After a man is convinced that he can be filled with the Spirit he must desire to be. To the interested inquirer I ask these question: Are you sure that you want to be possessed by a Spirit Who, while He is pure and gentle and wise and loving, will yet insist upon being Lord of your life? Are you sure you want your personality to be taken over by One Who will require obedience to the written Word? Who will not tolerate any of the self-sins in your life: self-love, self-indulgence? Who will not permit you to strut or boast or show off? Who will take the direction of your life away from you and will reserve the sovereign right to test you and discipline you? Who will strip away from you many loved objects which secretly harm your soul?

Unless you can answer an eager ‘Yes’ to these questions you do not want to be filled.

How many authors are willing to say this nowadays? (Tozer wrote this in 1957.) Paul preached Christ crucified to the Corinthians which was foolishness to them. Jesus asks us to count the cost. He turned away the rich ruler (Luke 18:18-27). How many of us try to make it easy for others to be saved only for them to fall away because they didn’t count the cost?

Grace has become… cheap. We are busy these days proving to the world that they can have all the benefits of the Gospel without any of the inconvenience to their customary way of life. It’s ‘all this and heaven too.’