for us to endeavor to strengthen desire and to hold
fast our confidence. The principal thing is to set
ourselves in close and abiding contact with God. The
blessing must come from God; God Himself must
give it to us; we are to receive the gift directly from
Him. What is promised us is a wonderful work of
divine omnipotence and love. What we desire is the
personal occupancy and indwelling of God the Holy
Spirit. God Himself must bestow this personally
upon us.
It is evident that the disciples had still but little
idea of what this promise signified. But however
defective their understanding of it was, they held it
A man gives another a piece of bread or a piece of
money. He gives it away from himself and has
nothing further to do with it. It is not thus with God's
gift of the Holy Spirit. No: the Spirit is God. God is in
the Spirit who comes to us, even as He was in the
Son. The gift of the Spirit is the most personal act of
the Godhead: it is the gift of Himself unto us. We
have to receive it in the very closest personal contact
with God.