The Holy Spirit is Ready

“Every time you go into a home, every time you talk to a man on the street car, or in the shops, or factories, you have the absolute assurance that there is another One also witnessing. And that is God Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit! Everywhere Barnabas and Saul went the Holy Spirit was there waiting for them. The same Divine Spirit that called and separated Barnabas and Saul was by the river and opened the heart of Lydia while Paul witnessed to her--‘whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul’ (Acts 16:14). There you have the whole thing in a nutshell. God’s side of the witnessing and man’s side. Therefore, every time you go forth on your personal visitation for Jesus Christ, to tell of His salvation, you have the absolute assurance that the Holy Spirit precedes you, goes with you, talks with you, walks with you, and opens the hearts of all you talk to. This was the greatest truth that ever came into my life next to my salvation. Do you want a holy boldness in your testimony? then go forth and testify of Christ. Suppose you don’t feel like it. Go anyway. The Word does not say that God gives the Holy Spirit to them that feel like it. But He gives the Holy Spirit to them that ‘obey Him’ (Acts 5:32)”

​(J. Frank Norris, The Inside Story of First Baptist Church).

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