As holy as he wants

"Hudson Taylor observed that there is no possibility of power in a life which is easygoing and which shrinks from the Cross. This truth came home to James during these months. It would be costly to maintain a close walk with God, a deep and continual cost every day of his life ... 

     This led him on to an allied truth.

     'Everyone,' as A.W. Tozer, is just as holy as he wants to be.'

p154, Mountain Rain, The Biography of James O. Fraser

Being Filled With The Spirit

Below is a story regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the life of a young missionary (name unknown) in the China interior in the 1890s. I've been studying bible verses and listening to loads of sermons on the baptism of the Spirit in preparation for a Holy Spirit evening at Life Group. This account is absolute spot on with my present understanding that 1, the Spirit is a person to be personally welcomed and accepted into one's life (we don't need to plead, but simply ask and believe); 2, the purpose of being filled is to be clothed with power to continue the work of Jesus Christ; 3, the evidence of being filled is a supernatural effectiveness in ministry and witness; 4, the filling is not a condition of salvation, but a gift; and 5, manifestations may well occur at the point of receiving, but this is not always the case and is neither the main goal, purpose or evidence of being filled.

Here's the excerpt... it's quite long but very good!

Four years in China had taught her something of the joy and blessing to be found in the deeper fellowship with the Master, but something also of the deadening influences of heathenism, the power of evil within as well as around her, and the blank despair of seeking to help others when her own soul was out of living touch with Christ. How she longed for 'the exchanged life', the life she saw in others, but knew not how to attain. Praying in an anguish no one suspected for light and for help, it was the last Sunday before Christmas when a word was spoken that, under God, brought the deliverance and made all things new. After the evangelistic service in the C.I.M. hall, an entire stranger – a Christian seaman – came up to her and said earnestly:

'Are you filled with the Holy Ghost?'

Filled with the Holy Ghost? She remembered no more of the conversation, but that question burned deeper and deeper into her heart. This, then, was the explanation of all the inward failure, the sorrow that seemed unavailing, the purposes that came to nothing. God had made a provision, given a Gift that she had never definitely accepted. She knew that the Holy Spirit must be in her life in a certain sense, for 'if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his'. And yet, just as certainly, she knew that she was not 'filled with the Spirit', and was experiencing little of His power.

But how afraid she was of being misled, of running into error and mistaking emotion for reality! The Word of God was full, now she came to study the subject, of the personality and power of the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles - what was it but the acts of the Holy Ghost, transforming and quickening lives just as she knew she needed to be quicken and transformed? O yes, why had she never seen it? It was indeed the Holy Spirit, to make unseen things real to her and impossible things possible. And there stood out in Gal. 3. 13, 14 the words:

'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.'

What was she doing with the infinite Gift purchased at such a cost? She saw that just as Christ is ours by the gift of God, and yet we have each one personally to receive Him, so with the Holy Spirit. She saw that He too was a Person, just as real as the Lord Jesus, and to be just as truly welcomed by faith into the heart that cannot do without Him as a living link with the risen, glorious Lord. All the rest that can be told is that she took the step, though with fear and trembling - scarce knowing what it meant - and trusted the Holy Spirit to come in and possess her fully, just as she had trusted the Lord Jesus to be her Saviour. Feeling nothing, realising nothing, she just took God at His word, and then and there asked that the promise might be fulfilled, 'When he is come (to you) he will reprove (or convict) the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment'. Her chief sorrow for many months had been that she seemed to have little power for soul-winning, and hardly knew of any who had been brought to Christ through her instrumentality. It was Christmas week, and believing that a real, a definite transaction had taken place alone in that quiet room, she asked in faith that God would give her to see the proof of it in actual conversations every day that week, in connection with meetings that were being held.

And every day that week the prayer was answered. More than twenty people, young and old, sailors, visitors, and residents in Shanghai, it was given her to help a definite decision for Christ, while the joy and liberty of her own heart were so manifest that others could not but long for and seek the same blessing.

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p456-8

"if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ."
Romans 8:9

"He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."
Galatians 3:14

Hudson Taylor and the Holy Spirit

Hudson Taylor had an interesting perspective about the possibility of a gradual filling of the Holy Spirit. It's the first time I've come across that perspective and I'm not yet sure how fully I agree. I'm still working it out.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is mentioned frequently in the book of Acts, and the terms does suggest a sudden, total and full immersion. Jesus specifically tells his disciples to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:49), which again suggests a sudden and complete equipping of the saints for tasks to come.

In any case, here's the excerpt. I guess God is by no means constrained in the method he chooses to fill us with the Spirit. We may all experience it differently.

"Now the heart can no more be filled with two things at the same time than a tumbler can be filled with both air and water at the same time. If you want a tumbler full of water to be filled with air, it has first to be emptied of the water. This shows us why prayer to be filled with the Spirit is often gradually answered. We have to be shown our sins, our faults, our pre-possessions, and to be delivered from them. Faith is the channel be which all grace and blessing are received; and that which is accepted by faith, God bestows in fact. Being filled does not always lead to exalted feeling or uniform manifestation, but God always keeps his word. We have to look to His promises or rest in them, expecting their literal fulfillment. Some put asking in the place of accepting; some wish it were so, instead of believing that it is so. We have never to wait for God's giving, for God has already 'blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ'. We may reverently say, He has nothing more to give; for He has given His all. Yet, just as the room is full of air, but none can get into the tumbler save as far as the water is emptied out, so we may be unable to receive all He has given, if the self-life is filling to some extent our hearts and lives."
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p349

Weak Enough for God to Use

"All God's giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them."
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p349

It seems, rather than being strong enough for God to use, we need to become weak enough. A person fully aware of their weakness and fully aware of God's strength is one who relies totally on Him. They are less likely to push in their own strength, but rather cry out to God continually, knowing that they are destined to fail by themselves.

I do often wondered if God deliberately chooses people who aren't the obvious choice for this very reason. And I wonder if He may pick me for some task which I feel totally ill-equipped to complete in my natural self. My faith better be real enough!

Another quote from the biography of Hudson Taylor on this point:

"I myself, for instance, am not specially gifted, and am shy by nature, but my gracious and merciful God and Father inclined Himself to me, and I who was weak in faith He strengthened while I was still young. He taught me in my helplessness to rest on Him, and to pray even about little things in which another might have felt able to help himself."
p487

"For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.""
1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Hudson Taylor on work and prayer

"You can work without praying, but it is a bad plan. But you cannot pray in earnest without working."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p416

Satan's Creed

"Satan, too, has his creed: Doubt God's faithfulness. 'Hath God really said? Are you not mistaken as to His commands? He could not really mean just that. You take an extreme view, give too literal a meaning to the words.' How constantly, and alas, how successfully are such arguments used to prevent whole-hearted trust in God, whole-hearted consecration to God! How many estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt! All God's giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p349

Hudson Taylor: Jesus is Lord of all

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
Mark 16:15 (King James Version)

"You are not your own; you were bought at a price."
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
Luke 6:46

Hudson Taylor on Jesus as Lord of all:

"How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ with reference to this command? Shall we definitely drop the title Lord as applied to Him, and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognise Him as our Saviour, so far as the penalty of sin is concerned, but are not prepared to own ourselves 'bought with a price', or Him as having any claim to our unquestioning obedience? Shall we say that we are our own masters, willing to yield something as His due, who bought us with His blood, provided He does not ask too much? Our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His: we will give Him what we think fit, and obey any of His requirements that do not demand too great a sacrifice? To be taken to Heaven by Jesus Christ we are more than willing, but we will not have this Man to reign over us?

The heart of every Christian will undoubtedly reject the proposition, so formulated; but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though it were proper ground to take? How few of the Lord's people have practically recognised the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all! If we can judge God's Word as much or as little as we like, then we are lords and He is the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole and obliged by our compliance with His wishes. If, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such. 'Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?'"

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p439-40

Faith is better than sight

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Hebrews 11:1 (King James Version)

Hudson Taylor on faith:

"Faith, I now see, is the substance of things hoped for', and not mere shadow. It is not less than sight, but more. Sight only shows the outward forms of things; faith gives the substance. You can rest on substance, feed on substance."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p309

The root of sin

Hudson Taylor on the nature of sin:

"Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world – yet I indulged in it."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, 1973 edition, p306-7

Nothing small, nothing great

Hudson Taylor on prayer:

"Speaking of the privilege of bringing everything to God in prayer, Dr. Barrie said that he was sometimes hindered by the feeling that many things were too small, really, to pray about. Taylor's answer was that he did not know anything about it –  about such a distinction, probably. Then he added:

There is nothing small, and there is nothing great: only God is great, and we should trust Him fully."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p508-9

Trials build strength

Hudson Taylor on young converts and the importance of trials:

"In their spiritual infancy they should be left to grow naturally in the circumstances in which God had placed them, strengthened by the very trials with which they found themselves surrounded."
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p211

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
James 1:2-4

If life was easy, free from struggles and frustrations, we would remain weak and our faith never tested. We would never have the opportunity to trust God and wholly rely on Him. We would never grow or mature. As it is, we can count it as joy. That's hard. But that wording 'count it all joy' seems to suggest that it's not necessarily our immediate experience. It's a conscious decision. We step back and realise 'even though it's hard, this is a good thing'.

Motto of the C.I.M.

Motto of the China Inland Mission (p206, Biography of James Hudson Taylor):

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
The Lord will provide."

Awesome words!

Calvinism vs Arminianism... meh! (Part 2)

"Only recently the Mission had accepted a number of highly educated and well-gifted young men who were members of the State Church. How, then, were they able to work together with Methodists and Baptists, etc? Mr. Taylor replied that, in our chief aims, we are all one in Christ ... The great work of the mission field, which is a call to us all, overrides theological differences, and our motto remains, "All one in Christ.""
Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p487

Recently attending our early morning prayer meetings at Kings, seeking God for revival, one of the highlights for me was that people from churches all over Eastbourne came and prayed with us. They are our brothers and sisters, and the unity was awesome.

In one sense there's so many theological differences. But in another, it's actually quite remarkable how we almost entirely agree on all the major issues.

Hudson Taylor on debt

It's so unbelievably easy to buy some immediate want or apparent need with a credit card or an overdraft. But in doing this we fail to realise the opportunity of prayer laid before us, an opportunity to listen to our Father and wait for His answer. We forget that all our money is His. And we deny Him headship over our finances, even in the small purchases. Slowly but surely you creep into the oppression of debt and find yourself in a place your Father never intended.

Perhaps many of our 'needs' are really 'wants'. A little bit of discipline and self-denial is good for the soul.

From the Biography of James Hudson Taylor:

"To me it seemed that the teaching of God's Word was unmistakably clear, 'Owe no man anything'. To borrow money implied, to my mind, a contradiction of Scripture –  a confession that God had withheld some good thing, and a determination to get for ourselves what He had not given. I could not think that God was poor, that He was short of resources, or unwilling to supply any want of whatever work was really His. It seemed to me that if there were lack of funds to carry on work, then to that degree, in that special development, or at that time, it could not be the work of God."
p198

    "They who trust Him wholly
     Find Him wholly true,
but also that when we fail to trust fully He still remains unchangingly faithful. He is wholly true whether we trust or not.'If we believe not, he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself'. But oh, how we dishonour our Lord whenever we fail to trust Him, and what peace, blessing and triumph we lose in thus sinning against the Faithful One. May we never again presume in anything to doubt Him."
p199

"Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."
Romans 13:8

"If we are faithless, he remains faithful — for he cannot deny himself."
2 Timothy 2:13

On William Burns...

Below are a few quotes describing William Burns, an awesome man of God and an early companion and mentor to Hudson Taylor:

"He did not consider that he had a warrant to proceed in any sacred duty without a consciousness of that Divine presence. Without it, he could not speak even to a handful of little children in a Sunday School; with it he could stand unabashed before the mightiest and wisest in the land."

"Prayer was a natural to him as breathing, and the word of God as necessary as daily food."

"He enjoyed quietness and the luxury of having few things to take care of, and thought the happiest state on earth for a Christian was that he should have few wants."

"'If a man have Christ in his heart' he used to say, 'Heaven before his eyes, and only as much of temporal blessing as is just needful to carry him safely through life, then pain and sorrow have little to shoot at'."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p160.

Hudson Taylor on sickness and suffering

"It was not until many years later, when Taylor could look back over all the way in which the Lord had led him, that he was impressed with the fact that every important advance in the development of the Mission had sprung from or been directly connected with times of sickness or suffering which had cast him in a special way upon God."

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, p337

Faith, Difficulties, and Hudson Taylor

Hudson Taylor seemed to treat every difficulty as an opportunity to test his faith and see what God would do. Like going for a two mile walk when only just recovering from a fever that nearly killed him. Most people would use their common sense and stay at home. Instead, like in this example and many others, "his weakness only provided another occasion to prove the efficacy of prayer" (p72). Insane. But awesome faith! Here are a few other quotes relating to faith and difficulties from the Biography of James Hudson Taylor. There's quite a lot here, but well worth reading:

"He knew that faith was the one power that could remove mountains, conquer every difficulty and accomplish the impossible ... He realised that the faith he longed for was a 'gift of God', and that it might 'grow exceedingly'. But for growth, exercise was needed, and exercise of faith was obviously impossible apart from trial. Then welcome trial, welcome anything that would increase and strengthen this precious gift, proving to his own heart at any rate that he had faith of the sort that would really stand and grow."
p48-9

"If we are faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trails of life."
p53

"Last autumn I was fretting and stewing, reckoning and puzzling about how to manage this and that –  like a person in water who cannot swim, or a fish out of it. But it all came to nothing. Now, when the Lord opens the way, though everything seems adverse, He first removes one difficulty and then another, plainly saying 'Be still and know that I am God"
p62

"So difficulties were permitted to gather about him, especially at first when every impression was vivid and lasting, difficulties attended by many a deliverance to encourage him".
p114

"But the way of faith was clearer, and he had learned to leave the future in the hands of God. One who knew the end from the beginning was guiding and would guide"
p166

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. The Lord will provide."
p206

"Than the greatness of the need, one thing is only greater –  the fact of God: His resources, purposes, faithfulness, His commands and promises ... That is enough; that alone could be enough."
p247

"God owns all the gold and silver in the world, and the cattle on a thousand hills. We need not be vegetarians."
p248

"We can afford to have as little as the Lord chooses to give, but we cannot afford to have unconsecrated money, or to have money placed in the wrong position. Far better have no money at all, even to buy food with; for there are plenty of ravens in China, and the Lord could send them again with bread and flesh."
p248

"Let us see that we keep God before our eyes; that we walk in His ways and seek to please and glorify Him in everything, great and small. Depend upon it, God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supplies."
p249

The Pursuit of Holiness (Part 3)

A brilliant quote from the Biography of James Hudson Taylor that further expands this concept:

"Where God is working the devil is sure to be busy; and the nearer one seeks to live to the Lord Himself, the more painful are the consequences of grieving Him"
p265

This perfectly echoes Ephesians 4:27

"do not give the devil a foothold"

Hudson Taylor Converted By Prayer

Do we completely underestimate the power of prayer in converting a soul? Reading the account of Hudson Taylor he seemed to have been converted almost entirely by the earnestness and consistency of prayer by his sister and his mother. In the hours preceding his conversion the prayer was prompted and directed by the Holy Spirit himself. Here's an edited extract, picking out the best bits from the book on pages 16-18:

I turned over a basket of pamphlets and selected from amongst them a Gospel tract that looked interesting, saying to myself, 'There will be a story at the commencement and a sermon or moral at the close. I will take the former and leave the latter for those who like it.'

[...]

Little did I know at the time what was going on in the heart of my mother, seventy or eighty miles away. She rose from the dinner table that afternoon with an intense yearning for the conversion of her boy; and feeling that, absent from home and having more leisure that she could otherwise secure, a special opportunity was afforded her of pleading with God on my behalf. She went to her room and turned the key in the door resolved not to leave the spot until her prayers were answered. Hour after hour that dear mother pleaded, until at length she could pray no longer, but was constrained to praise God for that which His Spirit taught her had already been accomplished, the conversion of her only son.

[...]

I in the meantime had been lead in the way I have mentioned to take up this little tract, and while reading it was struck with the phrase: 'The finished work of Christ'.

[...]

'What was finished?'

And I at once replied, 'A full and perfect atonement and satisfaction for sin. The debt was paid for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'

Then came the further thought, 'If the whole work was finished and the whole debt paid, what is there left for me to do?'

And with this dawned the joyful conviction, as light flashed into my soul by the Holy Spirit, that there was nothing in the world to be done but to fall down on one's knees and, accepting this Saviour and His salvation, praise Him for evermore.

[...]

When mother returned a fortnight later I was the first to meet her at the door and to tell her I had such glad news to give. I can almost feel that dear mother's arms around my neck as she said, 'I know, my boy.'

[...]

My mother assured me that it was not from any human source she had learned the tidings, and went on to tell the incident mentioned above. You will agree with me that it would be strange indeed if I were not a believer in the power of prayer.

Nor this was all. Some time after, I picked up a pocket-book exactly like my own and, thinking it was mine, opened it. The lines that caught my eye were an entry in the little diary belonging to my sister, to the effect that she would give herself daily to prayer until God should answer in the conversion of her brother. One month later the Lord was pleased to turn me from darkness to light.

Brought up in such a circle and saved in such circumstances, it was perhaps natural that from the commencement of my Christian life I was lead to feel that the promises were very real, and that prayer was in sober matter of fact transacting business with God, whether on one's own behalf or on the behalf of those for whom one sought His blessing.

Biography of James Hudson Taylor, pages 16-18.

Father Skills

It's interesting to read how totally influential the role of James Taylor was in shaping the life of his children, and in particular his son, James Hudson Taylor, who was one of the first missionaries to China. I guess it's an obvious point: the apple never falls far from the tree. Whether you like it or not, your character will be replicated in your children, for better or worse. I really feel God is saying "work on your character now, for shortly you'll be a father".

The thing about James Taylor is that he lead a very attainable life, one which you can actually see yourself leading. From the biography he appeared to be a great man leading a regular life. Nothing about it was overly remarkable. He was diligent, disciplined, loved God and loved his family. And in it he produced Hudson Taylor who was off the scale in the purposes God used him for. Hudson Taylor is one of the sole reasons why there's now 40 million Christians in China, when previously there were none. His dad, James Taylor, set a great standard for fatherhood.

Below are excerpts describing James Taylor from the 'Biography of James Hudson Taylor' by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor; pages 10 to 14.

A gifted speaker, he gave much care to the preparation of his discourses. He was an excellent chemist, too, and as a business man he was highly respected. So scrupulous was he in financial matters that he made it a rule to pay every debt the day it fell due.

'If I let it stand over a week,' he would say, 'I defraud my creditor of interest, if only a fractional sum.'

Possessed by a profound conviction of God's infinite faithfulness, he took the Bible very simply, believing it was of all books the most practical if put to the test of experience.

The children lived in touch with their father almost as much as with their mother, and he felt himself no less responsible for their training. Though he was stern and even quick-tempered at times, the influence James Taylor exerted in the life of his son can hardly be over-estimated. He was decidedly a disciplinarian. But without some such element in his early training who can tell whether Hudson would ever have become the man that he was? With James Taylor, to keep the children moderately happy and good-tempered was not the point. He was a man with a supreme sense of duty. The thing that ought to be done was the thing he put first, always. Ease, pleasure, self-improvement, had to take whatever place they could. He was a man of faith that went hand in hand with works of the most practical kind.

Family worship he conducted regularly, after both breakfast and tea. Every member of the household had to be present, and the passage read was explained in such practical fashion that even the children could not fail to see it's application. He was very particular about giving them the whole of the Word of God, omitting nothing. The Old Testament as well as the New was taken in regular course, and at the close of every day's reading the date was carefully entered in the family Bible.

He explained to them the necessity for maintaining the life of the soul by prayer and Bible study, as the life of the body is maintained by exercise and food. To omit this was to neglect the one thing needful. He spoke of it frequently as a matter of vital importance, and arranged for everyone in the house to have at least half an hour daily, alone with God. The result was that even the little ones began to discover the secret of a happy day.

China held the first place in their father's sympathies, and he often used to lament the indifference of the Church to its appalling need. It especially troubled him that the denomination to which he belonged should be doing nothing for its evangelisation.