WHAT RESTRICTS THE HOLY SPIRIT'S ACTION IN THIS DAY?

WHAT RESTRICTS THE HOLY SPIRIT’S ACTION IN THIS DAY?

No one could read John’s gospel and the Acts of the Apostles without being convinced that the Holy Spirit occupies an entirely new place on the earth, and performs new and unknown services in the saints. The christian era is pre-eminently distinguished by the fact that the Holy Spirit has come down from heaven, and that His coming was to confer new and great benefits on every believer. These are recounted and declared in John’s gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles. Each believer receives the Holy Spirit, not only the company gathered at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, but Peter presents this gift as the characteristic complement of divine grace. “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, Acts 2: 38. The reception of the Holy Spirit was to crown the blessing of grace; grace would not be completed without the individual possessing the Holy Spirit; nay, possessing Him was the only finish - the end to conversion. Hence when the apostles heard of the conversions in Samaria, two of ^[p. 366] their number were sent there for the express purpose of imparting to them the Holy Spirit. Do we in this day feel like the apostles in that day when we hear of conversions - the need of the additional service, or the only finish to grace, even the reception of the Holy Spirit? We learn from the fact of the Holy Spirit falling on the gentiles in the house of Cornelius, that they were owned of God as in the same blessing as the Jewish converts at Jerusalem. Peter, in vindicating himself to his brethren, does not urge that the gentiles were converted, but that they had “received the Holy Spirit, as we also did”. In like manner we find Paul asking the converts at Ephesus, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” It is plain that conversion was not considered sufficient, or the whole of grace, but that the receiving of the Holy Spirit was the only true and proper finish or end of the grace of God to the believer, and that until this gift was received, he must be ignorant of his new and divine relationship, and therefore powerless to act in the life and walk of Christ.

We must see and own the great place which the Holy Spirit occupies now on the earth, and how every believer is entitled to possess Him, before our new identity can be known, or true christian practice can be performed. In a word, we are premature in asking believers to practise until they are in possession of the Holy Spirit.

The apostle founds all his arguments in Galatians on the fact that they had received the Holy Spirit. Everywhere we turn we find that the possession of the Holy Spirit was the simple and necessary proof and assurance of being in a christian state. In this day there are, through mercy, many converted, but could we say that even the majority of them had received the Holy Spirit? Or has there been care and attention to ascertain the fact, whether they have received the Holy Spirit since they believed? We cannot regard the reception of the Holy Spirit as a small or ordinary thing, or to be confounded with conversion - great and blessed as that is - by the ^[p. 367] power of the Holy Spirit in the soul. What language could describe the effects produced by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, both with oneself individually, or with regard to others? First, John 4: 14: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. Gifts of any measure from without could in no way contribute to man’s full happiness like the gift here spoken of; so great is it that never before nor again will he be favoured to the same extent by the blessed God. Were the nature and measure of this gift more seen and appreciated, there would be unceasing seeking to secure it, and unbounded joy in possessing it. But it is not only that this gift imparts inexhaustible resources to the believer, but it enables him, enriched beyond measure himself, to contribute to the blessing of others. “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”, John 7: 38.

Further, we find this great gift specified and defined in John 14: 26, where the service and benefit to the believer for himself is set forth; and in chapter 15: 26, we find that by Him the testimony here was to be maintained. In the Acts we have abundant testimony of the effect and virtues of this gift. The lame man who sat and begged at the beautiful gate of the temple, when healed by the name of Jesus, characteristically set forth the personal and ostensible effect of the power of the Holy Spirit. He was “walking, and leaping, and praising God”; while his outward circumstances were not in the least altered, he was conscious in himself of the power of God, and this so delighted him that he was exclusively occupied with God’s great favour to him.

Now when we compare this with the present time and the experience of believers, we are forced to the conclusion that there are some distinct causes for the present restricted action of the Holy Spirit.

The first cause, in my judgment, is ignorance - ignorance of the grace of our God, and that the Holy ^[p. 368] Spirit has been sent down to crown in the soul the efficacy of the work of Christ. If many of the servants of God were not ignorant of this great truth, surely they would more earnestly and continually press it on their hearers. The mass are very much like the Ephesians, who had not heard whether there were any Holy Spirit. Doubtless the mere doctrine is admitted, but the value and importance of possessing the Holy Spirit is not seen or comprehended. Now if one of the plainest of revealed truths can be overlooked, and not learned or seen in the word of God, it is obvious that the Spirit must be restricted in His action. The Spirit Himself is the power by which we understand the word which reveals His service. Hence when the saints fail to see the marked place which He holds in the New Testament, there is surely evidence of the spiritually dull and inaccurate way in which the Scriptures are read, and the little real acceptance there is of the plainest statements of the word of God.

We have heard of animals which cannot see in the sun. In like manner many believers now have some light; but the power of all light residing here on earth they do not own; and as they do not honour the Lord, they are not honoured of Him. For what can be done for those who cannot see the meaning of the plainest scriptures? They in a way resist the Holy Spirit; and hence, like Israel, they are left very much to their own devices, without the aid or comfort of the Holy Spirit. Thus He is restricted in His action, though He waits to be gracious, and to not a few He ministers the grace of Christ, though they are ignorant of the manner in which they are served.

Next to ignorance is what I may call an insensibility to this great truth. While it is formally accepted, there seems little or no consciousness of the magnitude of it. They can even adopt the order and rule of the Spirit of God, and yet all the time the heart is far from the sense of His presence and power. If the ignorant are so ^[p. 369] deceived that they cannot comprehend a truth most plainly revealed and pronounced in Scripture, whereby the Spirit of God is hindered and checked, how much more when the truth is formally and doctrinally received, but there is so much indifference about it that only a few are really interested and awakened in any measure to the reality of what they profess to know. They see the better, but follow the worse. They have received the grace of God in vain. They are forgetful hearers. Their talent is hid in a napkin. Nay, it had been better that they had not known, than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. These be they who leave the ground of the assembly, sensual, having not the Spirit; and practically they betray their own departure by their association with things unsuited to a christian. Under this head the Spirit is restricted in His action by the insensibility and want of sincerity of heart of those who profess to have received the truth as to His present functions and services.

But there is yet another cause for the restricted action of the Holy Spirit in this day, and possibly the most grievous to the Spirit of God. It is unbelief. Several would affirm in the most confident way that they possess the Holy Spirit, that they are the greatest living wonders ever seen on this earth - temples of the Holy Spirit, that in so small and feeble a tenement as the human body there dwells and is enjoyed the greatest gift and state God ever conferred on man. Yet many, who would unhesitatingly declare that they are thus favoured, have so little faith in the reality of the power of God that they condescend to ways and means of doing the Lord’s work, not to speak of their own, as if they were as other men, who never heard or believed that the Holy Spirit has come down from heaven, not only to be here, but to be in the believer. If I really believe that the Holy Spirit was here, that not only was all the power of God invisibly beside me, but He also dwelling in me, how could I dare or venture to do anything but at His ^[p. 370] bidding? I must feel and own that I am His vessel, and therefore everything that I do would be an expression of His rule. He would certainly lead and help me to speak for the Lord, but would He use mere contrivances or means for obtaining publicity for His communications? The very statement of it sounds profane, and one might say it was too trifling to be noticed one way or another, were it not an indication of the lack of faith in the great Being owned as here, and assumed to dwell in our bodies. If I am the vessel of the Holy Spirit, and if I believe that He garnished the heavens, and that He drew together immense crowds at Jerusalem and at other places, then I must rest assured that if I am led by Him to a place for a purpose, He can and does, as He pleases, declare His purpose and lead me to fulfil it, not by any human co-operation, but by the same mighty force by which He has led me. Nothing indicates more painful disrespect to the Spirit than the means to which His vessels resort; as if He were but a good influence and not God the Holy Spirit. Alas, alas, the action of the Holy Spirit must be restricted, when those who honestly and conscientiously profess to be His vessels have no faith in His power and presence.