How to Receive the Comforter
‘‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” John 20.
THE first condition of receiving the Spirit is a deep and intense desire.
An eastern caravan W3,s overtaken once in the failure of the supply of water. The accustomed fountains were all dried, the oasis was a desert, and they halted an hour before sunset to find, after a day of scorching heat, that they were perishing for want of water. Vainly they explored the usual wells, for they were all dry. Dismay was upon all faces and despair in all hearts, when one of the ancient men approached the sheik and counselled him to unloose two beautiful harts that he was conveying home as a present to his bride, and let them scour the desert in search of water. Their tongues were protruding with thirst, and their bosoms heaving with distress. But as they were led out to the borders of the camp and then set free on die boundless plain, they lifted up their heads on ligh, and sniffed the air with distended nostrils, and then, with unerring instinct, with course as straight as an arrow, and speed as swift as the wind, they darted off across the desert. Swift horsemen followed close behind, and an hour or two later hastened back with the glad tidings that water had been found, and the camp moved with shouts of rejoicing to the happily discovered fountains.
So still there is a hart that can ever find the springs of living water. It is the heart that hungers and thirsts for God.
2. The empty are always filled. ‘’He hath filled the hungry with good things, but the rich He hath sent empty away.’’ ‘‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Every great blessing begins with a great sacrifice, a great severance, a great dispossessing. “He brought them out that He might bring them in.”
3. The open heart shall be filled. “Open thy mouth wide and 1 will fill it.” We know what it is ror the flower-cup to close its petals and also to open LO the sunlight, the dew and the refreshing shower. The heart has its susceptibilities and receptive sensibilities, but often it is so tightened up with unbelief, doubt, fear, and self-consciousness that it cannot take in the love which God is waiting to pour out. Like the mother who found her long-lost child after years of separation, but the child could not recognize the mother, and as she tried to awaken its response and to pour out the full tides of her bursting heart and found no recognition, but only the dull stare of strangeness and suspicion, her heart broke in grief and agony. So the heart of God has more to give us than we can receive.
4. Again, we are called by waiting upon the Lord in prayer, and especially in continued and
prayer. It was after they had waited upon the Lord that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Prayer is not only an asking but also a receiving. Many of us do not wait long enough before the Lord to get filled. You can take your breakfast in half an hour, but you cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit as quickly-
5. Service for God and for others is perhaps the most efifectual condition of receiving continually the fullness of the Spirit. As we pour out the blessing God will pour it in. And our blessing should always be twice blessed.
Letting go is twice possessing
Would you double every blessing,
Pass it on.
Above all the best way to be filled with the Spirit is to be true to the great trust for which He was given — the Evangelization of the world. We shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you and ye shall be witness unto Me... unto the uttermost part of the world. Perhaps this is the secret of our poverty — that we have tried to hoard our blessing, and let the world perish through our selfishness. Freely ye have received; freely give
My soul, let down the empty vessels
Of all thy need and sin and sorrow
Into the Well of God’s Great Fulness,
And of His boundless blessing borrow.
And most of all. He loves to help us
To bless and help our needy brother;
He answers first the prayers we offer
Not for ourselves, but one another.
And oh, with such a Friend behind us
Let us not fear to scatter ’round us
His grace to all the lost and suffering.
And share with them the love that found us!