APPENDIX
The Law of Passivity
by Jesse Penn-Lewis
“I also labour, striving according to His work, which works in me mightily”. Col.1:29
This is only one of the scriptures that clearly show the necessity for the full active use of the whole outer man in God's service. God works mightily-I work mightily. That is absolutely contrary to the idea many have that God works through a man like water goes through a pipe-simply passes power through him while he remains passive!
As Christians, we perhaps know little of spiritists, probably have never read their books, or come in contact with them, and it is not always recognized that those who practice spiritism do really have communication with spirits -evil spirits. Although there are failures, deceptions, and even quackery in spiritism, these only serve to cover up the real work of Satan. You will find, however, that the one condition and principle which mediums have to fulfil in order to obtain spirit communication and working is this: Every part of the whole being must be perfectly passive and out of action. The brain must be blank, the faculties dormant, the will "let go," and the body passive. This absolute passivity is the fundamental law for the working of evil spirits through human beings.
A minister told me of a girl medium whom he visited with. He asked her how she became one, and she replied that she "sat in a dark room once a day, and gave herself up to the spirits." They say they are good spirits, but the fact is, there are no good spirits with whom you c an obtain any communication. By dismissing these things as "nothing" we have missed understanding the law by which these evil spirits work, the "law of passivity." There is not one sentence in Paul's epistles where he tells you to become "passive." Every time he speaks of the Holy Spirit there is a reference to activity on the part of the believer. "I labour, striving according to His working." God works "according to law," and the law for the working of the Holy Spirit is "active co-operation." The law for th