Inspirational Quotes by R.A. Torrey
“The conception of the Holy Spirit as a Divine influence or power that we are somehow to get hold of and use, leads to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency. One who so thinks of the Holy Spirit and who at the same time imagines that he has received the Holy Spirit will almost inevitably be full of spiritual pride and strut about as if he belonged to some superior order of Christians. One frequently hears such persons say, “I am a Holy Ghost man,” or “I am a Holy Ghost woman.”
“But if we once grasp the thought that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person of infinite majesty, glory and holiness and power, who in marvelous condescension has come into our hearts to make His abode there and take possession of our lives and make use of them, it will put us in the dust and keep us in the dust. I can think of no thought more humbling or more overwhelming than the thought that a person of Divine majesty and glory dwells in my heart and is ready to use even me.”
“As far as the Holy Scriptures definitely tell us, the Holy Spirit has no Way of getting at the unsaved world except through the agency of those who are already saved. Every conversion recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was through the agency of men or women already saved.”
“How solemn, how almost overwhelming, is the thought that the Holy Spirit has no way of getting at the unsaved with His saving power except through the instrumentality of us who are already Christians. If we realized that, would we not be more careful to offer to the Holy Spirit a more free and unobstructed channel for His all-important work? The Holy Spirit needs human lips to speak through. He needs yours, and He needs lives so clean and so utterly surrendered to Him that He can work through them.”
“In regard to the comparatively minor moralities of life, there is a wide difference among men, but the thief who rejects Christ and the honest man who rejects Christ are alike condemned at the great point of what they do with God's Son, and this is the point that the Holy Spirit presses home.”
“We read in 1 Pet. i. 23, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” We read in James i. 18, “Of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” These passages make it plain that the Word is the instrument used in regeneration, but it is only as the Holy Spirit uses the instrument that the new birth results.”
“The sin of unbelief is the most difficult of all sins of which to convince men. The average unbeliever does not look upon unbelief as a sin. Many an unbeliever looks upon his unbelief as a mark of intellectual superiority. Not infrequently, he is all the more proud of it because it is the only mark of intellectual superiority that he possesses. He tosses his head and says, “I am an agnostic;” “I am a skeptic;” or, “I am an infidel,” and assumes an air of superiority on that account.”
“It is the Spirit that giveth life” (John vi. 63, A. R. V.). In 2 Cor. iii. 6, we are told that “the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”[i] ”
“The secret of all true and effective praying is knowing the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of grace and of supplication.”
“If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a Divine Person, and we do not know Him as such, then we are robbing a Divine Being of the worship and the faith and the love and the surrender to Himself which are His due.”
“The Holy Spirit can convince men of sin. We need not despair of any one, no matter how indifferent they may appear, no matter how worldly, no matter how self-satisfied, no matter how irreligious, the Holy Spirit can convince men of sin.”
“We read in Ps. xxxiii. 6, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” We have already seen in our study of the names of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit is the breath of JEHOVAH, so this passage teaches us that all the hosts of heaven, all the stellar worlds, were made by the Holy Spirit.”
“If you wish to be born again, the way is very simple. Take the Word of God concerning Christ crucified and risen, and drop it into your heart by meditation upon it. Look to God by His Holy Spirit to quicken it, believe it with the heart, and the work is done. If you wish to see someone else born again, give him the Word of God. The process of regeneration on our side is the simplest thing in the world. On God’s side it is mysterious, but with that we have nothing to do. The process is simply this: the human heart is the soil; you and I are sowers; the word of God is the seed which we drop into that soil. God quickens it by His Holy Spirit and gives the increase (1 Cor. 3:6). The heart closes around the Word by faith, and the new life is the product. The new birth is simply the impartation of a new nature, the impartation of God’s nature.”
“If anyone asks, "What is the one thing for me to do if I wish to know all that God has for me?" the answer is very simple. Surrender absolutely to God. Say to Him, "Heavenly Father, henceforth I have no will of my own. Thy will be done in me, through me, by me, and regarding me, in all things. I put myself unreservedly in Thy hands – now do with me just what Thou wilt." When one does that, God, Who is infinite love, and infinite wisdom, and infinite power, does the very best thing with that one. We may not see at once that it is the best thing, but it is, and sooner or later it will be seen. Sooner or later God floods the heart of him who surrenders absolutely to Him with light, and joy, and fills his life with power. Absolute surrender to God is the secret of blessedness and power. ”
“To sum it all up, again and again the Bible draws the clearest possible distinction between the three Persons, the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son. They are three separate personalities, having mutual relations to one another, acting upon one another, speaking of or to one another, applying the pronouns of the second and third persons to one another.”
“In the new birth a new intellectual, affectional and volitional nature is imparted to us. We receive the mind that sees as God sees, thinks God's thoughts after Him (1 Cor. ii. 12-14); affections in harmony with the affections of God.”
“There are many Christians today who have not permitted the blood of Christ to cleanse their consciences from dead works. They are constantly feeling they must do something to atone for sin. Oh, my brother, my sister, look at what God looks at, the blood, and see that it is all done, already done! God is satisfied, sin is atoned for, you are justified. Now don't do dead works to commend yourself to God; but, realizing that you are already commended by the blood, serve Him in the freedom of gratitude and love, and not in the bondage of fear.”
“a theological confession is one thing, a practical realization of the truth we confess is quite another.”
“It is a good thing to be stripped of vile and filthy rags, but it is far better to be clothed with garments of glory and beauty. In forgiveness we are stripped of the vile and stinking rags of our sins; in justification we are clothed upon with the glory and beauty of Christ. It is the power of the blood which secures this.”
“In I John 2: 2, R.V., we read, "And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." By the shed blood of Christ a basis is provided upon which God can deal in mercy with the whole world.”
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R.A. Torrey (1856 - 1928)
An American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer. Called by D. L. Moody to head Bible institute in Chicago (now Moody Bible Institute). Dean of Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Pastorates included Chicago Avenue Church (now Moody Memorial) and Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles. Worldwide evangelistic meetings with Charlie Alexander. Founded Montrose Bible Conference, PA. Wrote more than forty books.Torrey held his last evangelistic meeting in Florida in 1927, additional meetings being canceled because of his failing health. He died at home in Asheville, North Carolina, on October 26, 1928, having preached throughout the world and written more than 40 books. Torrey-Gray Auditorium, the main auditorium at Moody, was named for Torrey and his successor, James M. Gray. At Biola, the Torrey Honors Institute honors him, as does the university's annual Bible conference.
Reuben Archer Torrey was an American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer. Held evangelistic meetings around the world with song leader Charlie Alexander. Called by D.L. Moody to head the Bible Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute); Dean of Bible Institute of Los Angeles; pastorates included Chicago Avenue Church (now Moody Memorial Church) and Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles.
Besides his obvious gifts in all these areas, he was also a man of prayer, a student of the Bible, and an outstanding personal soul-winner. It is said that he daily read the Bible in four languages, having a good working knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. Some students of church history feel he did more to promote personal evangelism than any other one man since the days of the apostles. His prayer life has seldom been equaled in the annals of Christendom.
Reuben A. Torrey wrote some forty books and his practical writings on the Holy Spirit, prayer, salvation, soul-winning, and evangelism are still favorites of many Christians.