The title of the book is “Tozer Speaks to Student”.(It’s e last one on the shelf. Actually most of his books are only left with one.So if you’re interested to read this one, just send me a msg. I’ll be more than willing to pass you mine=))Below are just small passages of what I’ve taken out from the chapter—Be Filled with the Spirit.
Yep it’s long. So read it only if you’ve time=) Not a reader? Just browse through the ones which I highlighted, maybe God can still speak to you with the little you have=)It’s just something which I felt very strongly to post it up. And something that I want to live by this year. I encourage you to memorize the Scriptures. Remember what Pastor said. Too much of the Word, we dry up. Too much of the Spirit, we blow up!So get both them to Grow up!=p
An introduction by Lyle W. Dorsett:
Except for C.S.Lewis and perhaps Oswald Chambers, it is difficult to find a twentieth-century Protestant author who has a wider audience than Tozer.
Tozer also intrigued his college audiences because of his transparency. He admitted his shortcomings and he preached on what he personally had experienced from biblical truth and his intimate relationship with Christ. These discerning students knew the difference between men who exegete Scripture and those whose hearts has been truly changed by the Bible
Another reason why Tozer words flowed with ease through Wheaton chapel audiences can be attributed to his lack of a traditional theological education. To be sure, an ignorant speaker is apt to offend or bore a congregation of college women or men. But Tozer’s mind was either empty nor undisciplined. Although he preached without the benefit of Bible school, college or seminary training, his head was full of years of self-directed education. The man who only had eleven years of formal schooling steeped himself in history, theology, poetry and philosophy…In brief, when Tozer set foot on the Wheaton College campus, student expectations ran high. People expected to be intellectually stimulated and spiritually inspired and they were not disappointed
I think I have never said anything to you as important as what I am planning on saying tonight. I want to use this simple and very familiar text: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;but be filled with the Spirit”(Ephesians 5:18)
“Be filled with the Spirit.” You can call it “be getting filled” or “be being filled,”and it adds up to the same thing. It is the will of God that His people should be Spirit-filled people-all of them, not only missionaries and preachers, but all of God people everywhere.
I also have four other texts, and I am going to give them at the close of this message. This will be the first time you ever heard anybody preaching a sermon where there were four points in the conclusion and only one in the body of the sermon. It may confuse the homiletical department, but at least I will be getting across what I want to say.
…To return to the question, how can I be filled with the Spirit?You can think them over and pray over them.
First, Romans 12:1-2:
I beseech you therefore, brethen, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
“Present your bodies”—that is, present an empty vessel. Do not present a full vessel or an unclean vessel. Present a vessel where the blood of Jesus has cleansed away the stains, and you have said to Him “Pardon, oh, Lord, my transgression and have mercy upon me according to Thy righteousness and wash away all my sins.” Present a clean vessel.
Second, Luke 11:9, 11:13
Ask, and it shall be given you;seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you…If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
There are two ways to look at this text. The first is the way it is now being interpreted so as to destory all its meaning, the second is in the light of Christian experience down through the centuries. Certain interpreters says this cannot possibly be a spiritual principle laid down, so they dismiss it. These interpreters, as a rule, seem to me to be more determined a verse in line with preconceived theology than to be filled with the Holy Ghost. The lips that usually speak against this are pretty cold lips.
But over against men’s interpretations which says this is not for us is the long line superior saints, prophets, reformers, missionaries, evangelists, pastors and holy people of God down through the years who have not been told that it is wrong to open your vessel say, “Fill me, Lord.” But I been hearing that it is wrong to do it. I know better because I asked, and He gave me.
Third, Acts 5:32 :
…the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. I have covered that, but it is the third point in my little talk.
Fourth, Galations 3:2. Paul says,
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
It is a rhetorical question. The answer is “By the hearing of faith, of course.” Faith alone is the vessel that can receive. Faith alone can only tap and fill with the Spirit. I want to watch my language, for I do not want to leave a sentence with you that Satan could twist and harm, so when I say receive I do not mean receive in the sense that He is far away and must come to your heart. I mean receive or be filled in the sense that He fills His people with the Holy Spirit. Even after Pentecost it was written that “ Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said…”(Acts4:8). There was nothing incompatible with sound theology embraced by the apostles, surely, and they were filled, sometimes, with the Holy Ghost.
God wants to fill you. I give you this, and here is the only place I expect to run into trouble with some of you good, careful bible expositors, but I give you this and I do not give you the text, so if you want to disbelieve me, we will still be friends. I have not heard that anyone ever was filled who did not know he had been, and I never heard of anybody being filled gradually.
You think with me for a moment about the Old Testament and the New Testament—do you ever remember of any place in the Old Tespament when the Holy Spirit came gradually?No Plce. Ever hear of any place in the New Testament where He came gradually?No, He did not. I never say that God never did. But I do say that He never recorded an instance where He did. Always the Holy Spirit is self-announcing and self validating:you do not have to be told.
A great man of God who is now in heaven and whom I gently admire once preached from the text, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John7:38). And some dear brethren, careful expositors, took him to lunch afterwards. After they had gotten him nicely settled, the soup had been disposed of and they were ready for the main course, they said, “Now, dear you were woefully unbiblical in your exegenesis. That did not mean what you thought it meant at all.”(He had taught they would be filled with the Spirit, and out from within them would flow rivers of living water,)
They said, “That does not mean that. We will show you what theat means dispensationally.” They went along and dispensationalized a while. Pretty soon one of them got honest with himself and came down off his theological pedestal. He bowed his head and the tears began to flow. HE said, “Brother, we have the right exegesis, but you have the rivers.” I would rather have the rivers than the right exegesis. But I am not apologizing for bad exegesis, either! I think I have given you a fair presentation.
If we do not believe this, let us stop singing “Fill Me Now” and all those revival hymns and choruses. Let us stop it and be honest with ourselves. If it is not biblical and the belief in it is unscriptural, let us take it out of our hymnbooks. Why sing in our hymnbooks what we deny in our lives?
But if it is true, then let us begin to expect wondrously that He will “Fill Me Now” with Himself. Are you with me on this? Is this not more than anything else—that God should give you full increased measures of His blessed Holy Spirit to be your Comforter, your Mentor, your Inner Teacher, your Guide, to give you an unction from the Holy One? While your teacher is teaching your intellect, the Holy One is teaching your heart, to keep, rebuke, encourage and comforts you—that is what He is here for. Oh, we have neglected Him so shamefully. We have forgotten Him days without end. Let us not do it any more.Let us expect Him to fil us.
[This message was delivered at Pierce Chapel, Wheaton College, on the evening of October 2, 1952]
I pray that this year will be a year that we’ll grow to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in us, guiding us to be at the right place and right time!
Enjoy the journey, God’s beloved!
Grace IS with us!=D
No comments:
Post a Comment