Wise Words – 3/28/2018

By Derek DeMars on March 28, 2018 • ( 0 )

Every Wednesday I share some quotes I’ve come across that I really like. These are the insights of others that have stuck with me or that are generally worth pondering. Sometimes I may add some of my own comments to go with the quotes, but more often than not I’ll let people smarter than me simply speak for themselves.

For this week, I’ve decided to share a small sampling of quotes about the Holy Spirit and our great need to depend on him for everything in the Christian life and in ministry. Apart from the power of the Spirit of Christ, we could do nothing of eternal value (see John 15:1-8).

“The Christian’s life in all its aspects – intellectual and ethical, devotional and relational, upsurging in worship and outgoing in witness – is supernatural; only the Spirit can initiate and sustain it. So apart from him, not only will there be no lively believers and no lively congregations, there will be no believers and no congregations at all.” – J. I. Packer, Keep In Step with the Spirit, 15.

“Fire is the chosen symbol of Heaven for moral passion. It is emotion aflame. God is love; God is fire. The two are one. The Holy Spirit baptises in fire. Spirit-filled souls are ablaze for God. They love with a love that glows. They believe with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with a fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected in the Fire of God.” – Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932), The Way to Pentecost, 43.

“If you and I try, either as a Church or as individuals, to do without the Holy Spirit, God will soon do without us. Unless we reverently worship Him and believingly trust in Him, we shall find that we shall be like Sampson when his locks were shorn. He shook himself as he had done before, but when the Philistines were upon him, he could do nothing against them. Our prayer must always be, ‘Holy Spirit, dwell with me! Holy Spirit, dwell with your servants!’ We know that we are utterly dependent upon Him. Such is the teaching of our Master, and Jesus Christ is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever’ (Heb 13:8).” – Charles Spurgeon, Sermon 2,358.