Topic : Holy Spirit, filling

Moody was to have a campaign in England. An elderly pastor protested, “Why do we need this ‘Mr. Moody’? He’s uneducated, inexperienced, etc. Who does he think he is anyway? Does he think he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?”

A younger, wiser pastor rose and responded, “No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Mr. Moody.”

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Finney wrote how God gave him mighty infillings of the Holy Spirit:

“…that went through me, as it seemed, body and soul. I immediately found myself endued with such power from on high that a few words dropped here and there to individuals were the means of their immediate conversion. My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men. They cut like a sword. They broke the heart like a hammer. Multitudes can attest to this.…Sometimes I would find myself in a great measure empty of this power. I would go and visit, and find that I made no saving impression. I would exhort and pray with the same results. I would then set apart a day for private fasting and prayer…after humbling myself and crying out for help, the power would return upon me with all its freshness. This has been the experience of my life.”

Touch the World Through Prayer, W. Duewel, OMS, p. 232

D. L. Moody said, “I believe firmly that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride and selfishness and ambition and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride and conceit and ambition and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled.”

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• Taking The Guesswork Out of Applying The Bible, J. Kuhatschek, IVP, pp. 153ff

When our second daughter was quite young, she once heard the line in a church song, "Send the fire! Send the fire! Send it we implore thee. Fill us with the Holy Ghost as we bow before thee."  The opening words "Send the fire!" startled her and thinking literally of the worst case scenario she tugged on her mom's skirt and said "Do they really mean it mommy?  Do they really mean it?"