Should We Pray for Revival, Pentecost, and More of the Spirit?

Pentecote by Jean II Restout (1732)

Should Christians pray for revival, a repeated Pentecost, and more of the Holy Spirit? 

The Anglican pastor and hymn writer Augustus Toplady, best known as the author of "Rock of Ages," thought so. Among his many hymns and poems are a selection of poetic prayers specifically addressed to the Holy Spirit. 

For example, in one of his poems, he asks to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and to experience a personal Pentecost.

Baptize me with the Holy Ghost 

Make this the day of Pentecost 

Wherein my soul may prove 

Thy spirit’s sweet renewing power 

And shew me, in this happy hour 

The riches of his love. 

(Poem XXXVI. For Pardon of Sin. The Works of Augustus Toplady p. 893)

But is it right for Christians to pray like this? Is Pentecost a repeatable event? Should we ask to be baptized with the Spirit? There’s been considerable debate about this over the years, even among Reformed leaders. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, for example, delivered a whole series of sermons urging Christians to seek the baptism with the Spirit, along with spiritual gifts. The sermons, published first in two volumes as Joy Unspeakable and The Sovereign Spirit: Discerning His Gifts and then together as The Baptism and Gifts of the Spirit are quite stirring. (These sermons, by the way, predated the charismatic movement of the 1970’s, which means readers should be careful about reading the sermons anachronistically.) 

But while I found Lloyd-Jones’ sermons to be edifying reading, his exegesis was probably wrong at some points. John Stott challenged Lloyd-Jones’ interpretation in Baptism And Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today and I think won the point, as far as the exegesis of specific texts is concerned. He cogently and convincingly argues that Christians today are baptized with the Spirit just once, upon conversion, but then experience repeated fillings. One baptism, many fillings. 

Nevertheless, Lloyd-Jones was on to something true and important, namely that believers can experience greater measures of the Spirit’s presence and power, and that this is something for which we should seek. This is essentially the meaning of revival. 

So, how does this relate to Pentecost? Wasn’t Pentecost a one-time, definitive, unrepeatable event? Sinclair Ferguson is right on the mark in saying,

Pentecost is not 'repeated' any more than the death or resurrection of Christ is a repeatable event. Rather, we enter into it in such a way that the Spirit is poured out into our hearts through faith in Christ (cf. Rom. 5:5). Each one thus drinks of the Spirit for himself or herself (1 Cor. 12:13)….The events of the Day of Pentecost are the public expressions of the hidden reality that Christ has been exalted as the Lord of glory and that his messianic request for the Spirit, made as Mediator on our behalf, has been granted….The coming of the Spirit is, therefore, the evidence of the enthronement of Christ, just as the resurrection is the evidence of the efficacy of the death of Christ as atonement (Rom. 4:24) . . . . Pentecost is the epicenter; but the earthquake gives forth further after-shocks. Those rumbles continue through the ages. Pentecost itself is not repeated; but a theology of the Spirit which did not give rise to prayer for his coming in power would not be a theology of ruach! (The Holy Spirit pp. 86-87, 91)

I find the analogy of earthquake and aftershocks helpful. Ferguson also applies this to revival.

In some respects, Pentecost may be viewed as the inaugural revival of the New Testament epic. Certainly the description of the conviction of sin experienced, the 'sense of awe' (Acts 2:43) which was evoked, and the detailed model of what church life ought to be (Acts 2:44-47) point in that direction. This is what revival is. To develop the metaphor of the flow of water, we might say that revival is the unstopping of the pent-up energies of the Spirit of God breaking down the dams which have been erected against his convicting and converting ministry in whole communities of individuals, as happened at Pentecost and in the 'awakenings' which have followed. (The Holy Spirit p. 90)

This seems to get the right balance, safeguarding the distinctiveness of Pentecost as a redemptive-historical event, while acknowledging the ongoing extraordinary work of the Spirit in revivals and awakenings. And, if this is so, then surely it’s something for which we should pray.

And Scripture certainly points in this direction. To cite just two post-Pentecost examples, consider Paul’s prayers recorded in his letter to the Ephesians:

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:15-23,NIV)

For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21, NIV)

Full exposition of these prayers is far beyond the scope of this post, but just note that both prayers are for people who are already believers, both ask for something that comes by or through the Holy Spirit, and both end with a focus on the church and the fullness of God (which should then inform how we view the command of Ephesians 5:18 to not be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit.)

No, Paul doesn’t use the language of Pentecost or revival. But isn't revival just this: the Spirit given in greater measure so that we will know God better, with the eyes of our hearts enlightened to better perceive eternal realities and the things of Christ, and our inner beings strengthened with the Spirit’s power so as to experience a greater measure of Christ’s fullness and love? 

And isn’t this something that we should also ask God to give to us? 

So, while I don't think we should pray precisely for another Pentecost, I would argue that we should ask God for more of the illuminating and strengthening work of the Holy Spirit. 

We can all join Toplady in another of his hymns, earnestly praying,

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire 

And warm with uncreated fire! 

Thou the anointing Spirit art, 

Who doth thy sevenfold gift impart: 

Thy blessed unction from above 

Is comfort, life, and fire of love. 

(Hymn I. To the Holy Spirit,  The Works of Augustus Toplady p. 908) 

Dynamics of Corporate Spiritual Renewal

(Adapted from Tim Keller’s Church Planter Manual)


One way the Spirit applies the gospel to a whole church can be likened to the two-stroke cycle of a gasoline engine. The first stroke is the “intake compression stroke.” In it, the piston moves up the cylinder pulling in a fuel-air mixture and compresses it. Then the spark plug ignites the mixture creating an explosion. This causes the second stroke – the “power stroke.” In it, the piston is propelled downward by the combustion. This stroke provides the power. The piston is attached to the crankshaft which transfers the motion into rotary motion that drives the wheels.

Two Activities that Lead to Renewal in the Church (the “Intake stroke”)

1. Kingdom-centered Prayer

Focuses on the church’s need for the power and presence of God, on the glory and kingdom of God, rather than simply on individual needs and hurts.

2. Depth Proclamation of the Gospel

A forceful emphasis on both the holiness and law of God, on one hand, and the love and mercy of the Father on the other, while at the same time giving emphasis to both sound doctrine and personal application of truth to heart and life.

This prayer and proclamation become the fuel-air mixture which the Holy Spirit can ignite.

Two Features of Corporate Spiritual Renewal (“Combustion”)

1. The church becomes attractive to the world

Acts 2:42-47 tells us that a revived Christian community is so filled with people of humility yet confidence, of understanding yet courage, of generosity, sincerity and joy, that “they had favor with all the people” of the surrounding community. There was beauty resting on the church. As a result . . .

2. There is significant church growth through conversions

Why? Because non-Christians are attracted to the Christian individuals and community.

Two Results of Corporate Spiritual Renewal (“Power Stroke”)

Eventually, if the renewal dynamics are strong, it pumps many new Christians into the community. As the number of Christians increase, and as they increase in their grasp of the gospel’s implications for all of life, it will lead to two activities that can powerfully change the world around the church.

1. The gospel implies a life of service to people in need. 

Revivals have historically led to good works – Christians becoming involved in addressing social problems in their neighborhoods, establishing mercy ministries, etc.

2. The gospel implies that we must bring all of our lives into serving Christ. 

So Christians begin to use kingdom values in business, science, the arts, literature, and scholarship. This cultural production has a renewing effect on all of society.

Four Marks of a Spiritually Renewed Church

1. Doctrinal yet relational

Without the gospel, churches tend to pit truth and principle against the needs of the people. But in renewed churches, there is both a strong emphasis on teaching and applying truth, yet also a dynamic fellowship and relationships.

2. Word yet deed

The implications of the gospel lead Christians to love both word and deed. Since the gospel is truth, it is natural to want to spread it, and thus renewed churches are heavily evangelistic. But because we were saved by Christ’s donated riches and despite our moral poverty, Christians have a heart for people who are materially poor as well.

3. Form yet freedom

A renewed church avoids the problems of moralistic and pragmatic churches. Renewed churches hold to Biblical central truths but are culturally flexible and creative, because of their freedom in the gospel.

4. Worship in spirit yet truth

A renewed church neither has worship which is like “Sunday school” (oriented only toward cognition) nor worship that is forced or hyped (oriented totally toward emotion). It is done both in spirit and truth. It is expectant and dynamic.

Application - How to Pray:

Pray for the presence and power of the Spirit. We need the Spirit because:

• The Spirit makes the truth not only clear, but real. (John 16)
• The Spirit unites the body of Christ. (Eph. 4:1-3)
• The Spirit reproduces the character of Christ in us. (2 Cor. 3:18)
• The Spirit empowers us for witness and makes our efforts in mission effective. (Acts 2-4)
• The Spirit fills us with the fullness of God – he takes the resources that are ours in Christ and applies them to our hearts and lives. (Eph. 3:14-21)

The Life and Ministry of Howell Harris

Howell Harris (1714-1773) was one of the greatest leaders of the Evangelical Awakening and Revival in Wales and England in the mid-1700s. Along with Daniel Rowlands, he was also one of the founders of Methodism in Wales. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called him “one of the great heroic figures of the Christian church.” The story of his life is both convicting and encouraging as a demonstration of the Spirit’s mighty work in revival.

Conviction, Conversion, and Assurance

Howell Harris was born in the small hamlet of Trevecka, Wales in 1714, but was not converted until 1735 when he was twenty-one years old. Harris became a school master, and was among a number of people who were urged by their parish minister to go to the Lord’s Table. The vicar said, “If you are not fit to come to the Lord’s Table, you are not fit to come to church; you are not fit to live, not fit to die.”

This deeply impressed Harris, and in response to the exhortation, he attended the Lord’s Table on Easter Sunday. During the service he repeated the words of the Confession, “The remembrance of our sins is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable.” Those words set his heart to reflecting whether this was true of himself, and he soon discovered that his confession was nothing more than empty words, for he had felt no inward grief over his sins.

Over the next few weeks Harris became even more serious about his pursuit of God. The reading of a book designed as a help for self-examination convinced him that “in every branch of my duty to God, to myself to my neighbors, I was guilty.” Conviction over his sin was increasing.

The more I searched into the nature of things, the more I saw myself, and all others that I conversed with, to be in the broad way of destruction. I was soon convinced that I was empty of all spiritual life. I came to find I was carnal, and sold under sin. I felt I could no more believe, or mourn for my sins, than I could ascend to heaven . . . I had no knowledge of the Blood of Jesus, the only Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness . . . I was still a total stranger to the life of faith.

Despite his efforts to reform his life, he continued in this state of misery for several weeks. He finally found relief in discovering that through simply trusting in Christ he could receive forgiveness for all of his sins.

I was convinced by the Holy Spirit that Christ died for me, and that all my sins were laid on him. I was now acquitted at the bar of Justice, and also in my conscience . . . . At the table, Christ bleeding on the Cross was kept before my eyes constantly; and strength was given to me to believe that I was receiving pardon on account of that blood. I lost my burden; I went home leaping for joy, and I said to my neighbour who was sad, Why are you sad? I know my sins have been forgiven, though I had not heard that such a thing to be found except in this book [Lewis Bayly’s The Practice of Piety]. Oh blessed day! Would that I might remember it gratefully ever more!

This led to deep peace and happiness of soul, as his faith grew into an unshakable assurance. “I also found myself a stranger here,” he wrote. “All my heart was drawn from the world and visible things, and was in pursuit of more valuable riches. I began to be more happy, and could not help telling . . . that I knew my sins were forgiven me; though I had never heard anyone make that confession before, or say that it could be obtained. But was so deeply convinced that nothing could shake my assurance of it.”

Passion for God’s Glory and Early Signs of Revival

In the weeks and months following, God brought further spiritual blessing to Howell Harris. On June 18, 1735 during a time of secret prayer, Harris experienced an unusual outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which accounted for the remarkable power and boldness that would come to mark his ministry. This was a defining moment to which Harris looked back upon for the rest of his life.


Being in secret prayer, I felt suddenly my heart melting within me, like wax before the fire, with love to God my Saviour. I felt not only love and peace, but longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Then was a cry in my inmost soul, which I was totally unacquainted with before. “Abba Father!” I could not help calling God, “my Father.” I knew that I was His child, and that He loved me, and heard me. My soul being filled and satiated, I cried, “‘Tis enough, I am satisfied. Give me strength, and I will follow Thee through fire and water.” I could say I was happy indeed! There was in me a well of water, springing up to everlasting life . . . The love of God was shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit.

It was not long before this newly found joy and assurance began to overflow in a passion for God to be glorified in the lives of others. He set up family worship at his mother’s house and became deeply burdened by the lack of zeal among ministers. Like the prophet of old, the fire in his bones had to be expressed, and he soon began exhorting people, who would flock to hear him on Sunday evenings.

The fire of God did so burn in my soul that I could not rest day or night without doing something for my God and Saviour. Nor could I go with satisfaction to sleep, if I had not done something for His glory that day.

As he visited people from house to house, they began to assemble in larger and larger numbers. The word came in great power – so much so “that many on the spot cried out to God for pardon of their sins.” Sinners confessed their sins. Broken relationships were reconciled. Family worship was set up in many homes. And churches were crowded as people flocked to worship and the Lord’s Table. Revival had begun.

Revival and Persecution

During the next few years, the revival continued to spread as Howell Harris preached abroad in South Wales. Several counties now showed signs of awakening and revival as “public entertainments became unfashionable, and religion became the common talk.”

The Lord was stirring in other places and through other men, as well. Daniel Rowlands had been converted under the ministry of Griffith Jones and had begun preaching in the same manner as Harris. William Williams came to Christ under the preaching of Harris, and became a great preacher who wrote the famous hymn “Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah.” And, of course, George Whitefield and the Wesleys were seeing similar stirrings in England. In 1737 Harris first heard about Whitefield who “preached four times a day and was much blessed.” They met one another in Cardiff in March of 1739.

But as interest in Howell Harris’s ministry grew, so did opposition. By 1737, Harris was experiencing persecution. People formed into mobs that reviled and opposed him, while magistrates threatened him and imposed fines upon those who met for worship in their homes. Even the clergy were opposed to Harris and preached against him, branding him a false prophet and deceiver.

Mobs often attacked Harris in all kinds of ways. He was shot at with pistols and pelted with apples and pears, dung and dirt, eggs and stones, and even a dead dog. In 1740, while ministering with William Seward in Caerleon, the two preachers were attacked so severely that that Seward eventually went blind in both eyes.

Boldness in the Preaching of Basic Christian Doctrine

But despite the persecution, Harris continued to preach with boldness and authority. Once he went to Long-Town in Herefordshire, deeply burdened with the young people who gathered there to “feast” in a way that dishonored God. When he confronted a few of them whom he overheard swearing, a crowd quickly grew around him, numbering close to two thousand people! “The Lord gave me courage to attack the Devil in his own quarters,” Harris wrote, “and made my face as a flint – supplying me with words to speak.”

His journals reflect an amazing insight into the spiritual needs of the people he regularly addressed. This insight would often shape the direction of his preaching. For example, in 1742, he became grieved in seeing how many people “abused the liberty of the Gospel, by turning the grace of God into wantonness.” This led him to preach strongly on “the genuine fruits of real faith, and the necessary consequences of Divine truth savingly believed in the heart.” In 1746 he “saw another spirit creeping into the work: the spirit of levity, pride, foolish-jesting, unwatchfulness, and carnal rejoicing.” He adjusted his preaching to meet this need. In 1750 Harris became deeply convinced that many professing believers had been deceived into thinking they were born again “when they are really nothing else but what our Saviour termed the whited walls and painted sepulchers.” His analysis of this spiritual condition is quite penetrating:

I saw clearly that there is such a thing as knowing Christ after the flesh, by a kind of prophetical knowledge and views of Him at a distance, such as Balaam had, and from those views to have a certain confidence in Him, and a kind of love for Him, and seemingly great joy and happiness, as the seed on the stony ground. Yet the heart will be self-righteous and worldly amidst all this; and the spirit carnal, asleep, unawakened and in bondage to the god of this world. Such a person will never be convinced of the sin of nature, or the evil of unbelief. They will not see the difficulty of believing in the Saviour while a sinner, and of obeying the call given to such in the Gospel. They look back to something that they had done or felt at different times, and from thence they draw the conclusion that they are in the Covenant and belong to God, and shall therefore be saved. I saw plainly that this was the religion of most who called themselves Christians. They form a faith for themselves without coming as lost damned sinners to the Cross, and looking to Him as the Israelites looked to the Brazen-Serpent; and without fleeing to Christ as the man fled from the avenger of blood into the City of Refuge.

These reflections in his journals, and many others like them, reveal the dominant themes in his preaching: the law of God and the sinfulness of sin, the inadequacy of human works to save the soul, the necessity of new birth, the divinity of Christ and the sufficiency of his atoning blood to cover sin, salvation by grace through faith alone, and the genuineness true faith evidenced in spiritual affections for God and transformed living. In other words, it was the bold proclamation of basic Christian doctrine that the Lord blessed in this reviving work. Those who know well the writings of Jonathan Edwards will immediately recognize the similarities.

But Harris never held theology in abstract from life. In fact, he firmly believed exactly the opposite: “I was led to find that every truth, when revealed by the Spirit, is practical, and will have its proper influence on the soul by humbling the sinner and exalting the Saviour.” He describes as an example the effects of understanding “the glory of God displayed in our nature” (i.e. through the incarnation of Christ):

I felt it increased my faith, and my love became more habitual, my joy more solid, my resignation more entire, my spirit more smooth and quiet, and I had more depth of compassion and mercy towards sinners.

The Trevecka Community

In 1752, after seventeen years of labor in itinerant preaching throughout Wales and in parts of England, Howell Harris settled in Trevecka, Wales. There he founded a society of believers who lived in mutual dependence upon one another and the Lord. Harris was so sick in the early years of this work that after preaching he could not even move from his chair, but would have to be carried to bed. “I was all this time in continual hopes of going home to my dear Saviour, and expecting it with earnest desire,” he said.

Yet the Lord spared his life, and the Trevecka “family” began to take shape. A large building was constructed as the Lord miraculously provided for its construction and maintenance in much the same way he later provided for George Mueller’s orphanage in Bristol. Eventually over one hundred people, among whom were ten families, came to live together in the Trevecka house. Harris served as their preacher, watchman, and overseer. Over forty people – many of them children – died from small pox in the late 1750’s, testifying in their dying moments their deep faith in the Lord Jesus. In 1759, Harris described the community and their pattern of life together:

We have buried since the beginning of this work about forty persons, and there are still about the same number in the family, and about thirty in the farms. The Word has been preached here, I trust, with power and authority, three times a day, and four times every Sunday, this seven years. Surely I can say that this is the Lord’s work, for He has hitherto been pleased to own it, by bringing and keeping people here; and by giving me a spirit of faith to stand in the face of my own, and other’s sins, and many other impossibilities.

Final Years and Dying Desires

Excepting his three year service in the militia from 1760-63, Howell Harris lived the remainder of his life in Trevecka. In 1768-69, with assistance from the Countess of Huntington (who also greatly aided the work of Whitefield in England), he began a college for training young preachers. George Whitefield preached when the College was opened, and Harris devoted much of his energy to this work in the final years of his life.

His health began to decline in the early 1770s, but as his outer man perished, his inner man was renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). His faith remained vibrant to the end. During his last sickness he wrote these words:

I must have the Saviour, for He is my all. All that others have, in the world, in religion and in themselves, I have in Thee. Pleasures, riches, safety, honour, life, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, bliss, joy, and happiness; and by the same rule that each of these is dear to others, He must be dear to me. And as a child longs for his father; a traveler, for the end of his journey; a workman, to finish his work; a prisoner, for his liberty; an heir, for the full possession of his estate; so, in all these respects, I can’t help longing to go home.

And go home, he did, at sixty years of age on July 21, 1773, testifying through all of his final sufferings his great love and concern for his flock and his great confidence and trust in the gracious God who had saved him nearly forty years before.

Notes

All quotations are from Howell Harris: His Own Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Eighteenth Century Revival (Bridge Publishing, 1984) or “Howell Harris and Revival” in D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1987).

This article was originally published in Heartcry! A Journal on Revival and Spiritual Awakening, Issue 33, Fall 2005.

Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal by Richard Lovelace (Book Notes)

One of the great evangelical classics of the last thirty years that has received far too little attention is Richard F. Lovelace’s Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979).

This is a wise and balanced book that explores the theological framework and actual experience of spiritual renewal and revival, with a good bit of church history thrown in. It should be essential reading for anyone in pastoral ministry and/or anyone concerned with personal or corporate revival. (It’s also one of only a handful of books that I quoted multiple times in Christ Formed in You.)

To whet your appetite for Lovelace, here are a few of my favorite quotations:

“Growth in faith is the root of all spiritual growth and is prior to all disciplines of works. True spirituality is not a superhuman religiosity; it is simply true humanity released from bondage to sin and renewed by the Holy Spirit. This is given to us as we grasp by faith the full content of Christ’s redemptive work: freedom from the guilt and power of sin, and newness of life through the indwelling and outpouring of his Spirit.” (p. 19-20)

“Spiritual life flows out of union with Christ, not merely imitation of Christ. When the full dimensions of God’s gracious provision in Christ are not clearly articulated in the church, faith cannot apprehend them, and the life of the church will suffer distortion and attenuation. The individual Christian and the church as a whole are alive in Christ, and when any essential dimensions of what it means to be in Christ are obscured in the church’s understanding there is no guarantee that the people of God will strive toward and experience fullness of life.” (p. 74)

“In order to experience normal spirituality Christians must go with Jesus Christ into mission, must depend on him to direct and empower in this, and must give and take sustenance in community with the members of his body.” (p. 78)

“Spiritual life is produced by the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit, not simply by the comprehension of doctrinal propositions or strategies of renewal.” (p. 79)
“Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so slight an apprehension of God’s holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin that consciously they see little need for justification, although below the surface their lives are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure. Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification . . . drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few enough know to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.” (p. 101)

Regeneration is “the beachhead of sanctification in the soul.” (p. 104)

“Regeneration is the re-creation of spiritual life in those who are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). It occurs in the depths of the human heart, at the roots of consciousness, infusing new life which is capable of spiritual awareness, perception and response, and is no longer ‘alienated from the life of God’ (Eph. 4:18).” (p. 108)

“Sanctification, like justification, is grounded in union with Christ. The power of sin to rule their lives has been destroyed in the cross of Christ; we have died with Christ, and have been raised up together with him in newness of life. Therefore we are not to set the estimates of our power to conquer sin according to past experiences of our will power, but are to fix our attention on Christ and the power of his risen life in which we participate: for we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.” (p. 115)

“The principle work of the Spirit in applying redemption lies in making us holy, and being filled with the Spirit simply means having all our faculties under his control rather than under the control of sin.” (p. 125)

“We should make a deliberate effort at the outset of every day to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit, to move into the light concerning his presence in our consciousness and to open up our minds and to share all our thoughts and plans as we gaze by faith into the face of God. We should continue to walk throughout the day in a relationship of communication and communion with the Spirit mediated through our knowledge of the Word, relying upon every office of the Holy Spirit’s role as counselor mentioned in Scripture. We should acknowledge him as the illuminator of truth and of the glory of Christ. We should look to him as teacher, guide, sanctifier, give of assurance concerning our sonship and standing before God, helper in prayer, and as the one who directs and empowers witness.” (p. 131)