I want to look at the fact of a life filled with the Holy Spirit more from the practical side, and to show how this life will show itself in our daily walk and conduct.
Christ spoke of power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.
✦ The Filling Came First
Murray turns from the theology of surrender to the fruit of surrender — what it looks like in daily life. The Spirit came to the disciples at Pentecost. Christ had promised power. But the power was not a tool handed to them from the outside. It was the result of the Spirit filling their whole being. The filling came first. The power followed. The possession produced the fruit.
And the first fruit — before the preaching, before the miracles, before the three thousand converted in a day — was love. 🙏
Let this word be a searchlight in our hearts, and give us a test by which to try all our thoughts about the Holy Spirit and all our experience of the holy life.
Has this been our daily habit, to seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love?
Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become?
In claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love.
✦ The Test
Murray holds up the searchlight — and it illuminates one question: has the Spirit made us more loving? Not more knowledgeable. Not more doctrinally correct. Not more disciplined. Not more impressive in prayer. More loving.
This is the test. The only test that matters. The soul that claims to be filled with the Spirit but is not growing in love has claimed the wrong thing. The experience of the holy life that does not produce more love is not the experience of the Holy Spirit — because the Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love. That is His nature. He cannot come as anything else.
The first object of expectation. Not power first. Not gifts first. Not spiritual experiences first. Love first. Everything else flows from love — because everything in God flows from love. 🙏
It is the very nature and being of God to delight in communicating Himself. God has no selfishness, God keeps nothing to Himself. God's nature is to be always giving.
In the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. God communicates life to His creatures.
From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that God had was kept back. "God is love."
✦ Nothing Kept Back
Murray opens the nature of God — and what he finds inside is the opposite of selfishness. God keeps nothing for Himself. His nature is to give. His delight is to communicate. His being is to pour out — into the sun, the moon, the stars, the flowers, the birds, the fish, the angels, the redeemed. Everything that exists is a gift from a God who keeps nothing.
And the ultimate proof: from eternity God had His only begotten Son, and nothing was kept back. The Father gave the Son everything. And then gave the Son to the world. The most precious possession in the universe — given. Not reluctantly. Not under pressure. Not as a last resort. Given — because God is love, and love gives everything.
Bernard said: I owe Him myself twice over — for creating me and for redeeming me. Murray shows why God gave both: because keeping is not in His nature. Giving is. 🙏
"God has no selfishness, God keeps nothing to Himself. God's nature is to be always giving."
Andrew Murray · Absolute Surrender · The nature of love is to giveOne of the old Church fathers said that we cannot better understand the Trinity than as a revelation of divine love — the Father, the loving One, the Fountain of love; the Son, the beloved One, the Reservoir of love, in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit, the living love that united both and then overflowed into this world.
He cannot change His nature. The Spirit of God is love, and "the fruit of the Spirit is love."
✦ Fountain, Reservoir, Overflow
The Trinity — understood not as a puzzle to be solved but as a revelation of love to be received. Three Persons. One nature. And the nature is love.
The Father — the Fountain. The source. The origin. The love that has no beginning and no cause. The One from whom all love flows — because love is His nature, His being, His eternal identity.
The Son — the Reservoir. The beloved. The One into whom the Father's love was poured — from eternity, without measure, without reservation. The Reservoir that received everything the Fountain gave — and gave it all again on a cross.
The Spirit — the living love. The One who united Father and Son — and then overflowed into this world. The overflow. The love that could not be contained within the Trinity — because love that is real must be shared. Must be given. Must overflow the banks and flood the world.
And Murray adds the truth that seals it: He cannot change His nature. The Spirit who is love in God will be love in us. He cannot arrive as something other than what He is. The fruit of the Spirit is love — because the Spirit IS love. 🙏
Why is the fruit of the Spirit love? That was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ's redemption came to accomplish: to restore love to this world.
✦ To Restore Love
Murray reduces the entire purpose of redemption to one sentence: to restore love to this world. Not to establish a religion. Not to create a theological system. Not to build institutions or denominations or traditions. To restore love. Love was lost in the fall. The self-life replaced the love-life. The keeping replaced the giving. The selfishness replaced the generosity. And Christ came — to put love back where it belongs.
Every act of redemption serves this purpose. The cross — love poured out. The resurrection — love triumphant. The Spirit poured out at Pentecost — love overflowing into the world. The filling of the believer — love taking up residence in the human heart. Everything points to love. Everything returns to love. 🙏
He demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. True love cannot be conquered by anything in Heaven or upon the earth.
The more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it all and shows its true nature.
✦ Unconquerable
Murray echoes what Lewis taught and what Paul declared in Romans 8: nothing can conquer love. Not hatred. Not rejection. Not the worst that the enemy can do. True love — the love that is the fruit of the Spirit, not the product of the flesh — triumphs through hatred. Not by defeating the enemy but by refusing to stop loving him.
The more hatred, the more love shows its true nature. Because true love is not a reaction to being treated well. It is the nature of God poured into a human heart by the Holy Spirit. And that nature cannot be conquered — because the God who gave it is unconquerable. 🙏
"By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).
Christ said to His disciples in effect: "I give you a badge, and that badge is love. That is to be your mark. It is the only thing in Heaven or on earth by which men can know Me."
✦ The Only Badge
Murray gives Christ's words their full weight: a badge. Not a creed. Not a denomination. Not a building. Not a tradition. Not a theological position. Love. That is the mark. That is how the world will know. That is the only identification card that heaven recognizes.
The world cannot see the Holy Spirit. The world cannot hear the inner voice. The world cannot read the heart's surrender. But the world can see love. When the disciple loves the way Christ loves — the badge is visible. The mark is unmistakable. The identification is complete.
And the reverse is equally true: without the badge, the world sees nothing. The finest theology without love is an empty lecture. The most rigorous discipline without love is a performance. The most impressive spiritual experience without love is noise. The badge is love — or there is no badge at all. 🙏
"I give you a badge, and that badge is love. It is the only thing in Heaven or on earth by which men can know Me."
Andrew Murray · via Christ · John 13:35 · The only badgeThe Searchlight Test
Has the Spirit made us more loving? That is the test. The only test. The first fruit. The first expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love — He cannot come as anything else.
Fountain, Reservoir, Overflow
The Trinity as love — Father the Fountain, Son the Reservoir, Spirit the living love that overflows into the world. He cannot change His nature. The Spirit is love.
God Keeps Nothing
God has no selfishness. His nature is to give — always. The sun, the stars, the flowers, the Son. Nothing kept back. Everything given. Because God is love.
The Only Badge
Christ's badge for His disciples: love. Not a creed. Not a tradition. Not a building. Love. The only mark. The only way the world will know. Without the badge — there is no badge at all.