DIVINE SPEAKING AND DIVINE MOVEMENT
Romans 11:2 (from ‘Know’) -4; Numbers 10:29-36; John 6:53-63,66-69; Acts 19:7-10
I desire, dear brethren, with the help of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to speak of divine speaking and divine movement. We are in a critical day. The enemy is very busy and we know that in our spirits, in our hearts. The Lord Jesus would have us to listen to His voice and to move forward. He would speak to us individually and speak to us collectively, that we may move forward with Him. It is His testimony. We may ask, Is it all going to go to pieces? No it will not, because it is His testimony, and He will see it through until He comes. We can have confidence in Him. We may ask, Is the Lord Jesus with us? That is a good question. We may have many questions at the present time as to how current exercises affect me, how they affect brethren, affect one another. But a better question is, Am I with Him?
I read of two men who were used distinctively by God. They were honoured as being with the Lord Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration, conversing with Him about how He was going to depart out of this world. We read of how their faith, great men as they were, faltered a little. God had used Elijah distinctively, He had used his faithfulness; God had used him to bring down fire from heaven upon the offering on the altar (1 Kings 18:38). But then the faith of Elijah, or Elias as he is spoken of here, falters, and he resorts to his own strength, and that fails him. If we resort to our own strength, that will fail. What happens is that poor Elijah gives up in the face of the onslaught of the wicked woman Jezebel who had threatened that in twenty four hours he would die. So he ran away. He journeyed into the wilderness; he gave up, he lay down to die. But God in His gentleness recovered him, restored him. There was a cake there on hot stones and it revived him. How good God is when our faith might falter and how He reassures us about what He is doing. And so Elijah complained twice about the state of things, understandably from his point of view. But he related everything to himself, to his own feelings, and he thought everything depended upon him. What was the divine answer? The Lord would give an answer to every question we have in this hall today! He would give you the answer; the answer is in His heart. What is He doing? He has in mind that we should be encouraged, dear brethren, that we should move forward.
We need to judge ourselves, coming to a conclusion that “in my flesh, good does not dwell” (Rom.7:18); that I am a poor feeble person in my own flesh, which cannot please God. But then we come round to God’s way of thinking and we see what God is doing. What He is doing amongst His saints. It is very heartening to see that adjustment comes in to bring the people of God round to His own way. What does He say? “I have left to myself” – it is God who has done it, and for Himself – “seven thousand men, who have not bowed knee to Baal”. Seven thousand! What a good number that is! Think of how everyone is valued. Think of how God is working. The Lord would rally His saints to what is right for Himself according to the honour that is due to His name, that we should no longer bow the knee to what is idolatrous, what is on the wrong line, but that we might be rallied to the mind of the Lord Jesus, the mind of God. How we would be helped individually. Is there anyone here feeling disheartened? Is anyone feeling like giving up, anyone feeling that the testimony is over, anyone feeling that, No, I cannot go on. What is the divine answer? The Lord would speak to you, He would speak to me, appeal to us, show you what He is doing in the hearts of His people.
I read from Numbers because there you see what God was doing collectively. Moses had been used distinctively, but here we see that his faith faltered a little. His faith for the wilderness journey faltered a little and he turned to his father-in-law. It says of him that he was a Midianite. What is Midianitish, that is what is close to us naturally, our relatives, may be a snare, they may lead us in the wrong direction. Moses was influenced by that and he said “thou wilt be to us for eyes”. Before that we see that Hobab said “I will not go; but to mine own land, and to my kindred will I go”. Hobab had no desire for the land, he had no desire to move forward, therefore how could he have eyes to lead others forward? What happens? What happens is that God comes into the matter despite Moses’ failure, despite Moses lack of faith. At this point God comes in and it says that “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them”. It is a wonderful thing when, despite my faltering, despite my doubts as to whether we are going to get through the arduous journey, the difficulties of the way, we find that “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them”. The Lord will do that. Think of Him in the way that He would lead us according to His own direction, lead us on in His own attractiveness. Everything for God and His relationships with His people depended on the ark of the covenant of Jehovah. How great and how glorious the ark was! It led the way through the Jordan, and the people followed through. Here we see that the ark gave the answer to Moses’ doubts.
As the Lord comes into a matter and He moves, how important it is to follow Him. Where is He going? Where is He leading? It is three days’ journey. One who has taught us has spoken of that three days’ journey being like Romans, Colossians and Ephesians. There is an objective in the Lord’s heart that we should arrive at the full grown man, that we should arrive at our place in the heavenlies together. That is the truth of the assembly. So it says of the ark that it “went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them”. Are we prepared to follow the ark, are we prepared to follow the Lord Jesus together? To hear His voice and to see that He takes over when we have faltered, when we have failed in our responsibility and let the Lord down. We see in His grace, in His authority, in His love for His saints, that He will lead in the way forward. Are we prepared to follow Him? How attractive He is! And so we see how the ark goes through in its majestic power. Moses says “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered”. Think of how the ark went through; nothing could resist it, nothing could oppose it. There the ark was going through Jordan, and all the people had to do was to follow. The difficulties melt away as you see that the Lord is in a matter, and He goes forward. Then it says “when it rested, he said, Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”. It is God having His place among His people, God resting in the wonderful joy of reconciliation which is for Himself. Think of how all that is for God’s own pleasure, God’s own rest.
I read from John’s gospel because here we have the Lord speaking. He was speaking to the people generally; some received it and some did not. How do I receive the words of the Lord Jesus, His present voice? He said, “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up at the last day”. Many of them said “This word is hard”. Is anyone here saying that the Lord’s word is hard? Is anyone saying that the way is too hard? The Lord would lead us into the secret of what it is to accept His death to what I find in myself. We were speaking about the atoning value of the shedding of the blood of Jesus. Not only has He died for my sins, not only was He crucified so that my sins should be forgiven, but He died to the world. That is something that we have to feed upon and contemplate, think about, pray about. That is what feeding upon Him is. John 6 is of course not the Lord’s supper, but when we come to the Supper, we see the loaf and the cup, and they are separate. That speaks of the death of the Lord Jesus; we are reminded of it each week. He has died to the world and that is unacceptable to the flesh, so they said “This word is hard”. It is too hard for the flesh, I do not like it. I find in my fleshly way that my thoughts are opposed to what the Lord is saying in the word of the cross. But then the test comes as to whether I am going to go on, whether I am going to accept what He says, and so a journey is about to commence through John’s gospel.
John in his gospel describes wonderfully the way in which the Lord Jesus proceeds. Jesus speaks in chapter 7 of the coming of the Holy Spirit. He delivered the blind man, gave him his sight, and gave him sight of His own personal glories as Son of God. Think of how He brought that man into the fold, into the flock, so that he found his part amongst those whom the Lord must bring into that place where He is the Centre, where He is the Shepherd. Later in John’s gospel, we see how the Lord Jesus came into circumstances where death was and how He raised Lazarus. The glory of God was seen in that. Jesus came into that little company in Bethany where the sweetness of communion was known amongst those who truly loved Him and gave Him the first place. In chapter 13, we have John’s account of how He served His disciples, washing their feet in the intimacy of His own personal service. Think of how He reassured them in chapter 14. Our place is assured that we may be with Him above in the Father’s house. Then He introduces the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit to our hearts, the One who is the Comforter! What an insight the disciples had, those who stood with Him and stayed the course, saw what there was in the intimacy of the Lord’s relationship with His Father in praying for them “that they may be one as we” (chap.17:11). Then He went on to the garden, the “I am” coming to light and the opposers falling away backward (chap.18:6). Then we see the Lord Jesus on the cross. There were those who stood by the cross; there is true testimony in those who are prepared to stand by the cross of Jesus. What did John see? He writes in precious witness of the love of the Lord Jesus shining out at the cross as never before! So we see in chapter 20 that on the other side of death, there was a company whose Centre was Jesus. In the midst of that company was the Lord Jesus, the One who had come out of death. He was longing that they should be known as His brethren on new ground, assembly ground, resurrection ground. It is His view of His saints, His brethren. Those who lasted the course, who stood with Him and went with Him, did not miss out on any of that.
But in this chapter, there were those who went back, and the Lord Jesus said “”Will ye also go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?” Are any wanting to go away? The will might be at work there. It is not like Elijah exactly, but there might be those whose will it is that they would go away. The Lord says, Will you? “Will ye also go away?” Simon Peter’s answer is “Lord, to whom shall we go?” To go away might be the bent of my heart, what I might want to do, but what is Peter’s answer? “Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast words of life eternal; and we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”. How important it is to be delivered and to go forward definitely. It comes to knowing, in certainty in your own heart, the blessedness of the person of the Lord Jesus and the way in which He would have us go as following Him.
I read from Acts where we see another divine movement, a movement that was given through the apostle Paul. We see that there was a turning point. There have been many turning points in the history of the assembly. We were speaking earlier about that great movement nearly two hundred years ago which was begun not by man but by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit acted in persons all over the world independent of one another. He brought in a realisation that the Lord Jesus is the Bridegroom, and if He is the Bridegroom, then there must be a bride. What was the answer to that? It was divine speaking, divine movement. There have been other movements through ministry that has been so valuable over these years. Think of what it is to come to enjoy eternal life through the divinely appointed way – the kingdom, the new covenant, reconciliation and eternal life. What it is to be recovered to the realisation of the greatness of the sonship of Christ. What it is to see the glory of the movements of the Holy Spirit, and what led on from that, to recognise the Holy Spirit in the service of God. These were divine movements, and the Lord would help us that we may see His moving to the point when He comes for us. Are we ready?
In this scripture, there was a movement and it involved separation. Someone was asking me the other day about the basis in scripture for emphasising separation. Well, this is one! It was the beginning of what was needed to reach the Lord’s objective. The Lord’s word comes out here. Separation was needed when some were hardened and disbelieved. The Spirit would guide us into the way; “This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isa.30:21. Are we becoming hardened, disbelieving, “speaking evil of the way before the multitude”? What are we speaking of? Who are we speaking to? Paul left them and “separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus”. That was a hard school. No one is going to say that the Christian way is an easy one. No one is going to say that you will not need discipline in your life, as you take up what is due to the Lord and His name. But what you will find as you take that up is that you will be given divine support. And so the “word of the Lord” came into it; “so that all that inhabited Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”. Jews and Greeks were united together into one body to form the assembly.
We read of Paul’s objective in Ephesians 3 verse 18, “in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. That was Paul’s objective. You may think that it was a hard way he took in Acts 19, that to separate the disciples was not a very Christian thing to do, but what was his objective? Paul’s objective was that all should arrive. The truth is for all, for every believer. There is nothing sectarian about what Paul says in Ephesians; it is for all the saints. Well, are we in the light of God’s thoughts in relation to the assembly? Paul wrote “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”; Eph.4:13. That is the divine objective! The objective of divine movement is that we might come into the full appreciation of the glory of the Lord Jesus, of how His chief interest is the assembly and that she is His body. He is the Head of the assembly and He is working through His influence, working in His glory, that there should be an answer to His own heart.
May the Lord help us, each one of us, for His name’s sake.
Address at Strood
5 September 2015
J.B. Ikin
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