How to Obtain Fulness of Power in Christian Life and Service

“Power belongeth unto God.” (Ps. 62: 11.) The great reservoir of the power that belongeth unto God, is His own Word — the Bible. If we wish to make it ours, we must go to that book. Yet people abound in the church who are praying for power and neglecting the Bible. Men are longing to have power for fruitbearing in their own lives and yet forget that Jesus has said: “The seed is the Word of God.” (Luke 8: 11.) They are longing to have power to melt the cold heart and break the stubborn will, and yet forget that God has said: “Is not my i word like as fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23: 29.) If we are to obtain fulness of power in life and service we must feed upon the Word of God. There is no other food so strengthening. If we will not take time to study the Bible we cannot have power, any more than we can have physical power if we will not take time to eat nutritious

food,
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Let us see what the Word of God has power
to do:

!•. Firs t of all, the Word of God h as power to convict of sin. In Acts 2: 37 we read: “Now

when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” If we look back and see what it was they heard and that produced this deep conviction, we find that it was simply the Word of God. If you will read Peter’s sermon, you will find it one of the most Biblical sermons ever preached. It was Scripture from beginning to end. It was, then, the Word of God, carried home by the Spirit of God, that pricked them to their heart. If you wish to produce conviction, you must give men the Word of God. I heard a man pray some time ago this prayer: “O God, convict us of sin.” A very good prayer, but unless you bring your soul in contact with that instrument which God has appointed for the conviction of sin, you will not have conviction of sin. If you wish to produce conviction in others, you must use the Word to do it. Not long ago a fine-looking young man came into our inquiry*room. I said to him: “Are you a Christian?” “No, sir.” “Why not?” “I think Christianity is a first-rate thing, but I

an have not much feeling about this.” “But,” I said, “do you not know that you are a sinner?” He said: “Yes, sir, I suppose I am; but I am not very much of a sinner. I am a pretty good sort of a fellow.” I replied: “So, my friend, you have not very much conviction of sin. I have something in my hand that is a divinely appointed instrument to produce conviction of sin.” I opened my Bible to Matt. 22: 37, 38 and asked him to read it. He read, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” “What commandment is that?” I asked. He replied: “The first and great commandment.” “In the light of that, what must be the first and great sin?” He replied: “It must be to neglect to keep that commandment.” “Have you kept it?” The Spirit of God took it home to his heart then and there. It was not long before we were kneeling, and he asking God for mercy through Christ.

2. In the next place, the Word of God has power to regenerate. In 1 Peter 1: 23 we read: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” In James 1: 18 we read: “Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.” If you wish to be born again, the way is very simple. Take the Word of God concerning Christ crucified and risen, and drop it into your heart by meditation upon it. Look to God by His Holy Spirit to quicken it, believe it with the heart, and the work is done. If you wish to see someone else born again, give him the Word of God. The

process of regeneration on our side is the simplest thing in the world. On God’s side it is mysterious, but with that we have nothing to do. The process is simply this: the human heart is the soil; you and I are sowers; the Word of God is the seed which we drop into that soil; God quickens it by His Holy Spirit and gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6); the heart closes around the Word by faith, and the new life is the product. The new birth is simply the impartation of a new nature, the impartation of God’s nature. But how are we made partakers of God’s nature? Read 2 Pet. 1:4 (K. V.) and the context: “That through these (exceeding great and precious promises) ye may become partakers of the divine nature.” That is all there is to it. The Word of God is the seed out of which the divine nature springs up in the human soul.

3. Again, the Word of God ha s power to produce faith. In Rom. 10: 17 we read: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” You can never get faith by merely praying; you can never get it by any effort of the will; you can never get it by trying to pump it up in any way. Faith is the product of a certain cause, and that cause is the Word of God It is so, for example, with saving faith. Suppose you want a man to have saving faith. Simply give him something definite from God’s Word upon which he can rest. The Philippian jailor asked: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) and Paul answered: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.” But Paul did not stop there. Read the 32d verse: “And they spake unto him the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house.” They did not merely tell the Philippian jailor to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then leave him there floundering in the dark without giving him something to believe, or something for his faith to rest upon. They gave that which God has ordained to produce faith. It is at this point that we often make a mistake. We tell people, “Jie lieve, believe, believe,” but do not sh ow them how; do not giv e them anything defi nite to believe. The Biblical way and the intelligent way is, when you tell a man to believe, to give him something to believe. Give him, for example, Is. 53:6, and thus hold up Christ crucified; or give him 1 Pet. 2: 24. Here he has something for his faith to rest upon. Faith must have a foundation. Faith can not float in thin air. It is pitiable to see men told to believe, to believe, to believe, and then given nothing to rest their faith upon.

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