Let me say that it is not a question of us getting more of the Holy Spirit, but rather of the Holy Spirit getting more of us.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need for individuals to allow the Holy Spirit to influence and guide their lives more fully, rather than seeking additional gifts or blessings.
In this quote, Oswald J. Smith expresses the idea that the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit in a person's life does not depend on the abundance of the Spirit itself but on the willingness of the individual to surrender and offer themselves to the Spiritβs influence. It suggests a deeper relationship between a believer and the Holy Spirit, where the focus shifts from asking for more spiritual gifts to allowing the Spirit to transform one's life and actions.
In practice
Using this quote in a sermon about spiritual growth and surrender.
God does not have to come and tell me what I must do for Him; He brings me into a relationship with Himself where I hear His call and understand what He wants me to do, and I do it out of sheer love to Him... When people say they have had a call to foreign service, or to any particular sphere of work, they mean that their relationship to God has enabled them to realize what they can do for God.
Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice, before everyone has heard it once?
Oh my friends, we are loaded with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost is almost entirely neglected.
When an answer I did not expect comes to a prayer which I believed I truly meant, I shrink back from it; if the burden my Lord asks me to bear be not the burden of my heart's choice, and I fret inwardly and do not welcome His will, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
In using all means, seek God alone. In and through every outward thing, look only to the power of His Spirit, and the merits of His Son. Beware you do not get stuck in the work itself; if you do, it is all lost labor. Nothing short of God can satisfy your soul. Therefore, fix on Him in all, through all, and above all...Remember also to use all means as means-as ordained, not for their own sake.
There is no specialized art of prayer. All of life must be a training to pray. We pray the way we live.
When we pray to God we must be seeking nothing - nothing.
There is no joy in the soul that has forgotten what God prizes.
Adoration outside Holy Mass prolongs and intensifies what has taken place in the liturgical celebration and makes a true and profound reception of Christ possible. I . . . warmly recommend, to Pastors and to all the faithful, the practice of Eucharistic adoration
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