OUR LINKS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

C. F. Dadd

Acts 2: 1–4; Jude 20, 21; 2 Corinthians 13: 14

The brethren will discern, no doubt, from what has been read, that I would like to say a word about the Holy Spirit. In the gospels the Lord spoke about going away, especially in John, but He told the disciples He was not going to leave them comfortless, that He would send the Spirit of God to be with them. They were to know the

presence of the Spirit of God, they were to learn that He would guide them into all the truth, that He would take of the things of Christ and show them to them. They were going to learn that the Spirit of God was going to be their Friend. We often think of the idea of friendship relating to Christ, and we have Christ on high who is certainly our Friend. Another has said, the best Friend we have on earth is the Holy Spirit. Not your wife, not your parents, not your husband but the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God is to become known by us, beloved brethren, as the best Friend that we have. The Lord said He will be with you for ever. He has come down from an ascended Christ. Our brother reminded us of that in his prayer. It is good that we open a meeting like this in prayer, we are drawing on the power of the Spirit of God.

The Spirit’s power is available to us, and that is what we would look for tonight, whoever might serve. What we are looking for is some touch from the Spirit of God that will relate to the side of power.

The disciples were to learn that if they were to be in power testimonially it had to be by the Spirit of God, because everything here lies in the Spirit. I wonder if we really think much about this—everything testimonially lies in the Spirit. It really means that we should be in constant touch with the Spirit as we go on day by day. You start the day on your knees which is a good thing to do. I am giving everybody credit for that. You start with a word of prayer in the morning, and also you have the word of God, the Scriptures, so we have everything in our favour to begin the day. When you are on your knees in the morning you speak to the Lord, or maybe you speak to the Father. Do you speak to the Spirit? because He is the One who is going to be with you all day; He is going to be right by your side. He is going to be in you.

“He abides with you, and shall be in you”, the Lord Jesus said (John 14: 17). Beloved brethren, my concern for myself, and for all of us, is that we might build up a better relationship, and a nearer relationship with the Holy Spirit of God. I see this as

being essential if we are to get help in our souls, if we are to move forward, if we are to grow.

We speak often about growth, and it is important, the idea of formation and growth in the believer. The only thing that is going over is formation. What will go into eternity in you and me is what is formed in us of Christ; not what I am naturally, regardless of what that might be, but the only thing that is going into eternity is the formation that the Lord and the Spirit have brought about while we are here in testimony. We are not going to learn in eternity; you might think you are, but you will not. Our capacity in eternity is being established now, and this is what makes this whole thing so serious, that we want to put our priorities in a right order so that we are thinking of what really counts. Young men have to attend to business matters, but as you come through remember one thing, the time for business will finish. You may have placed a lot of emphasis on it, and maybe I did too, but remember, put your priorities in order. What really counts is what is of God, your knowledge of God, that is what is going to go through. You want to think about that: promote the relationship that is open to us with the Spirit of God. He is the Comforter, the Lord said that about the Spirit. What a Comforter He is. He takes care of our spiritual matters. It is a good thing to think about, is it not? You want to grow spiritually, speak to the Spirit about it; but remember it is not automatic, if you want to grow spiritually you have to work at it. You have a hundred and one volumes of Mr. Taylor’s ministry, besides the ministries of Mr. Darby. Mr. Raven, and Mr. Coates, all these wonderful collections of ministry, but it is not going to help you unless you take those books off the shelf and work at them; this you have to do.

I read these sections, because what is happening in the Acts is what the Lord had been speaking to the disciples about. Now the Lord has gone back, He has ascended into heaven, they saw Him go, and the Spirit has come down, and it says, “And when the day of Pentecost was now accomplishing, they were all together in one place”. That is a good thing, is it not, be all together? We are here tonight, maybe fifty brethren, are we all together? It is not just a physical thing, it is a moral idea, but the idea is that we are all together, and that in itself is the product of the work of the Spirit of God in us so that there is an affinity. We know that the affinity with each one of us is the truth. Paul, writing to the saints at Ephesus, says, “holding the truth in love”, Ephesians 4: 15. The truth is our bond. If things become difficult amongst us and exercises come in, the bond between you and your brother, or you and your sister, is the truth; that will be the bond, that is what will hold us, nothing else. You might have your likes and dislikes among the brethren, but that will not suffice, it has to be the truth.

So Luke speaks about their being all together in one place, and then goes on to say, “there came suddenly a sound out of heaven”. These are very wonderful thoughts, “a sound out of heaven as of a violent impetuous blowing, and filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared to them parted tongues, as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. Now here is the promise of the Lord Jesus coming about upon the disciples, as assembled,” they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. The Spirit is not going to contest the place that He has with us, it is going to be up to me and to you to make way for the Spirit of God in our hearts. The more room we make for the Spirit, the more latitude He will take with us, but it is not automatic, it does not come about by hoping, it means we have to work at it. Then “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave to them to speak forth”. So immediately the Spirit comes in, He fills persons, and He gives them the capacity to speak forth. Of course, we know that this was a miracle, that they were able and capacitated to speak in other tongues beside that in which they had been speaking. That is the kind of speaking that counts, not natural speaking. Men in the world are admired because of their ability to speak. You have had great statesmen representing the British empire who have been great public speakers, and we have had them in America too, but that is not what the Spirit of God is talking about. The power given to them here to speak forth is a power that would come from the Spirit of God and would represent the idea of spiritual power. It is a great thing to have a measure of power. We want to pray for it, dear brethren, it is a time when it is needed, and the Lord will help us.

Jude might be one of those epistles that we do not refer to very often. It is very short, only one chapter, and it is written in a very difficult time. The apostasy is setting in, and that is the day we are in. We are in a day when what is apostate is all round us. It is a very real thing, the power of the devil influencing governments and principalities and powers, and nations, and races. So the days in which we live are truly difficult days. Paul said elsewhere “that in the last days difficult times shall be there”, 2 Timothy 3: 1. We are in them and we need the power of the Spirit of God to help us through, and thank God that Spirit is available to us.

As Jude comes to the latter part of his epistle he says, “But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith”. That is a fine word, is it not? You need more faith; I do, I feel rebuked sometimes at the lack of faith. You might say you have known the Lord a long time, but you know we can have our faith increased by exercising what we have. In a meeting like this, a hymn is given out and someone has to stand up and pray. It does not take gift to stand up and pray. What you need is to stand up in faith, and ask the Lord to help us as we proceed.

The beginning of the meeting is possibly an easier time to pray than at the close. When opening the meeting, you have come in faith, you have come desirous to get some help, so you stand up on your feet and you say, Lord, help us. Make way for the Lord to come in, and He will help us. Young brothers can do this.

So Jude says here, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit”. That is what I wanted to direct your attention to, “praying in the Holy Spirit”. Our brother drew on the power of the Holy Spirit as we said at the beginning of this meeting.

Well, privately we can promote this, and we can build up this side of things, and as we learn to pray to the Spirit of God I think we will be expanded in what we can embrace and what we can cover as to the area in which the Spirit is operating. It is good to understand a little as to the area in which the Father is operating, or in which Christ and the Spirit are operating. It helps us in the way we address divine Persons. So he speaks about praying in the Holy Spirit.

That is a wonderful thing. It would suggest amongst other things that as we are praying we are bringing in what is living and vital, and with a measure of power. Let us promote that, beloved brethren, in our private prayers, let us promote it. Last night we had maybe a dozen brothers here, and as we prayed, how many of us spoke to the Spirit of God? Did we bring Him into our prayer? There is plenty of scope for that and it would help us to understand that the Spirit of God is active. He is active with us individually as we stand up in faith and pray in the prayer meeting. So let us exercise the scope that we have, and let us learn to pray in the Holy Spirit.

The apostle could no doubt say more, but he says, “keep yourselves in the love of God”, that is fine, is it not? Do you have a sense that God loves you? That is one of the things that marked John the apostle, he had a distinct sense that he was loved by the Lord. That is a great thing to have in our souls. You can look at a person whom you might love very dearly, but you look at them and say, The Lord loves them more than I do. We want to get hold of this in our souls and understand that God loves us. The Spirit of God is active in shedding abroad in our hearts the love of God, and the Lord would help us to understand what Jude says, “keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life”.

Well, just a word as to 2 Corinthians 13, because he brings in an interesting reference there. As Paul comes to the end of that second epistle, he says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”. Now, the brethren will note that communion has a footnote and it means ‘fellowship’. You know it is precious to think that we can be in communion with the Holy Spirit. Speaking about that recently, the idea of communing, it would be that in the sense of a friend, you are communing with a Friend. You are relating yourself to this Friend that has taken up a position in you and with you. Because I would assume, maybe not counting the youngest ones, that we have all received the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is absolutely vital to Christianity. If you are going to enjoy Christianity, if you are to move ahead, if you are to grow, if you are going to have any sense of a link with the Lord, it must be as indwelt by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God having scope with us. It means I am judging myself and making room for the Spirit, and I think this is an area where we can all get some help.

Paul brings in this touch of communion, “and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”. I think it would suggest, amongst other things, that we are on good terms with the Spirit.

How essential that is; we are on good terms with the Spirit of God, and we know what it is to speak with Him, and He speak with us. Have you ever had a sense of the Spirit of God speaking to you? Have you ever had a sense of the Lord speaking to you? You know these things are open to us, beloved brethren, and the secret lies in our link with the Spirit. I would appeal to every one of our hearts, including my own, that we might promote this, that it might be enlarged with us, and that we might become increasingly vital in the testimony and the enjoyment of Christianity. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Aberdeen, Scotland
16 August 1994