EXTRACTS

In chapter 11 the reference is to what is local, and again we have prayer. What I have said so far is general, but when you come to chapter 11, which is preceded (as already before us today) by the Lord’s appointing seventy others also, and sending them “two and two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to come”, we are in the presence

of truth that refers to a local company. If you are not exercised about your local company, you have no part in “the angel” of that locality. You will find that as you progress in the truth you take up your local responsibility.

One longs that everyone should have a sense of responsibility, for unless you take up the sense of obligation you are of little moral worth. The absence of moral obligation paves the way for the building up of clericalism and has led to the handing over of religious affairs to a committee of men. Here the Lord is praying, and one of His disciples said to Him—“Lord, teach us to pray”. It is as if our local brethren need to be taught how to pray. As they pray, they will find abundance of local furnishings, which are really heavenly furnishings.

The prayer has in view the bringing out of heaven into your locality what you know to be there. So the Lord ends the passage with the thought that the Father who is of heaven (not in heaven as Matthew) gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. I refer to it now in a general way as applying to a locality, for you cannot have things right in a locality without the Spirit.

It is the Spirit, not for yourself exactly, but for the locality. You want the Spirit with all the brethren, and you must never rest till all of them are characterised by the Spirit of God. You will never have peace nor conditions for Christ locally unless all the brethren are imbued with the Spirit of God. The way to reach this is by prayer—“How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

In this way your local needs are met. You have secured a place for the Lord, like David—“I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah”, Psalm 132. In order to have a place for the Lord, the saints in the locality must have the Spirit. You may say, Every believer has the Spirit, but you want to see the results of that in your locality.

The Lord knows those who have the Spirit, but the evidence of this is in the fruit of the Spirit.

If you do not see this, ask the Father in heaven and He will give the Spirit. Get the right idea in your mind, and do not rest till it is realised in the fruit being there. It is realised through prayer. “Ask, and ye shall receive”, Matthew 7: 7.

J. Taylor (Vol. 12, pp.115, 116)

You may say, Well, I never follow men. That is not true of any of us. Young believers, normally, follow those through whom the light comes to them. But if the vessel through whom the light is given is spiritual, he will direct his converts to the true Model. “Ye became followers of us”, the apostle says, “and of the Lord”. You may think it should be that they became followers of the Lord and of the apostle, but that would be declension. They became followers of Paul, the one through whom the light came to them, and then of the Lord. The line is upward. If it were the other way it would be declension. Many have started out right, following the Lord, but they quickly turned aside and followed others. Indeed, it is the snare of young people to become followers of men, as you will find in the epistle of John. In writing to the grades in the family, there is more said by the apostle to the “little children”, than is said to the young men and the fathers, and the burden of what he has to say to them is to beware of antichrists. It is all well if you are following those who love the Lord. They will soon put you into touch with the Lord. They have no pride in your following them. They delight to aid you to follow Christ, but the antichrists are the dangerous ones. There are many of them, John says, even now.

J. Taylor (Vol. 12, pp.451, 452)

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