Chapter 196—Molds Into the Divine Likeness
And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath
given us.
1 John 3:24
.
The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race.
Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His
followers unto the end. From the Day of Pentecost to the present time, the
Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord
and to His service. To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, the
Holy Spirit has come as a counselor, sanctifier, guide, and witness. The more
closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully
they have testified of their Redeemer’s love and of His saving grace. The
men and women who through the long centuries of persecution and trial
enjoyed a large measure of the presence of the Spirit in their lives, have
stood as signs and wonders in the world. Before angels and men they have
revealed the transforming power of redeeming love.
Those who at Pentecost were endued with power from on high, were not
thereby freed from further temptation and trial. As they witnessed for truth
and righteousness, they were repeatedly assailed by the enemy of all truth,
who sought to rob them of their Christian experience. They were compelled
to strive with all their God-given powers to reach the measure of the stature of
grace, that they might reach higher and still higher toward perfection. Under
the Holy Spirit’s working, even the weakest, by experiencing faith in God,
learned to improve their entrusted powers and to become sanctified, refined,
and ennobled. As in humility they submitted to the moulding influence of the
Holy Spirit, they received of the fullness of the Godhead and were fashioned
in the likeness of the divine....
The Holy Spirit withdraws the affections from the things of this earth and
fills the soul with a desire for holiness.... If men are willing to be moulded,
there will be brought about a sanctification of the whole being. The Spirit
will take the things of God and stamp them on the soul.
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