October 25
Read: Ezekiel 36:37-38
I will put my Spirit within you, and… as large flocks for sacrifices, as the flocks at Jerusalem during the appointed feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with crowds of men (Ezekiel 36:27, 38, Berkeley Version).
Full Salvation Spreads
God here promises that His kingdom shall increase as a result of His Spirit in the hearts of His people. In their religious feasts the Hebrews gathered and sacrificed great flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. When Solomon was crowned king “they sacrificed sacrifices unto the Lord… a thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs” (I Chronicles 29:21). As plentiful as the flocks of sheep at a feast, so shall be the number who come into the kingdom when God’s Spirit is in His people. This is the divine promise.
But the promise is not for mere numbers alone. God says, I will increase them with men like the holy flock. The comparison is to the special flock consecrated to God. Like begets like. When His people are consecrated — dedicated to a holy purpose — God promises that there shall be more consecrated men.
- L. Moody says that before his baptism with the Holy Spirit he was powerless to reach others for Christ. But afterward God enabled him to win a million souls to his Master. Says he, “I do not know of a sermon that I have preached since but God has given me some soul… These are the very sermons I preached [before]… word for word. Then I preached and I preached, but it was as one beating the air. It is not new sermons, but the power of God. It is not a new gospel, but the old gospel with the Holy Ghost of power. Amen!”
Prayer For Today
O God, may The Holy Spirit so fill my life that others also shall long to know the wonder of Thy fullness. In Jesus’ name I ask it.