The Indwelling Spirit

Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? GALATIANS 3:3

Murray wrote a full book on the Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Christ, and it remains one of his weightiest. But his teaching on the Spirit runs through almost everything he wrote, and some of its clearest statements are in the addresses gathered in Absolute Surrender and The Master’s Indwelling. The heart of it is a single conviction. The Holy Spirit is not an occasional visitor, given for special moments of power. He is the indwelling life of Christ in the believer, given to rule and to work in every hour of every day. And the great failure of the church, as Murray saw it, is that believers who have received the Spirit go on trying to live by their own strength.

Begun in the Spirit

In the address Having Begun in the Spirit, Murray takes Paul’s question to the Galatians and turns it on the church of his day. The Galatians had heard the gospel, believed it, and received the Spirit. Then they tried to complete by their own efforts the work the Spirit had begun. Murray thought that was the story of countless believers. He put it bluntly: “God has called the church of Christ to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the church is living for the most part in the power of human flesh, and of will and energy and effort apart from the Spirit of God.”

This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? GALATIANS 3:2

He described young Christians who came to him puzzled. They had vowed with their whole hearts to serve God, and yet they failed. Why? His answer was always the same: “My dear friend, you are trying to do in your own strength what Christ alone can do in you.”

The Spirit of Christ

For Murray the Spirit is always the Spirit of Christ. He does not bring a separate blessing alongside Christ; He brings Christ Himself. The whole purpose of His coming is to make the absent Lord present, to make the Vine’s life flow in the branch, to form Christ in the believer.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. JOHN 16:7

This is why his teaching on the Spirit is so closely bound up with his teaching on abiding. To abide in Christ and to walk in the Spirit are not two different programmes. They are the same life described from two sides. The branch abides in the Vine; the sap flows into the branch. We turn to Christ; the Spirit makes Christ real in us.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 CORINTHIANS 3:16

The director of the work

In the address Separated unto the Holy Ghost, Murray turns from the individual to the church and its mission. His text is Acts 13, where the Holy Spirit says to the praying church at Antioch, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. The great lesson, he says, is that the Holy Spirit is the director of the work of God upon the earth.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. ACTS 13:2

Murray was sharp about how the church often reverses this. We make our plans and then ask God to bless them, he said, instead of refusing to go unless God goes before us. He told how, at the opening of the Mission Institute at Wellington, the principal reminded the gathering that only the architect had known what the building would become; so only God knows what a work begun in obedience will grow into. The Spirit leads, and His servants wait for their orders and obey them.

That word — wait — links this teaching to Murray’s great theme of waiting on God. The church at Antioch was ministering to the Lord and fasting when the Spirit spoke. The instruction came to people who were waiting.

Filled, not once, but continually

Murray pressed believers to be filled with the Spirit, and he used strong language about consecration. But he was careful about where the power lies. “I may consecrate myself a hundred times with all the intensity of my being,” he said, “and that will not help me.” What helps is that God accepts and seals the consecration. The believer’s part is to give himself up; God’s part is to fill.

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit. EPHESIANS 5:18

The Greek of that command, as commentators have long noted, suggests an ongoing filling rather than a single event: go on being filled. Murray’s emphasis on the Spirit’s daily, hourly rule fits it well.

A hard saying, and a softer one

There is one line in Having Begun in the Spirit that needs a gentle hand. When young Christians protested that they had not been trusting themselves, Murray answered that they must have been, or they could not have failed; if they had trusted Christ, He could not fail. There is a truth in this — failure often does expose self-reliance we did not know was there. But pressed as a rule, it would make every stumble proof of unbelief, and it would lay a crushing burden on sensitive consciences. Scripture is kinder. The apostles themselves trusted Christ and still stumbled; the Spirit Himself helps our infirmities. We should take Murray’s warning to heart without turning it into a verdict on every failure.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

The Spirit is patient with weak believers. That, too, is part of what it means that He dwells in us.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Identify one area where you began in dependence on God and have drifted into self-effort. Name it before Him.

2. Before your next task — work, conversation, service — pause and ask the Spirit to do through you what you cannot do.

3. In any plans you are making for Christian work, ask honestly whether you are waiting for the Spirit’s direction or asking Him to bless your own.

4. Pray Ephesians 5:18 daily this week as a request: fill me again today.

5. When you fail, do not conclude that you never trusted Christ at all. Confess, and let the Spirit help your infirmity.

A PRAYER

Holy Spirit, Spirit of Christ, You dwell in me, and I have lived as though You did not.

I began in You and have tried to finish in my own strength. Forgive me.

Fill me again today. Rule my thoughts, my words and my work. Make Christ real in me, and lead me where You would have me go.

And when I stumble, help my infirmity, and bring me back to rest in You. Amen.