Seek Guidance of the Holy Spirit

Take caution here not to lay down hard and fast lines of procedure in this field.

Some people are highly demonstrative. Luther, with white heat of spirit, flung the inkpot across the room to express against the devil his indignant protest, but you need to be a Luther to do that safely. I knew a man who would sometimes open the window, tell the devil to go, and then close it again and by that method be assured of Christ’s victory being enforced. But there is nothing in flinging an inkpot, opening a window, stamping your foot, or shaking your fist if the Spirit of God is not in that mode of expression. Neither a bolted door nor a barred window can exclude the devil unless there be a corresponding bolting and barring of the man himself. Such gestures, however, are not necessary. We do well to speak and act much more soberly when grappling with these forces, for Satan has awful power and can only be met “in the Spirit”* (Galatians 5:16) and “in Christ.”* (2 Timothy 2:1)

Certainly we need to be careful lest we mistake physical force and a loud voice for the power and authority of the Spirit. The former cannot make up a deficiency in the latter. God can operate as effectively in the calm of a setting summer sun as in the hurricane of a November gale. The God who answered by fire was He who tabernacled in the still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12). The grieved spirit that loudly demanded, “Lazarus, come forth,”* (John 11:43) was endowed with the same life that displayed its strength in silence when Christ confounded His accusers by answering them “never a word.”* (Matthew 27:14)

So faith may be mightiest when it is quietest. But it is for each one to know for himself. The more spiritually healthy we are, the less we shall be exactly like other people. There is an individuality and originality in all of God’s children which in their lives should display some new wonder of Christ’s life.