Abide
In Christ by Andrew Murray
Day
17
Through
the Holy Spirit
“...the
anointing which you have received from Him abides in you...and just
as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him.” (1 John 2:27)
How
beautiful is the thought of a life always abiding in Christ! The
longer we think of it, the more attractive it becomes. And yet how
often it is that the precious words, "Abide in me," are
heard by the young disciple with a sigh! It is as if he understands
so little what they really mean and can realize so little how this
full enjoyment can be attained. He longs for someone who could make
it perfectly clear, and continually remind him that the abiding is
indeed within his reach. If such an one would only listen to the word
we have from John this day, what hope and joy it would bring him! It
gives us the Divine assurance that we have the anointing of the Holy
Spirit to teach us all things - to teach us how to abide in Christ.
Alas!
someone answers, this word does not give me comfort...it only
depresses me more! For it tells me that there is another privilege
that I so little know how to enjoy. I do not understand how the
teaching of the Spirit is given — where or how I can discern His
voice. If the Teacher is so unknown, no wonder that the promise of
His teaching about the abiding does not help me much.
Thoughts
like these come from an error which is very common among believers.
They imagine that the Spirit, in teaching them, must reveal the
mysteries of the spiritual life first to their intellect, and
afterwards in their experience. Yet God's way is just the contrary of
this. What holds true of all spiritual truth is especially true of
the abiding in Christ...we must live and experience truth in order to
know it. Life-fellowship with Jesus is the only school for the
science of heavenly things. "What I am doing thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt know hereafter” (John 13:7 KJV) is a law of
the kingdom, which is especially true of the daily cleansing of which
it first was spoken, as well as our daily keeping. Receive what you
do not comprehend, submit to what you cannot understand, accept and
expect what to reason appears a mystery, believe what looks
impossible, walk in a way that you do not know — these are the
first lessons in the school of God. "If you abide in my word,
you will understand the truth" - in these and other words of
God we are taught that there is a habit of mind and life which
precedes the understanding of the truth. True discipleship consists
in first following, and then knowing the Lord. The believing
surrender to Christ, and the submission to His word to expect what
appears most improbable, is the only way to the full blessedness of
knowing Him.
These
principles hold especially true in regard to the teaching of the
Spirit. That teaching consists in His guiding of the spiritual life
within us towards that which God has prepared for us, without our
always knowing how. On the strength of God's promise, while trusting
in His faithfulness, the believer yields himself to the leading of
the Holy Spirit, without claiming to have it first made clear to his
intellect what he is to do. Yet the believer must consent to let Him
do His work in the soul, and only afterwards to know what He has done
there. Faith trusts the working of the unseen Spirit in the deep
recesses of the inner life. And so the word of Christ and the gift of
the Spirit are to.the believer sufficient guarantee that He will be
taught of the Spirit to abide in Christ. By faith he rejoices in what
he does not see or feel. He knows, and is confident that the blessed
Spirit within is doing His work silently but surely, guiding him into
the life of full abiding and unbroken communion. The Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. It is His work, not only to
breathe, but ever to promote and strengthen, and to perfect the new
life within. And just in the proportion that the believer yields
himself in simple trust to the unseen but most certain law of the
Spirit of life working within him, his faith will pass into
knowledge. It will be rewarded by the Spirit's light revealing in the
Word what has already been created in him by the Spirit's power.
Apply
this now to the promise of the Spirit which teaches us to abide in
Christ. The Holy Spirit is indeed the mighty power of God. And He
comes to us from the heart of Christ, the bearer of Christ's life,
the revealer and communicator of Christ Himself within us. In the
expression, "the fellowship of the Spirit," we are taught
what His highest work is. He is the bond of fellowship between the
Father and the Son. By Him they are one. He is the bond of fellowship
between all believers. By Him they are one also. Above all, He is the
bond of fellowship between Christ and believers. He is the life-sap
through which Vine and branch grow into real and living oneness. By
Him we are one as well. And we can be assured that, if we only
believe in His presence and His working in us, if we are careful not
to grieve Him, because we know that He is in us, if we wait and pray
to be filled with Him, He will teach us how to abide. He will do this
first by guiding our will to whole-heartedly cleaving to Christ, then
quickening our faith into ever-increasing confidence and expectation,
and then breathing into our hearts a peace and joy that pass
understanding, He teaches us to abide, yet we hardly know how. After
this, He then comes through the heart and the life into our
understanding, making us know the truth — not as mere
thought-truth, but as the truth which is in Christ Jesus. This truth
is the reflection into the mind of the light that He has already made
a reality in the life. "The life was the light of men."
In
view of such teaching, it is clear how, if we would desire the Spirit
to guide us into the abiding life, our first need is quiet, restful
faith. Amid all the questions and difficulties that may come up in
connection with our striving to abide in Christ — amid all the
longing we may sometimes feel to have an experienced Christian to aid
us —amid the frequent painful consciousness of failure, ignorance,
and helplessness — let us hold fast the blessed confidence: We have
the anointing of the Holy One to teach us to abide in Him. "The
anointing which you have received of Him abides In you...and just as
it has taught you, you will abide in Him” (1 John 2:27). Make this
teaching of His in connection with the abiding a matter of special
exercise of faith.
Believe
that as surely as you have part in Christ, you have His Spirit too.
Believe that He will do His work with power, if only you do not
hinder Him. Believe that He is working, even when you cannot discern
it. Believe that He will work mightily if you ask this from the
Father. It is impossible to live the life of full abiding without
being full of the Holy Spirit. Believe that the fullness of the
Spirit is indeed your daily portion. Be sure to take time in prayer
to dwell at the footstool of the throne of God and the Lamb. From
there flows the river of the water of life. It is there, and only
there, that you can be filled with the Spirit. Cultivate carefully
the habit of daily, yes, continually honoring Him by the quiet,
restful confidence that He is doing His work within you. Let faith in
His indwelling make you jealous of whatever could grieve Him —
whether the spirit of the world or the actions of self and the flesh.
Let that faith seek its nourishment in the Word and all it says about
the Spirit, His power, His comfort, and His work. Above all, let that
faith in the Spirit's indwelling lead you especially to look away to
Jesus. As we have received His anointing, it will come in ever
stronger flow from Him as we are occupied with Him alone. Christ is
the Anointed One. As we look up to Him, the holy anointing comes,
"the precious ointment upon the head (of Aaron)...that went down
to the skirts of his garments” (Psalm 133:2 KJV). It is faith in
Jesus that brings the anointing. The anointing leads to Jesus, and to
the abiding in Him alone.
Believer,
abide in Christ, in the power of the Spirit. What do you
think...should the abiding continue to be a fear or a burden? Surely
not. Oh, if we could only know the graciousness of our Holy
Comforter, and the blessedness of wholly yielding ourselves to His
leading, we would indeed experience the Divine comfort of having such
a teacher to secure our abiding in Christ. The Holy Spirit was given
for this one purpose — that the glorious redemption and life in
Christ might with Divine power be conveyed and communicated to us. We
have the Holy Spirit to make the living Christ, in all His saving
power, and in the completeness of His victory over sin, ever present
within us. It is this that constitutes Him as the Comforter. With Him
we have no reason to mourn an absent Christ. Let us, therefore, as
often as we read, meditate, or pray in connection with this abiding
in Christ, reckon upon it as a settled thing that we have the Spirit
of God Himself within us, teaching, guiding, and working. Let us
rejoice in the confidence that we must succeed in our desires,
because the Holy Spirit is working all the time with secret but
Divine power in the soul which does not hinder Him by its unbelief.
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