RESPONSE TO GOD
A. A. Bellamy
We have many types, of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Some are fluid types, such as dew, water, wind, and oil. That is instructive, because we tend to become rigid and fixed in our minds, and this sometimes hinders the service and activity of the blessed Spirit. Everything has come to us in the Spirit, and the Spirit has come from heaven. The early chapters of the Acts are full of the thought of what is from heaven, and we need to be deepened in our apprehension
of what has come to us in the Spirit from heaven. The glad tidings also are preached in the power of the Spirit sent from heaven. He has come forth from with the Father, and He has been sent from with the Father, John 15: 26. That is how Jesus refers to the Comforter. But in any case what has come to us in this dispensation has come by the Spirit, and the Spirit has come from heaven. “A man can receive nothing”, John says, “unless it be given him out of heaven”, John 3: 27.
How much of that we have received is an interesting question for each of us. We can see that others received from heaven. Paul refers to what he received from the Lord, and the Lord was in heaven when Paul received it. Others received from the Lord, no doubt, when He was here upon earth—“for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”, John 1: 16. But
in regard to the glad tidings that he preached, Paul says he received them from the Lord. And in regard to the truth of the Lord’s supper, he says he received that from the Lord. These things have come to us in the Spirit sent down from heaven.
Now these two scriptures bring before us, firstly, the thought of what flows down, and, secondly, what returns in response springing up, “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. We thus have the descending thought and the ascending thought. Jesus it is who descended; not only from heaven did He come, but He descended into the lower parts of the earth from the lowly place He had already taken in the condition of manhood. He descended from that place—wondrous fact—into the lower parts of the earth. But “He that descended is the
same who has also ascended up above all the heavens”, Ephesians 4: 10. That is where He now is, and what has come from heaven in the Spirit has come from Him there.
This psalm is intended to arrest our thoughts. “Behold”, the word is, “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” There would be in that the true representation of God testimonially. Disunity is dishonouring to God. We should feel it deeply that God has been misrepresented through our failure. But the positiveness is in this thought of brethren dwelling together in unity. It is testimonial, I believe, according to what the Lord says to the Father, “That they may be one, as we are one … that the world may know that thou hast sent me”, John 17: 22, 23.
Then we are told that this dwelling together by brethren in unity is like “the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments”. That is a great comfort to me, dear brethren, that in this time, in this finishing time, the end of the dispensation, the Spirit of God is in no sense withdrawn from the divine side. He is here, in the assembly, right up to date “That ran down to the hem of his garments”;
“his garments” refer to what is here in relation to Christ. The hem is the finish; it is not a loose end, it is not something uncompleted. The hem of the garments is the completed thought.
God has great delight in what is complete. “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, (John 5: 17), would be with a view to restful conditions being reached. God rested after His work which He had created; He rested on the seventh day. But then, the Lord says, “I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”, John 17: 11. And now, how can God’s work be complete if the Spirit of God is not made way for, made room for amongst us in every detail? I doubt whether there is anything we can do rightly, either in testimony or in serving God, without the Spirit.
Well, this condition of things is “like the precious oil”, and it is “as the dew … that descendeth”. We should be seized of this thought, dear brethren, of what comes down, the descending thought. Paul says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 2: 5. It is the tendency to go down which affords delight to heaven. Right from the outset in our souls’ relations with God as convicted sinners there should be with us the tendency to go down. “This man went down to his house justified rather than that other”, Luke 18: 14. It is not simply that he went to his house; he went down to it. What a time this is, beloved brethren, to be going down. We may review things which have come in on the public side—not to be unduly occupied with them, but just to promote a little more within each one of us the descending line. “The dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion; for there hath Jehovah commanded the blessing …” We are, I believe, assured as to where the Lord is, and we shall find that where He is the blessing is. “There hath Jehovah commanded the blessing”. That is a very choice thought—God commanding blessing! He may return, as the prophet says, and who knows but that He will leave a blessing behind Him, (see Joel 2: 14).
So He visits us today, here, in this place, and surely He will leave a blessing behind Him. But it says here that He commanded the blessing. Anything that is by divine command will stand. The truth of the mystery is by divine command, made known by commandment of the eternal God, (see Romans 16: 26). It is not something that Paul conceived in his mind. It was by revelation that he had it; and it was made known by commandment of the eternal God. Oh, dear brethren, we need to get hold of this thought of what is by divine command—“He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” Psalm 33: 9.
So our present blessing is life for evermore. I suppose many of our fellow-believers think that they will go to heaven and enjoy eternal life there; but we shall not need it there. Eternal life is for the earth; it is for us now. It is to be known and enjoyed, and it is known and enjoyed by us now, in this scene of moral death. Mr. Raven said that if one says he has eternal life, he should be able to describe it. Could you describe what you have, in that sense? Well, I think, dear brethren, without going into doctrine, that we know the Lord has brought this about by divine command, life for evermore, and that it is for all to enjoy now. The blessing of eternal life is contained in the glad tidings, that they “may not perish, but have life eternal”, John 3: 16.
In John 4 we have eternal life again “a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. This involves what is from us towards God in His service, as the remainder of the passage shows.
The woman is led by the Lord quickly from this point into the great and wonderful realm of the worship of God. But first of all it is a question of the water that Christ would give; “The water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. The prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2: 13) refers to “broken cisterns that can hold no water”. Every human system is a broken cistern.
There is no room in any human system for the Holy Spirit, and therefore no power to retain what is precious, what has come from heaven.
Now this woman was not a person like that; she was a vessel. She understands that she herself is a vessel. You can see that because she left her water-pot. She had become the
vessel. “Shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”—water, as we know, finds its own level. It rises to the level of its source. It cannot go beyond that, but it will do that. And so in the believer who has the Spirit there is that which rises up to God; it rises up to its Source, and it springs up. It has great energy behind it. Energy is to be expressed or manifested spiritually in the service of God in persons. Take the doxologies of Scripture; there you have it, springing up in those persons, extraordinary persons. Take a man like Nebuchadnezzar, once unconverted; “Whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive”, Daniel 5: 19. But God put out His hand and reached that man and made him personally a vessel of praise. So we have a doxology from the lips of a man like Nebuchadnezzar, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of the heavens, all whose works are truth, and his paths judgment”, Daniel 4: 37. Then there are Paul and others in the New Testament—springing up into eternal life are their doxologies.
They could not have been premeditated; they were spontaneous. The Lord has great regard for what is spontaneous in each one of us, and more especially in the assembly where there is the responsive springing up of affection for Christ and in the service of God.
So I thought it would move our hearts, dear brethren, to see, on the one hand, what descends, what has come to us in the Spirit, as alone it could in divine light and love, direct from God into our souls. But it is not merely to be left there, but to return in mighty response as Paul says, “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen”, Ephesians 3: 21
Address at Helston
24 November 1973