Galatians 3:5 says, “He therefore Who is supplying to you the Spirit and doing works of power among you, is it by the works of law or by the hearing of faith?” This verse indicates that God continues to supply us the Spirit. We may use electricity as an illustration. After electricity has been installed in a building, electricity is supplied continually to the building. Likewise, after God regenerated us by His Spirit to make us His sons, He has been continually supplying to us the Spirit. Nothing is more crucial than the constant receiving of the Spirit. The Galatians had been saved and had received the Spirit by the hearing of faith. However, they had been misled and distracted and had turned back to the law. Instead of taking the Spirit as their source, they took the law as their source. Many Christians today have also been distracted from the Spirit. We all need to be brought back to the Spirit as our source. We must come back to God Himself as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Sisters should not be occupied with trying to be a good wife or mother. Instead, they should open themselves to the Spirit as their heavenly source and receive the transmission of the Triune God, the heavenly electrical current, into their being. If they receive such a transmission, they will automatically be good wives and mothers. I encourage you to pray, “Lord Jesus, I open myself to You. I thank You that I have been born of God, born of the all-inclusive Spirit. Lord, this Spirit is still transmitting something of You into my being. I thank You, Lord, for this marvelous transmission.”
There is no need to pray about your weaknesses or your temper. There is no need to ask the Lord to make you patient, or to cause you to be a good wife and mother or husband and father. That kind of prayer is not effective. The Lord is waiting for you to open to Him and to allow Him to permeate, saturate, and possess you. He is waiting for the opportunity to occupy all the ground in your inner being. If you give the Lord this opportunity, receiving the transmission of the Spirit, you will automatically be a good wife or husband. You have been born of the Spirit. Now you need to stay open to the Spirit and receive Him continually. Do not close your being to the Spirit. If you stay open to the Spirit and receive the Spirit constantly, you will be surprised how this will affect your daily living. What you for years have prayed for without receiving will now become your experience.
When you need light at home, you do not pray for light— you simply go to the switch and turn it on. Likewise, if we would receive the supply of heavenly electricity, all we need to do is go to the “switch,” our regenerated spirit, and “switch on.” However, very few of today’s Christians practice this. Instead, many pray to be gentle, patient, humble, or loving. From years of experience I can testify that this kind of prayer does not work. You may pray again and again for the Lord to make you patient or loving, but you may not receive anything of the Spirit. Christians may pray for many things, but they do not “switch on” to receive the divine transmission. Sometimes even after I had learned the secret of switching on, I still prayed in a way that was not effective. I am sure that many of you have had the same kind of experience. Our need is to turn to the Lord, open to Him, and receive His supply of the Spirit.
I repeat, it is not God’s intention to make you a good person. It is to make you His son. Ephesians 1:5 says that God has predestinated us to sonship. God’s intention is to make us sons. In Galatians 4:5 Paul says clearly that Christ has redeemed us that we might receive the sonship. Verse 6 says, “And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!” The Spirit of God’s Son is the reality of sonship. First, God sent His Son to be our Redeemer. Then God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Now God’s desire is to supply us continually with the Spirit.
According to 3:13 and 14, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law so that “the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” We have received the Spirit as the blessing of Abraham. God’s unique blessing to us is this all-inclusive Spirit. However, many fundamental Christians are reluctant to even talk about the Spirit. Some are afraid of any mention of the Spirit. This is one extreme. At the other extreme are certain Pentecostal people who emphasize the Spirit, but in a way that is not proper or in line with God’s economy. The Spirit in the book of Galatians is the ultimate expression of the Triune God, that is, the Triune God after He has been processed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. In Galatians, the Spirit is not associated with strange or unusual things. On the contrary, the Spirit is related to Christ living in us. Hence, the Spirit is full of divine, heavenly reality. What is needed in the Lord’s recovery today is that a number of saints become enlightened and open themselves for the heavenly supply to be transmitted into them.
We all need to realize that we have been born of the Spirit. Because we have been born of the Spirit, we are different from what we were before. Having been born of the Spirit, we need to practice opening to the Lord and receiving His supply. We should pray, “Lord, supply me with Yourself as the life-giving Spirit. I praise You, Lord, that You are real. You are on the throne in heaven, and You are also living in me. Lord, I ask that You keep me open to You all the time.” In order to stay open to the Lord, it is helpful to call on His name, to pray-read, to praise the Lord, and to sing to the Lord. When we do these things, we receive of the Spirit. When we say, “Lord Jesus, I love You and I give myself wholly to You,” we are supplied with the Spirit. Realizing that we have been born of the Spirit, we should now stay open to receive the Spirit moment by moment.
I can surely testify how enjoyable it is to receive the Spirit continually. No joy can surpass this joy. We may receive the Spirit wherever we may be, at home, at work, or at school. Because the Spirit is so available, we may receive Him at any time. How wonderful that we have been born of the Spirit to receive the Spirit! Let us go to the “switch” of our regenerated spirit and “switch on” to receive the heavenly electricity.
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