[Octavius Winslow, in this encouragement about receiving more of the Holy Spirit, is not saying that believers lack having the Holy Spirit. What he is saying is that we can experience Him more increasingly as we seek and ask. Notice throughout his choice of words about this? “deeper, more, more sensibly applied, more deeply impressed, more rejoicing, so little, measure, receive, influence, pour down, confirm, anointing, give, strengthen, assure, larger degrees, God’s countenance,” etc? He is speaking of deeper working, deeper experiences, and knowing the power of the Spirit in an ongoing and increased way. – M.T.]
What the Church of God needs corporately, we also equally need as individual Christians—a deeper baptism of the Holy Spirit. Why is it that you are not more settled in the truth and your feet more firm upon the Rock? Why are you not more rejoicing in Christ Jesus, the pardoning blood more sensibly applied to the conscience, the seal of adoption more deeply impressed upon your heart, and “Abba, Father” more frequently on your lips?
Why are you, perhaps, so yielding in temptation, so irresolute in purpose, so feeble in action, so vacillating in pursuit, and so faint in the day of adversity? Why is the glory of Jesus so dimly seen, His preciousness so little felt, and His love so imperfectly experienced? Why is there so little close transaction between God and your soul?So little searching of heart, confession of sin, and dealing with the atoning blood?
Why does the conscience so much lack tenderness, and the heart brokenness, and the spirit contrition? And why is the throne of grace so seldom resorted to, and prayer itself felt so much a duty and so little a privilege, and, when engaged in, is so faintly characterized with the humble brokenness of a penitent sinner, the confidence of an adopted child, and the rich anointing of a royal priest?
Let the small measure in which you have received the Holy Spirit’s influence supply the answer. “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?”—have you received Him as a Witness, as a Sealer, as a Teacher, as an Indweller, as a Comforter, as the Spirit of adoption? Have you not forgotten that your Lord was alive, and upon the throne exalted, to give you the Holy Spirit, and that more readily than a father is ready to give good gifts to his child? That he is prepared now to throw back the windows of heaven, and pour down upon you such a blessing as shall confirm your faith, resolve your doubts, annihilate your fears, arm you for the fight, strengthen you for the trial, give you an unclouded view of your acceptance in the Beloved, and assure you that your “name is written among the living in Jerusalem?”
Then as you value the light of God’s countenance, as you desire to grow in a knowledge of Christ, as you long to be more steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, oh, seek to enjoy in a larger degree the presence, the love, and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Christ has gone up on high to give to you this invaluable blessing and says for your encouragement, “Hitherto have you asked nothing in my name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”
– Octavius Winslow