When God finally conquers us and changes our unyielding nature, we receive deep insights into the Spirit of Jesus. Then, as never before, we see His extraordinary gentleness of spirit at work in this dark and unheavenly world. Yet the gifts of “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22) do not automatically become evident in our lives. If we are not discerning enough to recognize their availability to us, to desire them, and then to nourish them in our thoughts, they will never become embedded in our nature or behavior.

Every further step of spiritual growth in God’s grace must be preceded by acknowledging our lack of a godly attribute and then by exhibiting a prayerful determination to obtain it.

However, very few Christians are willing to endure the suffering through which complete gentleness is obtained. We must die to ourselves before we are turned into gentleness, and our crucifixion involves suffering. It will mean experiencing genuine brokenness and a crushing of self, which will be used to afflict the heart and conquer the mind.

Today many people are attempting to use their mental capacity and logical thinking to obtain sanctification, yet this is nothing but a religious fabrication. They believe that if they just mentally put themselves on the altar and believe the altar provides the gift of sanctification, they can then logically conclude they are fully sanctified. Then they go happily on their way, expressing their flippant, theological babble about the “deep” things of God.

Yet the heartstrings of their old nature have not been broken, and their unyielding character, which they inherited from Adam, has not been ground to powder. Their soul has not throbbed with the lonely, gushing groans of Gethsemane. Having no scars from their death on Calvary, they will exhibit nothing of the soft, sweet, gentle, restful, victorious, overflowing, and triumphant life that flows like a spring morning from an empty tomb. G. D. W.

“And abundant grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).

Christmas Evans, a Welsh preacher of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, once wrote the following account in his diary.

“One Sunday afternoon I was traveling by horseback to an appointment. Suddenly as I went along a very lonely road, I was convicted of having a cold heart. I dismounted, tethered my horse to a tree, and found a secluded spot. Then, walking back and forth in agony, I reviewed my life. I waited before God in brokenness and sorrow for three hours. Finally a sweet sense of His forgiving love broke over me, and I received a fresh filling of His Holy Spirit.

“As the sun was setting, I walked back to the road, found my horse, and rode on to my appointment. The following day I preached with so much new power, to a vast gathering of people on a hillside, that revival broke out and ultimately spread through all of Wales.”

This explains the great question of the born-again—the password of the early church—“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2).

Oh, the Spirit-filled life; is it thine, is it thine?

Is your soul wholly filled with the Spirit Divine?

As a child of the King, has He fallen on thee?

Does He reign in your soul, so that all men may see

The dear Savior’s blest image reflected in thee?

Has He swept through your soul like the waves of the sea?

Does the Spirit of God daily rest upon thee?

Does He sweeten your life, does He keep you from care?

Does He guide you and bless you in answer to prayer?

Is your joy to be led of the Lord ev’rywhere?

Is He near you each hour, does He stand at your side?

Does He clothe you with strength, has He come to abide?

Does He teach you to know that all things may be done

Through the grace and the power of the Crucified One?

Does He witness to you of the glorified Son?

Has He purified you with the fire from above?

Is He first in your thoughts, does He have all your love?

Is His service your choice, and your sacrifice sweet?

Is your doing His will both your drink and your meat?

Do you run at His calling with glad eager feet?

Has He freed you from self and from all of your greed?

Do you hasten to comfort your brother in need?

As a soldier of Christ does your power endure?

Is your hope in the Lord everlasting and sure?

Are you patient and meek, are you tender and pure?

Oh, the Spirit-filled life may be thine, may be thine,

Ever in your soul Shechinah glory may shine;

It is yours to live with the tempests all stilled,

It is yours with God’s blest Holy Spirit to be filled;

It is yours, even yours, for your Lord has so willed.