Correspondence (Prayer for Revival)

What is the reason for the general dearth of spiritual life and blessing in these days?

Your correspondent H.E.Heath asks many questions, but this one lies at the base of them all. Christianity, for the vast majority of those who still profess it, has become a formal thing, and if formal, then dead; and if dead, no longer the medium of life and blessing to others.

The "mighty revival" for which your correspondent sighs must begin within himself, and in the rest of us who feel the "general dearth of spiritual life and blessing." It will commence when we say to the Lord, not with our lips only, but in the heart, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" If we do not place ourselves unreservedly at His disposal we become formal and dead. It is the bringing of "a certain part," and holding back the rest for SELF, while saying "Lord" to Him, that grieves the Holy Spirit, stops His gracious work within us, and makes all our efforts in service futile.

If we are "keeping back part" we shall be as dead spiritually as Ananias was actually when the young men "wound him up, and carried him out and buried him." But "there is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise" (Prov. 21:26). The wise are they of whom the Lord speaks in John 14:23.

The Father and the Son dwell with them, and what a desirable treasure is this! The Spirit is there also in all His blessed ministries, for the oil is typical of Him. And he of whom this is true "shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither: and whatsoever he does shall prosper." He "shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall he cease from bearing fruit."

J.T.M.