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THE HOLY SPIRIT ON EARTH

“I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”, John 14: 16, 17.

Our subject this evening, beloved friends, is the Holy Spirit’s descent to this earth. Not merely His coming to the earth (every believer owns that), but the first point I press is, that the Holy Spirit is residing here. I use the word ‘residing’ because it is here that the defect in our faith lies. The Holy Spirit is in residence here; and if this fact were known and held in faith, it would have an amazing effect upon us. The Holy Spirit is invisible to the world; He is not sent to the world, and He is not visible to you practically if you are worldly.

The first great fact, then, for you to lay hold of is — this blessed Person has come to reside here, in the very scene where Christ was rejected. Christ has been rejected on the earth, refused and cast out, and God has exalted Him to the very highest place in heaven. As a Man He is in exaltation in heaven, at the right hand of God. What higher place could He have? But then, what about the place where He is rejected? If we look at Christendom, we see the defect broadly, and it is our common shame. In Christendom there is but little sense of the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently but little sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth. As to ourselves, we do not walk about sufficiently with the sense of the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am sure, if we were in faith as to His exaltation in heaven, if our hearts were better acquainted with Him in that exaltation at God’s right hand, we should at once apprehend that there must be One here, commensurate with Himself, to maintain ^[p. 123] for Him here where He is cast out. Is He to be refused a place here, and this to be passed over? Impossible! Nor has the blessed God passed it over. The Holy Spirit was always acting here, He always worked here; but He was not always resident here. His residence here is consequent on the rejection of Christ and His exaltation in heaven. It is as if the Master of a house were turned out by the inmates of His house, and a power commensurate with the power of the Master, an invisible power, has come from the Master to maintain His own in the very house where those avowedly His own refused Him. This invisible power makes Himself known to faith, but He is invisible to those who reject the Master.

You see in what a terrible way the church has departed from this. Look at theology, look at Romanism! What has it done? Set up a man in the place and offices of the Holy Spirit, and calls him the vicar of Christ on earth! Romanism never gave up the unity of the church, that she maintains to this day; what she gave up was the fact of the Holy Spirit present on earth as the alone power to maintain for the Head in heaven, and she has appropriated man’s power instead. She maintains a visible order, but it is the empty imitation of a grand reality. She says, One church, one head, one language; so that the most ignorant repeats the prayers in Latin.

I trust even the youngest believer in this room apprehends this, and is able to say, I believe in the exaltation of my Saviour to the right hand of God, and that the Holy Spirit, a power commensurate with the Saviour, has come down from Him there to maintain a testimony here, to act for Him in the very place of His rejection. “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”. Now I quote one passage more to corroborate what I have stated. I turn to Acts 2: 33,

“^[p. 124] Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear”.

We very often find that even intelligent people pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; indeed, I heard of a case tonight. But, dear friends, the Holy Spirit is here! His presence is a consequence of Christ’s exaltation to heaven. If Christ is rejected on earth, and nothing can be plainer than that He is rejected, is He to be overlooked as to the earth? Is it enough to say that He is exalted in another place? No! Such a thing could not be. Being by the right hand of God exalted, He has received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. In this passage He has not received Him for Himself but for us. He was anointed Himself on earth with the Holy Spirit and with power; but the presence of the Holy Spirit for us is consequent on Christ at the right hand of the Father. See John 7: 39: “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive . for the Holy Spirit was not yet; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”. It does not say because Jesus was not yet crucified. No — not yet glorified. This is the important point, that the Holy Spirit comes from the One who is in the glory of God. I trust I have made this plain. The first thing then is, that we believe in the residence of the Holy Spirit here, and this in a twofold way, “with you” and “in you”, as it is expressed in John 14: 17. I cannot dwell much upon it, but I give you the texts. “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6: 17, 19). Here it is the individual temple. I trust you will be like the Bereans, search and see whether these things are so. Next I turn you to 2 Corinthians 6: 16, “And what agreement hath the temple of God ^[p. 125] with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people”. This is the collective temple. “Ye are the temple of the living God”. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Now this is all I mean to say to you upon the first part of our subject, but I trust you will dwell upon it, and I am sure that if you do, it will have an immense effect upon you.

The second point I would bring before you is the mission of the Holy Spirit. I turn to John 14: 26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you”. Here He is sent by the Father. In that sense it is a mission. I will show you presently how He is sent by Christ: thus He has a twofold mission. In chapter 14, the Father sends Him for the comfort and blessing of the individual believer, in the absence of Christ. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send”. Now think of that; and especially to any lonely one here I would say, Think what an amazing fact this is for you. The Holy Spirit sent by the Father to dwell in your body, as His temple! I can imagine such an one saying, To dwell in my body, besides in the collective temple? Yes; the Father has an interest in His child, and He says, as it were, I will show you the depth of My interest, and He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in you. It is not only that the Son has prepared a place for you in the Father’s house, and you have a bright prospect of that place, but the wonder of all wonders is, that the power of the new place is sent down to you here in the old place. Faith knows it and enjoys it. You may say, I don’t feel it. I don’t ask you to feel it; I ask you to believe it, and when you believe it, you will enjoy it. It is a ^[p. 126] wonderful thing. I have a new place, but I am not there yet, but while I am not there I have the power of the new place dwelling in me here in the old place. But that is not all, “Whom the Father will send in my name”. That is the wonderful characteristic — in My name. He brings to my heart the absent loved one. He comes to me in the name of my Saviour to teach all things, and to bring back to remembrance whatsoever He has said. Could anything be more exquisite, more perfect? It is divine. And this is for the individual; with such a Guest, the heart desolated by the absence of the Lord can feel lonely no more. But you may say that was to the apostles. Yes, but we get it through them; everything comes to us from the apostles; we derive from them. In natural things you derive from your father. Well, this is one part of the mission of the Holy Spirit.

Now I turn to John 14: 26, and I bring this scripture before you to show you that the Holy Spirit has another mission — the same Person, but with two different missions. Just as a man may be both a husband and a father: the same man, but in two different relationships and with different duties. Now I read this verse, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me”. “Whom I will send unto you”. Now here it is Christ who sends, but He adds, “which proceedeth from the Father”. It is in connection with the Father, and this connection is most important. He is the Spirit of truth, and He shall testify of Me . No other power could. He is the alone power to testify of Christ. And nothing exposes the lack of faith in the church more than the attempt to use any other power than the power of the Holy Spirit. What other power could testify of the glorified Christ? Has the church sunk so low that she has no sense of the greatness of the Head in heaven, and thinks she can ^[p. 127] utilise any earthly power to maintain for Him? The power He has sent maintains His testimony, and would not be allied to any worldly power. I feel it deeply before God that any Christian should use a worldly thing in Christ’s service, as if the Spirit of God were not enough. Does the Spirit of God need a placard, or human means of any sort? The saints He uses; that is a different matter; they are His vessels for testimony. Look at the world. God gave the sword of government to Nebuchadnezzar, and when this power lapsed to the Romans, they used it to put to death the Son of God! He gave the law to Israel, and Israel used the law against His own Son! “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die”. “Now they have no cloak for their sin”; “Now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father”. Jew and Gentile united to put Christ to death. Do you mean to say that God can use anything of that power in testimony for Christ? A good man, a man of position, might say to me, I’ll use my influence to help you in the gospel. No; I do not want your influence, I refuse it. I want no influence but the influence of the Spirit of God. I rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit. “He shall testify of me”. You are the vessel of the Holy Spirit; therefore stand out in testimony; but the Holy Spirit is the alone power, “HE shall testify of ME”. Every word is important. Here the Lord does not even say ‘ye’. The Holy Spirit alone can stand for Christ where He is not. The Holy Spirit, who came down at Pentecost, is here in the same mission and for the same purpose today, and as fresh and as powerful as in the days of the apostles. True, He does not demonstrate Himself in the same grand way as then, but He is the same that ever He was.

We have looked at the descent of the Holy Spirit, and at His twofold mission. The next point, the third, that I desire to bring before you is the spheres of His ^[p. 128] activity. There are three spheres in which He acts: the house, the body, and the individual. He never acts in the world, as far as I can see. He is not given to the world. The world has the word of God; it has accepted the word of God, as in Matthew 13, what is there called the kingdom of heaven, but it has not the Spirit of God. Worldly men can talk of the Scriptures, boast of having the Bible, but never of the Spirit of God. They know Him not. In this country the government and the laws were based upon the word of God, but during the last sixty years it is being gradually given up; though parallel with the surrender of the word in the kingdom of heaven, God has been reviving the truth in the assembly — not for a fraction of it, but for the whole assembly.

I turn now to Acts 2: 2, 3, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them”. This is the fulfilment of the day of Pentecost. Every Christian believes the Passover is fulfilled, but every believer does not believe that the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) is fulfilled. The Feast of Tabernacles has not come yet, it will not be fulfilled until the millennium, but we have a greater thing now. I read this passage in Acts 2 to show that one sphere of the Holy Spirit’s action is in the house of God — “filled all the house where they were sitting”. I call your attention to the words, “Where they were sitting”. We cannot be too sensible of the magnitude of the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in the house. How little reverence we have for the presence of the Holy Spirit! We are rebuked by the respect pious men have for the mere walls of a building; it is a warning to us. I feel deeply the lack of reverence so often manifested amongst us for the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in the house. That is one sphere.

^[p. 129] I refer now to 1 Corinthians 12: 13, where we have the Holy Spirit in another activity. “For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit”. In Ephesians 2: 22 we have “an habitation of God by the Spirit”. The Spirit does not dwell in the body; He forms the body, and He dwells in the house. “By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body”. Thus you see the distinction between the house and the body. The habitation of God, that is the house; and we are baptised into one body by one Spirit. Another operation of the Holy Spirit we get here. He is the source of gifts. “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 4. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will” (verses 8 - 11). The body, then, is also a sphere of the activity of the Holy Spirit.

And now I turn to the individual, to the services which the Holy Spirit renders to each individually, and I think these will occupy our full time the rest of the evening. The more we dwell on His services to each one of us, the more wonderful they seem. I am not speaking now of conversion; not of a work or action of the Holy Spirit upon a person, but what He is to oneself . The first service is as to life and relationship. I put these together because “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”; and, “because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. There you have the two. Hence, as soon as the Lord rose from the dead, after having said, “Peace be unto you”, He breathed into them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. Now mark the expression. It is of immense importance, beloved friends, to understand that the communication of life is in the power of the Holy Spirit, and its greatness and virtue could not be known but by Him. You could not have the sense of eternal life but by the Spirit of God; and it could not be communicated, and never was communicated to any one till Christ rose from the dead. I ask you, Is it possible that eternal life, life in the Son of God, could be communicated to man while under the judgement of God? No, beloved friends, it would be incongruous to suppose that those who “all their lifetime were subject to bondage” could enjoy eternal life. Impossible. It could not come, and it did not come till the judgement of God on man had been borne by a Man; and that Man risen from among the dead, “THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD”, breathed into His disciples saying, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit”. As another has said, He gave up the life to which sin attached, brought the first man to a JUDICIAL TERMINATION in His own death. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, CONDEMNED sin in the flesh”. The mighty Victor, risen from among the dead, stood in the midst of His disciples, and said unto them, “Peace be unto you”. The foe is silenced; every disturbing element gone. What a moment! In the devil’s stronghold He has bruised the serpent’s head, and now life and incorruptibility are brought to light. He entered into death that He might destroy him that had the power of death. Death must be annulled before life and incorruptibility could be brought to light. However highly favoured Moses and Elijah were, they could not have what the blessed ^[p. 131] Lord communicated to His disciples when He rose from the dead. In the eye of God there are only two men — the one, the lost man, and the other, the glorified Man at His right hand. To which do you belong? There is no middle place. You belong to one or to the other — to the lost man, irretrievably lost, or to the glorified Man in the most wonderful exaltation. It is by the Spirit of God you receive of His life; the Spirit of God is the only power of life. “Peace be unto you .. . and he breathed on them”. This is brought out doctrinally in Romans 8. “The law of the Spirit [or breath, it is the same word] of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”. Sin is never forgiven, sins are forgiven. “Condemned sin in the flesh”, that is what He has done; and by the Spirit of God we enter into eternal life. We live in the Spirit. Every converted soul, when assured of forgiveness, is sealed by the Holy Spirit; just as a bird is born to fly, but until it flies it has not the sense of power. And you are not on true Christian ground until you are sealed by the Spirit. Hence we read, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. There may be a work of grace in your soul, that I do not deny; but you are not on true Christian ground unless you have the sense of liberty. Christian ground is that I have His Spirit. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death”. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. That is only known by the Spirit of God; how else could it be known? In connection with life, I turn to Romans 8: 14, where by the Spirit we get the knowledge of relationship. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. I give you another text, Galatians 4: 6, “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. Now let me press upon you to be exercised as to the understanding of this. You say, “Father”; I dare say you do, I do not ask you if you say Father, but I do ask, Can you say, I am a son? You will see what an immense difference it will make to you when you know you are a son; when in the Spirit of His Son you say, Abba, Father. Think of it, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Ah, you say, That is too great. Too great for unbelief, but I cannot come down to unbelief; I cannot lessen the scripture, and that is what the scripture says: “The Spirit of his Son”, “whereby [or by whom] we cry, Abba, Father”. It is the Son, however feeble and infantile it may be; it is not to the same fulness but it is of the same character, the same order of intelligence and relationship, in the same Spirit. I know and am sure that many a one says, “Father”, who has not got the solid, blessed consciousness in his soul, I am a son. If led by the Spirit of God, I am a son of God, and if a son I cannot say anything but “Abba”. God has given me the Spirit of His Son . The lack of knowing this has led to much feebleness, and even doubt.

Many pious people know nothing of this; they say they feel their sins are forgiven. I cannot stand on my feelings, but on the word of God. The word is my authority. I rest upon what God says, a sure basis for faith. If I rested upon feelings, I should get depressed. I rest on the word of God, and not on a feeling. The word says, I am a son, and I believe it. This is the first service of the Spirit in the individual, namely, life and relationship.

Now I come to the second. Turn to Galatians 5:17: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would”. Remember, I am speaking of the services of the Spirit of God to each one of us. I am sure every exercised soul will acknowledge, It was a wonderful day when I first learned I had a power in me greater than the flesh. “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”. This is power inward, presently I shall have to speak of power outward; but if you do not know the power inward, I am sure you cannot know the power outward. Do you believe you have a power in you greater than the flesh? It is a most consolatory word. What a friend the Spirit of God is to me! Do you go about day by day and hour by hour in the sense of this? People say, sometimes, I must show grace. Show grace! You ought to be ashamed not to show grace. You speak of it as if you thought you were going to do something very good. If you do not show grace, you are not answering to the Spirit of Christ in you, you are not acting according to Christ. We are left here to show forth the power and the grace of Christ, in the circumstances and in the old order in which formerly we exhibited our contrariety to God. Christ was in every detail of daily life the perfection of grace; and now it is, Christ dwelleth in me. “He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked”. You ought to walk in the Spirit; you have no right to walk in the flesh; you have a power in you greater than the flesh. Thank God, I say, that is most consolatory. You say then, Why do I walk in the flesh? Because you do not walk in the Spirit; you do not use your power. You have been sowing to the flesh, talking politics perhaps, or some foolishness, and then you act in the flesh you do something that shows you where you are; you have been tampering with the flesh, and you have grieved the Spirit, and He will not help you. It is not that the Spirit of God has left you, but He will not help you. You possess this great power, but what is the good of possession if you do not enjoy it?

^[p. 134] It is like a man starving with a lot of gold under his pillow. Appropriate what you have, use what you possess, and you will know the good of it. Therefore the apostle says, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”. That is liberty — freedom from everything to live Christ .

You say, Then I must be very circumspect. Yes; you must be very circumspect . You ought to be able in a moment to say, That is not right, that is not of the Spirit, and judge yourself. Well, beloved friends, I cannot speak on all the passages, I give you the heads only; but I trust I may lead you to study these services of the Spirit better for yourselves. I have given you the second service, I turn now to the third.

Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”. Now, beloved friends, a very plain question, How much do you value this word? Well, to me it is most wonderful, beautiful, encouraging! To think that the Spirit of God is in me, and so interested in me that He actually presents to God the very things He desires peculiarly for me. He makes intercession with groanings. (The groaning is to show the depth of His interest, and, remember, the Spirit’s groan is not uttered.) “The Spirit maketh intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered “. Every exercised soul longs to enter into the Spirit’s desire. This is the Spirit in the individual going through the wilderness. It is not assembly-prayer here. In the assembly you pray in the Holy Spirit; you know what to ask for; you are in the fellowship of the Spirit as to the interests of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is individual as to our own needs, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us”. It is most touching, the depth of His interest, and most consolatory. What could encourage ^[p. 135] me more than to know that the Spirit of God makes intercession to God for me? I think this explains how we advance in divine things. The Spirit of God is acting for you, and God, “who searches the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to God”. God searches my heart, not looking for the bad but the good, for what the Spirit desires for me. Thus He helps my infirmities, helps me in the very circumstances in which I am. What could be more consolatory? The more I am in the Spirit the more I am entering into His desire for me.

There are other passages, but I cannot dwell on them. I look at Romans 15: 13, just to carry you on in this line, but I trust you will find more passages for yourself. Here (Romans 15: 13) you are rather rising out of the wilderness than actually in it. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit”. Philippians 4: 6, I think, goes beyond this; there it is rather power from above making me superior to things here — it is the experience of a heavenly man. In Romans, the Spirit helps me with regard to things here. The Spirit of God so identifies Himself with me that I have a Helper in all these things; He interests Himself in all my concerns, He HELPS me. This is the power downward, and I trust presently to speak of the power upward.

There is one passage I would like to turn to in connection with this, another branch of it, but a service of the Holy Spirit. John 7: 38: “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. Mark you, not ‘a river’ merely, but “rivers”, and out of the inward parts . That is, it is your own first; out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water, fertilising, refreshing all around — but yourself first. This is a very blessed service of the Holy Spirit. I think to myself sometimes,

^[p. 136] one ought to be most thankful. God could not do more for us than He has done; He has given us the greatest gift He could give — His Spirit! I say, if we better understood that the Holy Spirit has come down and dwells in each of us — your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit — there would be a far greater expression of divine satisfaction about us, in all our ways and habits, in everything. A heart of thankfulness would characterise us as to everything. We should move on with cheerful step through all the vicissitudes here.

I turn now to Galatians 5: 22, 23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance”. The Spirit of God adorns me; He beautifies me with His own fruit. First the internal, then the external. The first three are inward, to yourself — love, joy, peace; then what you are to others. Beautiful! Someone has said, Did you ever hear of a tree that bore such a variety of fruit? There never was such a tree. No tree was ever known to yield two kinds of fruit: a tree bears but one. But here they are all found together, one Source producing these varied virtues; and there is no ‘and’ between them, they are all one cluster. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace”, etc. First inside, that must be; then outside, that is the way He adorns us.

Now let us look at another service of great interest — the power upwards. Ephesians 1: 19, 20: “And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised, him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places”. One very blessed service of the Spirit of God is, that He always leads me to act in correspondence to Christ in everything I do. Here we have to do with the power which wrought in Christ. But you will say, Have you not already shown us that we have a greater power in us than the flesh? Yes;

^[p. 137] but that was to correct the man down here; to lead me on to master the flesh in me. We have also seen how the Spirit of God identifies Himself with me, helping me in my circumstances; and that is not all, but He adorns me with His own fruit. This is all the power downwards.

But I come now to the power upwards, the power that wrought in Christ, and the apostle prays that ye may know this power. Now that has not to do with things down here. As an illustration, take Peter walking on the water. He left the ship to go to Jesus. It is plain enough he must have had power; he could not walk on smooth water any more than on rough. It was not power in the circumstances, it was power above the circumstances. The ship would have sustained him in the circumstances, but the power of Christ made him to be superior to the circumstances. We have to do with the reality of this, we are to know “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ”. We have to do with Christ raised from the dead; now we know power for us. As Joshua 3: 10 expresses it, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you”. We have crossed the Jordan, we have left all behind, we are brought into a new scene, we are in association in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. This power makes me know that I am united to Christ, a member of His body. We are not in heaven yet as individuals, but we are there as members of His body; still it is the Spirit of God who brings me into this union, and who makes it known to me. Our deficiency is that we lack personal love to Christ. If our hearts were set upon Christ where He is, if we longed to reach Him there, we should soon find that we possessed the power able to conduct us to Him; like Peter — his affection made him long to reach the Lord. “If it be thou”, he said, “bid me come unto thee on the water”. He would ^[p. 138] accept the most perilous circumstances, circumstances impossible to the natural man, where he would be drowned naturally, to get alongside of his Lord. Have you that affection for Christ, beloved friends? “And Jesus said, Come”, and Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus; he walked in divine superiority. This is what we are called to — to walk in divine superiority above all the power of evil. Peter is the pattern. In the gospels you get patterns; in the Old Testament you have types. Peter had not the power, it was Christ’s power delegated to him for the moment; but he had heart for Christ, and because he had heart he got the power. We have the power, the Holy Spirit in us; but we lack the heart, the affection that would make us realise and use our power. The Holy Spirit always leads up the heart to Christ in heaven. He came down from the glorified Saviour, and the same Holy Spirit that came down from heaven can lead us up to heaven, can make us look up there. Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus. Thus he became descriptive on earth of the One he saw in glory at God’s right hand, the One who was the Object of his heart. And he stood in testimony for Him; he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”; and though battered by the stones, in perfect calmness he kneeled down and prayed for his murderers.

Now notice how the power works in Ephesians 3. It proves to you the exceeding magnitude of the power, and then sums up: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (verse 20). This is the power which enables me to contend with Satan. For this conflict you must have the power of God and the armour of God. Some think they have taken to them the armour of God when they have not; no one has the armour of God until ^[p. 139] he is in the place to which Satan is most opposed. Satan will not oppose you in the wilderness with the same force; he will oppose you, try to baffle you — like Amalek, try to hinder your projects, or, as Balaam, seek to seduce you — but he does not exert all his force and power against you until you are on heavenly ground, in the heavenly places. In Romans you have the armour of light; that is a very different thing, you want that for the wilderness, you cannot go through a world of darkness without the armour of light, but when you come to the Lord’s battles, then you must have on the whole armour of God. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places”. Do not misapply Scripture; you do not need the armour of God in Romans; if you are only there, you are not in the Lord’s battles. Do not imagine that you are farther on than you really are. Do not deceive yourself. “The power that wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places”- that is the power that works in us. I ask you, beloved friends, Could anything be more magnificent? Is your soul filled with the grandeur, the dignity of your position? “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”. Now, I can face the enemy; in the armour of God I am invulnerable. The armour is for Satan, prayer is to God. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit”. I turn to Him for support, and I stand against the enemy, I face him in the armour of God. In setting forth the services of the Holy Spirit I could not leave out this, for indeed it is a most amazing part of His service to us. I trust you will ponder it before the Lord, and that the importance of it may grow in your souls.

I need not dwell on the Spirit of God being the earnest of our inheritance: “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”. Everyone knows what the earnest of a purchased possession is. The Holy Spirit comes down to dwell in our bodies, the earnest of our inheritance. I desire to say a short word on 1 Corinthians 2: 10, “But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God”. As it is expressed in another place, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”, 1 John 2: 20. The Holy Spirit is the Revealer . I add this to show the fulness of blessing with which we are blessed, the magnificence of the position we are in. What eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, God has revealed to us by His Spirit. Mind you, beloved friends, it is a revelation of things, not words . Many a one has the light of words who has never known the Spirit revealing the things of God. “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you”. What do you know of His things? “Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth”. Do I wait, listening for what the Spirit of God will show me of the things of God? He reveals things. When the queen of Sheba came to King Solomon, and “had seen all his wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her”. She saw his things, and the effect was that there was no more spirit in her.

Beloved friends, there would be a great moral effect upon us, if we were sensible of what the Spirit of God brings before us. We should move about in a chastened spirit. There would be a subduedness about us, as our souls waited on God for the revelation of things that eye has not seen, that ear has not heard,

^[p. 141] that have not entered the heart of man, things that the greatest power, the Spirit of God, reveals. Many cannot see them; have they the heart that desires to see them? God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit. Beloved friends, what a wonderful portion is ours! No one but the Spirit of God could reveal the things of God.

There is one thing more in the services of the Spirit of God that I must not leave out, the last verse of 2 Corinthians 13, a well-known verse, but in reality, alas, how little we do know it! “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit”. If you come to examine this, you find it expresses an immensity: the communion of the Holy Spirit! Now, beloved friends, what does that mean? We all know something about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we may know a little of the love of God, but what about the communion of the Holy Spirit? Going in company with Him — in concert with the Spirit of God! In Revelation 22: 17, the Spirit and the bride are found together: they are suited company. The bride is in concert with the Spirit. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. The Holy Spirit is the alone power who stands for Christ on the earth; no one can be for Christ who is not in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Those whom He fills are in company with Him; they act in concert; they are in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, His vessels, maintaining for Christ here.

I do trust that what I have been allowed to bring before you may so affect your hearts that you may look to the Lord, that in fellowship of the Spirit of God (a more amazing favour than your heart can conceive) you may walk through this world, for His name’s sake.

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