Many believers pray and long very earnestly for the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of Christ, and wonder that they do not make more progress. The reason is often this, the “I in you” cannot come because the “Abide in Me” is not maintained. “There is one body and one spirit;” before the Spirit can fill, there must be a body prepared. The graft must have grown into the stem, and be abiding in it before the sap can flow through to bring forth fruit. It is as in lowly obedience we follow Christ, even in external things, denying ourselves, forsaking the world, and even in the body seeking to be conformable to Him, as we thus seek to abide in Him, that we shall be able to receive and enjoy the “I in you.” The work enjoined on us: “Abide in Me,” will prepare us for the work undertaken by Him: “I in you.”
Andrew Murray, The Mystery of the True Vine: Meditations for a Month (London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1898), 51–52.
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