Oswald Chambers was and is still today one of the great influencers who fully understood the New Covenant life we have in Christ, that it is nothing of our own lives and fully His life lived in us. This requires a deep repentance. This is a repentance not just from specific sins, for choosing when, where, and from what we repent leaves us in control. Such control is the origin of our rebellion and is its most common expression every day. Jesus Christ came proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” The repentance of which Christ spoke is first and foremost a repentance from all self-direction, control, management, design, and deliverance.

Such repentance is born of the conviction that I am unworthy, unclean in every respect, and incapable of doing anything whatsoever to improve my condition or my standing with my God. I can do nothing to live a truly Christian life. Only Christ can live that life in me, and only if I am in continual repentance from all fleshly effort and self-derived living. Chambers got this. May we, by the power of the Spirit and the word of Christ and by reading the words of those who knew Him, come to get this understanding as well. And soon! Enjoy his words from “My Utmost for His Highest,” but do not ignore them.

“I indeed baptize you with water…but He…will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matthew 3:11

Have I ever come to the point in my life where I can say, “I indeed…but He…”? Until that moment comes, I will never know what the baptism of the Holy Spirit means. I indeed am at the end, and I cannot do anything more— but He begins right there— He does the things that no one else can ever do. Am I prepared for His coming? Jesus cannot come and do His work in me as long as there is anything blocking the way, whether it is something good or bad. When He comes to me, am I prepared for Him to drag every wrong thing I have ever done into the light? That is exactly where He comes. Wherever I know I am unclean is where He will put His feet and stand, and wherever I think I am clean is where He will remove His feet and walk away.

Repentance does not cause a sense of sin— it causes a sense of inexpressible unworthiness. When I repent, I realize that I am absolutely helpless, and I know that through and through I am not worthy even to carry His sandals. Have I repented like that, or do I have a lingering thought of possibly trying to defend my actions? The reason God cannot come into my life is that I am not at the point of complete repentance.

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” John is not speaking here of the baptism of the Holy Spirit as an experience, but as a work performed by Jesus Christ. “He will baptize you….” The only experience that those who are baptized with the Holy Spirit are ever conscious of is the experience of sensing their absolute unworthiness.

“I indeed” was this in the past, “but He ” came and something miraculous happened. Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything.

Image via author, unnamed lake, Wallowa Range, Oregon.