The Person and Work of The Holy SpiritTorrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Religion
The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit
Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer)
Holy Spirit
Many who have given themselves up to the leading of the Holy Spirit get
into a place of great bondage and are tortured because they have leadings
which they fear may be from God but of which they are not sure. If they do
not obey these leadings, they are fearful they have disobeyed God and
sometimes fancy that they have grieved away the Holy Spirit, because they
did not follow His leading. This is all unnecessary. Let us settle it in
our minds that God’s guidance is _clear_ guidance. “God is light, and in
Him is no darkness at all” (1 John i. 5). And any leading that is not
perfectly clear is not from Him. That is, if our wills are absolutely
surrendered to Him. Of course, the obscurity may arise from an
unsurrendered will. But if our wills are absolutely surrendered to God, we
have the right as God’s children to be sure that any guidance is from Him
before we obey it. We have a right to go to our Father and say, “Heavenly
Father, here I am. I desire above all things to do Thy will. Now make it
clear to me, Thy child. If this thing that I have a leading to do is Thy
will, I will do it, but make it clear as day if it be Thy will.” If it is
His will, the heavenly Father will make it as clear as day. And you need
not, and ought not to do that thing until He does make it clear, and you
need not and ought not to condemn yourself because you did not do it. God
does not want His children to be in a state of condemnation before Him. He
wishes us to be free from all care, worry, anxiety and self-condemnation.
Any earthly parent would make the way clear to his child that asked to
know it and much more will our heavenly Father make it clear to us, and
until He does make it clear, we need have no fears that in not doing it,
we are disobeying God. We have no right to dictate to God _how_ He shall
give His guidance—as, for example, by asking Him to shut up every way, or
by asking Him to give a sign, or by guiding us in putting our finger on a
text, or in any other way. It is ours to seek and to expect wisdom but it
is not ours to dictate how it shall be given. The Holy Spirit divides to
“each man severally _as He will_” (1 Cor. xii. 11).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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