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THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT

There are seven dispensations: -

Man left to himself, culminating in the deluge.
Man in Noah, set up afresh upon the earth, culminating in Babel.
Abram called out - election - walk by faith - culminating in Israel carried down into Egypt. The time of promises.
^[p. 275] Israel led by Moses and Joshua into Canaan. David given in sovereign grace to be their king, ending in their subjection to the gentile (Roman) power. The time of law.
Christ the Son of God come to earth, or the grace of God for us; man refused Him and hanged Him on the tree. The times of the gentiles.
The Holy Spirit sent down as the witness of the rejected Christ now exalted to God’s right hand, or the work of grace in us.
The kingdom, the reign of Christ.

A dispensation is God’s order for man at the time; the dispensation of the Spirit is God’s order for this time, and you have no power to act for God on the earth, if you do not apprehend the dispensation you are placed in.

The first thing is to receive the Holy Spirit after you have believed. It is important to note that there may be a long interval between these two. The apostle said to the Ephesian disciples, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” (Acts 19: 2) The Holy Spirit was not given until Christ was glorified, and no one receives the Holy Spirit till he believes on Christ, who has been raised up into glory. “In whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed”. (Ephesians 1: 13) The first effect of the Holy Spirit being received is that you can look up to God in confidence, even though you may be still unsettled about your state and other things, yet you feel you can turn to Him.

This is a new sense in your soul; but as far as I see, many who really believe in Christ risen and have thus received the Spirit of God, do not use Him except for relief for their own souls, and are slow to get established in Christ. Every person who is true to his own history knows how long he has been able to turn to God with confidence, while he is still much distressed about his own state, and the working of sin in him. Thus it is I account for the readiness to preach the gospel in so ^[p. 276] many young converts; they are glad to propound what they enjoy themselves. There is often a long and painful history between the beginning of Romans 5 and Romans 8. When you get to chapter 8 you have the sense of the Holy Spirit being the paramount power in your soul. In chapter 7 it is “what I would, that do I not”, (Romans 7: 16) there is no power there. If the Spirit were there as a paramount power you would do what He approves. I believe there is a known moment in the soul’s history when the Spirit gets His place in you, and then you make some decided step which you may never have thought of before. The more I enjoy the fact that I am in Christ before God, the more I rejoice that the Spirit of God is in me, and that I can say, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”, (Romans 8: 2) If I do not get to this I necessarily am like the Galatians, who, having begun in the Spirit, were trying to be made perfect in the flesh. The law is for the man who had departed from God; that man has been removed from God’s sight in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I rejoice that now by the law of the Spirit of life I am free from the law of sin and death, so that I am not in the flesh - though the flesh is in me - but if I, “through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body”, (Romans 8:13) I shall live.

Hence the only remedy for the Galatians was to put Christ in His right place. Ishmael must be cast out, and Isaac left master of the field. It is a great day in the soul when it can truly acknowledge that all of me is of Christ. The Lord has entire right to me and to direct everything in me. It is not only that He has accomplished my acceptance with God but that He owns me; therefore now my great exercise is to “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free”. (Galatians 5: 1) My first step in the christian walk is that, “I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2: 20); this is when Christ has got His true place. We can see from ^[p. 277] the case of the Galatians that a believer may have received the Spirit, and yet may not be walking in Spirit; therefore it is of the deepest importance that we not only live in the Spirit, but that we walk in Spirit, to have the clear consciousness that we are transferred by grace from Adam to Christ; and even in natural things here, the body is for the Lord; we are His bondmen, under His rule, and this is the hourly exercise of every true heart. It can only be happily known when Christ is the sole object of our hearts. I see the more a man walks in the Spirit, the more he knows that he is under the government Christ, and the more he realises his new place; he “that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”. (Galatians 6: 8)

It is a great warning to us that such as the Corinthians and Galatians could have received the Spirit, and yet did not walk in the Spirit either at home or the church. It is almost impossible to conceive such a gift as the Holy Spirit being possessed, and that one could walk in indifference to Him. But so it is; hence the apostle says to the Corinthians, “And I, brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as but carnal, even as unto babes in Christ”. (1 Corinthians 3: 1)

Thus we can understand how the spiritual have senses exercised to discern both good and evil; for it is a solemn fact that if you are not spiritual you are carnal. In the commonest detail of life here, you are ruled either by Christ or by your own will; but once you have begun the christian walk, and know the blessedness of it, you are not trying to correct yourself, for you know that all is removed from the eye of God; and you insist on the fact that it is gone in the cross of Christ, and that Christ is your life. Now you have started on the christian walk. It is to be borne in mind that the old man is crucified, and you cannot reform him, he is removed from the eye of God, and all the attempts of amiable people to reform him are ^[p. 278] only denying the fact that he has been removed in judgment. The responsible man is not before God now. It is now the day of grace. Everyone who receives His grace is set free from the man under judgment. The appeal to man now is not to do, but to look.

This is the first distinct assurance of the soul entering on the christian walk, “I am crucified with Christ”. (Galatians 2: 20) There may be a long time between receiving the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. When walking in the Spirit we are not trying to improve our manners; our manner and ways altogether are altered by the power and ways of acting of divine grace, not by any studied attempt of amiability. Now that Christ is formed in you, you enter on the christian path, and having learned what it is to walk in the Spirit, you begin to apprehend the wonderful place the Spirit has in you. He is interested in all that concerns you, making intercession for you “with groanings which cannot be uttered”. (Romans 8: 26) Now you are a man for God here, not ruled by your own will, but directed by the Spirit of God in every detail of your life according to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the manna - “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”. Galatians 2: 20)

Now as you walk in the Spirit you are according to the dispensation, that is, God’s rule for this day, and anything outside it is not His rule and He does not support it.

The 7th dispensation is, Christ reigns.

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