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.
By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us - set us right with him, make us fit for him - we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand - out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.
As we seek the Lord ever more diligently, we will surely find Him. We will see clearly that the Lord does not abandon His Church or His faithful Saints. Our eyes will be opened, and we will see Him open the windows of heaven and shower us with more of His light. We will find the spiritual strength to survive even during the darkest night.
The goal of prayer is the ear of God, a goal that can only be reached by patient and continued and continuous waiting upon Him, pouring out our heart to Him and permitting Him to speak to us. Only by so doing can we expect to know Him, and as we come to know Him better we shall spend more time in His presence and find that presence a constant and ever-increasing delight.
Prayer is surrender--surr ender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boathook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.
God's training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.
For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.