The Fertility of the Soul

The soul of man is fertile. When touched by the Spirit of God, it is brought into life and also made pregnant with the souls of men. Almost the first yearnings of the new-born soul is for the salvation of others. The burden of the prayer of the newly converted soul is for the rescuing of the lost in sin. The writer of the Revelation, when in the Spirit, saw in heaven “a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.”* (Revelation 12:1-2) This woman was the church of God. She was pregnant with the souls of men. There is pain and labor in the soul that has union with God. The Holy Spirit burdens our heart for the work of God and prays in us. There is a wondrous beauty here, and a depth that we cannot fathom at the first effort.

God wants souls into which the Holy Spirit may come and burden them for all that God would have them pray for. It is the Holy Spirit in them that prays. The Holy Spirit must have souls through which to pray. Just as Christ became man, and as both God and man fought the battle against sin and Satan, and, winning, saved a world; so now He comes in the person of the Holy Spirit and dwells in man, burdens his heart for the conflict, and there in fervent prayer wrestles for the souls of men. May we live where we can be burdened for any work for which God would have us pray. May the door of our hearts open so easily that the Holy Spirit may come into His sanctuary at His pleasure and use our spirits to make groanings that cannot be uttered.

The apostle Paul said that he became all things to all men that he might save some. Again, he said that he had great heaviness in his heart and continual sorrow, so that he could even wish himself to be accursed from Christ for his kinsmen. This was soul-travail. This was the pain and labor of the soul that was burdened for those who were yet in spiritual death. Jesus was in an agony in the garden. If we live in close union with Him through prayer, we, too, shall agonize from a soul that is in travail for a lost and sinning world. The soul that reposes in the bosom of Jesus will have its seasons of agony and will cry to God for deliverance. When a soul is born into the kingdom of God. there will be joy in every heart that has been burdened for souls. Our joy will be in about the same proportions as the pain of travail. If we have not much burden for souls, we shall not have much joy.

Let me set a picture before you. See eternal life as a golden thread extending from Christ to every redeemed soul and to all the angels. When a soul is converted and becomes connected with the golden thread, a thrill of joy goes as an electric current through the net-work, causing Christ and angels and saints to rejoice.