MLJ MONDAY – Something Worth Fighting For, Part 1

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is distinct from conversion. That is how one could summarise the Doctor’s teaching on the subject of the Spirit. One perhaps unintended consequence of his ministry was that, in the introduction of this subject to reformed pastors, several of them went on to become reformed charismatic ministers, spawning groups like newfrontiers – which has been remarkably successful in the UK. Perhaps the Doctor is partly responsible for why the charismatic landscape in the UK looks so different from that of the US.

I have referred to this subject in

my charismatic debate post yesterday, and even mentioned the passage to which the Doctor will refer in this post.

“Now [this] is one of these verses that perplex people. ‘Either,’ they say, ‘we have all received the Holy Spirit in this way as Christians or else we are left in difficulties. There we seem to be told that we have only to ask for this gift and we shall receive it.’ Then the argument continues like this: people say, ‘Well, I have asked him and I have not had any experience such as you have been describing. Therefore there is only one conclusion to come to, either that you are wrong in saying this is something special and unique and it is the possession of all Christians whether they know it or not, or else the answer seems to be that somehow or other God is not fulfilling his promise’.”

“You notice that our Lord is referring only to children, the children who ask. Here is something interesting in and of itself. He seems to be taking it for granted that those who are going to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit are those who know that they are children and who address him as their heavenly Father. This suggests that here, once more, we are being told that it is only those who are children who ask for this. It is not something that happens automatically, therefore, at regeneration, but it is the regenerate, the ‘children,’ who make this request; nobody else will do so.”

“The impression people seem to have . . . that you have only to ask and God immediately gives . . . So they assume that anybody who has asked God for this gift of the Holy Spirit should receive it at once . . . and it is here that we tend to go astray. You notice that our Lord suggests a kind of gradation in this question of asking. ‘And I say unto you,’ he says in Luke 11:9, ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ Then he says, ‘For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened’ . . .I am suggesting that . . . there is a greater content to this word ‘asking’ than we tend to think . . .

True asking, I am suggesting, is the knocking. In other words, asking does not mean a casual request . . . In true asking there is a kind of urgency, there is a refusal to be content with anything less than the answer. That is where the knocking comes in. You do not merely shout from a distance, you go on and you approach nearer and nearer, and at last you are, as it were, hammering at the door . . . There is this element of real seeking . . . ‘Ask; seek; knock.’ Importunity! ‘I will not let thee go!’ This whole element is of vital importance in this matter. It is in the teaching of the Scripture, it is confirmed by the testimonies and experiences of the saints . . . You will never know the heights of the Christian life without effort. You have to strive for these things — there is a seeking, knocking, and an importunity. And it is because so many have missed that element that they get into confusion at this point.