STIRRING UP
H.J.Taylor
Haggai 1: 14; 2 Peter 1: 12,13; 3: 1, 2
I desire, beloved brethren, to speak quite briefly about the service of stirring up the saints. We had some experience of this here in a reading recently, with particular reference to this kind of meeting, and I wish to show from the Scriptures that this is a wholly right service and is a means that God uses to help us forward in the truth and in answering to it. So I have selected these scriptures: the one in Haggai, in which God Himself graciously engages in this service, and then in Peter who does so likewise.
In the history in Ezra we read that these two men, Zerubbabel and Joshua, are moved to engage in the work of reconstruction as a result of the prophetic ministry, but the Spirit of God here in this verse traces for us the source of that, and that is that "Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel... and the spirit of Joshua... and the spirit of all the remnant of the people". I think it is a very fine consideration to think of God stirring the spirits of the saints, and as a result of this stirring here it says that "they came and worked at the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God". I think we feel some sense of stirring amongst us through this divine service, so that we are encouraged to go on in the work. Perhaps others, like myself, feel that the part he or she has in the work of the Lord is very small indeed. When we consider the extent of that work we would have to admit that it is very small, but let us remember, dear brother, dear sister, that it is the work of the Lord, and we are not therefore in any way to demean it but rather to be encouraged to engage in it in an increasing way. So as we take the application of this verse to ourselves it would be that we discern a certain stirring in our spirits from God which would help us to commit ourselves in an increasing degree to the work of the Lord. This is not limited to brothers who minister but is something that every brother and every sister would rightly be concerned about : In what way can I engage in a fuller degree in the work of the Lord? Let our spirits, therefore, be stirred in this direction.
Now in Peter's second epistle he is an old man; he had had a long period of service but is about to be taken to be with Christ, to put off his tabernacle; but he says, Before I do so - "As long as I am in this tabernacle" - "I account it right... to stir you up". So let not any one of us have any tinge of resentment at being stirred up but rather be thankful for the way in which it would help us to go forward. Peter is not writing to these believers because there are things that they are going on with in a wrong way. He says, You know these things and you are established in the present truth. I received help some time back here as to the meaning of "the present truth"; it is not just something that is brought out by the Spirit of God at some particular time but it relates to the whole truth of Christianity - "the present truth" - what belongs to this wonderful period in which we are, in which Christ is on high and the Spirit is here. These believers were established in that, and yet Peter says "I account it right... to stir you up by putting you in remembrance"; that is, he would keep these things constantly before the brethren. This is something that we experience, and would experience more I think - the service of being stirred up. It does not look as if he envisages just occasionally doing so but, so to say, As long as I am alive, this is what I am going to do - "to stir you up by putting you in remembrance". How fine that is, that the Lord has graciously granted to us brothers who can stir us up in relation to the great truths of Christianity. So let us make room for this service, let us receive it thankfully and answer to it.
Before he finishes his letter he engages in this service again. In chapter 3 he says "I stir up, in the way of putting you in remembrance". Again, he is not critical of any wrong state in the brethren. He is stirring up their pure mind, "to be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by your apostles". What a scope of things there is here! The apostle would stir the saints up in relation to them; he would have them kept constantly before their minds - "the words spoken before by the holy prophets", and then (how choice!) "and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by your apostles". How much has come to us in the holy Scriptures, and by ministry which has its own authority, and there is a constant need, one feels for oneself, maybe others do too, of being stirred up in relation to these things so that we get into them more fully and answer increasingly to the divine desires for the saints walking in the light of the assembly at the present time.
So dear brethren, it was just this simple thought arising from the stirring we have had; and let us all be ready to answer to these stirrings-up, in no way resenting them but rather getting the gain of them, stirred up as to the work of the Lord in any way in which we can be furthered in this, and then to the whole scope of the truth, and be established in it, for His Name's sake.
LONDON
8 April 1975