"With my soul have I desired Thee in the night, yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early," (Isa. xxvi. 9.)
.. Those that seek Me early shall find Me." (Prov. 8. 17.) If I am seeking for a treasure of great value, I am willing to go to much trouble for it. If the treasure is very hard to find, I shall not be able to attain my object unless I devote myself entirely to it. The treasure of Heaven is God Himself, infinite in worth, and to us, who are sinful and carnal, hard to find. Let us think no sacrifice too great if we may seek Him and truly find Him. Let us say to Him in the morning: .. Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early."
Then how can it be that a believer who has already found his God is still seeking God? Oh! God is so much greater than the little he yet knows and has of Him, that he may say with truth that he seeks completely to possess God in His completeness. He so needs a new revelation of God and His grace for the new day; he is so dependent on God's gift of Himself as free grace. God's gift of Himself to His child, and his possession of God through the Holy Spirit, may become so much deeper and stronger that he is constantly required to say: .. Thou art my God, in the morning will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee." Therefore, too, he says: .. With my spirit within me will I seek Thee early." This .. spirit" is the hidden dwelling and sphere of the Holy Spirit. He sets the heart wide open so that God may take possession of it and fill it with Himself wholly.
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Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)
Brother Andrew Murray was a well-known writer/preacher in South Africa who ministered amongst the Dutch Reformed churches. His writings now are widely accepted by modern evangelicals and he is published more than ever in his life-time.Some of his better known books titles are: "Abide In Christ", "Absolute Surrender," and "Humility." His burden for the body of Christ were teachings on the abiding Spirit of Christ in the believer, the life of faith with God daily, and the life of intercession and prayer in the Church.
Andrew Murray was possibly the strongest spokesman of the Philadelphian age to expound the Body's necessity to abide in Christ, like the Apostle John before him.
Murray was born into a family of four children in the then remote Graaff-Reinet region (near the Cape) of South Africa. Educated in Scotland, which was followed by theological studies in Holland, Andrew returned to his native land to work as a missionary and minister. Given the daunting task of ministering to Bloemfontein, a remote region of 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people beyond the Orange River, Murray already began to sense the need to for the "deeper Christian life".
Though successful in preaching and bringing many to Christ, Murray found many of his greatest lessons in the School of Suffering, as will all who follow in the path of obedience.
Andrew Murray was one of four children born to Pastor Andrew, Sr., and Maria Murray. He was raised in what was considered to be the most remote corner of the world - Graaff-Reinet, South Africa. Educated in Scotland and Holland, in 1848 Andrew, Jr., returned to South Africa as a missionary and minister with the Dutch Reformed Church. His first appointment was to Bloemfontein, a territory of nearly 50,000 square miles and 12,000 people.
Andrew and his brother John had been in close contact with a revival movement in Scotland, an evangelical extension of the ongoing Second Great Awakening in America. He prayed for the same sort of awakening for the church in South Africa and wrote, "My prayer is for revival, but I am held back by the increasing sense of my own unfitness for the work. I lament the awful pride and self complacency that have till now ruled my heart. O that I may be more and more a minister of the Spirit." (J. du Plessis, The Life of Andrew Murray)
In 1860, revival did come to the churches of Cape Town, South Africa, and subsequently spread to surrounding towns and villages. Even remote farms and plantations felt the impact as lives were changed. Where once the churches had not been able to find one man ready to be a leader for God, the revival raised up 50 in Murray's Cape Town parish alone. There were more conversions in one month in that parish than in the whole course of its previous history. (Leona Choy, Andrew Murray: Apostle of Abiding Love)
Greatly concerned for the spiritual guidance of new converts and renewed Christians, Andrew Murray wrote over 240 books. His writings reflect his own longing for a deeper life in Christ and his prayer that others would long for and experience that life as well.