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Excerpts from E. Stanley Jones devotional classic, Mastery, week 3

We come now to consider some facts among the apostles showing the Spirit had not yet been given. True, they had a measure of the Spirit, but he had not been given without measure. He was with them but not in them (“for he dwells with you, and will be in you”). They possessed the Spirit, but He did not posses them. They were using God; but after the coming of the Spirit, God was using them. What were some of the signs that the transition had not been made?

First, the disciples were struggling for position, place, and power. A dispute arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. Their selves were assertive instead of surrendered. They were seeking first their own personal kingdom, where they could rule others, instead of the Kingdom of God, where He would rule them…

Second, they showed resentments against those who did not receive them in a Samaritan village, and asked Jesus if they should call down fire upon them, even as Elijah did. They mingled religiosity with their resentments…but stripped of this religious cloakage, there was just plain ugly resentment down underneath.

Third, there was self-righteous pride. “Though they all fall away…I will never fall away.” Peter was taking a “they”-“I” relation to the rest – superior and full of pride. The humbling holiness of the Holy Spirit had not taken possession of them.

Fourth, they were spiritually impotent before the task of getting evil spirits out of a boy. They could not cast it out. The boy had a better case of devil possession than they had of God possession. They didn’t have enough within to match against outer demand – the without was greater than their within.

Fifth, they were behind closed doors for fear of the Jews, and this even after the Resurrection, which was great but not great enough to get them from behind closed doors. Intellectually they were convinced, but emotionally they were held by fears – deep-down fears.

Sixth, they were still held by pre-Christian notions: “Lord, wilt though at this time restore the again the Kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6 K.J.V.). They were spiritually dull. They kept trying to jam His universal Kingdom into their own narrow nationalistic molds. They were a spiritual disappointment to Him – His kingdom was too great for their small hearts.

Then they were still guided by outer events instead of inner spiritual illumination. “Lord, …show which one of these two thou hast chosen ..And they cast lots.” (Acts 1:24, 26). The seat of religion was still in the outward – it had not moved into them.

It was obvious from these seven things that these men who were to master the world were still mastered by the world. Things and circumstances and wrong attitudes were on top of them instead of their being on top. They were not yet spiritually fit to turn the world upside down, for a lot of things in them were wrong side up.

The first step in their mastery of the world around them and within them was that they should be mastered. But how? It must all be entirely voluntary. There must be no compulsion except love. They had given up a good deal to follow Jesus – fishing nets, boats, parents, home, occupation – everything except themselves. They had never really surrendered the center, the citadel. They gave the marginal things but not the center. The unsurrendered self was the central block holding up redemption from flooding them. Everything was ready except the receptacle. That was still in their hands, not God’s. Their inmost selves had not been surrendered. So for ten days they waited in prayer in an upper room, asking God for something He was aching to give if only they would let the barrier down. It took them ten days to get to the end of themselves. At the end of themselves was the beginning of God. God took over when they turned over themselves. They offered their all and that cleared the way for God’s all. God can give marginal blessings, but He can’t give Himself – the Holy Spirit – until we give ourselves unconditionally and absolutely.

Categories: Virtues & Choices
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