“If you love
me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Helper, to be with you forever, John 14:15-16
We have learned to know the disciples in their
preparation for the baptism of the Spirit, and we have seen what was needed for
their continuing "with one accord" (Acts 1:14) in prayer for the
power of the Spirit. Christ was everything to them. Even before the cross, He was
literally their life, their one thought, their only desire. But He was much more
so after the cross, and with the resurrection.
Was such devotion to Christ something particular to the
disciples, not to be
expected of everyone? Or was it indeed something that the Lord asked from all who
desired to be filled with the Spirit? God
expects it of all His children. The Lord needs such individuals now, as much as
He did then, to receive His Spirit and His power, to show them forth here on earth, and, as intercessors, to link the world to
the throne of God.
Is Christ nothing, something, or everything to us? For the
unconverted, Christ is nothing. For the
half-converted, the average Christian, Christ is something. But for the true Christian, Christ is everything. Each one who prays for the power
of the Spirit must be ready to say, "Today I yield myself with mv whole heart to the leading of the Spirit.” A full
surrender is the question of life or death, an absolute necessity.
My brother or sister in Christ, you have read
the words of John 14:15: "If ye love me,
keep my commandments." The
surrender to live every day, all day long, abiding in Christ and keeping His
commandments, is to be the one sign of
your discipleship. Only when the heart
longs in everything to do God's will can the Father's love and Spirit rest upon the child of God. This was the
disposition in which the disciples continued with one accord in prayer, and this
will be the secret of power in our intercession as we plead for the church and
the world.
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