3. Holy Spirit-loaded words have a divine fitness in them with regard to time and place and matter. God often arranges to have His Spirit-led children speak words in a particular set of circumstances, or at a particular time, and in a particular tone of voice that were not premeditated by the speaker and that accomplish vast and everlasting results. The people they are directed to will later say, “You spoke a certain word to me years ago, under such and such circumstances, that made a great change in my life.”
Take the case of a young lady physician who has packed her trunk to leave a certain camp meeting. She is invited to lead a young people’s meeting. An evangelist standing by, in an unpremeditated way, simply says: “Sister, the Lord wants you here; go, unpack your trunk, and lead that meeting.” The words are loaded; they pierce the heart. The young lady leads the meeting, and from that time on becomes a holiness evangelist.
A certain man is holding a meeting in North Georgia. A brother steps up and says: “I met you 10 years ago in Augusta. When I was seeking sanctification and walking in the street, I asked you several questions. You simply answered me: ‘Brother, just leave yourself in the hands of Jesus, and He will answer all your questions.’ Your words were loaded, and in a few moments I was in spiritual liberty.”
There are millions of instances in which words have been spoken under the guidance of the Holy Spirit just in the nick of time to accomplish great results.
4. Loaded words are durable; they have in them the element
of immortality. Commonplace words glide away from us by the million; but certain words, appropriate to our needs and charged with the Spirit, bury themselves in our memories and remain fresh with us throughout life.
If we want our prayers, or sermons, or testimonies, or written words, to abide in everlasting fruitfulness, they must be in the order of divine will and under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Some persons try purposely to speak wise and appropriate and powerful words. But all such is a failure.
You can’t speak loaded words by trying to; it is only by having the very fountains of our being so melted and filled and united with the Holy Spirit that, without any premeditation, every stray shot and even our ordinary conversation will be just as full of holy gravity and fiery truth as our prayers and sermons. The power must be generic and continually flowing through us from the indwelling Christ.
A trifling preacher during the week cannot speak fiery and weighty words on Sunday. Let us in secret prayer bathe ourselves so long in the bright and warm presence of Jesus that when we go forth we shall unconsciously carry in our manners and words that imitable quality of life and durability which can come alone from the Eternal One.
If in the past our words have been lacking in the divine aroma of grace, let us go to the fountain and, by persevering prayer, get in such abiding relation with the real source of all holiness as to make our very words conductors of heavenly electricity. Our infinite, loving God will gladly utilize any little humble one on this earth as a channel of holy fire, if he will utterly yield himself up to His will and the current of the Holy Spirit.
George Douglas Watson (1848-1923) was a holiness evangelist for the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He authored of several books, including Bridehood Saints and Soul Food, from which this excerpt was taken.
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