ENERGY
A Barrie Brown
We have appreciated and enjoyed what our brothers have brought before us already this evening as to what is hidden, and seeking, and the acquisition of treasure. It has just come to me that to seek and to acquire treasure needs energy. Our brothers have referred to the Holy Spirit; He must be the source of our energy and our vitality. To search the Scriptures, you need the power of the Holy Spirit, and also for the acquisition of treasure. In the passage we had before us in Matthew 13: 45 on Lord’s day, the merchant would be marked by energy and movement. Digging in the field and all these things would be marked by energy. In that sense you can see God’s love of what is vital and in movement. It can be seen in the solar system, or the animal creation; God delights in activity according to Him. It is that same with our Christian experience; things are not to be static. Mr Raven used the illustration of the solar system in his ministry, things in orbit and in movement. It is not to be aimless movement; we are to be in orbit as connected to the Lord Jesus.
We can think of the holy energy that marked that blessed One, One who was wakened by God morning by morning (Isa 50: 4); think of His movements to Sychar’s well when He was weary, John 4: 5,6. What energy marked the Lord Jesus. Luke’s gospel mentions “on one of the days” (chap 5: 17); the days of the life of the Lord Jesus which were always marked by service, both to His God and Father and to needy men and women and boys and girls.
Then energy marks the blessed Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus too, now where He is. He is sitting “on the right hand of the greatness on high” (Heb 1: 3) but He is not static; His love is in movement. We know his feelings - He is “a great high priest” (Heb 4: 14), but then what energy will mark Him as He moves. What energy will mark the Lord Jesus when He comes again to this scene. The prophet tells us that “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives”, Zech 14: 4. He will be active in blessed, holy energy for the remnant, active too in the millennial day. Then the time when God will be all in all (1 Cor 15: 28) will be an eternal day of peace. But there will be movement in response. So we can see that God delights in energy. The question would be for each one of us, who have our faculties and our hands and our feet, through God’s grace to one extent or another, ‘What am doing I with the energy that has been given to me?’.
We read of two sisters, Achsah and Rebecca. They were both marked by energy. They both sprang down from the animals that were carrying them. My simple thought is that they were both marked by energy. We do not get their ages: they must have been relatively young because they were getting married, but does that vitality, the energy and agility of love, mark me? In one passage we also have the activities of Othniel; he was marked by energy too: he overcame Kirjath-sepher, the city of the book. There was the burning of the books in Acts (Acts 19: 19), unholy, charmed energy had marked the people there. What drew the people apart from their charms and their books and whatever else was the great thoughts of God. The wonderful hidden things are available and if we go in for them, God is not behind in helping us. He supplies the energy as we lay our hands to these things. There is also to be energy in moral activity, we are not to be slack in seeing to moral exercises, and that clears the way for the acquisition of treasure and going in for the hidden things. These springs would no doubt bear on this question, helping us in our moral exercises, but too helping us as to what the upper springs represent.
And then in Genesis, Rebecca springs off the camel. What motivated her to do that? Typically, it was the service of the Holy Spirit, the One who has all the treasures of the Master under His hand. The whole journey with Rebecca might have been spent speaking with Rebecca about Isaac, the heavenly man; what delight and joy the Holy Spirit has, what energy the Holy Spirit has. It says,
Behold, he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep, Ps 121: 4.
Divine Persons are never marked by weakness or lack of energy; they are always there. How many thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people may be praying at any one time. Many believers will be praying at any one time; there are indeed also those crying out for salvation, but there will never be a closed ear from divine Persons in this dispensation. What activity comes in from the divine side towards the repentant sinner. In Luke 15 you have the energy of love. In type, as a result of the Holy Spirit speaking to Rebecca, who may represent a believer, she was so energised and so drawn to Isaac by the description given by the servant that she sprang off the camel. And she was so comely and ready to be with him. Consider the activities and energy of the Holy Spirit at the present time, attracting the personnel of the assembly to the Lord Jesus to respond to Him in energy. Rebecca, another young person, used her energy in the right way. It is a word to me. Ecclesiastes says, “remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth”, chap 12: 1. When we are younger we do have more energy, and vitality; we remember things better. That is a word for me as to what I have done with my time and natural energy. We can be building and contributing to the world’s system but, whilst we need to make our way through and be righteous, let all be desirous of contributing to the things of God, seeking out the hidden things.
In 2 Timothy 1, the note e says, ‘The whole subject of the epistle is energy in the darkening state’. I was struck by that. What can we say about ‘the darkening state’? In a sense we cannot exactly influence the general outward public position although we would feel it. We can pray for right government; we can pray that further light may come to all believers. We would seek the spiritual prosperity of each one, here and all believers. It is for me to take responsibility to be marked by energy. Paul says, “I put thee in mind to rekindle”. What can I say as to “the putting on of my hands”. That was possibly specific to Paul. We may not do so much of this nowadays, but certainly there can be rekindling.
If anyone here is feeling perhaps a little jaded or lacking in spiritual energy we can appeal to the source, because it is God, God Himself, that blessed One, all-powerful, omnipotent, loving, knowing, gracious. He is able to rekindle us. We need rekindling. We know what it is to perhaps have our energy sapped. God is able; He “has not given us a spirit of cowardice”. Paul often uses the analogy of athletics in his writings. He was one who pursued, and you need energy to pursue. We have been given this spirit. It is an interesting reference; it is not exactly to the Holy Spirit, although no doubt He would be intimately involved in our energy. It is the character that would mark the believer, one “of power” - power is available; “of love” - we can each one of us exercise love; love towards divine Persons, love towards one another. Then “of wise discretion” - again, the note is helpful: ‘A quiet, sound, or sober mind’, note f. Energy in the world would not generally be marked by what is quiet or sound or sober. It is often a great outward display. It says of the Lord in the prophet Isaiah, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street”, Isa 42: 2. What a beautiful moral example He is in every way to us. This may be a demonstration of how our energy is to be channelled. Others may think we are quiet, not prominent; I am very sure such may be marked by great energy in the things of God.
Well, may we prove the energy that comes to help us in the acquisition of treasure and going in for and finding the hidden things, and proving how eminently satisfying God’s things are. What we have had in our brothers’ words this evening, following on from what was brought before us in the reading on Lord’s day, has proved to be very satisfying. Brothers and sisters no doubt have been following and sharing impressions, and that takes energy. They could be using their time to do other things. How delighted God is to see energy, or the faculties of our mind, that could be spent in other ways being spent in the things of God. That is a great part of God’s inheritance in the saints.
May we be further encouraged and blessed for God’s glory, for His Name’s sake.
Linlithgow
1st May 2025