Chapter 5: The Gift of the Spirit

Chapter 5: The Gift of the Spirit 

He instructed His disciples regarding a most essential and complete gift which He was to bestow upon His followers--the gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of His grace. "I will pray the Father," He said, "and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." John 14:16, 17. 

Q: What was the result of the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost? 

A: The glad tidings of a risen Savior were carried to the uttermost

parts of the inhabited world. 

--The church beheld converts flocking to her from all directions. 

--Backsliders were reconverted. 

--Some who had been the bitterest opponents of the gospel became its champions. 

*One interest prevailed; 

one subject of emulation swallowed up all others. 

The ambition of the believers was to reveal the likeness of Christ's character and to labor for the enlargement of His kingdom.

--The promise of the Holy Spirit--

is not limited to any age 

or to any race. 

--The lapse of time has wrought no change in Christ's parting promise to send the Holy Spirit as His representative. 

--It is not because of any restriction on the part of God that the riches of His grace do not flow earthward to men. 

Q: Since this is the means by which we are to receive power, why do we not hunger and thirst for the gift of the Spirit? 

Q: Why do we not 

  talk of it, 

     pray for it, 

        and preach concerning it?

--The Lord is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who serve Him than parents are to give good gifts to their children. 

--For the daily baptism of the Spirit every worker should offer his petition to God.

-*-It is not a conclusive evidence that a man is a Christian because he manifests spiritual ecstasy under extraordinary circumstances. 

Holiness is not rapture: 

it is an entire surrender of the will to God; 

it is living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; 

it is doing the will of our heavenly Father; 

it is trusting God in trial; 

it is walking by faith and not by sight; 

and resting in His love.

*The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer.

*The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. 

Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden.

----The outpouring of the Spirit in the days of the apostles was the beginning of the early, former rain, and glorious was the result. 

To the end of time the presence of the Spirit is to abide with the true church. 

But near the close of earth's harvest, a special bestowal of spiritual grace is promised to prepare the church for the coming of the Son of man. 

This outpouring of the Spirit is likened to the falling of the latter rain; In response, "the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain." "He will cause to come down . . . the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain," Zechariah 10:1; Joel 2:23. 

--"He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13), the Savior declared.