Evangelism and the Holy Spirit

No discussion of evangelism would be complete without reference to the Holy Spirit. Too often is he ignored in our planning and our service, which is an error fatal to results.

With regard to his relation to the individual life, of two things we may be assured.

First: That he is the secret of real success; not human ingenuity or strength of intellect, though both of these are not lightly to be esteemed.” A spiritually controlled life is not a condition in which the natural faculties of the soul are crushed and exterminated. A friend once told me that in the earlier stages of his Christian life he was greatly troubled by a gift of irrepressible humor that God had given him. When he sought full consecration to God he wondered whether this gift must be crushed out of him altogether. It troubled him very much, and no doubt it was a danger. With all gifts there are accompanying dangers. My friend 50

sought entirely to crucify and repress the tendency, but in vain, it was a constant trouble to him. At last he consulted an aged and experienced servant of God, who said to him, My dear brother, do not crucify it, but consecrate it. Let it be completely under the control of the Spirit of God, and he will know what use to make of it. It is a part of your nature, and not necessarily sinful. He can deliver you from an unwise use of it, and turn it into safe channels for his own service.’ From that day the faculty was not a hindrance but a help.”

The lesson we must learn is that there is power only in fullness and that there is fullness only in the yielded life. Somewhere I have seen four steps suggested as leading to power.

(First) What God claims I yield.

(Second) What I yield he accepts.

(Third) What he accepts he fills.

(Fourth) What he fills he uses.

Second: We are assured of the cooperation of the Holy Spirit only when we give testimony to Christ, and at no other time. Disloyalty to him, trifling with him, bar the way to the coming of the Holy Spirit. If you would have Pattern P»ycr life.” yours to be a spirit filled life, observe the following:

First: Acknowledge that you are without that which God has promised to give you as his child; that you are not in possession of that which others seem to have, if indeed this be true.

Second: Ask him for that which is your birthright privilege and remember that what Christ received as the head, he received in trust for the body, and we are a part of the body.

Third: Accept from God his gracious gift, or in other words take the fullness of power from the hand of the ascended Saviour as you took the gift of pardon from the hand of the crucified Saviour and that is by faith.

Fourth: Act on the strength of the reception of a new impartation of his fullness and life, and the inevitable result may be an enlarged vision and an increased blessing.

With reference to the Holy Spirit and the matter of Bible study we must not neglect him. He inspired men to write and he alone can inspire us to read and to appropriate his teaching. No one can really study the Bible with profit unless he observe at least two rules.

The Bible must be approached reverently.

Come to it in one way and it is like a sensitive plant, its leaves will close and its fragrance will refuse to flow forth. Approach it reverently and it is sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. It is like water from the rock, it is light in our darkness, it is manna to our hungry souls.

For the cultivation of the spirit of evangelism in the matter of our Bible reading the following helpful suggestions were once made by an English preacher.

First: Study through a passage of Scripture or a story at your morning Bible reading.

Second: Never rise from your knees after you have gotten your message from God’s word until it is a part of your very life.

Third: Work out in your daily experience the truth which he has given you at your morning feasting.

Fourth: Write down upon the margin of your Bible what God gives you as a special revelation.

Fifth: Pass on to those who are like-minded with yourself those bits of spiritual truth which God is so ready to give to his children, or to put it more tersely Study it through. Pray it in. Work it out. Put it down. Pass it on.

With reference to the prayer life and the Holy Spirit, to ignore him is to hinder prayer, to hinder prayer is to be a stranger to the true spirit of evangelism. He is the teacher in the school of prayer; he is the guide into the deep things of God; he is the revealer of hidden mysteries.

Prayer had a very prominent place in the early Qiurch, not only as a means of promoting spiritual life, but also as a force to be used on behalf of the work of evangelization. The mighty display of power at Pentecost was ushered in by prayer. Workers were appointed only after prayer. When they were to be sent forth the Church assembled for special prayer. The great foreign mission movement was inaugurated in prayer. If persecution came, the Christians met to pray. One of the two reasons for choosing deacons was that the Apostles — the leaders of the Church — might give themselves to prayer. The more carefully the subject is studied, the more apparent it be that what was accomplished in the AposlAgt was largely due to the constant emof the hidden and omnipotent force “The Spirit of God guided and empowered the workers and thus governed and energized the entire missionary enterprise of the Church. He designated and separated the workers and sent them forth unto their work. He clothed them with irresistible power. He opened and closed doors. He led them in times of perplexity. In his might they carried the gospel message throughout the length and breadth of the vast empire of Rome and even into the regions beyond.”

Everything vital to the success of the world’s evangelization hinges on prayer. Are thousands of missionaries and tens of thousands of native workers needed? “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest, that he send forth laborers into his harvest.” Is a vast increase in gifts required to prosecute adequately the enterprise? Prayer is the only power that will influence Grod’s people to give with purity of motive and with real sacrifice of self. Prayer alone will overcome the gigantic difficulties which confront the workers in every field.

Mr. Robert E. Speer, in his pamphlet, “Prayer and Missions,” which has done so much to

The Evangelization of the World in This Generation.”

awaken the Church to prayer, goes to the heart of the subject, “The evangelization of the world in this generation depends iirst of all upon a revival of prayer. Deeper than the need of men; deeper, far than the need for money; aye, deep down at the bottom of our spiritless life is the need for the forgotten secret of prevailing, world-wide prayer.... The condition and consequence of such prayers as this is a new outpouring of the Holy Ghost.” I The Evangelization of the World in This Generation.”