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Results of Spirit-Filling

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 5, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 23.

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Results of Spirit-Filling

By G. B. THOMPSON

The Holy Spirit—No. 21

Results of Spirit-Filling

G. B. THOMPSON
SOME of the records of the great conquests and special work of the apostles in the book of Acts are introduced with the words, “Filled with the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31. One able writer has well said that the book of Acts might properly be called “The Acts of the Holy Spirit.” It was because the apostles were Spirit-filled that they were able to do great things for God. What they did was wrought by the Spirit in them.
It was this Spirit-filling for service the Saviour had in mind when he said to the disciples, “But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” Luke 24:49. These words were not spoken to unbelievers, but to believers, to Christians, to chosen disciples. The disciples had experienced a large measure of the Spirit’s power. They had felt its transforming power in their own lives. They had seen the great miracles of Christ, and witnessed the workings of the Holy Spirit in his life. But Jesus saw they needed a greater fulness, a baptism of the Spirit, for service; therefore he said, “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Acts 1:5. And although the disciples were from the humbler walks of life and without great education from the world’s standpoint, filled with the Spirit they were able to stir the world wherever they went.
“Look at this old piece of common iron. Let us wrap the electric current around it, and what wonders! It talks, it sings, it lifts loads, it turns night into day, and carries us up hill and down dale and through the waters,—a new wonder every day. The greatest thing in the world is the thing we call electricity. The greatest power in the world is the power of the Holy Spirit. See that uncouth, unlettered man, sunk in sin,—common iron. Something happens. Call it by any name you like. The Spirit of God envelops that man, and he melts and moves a vast audience as he speaks for God. Jerry McAuley (the great missionary worker in New York City), the river thief, and Samuel Hadley, the drunkard, became the lights of New York slums, and when death claimed them, the whole great city sobbed.”
We believe there is an enduement of the Holy Spirit for Christians today; not to work miracles and make a show, but for the work of saving souls. And just in proportion as God has given to every person a work to do in saving souls, he has promised him a spiritual equipment for his work. And when this is believed and laid hold of by faith, it will change many a desert experience into a watered garden. It will change churches that are like a Sahara into an Eden.
“When Samuel Baker was exploring in the upper Nile valley, he pitched his tent one night in the bed of a large river long since dry. The heat was stifling and the country apparently dead. That night the river rose into a torrent. He had scarcely time to escape with his Arab attendants. When morning broke, the scene was transformed; birds were singing, people were rejoicing, and a large, broad river was flowing on to the sea. The natives began immediately to irrigate, and the whole atmosphere of the place was surcharged with life. It was nature’s baptism. With such a baptism does the Holy Spirit fill the soul and change the life.”
In tracing the history of the church through the centuries, we find striking examples of consecrated, Spirit-filled men, who have had great power with God and with men. Think of Paul and the other apostles in the first century. Through the dark ages God had his witnesses. Great earnestness and spiritual power were seen in the mountains of Piedmont, in Spain, Belgium, the country of Bohemia, and other places. This zeal and power the terms of the Inquisition could not quench. Thousands were put to death, but spiritual power continued to be manifested. It gave Christian fortitude to gray-haired men, tender virgins, and weak women to face the fagot, the rack, the gallows, and the wild beasts in the arena.
Under the preaching of Luther and his associates, the kingdoms of the world were stirred, and the papal throne feared for its existence. Knox in his burning zeal exclaimed, “Give me Scotland or I die!” Such spiritual earnestness and power attended his words that Scotland was stirred to her depths.
Who cannot see in Livingstone, who lies buried in Westminster Abbey, one of England’s uncrowned kings, a man whom the Spirit of God greatly used? The same spiritual halo gathers around Carey, who gave his life to India; Judson, who laid down his life for the Burmese; Morrison, who placed his life on the altar for China; John G. Paton, who devoted his life to the cannibals of the New Hebrides; and many other worthies whom we might mention.
Under the preaching of Whitefield and the Wesleys, great spiritual power was seen. They were examples of Spirit-filled men. It is recorded of Whitefield that “in a single week he received no less than a thousand letters from those distressed in conscience under his preaching.” A formal church was aroused. Society was stirred to its foundation. In the fields, miners and thousands of the common people, with tearful eyes, listened to the preaching of Wesley. Bishop Simpson reports Cardinal Manning as saying that “had it not been for the preaching of Wesley, no man could tell into how deep a degradation England would have sunk.” Why was he able to give such a spiritual uplift?—It was because the power of the Holy Spirit was at work.
Great power attended the preaching of Jonathan Edwards in New England. On one occasion one of his auditors is reported to have said that “he fully expected to see the heavens open and the Judge descend.” A great spiritual awakening followed the preaching of Chalmers. “It is said that Professor Young, who occupied the chair of Greek in the university, was on one occasion so electrified that he leaped up from his seat upon the bench near the pulpit, and stood breathless and motionless, gazing at the preacher till the burst was over, the tears all the while rolling down his cheeks.”
Most startling and almost overwhelming results attended the preaching of Charles G. Finney. In different places where he labored whole communities became greatly convicted of their sins. It is said that the feeling was such at times as “to make the stoutest men writhe on their seat, as if a sword had been thrust into their hearts.” He attributes his work to a special baptism of the Holy Spirit given him for service.
George Muller, who conducted the orphanage at Bristol, England, for many years, sheltering, feeding, and clothing thousands of children, with no funds except as sent him in answer to prayer, is called “the standing miracle of the nineteenth century.” He stands as an example of faith and great spiritual power. In his experience is shown what God is willing and able to do for a consecrated, Spirit-filled man in this time.
Then there is the work of D. L. Moody. Though not possessing a finished education, he secured a baptism of spiritual power that enabled him to stir the English-speaking world. The sinners in Zion were made afraid, and thousands without hope were brought to Christ. A fellow laborer says of him: “I have seen him preach with the fire of heaven illuminating his countenance, with the tears blinding his eyes, when he could scarcely speak for sobs; and hundreds cried out, ‘What must we do to be saved?’” Concerning his own experience, both before and after being “filled” with the Holy Spirit for service, Moody says:—
“I can myself go back almost twelve years and remember two holy women who used to come to my meetings. It was delightful to see them there, for when I began to preach, I could tell by the expression of their faces they were praying for me. At the close of the Sabbath evening services they would say to me, ‘We have been praying for you.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you pray for the people?’ They answered, ‘You need power.’ ‘I need power,’ I said to myself; ‘why, I thought I had power.’ I had a large Sabbath-school and the largest congregation in Chicago. There were some conversions at the time, and I was in a sense satisfied. But right along these two godly women kept praying for me, and their earnest talk about ‘the anointing for special service’ set me thinking. I asked them to come and talk with me, and we got down on our knees. They poured out their hearts that I might receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost. And there came a great hunger into my soul. I knew not what it was. I began to cry as never before. The hunger increased. I really felt that I did not want to live any longer if I could not have this power for service. I kept on crying all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, one day, in the city of New York, O, what a day! I cannot describe it; I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say, God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand.
‘I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not be placed back where I was before that blessed experience, if you would give me all Glasgow.’
It is not numbers that count with God. It is Spirit-filled men and women that are needed. It is a question of putting away sin and wholly surrendering to God. Those who are empty of sin God will fill with his Spirit. We may not be conscious of it. Moses did not know his face shone, but the people did.
“Placed on the insulated stool and connected with the electrical machine, we are filled with electricity, filled so full that every hair upon our heads stands almost erect. Yet we have no consciousness of it. But let any one come near us, and the fire sparkles from every part. So we may be filled unconsciously with divine influence, which will sparkle from our eyes and issue in words of power from our tongues. How wonderfully is science revealing to us divine possibilities! The electric messages we send to our brothers, over mountains, under oceans, across the globe, so quietly, unseen and unheard by those around, do they not illustrate how God can reach our hearts, how he can infuse his own power, without any outward manifestation? This power is not only ‘from on high,’ it is a connecting-link between the throne and our hearts. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, not for regeneration, not for sanctification, but to use the whole of a purified nature, and especially the tongue, for aggressive Christian work.”—“Lectures on Preaching,” page 209.
In our study of this subject we have seen the great need of spiritual power, we have studied the promise of the Saviour to send another Comforter to abide with his people till the end of time. We have seen the power which attended the apostolic church after Pentecost.
The church today is in its closing struggle. God has committed to his people a tremendous work. To carry this message to all the world in this generation is a task wholly beyond the power of any human arrangement.
The nations are angry. Armageddon is gathering. We look out upon a troubled sea. The world is a seething caldron of strife and discontent. Earth’s millions are intoxicated with pleasure, and madly worship the money god. A Christless religion is proclaimed by many. A cold form of worship without power is gripping the world with its icy hand. The papal beast with its deluded worshippers is showing increased strength. Millions of heathen, who worship they know not what, bow before senseless idols.
In the face of all this, our only hope of finishing the stupendous commission given us of God is in the latter rain, a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Without it we may well despair. With it the outlook is as bright as the promises of God. This message is the everlasting gospel. The gospel has tamed and enlightened savages. It has taken naked, rude, and uncultured barbarians and refined them. It has taken heathen nations, knowing only images, and taught them the true God. Clothed with the Spirit, this last call of God to a lost race can do the same. Shall we not as a people put away every sin, unitedly humble our hearts, and allow the Paraclete to rule in our individual hearts, and in every church, that the loud cry of the third angel may be heard in all lands, and the way prepared for the Lord to come and receive his waiting church?