MAKING ROOM FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
A. K. Turner
2 Kings 4: 1–7; Numbers 21: 16–18; Genesis 24: 22–25, 54–58
We often speak about making room for the Spirit and I thought of these scriptures in that connection. This widow appeared to be at an extremity—her husband dead, and the creditor come to take her two children to be bondmen, for she was in debt. The question is raised with her by Elisha, “What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house?”. She said, “Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil”. Clearly it did not seem to mean very much to her that she had a pot of oil. “Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house”, and then, just as an afterthought, “but a pot of oil”. ‘Yes, I remember I have got that, a pot of oil’. She is a type of a believer who has the Holy Spirit but does not rightly appreciate His presence and power. But the prophet brings out that what she had in type was of immense value. The beloved apostle says, “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift”, 2 Corinthians 9: 15. How we should value the gift of the Holy Spirit, dear brethren. I believe the Lord is saying at the present time that we should value the Holy Spirit, and make room for Him. Both in our individual exercises and in our localities, and generally, we should be exercised to make room for the Holy Spirit for He is doing a service that would provide richly for us.
So really the woman’s position was not one of extremity, although she had to come to it that she could not meet the situation herself. That is why, in her desperation, she cried to Elisha, who brought in light and help from God. We have to come to it too, as Paul did, that we cannot meet the matter ourselves. He says, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right I find not” (Romans 7: 18), and later, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” (Romans 7: 24). Then, as coming to an end of ourselves, we are ready to appreciate the provision that God has made in His grace through Jesus Christ our Lord for our continuing here and meeting our moral obligations righteously in the power of the Spirit of God.
What a state this woman would have been in apart from God intervening in grace—a widow, and her two children to be taken into slavery. Could you think of a more pitiful case? You do not wonder at her feelings; but God had the answer, and all the time the answer was there in the house. All the time the pot of oil was there, but apparently overlooked. What a wonderful divine provision was in that pot of oil! “And he said, Go, borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; let it not be few; and go in, and shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and set aside what is full”. God has full thoughts in mind, and I believe we should have that before us, dear brethren. These things do test us, but if we read that at the beginning of this dispensation persons were filled with the Holy Spirit, should we not at the end of the dispensation be exercised that we should be filled with the Holy Spirit? The prophet had full vessels in mind, and, as we have been taught, she says “children” but he says “sons”. She thought of these boys as children, but the prophet elevated her in her thinking, that is, instead of bondage God had in mind the full dignity of sonship.
So let us value the Holy Spirit more. How much the Lord Jesus spoke about Him. I mention in passing that in two years at Maidstone we had readings on almost the same scriptures, John 14, 15 and 16. What is the Lord saying in these things? Think of the teaching of Jesus as to the Person of the Holy Spirit. He speaks of Him as “another Comforter” (John 14: 16), and the footnote to that is ‘One who carries on the cause of any one and helps him ...’ He also says, “Ye know him, for he abides with you, and shall be in you” (John 14: 17). So the Lord would teach us to value the Spirit’s help and His presence with us and in us. This means that we can ask for the Spirit’s help at any time. He will glorify Christ—“He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14. The Spirit would desire to fill our vessels with Christ, and as the Spirit of truth to guide us into all the truth (John 16: 13).
Now to return to the widow, she did what she was told. “And she went from him, and, shut the door upon her and upon her sons—they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said to her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed”. She values the oil now and it is a question of providing the vessels. Can we provide vessels, empty vessels? Moab had been at ease from his youth, had not been emptied from vessel to vessel (see Jeremiah 48: 11), Many of us, no doubt, have been like that, content to be among the brethren and to have our little part in things, but generally at ease, not emptied from vessel to vessel. What was needed here was empty vessels. You see, you may go on with what is of Moab and never face this question of an empty vessel that can be filled. The prophet then says, “Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest “. So she was able to meet her obligations; the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who do not walk according to flesh, but according to Spirit (Romans 8: 4), and she had something over and above—“Live thou and thy sons on the rest”. So we have in Romans 8: 13, “But if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”.
In Numbers 21 we have a very remarkable scripture, I suppose well known to most here, and certainly well known to those who are older. Those of us who were old enough to understand the ministry in the 1940s have some memory as to this scripture and the way it was used by God to liberate the saints in response to this divine Person, the Holy Spirit of God. So the word was given—“Jehovah spoke to Moses, Assemble the people, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Rise up well! sing unto it”. This was a move forward in the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, that is, from the world to glory. It was a wonderful move forward when they came to Beer—it just means ‘Well’. They had come in type to recognize the Spirit of God and to sing and respond to that , blessed Person.
You will remember that it was said earlier, in the reading, that in all this there is reference to the cross. How often we must go back to the cross! If we are going to get the gain of the springing well we must face the serpent of brass. Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole “and it came to pass, if a serpent had bitten any man, and he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived”, Numbers 21: 9. The footnote to that is ‘looked intently at’. So we need to look intently at what was effected when God sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and condemned sin in the flesh (see Romans 8: 3). That was the cross, dear brethren, and it entered into the teaching of Jesus. He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”, John 3: 14.
Then in John 4, “Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life” (John 4: 14). “Springing up”; it is upwards, you see. The Spirit would lead us upwards, inward, to Canaan; our Canaan is the heavenly land, where Christ is. So in this matter of making room for the Spirit we need to look intently at the cross. Would that not be why Paul starts with the word of the cross when he writes to the Corinthians? Would that not be why he says he was determined to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified? (see 1 Corinthians 2: 2). His desires for the Corinthians were that they should get the full gain of the wondrous fact that the Spirit of God is here and dwelling in the believer, in the temple, and operating in the body. What a wonderful fact that is! How could we work out the truth of the assembly apart from the glorious fact that a divine Person is here?
It is not a one-man ministry that Paul speaks of; he says, “For to one, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; and to a different one faith, in the power of the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healing in the power of the same Spirit; and to another operations of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discerning of spirits; and to a different one kinds of tongues; and to another interpretation of tongues. But all these things operates the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each in particular according as he pleases” (1 Corinthians 12: 8–11), and then, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”. I remember Mr. Gray of Helston saying, ‘If all believers were in the gain of that they would all be in fellowship’. In the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks. We need to face the cross in its full bearing, the setting aside of man after the flesh, and then to appreciate the Holy Spirit, speaking and singing to and worshipping Him. They did here; “Well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”.
Now, I believe we should thank God for that ministry that was brought out in the 1940s. There is a great deal of it, dear brethren; I have not read it all; there is a great deal of ministry as to the Holy Spirit, ranging over the Old Testament and the New, and I believe the Lord would stimulate exercise that we get the gain of that ministry as to the Holy Spirit and His place, viewing the Spirit objectively, and then going on to speaking to the Spirit and then worshipping the Spirit. All these things would enlarge in our hearts and in our affections the blessed Person of the Holy Spirit of God.
Then in Genesis 24, in closing, the servant says, “Is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge?” Well, we know that conditions were very good here with Rebecca. Her appreciation of the Holy Spirit, in type, I suppose, is greater than with any other type in the Old Testament, and she shows by her service to the servant and to the camels, and her appreciation of the well, how much she values the Spirit of God. Then the matter is raised by the servant, “Is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge?” Then, “she said to him, There is straw, and also much provender with us; also room to lodge”. What was the point in lodging? The point was not to stay there; what comes out is that he is lodging only for a moment in view of being sent away to his master. Then “they rose up in the morning; and he said, Send me away to my master”. Then her brother and mother said, “Let the maiden abide with us some days, or say ten”. There was good lodging there, much straw, provender, why not stay? But that is not what the Spirit of God has in mind. He has come from the Father, He has come from the Son, and He has in mind the completion of His mission; He has in mind our entering now into spiritual things, and answering to the heart of Christ. He has in mind, too, finality, so the servant says, “Do not hinder me, seeing Jehovah has prospered my way”.
Let those words just have their weight with us. He said that; it is typical, I know, but I am sure the very feelings and breathings of the Holy Spirit of God are in it, “Do not hinder me, seeing Jehovah has prospered my way—send me away, and I will go to my master”. So the Spirit has in mind our entrance into spiritual and heavenly things, our enjoyment of union with Christ. That is what He has in mind, the direct flow that is proceeding in this chapter, coming from Abraham, coming down to the city of Nahor to Rebecca, but now there is to be the great return flow, and He does not want to be hindered in it. This word, I am sure, would be to us as we near translation, and as we think of the service of God every week, and what flows out of it. I am sure His word would be to us—“Do not hinder me, seeing Jehovah has prospered my way—send me away, and I will go to my master”.
So the word is put to Rebecca; the word is put to the assembly in that sense—“Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go”. You say, I will go to be with Christ, or He will come for us; but are we going to go with the Spirit? Are we going to be with the Spirit in what He is doing at the present time in view of there being more for Christ each Lord’s day and indeed day by day from each one of us? And may that final gathering to Christ be more and more in our view, as it is in the view of the Spirit of God. That is what He has in mind; in coming to lodge He has in mind to get us on to the heavenly road in view of the end. May it be so that we appreciate the Spirit of God more day by day and week by week until the end, for Christ’s sake.
Address at Redbridge
11 September 1982