The Third Crisis

The following is from Norman Grubb's book Yes, I Am:

". . . there must be a serious weighing-up of our position on the third level [being an intercessor], just as there has been on the first [being born again] and second [seeing ourselves as dead and risen with Christ]. We 'count the cost,' as Jesus said. We need to face the fact that it means that we don’t assess life any more on the grounds of What do I get out of it? What happens to me? or Will I achieve what I’m meant to be?

"And when things 'happen' to us in life, we no longer may say 'Why this?', as if implying we have been hardly done by. No! We see it all in terms of His fulfilling some love and saving purpose for others through it, even though at the moment we cannot see that in it.

"While that is the negative side of this third-level life, the positive is tremendous--so tremendous that is appears fantastic to our human sight. The positive is what Jesus taught about the Spirit’s filling.

"It is not simply that we thirsting ones may fully drink of Him and remain filled, but Jesus says, 'Stretch your believing further. The Holy Spirit didn’t come merely to fill you; but from your fullness others will be filled.' In other words, He is in you now as rivers of living water flowing out from you. This is Jesus’ fantastic statement in John 7:38: 'He that believeth on Me . . . Out of his inmost center shall flow rivers of living water.' John, in verse 39, points out that because Jesus spoke this before the Spirit was poured out on all believers at Pentecost, therefore the 'shall' has been fulfilled and now is!"