WHAT WE BELIEVE AND TEACH ABOUT THE SOUL'S ABIDING LIFE IN GOD

"Let us pass on then to what is mature, leaving elementary Christian doctrine behind instead of laying the foundation over again." Heb. 6:1 (Moffatt)

The two crisis-works of grace about which We, the Holiness People, so freely speak are not by any means to be regarded as the sum total of the experience we enjoy. These two distinctive "blessings" are simply the two-leaved gateway into the larger life which stands as the blood-bought inheritance of every child of God. The Scriptures are redundant in their teaching concerning such a life, as any unprejudiced person with an open Bible will readily see.

We, the Holiness People, wholeheartedly believe, steadfastly teach, and gladly witness from personal heart knowledge, that such an experience is possible to the wholly yielded soul in this life. It has become known to many as The Higher Life, but it is, in reality, the normal experience of the Christian. All else is below Bible standard and consequently below the Divine purpose for the believing soul.

We shall state this experience in three simple propositions:

1. It is a life of unlimited fulness.

To some, such a declaration will be startling, and therefore needs to be hedged about with careful explanations. We shall quote first, three of the many Scripture passages on which we base such a sweeping statement, and then shall seek to say some things which will clarify our thinking concerning them:

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.

"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power; which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Eph. 1:15-23.

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end." Eph. 3:14-21.

We begin by saying that the experience received through the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not independent in its Origin. It is not a gift to be received from the Giver, but is rather to be regarded as the Giver's gift of Himself. Among men a thing may be transferred from one person to another, and that thing may remain the property of the one to whom it is transferred without the recipient ever seeing the giver again. It is not so, however, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the gift and the Giver are one. The Blessing abides only as the Blesser is recognized and honored. It is retained only on this condition, "If ye abide in Me..."

We must further state that this is a fulness which must always be Divinely sustained. The crisis Blessing is an experience instantaneous in its nature, but the balancing truth is seen in the fact that while there is one baptism, there are many fillings maintained only by a close walk with God; these alone can guarantee the fulness level in the Spirit-filled soul.

An example of the teaching of the Scripture concerning this is found in the Ephesian epistle from which we have already quoted. The fact of the experience of the reception of the Holy Spirit by the readers of the epistle is recorded in the opening chapter.

"Christ... in whom also, after ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Eph. 1:13.

Then, on throughout the epistle, this indwelling Spirit is recognized, until toward the close the reader is faced with this exhortation: "Be filled with the Spirit." Ch. 5:18.

But already they are recognized as having been filled with the Spirit! There seems to be reasonable evidence that the reference of Ch. 1:13 is to the incident recorded in Acts 19:1-7. In these Ephesian believers the crisis work of the baptism with the Holy Spirit had been definitely known. Why then this repeated exhortation to be filled? The answer is not difficult, for the fulness to which they are now exhorted is not by way of crisis but rather in the nature of process. Those qualified to interpret the passage have suggested a translation which to the English reader would make a clumsy reading; "Be being filled with the Spirit." Dr. Weymouth has translated it, "Drink deeply of God's Spirit." Here then is suggested a maintained faith contact, which assures a perpetual fulness of the Holy Spirit but only through a constantly abiding attitude of the soul.

All this now leaves us free to emphasize the amazing spiritual fulness which is available to the Spirit-filled soul. Who can measure it? Who will dare to restrict it? The very power that raised up Jesus from the dead, "the exceeding greatness of His power," is "to usward who believe." Eph. 1:15-23. Oh! poor faithless hearts, to have believed so little. All the Divine fulness is at our disposal. We may be "filled unto all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:19. R. V.

2. It is a life of unbounded Satisfaction.

There is, of course, an ultimate satisfaction which we shall never know until that glorious resurrection morning when, changed into His glorious image, we see our redeeming Lord face to face. Hence the psalmist wrote:

"As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness." Psa. 17:15.

Yet while for this resurrection satisfaction we must of necessity yearn and wait, there is a present satisfaction which every believing soul may here and now enjoy. The Scriptures proclaim the possibility. Take, for instance, the following:

"For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." Psa. 107:9.

"I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." S. of S. 2:3, 4.

"And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord." Jer. 31:14.

"I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon." Hosea 14:5-7.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." "They will be satisfied" -- Moffatt. "They shall be completely satisfied." -- Weymouth. Matt. 5:6.

"That your joy may be full." John 16:24.

"We are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Rom. 8:37.

What can these, and so many other similar Scriptures mean except that in the experience offered to the believing soul through the merits of Calvary there is a satisfaction to be obtained which nothing else can offer -- a satisfaction which needs no supplementation from anything which a God defying world can give.

Yet how strange it is that within the Christian Church, so many are content to live on a lower level of dissatisfaction and defeat, and seek to justify their failures by quoting -- or more often misquoting, misapplying, misinterpreting, and misrepresenting -- the sacred Word of God. Scripture verses are wrenched from their context, and their historical setting is utterly disregarded, in the vain endeavor to prove the necessity of continual sinning as long as they remain in this life

Paul's wretched man and the lusting flesh are prime favorites, while John's "if we say we have no sin" quotation is hugged to the heart with such amazing tenderness as to make it appear that the fact of retained carnality is more to be cherished than the delivering power of God.

We, the Holiness People, confidently assert that in no case does the statement of Scripture go beyond the possibility of personal experience. "He satisfieth the longing soul." We find it to be true.

3. It is a life of unending Progress.

We, the Holiness People, while insisting on the possibility of spiritual soundness and soul satisfaction in the experience of the wholly yielded child of God, go on confidently to affirm that all this in no way precludes a life of spiritual development, but rather becomes the essential prelude to it. The normal experience of a soul wholly yielded to the will of God is essentially a life of unending progression.

The soul satisfied in God will of necessity make progress in the knowledge of the things of God. The suggestion made by some that if sin were destroyed within the soul there would then be neither room for growth nor incentive to it is as thoughtless as it is false.

What, we ask, is the foundation of true growth? The answer surely is obvious: growth is facilitated by constitutional soundness. The child, the plant, the lamb, the sapling, the ripening fruit -- surely none of these require an inner corruption in order that a reasonable development might take place. On the contrary, it is that very corruption, when there, that arrests development. The sick child weakens instead of growing strong. The diseased fruit rots instead of going on to ripen. The worm-eaten tree does not flourish; it quickly decays. Likewise the sin-infested soul does not and cannot develop as it should. Sin is not conducive to spiritual growth; it never was and never will be. Yet of the soul that is wholly yielded to God it is written:

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him." Psa. 92:12-15.

"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. 4:18.

Concerning this need and possibility of spiritual development, the teaching of the New Testament is unmistakably plain. The soul cleansed from indwelling sin and satisfied with the Divine favor is then urged and encouraged to maintain a constant development in the grace which has been received... One word from the apostle Paul will suffice:

"We all . . . beholding . . . the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same likeness, from one degree of radiant holiness to another, even as derived from the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3:18, A. V., and Weymouth.

The apostle Peter also had no doubt about both the need and possibility of the soul's perpetual development in this Divinely bestowed grace. Concerning it, both the opening and closing chapters of his second epistle are emphatic. Having reminded his readers of the exceeding great and precious promises which were basic to the fact of their partaking of the Divine nature and consequently escaping the corruption that is in the world, he exhorts them to diligence in what he terms adding to their faith, or in other words, seeking the development of those virtues which go to make up a well rounded Christian character. Then again, as he closes his epistle, he returns to his earlier emphasis with this concluding word:

"But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Pet. 3:18.

The soul delivered from the virus of carnality is thereby set free for growth and development in Christian virtues such as could not be possible while indwelling sin remained. It has capacity for unending growth in the grace which God bestows and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.