"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you."
THE children of Israel were instructed by Moses to give tithes of
all they had to the Lord, and in return God promised to richly
bless them, making their fields and vineyards fruitful and
causing their flocks and herds to safely multiply. But they
became covetous and unbelieving, and began to rob God by
withholding their tithes, and then God began to withhold His
blessing from them.
But still God loved and pitied them, and sent to them again and
again by His prophets; and finally by the prophet Malachi He
said: "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there
may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the
Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and
pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it" (Malachi iii. 10).
He promised to make their barns overflow, if they would be
faithful, if they would pay their tithes and discharge their
obligations to Him.
Now, this overflow of barns and granaries is a type of
overflowing hearts and lives when we give ourselves fully to God,
and the blessed Holy Ghost comes in, and Jesus becomes all and in
all to us. The blessing is too big to contain, but just bursts
out and overflows through the life, the looks, the conversation,
the very tones of the voice, and gladdens and refreshes and
purifies wherever it goes. Jesus calls it "rivers of living
water" (John vii. 38).
There is an overflow of _love_. Sin brings in an overflow of
hate, so that the world is filled with wars and murders,
slanders, oppression, and selfishness. But this blessing causes
love to overflow. Schools, colleges, and hospitals are built;
shelters, rescue homes, and orphanages are opened; even war
itself is in some measure humanised by the Red Cross Society and
Christian commissions. Sinners love their own, but this blessing
makes us to love all men--strangers, the heathen, and even our
enemies.
There is an overflow of _peace_. It settles old quarrels and
grudges. It makes a different atmosphere in the home. The
children know it when father and mother get the Comforter. Kindly
words and sweet goodwill take the place of bitterness and strife.
I suspect that even the dumb beasts realise the overflow.
I heard a laughable story of a man whose cow would switch her
tail in his face, and then kick over the pail when he was milking
her, after which he would always give her a beating with the
stool on which he sat. But he got the blessing, and his heart was
overflowing with peace. The next morning he went to milk that
cow, and when the pail was nearly full, swish! came the tail in
his face, and with a vicious kick she knocked over the pail, and
then ran across the barn-yard. The blessed man picked up the
empty pail and stool and went over to the cow, which stood
trembling, awaiting the usual kicks and beating; but instead he
patted her gently, and said, "You may kick over that pail as
often as you please, but I am not going to beat you any more";
and the cow seemed to understand, for she dropped her head and
quietly began to eat, and never kicked again! That story is good
enough to be true, and I doubt not it is, for certainly when the
Comforter comes a great peace fills the heart and overflows
through all the life.
There is an overflow of _joy_. It makes the face to shine;
it glances from the eye, and bubbles out in thanksgiving and
praise. You never can tell when one who has the blessing will
shout out, "Glory to God! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen!"
I have sometimes seen a whole congregation wakened up and
refreshed and made glad by the joyous overflow from one clean-hearted
soul. A Salvation Soldier or Officer with an overflow of
genuine joy is worth a whole company of ordinary folks. He is a
host within himself, and is a living proof of the text, "The joy
of the Lord is your strength."
There is an overflow of _patience_ and _long-suffering._
A man got this blessing, and his wicked wife was
so enraged that she left him, and went across the way and lived
as the wife of his unmarried brother. He was terribly tempted to
take his gun and go over and kill them both. But he prayed about
it, and the Lord gave him the patience and long-suffering of
Jesus, who bears long with the backslider who leaves Him and
joins himself with the world; and he continued to treat them with
the utmost kindness, as though they had done him no wrong. Some
people might say the man was weak, but I should say he was
unusually "strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," and a
neighbour of his told me that all his neighbours believed in his
religion.
There is an overflow of _goodness_ and _generosity_. I
read the other day of a poor man who supports eight workers in
the foreign mission field. When asked how he did it, he replied
that he wore celluloid collars, did his own washing, denied
himself, and managed his affairs in order to do it.
Do you ask, "How can I get such a blessing?" You will get it by
bringing in all the tithes, by giving yourself in love and
obedience and wholehearted, joyous consecration to Jesus, as a
true bride gives herself to her husband. Do not try to bargain
with the Lord and buy it of Him, but wait on Him in never-give-in
prayer and confident expectation, and He will give it to you. And
then you must not hold it selfishly for your own gratification,
but let it overflow to the hungry, thirsty, fainting world about
you. God bless you even now, and do for you exceeding abundantly
above all you ask or think!
A comrade went from one of my meetings recently with a heart
greatly burdened for the blessing, and for two or three days and
nights did little else but read the Bible, and pray and cry to
God for a clean heart filled with the Spirit. At last the
Comforter came, and with Him fullness of peace and joy and
soul-rest, and that day this comrade led a number of others into the
blessing. Hallelujah! "If ye then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him" (Luke xi. 13).
"_Ask,... seek,... knock_."
"HAVE YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?"