That’s the true experience of every real believer who meets God. You–you come in contact with Something that’s so great, that you… that–that you become a–a prisoner, to everything else. See? You–you get away from everything, to imprison yourself to This.
It’s expressed one time where Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is something like a man buying pearls. Then when he finds that great Pearl, he sells all that he’s got, to get that One.”
And that’s the way here. You–you have an intellectual conception, you have a–a–a–a theological experience; but when it comes to a time that when you–you–you really find the real Thing, you–you just sell out everything else, and you close yourself in to This.
Paul knew what it was. He–he found out that he was harnessed to Something. Like we put a–a–a horse in a harness, it’s to–it’s to pull something. And Paul knew, after this experience, and three years and a half of typing the–the experience he had, with the Bible, he realized that God had chosen him and had harnessed him by the Holy Spirit, the experience that he had, to pull the Gospel in the presence of the Gentiles. The Spirit, Itself, harnessed him.
And, today, as servants of Christ, we become harnessed, hooked up. We can’t go. We’re logged in with It, harnessed to the Word. No matter what anyone else says, you’re harnessed to It. There is something about It, that you just can’t get away from It. You been yoked up with It, by the Holy Ghost, has yoked you to the Word. No matter what anyone else says, It’s the Word. That’s always harnessed up with It, put in the yoke with It. To the Word, by the Spirit, he was harnessed.
He had learned on the–the back side of the Arabian desert there. When, all his former things, and experiences, and ambition, that, he had been stripped of those things.
Now, that’s where we find, today, that we must be stripped, first. And people don’t want to be stripped. The Methodist brother wants to hold to a little bit of his Methodist teaching. Uh-huh. The Baptist brother wants to hold to a little bit of his Baptist teaching. See? But you’ve got to absolutely be stripped of everything, and just born again, afresh. And take up from there, let the Holy Spirit lead.
A Prisoner
Jeffersonville, Indiana
63-0717