8月22日 我是……但他

我是用水给你们施洗，……但……他要用圣灵与火给你们施洗。（太三11）

我是否已经到达可以说“我是……但他”的地步？未经历这一刻，便实在不知道圣灵的洗到底是什么意思。我果真到了尽头，一无办法；他就在此开始作人所无法作的。我预备好迎接他的来临吗？若路上有东西阻隔，不论是好是坏，他都不能来。在他来的时候，我是否预备好让他把我一切的错失带到光中对付？他正要在这些事上临到你。我明知不洁的地方，他就插足其中；我以为洁净的地方，他就离去。

悔改并不会带来罪疚感，只会叫人觉得自己绝对的不配。我悔改时，知道自己无能为力，连替他提鞋也不配。我有没有这样悔改过？还是暗地里还为自己留一点余地？神仍未能进入我的生命，是因为我还未彻底悔改。“他要用圣灵与火给你们施洗。”约翰并没有把圣灵的洗当作一个经历，他是视之为耶稣基督的工作。“他要给你们施洗。”凡受过圣灵施洗的人，唯一的知觉就是自己完全不配。“我是……”这样或那样，“但他”来了，奇妙的事就发生。我们退居末位吧，让他成就一切。

祈祷◆主啊，我多么贫乏！那么多的软弱潜伏在隐藏的地方，要将我整个人摧毁。噢，主啊，我投向你。我何等需要认识到，离开了你，我便不能作什么。

August 22 “I Indeed… But He”

I indeed baptize you with water . . but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” Matthew 3:11

Have I ever come to a place in my experience where I can say – “I indeed – but He”? Until that moment does come, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Ghost means. I indeed am at an end, I cannot do a thing: but He begins just there – He does the things no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come as long as there is anything in the way either of goodness or badness. When He comes am I prepared for Him to drag into the light every wrong thing I have done? It is just there that He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean, He will put His feet; wherever I think I am clean, He will withdraw them.

Repentance does not bring a sense of sin, but a sense of unutterable unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am utterly helpless; I know all through me that I am not worthy even to bear His shoes. Have I repented like that? Or is there a lingering suggestion of standing up for myself? The reason God cannot come into my life is because I am not through into repentance.

“He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.” John does not speak of the baptism of the Holy Ghost as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. “He shall baptize you.” The only conscious experience those who are baptized with the Holy Ghost ever have is a sense of absolute unworthiness.

I indeed was this and that; but He came, and a marvellous thing happened. Get to the margin where He does everything.