EVERY BELIEVER'S BIRTHRIGHT.
On every hand a lack of something is being felt and expressed by God's people. Their Christian experience is not what they expected it would be. Instead of expected victory, it is oft-recurring, dreaded defeat; instead of soul satisfaction, it is soul hunger; instead of deep, abiding heart rest, it is disquiet and discontent; instead of advancing, it is losing ground. Is this all Christ meant when He said, "Come unto Me"? Is this life of constant disappointment the normal life of the Bible Christian? To these sad questionings the Divine Word answers with an emphatic "No," and the testimony of an ever-increasing number of God's children answers "No."
For this widely felt, though sometimes inarticulate demand, the Divine supply is the fullness of the Spirit; and this Fullness is the birthright of every believer, his birthright by virtue of his new birth. Sometimes we hear it said that to be filled with the Spirit is the Christian privilege; but birthright is a stronger word. Reader, it is your birthright to be filled with the Spirit, as Peter was filled, as Stephen was filled, as the one hundred and twenty men and women in the upper room were filled (Acts ii. 4, and i. 14, 15), as the men and women in Cornelius' house were filled (Acts x. 44-47). "And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off" (Acts ii. 38, 39). What have you done with your birthright? Have you claimed it? Are you living at this moment in the possession and enjoyment of it? Or, are you, Esau-like, "despising your birthright"? (Gen. xxv. 34). Or, if not despising, are you neglecting it? Esau's eyes were ultimately opened to his folly in parting with his birthright for "one mess of meat," and he then desired to inherit the blessing, seeking it "diligently with tears;" but alas! his awaking came too late (Heb. xii. 16, 17). May every reader of these lines have the desire graciously awakened (if it has not yet been awakened and satisfied), to inherit their birthright blessing, while place of repentance is to be found. May the prediction be fulfilled in our glad experience: "The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions" (Obad. 17).
CHAPTER III.
A COMMAND TO BE OBEYED.
But lest some one should think, "It is optional with me whether I claim my birthright or not; no doubt it would be a very fitting thing for some people to be filled with the Spirit, but I need not trouble about it"—in case any one should be tempted to speak and act like this, let us learn that "Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. v. 18) is a command to be obeyed, a duty to be done. Many of God's people are acknowledging that they did not know that "Be filled with the Spirit" was a command; but it is, and there is no excuse for not knowing. You will notice that in Eph. v. 18 there is a double command, a negative, "Be not drunk," and a positive, "Be ye filled." The positive command is as authoritative as the negative, and was binding on just as many of those Ephesian Christians as was the negative command. Now what was true for those believers there in Ephesus in the long-ago is equally true for all believers on God's footstool to-day. Is it a sin for a believer to-day to disobey the command, "Be not drunk"? and is it then a virtue to disobey the equally authoritative command, "Be ye filled"? If it is a sin for a Christian to be drunk, it is just as surely, truly, really, a sin not to be filled. We are commanded and expected to live a Spirit-filled life, to be filled, not with wine, the fruit of the vines of earth, but with the new wine of the kingdom, the fruit of the "true Vine."
Reader, if you are asked, Do you obey the command, "Be not drunk with wine," what is your answer? If it is, "Yes," that is obedience. Now, if you are asked, Do you obey the command, "Be filled with the Spirit," what is your answer? If it is, "No," that is disobedience; you are guilty of breaking one of God's plainest commandments. You have no more license to break this command than you have to break any command in the Decalogue. Before you read further, had you not better confess your sin, and tell the Master that you purpose in your heart new obedience?
CHAPTER IV.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT FROM THE NEW BIRTH.
This being "filled with the Spirit" is a definite blessing, quite distinct from being "born of the Spirit." It is objected by some that every Christian has the Spirit; quite true, for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. viii. 9); and "no man can say Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. xii. 3); but to "have the Spirit" and to be "filled with the Spirit" are two different things. "Egypt always has the Nile," as some one has said, "but Egypt waits every year for its overflow;" having the Nile is one thing, but having the Nile overflowing is quite another. Now it is the Nile's overflow that is Egypt's salvation, and to overflow it must first be filled. So it is the Christian's overflow that is the world's salvation, and in order to the overflow there must first be the filling.