THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD Part IV âGrace be unto you, and ...

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the Holy Spirit of adoption, we find the Spirit possessed in different measures depending upon the degree of our departure from the divine image, and the degree of grace, faith, and maturity attained since coming into the body of Christ. To the extent that the apprehended ones resign themselves to the Lord, and, ignoring their own wills and way, seek to walk in His ways, they come to be “led by the Spirit,” “taught of the Spirit,” and can “serve the Lord in newness of Spirit.” To continue under this leading and instruction they must have a Spirit of meekness” (Gal. 5:22, 23; 6:1), so that the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,” can give unto them the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:17-18). It is only through being “conformed to the image of His Son” that we can qualify, and become capable of receiving that same measure of the absolute fullness of the Spirit of God that Jesus possessed. The initial infilling of the Spirit is a free “gift,” but the fullness of God must be appropriated from glory to glory and pressed into. In Jn. 1:1 and 14 we read: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, FULL of grace and truth.” Here we find that Jesus was FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH. Then verse 16 tells us, “And OF HIS FULLNESS have all we received, and grace for grace.” This does not say that we have received His fullness, but “OF His fullness.” The Amplified Bible reads: “For OUT OF HIS FULLNESS (abundance) we all received – all had a share and we were all supplied with – one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, and even favor upon favor and gift heaped upon gift.” If I have a million dollars in the bank and withdraw “of” or “out of” my account, I withdraw only a portion, a part, a measure of my abundance. Similarly, Jesus was FULL of grace and truth, and as we receive “OF His fullness” 6
we receive a measure of that fullness which is in Him, but, bless His name! an ever increasing measure, for it is ever “grace for grace” or “one grace after another”. Fullness is relative. It is relative to the capacity of that which is being filled, and the abundance of that with which it is being filled. It is like a balloon. You can blow several puffs of air into a balloon and the balloon is, by definition, full of air. There is air from side to side, from end to end, and there is no place within the balloon where there is not air. And yet, you can still blow more air into the balloon! The balloon is full, but it possesses the unique characteristic of being able to be EXPANDED, its capacity being INCREASED and ENLARGED due to this ability to stretch. So, although at any given point the balloon is full, you can just keep on blowing and blowing until the rubber stretches to its limit. Thus it can be seen that, under proper conditions, it IS POSSIBLE to be full and yet CONTAIN MORE after you have been filled! When we were first baptized in the Holy Spirit we were indeed “filled” with the Spirit, as were those on the day of Pentecost, but we were only filled in proportion to our capacity – our ability to contain Him! We held all of God that we were capable of holding at that point. We really were full of the Spirit, but we now know that we can still receive MORE, becoming filled with ever increasing measures of His fullness! God is wanting to EXPAND US FROM WITHIN, to increase our capacity, to enlarge our spiritual amplitude. Hallelujah! It is right at this point that the average Christian sells himself short. Especially the average Pentecostal or Charismatic! How many of the Lord’s precious people who seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit are mistakenly seeking a blessing, or an experience. To speak with tongues is often their highest aim, or to be “slain under the power,” and if they can attain to that phenomenon then they are happy and satisfied in their belief that they have received all, or at least almost all, that God has for them in this life. How pitiful is such an understanding! How desperately short we sell ourselves when we seek the Holy Spirit as an “experience” that we are to attain instead of presenting ourselves as empty vessels to 7
Page 1 and 2: THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD Part IV
Page 3 and 4: hearts well nigh stand still as we
Page 5: while His body, up to this preent t
Page 9 and 10: unto the edifying of itself in love
Page 11 and 12: the first month, upon the end-time
Page 13 and 14: GLORY! When this happens, and that
Page 15 and 16: elieve it, it still just wasn’t t
Page 17 and 18: “evacuation” by a “rapture”
Page 19 and 20: witnessing an increase in QUANTITY
Page 21 and 22: "For this cause have I raised thee

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