A letter from Andrew Murray
An excerpt from The Secret of Fellowship
BELOVED brethren—The more I think of and pray about the state of religion in this country and all over the world, the deeper my conviction becomes that the low state of the spiritual life of Christians is due to the fact that they do not realize that the aim and object of conversion is to bring the soul, even here on earth, to a daily fellowship with the Father in heaven.
This lesson is not always taught at the beginning of the Christian life, nor is it always understood by the [new] convert. He should realize that the grace he has received of the forgiveness of sins, of acceptance as God’s child, of joy in the Holy Spirit, can only be preserved by the daily renewal of fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself.
Many Christians backslide because this truth is not clearly taught. They have never really grasped the secret: The Lord Jesus will every day from heaven continue His work in me. But on one condition—the soul must give Him time each day to impart His love and His grace.
God greatly desires this intimacy with man. But sin has come between man and his God. Even in the Christian who thinks he knows God, there is often great ignorance and even indifference to this personal relationship of love to God. People believe that at conversion their sins are forgiven, that God accepts them so that they may go to heaven, and that they should try to do God’s will. But the idea is strange to them that even as a father and his child on earth have pleasure in companionship, so they may and must each day have this blessed fellowship with God.
Our Lord, in the last night that He was with His disciples, promised to send the Holy Spirit as a helper. Although His bodily presence was removed, they would realize His presence in them and with them in a wonderful way. The Holy Spirit as God would so reveal Christ in their hearts that they would experience His presence with them continually. The Spirit would glorify Christ and would reveal the glorified Christ in heavenly love and power. How little do Christians understand and believe and experience this glorious truth!
Dear brothers and sisters, [we speak] of the fellowship of love with Christ in the inner chamber. Everything depends on this. Christ came from heaven to love us with the love wherewith the Father loved Him. He suffered and died to win our hearts for this love. His love can be satisfied with nothing less than a deep, personal love on our part.
I urge you to write this down on a piece of paper and remember it continually: The love of Jesus must be all—in the inner chamber, in all my work, in my daily life.
