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A Spirit-Filled Ministry

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 10, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 32.

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A Spirit-Filled Ministry

By R. D. Quinn

Luke tells us, in Acts 1:1, that his former treatise (the Gospel according to Luke) is a record of how Jesus began both to do and to teach. Then the Gospels are the record of how Jesus began and closed his work, and surely his was a Spirit-filled ministry. The Acts of the Apostles, which might be truly said to be the acts of the Holy Ghost, is a record of how the disciples continued that ministry. It is left for us to finish the work that Jesus began, and that was continued by those who succeeded him.
What is being recorded in the books of heaven respecting his followers to-day? Are we seeking as earnestly for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the disciples did on the day of Pentecost? If not, why not? Are not the needs as great, and the promises just as sure?
“Before giving us the Holy Ghost our Father will certainly try us to see if we will live without him. If we will we may; and it is only when we give signs of a resolution which will take no denial, but detains the angel with its imperative importunity, and vows its unalterable determination to be blessed,—it is only then that God, who has never been really reluctant, and had only been testing us, turns to us with a smile and says, “O child, great is thy importunity!; be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”
“The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
But if we may have the Spirit, then we must have it. Is not the positive command in Eph. 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit,” as authoritative as the negative, “Be not drunk with wine”? To be Spirit-filled is the normal condition of the truly converted and surrendered man. If we find a barrenness and lack of the Spirit in our lives and labors, we can trace it to but one thing,—sin and an unwillingness to pay the price and fulfil the conditions. May God help us to find our way back to the upper chamber, and there, by confessing and forsaking sin, by earnest prayer and consecration of our lives to God, to prepare for the outpouring of the Spirit in pentecostal power for victory over sin and for the conversion of men.
R. D. QUINN.