Are you a snow bunny or a skier?
This is by Ernest O'Neill
Christiendom is divided into skiers and snow bunnies. That's right! The skiers obey and they ski and they receive the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit makes God gloriously real in their lives, makes the victory in Jesus' death real in them and they are just bubbling over with God's life, they are the skiers. The snow bunnies look beautiful, and they are at all the meetings and they are at all the churches and they study, oh boy, do they study! Because they don't have the Holy Spirit, because they don't obey, and so there's an emptiness in their life, but they agree with all the skiing activity, they like it, they like to be around it, they like to be on the slopes, they like the whole atmosphere that's on the slopes. And they read all the books and they study the kind of gear you should wear. They never ski themselves. They just study how to ski. And they wonder why they don't have the exhilaration of skiing, because they're always trying to think, "How do I do it, how do I do it. You know it's funny; I don't feel the excitement of going down the slopes. Now why, why, why?" And, it's easy, it's because they never ski! They never obey, they never obey. They pretend to ski, they pretend to ski, they maybe slide down a tiny little baby slope, now and again. But they don't ever commit themselves wholly and completely to the activity. No, really that's it.
Christiendom is divided into those who obey and those who study how. That's it. Into those who obey and those who try. Into those who obey and those who have endless counseling how to make God real in their lives. Now, really loved ones, honestly, the body of Jesus consists of some people who have finally got down to the point where they are so desperate for God that they at last obey. They obey. They cannot make themselves like Jesus, only the Holy Spirit can do that, but they do obey. They stop doing the things that God has told them to stop doing, and they do the things that He has told them to do, and then the Holy Spirit comes in and brings in a whole lot of other blessed virtues that they cannot create themselves, a whole lot of supernatural qualities that they cannot make themselves. But the ones that they can do, they do. And then over here in the body of Christ is a great group of camp followers that like to be around the kind of aura that is created by these people. And they want it, they honestly do. Really they do. They really want God to be real in their lives and they want to find out how to do it without obeying and without ever having to have their life governed moment by moment by a person called the Holy Spirit. Because deep down they feel they'll lose their freedom, if they ever come into that kind of slavery and they don't realize that that slavery is the only real freedom, that the Holy Spirit will never treat them as a robot, but will always treat them as a dear friend.
Now brother and sisters, that's it, and you will find it true, honestly, I know this is from God, you'll find it true throughout your lives. Whatever groups of religious people you'll ever get into, you'll find those two great groups. The group that obey and have actually received the Holy Spirit into their lives, and therefore have a dynamic source of God's Reality in them, so that they don't have to be always preoccupied with the religious happenings that are going on around them, they don't always have to be fed by new preachers or new speakers or new books. And you have the other group who don't want to obey and don't want to submit themselves to the Holy Spirit, and are repeating the fall that took place in the Garden of Eden daily. That is, they are always preoccupied with methods and techniques for making God real in them.
What I know the Father wanted me to say this morning was the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He's real, He's a dear person that changed my life 14 years ago, and changed me from one of those try-ers, and one of those 'studiers how' into a person who knew God as real in my own life. Loved ones, the Holy Spirit, pay attention to Him, pay attention. You don't need me, you don't need anybody, you don't need any book, you only need the dear Holy Spirit. Pay attention to Him, He'll lead you into the place Himself, where he can make Jesus' victory on Calvary real to you. |
