6

6

Jesus than anything this world affords today’. Can you say it?

Do you really mean it? It speaks of houses and lands, silver

and gold. How the devil would spread it all before you. What

would you rather have? That is what the Lord would say to you

as He finds you following Him. What do you want?

Here is a Man who is equal to the question. He says in 2 Kings

2: 9, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me”. It is like a

Christian saying to the Lord Jesus, ‘I would like to be formed

after your own character’. How precious to the Lord Jesus

must be the expression of such a longing! It is a deep longing.

It is not superficial. This is not like the young man in Mark 10

who ran into the way and very quickly ran back out of it. This is

a young man whose desire is fixed, and fixed after Christ. I

think the Lord Jesus would take account of you, and He would

probe you today in love, just to find out your desires, and the

depth of your longing. He would long just to impart something

of His own character to you. So, by the Spirit, (and there can

be no formation of character apart from the Holy Spirit) the

character that is formed in the believer is the character of the

blessed Man who is up there.

Well, what I have said may appear to be simple, but I believe

that there is much in it. The Lord has exposed certain things,

and I believe that the palpable weakness of them is the lack of

character formed, after Christ, and that can only be found as

we find His company. There is no other person that can impart

the Holy Spirit to you. He is the

Giver of the Holy Spirit. I am not saying the Holy Spirit again

comes down. The brethren know what I mean. The Lord

imparts the Holy Spirit. He is the Imparter of the Holy Spirit.

He says in John 20: 22, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. That is the

character of that blessed Man, and that intimate dealing with

His own, breathing into them. It is not hard blowing there, as in

Acts 2. It is breathing. It involves intimacy with Himself. It

involves nearness to Himself. I believe the great need of the