How to Receive

Rom. v. 11, 17.

There are two remarkable verses in Romans V. which employ this word “receive,” and which hold the key of the richest, deepest, and most blessed life. The one tells us that we should 7’eceive the at-one-ment, and the other that we should receive the abundance of God’s grace and reign in this mortal life as we hope one day to reign in the eternal life of heaven. We must not only ask, but receive; we must pass from seeking to finding; we must never leave the door till it has been opened to us.

There is a difference between supplication or entreaty and this attitude of our spirit. In the former we implore God to give us what we suppose can only be gained by the urgency of our entreaty; in the latter we take what, before we asked, God had placed within our reach. The beautiful garments had been prepared — it was for us to don them; the 80 armor was at hand — it was for us to gird it on; the water of life was gushing at our feet — it was for us to dip it up.

It might be feared that words like these would lead some to spend less time in the prayer-closet than formerly. This might appear in theory, but it is not so in practice. On the contrary, there is more interest in our daily converse with God when we find that we are able to do definite transacting with Him, bring from His presence blessed and evident gifts, and store spiritual force in those sacred moments. The space once occupied by the vague entreaty or the vagrant impulse is now filled with adoration, or with thanksgiving for blessing received, or with intercession for others, and our heart becomes an altar from which the clear flame is ever ascending, with as little as possible of the more selfish and personal element.

It is noticeable that this word is most often used of the Holy Spirit. Comparatively rarely are we told to ask for Him; much more often are we bidden to receive Him by a living faith. “He breathed on them, and said. Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”

Let us notice some conditions of the faculty of receptiveness.

I. We 7nust be still before God. The life around is in this age preeminently one of rush and effort. It is the age of the express- train and electric telegraph. Years are crowded into months and weeks into days. This feverish haste threatens the religious life. The stream has already entered our churches and stirred their quiet pools. Meetings crowd on meetings. The same energetic souls are found at them all, and engaged in many good works besides. But we must beware that we do not substitute in our own experience the active for the contemplative, the valley for the mountain-top. Neither can with safety be divorced from the other. The sheep must go in and out. The blood must come back to the heart to be recharged with oxygen before being impelled again to the extremities.

We must make time to be alone with God. The closet and the shut door are indispensable. We must lose the glare of the sunny piazza, that we may see the calm angel figures bending above the altar. We must escape the din of the world to become accustomed to the accents of the still small voice. Like David, we must sit before the Lord. Happy are they who have an observatory in their heart-house, to which they can often retire beneath the great arch of eternity, turning their telescope to the mighty constellations that burn beyond life’s fever, and reaching regions where the breath of human applause or censure cannot follow.

It is only in such moments that the best spiritual gifts will loom on our lqsion, or we shall have grace to receive them. It is impossible to rush into God’s presence, catch up anything we fancy, and run off with it. To attempt this will end in mere delusion and disappointment. Nature will not unveil her rarest beauty to the chance tourist. Pictures which are the result of a life of work do not disclose their secret loveHness to the saunterer down a gallery. No character can be read at a glance. And God’s best cannot be ours apart from patient waiting in His holy presence. The superficial may be put off with a parable, a pretty story, but it is not given such to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

2. We must be possessed by an eager desire. There is a difference between wishing for a thing and willing it. We pass a shop-window filled with choice and expensive articles, and say lightly, “I should like to have this or the other.” But the mere wish does not suffice to give us what we like, because it is not strong enough to induce us to part with our money to obtain it. In a single afternoon we wish for a hundred differing objects, and forget them all within an hour. But how different to this is the fixed determination, the settled purpose, of the will I The lad catches sight of some equipment for his sport, the student of a precious book, the lover of a rare and jeweled ornament which he covets for the one he loves. In each case the will is wrought upon till it resolves to acquire at any cost. Then privation and self-sacrifice and delay are cheerfully encountered. Nothing can extinguish or slacken the determination that follows hard after its quest. So with us. We must hunger and thirst; we must be possessed by strong and passionate desire; we must be resolved to use even violence to take the kingdom of heaven. The expressions of Scripture are all so intense: the hart pants for the water-brooks; Jacob will not let the angel go; the widow troubles the unjust judge day and night. We too shall have this strong desire if we will let the Spirit of God produce it within our hearts. But the merchantman must be bent on seeking and finding the goodly pearl. We must strive to enter the strait gate. We must agonize, to use the aposde’s word, as the athlete for the crown. 3. We must have a promise in our ha?id. This is the true method of dealing with God. Search the Bible for some holy word which exactly fits your case. It will not be hard to find one, since it abounds with personal incidents culled from every conceivable variety of life. Then, when it has been discovered, and perhaps borne in on you by the divine Spirit, take it with you into the presence of God, or place your finger upon it as you pass into the presence-chamber with hushed and reverent step. Every place which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours; such was the olden promise. And its counterpart is realized when we can put our foot down on some definite word of God and reverently say, “I ask that Thou wouldest fulfil this for me. Do as Thou hast said. Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. Let me know all Thy meaning hidden here.”

All spiritual things are ours in Jesus, but they are only revealed to us one by one as we need. Our need is intended to make us look up for and claim the blessing intended to meet it; and the promise is God’s invitation to come to God for it.

4. Reckon on God. If you desire spiritual gifts, not for your own gratification, but for the glory of Christ; if, so far as you know, your heart is rid of evil and your life of sinful habit; if you perceive that the promise is for you, because you are not only a son, but an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; if you feel an eager desire that God has instilled to lead you to this very point — then open your mouth wide and believe that God fills it; unshutter every window and believe that the light enters; throw wide every aperture and believe that you have received what you needed and sought. According to your faith it shall be unto you. What you have been able to take by faith, that you count upon. You may not have the emotion you expected, nor the sense of blessing you looked for, but you will have God, God’s gift, God’s answer to your faith. And you may go your way and reckon that you have what you sought. Then in some moment of need, or when you least expect it, or when engaged in wonted toils, some glad consciousness of joy or peace, or nearness to Christ, or power over others will be the evidence that you did receive.