THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD
[p. 126] THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD
Without separation you cannot know the presence of the Lord. At Beer-sheba, the well of the covenant, the Lord appeared to Isaac. To obtain such revelations we must give up, we must give the world its own way. There are certain stages through which the soul passes. Isaac digged three wells; the first he called contention; the second hatred; the third room. Then came Beer-sheba, and that same night the Lord appeared to him, and he built an altar there - he had reached the place where he could build one, and where God could bless him. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate .. . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”. That is the Lord’s word to every soul, and one who does not respond to it, though he may be converted, is not in the line of the Spirit of God, and he does not know the presence of the Lord.
We may know God’s care of us without knowing His appearing. His manifestation to us is a wonderful thing! There is great significance in the promptitude of His manifestation to Isaac at Beer-sheba - that same night the Lord appeared to him! Why? Because he had reached the right spot - the place of separation where God can receive him. Now you may be a converted soul and yet outside all this. Has the Lord appeared to you? Are you conscious of Christ’s coming to you? If souls knew more of it they would not regret isolation, they would rejoice in separation from all that is not Christ. But you can only know what the manifestation of Christ is by having experienced it. Nothing is more difficult than to describe a moral acquisition that you have no idea of, or to explain to you a feeling that you have never had. God moves in a certain line, and you must be on that line to be [p. 127] with Him. He will not appear to you on any other line. He could not reveal Himself to Lot. He could to Abraham. He sent an angel to Lot; He came Himself to Abraham and told him what He was going to do.
Souls are prepared for disclosures from God by discipline, but it is the act of faith that puts you in the place where God can reveal Himself; you can only reach that spot by faith. People say sometimes, How is it that I do not get the enjoyment that another does? Because you have not reached the spot where it is found, that is the answer. Melchizedek met Abraham after his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. The activity of faith worked first. But it was after the offering up of Isaac that Abraham got the fullest revelation. Why? Because he had reached the highest point, the place of greatest faith and the place of the largest disclosure of God! If you long for light you must take the landing where it is found. To be in this place of faith we must be wholly cast on God. Where did Paul write the fullest revelation to the churches? In prison at Rome, where he was wholly cast on God. Where did John receive the revelation of Jesus Christ? In the isle of Patmos, when he was cast out for the testimony’s sake. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; the meek shall He teach His way. Scripture is very definite as to these manifestations of the Lord to the soul. Do you understand them? Are you walking so that He can visit you? He says, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. He knows that the joy of His presence is such that it takes away the sense of orphanage, and it is no small thing that delivers a bereaved child from the sense of bereavement!
But the sorrowful fact is that saints neither look for His presence, nor are they prepared to give up what hinders them from knowing His presence. They do not take interest enough in the Lord’s thoughts, they [p. 128] are occupied with their own thoughts, or perhaps with their service. But intimacy with Him must precede true service for Him. You must know Him first, know that He has “appeared” to you, then only can you witness of Him and for Him. If I love a person, I desire to know his mind. The Lord says, I have not called you servants, but friends. Are you His friend? Are you daily getting a more intimate acquaintance with Himself? Unless you reach that landing-place of faith, where you are cast wholly upon God, you are not able to hear the disclosures of His mind, for there only - in the place of faith - are you fully cast on God. Did Isaac regret having been cast out of Gerar? Not only did he get the manifestations of the Lord by it, but those who turned him out were the very people who came to him afterwards.
If you mix with the world, you lose your Nazariteship, and you must go back to your starting-point and begin all over again. You cannot be a real witness to the world until you have given up that which it prizes and which it strives for, that is devotedness, and we see the effect of it with Isaac - his enemies are forced to acknowledge: “We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee”.
When a saint acts in the energy of the Holy Spirit his action affects the whole body of Christ. He honours the Holy Spirit, and the blessing permeates the whole body.
The law of war was that the spoil was to be divided between those who went out to battle and those who tarried at home - thus the whole church gets the benefit of pure individual faithfulness. If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice. The Spirit distributes according to the law of war; those who went to the war gave to the priests, those who stayed at home to the levites; the first rose to priestly service, the second only attained to levitical. How the [p. 129] stedfastness of Paul was blessed to the whole church! He allowed nothing, and no one, to stand in the way of it; not Barnabas, Peter, or Mark. And Barnabas, though led away by nature, and thus separated from Paul for a time, returns to him when he comes right; and Mark, about whom they contended, and who was refused by Paul because he had returned to Jerusalem, thinking, no doubt, that his own house was pleasanter than knocking about in the work with Paul and Barnabas, comes right at the close, and is found by Paul to be profitable for the ministry.
What wrought all this? Just the faithfulness of Paul to God’s principle of separation. It is no easy thing to get completely loosened from the world; hence it is written to those who are young men in the faith, “Love not the world”, and, “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.
The world is not only around us, it is set in our hearts; it is oneself! How is one to get clear of it except by substituting Him for oneself? The Spirit of God will not leave His own line; nor can you get His strength except on that line. All the conflict you have to pass through is to put you on the line of the Holy Spirit. The conflict begins when conversion is known. Paul’s conflict was not to bring forth the child, but to bring it to full understanding; he knew what a terrible power was against his children in the faith, and that to face the enemy without Christ was to fail. The eye must be on Him, the risen One. Elijah says to Elisha, If you see me taken up, the double portion of my spirit shall rest upon you; but if not, it shall not be so. Elisha saw him, and he rent his own garments and took up Elijah’s. If your eye is on Him, if your heart is above because Christ is there, there is such positive strength in it that you can afford to let all the light here be put out.
The Lord’s sympathy is lost to you if you be not with Him. Is it not well for you to ask yourself: Can [p. 130] the Lord walk with me? He could be with Mary of Bethany; she was submissive, bowing to His mind, to His word. If I am not on His line, He may in grace send a word after me, but He cannot walk with me, for He never leaves His line, and for Him to appear to me, I must give up the things that do not suit Him. But once on His line where He can walk with me, I know His sympathy all the way along.
True, it is a narrow path and there are difficulties in it, but light is most valued where it is most needed; “Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee”. I find the Lord is not here, I want Him and I miss Him; I give up all for Him and I find Him to be great gain, and that it is His delight to give Himself to us. Mary Magdalene was looking for Him (John 20), and at once He was beside her; she had only to turn, and He revealed Himself to her, for He was there all the time! If you feel that nothing can satisfy you but Christ you are sure to get Him. What is it then that hinders? You do not take the place of Nazariteship. “Come out”, He says, “and be ye separate.. . touch not .. . and I will receive you”. The moment you become mixed up with earthly things you lose your place of separation, the Spirit is grieved, and though the Lord loves you He cannot leave His line to express His love to you. He vouchsafes His care for you, but not His company with you.
It is so even with ourselves. If I love my child, I cannot let him be less than my child, I cannot put him in the distant place of a cousin - he must be in his rightful place with me or I cannot express a father’s love to him. The Lord refuses to unfold His mind to us if we are in any position towards Him but the right one; and there is no greater expression of His love than that He should tell His mind to you, and if you do not know His mind, you are not of those He calls His “friends”.