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THE SERVICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

R. J. Campbell

I have been impressed, beloved brethren, by the distinctiveness of the service of the Holy Spirit. It is significant that there is more said of the Holy Spirit in John’s gospel than in any other gospel which I think must indicate the essentiality of proving the service of the blessed Holy Spirit in view of the testimony being maintained in life. As we know, John writes for our day. John’s gospel, the last book to be written, was written for the day in which we live, when it would be necessary to maintain things right at the end in life and vital-

ity. Paul’s ministry is essential, absolutely essential, outlining divine principles, in the epistles to the Corinthians opening up the truth as to the local assembly, then the great height of assembly privilege in Ephesians, and the glory of the glad tidings. We must never belittle Paul’s ministry. It is made little of by many in the profession; some would say it is ‘only Paul’. Paul is the apostle for our day, having something distinctive from Christ in relation to the assembly and in relation to the working out of things in local assemblies; but along with Paul we need John. These two lines run along together concurrently.

I thought of these scriptures in John which bring out the distinctiveness of the activities of the blessed Holy Spirit, including His sovereign initial operations in relation to each one of us each individual believer. Our brother has referred in prayer to the way that Christ becomes attractive to us through the operations of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in Christ to appeal to us naturally. It says in Isaiah, “there is no beauty that we should desire him”, Isaiah 53: 2.

That refers to God’s earthly people in relation to Christ, and to man after the flesh too. It has often been said that it does not say that there is no beauty in Him. There is beauty in Him, but man after the flesh sees no beauty in Christ. It requires the divine, sovereign operation of the blessed Holy Spirit to see it. As the result of the presence of Christ on high, the Holy Spirit has come. These are wonderful facts of Christianity; a Man in heaven, and the Spirit here. I wonder if we lay hold of it, beloved, brethren, a living Man in the presence of God, and the Spirit here, a divine Person here working in the lives of persons, in their moral beings, to secure God’s work. It is in view too of presentation to that glorious, heavenly Man, securing a vessel that is entirely suited to Him.

How wonderful is the service of the blessed Holy Spirit! We get reference to it in a distinctive way in Genesis 24. We see typically the commission of the Holy Spirit, His committal too to divine thoughts, the Father’s desires for His Son that He might have a bride that is suited to Him, like Himself, for Himself; and the Spirit has undertaken that mission.

He is serving devotedly in view of securing and preparing a vessel that will be entirely suited to that glorious heavenly Man. But then He is operating in relation to each one of us. How wonderful that a divine Person has operated sovereignly in relation to each one of us! It is a wonderful fact that a sovereign operation has begun in our souls so that divine things become attractive to us. We have often been taught that the Lord is speaking to the religious wreck in John 3 and to the moral wreck in John 4. The Spirit is the answer to all that marks man after the flesh and in contradistinction to it.

In John 3 we have “the teacher of Israel”, with a knowledge of the Scriptures, and yet trying to reason things out naturally. It is beyond the mind of man, it is beyond our natural thinking, to comprehend the distinctive sovereign work of the Spirit. It is all from the divine side, although it has been said that there may be an element of responsibility in it. The Lord says,

“The wind blows where it will”, and it has been said that you can open the door and let the wind in. But I think that in the main it is the distinctive sovereign operations of the Holy Spirit of God. Perhaps we do not realise it; I do not think Nicodemus realised it; but something had begun in this man because he had come to Jesus. Something had brought that man to Jesus. It would have been the working of the Holy Spirit, something beginning in the man’s soul.

So we need to lay hold of it that nothing in the divine area, nothing that is presented from God’s side, will mean anything to us unless the Holy Spirit has begun this work in our souls.

It says, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”.

So therefore the Spirit begins this divine work and it leads on to the appreciation of Christ, to see beauty in Him, making way for the gospel to have its full effect in us. The gospel would have no effect in us apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. May we be thankful for the divine, sovereign work of the Spirit that has given us the capacity to accept the presentation of Christ in the glad tidings. It has opened up the way for the whole spiritual order of things to be laid hold of by us.

I have read in John 4 of the Spirit as the source of satisfaction for the believer. The believer can be independent of every fleshly resource and independent of every worldly resource. This woman left her water-pot. I suppose your water-pot might be different from my water-pot, something we have depended on and relied on, something we have tried to get some satisfaction from. But this woman left her water-pot. The Lord presented this wonderful gift to her so attractively. He says to her, “Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. How attractive, never having to draw again. That is what the woman says, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw”.

How wonderful to have the conscious sense that we have a divine Person in us, come so near to us. The Lord Jesus said, “He abides with you, .and shall be in you” (John 14: 17)—so available to us that we can be satisfied persons, independent of every other resource.

Then in John 7 we see what the Holy Spirit is as the power for testimony. I thought that these first three references apply particularly to the individual believer. Each one of us, young and old, can prove what the Spirit has done in us and then also what He can be to us so that we can be a testimony here. It says, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”, and it goes on to specify, “this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. Think of these rivers of living water at the beginning of the Acts. What rivers there were in Jerusalem! Think of all the resource that the apostles had, the knowledge of a Man in heaven and the Spirit down here. What testimony there was! That testimony can be continued in our day; each one of us in our measure can be a testimony here, a testimony flowing from what there is in us substantially in the power of the blessed Holy Spirit.

In John 16 there is a suggestion as to how we can prove the service of the blessed Holy Spirit in a collective way. It may be an individual experience, but I think that the way the Spirit would be available to us to guide us into all the truth is almost without limit, beloved brethren. Think of our occasions of being together and what is possible if we make way for the Spirit. And what is possible, beloved brethren, as we make way for the Spirit in our own individual experiences and histories. It says, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”, Romans 5: 5. But then as we are together we prove the blessed service of the Holy Spirit. Think of the knowledge that He has, the capacity He has to open up things to us.

The Lord says, “When he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth—for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming”. How wonderful what is available to us; what a resource is for us in the blessed Holy Spirit both individually and collectively.

Beloved brethren, as we make way for Him the Spirit’s work will be developing in our souls and preparing us for that moment of which we read in Revelation, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. In a sense, that cry will be hastened. He will be with us all the way until that moment. What a service He has undertaken in relation to each one of us individually, and then as being free and active in our occasions as we make way for Him, and operating too in view of that final moment. In the Revelation we also get the references at, the beginning to what the Spirit says to the assemblies. Each assembly is addressed, and he that has an ear to hear is to hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies in His current constant speaking, but all culminating in that moment when the Spirit and the bride say, Come. Well, may the service of the Spirit mean more to us. May we make more room for Him in our individual histories, our own experiences, and then collectively may we give Him room. The Spirit said typically in Genesis 24, “Is there room?” Well, beloved brethren, may we make room for the Spirit. He will guide us. How effective, how gentle, His service. He will guide us into all the truth until that moment when the Spirit and the bride will say, Come. May it be soon, beloved brethren.

Our hearts are awaiting it and may we facilitate the movements of the Spirit in view of that moment, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry
Glasgow, 5 February 1991

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