THE INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

[nChrist]

THE INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

Short Bio:  The Rev. Frederick Brotherton Meyer (April 8, 1847 – March 28, 1929) was a contemporary and friend of D. L. Moody. He was a pastor and evangelist in England involved in ministry and inner city mission work on both sides of the Atlantic. He was the author of numerous religious books and articles, and God has used him to help many on a path to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. This material is very old, but it's timeless because God is Glorified, and God is still using it.


We have followed Christ in His ascension, as entering the presence of His Father. He asked and received from God the Holy Spirit. We have also seen how Christ made Christians. "Christ" means "anointed "; " Christian" means "anointed one." The words "chrism " and "Christ" are identical in derivation. A man becomes truly a Christian when he is anointed with the Holy Spirit.

I speak now of the other aspect of Pentecost, because, though it is quite true that Pentecost means the anointing on the head and heart, it also means the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in Acts 2:4 we are told that they were all -- women and men, laymen and apostles -- all were alike "filled with" the Holy Spirit.

Now, Ephesians 5:18 gives each one of us a positive command: "Be filled with the Spirit." It is very remarkable that in Acts 2 and Ephesians 5 the infilling of the Holy Spirit in its effect is compared to the effects of wine on the physical system. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit," and you can never have excess, you can never have too much of the Spirit.

There are three points of comparison that I want you to notice -- joy, speech, power.

First. Wine produces a sense of exhilaration. A drunken man will sing as he reels to his home, and when a man is really filled with the Holy Ghost he becomes a singing Christian, and a Spirit filled church is always a singing church. Every great outburst of the Holy Spirit's power has been accompanied by singing. Luther's revival spread through Germany by singing Luther's hymns. Whitfield was accompanied by a Wesley, and Moody by a Sankey, and in Germany the Moravian Church has given to us the songs of Gerhardt, with many more.
Secondly. A man who is filled with wine is garrulous. He talks; you cannot keep him still. And a man who is filled with the Holy Spirit Talks, he cannot keep silence, he must tell what God has done.

Thirdly. A man who is filled with wine is conscious of a great increase of power. He feels as if he could stand alone against the world. So the man who is filled with the Holy Ghost is full also of the power of God.

Now this filling of the Holy Spirit may come suddenly, or more unconsciously, just as in Scotland they have what they call a "spate "of water, or a well may fill up with water percolating in drop by drop. Whenever the spirit of man, smitten with thirst, comes to Christ, and opens its whole content towards Christ, instantly Christ begins to infill that spirit. It may not be conscious of the gradual infilling, but by His grace He will never stay His hand until the earthly system has been filled to the very full from the river of God, which is full of water.

Now, there are three tenses used in the Greek, of this filling. In Acts 13:52 we are told of the converts in the highlands of Galatia that they were being filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost all the time. They were like some mountain tarn which is always being filled from the melting of the snows above; and as the water flows on to enrich the pasture land beneath, so water is ever percolating in from the upper snow. O child of God, be a brimming lakelet or tarn, on the one hand always giving out to a dying world, but always kept full because you receive every moment from Jesus!

Then Acts 6:5 tells us that Stephen was a man full of the Holy Ghost -- " full," the adjective; from which I gather that he was an equable man. He did not have fits and starts, he was not now lifted up and then depressed; but always, whenever you met Stephen, there was the same heavenly look, the same tender gracious word, the same perfect beauty of character, and the same eagerness to glorify Christ. O, beloved friends, I wish that you may keep on being filled, and that you may always be full!

And then, Acts 4:8 tells us that Peter, though he had been filled on the day of Pentecost, nevertheless was suddenly filled again as he had to speak to the Sanhedrin I suppose that for a moment he centered himself on God; he "looked up, and received a sudden and immediate and complete equipment for his work.
Beloved minister, you may be a man full of the Holy Ghost in your family, but when you kneel in your vestry before entering your pulpit, before attempting a mission, before undertaking any definite work for God by lip or pen, be sure that you are specially equipped by a new reception of the Holy Ghost. In my own life I have found it absolutely necessary, after such a mission as this, when the whole system has become exhausted by the demand made upon the spirit, the nerve, and the physical strength, to get quietly away with God, and to renew one's strength by receiving out of the fulness of the Holy Ghost, breathing in a new supply.

Now you will notice also that the work of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, filling the heart, has in the character of the believer; and these are set forth by Christ in three verses, each of which begins with the words: "In that day."

[nChrist]

THE INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

CERTAIN DEFINITE RESULTS

When the day of Pentecost breaks upon the spirit, it brings with it three distinct things.

In John 14:20 the Lord says:" In that day, in that day when the light of Pentecost has stolen through the window pane of your heart, and has chased out the darkness, and has filled you within -- in that day you shall know three things:

(1.) That I am in My Father.

In the light of light, in the rare atmosphere of deity, in God. You shall know that I am in the Father, so that you will never be frightened of the Father again, but will come to Him at any moment knowing that I am in the heart of God. O child, thou shalt not fear God any more when the Holy Spirit has shown Jesus in Him.

(2.) That ye are in me.

That is your standing. Your nature may be frail and fickle, your sins may sometimes overwhelm, but you shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, accepted in the Beloved.

So near, so very near to God,
I cannot nearer be,
For in the person of His Son
I am as near as He.

(3.) I in you.

That is what I spoke of inn preceding address, the revelation of the indwelling Christ.

It is a beautiful thing to know that the 14th chapter of John begins with our mansion or abiding place (R. V. Marg.) with God and ends with God's mansion or abiding place with us; for the same word which is used of the mansions of the Father's house in the second verse, is used in the twenty-third verse of God's mansion in the spirit of the believer.

Men say to me: "Is not this mysticism that you teach? "

I answer: "Every mystic is not a Christian, but every Christian is bound to be a mystic, because mysticism is the indwelling of God."

Religion amongst the Hindoos is the indwelling of God, but it disappoints them; they cannot reach it because they seek it by endeavoring for the absorption of themselves, the loss of their individuality, in God. We as Christians seek also to know the indwelling of God, but it is not by the loss of our individuality, but by the reception of God's nature as the determining power working through the individuality which He has given to us. "Ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

Now turn to John 16:23 : "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing." The Greek word is: "Ye shall ask me no questions."

Up to that time the disciples kept asking questions suggested by the intellect, curious questions; but when the day of Pentecost came they did not need to ask questions with the intellect, because they saw truth with the heart.

If I am blind, I ask my friend concerning the landscape: "Are there mountains?" "Yes." "Rivers?" " Yes." "Cornfields?" "Yes." I ask question after question, and get what help I can.

But when my eyes are opened, or when the light of the morning breaks, I ask no more questions about the contour, the configuration of the landscape, because I see it for myself.

Before you have the power of the Holy Ghost you will be curious about many questions; but when the Holy Ghost shall come you shall know all things clearly with the heart. I often think that woman's nature enables me to understand how we know in the power of the Holy Ghost. A man is said to reason his way, a woman by the quick glance of her intuition sees what she cannot reason, and she jumps to a conclusion to which her husband reasons his way ten minutes later. So is it with the heart when it is illumined by the Holy Spirit. The pure heart of the believer leaps to conclusions which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the reason of man conceived. The faculty of knowledge is altered: we no longer seek it by the intellect, but by the heart. The busy intellectual disputant becomes the deep intuitioner.

And then, thirdly, turn to John 16:26; "In that day ye shall ask in my name."
Now in the Bible " name" stands for "nature," and you are always perfectly justified in substituting the word "nature" for "name." So Christ says that when the day of Pentecost has come, we shall ask in His nature, or rather, that His nature will ask through us; and whenever the nature of Jesus asks anything of the Father, it asks that which the Father is bound to give, because He and Jesus are one.

In one's earlier life one asks for a great many things which God never gives; and we are sometimes startled, and begin to think that prayer is inoperative. But further on in life we allow our prayers to pass the test of the nature of Christ; and as one request after another arises in our hearts, we bring it into the light of the nature of Jesus, and there are a great many things that we therefore reject. I cannot ask this, I dare not ask that, I feel that they would be incongruous with the nature of my Lord, which now has become my nature, and so would ask only in the nature of Christ.

I find in my own life that I do not pray quite so long as I used. I pray more slowly. I sit, or stand, or wait before God until I tell what Christ is wanting at that moment, and when in my heart, by the Holy Spirit, the prayer of my Lord is made clear to me, I take it up. I launch my little canoe upon the current of my Savior's intercession, and I have what I ask.

There are indeed two Advocates, two Paracletes. There is the Paraclete in the heart of God, -- Jesus; and there is the Paraclete in the heart of the believer, -- the Holy Ghost; and these two Paracletes are one. When the Holy Spirit breathes your prayer, He will inspire that which it is on the heart of Jesus to entreat, and you have the perfect circle of prayer  -- the Father, the Son,-the Holy Ghost in you, your voice raised in unison with the music of the Holy Trinity; and so the desire which emanated from God the Father, and was reflected in His nature by Christ the Son, and was communicated to you by the Holy Spirit, is flashed back from you, and you know you have the petitions that you desire of Him.

[nChrist]

THE INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRAYER.

But there is a fourth work of the Spirit of God. In John 15:26-27, it is said:

"He, (that is, the Spirit) shall bear witness of Me, and ye shall bear witness."
Now the Church is in the world not to argue, not to defend God, not to stand forth as an advocate for God, but simply to witness to the truth of the unseen and eternal. And directly, brother ministers, you and I step away from that position, and become advocates pleading instead of witnesses bearing testimony, we step away from the position of power. You and I and the Church are called to bear witness to the death of Christ, His resurrection, His ascension, and the advent of the Holy Ghost. You can talk as you like about His social work, about His teaching, about the philosophy of the administration of His kingdom; but your prime work is to stand up before men, and say:

"I have known and tasted and handled of the death, resurrection, ascension and return of Jesus Christ our Lord."

And whilst you do that the Holy Spirit says: "Amen."

The other day I came on a saw pit. I could see a man sawing a great beam of timber with the long saw which rose and fell, and though I could not see his confederate, I knew that down in the pit there was another man who had hold of the saw; and I could tell the rhythm and the motion of the body of the man I could not see, by noticing the rhythm and the motion of the body of the man I could see. And I saw at once that that was an illustration of the co; witness of the Holy Ghost.

When a man stands up in his pulpit and says; "Jesus died," the Holy Ghosts says: "He did, and it was by Me that He offered Himself to God." When the minister says: "He rose," the Holy Ghost says: "He did: and it was by My power that He was raised and declared to be the Son of God." When we say: "He went back to God and liveth and reigneth with the Father," the Holy Ghost, brooding in the Church, says: "Yea, Amen, I have just left Him; I am in loving fellowship with Him; I and the Son and the Father are one."

O, brother ministers, ever since I learned this, my work has been quite altered, because now, when I enter my pulpit, I go as only a very small part of the great machinery which is in operation. I have to speak, but the Holy Ghost is all the time working with me, and hence the salvation of my people does not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. If they received simply upon my putting of it, the effect would be evanescent, but when the Holy Spirit demonstrates a thing to the conscience it is permanent.

You and I were once at school. We had a problem in geometry. We might have seen at a glance that such and such a thing must be so, but we were called upon to demonstrate it, and the demonstration would be our conclusion. So the Holy Ghost establishes the word of the child, tile servant of God, in the Bible class, in the mission, and in the church.

In London, in the winter, after the services of the church are over, we have our magic-lantern service from nine to ten o'clock for people whose clothes are too shabby to come among the more respectable audiences. If is so dark that Nicodemus does not mind coming in. I carefully prepare my sermon, and keep one proof of it, and give the other to my secretary, who operates from the gallery. I begin to preach. When I say: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," I know that as I utter the words he flashes on the screen behind me a picture of the world, a globe with a scroll around it: "God is love." When I say: "Now is the time to accept this Christ," the word "now" will appear behind me. And if I speak of the Savior's dying love and pity, instantly I know, by previous agreement, that Dore's picture of the crucified Christ is appealing to the people. I do not need to look to see if it is there, because the awe, the reverence, the silence of the people indicate to me that that great sight is represented on the canvass. My secretary demonstrates to the eye what I say to the ear.

My meaning, I trust, is distinct. You and I may go to work for God.

PARTNERSHIP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.

The word "communion," which the minister invokes upon the people as they leave, means fellowship, common action; and the minister stands before the people in the communion of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost demonstrates the word he feebly speaks.

O, men of God, mind that you are always so filled with the Spirit that wherever you go the Holy Spirit may be prepared to go with you. You know the old Welsh story of the crowded congregation that waited for John Ellis. They sent for him. The man came back to say. "I heard him talking to somebody, and I did not like to disturb him?' They said. "Go again and rap." He went, and came back and said: "I heard him talking still, and I heard him say, 'I will not go unless you come along too'." John Ellis came in five minutes later, and the One he had been talking to came with him, though no one saw Him; and they had a meeting of wonderful power. Brother ministers, never go unless He comes too.

In Acts 11:15, Peter, speaking about Cornelius and the descent of the Holy Ghost in Cornelius' house, says rather ruefully, as if he looked back on a sermon which was only, half delivered.

"As I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell."

Peter had only got through his introduction -- he had not got as far as his first head, -- and the Holy Ghost came down, and said:

"Man, you have made a good start, and into your introduction you have put the life and death and work of Jesus. That is text enough for me. Now stand aside, and I will finish the sermon."

"As I began to speak!" Why, I am thankful to God if I have been able to speak for half an hour, and towards the end of my sermon I can see the Holy Spirit has fallen upon my people. But O that we might be so filled with the Spirit and care so much about the co-operation of the Spirit that it might be with us as with Finney or Peter. It is said of Finney, more than once in his autobiography, that if he came into a large factory, or into a church crowded with people, there was such an indescribable power about his very aspect that in many cases a revival broke out before Finney could speak a word. Men, brother ministers, let us aim for that!

Now, finally, here are the seven conditions on which you may have this mighty co-operating power.

[nChrist]

THE INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by F. B. Meyer
1847-1929

SEVEN CONDITIONS

(1.) You must be Holy Ghost filled. Peter was filled thrice; once in the second chapter of Acts, and twice in the fourth chapter. He was a Holy Ghost filled man in character, and therefore he could count on the co-operation of the Spirit.

(2.) You must be emptied. Peter was empty. He spent many days in a farmer's house. I can hardly imagine how he got into such an emptying place. In the first place, it was a very insalubrious spot. Of all hotels it is about the last place I would select. The odor would be anything but savory. And then, in the next place, as a Jew it must have been defiling to him to be in such close association with carcases. And yet he spent many days as in a city alley; this apostle, this man who had preached through large regions, who had raised Eneas and Dorcas, got down to the tanner's house. And a man will have to come to an end of himself before the Holy Ghost will work with him.

(3.) You must be a man of prayer. Peter was a man of prayer. Acts 10:9 : "Peter went up upon the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour." Some may think that when I say: "Do not pray so much, but take," I mean that they are to give up their lonely hours of fellowship with God. Not at all. No true experience can ever exist apart from communion with God. But mind, instead of asking for so many things that God cannot give, you will ask for a few things definitely, you will be led out in prayer, you will feel you cannot help praying for those few things, and you will have so much to do in praising and thanking God for giving you your heart's desire that your prayer-times will tend to be longer rather than shorter.

(4). You must be willing to give up prejudice. When Peter was first commanded to kill and eat of the creatures let down from heaven in the sheet, he said: "Not so, Lord: for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." But after thinking about the vision, he was willing to give up lifelong prejudices.

I have met men in my life who have refused to receive these teachings about the Holy Ghost, which in these latter days God has made known to His church. They have said with Peter:

"Not so, Lord. I believe in the good old way of putting things, and I refuse to accept any further light that may break from Thy Word."

That very often stereotypes a man's power. He cannot advance with God. If Peter had refused to advance with God, God would have gone on without him. Be sure to advance with God.

(5.) You must be Spirit-guided. This also was true of Peter. The Spirit said: "Three men seek thee; go with them."

Now listen. Never take an impulse in your heart as being final. It may be of the devil, or it may be of the Spirit of God. The devil often comes as an angel of light, but you may always know when the impulse is of God, first, by its becoming a settled purpose. You may always know the devil because he asks questions. The devil always deals with notes of interrogation, and whenever you have a lot of notes of interrogation flitting about your mind, you know it is the dust raised by the devil. When God deals with you He is always definite, and the impression grows stronger every time you pray. But any impression from God's Spirit is always corroborated by two things: by the Word, and by circumstances. The Spirit of God and the Word of God are parallel lines. And if you are truly called of God, circumstances will coincide with the spiritual impulse. The inward impulse, the Word of God, and the outward circumstances will be in line. So it was with Peter. The Spirit said: "Three men seek thee," and suddenly he heard three men rapping down stairs. Always wait for the knock of the man, as well as the impulse from the Holy Ghost, agreeing with the Word of God.

(6.) You must be humble. When this Roman of-ricer fell before Peter the fisherman, Peter lifted him up, and said: " Stand on your feet; I also am a man." There was nothing of the priest about Peter. In our country the priest is rather glad to have a man at his feet; but Peter, a sincere transparent servant of God, did not look down, but said: "Man, stand up!"

A truly humble soul is necessary for the co-operation of the Holy Ghost.

(7.) You must seek the glory of Christ.

My secretary and I agree upon our sermon for the magic lantern service before we start; and if you want the Holy Ghost to help you in your preaching, you and the Holy Ghost must agree together what you are going to preach about. If you are going to talk about social reform, I should not be at all surprised if the Holy Ghost should say:

"If you are going to preach that, you must do it yourself, for I will have nothing to do with it.

You will say: "I want to preach on the last political crisis."

The Holy Ghost will answer: "Very well, go on; but you must go your own way. I cannot help you with that."

Or you will come to the Holy Spirit, and say: "Blessed Spirit, what shall I preach from?" and there will steal into your heart the name "Jesus!" and the Holy Ghost will say:

"You may begin where you like, you may deal with any historical subject you like, but you must end with the Lord Jesus Christ."

Some time ago one of my friends went out with a little boy who was leading him across the common from the railroad station to the house. My friend said to him;

"Go to Sunday-school?"

"Yes."

"What did your teacher talk about last Sunday afternoon? "

"O, he was talking about Jacob."

"And what did he take the Sunday before that?"

"O, he was talking about prayer."

"Well, did your teacher talk about Jesus?"

"O, no," said the little fellow, "that's at the other end of the book."

Now I hold that Jesus is not at the other end of the Book, but He is all through the Book, and every chapter and every verse and every incident in the Bible may somehow be made a road to Jesus.

I do not say that on week evenings a minister may not deal with public questions. No doubt the world will stand still until he tells it what to do. But I do think that whilst he has a desire for the discussion of those great problems, with the reporters listening, whether on week evening or on Sunday, for the most part -- I am not offering to lay down any absolute rule, because in the case of arbitration, when fear spread over our hearts that our two great sister countries might be embroiled in strife, the pulpit spoke out and saved (as I believe) the question from becoming serious on each side of the Atlantic -- but for the most part there must be the constant uplifting of the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory as the Savior of men. And as you dare to do that simply and humbly, the power of God the Holy Ghost will witness to the living Christ in your church, in the Sunday-school. It matters little enough to God what you are in intellectual power, or natural gifts and eloquence. He simply wants a nature yielded absolutely to Him, and a voice raised for Jesus, and the Holy Ghost will do everything else.