The Total Reserve

When we are full of ourselves, it is hard to be hungry for God. When Dr. Lyon had died to herself, she was consumed by an insatiable desire for God. Before, she thought she knew it all. Now, she began to seek knowledge desperately. Her state was now like Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Now she confessed her sin of pride and her lack of love to her congregation. Now she was willing to minister with her husband to people she had previously acted like were beneath her. It even changed her noticeably at work as a public school teacher. Because she was not fully surrendered to God, it was keeping her from being her best.

When we put all of ourselves on the altar for God as a sacrifice of our whole selves, God will receive the sacrifice. He will take our lives as a whole burnt offering, a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is pleasing to him. We cannot do any of it in our own power. It is only empowered by the work of God. It may take some time to get there. God is in no hurry.

In her thirsting for more of God, Dr. Lyon was particularly struck by a statement in Mildred Bangs Wynkoop’s classic holiness book, The Theology of Love: 

What Dr. Wynkoop meant is that when a person is full of the Holy Spirit, we can now serve God to full capacity. If you think of it, a cup that is already half or three-quarters full of something else can only take so much more liquid of some other kind. If my coffee cup is already two-thirds full of cold water, not only will it only take a third more of coffee, but the resulting drink probably won’t taste very good. Only when the cup is empty can it be fully filled with fresh coffee.

So it is with our lives. If we are already full of ourselves, then there isn’t much room for the Spirit to come in. The space is already occupied. But when we are filled with the Spirit, God can now use every part of us.

When Wynkoop talks about the “total reserve,” she is thinking about the restoration of the image of God in us. When Adam sinned, the image of God in us was damaged. Our relationship with God was broken. Our relationships with others were damaged. We became unable to do the good God wants us to do. 

With the fullness of the Holy Spirit, our human nature can begin to function more like God intended it to when he created us. Dr. Lyon talks about the Spirit expanding our capacity. She talks about God expanding our energy. We more and more begin to see the world through Jesus’ eyes. 

Of course, this is the ideal. This is the goal. This is what the Holy Spirit wants to do in all of us and with all of us. Dr. Lyon fully acknowledges that there will be struggles. There will almost certainly be times for new confessions of sin. None of that should deter our optimism for what the Spirit can do and wants to do. And it all starts with surrender.