World Conquest Through Enduement

This is an article by Rev. Joseph Ellison that appeared in the August 27, 1932 issue of The Alliance Weekly. It was distributed at the time in leaflet form by the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade during the days of C. T. and Priscilla Studd. It still speaks to us as strongly today as it did then:

"All the world conquests of Christ are accredited by the Scriptures to His enduement with power from on high. Many centuries of prophetic anticipation declared that 'The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding . . . With righteousness shall he judge the poor . . . He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth . . . and his rest shall be glorious' (Isa. 11:1-10).

"Such an enduement was bestowed upon Him at the end of thirty waiting years. In the discipline of silence the Son learned 'obedience by the things which he suffered'; learned to be subordinate and obedient until the Spirit qualified Him to speak and labor. It was the anointing that made Him free; the enduement that made Him strong. Jesus went to the Jordan for that, stood in its waters for prayer until the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him (Luke 3:21).

My Servant

"By the anointing the Son became the Slave, who could of Himself do nothing. 'My servant (slave) whom I uphold . . . I have put my spirit upon him' (Isa. 42:1). If He is to drive the world, He must Himself be driven--driven into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil; driven to the cross to be scaffolded and incriminated for the sins of the world. The Spirit must be the ruling factor of His will, and the enabling power of His sacrificial heart. If He is to speak to intelligence and conscience the kingly word of authority, to handle efficiently His administrative power over nature, over man, over disease, over sin and death, then He must be qualified by His appointed enduement. Only thus can the Slave know anything, have anything, or do anything. He must do as He is told; carry the burden that is laid upon Him; take it to the end of the last mile without a murmur. If that burden is 'the iniquity of us all,' then He must carry it to the cross and die with it under the death-stroke of God. By bruising and bleeding, by agony and self-effacement alone could the atoning Slave become the reigning King.

"That is the pattern for all who follow Him. Christ embodies and standardizes all that His slaves are to be. All who receive from Him the power to be the sons of God, must also receive from Him the authority to be the slave and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God (Rom. 1:1; Tit. 1:11). If they are to be conformed to the image of the Son, they must be anointed like Him and endued by Him. There is no use trying to work for Christ without His qualification. However rich our natural powers, however strong our social position, we cannot help Him to conquer the world until we have been conquered like Him, emptied like Him, and endued like Him. Our Lord would not allow His disciples to enter upon this work until they were anointed by the Holy Spirit. Notwithstanding the fact that they knew Him intimately, through the constancy of their abiding with Him upwards of two years, they were not fully fitted by their knowledge to go into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature. Although they had the Spirit all the time; although they were able to work miracles as well as to preach the kingdom of God; although the Saviour breathed on them and said, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost,' yet they were not fully qualified thereby. He insisted upon their waiting until an anointing like unto His own should come upon them, and that, too, from the same source. All of them obeyed their Master, as we well know, and all of them received power after that the Spirit fell upon them. In a lesser degree they were able to say what their Lord had said in a full degree: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor' (Luke 4:18).

The Christian a Crusader

"Do you expect to preach the Gospel in any other way or by any other method? If so, you must pardon me if I tell you that you will fail. Neither the savagery of Africa, nor the agnosticism of France, nor the ungodliness of England will ever be conquered for Christ unless His Gospel is preached in His way. He preached it after and because the Holy Spirit anointed Him to do it, and that is the way He has ordained and commanded His followers to preach it. There may be and there is abundance of worship and salvation, purity, peace, happiness, and joy among the children of God in the holy family life of His presence. 'In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.' All these passages may be bestowed all through the years of daily living. All of them are as personal as they are real, and yet the knowledge of redeeming grace may not go forth from the child of God. Not until the Holy Spirit is sought and received in a sanctifying and anointing measure does he become powerful to seek and to save those who are lost. The child of God becomes a servant, the son becomes the slave in the anointing. Personal blessing becomes communicated blessing at that point; the Christian is made into a Crusader.

The Obedient Life

"After the anointing and enduement, the Master can send His slave anywhere, and He will obey. He will walk the full mile and carry a full cross. Instead of the old method of picking and choosing, he will be most careful to do what he is told by the One who walks with Him and makes his heart burn within him while He talks by the way. Instead of the old murmuring, he will sing for joy over the privilege of saying something and doing something for his Master.

"Moreover, he can be trusted with anything when the Spirit of the Lord takes possession. The trusteeship of the Gospel is in safe hands. The responsibilities of leadership will be faithfully undertaken and administered. Rules and regulations will become increasingly unnecessary. The wise words spoken by the prophet Samuel to King Saul, will be relevant: 'And let it be, when these signs are come upon thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee' (1 Sam. 10:7).

"The enduement qualifies for world conquest because it qualifies for self-conquest. It brings the natural man into his proper place. It qualifies him to stand alone, either on the frontier of the world's need, or before the frown of the world's contempt. The lips of the silent Christian become eloquent with truth. Timidity is supplanted by heroism, pride by self-effacement. Self-consideration takes a second place. Self-effort is lost in a life of prayer. Difficulties are handled with a new law of displacement known as 'the faith of God.' The enduement makes the man unconquerable for 'When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.' When thrown into a boiling sea of human vices and cruelties, he is unsinkable in the buoyancies of the power of God, 'more than conquerors through him that loved us . . . persuaded that neither death, nor life . . . nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Rom. 8:37-39)."