Let me say that it is not a question of us getting more of the Holy Spirit, but rather of the Holy Spirit getting more of us.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the need for individuals to allow the Holy Spirit to influence and guide their lives more fully, rather than seeking additional gifts or blessings.
In this quote, Oswald J. Smith expresses the idea that the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit in a person's life does not depend on the abundance of the Spirit itself but on the willingness of the individual to surrender and offer themselves to the Spiritβs influence. It suggests a deeper relationship between a believer and the Holy Spirit, where the focus shifts from asking for more spiritual gifts to allowing the Spirit to transform one's life and actions.
In practice
Using this quote in a sermon about spiritual growth and surrender.
God does not have to come and tell me what I must do for Him; He brings me into a relationship with Himself where I hear His call and understand what He wants me to do, and I do it out of sheer love to Him... When people say they have had a call to foreign service, or to any particular sphere of work, they mean that their relationship to God has enabled them to realize what they can do for God.
Why should anyone hear the Gospel twice, before everyone has heard it once?
Oh my friends, we are loaded with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost is almost entirely neglected.
Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
When prayer fades out, power fades out. We are as spiritual as we are prayerful; no more, no less.
Let us ask the Lord for this grace: that our hearts become free and filled with light, so that we can rejoice as children of God.
We are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven.
He who prays five times a day is in the protection of God, and he who is protected by God cannot be harmed by anyone.
It is not because we are drawn to prayer that we first begin to pray; more often, we have to begin prayer, and then the taste and the desire for it come.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.