This Post Is By Pastor Dennis Smith of Holy Spirit Ministries.
Pastor Smith is Author of “The Baptism of the Holy Spirit”. Spirit Baptism is a Great Read That Will Guide you into A Close Intimate Walk With Jesus, The Only One Who Can Save You!! Details and links are at the end of this post.
Christians of Past Generations
The Lord has given us examples in both the Bible and history of individuals who have learned lessons in life as the struggled to enter into the victorious life the Bible calls them to attain. Paul tells us that “all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” 1Corinthians 10:11. One such example is that of J. Hudson Taylor, the well known 19th century missionary to China.
Taylor experienced frustration, confusion, and discouragement at the beginning of his service for the Lord. At the age of thirty-seven he shared his inner most feelings with his mother in a letter. In it we read of the feelings of failure and defeat he felt because of his inability to be faithful to His Lord in all things. Taylor wrote:
“My own position becomes continually more and more responsible, and my need greater of special grace to fill it; but I have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly to imitate my precious master. I cannot tell you how I am buffeted sometimes by temptation. I never knew how bad a heart I had. Yet I do know that I love God and love His work, and desire to serve Him only in all things. And I value above all things that precious Savior in Whom alone I can be accepted. Often I am tempted to think that one so full of sin cannot be a child of God at all; but I try to throw it back, and rejoice all the more in the preciousness of Jesus, and in the riches of that grace that has made us ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ Beloved He is of God; beloved He ought to be of us. But oh, how short I fall here again! May God help me to love Him more and serve Him better. Do pray for me. Pray that the Lord will keep me from sin, will sanctify me wholly, will use me more largely in His service.”
John McCarthy, a fellow missionary in China, wrote Taylor a letter describing a recent understanding he had come to concerning victory over temptation through Christ. In the letter McCarthy wrote:
“To let my loving Savior work in me His will, my sanctification is what I would live for by His grace. Abiding, not striving or struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power;…resting in the love of an almighty Savior, in the joy of a complete salvation, ‘from all sin’—this is not new, and yet ‘tis new to me. I feel as though the dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a boundless sea; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only ground for unchanging joy. May he lead us into the realization of His unfathomable fullness…Not a striving to have faith…but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for eternity.”
God used this letter to open Taylor’s eyes to the wonderful truth of our abiding in Christ and His abiding in us; the truth of the mystery of the believer’s union with Christ. From that day forward Taylor’s walk with God was one of peace, rest and victory in Christ. This amazing change could be seen by his colleagues in ministry who said, “Mr. Taylor went out, a new man in a new world, to tell what the Lord had done for his soul.”
Taylor wrote his sister in England seeking to explain to her this wonderful truth he had discovered and the marvelous experience he was having in His Lord. He said:
“As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last month or more has been perhaps, the happiest of my life; and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul. I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful – and yet, all is new! In a word, ‘Whereras once I was blind, now I see.’
“When my agony of soul was at it height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory): ‘But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.’
“As I read I saw it all! ‘If we believe not, he abideth faithful.’ I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) I thought. ‘I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me – never to leave me, never to fail me?’ And, dearie, He never will!”
Taylor went on in his letter to describe how the Lord had opened up his understanding concerning Christ’s words that He is the vine and the believers are the branches. He wrote: “Oh, the joy of seeing this truth!” Then he said:
“The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient.”
Yes, J. Hudson Taylor found the secret of victory in his walk with God and great peace in all circumstances of service for Christ. God offers to each of His children this same victory and peace. Do you desire such victory and peace? My prayer is that all who read this book will find just that – victory and peace in Christ; a joy that seemed so impossible to attain before.
Next Post: The Path to Discovery. The Truth of Abiding “in Christ” and How We Can Experience a Victorious Life.
Can it be This Simple?
“The Baptism of The Holy Spirit”. In This Book Pastor Smith gives the reader an essential understanding of The Baptism of The Holy Spirit. Click on the link that follows.
“The Baptism of the Holy Spirit”.
