SUGGESTIONS TO THE THIRSTY ON HOW TO RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT

By A. S. Copley (1860 – 1945)

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:13) When believers are filled with the Spirit, they are prepared to search after the gold of Ophir, for He comes to “guide you into all truth” John 16:13. Therefore, we offer the following simple suggestions:

THE OBJECT OF SEARCH. Do you understand clearly what you are after? Some people want a deeper work of grace, or a higher life, or a better experience. Now, Beloved, that is not the need. Let us be specific. Let us call things what God calls them, and ask for exactly what we need as revealed to us by the Spirit. The hungry man does not say, “I want a better experience”; but he says, “I want bread.” What does the Word of God term this experience that is creating such a commotion every where? It is known by different names. It is called: “Power from on high” – Luke 24:49. “The promise of My Father” Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4. “The Gift of the Holy Ghost” Acts 2:38; 10:45. “Another Comforter …the Spirit of Truth” John 14:16, 17; 15:26; 16:13. Consider this title and study these citations. “The Holy Ghost” – Acts 1:8; 10:44; 19:2. He is called, “The Spirit of glory and of God” – I Peter 4:14. “An unction from the Holy One,” and “The anointing which … abided” – I John 2:20, 27. “Of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” – II Timothy 1:7. “Rivers of living water” – John 7:37, 38. All these titles of the Holy Spirit indicate what Pentecost brought to the one hundred and twenty, and also what it brings to us today when we become filled with the Spirit.

Now, if you ask for more love, more power, more patience, more faith, and a better experience, you will never receive them nor any satisfying portion. God is jealous. God Himself, in His fullness alone, can satisfy you. Hence, you must be definite, and ask for the very Gift that He has promised to bestow. When the Spirit comes into a life in Pentecostal measure, He brings the equipment of faith, love, patience, tongues, and power with Him, as see meth Him wise and good. The person anointed with the Spirit is not in possession of a latent supply of these qualities; but rather he is a pliable channel through which the abiding Holy Spirit can exercise His gifts as He wills. He makes us “instant in season, out of season,” “ready to every good work,” “meet for the Master’s use” – II Timothy 4:2; Titus 3:1; II Timothy 2:21. Therefore, ask for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. He is your Father’s Gift to you.

CONDITIONS FOR RECEIVING. It was said of Jesus, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows” – Hebrews 1:9. The love of righteousness, as a principle, is the basic qualification for receiving the Spirit; and, of course, such a heart hates iniquity. Thus, you will gladly acknowledge all righteousness in whomsoever you see it, and judge all sin in yourself when the spirit shows it to you. Therefore, as expressed at the head of this treatise, “Ask.” Do not be deceived with thinking that God will give you the Spirit when He gets ready, without your wholehearted desire for Him, as some erroneously teach. His advent from Heaven at Pentecost, was without man’s cooperation; but His advent into every individual life depends on an individual welcome and reception of Him. Only those who were waiting for and expecting the Spirit, were filled with Him at Pentecost. Study Acts 2:1-4. Not only ask, but “obey Him.” Acts 5:32 is a very significant citation. “The Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him,” conjointly with the Spirit-filled saints, witness to the things of God. Only those who are anointed with the Spirit can really witness for Jesus; and they only can really obey Him to the uttermost. But, also, only those who obey God can receive the Spirit. Jesus declared, “if a man loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we (Father and Son and Spirit) will come unto him, and make our abode with him” – John 14:23.

How could God expect less from us than absolute obedience? He is bestowing upon us a great Gift. The wayward, or self-willed, or half-hearted, or self-sufficient, need not expect Him. You must obey the written Word as far as you have the light, and also the still small Voice of the Spirit. Doubtless, this will lead you to quit many things not in themselves sinful, but useless to you; and cause you to take up new lines of duty and privilege.

BELIEVE GOD. “Receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” – Galatians 3:14. “He that believeth on

Me,” is very significant – John 7:38. Read it; ponder it; receive it. For three weeks, the Spirit pressed me

to believe that I was actually receiving, and shut me up to Mark 11:24 and I John 5:14, 15. Had I really believed thus, I would have been filled long before I was. But I feared to believe what I did not realize; that is, I had more confidence in my feelings, or lack of feelings, than in God’s Word. Shame on me! I made no progress, except that there was given to me now and then a new Scriptural assurance that I should soon be filled with the Spirit. At last, I dared to believe and say, “He fills me now!” Very soon the power of God fell upon me and, “not many days hence,” God actually filled me; and that anointing was far beyond my largest hopes. But I believed God, before I consciously received Him. Oh, seeking soul, BELIEVE that God fills you NOW. REJOICE IN THE LORD. Imitate the one hundred and twenty, who “returned to Jerusalem with great joy (Though not empowered yet), and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God” – Luke 24:52, 53. Read without fail – II Chronicles 5:11-14. “Offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving, thanks to His Name … for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” – Hebrews 13:15, 16. “Thou meetest him that rejoiced” – Isaiah 64:5. “Whoso offered praise glorified Me,” saith the Lord – Psalm 50:23. Therefore, praise the Lord; praise Him aloud; praise Him with all your heart and voice. Praise is the outward expression of faith. Praise God for sending His Son to die for you.

Praise Him for sending the Comforter to fill you. Praise Him that He does fill you. Praise God that, in His provision, you were already baptized with all saints into one Body on the day of Pentecost and were there given the privilege to drink of the rivers of living water. See I Corinthians 12:12, 13 Revised Version. Praise Him that you died with Christ (Romans 5:6) and were seated with Him in the Heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6), as symbolized by the “upper room” – Acts 1:13.

Remember that the Holy Spirit was poured out once. He came from Heaven. He is here. All provision on God’s part has been made. Therefore, praise Him! Heads up, Beloved. He loves you. He longs to fill you. He is even now beginning “to fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power” – II Thess. 1:11. Do you believe it? Then praise Him. “Rejoice in hope of the glory of God” – Romans 5:2. Just let yourself free to the Holy Spirit in praises. You have a right to take your place by faith in “the liberty of the glory” – Romans 8:21 Revised Version. Do not yield to impatience, anxiety, nor discouragement, if the Spirit does not seem to come at once. There is no loss to you nor to Him by His delay, as long as you keep yielding to God and walk in the light you have and praise fully believe for the fullness NOW. Even in the delay, you are learning many valuable lessons. He is strengthening you “with might by His Spirit in the inner man” Ephesians 3:16.

ENTERTAIN NO FEAR. Do not draw back from quivering’s, or quaking’s, or tingling’s, or numbness, or warmth in the body. Fear not. You are seeking God. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” – Colossians 3:3. “There shall no evil happen to the just” – Proverbs 12:21. Put your confidence in the Holy Spirit, yielding unreservedly to Him; and Satan cannot harm you, nor even touch you. Fear God, fear to displease Him; but do not fear fanaticism nor Satan. In the parable which Jesus related in Luke eleven, the man received just what he asked for, whether it was a fish, an egg, or bread. He received neither a serpent, a scorpion, nor a stone. Just so, when we seek for the Gift of the Holy Spirit, truly, the Holy Spirit we receive. Hallelujah! He is not a fanatical spirit, nor a domineering spirit, nor a wild spirit; but He is the blessed dove-like yet powerful Holy Spirit of God, the third Person of the Trinity. In Ohio, a little company of us were tarrying for the fullness of the Spirit. Sometimes the cower of the Spirit was so manifest that some of the saints shook. At one particular time, fear came over me, and this wicked question sprung up in my mind – “What if this is of the devil?” Then the Holy Spirit reminded me of Paul’s words to Timothy, when he was tempted with fear and discouragement – “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” – II Timothy 1:7. His Name be eternally praised! I believed that word, and the victory was won. Now thirty-five years have passed; and yet no foul or fanatical spirit, nor any other than the dear Holy Spirit has ever fallen upon seekers after God in our meetings.

God has given us the Spirit of power for the body. “What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” – I Corinthians 6:19. He has given us the Spirit of love for the heart; and the Spirit of a sound mind, or discipline, for the mind. This is not three spirits, but the one blessed Holy Spirit in His fullness. Compare Revelation 5:6. As the first, He gives us victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; as the second, He keeps the heart believing and enjoying the Lord and loving Him and His Word, and keeps us from formalism; and as the third, He keeps us from error and fanaticism. and guides us into all the Truth. Therefore, you need never fear. Just let go and let God. Let go all else and trust Him. Let go and drop into the hands of the Lord. You will have to let go before you are filled with the Spirit. This is the only kind of fullness that God deals in. “He will rise and give him as many as he needed” – Luke 11:8. He declares, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground” – Isaiah 44:3.

SEVEN HINDRANCES

We need the anointing with the Holy Spirit. God means that we shall have it. Every possible provision to this end has been made. Jesus went to the Father, received the Spirit, and sent Him to us. Why, then, do hungry hearts not receive Him in His fullness? Either the Lord wishes to teach them some important lesson, or some hindrance must be removed. Notice some possible hindrances; and as you read, trust God to enable you to put them away, if you are afflicted with them.

DICTATING TO GOD. Sometimes people address the Lord as if He did not understand His business. They tell Him all that He must do, and just what they must be before they can receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. How foolish this is. We get nothing from Him by teaching Him, but by asking Him. “Ask, and ye shall receive” – John 16:24. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in Heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore, let thy words be few” – Ecclesiastes 5:2.

COMPARING EXPERIENCES. This may be helpful. It may also prove a snare. You must not desire the experience of another, in kind, but in quality. Indeed, you are not to seek the experience of anyone. Seek God earnestly for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. He will grant you the very best and most fitting experience for you. Some well-informed, well-balanced believers are delayed, because “the fruit of the Spirit” seems to be less in some who claim their Pentecost than in themselves. This indicates a lack of hunger. There may yet remain in such seekers a latent self-sufficiency. They may not be as wise and balanced in God’s sight as they suppose. Furthermore, the Spirit is given, not to those who are perfect in experience, but to those who feel their need and receive Him. It matters not what others have or do not have. Do I measure up to the divine standard? Have I the Holy Spirit as the early Church had? – Acts 2:4. These are the questions. Read the Holy Word of counsel – “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that command themselves: but they, measuring themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” – II Corinthians 10:12. Simply compare yourself with God’s standard.

CONFUSION OF TEACHING. One person declares that you must pray right through to the fullness. Another affirms that you receive it by faith. Still another contends that you must praise yourself through to Pentecost. Yet another insists that you just tarry and wait until the Holy Spirit falls. Now, when we understand the Word, all confusion vanishes. Indeed, all of these – prayer, faith, and praise – have their place in receiving the enduement with power from on high. One prays much, and other tarries long. Usually such seekers do not actually expect the Lord to answer all at once. Unconsciously they hold the Spirit away. A false feeling of unworthiness may hinder them from believing for an immediate filling. Another one rests in faith, rejoices in faith, and rejoices in hope, and presently obtains the desired fullness. Some simply believe God, expecting Him to answer at once, having prayed very little perhaps; and immediately they receive. This is the Scriptural way; for Jesus said, “Ask, and ye shall receive.” You ought to believe that you DO receive the very moment that you ask; for Jesus said also, “When ye pray, believe … and ye shall have” – Mark 11:24. If seekers are required to tarry, it is that God may empty them of unbelief or whatever He sees may hinder the Spirit’s incoming. He quickly fills the house that He is allowed to possess and control. The cardinal texts for those desiring the anointing with the Holy Spirit are: Luke 11:13; 24:49, 52, 53; Acts 1:4,14; 2:38, 39; Galatians 3:13, 14; Mark 11:24.

RAMBLING PRAYERS. Do you want the enduement with power from on high? Then let the enduement alone be the object of your present search. Let others pray for the sick, for the missionaries, for the conversion of sinners. You should not admit another interest to intervene until you know that you have received the Comforter; for then only can you shout the victory effectively and intercede for others. God is not after your petitions and service. He wants you. He is seeking to get full control of all of you; then He will amaze you by His plan of operations in your behalf and of service through you. He longs to have you move entirely in divine order. You need not be a copycat, moving in other people’s grooves. Therefore, let go. Let God have you. Let Him grant you the inward certitude that you are truly and scripturally anointed with the Holy Spirit and power.

TALKATIVENESS. If you would quickly receive and sweetly retain the Pentecostal glow and glory, let your words be few. “In the multitude of words there wanted not sin” – Proverbs 10:19. Questions, discussions, and jesting, greatly delay the answer, because they detract the mind from the Lord. The same is true of reading anything not pertaining to your quest. Keep before the Lord with your open Bible and an open heart. “Wait thou only upon God” – Psalm 62:5.

SELF CONDEMNATION. Some people sit on the judgment seat, condemning their fellowman. Let not such expect to receive the Comforter. Others perpetually condemn themselves. One is just as unkind as the other. You say, “I am so unworthy; for I am so unfaithful.” You will never become faithful by mourning over your failures, but by looking unto Jesus, the faithful One. All your sins (and failures, too) were judged in Christ’s death for you on Calvary. Hence, having believed on Jesus, you are accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6), because you received Him as your Substitute. Cease looking for perfection in yourself. Take Christ for your perfection. “Ye are complete in Him” – Col. 2:10. Bear in mind that the perfecting, as to experience, goes on after Pentecost has fully come to you. Indeed, the Spirit comes in to abide for this very purpose, to reveal Jesus Christ unto us and into us as our very Perfectness. He then enables us to “grow up into Him (Christ)” – Ephesians 4:15.

WRONG MOTIVES. This is a most vital point. Ponder it well. Why do you want the anointing with the Holy Spirit? Do you want the Spirit because your friends have Him? Do you want the Spirit that you may cast out demons and accomplish wonderful and attractive things? Are you occupied with conducting big meetings and working miracles? I fear that you will never obtain the enduement. Your friends may turn you down. You may never do any of these things openly. You may be circumscribed and made to suffer. Isolation may be your lot in God’s providence. God said of Saul to Ananias, “I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake” – Acts9:16. Seek Him for Jesus’ sake.

Whatever minor motive may move you to seek this glorious experience, the divine empowerment from on high, the one supreme motive should be that you may know fully the will of God and wholeheartedly and constantly do His will. You should desire above all things, to please the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by letting Him “reveal His Son” in you in His own blessed way. Jesus our perfect Pattern said, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” – Hebrews 10:9. We can entertain no higher purpose. We cannot afford anything lower. The right motive is voiced in the following words of longing – “my cry for a long time prior, and at this time also, was to be like Jesus. Oh, how I longed to be like Him. I wished ardently to be lost in God. Oh, how I wanted really and truly to cease from my own works and ways, that Christ might be magnified and glorified in my life, that it might be no longer I but Christ who lived in me.” Of course, God must bestow upon us or work in us such a state of heart. And He does. By various providence, He brings us into a sense of deep need, where we groan and long to cry out to Him for the satisfying portion. Dear seeking soul, if you want the Gift of God – “the promise of the Father” – more than you want anything else, you will quickly and cheerfully put aside all hindrances and forego every pleasure. You will seek with your whole heart and soul by persistent faith and joyful expectation (day and night, if need be that you tarry), until the Pentecostal glory rolls over your whole being, submerging you with inundating floods of living water. You will give Jehovah no rest, till you have obtained the enduement with power from on high. The fullness is certain, “for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39).

HOW TO RECEIVE

The following earnest appeal for help has reached us. Our answer thereto may be helpful to others in similar perplexity. Therefore, we herein give the letter and our reply; “Dear Brother Copley: I have read your leaflet, “Suggestions to the Thirsty”, with much interest. It seems to be one of the clearest and most helpful I have seen. For a number of years, I have been seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit as promised to the disciples and I believe to us, but seem to make little headway. “I have been much hindered and mystified by the different views held as to how to receive the baptism.

One tells me to believe that He will fill me; another that He is filling me; and still another, that He has filled me. Even your fine tract somewhat confuses me. You say, “For three days the Spirit pressed me to believe that I was actually receiving.” Then on the next page you say, “I dared to believe that He fills me NOW.” Then a few lines further on, you say, ‘Not many days later, God actually filled me.’ Does not that seem contradictory? I believe Mark 11:24, that we are to believe that we receive WHEN we pray. But my difficulty is in knowing WHAT I am to believe that I receive. One says, “The Holy Spirit.” Another says, “The baptism.” In the same breath, one of them says, “No one has the baptism until he speaks in tongues, and joy and ecstasy are in evidence.”

Beloved Thirsty Soul: As you read my answer to your earnest inquiry, trust the Holy Spirit to show you the simplicity of the way. You may just as well be anointed with the Spirit while you read this letter, as tomorrow after tarrying an hour or more. “Now is the accepted time.”

FIRST. Fasten on to Mark 11:24. Never mind what this one or that one says, if he does not speak according to the Word. If you believe only that He will answer you sometime, you may wait a long while. But if you do exactly as Jesus advised – “Believe that ye receive” – you may not wait at all. Note exactly the Master’s words – “When ye pray, believe … and ye shall have.” Believe what? “That ye receive.”

SECOND. What to believe vanishes in a moment. Let not that trouble you. According to the Scriptures, you should ask for and expect the Holy Spirit to fill your whole being with Himself. I say, “FILL,” because FILL expresses the normal condition of believers in relation to the Holy Spirit in fourteen citations – Luke 4:1; Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9, 52; Ephesians 5:18. By the time you read all those Scriptures believingly, you will probably be experimentally filled. Hallelujah! But if you are still uncertain as to what to name your experience, believe God to give you what He calls the experience.

He is not a cold hard Arbiter to whom you come. He is a loving tender Father who offers His best Gift – “the Gift of the Holy Ghost” – to His beloved child. When one of my daughters about four years old wanted some Dutch cheese, she invariably asked for sauerkraut. Did we give her sauerkraut? No. We gave her what we knew she wanted, not what she said. God looks on the heart, not on the words. He knows not only what you want, but that you need the Holy Spirit. Therefore, “When ye pray” (not the next day), “believe that ye receive” whatever you ask for; and, because you have Jesus’ own word for it, “ye shall have.”

THIRD. You say further: “When I was saved fifty-two years ago, I believed I was saved on the authority of God’s Word; and the next day He filled me with joy. I have been healed more than once through believing that I was healed then and there through His stripes. But, how am I to believe that I am baptized with the Spirit, with none of the accompanying signs in evidence? Is the baptism to be received the same way as salvation and healing?”

Beloved Brother, your last questions have answered themselves, together with your statement about salvation and healing. The Spirit has been instructing you by past experience as well as by the Word; but you refused to accept the plain instruction, because reason stood against faith. Of course, we receive the Spirit by faith, just as we do salvation and healing – Galatians 3:14. There is no other way. Believe and receive on the authority of God’s Word, as you did salvation and healing. You clamor for the signs which evidence the fullness of the Spirit. Why so? For what sign did you look, when you were saved and healed? God is a jealous God, and wants you to plant your faith-feet upon His Word. If He gave you the sign before you believed, then you would believe the sign instead of the Word. Believe the Word; then the sign will follow. Afterward you will thank God for both the Gift (or seal – Eph. 1:13) and the sign (or evidence). The sign of tongues is not the ground for our faith, but is the evidence that faith has obtained. FOURTH. Do you see now that my words in the tract are not contradictory? When I really heeded the Holy Spirit’s pressure to believe, I did believe that I was receiving or being filled with the Spirit.

I ceased absolutely from asking any more for the fullness, but acted my faith by praising God for the Spirit. My part ended in believing. There God began. Faith grew as I rejoiced and kept on believing. When He saw my faith perfected, the Spirit came upon me and into me and my soul was flooded with glory; this was not salvation glory alone – which I had experienced often before – but Pentecostal power and glory an entirely now and unspeakable experience. And, added to that new and ineffable glory, I was made to speak in a new tongue.

“God is no respecter of persons,” as Peter declared in Cornelius’ house. Therefore, all receive the Spirit by faith in God’s Word. And you will receive Him in the same way, and you may receive Him NOW.