⬇ EPUB

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SPIRIT

I thought it might help us to have our attention called to the Spirit’s activities in the saints as adjusting our souls, so that we might know relief and satisfaction culminating in eternal life. That is what comes out in chapter 4. And then, further, to see how the Spirit acts from the heavenly side in order to bring in the influence of heaven here. That is chapter 7. These two sides present the Spirit’s work at the present moment. We have to notice that what we get in chapter 4 is the result of an administration committed to the Son. “The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand”. Then chapter 7 is the result of Christ being glorified. He goes up to heaven and sends the Spirit here so that there might be the influence of heaven here. Thus the superiority of the heavenly is seen; it is to influence all. This is indicated in chapter 3 in the remarks of John the baptist.

Chapter 7 brings in the levitical idea as developed in the book of Joshua, whereas chapter 4 is more connected with Numbers. Joshua gives you the privileged family, the heavenly family in type, and you see them distributed throughout all the tribes of Israel. They have cities allotted to them in all the tribes; they are distributed throughout the whole inheritance, and in that way a heavenly influence is secured and diffused through all. I think that is the idea connected with John 7. What the Lord proposes in chapter 4 meets all our need, and is the result of an administration between divine Persons; the Father commits all things into the hand of the Son, and the Son proposes to give living water to any one who asks of Him, so that he may never thirst for ever. It is a final solution of the whole question of man’s need in mind and affection. Hence chapter 4 runs pretty ^[p. 2] much with the epistle to the Romans, whereas chapter 7 runs more with Ephesians.

In John 20:22, where we have “Receive the Holy Spirit”, it is no question of our need; it is the Spirit of the heavenly Man that is breathed. It is a most intimate transaction to be breathed into, and conveys quite a different thought to drinking of living water. His breathing into them in John 20 was to give them an income equal to their dignity. Chapter 4 is like Romans 6:22; “having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”. As away from God, one’s affections have been scattered hither and thither with a view to corrupt gratification, just as with the poor woman in this chapter, but the Lord proposes to give her living water so that her affections may be gathered up and directed upward. One must first be satisfied in mind and affection before one can know eternal life.

I think one ought to make it clear that eternal life is enjoyed over Jordan, but before one can know eternal life one must be satisfied and at rest in mind and affections. This woman had been grossly irregular; her affections had gone out with a view to corrupt gratification, but the Lord shows that His proposal of living water would bring in a solution of her case which should be permanent.

When we speak of over Jordan we speak of what lies outside human relationships; we are entitled to be there because of the death of Christ. We are apt to live in nature, but the Lord would lift us outside of nature. John’s way of presenting eternal life is by showing that certain things have to be overcome in the mind and affections, and by that means you are placed over Jordan; you are lifted above natural things and relationships.

John’s presentation of Christ corresponds to the position of the sun set in the physical heavens; it ^[p. 3] is set there to control things, and to regulate things, and to set things in movement. So Christ is the One who sets things in movement divinely; it is in the way of impulse; He gives impulse. If Christ moves, others move, but they move under His influence. You get it set forth in John 1; the two disciples are first attracted to Christ, and they follow Him; they are set in movement; and then in their turn they affect others. Andrew finds his brother Simon, and he follows, and then others, too, are drawn after Christ. The point was “Come and see”. So here in John 4, when the woman is set free herself, she is set in movement and attracts others to Christ; “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?” It is intrinsic to the living water that it gives satisfaction; the mind is satisfied; the affections are satisfied. It is a great thing to have permanent satisfaction for your affections. The Lord proposes to give what will bring deliverance from sin and give permanent satisfaction to the affections. Then another great gain is that one is relieved from the pressure of death. Before the gain of eternal life can be known we must know what it is not to thirst. Most of us live in nature; we are ruled by nature and are content with natural relationships; but God brings in a new rule which is outside nature; He brings us under a new control, and that is proposed in the gift of living water; it springs up to eternal life. Natural relationships are right, but they must be held and regulated by the law of new creation; there is no other law for the Christian. A man who is over Jordan will be a better husband and father than one who is not, for you fulfil every right relation here, whilst living in your affections outside of them; you are not detained by them, and you are set free from the fear of death as to them. Whilst there is the fear of death you are not free for new creation. The great defect with ^[p. 4] most of us is that we live in nature, and the more cattle we have the more we are detained.

What the Lord proposes is to give living water which should spring up to eternal life, so that the soul should be brought into the knowledge of the only true God, and of the true Man, a Man here who was entirely for His pleasure; to live in that knowledge is eternal life. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life is consequent on the adjustment of everything on the earthly side; you are set free from the trammels of earth, and you live in the knowledge of the only true God and of a Man who was entirely free from earth. Think of living in company with such a Man as that! A Man who was entirely for the pleasure of God. But along with the knowledge there is subjective energy, and that is by the springing up of the water within. It “shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”.

The Lord shows in John 4 that He is going to set up the woman with something permanently within her; a source of satisfaction. A man rules his own family, and maintains every relationship rightly, but he has satisfaction outside of it. He is not afraid of death though it lies on his family relationships, he is lifted above it. I think that is a very great testimony; and a man who does not want things here, who is satisfied in mind and affections, is a testimony to God. Eternal life lifts us outside every natural relationship and outside of earth morally. The earth is the sphere where the flesh lives, but the Lord proposes to lift a man above it. He brings in resurrection, and eternal life is enjoyed in resurrection. Resurrection takes place here, but it lifts us morally outside of earth. The Lord was not available to us as eternal life till He was raised and glorified. So, though eternal life is known and enjoyed while we are still down here, it is as we are over Jordan;

^[p. 5] that is the type, and the types refer to Christianity. You see, God is not developing any order of things in regard to the earth just now; we take up the ground, so to speak, but you cannot define as clearly today as we shall in the millennium just where the earthly line ceases and the heavenly line begins.

When we speak of the knowledge of Jesus Christ as sent here, it is the knowledge of that Man, the true Man as we say; we cannot omit what He was down here on earth from what He is up there. All that He is up there in the glory was seen in Him down here. How am I to know that blessed Man up there save as studying the gospels which show me what He was down here? “Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” is the Man who carried out the will of God here, and who was entirely for His pleasure. He was not a man driven out of Eden, but One living to God and wholly for His delight. I think we have to see that it is no question of heavenly relationships here; but it is God and man brought together. The thought of the Father and the Son brings in family relationships, and leads us to heaven, but where it is a question of eternal life it is God and man.

John 17:1 speaks of the glory which was His personally from the Father; it is the Father and the Son in connection with what they were doing. Verse 5 refers to another glory, “the glory which I had with thee before the world was”. He prays to His Father in verse 1, saying, “glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee”, and then He says, “as thou hast given him power over all flesh”. What we have to know for eternal life is the Father as “the only true God”, it is a question of revelation, not relationship. For eternal life you must have God and man brought together. Man had gone away from God and become idolatrous, and man must be recovered to God. He learns that God is the only true God in contrast to all that is false.

^[p. 6] Here in John 4 the point is, that there is no possibility of eternal life being known in the soul except as one is delivered from need and is satisfied in mind and affections; and then what is prominent is that they should know the only true God. The Lord does not say, that they might know Thee, the Father, but Thee, the only true God. He is addressing His Father, but it is not the Father in relationship as regards us. Here it is a question of man knowing the only true God. Very often people are covetous, that is really idolatry, and they have to be brought out from all that to know the only true God. While such things are in question it is really too early to bring in the thought of relationships, for they are proper to heaven, but man has to be satisfied here first. On the one hand there is the entire overthrow of idolatry in the knowledge of the only true God; you are satisfied with God, and then, on the other hand, there is the appreciation of Christ as the Man of God’s pleasure, the One who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. It is in this way that God and men are brought together in relationships which are perfectly adjusted. You see it first in regard to God and Christ, but the thing is to be perpetuated in men here.

I think we may see eternal life coming out in the Lord’s pathway here wherever He is in direct relation to the Father, especially in prayer. He lived on account of the Father. There was the bringing together of God and man in Christ down here, and now He gives the gift of living water to whosoever will ask for it, so that it may spring up and withdraw a man from every natural influence and from all that is of nature.

During the forty days in which the Lord remained on earth after His resurrection we see what is entirely spiritual; the apostles saw it; it was that out-of-the-world, heavenly condition and order of things in which eternal life consists. You have a Man there ^[p. 7] who is entirely outside the reach and sphere of nature, One upon whom death had no more dominion. Even when here, He had His own blessed life with the Father, outside the path of dependence and subjection and responsibility which He had assumed here, so the apostles can speak of “that eternal life which was with the Father”; they had seen it. In the world to come, man will be under the influence of the Man of God’s pleasure: he will be freed from idolatry and lawlessness.

As to John 7, I think it suggests the heavenly side of things, and the Spirit coming in from heaven, with the result that there is a heavenly influence down here, rivers of living water. Chapter 7 supposes an Ephesian saint, for there is excess, a flowing out. You do not come to the divine thought of giving until you take heavenly ground. God would follow up His people with a heavenly influence. That is most beautiful. Though certain of the tribes of Israel elected to stay on the further side of Jordan, yet God gave certain cities among them to the Levites to dwell in, so that the influence of heaven might be secured to them. It is interesting that half the tribe of Manasseh broke away from the other half of the tribe, showing that there was special spiritual energy with them. The daughters of Zelophehad were of Manasseh, and they came to Moses, and demanded an inheritance among their brethren, the sons of their father. It all shows a spiritual energy that will not stop short of an inheritance in the land. It shows the energy of faith that breaks loose from nature.

← Previous Article 4 of 44 Next →