Holy Spirit

Union with Jesus Christ – AB Simpson

Christianity may mean nothing more than a religious system. The Christian life may mean nothing more than an earnest and honest attempt to follow and imitate Christ. The Christ life is more than these and expresses our actual union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is actually in us as the life and source of all our experience and work. This conception of the highest Christian life is at once simpler and more sublime than any other. We do not teach that the purpose of Christ’s redemption is to restore us to Adamic perfection, for if we had it we should lose it tomorrow. Rather, it is to unite us with the second Adam, and to lift us up to a higher plane than our first parents ever knew. This is the only thing that can reconcile the warring elements of diverse schools of teaching with respect to Christian life. The Spirit of God will lead us to have no controversy respecting mere theories. Rather, we are simply to hold to the person and life of Jesus Christ Himself and the privilege of being united to Him through living in constant dependence upon His keeping power and grace.

– AB Simpson –

The Strength to Stand – Richard Sibbes

With the freedom of spirit, there is courage and strength of faith against opposition… It gives him courage and strength to resist. The more opposition, the more courage he has. When the early Christians had the Spirit of God (Acts 4:23ff), they resisted opposition, and the more they were opposed, the more they grew. They were cast in prison, and rejoiced. And the more they were imprisoned, the more courageous they were still.

– Richard Sibbes –
from Glorious Freedom, 1639

All Spiritual Strength Comes from the Holy Spirit – Thomas Brooks

All the spiritual might and strength that a Christian has, he has it from the Holy Spirit. Though the Spirit strengthens every Christian in the inner man, yet I do not say that the Spirit strengthens every Christian alike in the inward man. Some have stronger corruptions to subdue than others, and more violent temptations to withstand than others, and greater difficulties to wrestle with than others, and choicer mercies to improve than others, and higher and harder duties of religion to manage than others, and accordingly they are more strengthened in the inner man than others.

– Thomas Brooks –
from The Secret Key To Heaven, 1665

The Holy Spirit is Grieved – Daniel Steele

The Holy Spirit is grieved when ministers of the Gospel and other Christian workers more earnestly desire His gifts than Himself; when they are more eager to be clothed with His power than to be filled with His presence; when they prefer popularity to purity; when they rely more on polished rhetoric than on the power of the Holy Ghost; when they are more concerned about preparing the sermon than themselves; when they are more ambitious to please the church than the Head of the Church; when they subordinate the ministry of the Lord Jesus to themselves and not to the Lord Jesus; when they use the sacred office as a ladder to personal fame or gain instead of a stairway up which they may lead repentant sinners to the bosom of God.

– Daniel Steele –

Seek the Indwelling Holy Spirit – Andrew Murray

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord uttered His wonderful “how much more?” (Matthew 7:9-11). Here in Luke, where He repeats the question, there is a difference. Instead of speaking of giving good gifts, he says, “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit.” He thus teaches us that the best of these gifts is the Holy Spirit, that in this gift all others are comprised. The Holy Spirit is the first of the Father’s gifts and the one he delights most to bestow. The Holy Spirit is therefore the gift we ought to seek first.

– Andrew Murray –
from Teach Me to Pray

We Need an Awakening – Vance Havner

If the Lord tarries, there may yet be a grass-roots awakening that will overflow all sectarian barriers. There are a host of good people who couldn’t care less about this theologian or that, but who need to rekindle the fire of God within them and who long for a visitation from heaven in old-time power. The kindling wood is scattered all around in all the churches. May God help us to rake off the ashes, uncover the live coals and may He blow upon us with the breath of His Spirit!

– Vance Havner –