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043 - Note K On the Spirit of Missions Chap 16 · Spirit of Christ

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  Speaker 1: Note K of the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Note K
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  Speaker 1: on the Spirit of Missions, Chapter sixteen. The Great International
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  Speaker 1: Missionary Conference has just been held, followed by what has
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  Speaker 1: been called a missionary crusade in Scotland. I have joined
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  Speaker 1: with many in the prayer to our Lord for his
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  Speaker 1: presence in the meeting, in thanking him for success, vouchsafed
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  Speaker 1: in praising him for the results. And yet I feel
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  Speaker 1: as if there is one remark I cannot withhold. I
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  Speaker 1: noticed with great interest a paper issued before the meeting
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  Speaker 1: in the Christian by doctor A. Pearson, pointing out what
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  Speaker 1: might be hoped for from such a gathering, and concluding
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  Speaker 1: with the remark that unless it issued in a great
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  Speaker 1: baptism of prayer, it might still be a comparative failure. Footnote.
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  Speaker 1: There is one outcome for which we look with greater
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  Speaker 1: confidence and hopefulness than for all other results combined. What
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  Speaker 1: the Church just needs above all else is a baptism
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  Speaker 1: of prayer. If that conference in London shall not issue
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  Speaker 1: in a new baptism of prayer, the highest result will
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  Speaker 1: not be attained. Let the whole Christian Church unite in
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  Speaker 1: one mighty and moving entreaty that in these latter days
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  Speaker 1: it may come to pass that God shall pour out
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  Speaker 1: his Spirit upon all flesh, and Joel's prophecy shall at
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  Speaker 1: last receive its grandly complete fulfillment. End a footnote. What
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  Speaker 1: I have felt in regard to some other large gatherings
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  Speaker 1: of God's servants in the Holy Ministry impressed me here
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  Speaker 1: too that there was too little time given to the
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  Speaker 1: united confession of our need of and our expectation of
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  Speaker 1: our faith in the power of the Holy Ghost. We
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  Speaker 1: all admit that what the steam is to the engine
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  Speaker 1: that draws the train, what the fire is to the
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  Speaker 1: cannon with its powder and ball, the Holy Spirit is
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  Speaker 1: to the work of the Church and of missions. And
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  Speaker 1: why should not at such gatherings for eight or ten
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  Speaker 1: days the very best of the days be set apart
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  Speaker 1: for persevering united supplication for the mighty in dwelling and
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  Speaker 1: working of the Holy Spirit in God's servants present or
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  Speaker 1: represented in such a gathering, for His mighty power in
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  Speaker 1: the assembly, and for the deepening throughout the Church of
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  Speaker 1: the conviction that both for life and work, the one
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  Speaker 1: thing needful is Christ's in dwelling presents revealed by the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Instead of the meetings for prayer being the smallest,
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  Speaker 1: should they not be the largest and most important. It
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  Speaker 1: was ten days of continuing with one accord in prayer
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  Speaker 1: and supplication at the footstool of the Exalted Lord that
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  Speaker 1: prepared that feeble company of disciples for the struggle in
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  Speaker 1: which they dive. Find the power of Jerusalem and Rome
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  Speaker 1: and conquered. Oh, we need above everything to help each
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  Speaker 1: other to continue in prayer, that we may be mightily
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  Speaker 1: strengthened by God's Spirit. I feel confident that if at
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  Speaker 1: such gathering as we could be brought to make waiting
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  Speaker 1: upon God our first work, there would not only be
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  Speaker 1: the blessing at the time for those who meet, but
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  Speaker 1: it would be a living testimony of unspeakable value to
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  Speaker 1: the blessed truth that it is by the Holy Ghost
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  Speaker 1: filling each individual believer, that our Blessed Lord is waiting
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  Speaker 1: to bless the world. In reading the stirring reports of
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  Speaker 1: the missionary crusade in Scotland, the same thought presented itself
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  Speaker 1: in a different shape. When one or more men full
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  Speaker 1: of a holy enthusiasm for missions, address large audiences, they
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  Speaker 1: may succeed in imparting somewhat of their fire to their hearers.
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  Speaker 1: The spirit in them touches deeply those who thus come
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  Speaker 1: under their influence. And yet the permanent result is often
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  Speaker 1: very small, and the process has to be continually repeated. Footnote.
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Pearson says in the same paper, dependence is frequently
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  Speaker 1: placed upon mere organization. A transient enthusiasm is awakened, that
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  Speaker 1: is like the morning cloud or early dew, and passes
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  Speaker 1: as quickly away. End of footnote. What the Church needs,
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  Speaker 1: what our Lord asks and longs to give, is something more.
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  Speaker 1: It is not enough that Christians living a feeble, sickly
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  Speaker 1: Christian life should, from time to time be stirred. If
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  Speaker 1: the interest of the individual believer in missions is to
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  Speaker 1: be well pleasing to the Master and of real spiritual
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  Speaker 1: force in the world, it must come not from continual
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  Speaker 1: appeals from without, but as the spontaneous outflow of a
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  Speaker 1: heart in which the Spirit of Jesus is dwelling. Every
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  Speaker 1: branch of the vine must bear its fruit from the
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  Speaker 1: diary direct inflow of the life giving sap the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: If the confessions that had been made in these past
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  Speaker 1: years of terrible shortcomings and unfaithfulness while we have only
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  Speaker 1: been playing admissions are to me in anything. We must
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  Speaker 1: all labor for the restoration of the half forgotten truth
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  Speaker 1: that every believer is expected to be full of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Ghost. All the church's appeals for support and prayer
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  Speaker 1: must be accompanied by the teaching in the power of
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit, that where the Holy Spirit dwells and rules,
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  Speaker 1: sacrifice for Christ and entire personal devotion to his interests
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  Speaker 1: is nothing but the natural outcome of a healthy Christian life.
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  Speaker 1: Christ did not call his church to be his witness
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  Speaker 1: to the whole earth without first premising the power of
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  Speaker 1: the Spirit coming on her. I must ask my readers
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  Speaker 1: to forgive me if I appear to repeat too frequently
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  Speaker 1: this one thought. I feel as one who has a
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  Speaker 1: message to bring that is conscious that he stammers and
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  Speaker 1: fears that his message will not be rightly understood. We
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  Speaker 1: are all so sure that we believe in the Holy Ghost,
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  Speaker 1: and that we understand how indispensable his operation is, that
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  Speaker 1: it is with difficulty that we can look on the
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  Speaker 1: deep spiritual truth that our Almighty Lord Jesus is waiting
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  Speaker 1: by his Holy Spirit to work in every believer, and
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  Speaker 1: so through his church, the greater works. He promised something
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  Speaker 1: exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think. According to
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  Speaker 1: the power that is working in us, the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: the change must be that in the ordinary ministry of
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  Speaker 1: the Word, every individual believer must be educated into the
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  Speaker 1: full consciousness that to be filled with the Holy Ghost
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  Speaker 1: is an absolute necessity for a life truly fruitful and
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  Speaker 1: well pleasing to God. Nay, every appeal for missions, every
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  Speaker 1: effort in the presence of the hundreds of millions whom
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  Speaker 1: we have been leaving to perish to bring the Church
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  Speaker 1: to a sense of her guilt and a surrender to
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  Speaker 1: her glorious calling. May all speaking and writing and praying,
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  Speaker 1: May all their conferences and church councils lead to the
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  Speaker 1: deepening of the conviction. The Holy Spirit is the Church
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  Speaker 1: of power for all her work and her missions, and
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  Speaker 1: that power will only act mightily as the number increases
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  Speaker 1: of individual believers who give themselves to be possessed, to
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  Speaker 1: be led to be used of the Spirit of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: End of Note K