THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE SERVICE OF GOD

Ephesians 3: 14-21; Galatians 4: 6, 7.

J.S.P. We had a distinct impression this morning of the way the Holy Spirit seems to have part all through the service. We started with the hymn, 'While for this moment, O Lord, we have waited, Oft has the Comforter spoken of Thee' (hymn 4) and finished with the hymn 'Strengthened with might by the Father's own Spirit' (hymn 129) in relation to the fulness of praise to God. These thoughts rather strengthened my impression that there might be some help in enquiring into the way in which the Holy Spirit is presented in Scripture, particularly in relation to this great matter of the service of God. The scripture in Ephesians sums up the whole matter because it leads on to glory to God "in the assembly in Christ Jesus", while Galatians refers particularly to the liberty we have in addressing God as having the Spirit of His Son in our hearts, crying Abba, Father.

E.C.B. "Who worship by the Spirit of God" (Phil 3: 3) is characteristic I suppose of 'us'. It would bear on your enquiry.

J.S.P. I think so.

E.C.B. You are not just concerned about that part of the service in which we address the Spirit objectively, as known to us, but about the way in which He helps us in preparing ourselves for the occasion and then sustains us in power in every aspect of it from 'calling Me to mind' onwards; I suppose that would require the Spirit in us.

J.S.P. I was thinking, to begin with, of the way in which we would have part in addressing the Spirit in the service of God; but what you have said is, I think, important, that we should be able to recognise the service of the Spirit and His presence in relation to every phase of the service of God.

A.J.E.W. It may confirm this that we had an affecting address to the Spirit this morning, speaking of the Father's Spirit, the Spirit of God's Son, the Spirit of God and the Spirit in us; it seemed to remind us peculiarly of the great extent of the Spirit's connection with the service and, if I could put my own word to it, the infinite adaptability of the power and service of the Spirit to every part of what we engage in in the service of God .

H.A.H . I think it was our experience too - the suggestions as to the part the blessed Spirit has in relation to the Father's feelings in relation to the Son and in the affection of the Lord Jesus and His own joy in responding to the Father's love, and the way the blessed Spirit comes :into all that.

E.P. And the way that the Spirit serves so that there might be decisiveness in our committal to what is for the heart of Christ. I think the Spirit of God is calling for this decisiveness of love for Christ.

H.A.H. I wondered in relation to the Lord's day particularly, whether it begins with becoming in the Spirit on the Lord's day as John experienced it.

C.G.H . How does the service of the Spirit relate to the peculiar place that the Lord has in the service of God and the way in which the Lord not only looks for something for His own heart, but is concerned that the Father should be worshipped and that we should have some impression of the glory and greatness of God?

E.C.B. I think we shall find as we enquire that the Spirit enters into all those things. We cannot touch anything spiritual apart from the Holy Spirit and all that we touch in the service of God is essentially spiritual. Hence the Holy Spirit seems to me to pervade it all.

C.H. Is not the Spirit connected very closely with the spirit of the believer?

E.C.B. Yes, I wondered therefore whether what Mr Pugh touched on, as to the Spirit entering in a preparatory way into our coming to the service, did not link with Romans 8 and the Spirit there as leading us, as we say, in the wilderness. In that chapter the Spirit is peculiarly linked with the spirit of the believer.

C.H. And there, do you think, His activity is presented normally? In Romans the believer cries, but in Galatians the Spirit cries, because of the abnormality of the Galatian state.

E.C.B. Therefore being able to touch being "in the Spirit on the Lord's day" would flow readily out of Romans 8 which looks towards the world to come and to redemption, which will. be introduced distinctively by the day of the Lord. But the Spirit would take us in our feelings and in our own spirits as you say. Mr Darby says it is not always possible to distinguish between the small 's' and the capital 'S'. But all that would help us as entering in Spirit into what belongs to the Lord's day.

A.J.E.W. Is it not of moment that that point is brought out in reference to John? Being in Spirit on the Lord's day is brought out in relation to John, that is a seasoned disciple: not to shut anyone of us out of it, but rather to show that the Spirit is very closely connected there with the development of the work of God in a man, which touches what we are speaking about - our spirit.

C.H. It is not just the fact stated, but he became in the Spirit on the Lord's day. It stands connected with what was said.

E.C.B. It touches the question of our ability to enter into that order of things. The cry in Galatians emerges out of the doctrinal disorder and misrepresentation of the gospel and John's becoming in the Spirit on the Lord's day is over against all the chaos in government that is around him, as if the cry of the Spirit and our becoming in Spirit are a way out of whatever disorder there may be, doctrinal or administrative.

W.J.W. Is that what we speak of as our privilege? The Lord's day is something distinctive, different from every other day of the week. That would be the privilege side that we are able to enter into by the Spirit, which is really our eternal an proper portion.

C.H. Does it not bear on what has been said about the state of the individual? The Lord’s day is largely concerned with the individual, but the Lord’s day can become the first day of the week, and that is really what we are at, the height of things that belongs to the first day of the week.

E.C.B. I think it is important for us to relate our thoughts to the first day of the week, because while John became in Spirit on the Lord's day and we get impressions from that as to what we may touch on the first day of the week, it is very much connected with His dominical rights as about to put everything right in the world, is it not, as if John entered into what that was in his spirit already? Later he says, "Immediately I became in the Spirit" (Rev 4: 2) as if that was not quite the same thing to him. But the reference in chapter 1 is in relation to the dominical rights of Christ mainly, is it not?

C.H. Quite so. The Lord's word to the woman of Samaria was that the Father be worshipped in spirit and truth, as though God is effecting something in the believer that can respond in worship, but it is the inwards that are affected, not just the mind.

E.C.B. What the Lord says there is very profound, because He says "God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship him in spirit", John 4: 24. 'In truth' involves the moral side I think. But God is a spirit and you must worship Him in spirit. Hence we must be ready and prepared for entrance into things that belong to the Spirit, must we not? You may have something more in mind as to the preparatory side of this.

J.S.P. It impresses me as being very important. I was thinking of what has just been said as to the way in which it speaks of John, that John became in the Spirit, as if there is something leading up to it. So the way we gather together at the Supper on the Lord's day flows from exercises we have been carrying during the week in which the Holy Spirit has been available to us and one would desire to know more of what it is to make use of Him in that regard.

E.C.B. The Spirit is a great stay to us in all our daily life, provided we seek to be with God - the Spirit is not with us in sin - but He is also an outlet from it. I think the more we experience the outlet, the more ready we are for the Supper and God's service.

M.J.W. I feel the need myself and collectively that there should be ability to concentrate the mind. The more we can do that, the more we will be able to get free of the state in which we are and be carried away in a right sense. We need quietness and composure for that so that our mind is concentrated. If that is so collectively it would give great power to the meeting.

E.C.B. I am sure that is right: I think probably we all feel the need for more of that concentration in quietness during the week. And as we come together for the Supper the emblems help to concentrate our minds, so that they become focused and we have an ability in the Spirit to exclude other thin that is really needed if the Lord is to be ‘called to mind'.

E.P. Did you say that the Lord's day is connected with the individual?

C.H. Very largely, I think.

E.P. Would you explain that, please.

C.H. That is the setting in which it is in the scripture; that is I respect the day and keep it for Him, that is my outlook, but the inside privileges belong to the first day of the week, because that is something entirely new. The first day of the week is the beginning of a new order of things altogether, it seems to me, but I think what precedes it and is what is in mind is how we regard the day personally. It is His day, and it is His Supper.

E.P. Would it then be necessary for us individually to accord the Lord the place that is supreme in regard of our whole manner of life during the previous preparation time, so that the Holy Spirit would be free with us. If we fail to give the Lord His place, we cannot expect the Spirit to link on with that, can we?

J.S.P. I have often been challenged in relation to the hymn that I quoted, 'While for this moment, O Lord, we have waited, Oft has the Comforter spoken of Thee'. We must be available to Him to hear what He is going to say to us in that regard, must we not?

C.E.H. Why is it said to a woman, "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren and say to them", John 20: 17?

E.C.B. I think Mary is presented there as one who was governed by intense affection for Christ. We comment on her lack of intelligence, but I think the Lord soon put that right. She was governed by intense affection and we would keep before us the need for affection for the Father and the Son and the Spirit continually so that They become an object to us. But what the Lord said to Mary, which He has opened up for us through ministry, has given great fulness to God's service. The Lord in what He says to Mary does not mention the Spirit, but I think it is only in the Spirit that we can apprehend "My Father and your Father" and "My God and your God".

C.R.B. Does the discernment of the Spirit's service really flow out of the recognition of the greatness of His person?

E.C.B. Yes; that is fundamental and a truth that the Lord has recovered to us and which we cling to.

A.H.M. I was going to ask in connection with the service of the Spirit throughout the service, which is the subject of our enquiry, whether that would show how appropriate it is that the Spirit should have a place in our worship?

E.C.B. Yes, I think what has just been said would establish that for us, that the Spirit's service is so closely related to the greatness of His person. The more we prove the gain of His service, the more we shall be directed to Him in worshipful acknowledgement of His greatness. We need to touch worshipping the Spirit on account of who He is, not merely on account of His service to us.

C.H. The point as to the greatness of the Spirit highlights, do you think, the conflict as to the Spirit, worshipping the Spirit, speaking to Him and singing to Him, but it really was settled by the recognition that being who He was, having deity, He had a right to be worshipped.

E.C.B. That is to say He is God and we cannot apprehend in any sense what His service is unless we understand that He is God, can we, because His service would not be possible unless He were God? One of the aspects of what Mr Welch touched on before as to the Spirit's adaptability is that He is in us as the Spirit of adoption, but then He serves us in many other ways too. He never ceases to serve us as the Holy Spirit, known by that title.

A.J.E.W. The sense I have increasingly at the moment is that recognition of the Spirit, and the experience of the Spirit in this sense, is to lead into great wealth in the service of God before the assembly is translated. I believe we should be expectant of that and be preparing ourselves for it. I have thought a good deal of David going in and sitting before Jehovah (2 Sam 7: 18-29). There is no actual reference to the Spirit there, but surely in its application to us it would involve that a man is going in before God in the gain of the Spirit's service and reflecting, not only over his own discipline and course thus far, but the grand scope of what God has in His thoughts to secure. l wonder if we do that enough.

E.C.B. That is a realm into which we can only go by the Spirit, is it not? I was reflecting a little while ago too, whether when David says, "I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength", (Ps 18: 1), that is not an address to the Spirit, or would be in our day.

C.H. In that section quoted in 2 Samuel as to David , he addresses God by quite a number of titles showing the expansive way the Spirit would help us to take in the great range of God's thoughts.

A.J.E.W. David had remarkable point in his mind. He had conceived the thought of a house for God and His rest. He had to be adjusted as to his own part in it, but he conceived the thought. Where did he get it from? Is not this an allusion to what in our time answers to the service of the Spirit? Who sows in our souls a concern that God should have a dwelling entirely suited to Him?

C.H. Has not attention been called to the need of spiritual abstraction and is not that the point, that you sit in the meeting, perhaps at the Supper, and the Spirit gives you ability to abstract yourself from things which can be very distracting but you are sensitive now as to the service of God and your only concern is to move in the Spirit sensitively in the recognition of who He is and the reverence that is due to Him, so that these things might be a reality.

E.P. Does that depend upon resolution of mind or the actual service of a divine Person, this abstraction from what is circumstantial, and preoccupation, and that kind of thing?

C.H. It seems to me it is the help that the Spirit gives, that He can free from pressure of circumstances to be engaged with what really is before us, which, as was said earlier, is a wholly spiritual thing We have to get used to what is wholly spiritual, because eternity will be just that.

A.J.E.W. Is it appropriate to refer to the way that the scripture we read brings it in, "To be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man"; that is we need power. It is not just strengthened, but strengthened with power, and it is in the inner man. It is not exactly the outward man that needs it; that side has to be dealt with, but the inner man is referred to to emphasise the spiritual thought, is it not?

J.S.G. Does the fact that it comes in in the context of earnest prayer on the part of the apostle bring in the side of desire on our side?

A.J.E.W. And it is earnest prayer in relation to an actual company of saints in a locality in which God had wrought, which shows that the real, living operation of the matter is in mind, not just the light of the truth governing it.

C.H. It says it "works in us", not merely for us, but in us.

E.P. I understand that it is the power of God. I was thinking of what Mr Byng said about who the Person is, so that there is no limit really, is there?

J.S. Do you think therefore that the expression of David in 2 Samuel 23 is the more helpful for us, in that he begins with the Spirit of Jehovah. He relates himself to other persons of the Godhead we may say, but he starts with the "Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me, And his word was on my tongue". Then later on he brings in the "morning without clouds; When from the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth". I suppose t hat would bring us in in relation to the Spirit of God in His operations. But David speaks of himself in connection with the Spirit of Jehovah.

E.C.B. David seems to have understood then what it was to be what we speak of as a vessel of the Spirit . "The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me". And he looks forward to what we would understand as the Lord's day when the government will be in the hand of Christ. "The ruler among men shall be just, Ruling in the fear of God". But David was conscious that the Spirit was speaking by him. Whether we touch that at all in the service of God, I would like to enquire.

J.S. I remark on that because I believe we do. I believe that it is given expression amongst us that even as David looked forward in his spirit to what will transpire in the coming day in its actuality, we are carried away in a similar manner by the Spirit at the present time in the enjoyment of what is to be actually our portion.

E.C.B. This is the distinction between what we do by the Spirit and what the Spirit may do by us, and whether we touch in ourselves the Spirit doing something by us would be an interesting question, I think.

C.H. I must say it raised a question in my mind as we were assembled for the Supper this morning, as we approached the time of the Spirit with a hymn. I thought what material has the Spirit of God to make use of in the service of God? It is a question, not merely of what He has done for us, but what He has done in us. That is the marvel, I believe, of the Spirit's work at the present time, that there is something substantial in the saints which goes back to God in worship.

E.C.B. I am sure that is right, to have the sense of the Spirit having taken over is a very powerful experience.

W.E.E. I was going to enquire as to the Spirit's service in relation to the new covenant. We have been told, and no doubt rightly, that it is not the Father's supper nor the Spirit's supper; it is the Lord's supper: but in connection with the new covenant the Spirit seems to have some place. I would like some help as to that. 2 Corinthians 3 is in relation to the Spirit, the Spirit's service, and that is connected with the new covenant. In relation to the cup the new covenant comes before us every Lord's day. How far does the Spirit enter into that, not perhaps in an objective way but the love of God "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us", Rom 5: 5? It seems to be the idea of the new covenant and I am enquiring as to what part the Spirit has in that part of the service.

E.P. Does it touch the matter of conscious liberty, because I suppose there is one thing among others that marks the new covenant and that is that God is free and that we on our side can be free too, because of what He says in regard of the new covenant. We know that it is made with Israel, but the spirit of it can be enjoyed and entered into by saints now.

E.C.B. Has it been said that the new covenant involves for us the forgiveness of sins and the giving of the Spirit? As we have the cup and understand what has been ministered to us in regard to the cup, we know the forgiveness of sins, but does not the Spirit given to us correspond with God's law being put in our inward parts and written on our hearts? So that the response is not from fleshy tables, but is the response of the Spirit's formation in us. And the Spirit, according to 2 Corinthians 3, occupies us with the glory of the Lord.

C.H. I would like to ask what is the meaning of 2 Corinthians 3, 17? "Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty". Do you not think at times that the question of the terms of the new covenant are more in our minds than Him who filled out absolutely the representation of God towards us? Is that implied in "Now the Lord is the Spirit"? It is really a reference back to the covenant.

E.C.B. I think it is a reference back, as you say, but what you say only strengthens me in the impression that what the Spirit does would be to occupy us with the glory of the Lord. So that it is not the detail of the new covenant that we are engaged with, but the One who has made it good for God and for us and for Israel.

C.H. It seems to me that that is really the important thing, because we can discuss how far the terms apply and that kind of thing, but it says, "The Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty'', as though the Spirit is so near the Lord. It suggests the peculiar place He has in the representation of all that is in the heart of God to us.

E.C.B. Yes, and the direct connection is with the Spirit as quickening, is it not? That comes before the parenthesis in that chapter. "The Spirit quickens" (v.6), "Now the Lord is the Spirit" (v.17), as if in that quickened realm we would understand both the glory of the Lord and the position of the Spirit Himself, in the place He has as Lord.

A.J.E.W. Is it right to say with reverence that the Lord and the Spirit do not need to support each other, but there is holy collaboration in the saints to secure them as God would have them to be. It is a wonderful conception to realise how the saints are acted on by two glorious Persons of the Godhead in view of God getting His full portion.

C.H. One of the impressions that we often get at the Supper is their consideration for One another as well as collaboration; that is the Spirit considering for the Lord and for the Father, the Father considering for the Son, for He has given Him a suitable companion. It all enters into this matter, I think, of our ability to be restfully there and take in spiritual thoughts.

W.T.A. What is in the thought of our being strengthened by the Father's Spirit?

A.J.E.W. Being the Father's Spirit, it is the Spirit in relation to the Person who has the supreme place in love's economy, so that it would be a very wide area of thought that would be embraced by the Father's Spirit, leading on to what is for God Himself in the fullest sense. To see that the section runs on to "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus" shows that a very extensive and elevated course of things is in view, does it not?

C.R.B. The immediate bearing of it seems to be that there may be a dwelling-place for Christ.

W.T.A. Yes, I had in mind that it follows on "that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts".

C.R.B. Does it not all link on with any measure of experience we have in the service, that we are really learning to know God as experiencing the way that the three Persons of the Godhead are so wonderfully working together? The result is we know God and are able to worship God? Any thought of any of the Persons of the Godhead working separately is foreign to the whole spirit of Scripture, is it not? But our experience helps us to value the Father, and to value the Son, and to value the Spirit, because They are all drawing attention to One another in a sense, and yet we learn to know God as the spiritual result. Is that as you understand it?

C.H. Do you think, as considering that, that we should recognise the particular place that the Father takes in the economy?

C.R.B. Is not that one of the inward results in us of the service of the Son and the service of the Spirit ?

C.H. And practically, do you think, in the course of the service, without being too dogmatic, the Father should be given that place, because that is how They have been revealed and He represents God in the economy, does He not?

C.R.B. Yet we would recognise, would we not, by experience the place of Christ as the Minister of the holy places, as guiding us, in one sense, right thought the whole service.·

C.H. And the Spirit, do you think, sustaining us?

C.E.H. Did not the Father remain "in simple Deity" (JND)?

C.G.H. The reference to the Lord guiding us throughout the service was what I had in mind in my enquiry at the outset because, according to what was subsequently said, that guidance would come from the Lord, and must be by the Spirit as far as our apprehension of the leading is concerned.

C.R.B. Is not that something we prove whenever we are together, that we depend upon the Spirit to discern the 'leading of Christ?

W.E.E. And alongside that would there be what has been called 'the light which governs the position,' so that we would be intelligent as to what we do. I was thinking of the reference to the place the Father has. It has been said that, in view of the place that He has, normally a good portion of the service would be for the Father's pleasure and addressed to Him. I wonder whether, perhaps in view of a limited number of brothers to function, sometimes the Father does not get such a large place in the service as perhaps the Lord would have us give. I do not know.

C.R.B. I think that is something we should carry in our exercises and not forget what Mr Taylor taught many years ago, that the greater part of the service of God is normally in song. We do not want to forget that, do we? That would still, I think, be the mind of the Lord.

A.J.E.W. It would not be inappropriate in the circumstances mentioned if a brother got up twice; if he spoke to the Lord and later to the Father. I remember in some circumstances Mr Taylor said that a brother should.

C.R.B. Last Lord's day, in the Eltham part of the city, there were just three brothers and three sisters and I think we had an outstanding occasion with an experience of the eternal character of the worship of God. I think perhaps each brother took part more than once and gave out more than one hymn.

W.J.W. I was linking that thought with what it says here, "That ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length". Could you say something about that - "All the saints". How are we to apprehend that? Does that come into our minds and affections at such an appropriate time, do you think, to take us out of our fewness of numbers?

C.R.B. Does it not link with what was said that, as Christ takes His place in the midst, you are carried by the Spirit's power into a sphere which is far beyond the limitations of a small room, into the consciousness of the place that Christ is functioning in in relation to al'! saints.

A.J.E.W. You do not start counting the brethren present when that point comes; your whole thought is in the direction of the completeness, the whole thought of what God has.

C.R.B. You are almost surprised at the end of the meeting to find there are only still the same brothers and sisters you started with.

E.C.B. In those circumstances you also lose count of the number of times you take part, because when 'from one heart, divinely pressed, Bursts forth at length the loud exclaim', and the chorus joins in again, Mr Darby does not say they were singing it a second time. Going back to the earlier remarks as to the closeness of collaboration between divine Persons, do you think that sometimes we may tend to divide up verse 18 of chapter 2 too much, almost as if there were three compartments, "through him", "by one Spirit", "to the Father"? We need some greater impression of God being involved in that, so that we are not dividing things up?

C.R.B. Yes, I think it all would link on with the experience which perhaps we need to be deepened in more in the reality of the worship of the Trinity. We had some measure of help on it, no doubt, in doctrine, and perhaps in procedure we were rather active, but do you think the reality of the worship of the Trinity would bear on all these matters?

E.C.B. Yes, I do, and I think, while it is an Old Testament expression, we should carry forward what is said "Jehovah our God is one Jehovah", Deut 6: 4. And our God is one God, known to us in Father, Son and Spirit. I am sure what you say is right, and it needs to be said, that the worship of the Trinity would be a very great help to us in spiritual understanding.

H.J.T. Is that where the use of hymns is particularly serviceable to us? Speaking for oneself, one feels how little one could say in that setting but join in the spirit of many of the hymns that are appropriate then.

C.R.B. Yes, and it provides a great vehicle for the Spirit to transport us, does it not? And it brings all the sisters vitally into it; it makes us all conscious we are sons worshipping God.

C.H. But in moving on to the full thought of the Trinity, which I suppose is connected with 'the Fulness', we must not forget the way, the relative way, the Persons have come out. Hence, do you think, more place could well be given to the Father in worship to Him, because He has that double designation "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ''?

C.R.B. We have been helped by experience, have we not, that worship flows to the Lord Jesus first, and then to the Spirit? There was a time when we tried to reverse that order; it never worked, it was not spiritually right. But do you think the more sensitive we are as to the feelings of Christ in relation to His assembly, the more alert we should be as to how to move on under His touch in the response to the Spirit and a fuller response to ·the Father. I do not think the Lord would want us to wait too long, if that is the right expression, in response to Himself; He would lead us onward, would He not?

C.H. And in regard of what has been said about sort of dividing the service into parts the fact is, do you think, that the passage from one to the other should be smooth, should it not? It is not exactly you come to another part or phase of the service exactly - I know that expression has been used - but in regard to each of the Persons, the Lord, the Spirit and the Father, it is God that really is before the soul, is it not?

E.C.B. You would regard the present order of the service of God as a thing established by the Lord?

C.R.B. Yes, I think so. Without dwelling on history, some of us remember a time when we tried to work another way and it did not work, did it? But, as you say, I think we have been abundantly confirmed by experience that the way the service normally flows forward now seems to be of God .

C.H. Was not that due to the logical conclusion arrived at by an able mind? It was not a spiritual understanding at all, do you think, of the setting of the Supper.

E.C.B. No, and what it gave rise to was that we come together, of course, in relation to the Lord Jesus for the Supper and we are engaged with Him and in the order in which we have the service as established by the Lord, we go on with Him, and then we turn to the Spirit, then to the Father; but what was done for a time involved that we were engaged with the Lord, and then with the Spirit, and then with the Lord again, and that seems to me contrary to things that have been taught for very many years. One is asked the question sometimes elsewhere, whether one regards the present order as established by the Lord and I always say 'yes'.

C.H. The brethren say 'yes' with you, because it is confirmed in spiritual experience, is it not? Not just a certain regularised order, but the rightness of it appeals to a taught mind as right.

R.W.F. Does God delight in order Himself? I would not say that to the detriment of life, but there was an attempt to bring up the ark not after due order. God loves order in His own arrangements, does He not, and in our entrance into them?

C.H. I think that is right. And it is a spiritual order.

J.S.P. I was just thinking as to what we have been saying, that the last verse of chapter 3 is the filling out of the response to God Himself, is it not? "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus".

E.C.B. I wondered whether the subject would bear further enquiry, because there are things that could well be touched on for general edification, such as the way in which the Lord comes to us in relation to the Spirit in us, and then the diverse titles of the Spirit that have been alluded to, and the way the Spirit Himself who is God sustains us in relation to God. Christ as Man sustains us in relation to God too, but it might be profitable to the brethren to look further at the subject.

C.H. Well, you have supplied substance for two or three readings. Our brother's prayer gave me the impression that Ephesians was likely to be touched upon, because what are we here for but that God might be served and suitably served. And the overall control of the Lord over the service, as the Minister of the sanctuary and the presence and power of the Spirit, the Father's particular place, are things that need to be spiritually understood, I think.

E.C.B. Well, there is immense scope for instruction in regard to the Spirit generally. It has been said, and I think it is right, that the believer is secured for two things, the testimony of God and the service of God, and the way in which the Spirit helps us in both would be a very great gain to us.

E.P. Is it not wholesome for us too, to consider the chapter where it says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (Eph 4: 30), because whilst we might have desire to enter into these things, we need to be sure that we are answering to what is in that chapter.

 

LONDON

4 March 1973