The Spirit Himself bears witness with
our spirit… —Romans 8:16
We are in danger of
getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him— we want the
witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.
Why doesn’t God reveal
Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because
you are in the way as long as you won’t abandon yourself to Him in total
surrender. Yet once you do, immediately God witnesses to Himself— He cannot
witness to you, but He instantly witnesses to His own nature in you. If you
received the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from
obedience, it would simply result in sentimental emotion. But when you act on
the basis of redemption, and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God,
He immediately gives His witness. As soon as you abandon your own reasoning and
arguing, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your total
disrespect in having kept Him waiting. If you are debating as to whether or not
God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot.
Do not quote this or that person to Him. Simply obey Matthew 11:28, “Come
to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden….” Come, if you are weary,
and ask, if you know you are evil.
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to
you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For
everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door
will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish,
will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a
scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts
to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him!" --Luke
11:9-13
The Spirit of God
witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness
to our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our
natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit
witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our
reason. If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder
that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him,
and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.
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