SPIRITUAL ABUNDANCE
[p. 90] SPIRITUAL ABUNDANCE
Titus 3: 5, 6; Romans 5: 5; John 4: 13 - 15; John 7: 37 - 40
These are familiar scriptures, but one feels the importance of having present with us the thought of the abundance connected with the Spirit. It was said of the Son of God, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit” (John 1: 33).
We often get little practically because we look for little, so that one would desire to be encouraged to look for much. The first scripture we read speaks of the Spirit being poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. On the divine side it is the outcome of the kindness and philanthropy of our Saviour God. The manner of His salvation, the character of it, consists on the positive side in the pouring out on us richly of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Saviour. He is the blessed Channel of communication. There is a river, a mighty river, of divine fulness, and it finds in Jesus Christ our Saviour an adequate Channel to bring it to us. So that the wonderful wealth of it is immeasurable; it is only measured by the kindness and love to man of a Saviour God, and the ability and competence of Christ to be a Channel to us of all that is in the thought of God; and all is included in the gift of the Holy Spirit. It gives one a great thought of the character of the renewing which God would bring about.
It is said here to be “poured out”, showing the immensity, the volume of it. It is not here the reception of the Spirit, or the Spirit indwelling, but the marvellous abundance of what is poured out on us. There are many different thoughts as to the Spirit which are very suggestive. In Titus it is the thought of the abundance — the pouring out on us. That is not exactly Pentecost, but it is the character of the actings of a Saviour God in His kindness and love to man, that He would pour out [p. 91] this immense flood of divine power. He pours it out for the complete deliverance from everything we were under formerly. It is we ourselves (verse 3), not somebody else. He tells us what we ourselves were; every word of it is true, but then the kindness and love to man of a Saviour God have appeared with this flood tide of heavenly power poured out on us.
Then the Lord is introduced as baptising with the Holy Spirit (John 1: 33), taking up those who believe on Him and immersing them in the Spirit. It views the Spirit as an ocean of divine blessedness and power, and the Son of God is competent to take us up and immerse us in the fulness of it. People think of the Spirit as something that comes in and gets a tiny corner in one’s heart, so that oftentimes it is a question with believers whether they have the Spirit or not. I think that shows how little the abundance is known. If the abundance connected with the Spirit were consciously known, no one would have any question about having the Spirit. God would encourage us to think of the abundance of the gift from His side so that we would cry out, ‘O Lord, enlarge our scanty thought’. If we could get a sense of the abundance of the pouring out it would prepare us to be filled. There is such an abundance, enough to fill and overflow every vessel under it. We are placed under this abundance like a thimble put under Niagara. We feel we are too small to contemplate it, and that is the proper feeling for christian blessing. It leads to a great cry and exercise for enlargement so as to be able to receive it.
When Paul speaks of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts, it is a pouring out; not a few drops or a trickling stream. I have been thinking of the abundance of what lies in the Spirit, so that in the believer there is a fountain of water springing up to eternal life; it is an abundant flow. It was never God’s thought that believers should have the Spirit in such a way that they hardly know whether they have or not. Many a believer hardly knows whether he has the Spirit or not, and only concludes that he has from statements of Scripture. That is not God’s thought. If I have to conclude I have received the [p. 92] Spirit because of what Scripture says, I have not much of the abundance. The wonderful wealth and abundance that lie in the Spirit would fill the soul so that things would be known consciously, and not supposed because of certain statements in Scripture. One admits them and they are divinely true, but the Spirit of God in the soul is a divine presence, not a statement or theory. There are wealth and abundance and divine power coming in which give everything a new character. So there is the renewing of the Holy Spirit, everything getting a new character; instead of what marked us once, there are these new characteristics connected with the pouring out on us richly of the Holy Spirit.
The washing of regeneration comes in to deal with all that former state of things. The death of Christ is brought in to cleanse from all that was there formerly; so that exercises in relation to God may take the place of all the lusts of the flesh; then there comes in the wealth of the Spirit in answer to those exercises.
I think the renewing of the Holy Spirit reviews the matter from the divine side; it is all what God does. There is also the renewing of the mind by which the saint is transformed; it involves exercises on the part of the saints. Being transformed by the renewing of the mind follows exercise of soul. One has to learn to distinguish between what is of God and what is not of God; we have to go through the moral exercise of having our senses exercised to distinguish between good and evil, and to learn to love righteousness and hate lawlessness. In that way the mind is renewed, it is the result of exercise. The mind is not renewed in five minutes; it is the result of moral exercises which have the effect of transforming the believer, so that, instead of carrying the impression of the present age, he carries the impression of God, he comes out as having the seal of God.
I thought it might be good for us to suggest the thought of the abundance, not so much as a matter of information, we all know it well, but so that we might be stirred up to more [p. 93] earnest prayer and diligence in regard to what is available. I think we reach things practically on the line of the mind being renewed. As having the Spirit, there is great capability for discernment, so that there is intelligent discernment of the things of God. It is a great thing that the mind should be morally educated; as having the Spirit we become capable of moral education. The fear of God becomes effective in the soul and we begin to be exercised in distinguishing good and evil, and refusing what is evil. You find certain things have an injurious effect on you, and you learn to judge them as not being favourable to what is spiritual. All this produces exercise and, as we are faithful in pursuing it, there is a getting rid of things that hinder — all that hinders the abundance being experimentally known. We cannot have real experimental knowledge of things apart from serious exercises in a practical sense. Then the soul becomes capable of taking its place intelligently in the assembly, and being engaged with what is of God, what is connected with divine Persons and Their activities, so that all the wealth of the Spirit is available in the assembly. In the assembly we expect to find a quantity of water. We see in Leviticus 11: 36 that a quantity of water is immune from defiling things. So in the assembly there is a quantity of water — the abundance of the Spirit is normally known there — and there is a power to keep out defiling things.
We have to be exercised as to how we stand personally in reference to the Spirit as having bodies which are the temples of the Holy Spirit; we have to mind the associations into which we allow our bodies to come.
Then we have to be careful over our relations with the brethren; because it is in unworthy relations with the brethren that the Spirit is continually grieved. If the Spirit has formed certain links with the brethren, whatever is contrary to those links is a great grief to the Spirit. If the Spirit has set us together as one body in Christ, we must be careful not to violate the bond. We all feel how dreadful it is to violate a natural bond, as the marriage bond; but there is a greater bond than that. The bond [p. 94] of the Spirit exists, and whatever is inconsistent with that bond is a violation to it. If there is a bad feeling between saints, it is a violation of the bond. No amount of wrong done by a saint is any excuse for a bad feeling. We often make excuses for bad feeling because of the bad behaviour of a person, but it is no excuse and altogether out of place to have a bad feeling towards a person because he has done wrong; if a feeling is allowed the Spirit is grieved. If my brother is doing wrong there is no excuse for bad feeling on my part. I should take him to the Lord in prayer; there is no reason why I should have a bad feeling, least of all because he has done something against me! These things hinder the Spirit practically on our side, and therefore the abundance is not enjoyed or manifested. Perhaps, instead of finding a full flow of the Spirit, we find restraint and limitations. These things occur because of moral conditions. The sense of the abundance of the Spirit should lead to great exercise. The more sense we have of the abundance which lies in the Spirit, the more exercised we should be with regard to anything that would check the flow of the Spirit.
I think we should look for great development of holy sensibilities. The saints as found as the body of Christ are a very sensitive organism; there is nothing in the world so sensitive as the body of Christ, sensitive of every breath of evil and every movement that is unholy and untrue.