Christian Resources — Alan Redpath

The Christian’s Resources for the Task

Now, in this exciting and wonderful project of Key 73, I thought to relate my messages night by night to this project. We've talked together about the Christian's responsibility to be a light that shines for Christ.

The Christian is the only person who can reflect the Lord Jesus to others and bring light to bear in the darkness of this world. We spoke about the Christian renunciation, that he must live in the power of the Holy Spirit and renounce the life of self in order that the Spirit of God may really break through.

We spoke last night about the Christian requirement, the Word of God, the right and wrong use of the Bible in study. I must say, I think you've got a marvelous local press here, or a press agent. I've never in my life had messages so fully reported as they have been in Thailand.

And this is a wonderful means of publicity throughout the whole city. I think that our good friend Nelson Clyde is very largely responsible for this, and I would like personally to thank him for it. It means a great deal.

Now tonight I want to speak in my final message to you about the Christian's resources for the task. It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, serve the Lord. And I want to speak to you, as God shall help me, about the Spirit-filled life.

Life by the Holy Spirit

For it is only the Spirit-filled Christian who confronts and can confront unashamedly the world of today with a message of life and power and reality. I saw, by the way, in a magazine lately, that in the average Christian life of 75 years, we spend 25 years asleep, 19 years at work, 6 years traveling, 7 and a half years dressing, 9 years watching television, 6 years eating, 4 years being sick, and 6 months in devotions.

Those are pretty shocking figures. I wonder how anybody computed them, but somehow they hit you between the eyes, don't you? Don't they? If we live like that, do you think we really believe in the Holy Spirit at all?

With so many people, God the Father is a way up there, and Jesus Christ somewhere else, and the Holy Spirit a sort of second cousin. But He, the Holy Spirit, is God in the Christian. And this is the one, and the only one, by whom we can fulfill the purpose for which God has given us life and breath.

Far too many Christians live on the right side of Calvary, but the wrong side of Pentecost. Too many of us are on the right side of pardon, but the wrong side of power. The right side of forgiveness, and the wrong side of fellowship.

And it is God's purpose in redeeming us and saving us and coming to live in our hearts that we should be on the right side of both. You remember that the Lord Jesus, in that wonderful conversation with the woman at the well, said, if you knew who it is that's speaking to you, you'd have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water.

John chapter 4. A little later on in the same conversation, The water that I shall give you shall be in you a fountain springing up into everlasting life. The Living Bible puts it, watering you daily with eternal life.

I like that. Fresh supplies every day from heaven of living water. And later in the same gospel, in chapter 7, the Lord Jesus stood at the gate of the temple and said, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.

He that believeth on me out of his innermost being shall flow. Not a drop, not a trickle, not a stream, not even a river, but rivers of living water. Now in those three texts, you have life, abundant life, and overflowing life.

Life, abundant life, and overflowing life. In which category would you put yourself right now? Of course, if you're a Christian at all, you cannot be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. You cannot be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit.

And the most important matter for us to get settled at the start is that we know Jesus as Lord and Savior, and are born of the Spirit, and so we possess his life indwelling our hearts. That means forgiveness of sin by virtue of his blood.

And it is a beginning, a wonderful beginning, but it's only the beginning. There's a tremendous need in every one of our lives tonight for more of God. We don't go to the fountain to drink often enough, and we don't stay long enough to have our thirst quenched.

Hunger for More of God

Dr. A .W. Tozer, and in his book, In Pursuit of God, he says this, let me quote to you, Everything is made today to center upon the initial act of accepting Christ. We are not expected to crave after any further revelation of God to our souls.

We have been snared in the coils of a spurious logic, which insists that if we have found him, we need no more seek him. This is set before us as the last word in orthodoxy. The heart theology of a great army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of scripture, which would have sounded strange to Augustine, Rutherford, and David Brennan.

Oh, that the language of John Samuel Mansell was in our hearts again, I hunger and I thirst. Jesus, my manna be, ye living waters burst out of the rock for me, for still the desert lies my thirsty soul before.

Oh, living waters, rise within me evermore. Speaks A .W. Tozer, he that is dead yet speaketh, and this rings a bell in my own heart, and I find a strange echo there to all that he is saying. Far too often in our lives, if we're honest, instead of victory, it's defeat.

Instead of real satisfaction in Jesus, it's hunger and dissatisfaction and frustration. And instead of advancing in our witness, we're losing ground. We've lost the boldness and the courage and the daring of the early church.

I'm not a Methodist, but I love Wesley's hymns. That some of his best hymns have been conveniently, I think that would be the word, omitted from many of our recently published hymn books, whose title will remain anonymous.

But do you know this hymn of Wesley's? Do you remember it? Jesus, thine all-victorious love, shedded my soul abroad, then shall my heart no longer rove, rooted and fixed in God. Refining fire, go through my heart, illuminate my soul, scatter thy light through every part, and sanctify the whole.

Oh, that in me the sacred fire might now begin to glow. Burn up the dross of base desire and make the mountains flow. Oh, thou at Pentecost, who thou at Pentecost didst fall, do thou my sins consume, come Holy Ghost, on thee I call Spirit of burning cup.

If a man prays like that, or talks like that, or preaches like that, today he's a wild Pentecostalist. And we have exchanged the false fire of fanaticism for the no fire of orthodoxy, and we're bankrupt.

I'm terribly concerned that we should follow the track of the word of God in dealing with this subject tonight. For more than any other subject in Bible, it has been suffered from unwise handling. The devil has seen to that.

But I'm not going to allow the fear of the counterfeit to keep me back from reality. I preached on Sunday morning in a church in Tala, in which there were many people with hungry hearts. And I preached to them as a man with a hungry heart, who's hungering for more of God every day.

I can never exhaust all of Him until I see Him face to face. There's always more of Him to experience and to know in my life. And my life's ambition has always been not that I might know truth, but that I might know Him.

That's what Paul's ambition was, that I might know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His servant. And if God has promised me something in His word which can turn defeat into victory, dryness into freshness, self-centeredness into Christ-centeredness, despair sometimes into delight, not to make me smug, but to make me vital for the kingdom, I long for all that God has for me in Jesus.

And isn't it a wonderful thing that He promises in Psalm 107, verse 9? He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry with goodness. Not madness, but goodness. Now let me just clear an acre of ground.

Before I start, if you know what I mean. And of course, we're going to go through some controversial territory tonight. I don't enjoy that at all. Because though it may be that I love all of you dearly, it may be by the end of this service you won't be loving me very much.

I hope, however, I hope, however, if we disagree on minor points, we'll find the same burden, the same urge, and the same hunger at the root of our heart. Let me therefore begin by saying that some people teach that a spirit-filled life is something apart from the presence of Jesus.

That the fullness of the spirit is something different. And that the evidence of it will be seen in ecstatic utterances, in amazing miracles, and in outstanding success in witness. At once, of course, we come straight against or into touch with the charismatic movement.

Speaking in Tongues and the Charismatic Movement

I think I mentioned one night this week already, I have been in about 45 countries preaching the word of God. And every country I've been in, I have come across this movement. Which majors on the gift of the spirit, especially speaking in tongues and in healing.

Now, many people say, don't touch it. Full of the devil. It's so divisive. Hold it, my friend, hold it. Who's responsible for the division? I believe the answer to that question is twofold. First, people who say, this is not for our day.

This gift of speaking in tongues was finished at Pentecost. It is all of the devil. And we must always take a stand against it. Now, people like that are the cause of division. For one thing, Paul himself spoke in tongues.

And he told the Corinthian church, forbid not to speak in tongues. He acknowledged the gift. And in the light of his teaching in 1 Corinthians, you can't possibly say that this gift was eliminated at Pentecost.

As a matter of fact, what happened at Pentecost was one thing. And what happened in Corinth was another. At Pentecost, representatives from 15 different nations heard the disciples preach in the gospel in their own language.

Here, God was initiating a new day, a new dispensation. The coming of God the Holy Spirit. And here was the dramatic announcement of his coming. And the word was preached so that all present in Jerusalem at that time could understand it.

There was no need of an interpreter. But in Corinth, it was an unknown tongue in which people were speaking. And it required interpretation. These two things were entirely different. You cannot, cannot biblically assert that this gift has been withdrawn from the church.

Moreover, in these 45 countries, I have in every one of them, no exaggeration, visited with and spoken to literally hundreds of people who have come into life through the exercise and receiving of this gift.

To whom Jesus has become so wonderfully real. And he's much more precious. And their lives are much more real and much more vital and much more open and much more tender and loving than they have been before.

I've seen so much reality in this that I cannot possibly come down and say this is all a devil. And I don't think it's biblical to do so. Having said that, let me say this. There are people in this charismatic movement who say, in order to be filled with the Spirit, you must speak in an unknown tongue.

Now hold it again. I do not consider that is biblical. It's a confusion in thought between the gifts of the Spirit, which are distributed according to the will of God, 1 Corinthians 12, and the fullness of the Spirit, which hasn't anything to do with gifts, but has everything to do with character.

The major emphasis on the New Testament is not on gifts, but on Christlikeness. Speaking in tongues was that which we all must have to enter into fullness of life. Then, may I respectfully suggest to you, it would be the major emphasis in every one of Paul's letters, instead of which it isn't referred to in any of them, except one, 1 Corinthians.

And then only in two chapters, 12 and 14. And then always with a view to keeping it in hand, dampening it down. Obviously, speaking in tongues was no mark of spiritual maturity. For the Corinthian church was the most carnal church in the New Testament, but they had the gift.

So when a dear lady a little while ago came up to me and said to me after service, Oh, what a pity you haven't got it. I said to her, beg your pardon, ma 'am. She said, what a pity you haven't got it.

I said, what do you mean? Oh, she said, if you'd only come to our church, you'd get it. All the gifts are in operation there. You'd get it. My dear lady, I said to her, my dear lady, I'm not looking for it.

I'm looking for him. Besides, I said to her, it takes me all my time to speak right with the one tongue I have got, without having an unknown tongue. Now, my dear friends at Dallas, I do not say all that to cause offense.

I say it simply to present a balanced view. And if someone here speaks in tongues, God bless you. And I trust that it has made Jesus so wonderfully real that he fills your heart and your life, and you witness to him and not to your experience.

And that you don't go around insisting that everybody else must have your gift, because nobody can. And on the other hand, if you don't speak in tongues and you think the whole things of the devil don't cause division, by that, let's learn to love each other, even though we disagree, and rejoice in every Christian who has entered into life.

You, there are, oh, there are 431 people here tonight, approximately. Don't spend the rest of the evening counting them, but I think that's about right. Listen, there are 431 miracles. I hope every one of us came a different way to Jesus.

If you could stand up and give 431 testimonies, you'd all tell how you came, different ways and different circumstances. And you all came to the cross in different ways. So it is that everybody comes in different ways into fullness of life.

The Fruit and Character of the Spirit-Filled Life

But you all have to come there, if you're going to witness in power. You see, the evidence of a spirit-filled life, as we noted, I hope, in our reading, is not gift, but character. Galatians 5 .22 says the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

Love, joy, peace, that's my relationship to God. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, that's my relationship to other people. Faith, meekness, self-control, that's my relationship to myself. But fruit, and it's all character.

I have chosen you, said Jesus, that you should bring forth fruit, and your fruit should remain. Character, stability of a spirit-filled life. And Ephesians chapter 5, that lovely portion that was read to us, let me just note it with you, in the Living Bible.

It says in verse 18, Don't drink too much wine, for many evils lie along that path. Be filled instead with the Holy Spirit, and controlled by him. Verse 19, Talk with each other much about the Lord, quoting psalms and hymns and singing sacred songs, making music in your heart to the Lord.

Always give thanks for everything. To our God and Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, honor Christ by submitting to each other. You could put four words, as I have done, down my margin here.

Evidence is of a spirit-filled life. Are one, joyful. Three, thankful. Four, humble. And they're all character. Vocal, talking with each other much about the Lord. Of course, the spirit-filled Christian can't stop talking.

The fountain's bubbling over. Quoting hymns and singing sacred songs, making music in your heart to the Lord. Isn't that a happy verse? The happy, the Christian's got a joy deep, deep down in his heart.

That goes far deeper than happiness. Happiness depends on what happens. But joy is far, far deeper than that. J-O-Y, Jesus, others, yourself. That's joy. Always giving thanks to God for everything. Ooh, that's tough.

I can give thanks to the Lord sometimes for something, but always giving thanks to God, our Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, for everything. Ooh, that takes some doing. I remember Paul Rees. You know, Dr. Paul Rees, dear soul, of World Vision, lives in Minneapolis.

He told me, and told several people once, that he was, there's a gentleman, a friend of his, a Christian fellow, who was going from Birmingham, Alabama, to Chicago. Thank you very much, to Chicago. And he was sitting in the bus alone.

It was a very hot day, about 100 degrees. And he was waiting in this bus terminal. And, ooh, it was stifling. And presently, a lady got in and sat down beside him. And if I may say so, she was rather a large lady.

And she oozed onto his section of the seat. And presently, three of her children joined her and sat on her knee. And this poor little man was squashed into the corner of this seat. And he thought to himself, my, Chicago's an awful long way.

This, this round me, I must leave a lot to your imagination, but it was pretty grim. And just then, he remembered that he'd got a verse in the Bible, that morning, in his devotion. This verse, giving thanks to God, our Father, in all things, in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And he remembered that verse. And he said, oh God, oh Lord, what can I be thankful to you for right now? And then he thought, Lord Jesus, I'm so thankful this woman is not my wife. Now, if you don't like that story, that's Dr. Paul Rees, not me.

But see what I mean? It's a graphic illustration of the fact that a spirit-filled life is a thankful life. And you can only thank God for everything when your faith is deeply rooted in the sovereignty of God.

Deeply rooted in the sovereignty of God. Then you're always thankful for everything. And let me say this again, that many people tell us, teach us, that the fullness of the spirit must always come as a sudden experience.

Later than conversion, after a distinct time of waiting on God and expectation. Now, it's perfectly true that the fullness of the spirit in our lives produces an experience so different from anything known before, that it seems absolutely different.

In fact, it's like being born again, again. If I may be so untheological. Just born again, all over again. To which I have had mental offense and agreement come alive. And the one thing that matters is that I should get on the ball and begin obeying them.

But the mistake, the mistake is made when that which is frequent is laid down as necessary. There's always a risk of trouble when Christians make their own experience the standard for other people. You've got to go through what I have been through in order to be right.

And in order to be filled with the spirit. This is not a second blessing. Do I believe in a second blessing? Certainly. I believe in a second, and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, and a sixth. A day without a blessing would be a miserable day.

That God expects nothing from him except failure. But God has provided him with the Holy Spirit that he need not fail. That's a crisis. That takes the sweat and drudgery out of Christian life. And it turns it from drudgery to luxury.

You're not living at the last edge of your resources then. You're living at the infinite resources of Jesus all the time. And yet with all I must ask you most earnestly the question that Paul asked this Ephesian church.

Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? In that deep, powerful, transforming... I've cleared my acre of ground. That's only the introduction and the time is now ten to nine. Keep believing.

If you can't stay to the end, good night. God bless you. I do love you still. It's been nice to have you. However, if you can stay, I'll be so grateful and so thankful. I want to present to you four simple propositions about the Holy Spirit based on the Word of God.

The Fullness of the Spirit and the New Birth

And the first one is this. The Bible teaches there is a fullness of the Spirit which is not identical with the new birth. May I repeat that? There is a fullness of the Spirit which is not identical with the new birth.

A man may be born again, may believe and live, but be far from full. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 1 Corinthians 12, 3.

No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12, 13. By one Spirit we have all, all these Corinthian tragedies, little wrecks of spiritual lives, carnal Christians. We have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body.

Major Thomas, a great friend of mine and of yours I know, came to Moody Church during my pastorate and preached a sermon entitled, Unsaved Believers. My, it took us about three months to get over that.

It rocked the whole place but it was dead right. Everything in their head but nothing in their heart. The danger of having your doctrine straight and your heart all in a mess, devoid of life and power.

But you can be a believer without having the Holy Spirit, but you can't be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit. But to have the Spirit and to be filled with the Spirit are two different things.

You see Egypt, for instance, always has the Nile. But it waits every year for the Nile to overflow. And having the Nile is one thing and having the overflow is another. That overflow changes the desert into a garden.

And waste into fruitfulness, disaster into abundance. And that's exactly what the fullness of the Spirit does for a Christian. It turns the desert wilderness life into a garden. It turns disaster into abundance and waste into fruitfulness.

Now I see no reason from the Word of God why the fullness of the Spirit should not come at conversion. As in the case, for example, of Cornelius and his household in Acts chapter 10 and verse 44. But this seems to have been exceptional.

In John 20 verse 22, Jesus breathed on the disciples and they received the Holy Spirit. But in Acts 2 and verse 4 they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul, a converted man, on the Damascus road, surrendered, believing, praying, wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit till Ananias came, Acts 9 chapter 17.

And these Christians at Ephesus, they lacked so much evidence of reality. And they were so sort of dull and dry and sort of uninteresting people that Paul said, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

I wonder if he asked that question if he was here tonight. I wonder what he'd say about us. About us Baptists and Methodists, Presbyterians, all the rest. What would he say? Have you received the Holy Spirit?

You don't look any different. You haven't got any joy. You hear Christians saying, I've got joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. I've got faces by the mile long. Look absolutely miserable. What a miserable bunch an average congregation is.

There's no joy. There's no lift. There's no enthusiasm. There's no thrill. There's no reality about it. Ephesians 5, 18 is written to Christians. Be filled with the Spirit. And if that wasn't a command for Christian people, it wouldn't appear in the Bible.

Something following conversion. Corinthian Christians were carnal, but they were born again. Indwelt, but mastered by the self-life. And if we're honest, we know the agony of that. Perhaps I could best illustrate what I'm getting at by a little homey illustration.

I think you know, some of you, that we have two daughters. And one is 10 years older than the other. The other is a sort of postscript. I remember one day when the older one was a teenager. And the other little one was only, I think, about four.

I was in my study in London on a Monday morning. I had a bit of a Monday morning feeling, but I felt my sermons had been so hopeless the previous day. Preachers understand that, I'm sure. And I heard my wife say to the kid, run upstairs and tell Daddy breakfast's ready.

So I ran upstairs, and the one with long legs got in first. She came into my study, rushed across the floor, jumped under me, put my arm around my neck, and said, Daddy, breakfast's ready. And postscript came about a minute afterwards, puffing and panting, and got as far as the door, and looked inside, and Big Sister said something to her which wasn't very nice.

She said, you needn't come any farther. I've got all the rest of Daddy. And I saw a little lip begin to quiver, a little tear come into her eye. So I stuck out a spare knee and held out my arm. I said, come on, darling.

And so she ran in, tolled up, and jumped on my knee. And I hugged her tight, pulled her right in. And then she said to Big Sister, not in a very Christian spirit, she said to her, and she was only about six inches away, she said, you may have all there is of Daddy, but Daddy's got all there is of me.

That's what it is to be filled with the Spirit, the crisis, when not only do I have all of Jesus, but he has all of me. That's a crisis. Then you don't receive Jesus on the installment plan. When you're baptized into Christ, you have all of Jesus.

But the trouble is, he hasn't got all of you. And he wants room to maneuver, room to manipulate, room to work, room to operate, room to be in control, room to set up his kingdom, room to go into business, room to go out through you to each other.

The Spirit’s Continuing Fullness

My second proposition, the first one, if you've got notes, there's such a thing as the fullness of the Spirit that is not identical with the new birth. The second, the fullness of the Spirit is not a once-and-for-all experience, but an increasing habit of life.

You'll find many references in the Acts of the Apostles where those who were filled at Pentecost were filled again. They were filled as they prayed, Acts 4 .31, and as they suffered, Acts 13 .32. Often you read of Paul filled with the Spirit.

This was an increasing habit of life, fullness which distinguishes a man's character and atmosphere in which he lives. There is no such thing as a once-and-for-all fullness of the Spirit. It's a continuous appropriation of a continuous supply from Jesus Christ himself.

A moment by moment faith, in a moment by moment cleansing and filling. At the moment I begin to believe, praise the Lord, at that moment I begin to receive. And as long as I go on believing, I go on receiving.

That's it. So simple, but hallelujah, so wonderful. See? Go on believing, go on taking, go on claiming, and go on being filled. An increasing habit, my third proposition, fullness of the Spirit is not for the hierarchy in the church, or for a favoured view, but for everybody.

The Spirit’s Fullness for Every Christian

The negative command of Ephesians 5 .18 presents no difficulty, don't get drunk with wine. But this positive is no less clear, one's mindings as the others. If it's a sin to be drunk, it's a sin, equally a sin, not to be filled with the Spirit.

God doesn't issue a command to admire it, He issues a command to obey it. It's not for a few people, but it's for everybody. Do you notice the context of Ephesians 5 .18? Be being filled with the Spirit, present continuous tenth, be continuously filled with the Spirit, and then he speaks of the most precious relationships in life.

Husband, wife, parent, know that I need His fullness every time I preach. You need your fullness, the fullness of His Spirit, to teach your Sunday school class. But I need His fullness most of all, beloved, to be a husband and a father worthy of the Lord Jesus.

And that matters to me more than anything in the world. If I can't preserve openness, love, fellowship, sweetness in my home, I'd rather never preach again. Never preach again. If I haven't got a home where people can come and sit and talk and share Christ with us, a home where we're open about the Lord and where we love Him and love each other all the more because of that, I don't preach anymore.

I need the fullness of His Spirit to make my home a corner of heaven. So do you. Oh, that's where we need you. And that's, you know, you know, that's the focal point of Key 73. The whole. Not the pulpit, but the whole.

I'm love, I'm simply thrilled with these Bible cells and home Bible studies that have sprung up in these last years, masses of them all over the place. I think it's simply thrilling to see Christianity getting out into the homes.

Because you see, the family is the first unit in God's society. That's where God started in creating a man. And then in order that he might not be alone, he created a woman out of the man, not from his head, lest he should dominate her.

Not from his feet, lest she should trample on him. From his heart, that she might love him. From under his shoulder, that he might protect her. That's God's order of a family. A man and a woman ideal in love, in love, desperately in love, loving each other with all their heart.

Because Jesus is central to their home. Oh, what a testimony comes from a home like that. What healing power, I mean spiritually. What that home can do in terms of blessing to the home next door, where they're nurturing each other and biting each other's head off and the whole thing is going to a shambles.

Who do you think is going to witness to them that pastor won't, the church can't, it's impossible. Ah, but the neighbor can. And what a wonderful thing to take the Lord Jesus out from a home like that.

See what I mean? Oh yes, you need him. Not to make us abnormal, but to make us normal people. Do you ever read Oswald Chambers? That book of his, My Utmost for His Highest, is a lovely book of daily readings.

And in it he says this, some people think Christians are people who should do exceptional things in extraordinary circumstances. But that is not so. Christians rather are people who should be exceptional people in ordinary circumstances.

And as a father, if you're bringing up teenagers today, you've got problems on your hands and it isn't easy. And if you're going to be saved from worry, anxiety, a crowded face, offensive speech, bad manner, lack of courtesy in your home, you need Jesus in all his fullness.

It's not for a favored few. I'm not speaking to you about some weird cloud nine blessing. I'm speaking about someone whom you need right deep in your heart every moment of every day. The last proposition is this, this fullness of the Spirit is not something isolated from Jesus Christ.

The Spirit’s Work Is to Glorify Christ

We do not move on from Jesus to the Holy Spirit. He always works in relationship to God the Son. In fact, my attitude to Jesus determines the action of the Holy Spirit to me. For instance, if I reject Jesus, the Holy Spirit convinces of sin.

If I receive Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into my heart. If I yield to Christ, the Holy Spirit fills me. If I obey Christ, the Holy Spirit uses me. But these are not two separate things. For the Holy Spirit convicting of sin is Jesus knocking at the door.

And the Holy Spirit entering my life is Christ coming in by faith. And the Holy Spirit filling my life is Jesus coming with all the fullness of the Godhead into my heart. And the Holy Spirit using me is Jesus the Lord, taking his servant who is prepared to obey him and thrusting him out and using him.

The two are not separate. You don't move from Jesus to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into your life to make Jesus real, to magnify the Son of God. I pray, said Paul to the Ephesian church in chapter 3, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

And in Colossians 2, 9, he says, In him, in Jesus, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. My dear, dear friends, you can't have more than Jesus. You can't have more than the fullness of God in Christ.

You don't move away from Christ to something else, to an experience. He is in you by his Spirit to make Jesus real, to magnify him. How do you magnify something? Well, you can use a microscope or you can use a telescope.

A microscope makes little things big, but Jesus is never little. A telescope makes distant things come near. And Jesus is often distant, often distant. And it is the ministry of the Spirit in my heart to magnify the Lord and make him dear and near to me.

Until I begin to sing and say, Jesus, thou joy of loving heart, thou fount of life, thou light of man. Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breath. The Holy Spirit, therefore, glorifies Christ.

And that's the difference between reality and counterfeit. Where your experience of the Holy Spirit glorifies the experience, it's counterfeit. Where it glorifies Jesus, it's real. Now, I've just one more thing to say, finally, Brethren.