Our recent focus here at LFA on the importance of the Presence of the Holy Spirit reminded me, of course, of a powerful story that long ago helped me in my understanding of Who He is and what He does. And how I need Him. It is from The Secret by Bill Bright and begins with a quote by Thomas Arnold.
“He who does not know God the Holy Spirit does not know God at all.”
Please read on.
Sally was almost penniless. When her husband Jeb died years before, his life insurance had paid off the mortgage, but that was about it.
Now the house was deteriorating around her. The car had been junked long ago when she couldn’t keep up with the repair and insurance bills. She got by on just a few dollars each week for groceries, and when the electric bill got too high, she decided to live by Coleman stove and candlelight.
So Sally rarely left home. How could she when everything cost money? Coffee at the café was eighty-five cents. Even with her senior citizen’s discount, movies cost $3 (The book was published in 1989—miss those prices!). A walk to the park required shoes, and Sally’s only remaining pair were clinging together by a few bits of thread.
So day after day, Sally stayed at home and creaked back and forth in her rocking chair. Life was supposed to be better than this, she thought. It started out so great. So full of promise. But now it’s passed me by.
And so she lived—just barely lived—for years. Destitute. Lonely. Defeated. Until one day, when an old acquaintance from across the country remembered her childhood friend and decided to look her up.
Miriam was heartbroken when she saw Sally’s living conditions. She decided to stay a few days to try to encourage her friend and help straighten up the house.
And in the course of helping her old friend, Miriam made a startling discovery.
Tucked away in the file drawer of Jeb’s old roll-top desk was a folder labeled “FOR SALLY.” Inside, Miriam found an old bank savings book. The last entry had been made twenty-two years earlier, just before Jeb had died. The bank book indicated a balance of $87,000.
But that wasn’t all. The folder also contained a yellowed envelope, sealed and inscribed with Jeb’s handwriting:
To Sally, With Love Forever
“Do you know what this is?” Miriam asked.
Sally searched her memory. She remembered the last days of her beloved husband, the tender words that had passed between them as they realized that the end was near.
Then the memory hit her. In the grief and heartache of the days and months following Jeb’s death, she had forgotten one of the things he had said: “When I’m gone…a file for you…in my desk. Important.”
Now, as Miriam watched, Sally opened the envelope carefully. Inside was a single folded page and a key. Sally began to read:
My Dearest Love—
My time with you draws short, but I want you to know that I have provided everything you will need once I am gone. Check the bank book in this file. Then take this key to the bank with you. In loving remembrance of me please enjoy life to the full!
With love forever,
Jeb
Sally and Miriam discovered that the key was to a safety deposit box at the bank. As they lifted the metal lid, their eyes widened as they discovered several bundles of cash totaling $32,000, a pile of stock certificates, and three folders of rare coins.
That afternoon a stockbroker informed them that the stock certificates were worth $550,000 on the current market. A rare coin dealer appraised the coin collection at $447,000. The bank calculated twenty-two years’ interest on the savings account, which brought its total from $87,000 to more than $254,000. All told, Sally was worth more than $883,000! She had been living in misery and despair when more money than she would ever need had been available to her all along.
Doesn’t this story make you sad for Sally? She is a vivid illustration of the bittersweet way in which many Christians also live. Although God has promised us all the strength and help we will ever need, many of us try to “go it alone” because we are unaware of the boundless resources God has provided in the person of the Holy Spirit. As a result, we live like Sally—unfulfilled, fruitless, and spiritually malnourished—while the key to joy and abundance is within our grasp.
Destitute. Lonely. Defeated. Have you been there too?
Maybe it’s time to really discover the treasure inside you. Study and understand the Bible’s basic teaching about the Holy Spirit and then invite Him to release His power in your life each day. He is a person. He speaks (Acts 13:2 NAS). He teaches (John 14:26 NAS). He guides (John 16:13). He convicts (John 16:7-8 NAS). He commands. (Acts 8:29 NAS). He helps (Romans 8:26 NAS). He comforts: (John 14:16 KJV). He has been called alongside the Christian as a companion, comforter, helper and one who energizes, strengthens and empowers. Amazing! We as believers get to experience unprecedented joy and personal fulfillment. More than that, our verbal and nonverbal witness for Jesus Christ would sweep the world!
Selfish me would settle for it to at least sweep Pittsgrove!
The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to glorify Christ, and He does so by empowering and enabling you and me to glorify God by the way we live. His resources are at our disposal. If we do not appropriate them, we can only live like poor Sally, struggling through a meager existence when vast riches are at our command.
But when we give the Holy Spirit control of our lives, the spiritual bank vault opens wide. The Lord God Almighty gives us everything we need to honor Him and experience life to the full, for “out of his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you the mighty inner strengthening of his Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 3:16).
Look out, world…
— Eileen Hill
