Teresa, this is the quote I didn’t have time to send you earlier today. It’s from a letter that J. G. Govan wrote in 1885:
At the time of last Keswick Convention, when there was so much talk about the blessing of a clean heart, my mind was exercised a great deal on the subject. At length the Lord showed me the truth, that if I was willing to give up, not only all sins, but all selfish ambitions and aims in life – in fact give up self altogether into His hands, to go, be, or do just as He led – He would cleanse me from all sin and take up His abode with me. The verses that principally shewed me this truth, of the cleansing or taking away of sin out of the heart, instead of the continual repression of it, are in Ephesians iv. 21-24, ‘As the truth is in Jesus’, etc. The sixth of Romans also shewed me this life, and many other passages.
I found that the complete giving up of self was to flesh and blood a hard thing to do, and for a time I was not altogether willing to be crucified to the world and to have the flesh with all its affections crucified. I discovered then that I cared a good deal for other people’s opinion, and lived a great deal for my own glory.
But at length, in August last, I was led to trust the Lord to save me to the uttermost from all sin, and to take away all desires to live for anything else but His glory. I saw from Ephesians iii. 17; Revelation iii. 20; and John xiv. 23 (all of which are addressed to the Lord’s children) that there was a coming of the King Himself to reign in the cleansed hearts of His children.
So I yielded my heart to its rightful King, and He came in, and dwells, and His Kingdom which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, has since then been established within. I have claimed the promise, ‘Ye shall abide in Him’, and ‘He that abideth in Him sinneth not’. I trusted Him to take away all tendency, disposition, or response to sin, and I believe He has done it, according to His promises.
Since then my life in Christ has been quite different from what it was before. There has been a sense of His continual presence that I had not before, and His presence gives me a joy and peace that I knew little of previously.