8/4/2022 • Desk of Dennis Piller
The fruit of the spirit is love. Is that the picture of your life?
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit often came upon men to reveal the mysteries of God, or for the power to do the work of God. But he did not dwell in them. Some people want the old testament gift of power but very little of the new testament gift of the indwelling spirit, renewing the whole life.
When Holy God gave the Holy Spirit it was for the formation of a holy character. It is the gift of a holy mind and spiritual disposition. It is this yearning and this hunger inside that says; I must have the Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am really to live for God‘s glory.
Christ promised the spirit to the disciples so they may have the power to witness. But He came in such a heavenly power, in reality, he took possession of their whole being at once and so fitted them as
Holy Men for doing the work, with power as they needed it
Christ spoke of power to the disciples, but it was the spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.
Galatians 5:22 says< "the fruit of the spirit is love". He speaks of love being a fruit of the spirit…that it might be a searchlight in our hearts. He gave it as a test by which to try all our thoughts about the Holy Spirit and all our experiences of the holy life.
So let us try ourselves by his word. Has this been our daily habit, to seek being filled by the Holy Spirit…"The spirit of love"?
Yes, the fruit of the spirit is love!
But has it been your experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we’ve become?
In claiming this holy gift of the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a spirit of love.
Oh, if this were only true in the Church of Christ, how different her state would be! May God help each of us to take hold of the simple heavenly truth that just as the Holy Spirit gets possession of the life,
the heart will be filled with real, divine, universal love.
It is simple to say that when the body is divided there cannot be strength! Remember, that if a vessel that ought to be whole, is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. If you want water in it the vessel must be whole.
That is true of the church today. It is true of the small groups that we might meet in they could easily be called a church in earlier days. We must pray every day that the Lord will meld us and do his refining work to melt us together into one, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the Holy Spirit, who at Pentecost made them all of one heart and one soul,
do his blessed work among us again.
That begins with you…and me.
Let me encourage you today that you give yourselves up to love, and when you do, the Holy Spirit will come;
Receive the spirit, and he will teach you to love more.
I pray that you make it a Jesus Filled Day!
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=this+breaks+my+heart+of+stone
This Breaks my Heart of Stone Red Mountain Church
Excerpts are taken from Andrew Murray's book Absolute Surrender
