NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 NO. 55
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895 [p. 108] NO. 55
2 Kings 2: 9 - 14; John 14: 15 - 17
When Elijah was about to be taken up he said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee” - a great offer. Elisha can ask the full desire of his heart. If such an offer were made to us, would we answer as Elisha did? Elijah was going away, and Elisha would be left alone on the earth, and the one thing he desired was that a double, that is a full portion of Elijah’s spirit might be on him. He so realised his loss in the absence of Elijah that he felt nothing could compensate him for that loss but a double portion of his spirit. Love desired this more than anything. Hence our blessed Lord when going away said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide (or remain) with you for ever”. There are two activities - faith and love. Faith acquires things; love seeks personal nearness. Elisha gets the desire of his heart, and immediately he rends his own clothes, and takes up the mantle of Elijah. When we are in the Spirit and thus near the Lord, we are severed from our own things, and we are transformed into the same image, into correspondence with Christ. He does not leave us orphans, He comes to us as a company and even to us individually. He says, “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him”. The more our hearts are attached to Christ the more will the gift of the Spirit be enhanced to us. Though He is absent He has given the Spirit as the closest bond between Himself and us. May we realise more to the full satisfaction of our hearts that we have received the Holy Spirit and that thus we can be in unbroken nearness to the Lord, and do His pleasure though He is not here.