April 4

Read: Luke 11:9-13

I say unto you… seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Luke 11:9).

The Grammar Of Sanctifying Faith

In Holiness the Finished Foundation, Bishop J. Paul Taylor writes: “It is exceedingly important for the seeker for full salvation to master the grammar of sanctifying faith. The grammar of faith must be in the first person, singular number, present tense, indicative mood.

“When men talk in the second or third person about heart holiness, it has not come home to them personally. When they talk in the plural number, it is so general that it has no individual focus. When they talk in the future tense, it is a postponed, tentative thing. When they talk in the subjunctive, or even the imperative mood, they are only reaching for the blessing that is still out of reach. When they talk in the indicative mood, they have ‘drawn near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,’ and have seized the blessing.

“It is most interesting in this connection that the Wesleys twice made changes in the last line of a verse in one of their hymns. The verse originally read: Quicken’d by Thy imparted flame, Saved, when possest of Thee, I am; My life, my only heaven, Thou art, When shall I feel Thee in my heart?

In the next two editions the question was turned into the cry, ‘O might I feel Thee in my heart.’ In the following editions the question and the cry were superseded by the exclamation, ‘And, lo! I feel Thee in my heart!’ If these revisions do not represent the ‘pilgrim’s progress’ of these founders of Methodism, they do represent the steps by which the hungry believer arrives at possession and satisfaction.”