116 days until the Lilburn, GA, USA Revival Conference
Holiness has not legs and does not go walking about visiting idle people, as a lazy Christian seemed to think who told me that he thought the experience would “come” to him “some day.”
The fact is, there are hindrances in the way of holiness with most people, but you who are seeking the experience must put from you, forever, the thought that any of these hindrances are in God, or in your circumstances, for they are not, but are altogether in yourselves.
This being true, it is the extreme of folly to sit down with indifference and quietly wait, with folded hands, for the blessed experience to come to you. Be sure of this, it will not come, any more than a crop of potatoes will come to the lazy fellow who sits in the shade and never lifts his hoe, nor does a stroke of labor through all the spring and summer months. The rule in the spiritual world is this: “If any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thess. 2:10), and “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).
Therefore, the part of wisdom is to begin at once, by a diligent study of God’s Word, much secret prayer, unflinching self-examination, rigid self-denial, hearty obedience to all present light and a faithful attendance at the meetings of God’s people, to find out what these hindrances are, and, by the grace of God, to put them away, though it cost as much pain as to cut off a right hand or to pluck out a right eye.
The Bible tells us – and the testimony and experience of all holy people agree with the Bible – that the two great practical hindrances to holiness are: First, imperfect consecration; and second, imperfect faith.
Before a watchmaker can clean and regulate my watch, I must give it unreservedly into his hands. Before a doctor can cure me, I must take his medicine in the manner and at the time he requires. Before a captain can navigate me across the trackless ocean, I must get on board his ship and stay there.
Just so, if I would have God cleanse and regulate my heart with all its affections, if I would have Him cure my sin-sick soul, if I would have Him take me safely across the ocean of time into that greater ocean of eternity, I must put myself fully into His hands and stay there. In other words, I must do what He tells me to. I must be perfectly consecrated to Him.
A Salvation Army Captain knelt with her soldiers, and sang: “Anywhere with Jesus I will go,” adding: “Anywhere but to H___, Lord.” Her consecration was imperfect, and today she is out of Salvation Army work. There were some things she would not do for Jesus, and therefore Jesus would not cleanse or keep her.
The other day, a poor backslider told me that he knew at one time that he ought to give up tobacco. God wanted him to do so, but he held on to it and used it secretly. His imperfect consecration kept him from holiness and led to his downfall, and today he walks the streets a common drunkard, on the open road to Hell.
In his heart was secret disloyalty, and God could not cleanse or keep him. God wants perfect loyalty in the secret of your own heart, and He demands it, not only for His glory, but also for your good; for, if you can understand it, God’s highest glory and your highest good are one and the same thing.
This consecration consists in a perfect putting off of your own will, your disposition, temper, desires, likes and dislikes, and a perfect putting on of Christ’s will, Christ’s disposition, temper desire, likes and dislikes. In short, perfect consecration is a putting off self and a putting on Christ; a giving up your own will in all things and receiving the will of Jesus instead.
This may seem well-nigh impossible and very disagreeable to your unsanctified heart, but if you mean business for eternity, and will intelligently and unflinchingly look at this strait gate through which so few enter, and tell the Lord that you want to go through that way, though it cost you your life, the Holy Spirit will soon show you that it is not only possible, but easy and delightful thus to yield yourself to God. -Samuel L. Brengle
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