Chapter 1 - How to Obtain Fulness of Power in Christian Life & Service — R.A. Torrey

How to Obtain Fullness of Power in Christian Life and Service by R .A. Torrey. Printed in 1897, being read by Peter John Parisi, also known as Brian Dean, none of my audios are copyrighted. Please feel free to make as many copies as you desire to the glory of God.

The Need for Fullness of Power

This book has five chapters. Prefix. From many earnest hearts there is rising a cry for more power, more power in our personal conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil, more power in our work for others.

The Bible makes the way to obtain this longed-for power very plain. There is no presumption in undertaking to tell how to obtain fullness of power in Christian life and service. For the Bible itself tells, and the Bible was intended to be understood.

The Bible statement of the way is not mystical nor mysterious. It is very plain and straightforward. If we will only make personal trial of the power of the Word of God, the power of the blood of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of prayer, the power of the surrendered life, we will then know the fullness of power in Christian life and service.

We will try to make this plain in the following chapters. The present volume has been written partly in response to a request from some who have used the author's book, How to Bring Men to Christ, that he would write another book for use in the training of those who have come to Christ.

But the book has also another and far more important purpose. There are many who do not even know that there is a life of abiding rest, joy, satisfaction, and power, and many others who, while they think there must be something beyond the life they know, are in ignorance as to how to obtain it.

This book is written to help them. Chapter 1. The Power of the Word of God. Power belongeth unto God. Psalm 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 fruit bearing 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 word like as fire, and like a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Jeremiah 23, 29. If we are to obtain fullness of power in life and service, we must feed upon the Word of God. There is no other food for 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.

The Word of God Convicts of Sin

Let us see what the Word of God has power to do. Number 1. First of all, the Word of God has power to convict of sin. In Acts chapter 2 verse 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 is 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 have not much feeling about it.

But I said, You do 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 Matthew 22, verses 37 and 38, and asked him to read it. He said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment. What commandment is this? I asked. He replied, The first and great commandment. In the light of that, what must be the first and great commandment of sin? He replied, It must be to neglect to keep that commandment.

The Word of God Regenerates

Have you kept it? The Spirit of God took it home to his heart then and there. It was not long before he was kneeling and he was 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 begot he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits 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 Corinthians 3 .6.

A 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 Peter 1 .4 And the contact, 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 springs up in the human soul.

The Word of God Produces Faith

3. Again, the Word of God has power to produce faith. Romans 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 jailer asked, Sir, what must I do to be saved? Acts 16 .30 And Paul answered, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house.

But Paul did not stop there. Read the thirty-second verse, And they spake unto him the word of the Lord in all that were in his house. They did not merely tell the Philippian jailer 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, Believe, believe, believe, but do not show them how. Do not give them anything definite to believe.

The biblical way and the intellect way is, when you tell a man to believe, to give him something to believe. Give him, for example, Isaiah 53 .6, and thus hold up Christ crucified. Or give him 1 Peter 2 .24.

Here he has something for his faith to rest upon. Faith must have a foundation. Faith cannot float in thin air. It is pitiful to see men told to believe, to believe, to believe, and then nothing given to rest their faith upon.

Not only saving faith comes through the word of God, but prevailing faith in prayer does also. Suppose I read Mark 11 .24. What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

I used to say, the way to get anything I want is to believe that I am going to get it. I would kneel down and pray and try to believe. But I did not get the things that I asked for. I had no real faith.

Real faith must have a warrant. Before I can truly believe I am to receive what I ask, I must have a definite promise of God's word, or a definite leading of the Holy Spirit to rest my faith upon. What then shall we do?

We come into God's presence. Here is something we desire. Now the question is, is there any promise in God's word regarding this which we desire? We look into the word of God and find the promise. All we have to do is to spread that promise out before God.

For example, we say, Heavenly Father, we desire the Holy Spirit. Thou hast said in thy word, If ye then be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

And thou hast said again in Acts 2 .39, That the promise is unto you and your children and to them that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. I am a called man, I am a saved man, and here I have your word for it.

You have promised it. I ask thee now to fill me with the Holy Spirit. We then take 1 John 5, verses 14 and 15 and say, Father, this is the confidence I have in thee, that if I ask anything according to thy will, and I know that this is according to thy will, thou hearest me.

And if I know that thou hearest me, I know that I have the petition that I have asked of thee. Then I rise up, standing upon this promise of God, and say, It is mine, and it will be mine. The only way to have a faith that prevails in prayer is to study your Bible and know the promises, and lay them before God when you pray.

George Mueller is one of the mightiest men of prayer in this century, but he always prepares for prayer by studying the word. John 15, 7. It is just the same with the faith that we desire instead of doubt.

This also comes by the word of God. Suppose you have a skeptic to deal with, and you wish that man to have faith. What will you do with him? Give him a book on Christian evidences? I have nothing to say against books on Christian evidences, but there is an inspired book on Christian evidences, and it is worth all the libraries ever written on this subject.

Turn to John 20, verse 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Clearly then, this book of John was given that through what is written therein, men might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life through his name.

The Word of God and Surrendered Faith

The Gospel of John is an inspired book on Christian evidences. What then shall we do with ourselves if we are skeptics? What shall we do with others? First, find out whether their will is surrendered or not.

If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God or whether I speak for myself. John 7, verse 17. After the will is surrendered, just say, Take this book, and read it thoughtfully and honestly, and come back and tell me the result.

The result is absolutely sure. There is no man, agnostic, infidel, or whatever you please, whose will is surrendered to the truth, who will take this book to God and ask him to give him life, who will not come out believing in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.

I have tried this, and I know not how many men and women, and there has never been one exception to the rule laid down by Christ. It has always come out the same way. The faith that gets the victory over the world, the flesh and the devil, the faith that wins mighty victories for God, is also through the word.

1 John 5 .4. Ephesians 6 .16. Hebrews 11 .33 .34. Very early in my ministry, I read a sermon by Mr. Moody. In it, there was something to the effect that a man would not amount to anything if he had not faith.

I said, That sermon is true. I must have faith. I went to work and tried to work up faith. I did not succeed a bit. The more I tried to work up faith, the less I had. But one day I ran across this text.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10 .17. And I had learned a great secret of faith, one of the greatest secrets I have ever learned. I commenced to feed my faith on the word of God, and as I have thus fed it, it has kept on growing from that day to this.

So in every aspect we see that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. If we are to have faith, and if we are to have power for God, we must have faith. We must feed steadily, largely, daily upon the word of God.

The Word of God Cleanses the Believer

4. In the next place, the word of God has power to cleanse. Ephesians 5 .25 .26. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing water by the word.

Then the word of God has power not only to take impurity out of the heart, but to cleanse the outward life as well. If you wish a clean outward life, you must wash often by bringing your life in contact with the word of God.

If one lives in a city whose atmosphere is polluted with smoke, when he goes into the street, his hands will become black. He must wash frequently if he wishes to keep clean. We all live in a world whose atmosphere is polluted, a very dirty world.

As we go out from day to day and come in contact with this dirty world, there is absolutely only one way to keep clean, and that is by taking frequent baths in the word of God. You must bathe every day and take plenty of time to do it.

The Word of God Builds Christian Character

A daily, prolonged, thoughtful bath in the word of God is the only thing that will keep a clean life. Psalms 119 .9. 5. In the next place, the word of God has power to build. In Acts 20 .32 we read, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up.

We hear a great deal in these days about character building. The word of God is that by which we must carry it on if it is to be done right. In 2 Peter 1 .5 -7 we have a picture of a seven story and basement Christian.

The great trouble today is we have so many one story Christians and the reason is neglect of the word. In Peter 2 .2 we have a similar thought expressed under a different figure. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

If we are to grow, we must have wholesome, nutritious food and plenty of it. The only spiritual food that contains all the elements necessary for symmetrical Christian growth is the word of God. A Christian can no more grow as he ought without feeding frequently, regularly, and largely upon the word of God than a baby can grow as he ought without proper nutriment.

The Word of God Gives Wisdom

6. In the next place, the word of God has power to make wise. Psalms 119 .130 is worthy of the most careful attention. The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. There is more wisdom in the Bible than there is in any other literature of the ages.

The one who studies the Bible, if he does not study any other book, will know more of real wisdom, wisdom that counts for eternity as well as time, wisdom that this perishing world needs to know, wisdom for which hungry hearts are starving today.

Than the man who reads every other book and neglects his Bible. The man who studies the Bible and neglects all other books will be wiser than the man who studies all other books and neglects the Bible.

The man who studies the Bible will have more to say that is worth saying and that wise people wish to hear than any man who studies everything else and neglects the one book. This has been illustrated over and over again in the history of the Church.

The men who have greatly affected the spiritual history of this world, the men who have brought about great reformations in morals and doctrine, the men that others have fought to hear and upon whose words people have hung, have been Bible men in every incident and in many cases they knew little besides the Bible.

I have seen men and women without culture who have had almost no advantages in school, but who knew their Bibles and would rather sit at their feet and learn the wisdom that falls from their lips than listen to the man who knows much about philosophy and science and theology even and does not know anything about the Word of God.

This is a wonderful force in the words of Paul to Timothy. All Scripture is given in inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly, the revised version says completely, furnished unto all good works.

The Word of God Gives Assurance of Eternal Life

Through what? Through the study of the book. 7. The Word of God has power to give assurance of eternal life. In 1 John 5 verse 13 the R .B. reads, These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.

That is, the assurance of eternal life comes through what is written. Suppose one has not assurance of salvation. What shall we do? Tell him to pray until he gets it? Not at all. Take him to some such passage as John 3 .36.

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Hold him right to that point until he takes God's word for it and then is sure that he has everlasting life because he believes on the Son and because God says that he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.

The Word of God Brings Peace

8. The Word of God has power to bring peace into the heart. In Psalms 85a we read, I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to his saints. There are many people looking for peace today, longing for peace, praying for peace, but deep peace of the heart comes from the study of the Word of God.

There is, for example, one passage in the Bible which, if we feed upon it daily until it really gets into our hearts and gets hold of us, will banish all anxiety forever. It is Romans 8 .28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.

The Word of God Produces Joy

Nothing can come to us that is not one of the all things. If we really believe this passage and it really takes hold upon us, whatever comes, it will not disturb our peace. 9. The Word of God has power to produce joy.

Jeremiah says in the 15th chapter, the 16th verse, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine own heart. And Jesus said in John 15 .11, These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Clearly then, fullness of joy comes through the Word of God. There is no joy on this earth from any worldly sources like the joy that kindles and glows in the heart of a believer in Jesus Christ as he feeds upon the Word of God, and as the Word of God is brought home to his heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Patience, Comfort, and Hope Through Scripture

10. Patience, comfort, and hope also come through the Word of God. Romans 15 .4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

The Word of God Protects from Error and Sin

11. Finally, the Word of God has power to protect from error and sin. Acts 20 .29 -32. The Apostle Paul warned the elders that emphasis of the errors that would creep in among them, and he commended them in closing to God and to the word of his grace.

In a similar way, Paul writing to Timothy, the bishop of the same church, said, But evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things that thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3 .13 -15. The one who feeds constantly on the word of God is proof against the multiplying errors of the day. It is simple neglect of the word that has left so many a prey to the many false doctrines that the evil in his subtlety in endeavoring to insinuate into the church of Christ today.

And the word of God has not only power to protect from error, but from sin as well. In Psalms 119 verse 11 we read, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. The man who feeds daily on the word of God will be a proof against the temptations of the devil.

Any day we neglect to feed on the word of God, we leave an open door through which Satan is sure to enter into our hearts and lives. Even the Son of God himself met and overcame the temptations of the adversary by the scriptures.

To each of Satan's temptations he replied, It is written. Matthew 4 verse 4 verse 7 and verse 10. Satan left the field completely vanquished. It is evident that what has been said that the first step towards attaining fullness of power in Christian life and service is the study of the word.

Meditation on the Word and Fullness of Power

There can be no fullness of power in life and service if the Bible is neglected. In much that is now written on power, also in much that is said in conventions, this fact is overlooked. The work of the Holy Spirit is magnified.

The instrument through which the Holy Spirit works is largely forgotten. The result is transient enthusiasm and activity, but no steady continuance and increase in power and usefulness. We can obtain power and we can maintain power in our own lives and in our work for others unless there is a deep and frequent meditation upon the word of God.

If our leaf is not to wither and whatsoever we do is to prosper, our delight must be in the law of the Lord and we must meditate therein day and night. Psalms chapter 1 verse 2 through 3. Of course it is much easier and therefore much more agreeable to our spiritual laziness to go to a convention or revival meeting and claim a filling with the Holy Spirit than it is to peg along day after day, month after month, year after year, digging into the word of God.

But a filling with the Spirit that is not maintained by persistent study of the word will soon vanquish. It is well to bear in mind that precisely the results which Paul in one place ascribes to being filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5, 18 -22.

He in another place ascribes to letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, Colossians 3, 16 -18. Evidently Paul knew of no filling with the Holy Spirit divorced from deep and constant meditation upon the word.

Constantly Feeding on the Word of God

To sum up all, anyone who wishes to obtain and maintain fullness of power in Christian life and service must feed constantly upon the word of God.