EXTRACTS
I would urge you, young people, see to it that you have the Holy Spirit, and not only that you have the Holy Spirit, but that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ will be all to you. You say, ‘How do I know that I am filled with the Spirit?’ By Christ being all to you. The Holy Spirit will
say to you, No, not that but Christ. You say, ‘Well what about this book, I have had to read it at school, what about it now?’ What would the Holy Spirit say? Are there lies in it? Is it about Christ? Does it help you in regard of Christ, or does it hinder you in regard of Christ? If it hinders you, the Holy Spirit would say to you, ‘Not that book but Christ’, and, you may depend upon it that if that is the state of your soul, if there is the disallowance of all that is not of Christ, and the urging of what is of Christ, that is the principle of being filled with the Holy Spirit. If you allow bad books the demons will come back to you through them. I believe demons are largely employed in writing books at the present time. There never has been such a time as this for books, and so it is the devil’s way, for men want books and a great amount of time is devoted to reading.
J. Taylor (Vol. 36, pp.300, 301)
And so I read in Ephesians, it says, “And be not drunk with wine ... but be filled with the Spirit”; and then it goes on to give the details as to the effect of being thus filled—“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”. The question is constantly being raised as to young people, what are we going to do with them? Give them the best thing you have; they are worthy of the best. They brought little children to the Lord that He might lay His hands on them and pray. You may say, ‘Why did they not bring those little ones to Peter or John, they could have understood Peter and John better than the Lord’. But they brought them to Jesus. The very best that heaven could give them was there, and those who brought these children knew it, so they did not go to any one inferior, they brought them to the Lord, and it was that He might lay His hands on them and pray. Think of the Lord interceding for the little ones! Could I expect the Lord to pray that they might
become more accomplished in earthly pursuits? No, He would not pray for them in that relation. He would pray for them to be delivered from that. He laid His hands on them, and blessed them, and departed thence. What did He depart to do? To die for them. He has gone into heaven for them, and He gives heaven’s best gift to them—the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit has brought into the world is the best, and it is not too good for them. It is a question of wisdom, how to bring it to them, but be sure of this, they are worthy of the best, and they understand more than we give them credit for sometimes. But then the word here is, “be filled with the Spirit”. If you profess to be a believer and have the Spirit, then the next thing is to be filled. And then we have the details working out as I said—“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs ... making melody in your heart to the Lord”. What a delightful occupation this is! The vessels are filled; filled—not only with light but with the Spirit, and the outcome is, “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”. We are in accord, I believe, with heaven in this employ. It is not a question here of the meetings exactly, of worship in the meetings, it is more what marks the saints generally. Then what follows upon being filled and the outlet of song is, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Thus as the saints are filled with the Spirit, we get the singing to ourselves, and then making melody in the heart to the Lord. The Lord would thus have His part in everything, whether it be a happy season together in one of our houses, or in the assembly, and it is a challenge to one’s heart, Can the Lord have part in this?
J. Taylor (Vol. 36, pp.302, 303)
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