The following is from Jessie Penn-Lewis' book Power for Service:
"Later, I noticed in the story about Elijah and Elisha walking along together, with Elisha longing for the prophet's 'mantle': 'If thou see me, it shall be so.' And I understood that I was just to keep my eyes on Christ, and He would see to all the rest. 'Yes, Lord, I will keep my eyes right upon Thee.'
"Afterwards I received more light upon these words: 'And they went on and talked.' Elijah and Elisha went on together, just talking, and then Elijah was gone! So I am to just go on quietly in communication with the Lord and leave all to Him. He is going to work it all out. I know now that He was just releasing my spirit, getting it into rest and taking all the strain out of it, so that it became quiet and restful.
"Then there came the morning when I knew that God had answered my prayer. And on this wise —
(1) It was sudden, and when I was not specially thinking about the matter.
(2) I knew in my spirit that He had come.
(3) My Bible became like a living thing, and was flooded with light.
(4) Christ suddenly became to me a real Person. I could not explain how I knew, but He became real to me.
(5) When I went to my Bible Class I found myself able to speak of the Spirit at the back of it, until souls were convicted of sin on every side.
(6) Power in prayer, so that it seemed I only needed to ask and have.
(7) My spirit took its way to God freed from every fetter that held it to anything on earth.
"The floodtide of blessing to souls no words could possibly describe. Next to freedom of utterance so suddenly given, the most striking thing which remains in my memory was a sense (in the spirit) of the intense light of God—not a visible light, but the intensity of the presence of God in such a degree that souls were convicted of sin the instant they entered the room, without one word being spoken to them; and to me, personally, every shade of sin stood out as a black shadow upon the crystal holiness of God, and was seen to be the most horrible thing on earth. How we could sin against such a God of holiness and love seemed incredible.
"From that time the whole of my work and service was lifted to a different plane, as if it were raised by the incoming of some tidal wave. After liberty of utterance was suddenly given, the outflow of the Spirit swept into the work, and instead of a dead prayer meeting we had prayer meetings so filled with life and freedom of utterance that they were far more attractive than the old popular 'social evening.' We could spend three hours in prayer with ease, and with effective results. All wanted to pray, and the time was too short for all the 'work' that had to be done in the precious prayer time. We had to say that all who wanted to deal with God personally must go to another room, so that the personal should not intervene and hinder the work of prayer for others, locally and in the regions beyond.
"The floodtide of prayer was soon followed by action, and the praying ones before long were out in the streets seeking to win souls for Christ; for all true overflow from the Holy Spirit must eventually reach the unsaved, just as it did for Pentecost. No influx of the Spirit to a believer will last, or remain in purity from mixture, if it does not flow out in the winning of souls to Christ."
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