For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. - Philippians 2:13 It is said that once Mendelssohn came to see the great Freiburg organ. The old custodian refused him permission to play upon the instrument, not knowing who he was. At length however, he reluctantly granted him leave to play a few notes. Mendelssohn took his seat, and soon the most wonderful music was breaking forth from the organ. The custodian was spellbound. He came up beside the great musician and asked his name. Learning it, he stood humiliated, self-condemned, saying, 'And I refused you permission to play upon my organ!' There coes One to us, who desires to take our lives and play upon them. But we withhold ourselves from him, and refuse him permission, when, if we would yield ourselves to him, he would bring from our souls heavenly music. - (From Sanctification - What It Really Is.) It is a very significant thing that in the Epistles, in which we have the maturest Christian experience, we are not told to wait for the Spirit, but to 'Walk in the Spirit,' and we are not told to receive the Spirit, but to be 'filled with the Spirit.' We are expressly warned against resisting the Holy Ghost whom we have received, against grieving the Holy Ghost who dwells in us, and against quenching the fire which the Holy Ghost has kindled in our hearts. I believe it is just here that the root cause of so much of the disappointment and defeat in the Christian life is to be found. We are somewhere, somehow, limiting the Holy One, so that He cannot possess us as He longs to do. - F.C. Gibson |
