and put yourself into such relations with God that the Holy Spirit
may bear His testimony through you. Neither your testimony, nor even that
of the written Word alone will effect this, though it is your testimony,
or that of the Word that the Holy Spirit uses. But unless your testimony
and that of the Word is taken up by the Holy Spirit and He Himself
testifies, they will not believe. This explains something which every
experienced worker must have noticed. We sit down beside an inquirer and
open our Bibles and give him those Scriptures which clearly reveal Jesus
as his atoning Saviour on the cross, a Saviour from the guilt of sin, and
as his risen Saviour, a Saviour from the power of sin. It is just the
truth the man needs to see and believe in order to be saved, but he does
not see it. We go over these Scriptures which to us are as plain as day
again and again, and the inquirer sits there in blank darkness; he sees
nothing, he grasps nothing. Sometimes we almost wonder if the inquirer is
stupid that he cannot see it. No, he is not stupid, except with that
spiritual blindness that possesses every mind unenlightened by the Holy
Spirit (1 Cor. ii. 14). We go over it again and still he does not see it.
We go over it again and his face lightens up and he exclaims, "I see it. I
see it," and he sees Jesus and believes and is saved and knows he is saved
there on the spot. What has happened? Simply this, the Holy Spirit has
borne His testimony and what was dark as midnight before is as clear as
day now. This explains also why it is that one who has been long in
darkness concerning Jesus Christ so quickly comes to see the truth when he
surrenders his will to God and seeks light from Him. When he surrenders
his will to God, he has put himself into that attitude towards God where
the Holy Spirit can do His work (Acts v. 32). Jesus says in John vii. 17,
R. V., "If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the teaching,
whether it be of God, or whether I speak from Myself." When a man wills to
do the will of God, then the conditions are provided on which the Holy
Spirit works and He illuminates the mind to see the truth about Jesus and
to see that His teaching is the very Word of God. John writes in John xx.
31, "But these are written (these things in the Gospel of John) that ye
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing
ye might have life through His name." John wrote his Gospel for this
purpose