All about the Holy Spirit, His Fullness

No matter how sincere our desire for the Spirit’s fullness, if we entertain wrong motives and methods, we cannot experience His best.

We must be filled and filled for one supreme reason, namely the glory of God—not for the glory of self. If we are tempted to think that such infilling will advance our own happiness and merely satisfy, or make us more conspicuous in the eyes of the world, such a blessing of the Spirit cannot be expected. The fountain within must be cleared of all the rubbish of self-advancement and self-glory if the living waters are to rise and saturate the life. Death to self is one of the unalterable conditions of the reception of the Spirit’s fullness. If our whole body is to be full of light, our life must be simple.

all God asks of us is to appropriate and enjoy what he has already given. As we open the sluice gates within to the Spirit, the living water quickly rushes in, filling every part of our being.

As we walk in the light as He is in the light, He continuously cleanses us from conscious sin. Cleansing is a means to an end, namely the fullness of the Spirit. He garnishes us that He might completely possess us. No person cleans house, then goes out and lives in the yard. It is cleaned for habitation.

Our trouble is, we want this needy blessing of the Spirit, but we love our sins.

Yet we can be delivered not only from sin, but the very love of it.

Until we are ready to part with all that is contrary to the mind of the Spirit we cannot receive His fullness. Are we willing to be made willing for everything to go that may stand in the way? That temper—are we honestly willing to die for it? That tongue—are we desirous of bidding farewell to those sharp, sarcastic, cynical words, so hurtful to others? Those impure thoughts; proud, vain, selfish thoughts; hatred of others; jealousy—are we prepared to let these vanish before the incoming tide of the Spirit?

It will, of course, be understood that we do not receive more of the Spirit. Yielding ourselves more completely to His sway, He receives more of us. Through believing reception He permeates every part of our life.

Previously we have indicated that this distinct work of the Spirit does not imply a state of sinless perfection. The more complete the control of our life by the Spirit, the deeper our realization of the wickedness of the old nature. With the prophet we cry, “Woe to me! for I am undone” (Is. 6:5).

Holiness, we come to learn, is altogether beyond human achievement.

Herbert Lockyer, All about the Holy Spirit (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2015).