The Holy Spirit In Relation To The Testimony

THE HOLY SPIRIT IN RELATION TO THE TESTIMONY

It is important to recognise the Spirit of God as entering into the testimony of God and giving character to it, and also as taking on the care of the saints from a spiritual standpoint. He is here in charge of divine interests, and the more conscious we are of His presence and of who He is, the more invulnerable we shall be and the most restful as committed to the truth of God. It is obvious that God can never be taken by surprise, nor does He ever find Himself at a loss; and therefore the presence of the Holy Spirit with the saints ensures that the testimony will continue according to God without anything being surrendered or overthrown.

Elisha's history illustrates this. Elijah was one who had been outstandingly faithful to God in testimony here, maintaining His rights in a time of the greatest departure in Israel, and the day came for him to be taken up to heaven. God gave him the great distinction of being in a remarkable way a type of Christ—the Man who has been taken up to heaven. Elisha knew that he himself was to continue here in testimony for God in the absence of Elijah, and Elijah asked him what he should do for him before he was taken away from him; Elisha said, “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me”. He felt that if he was to be here in the absence of the one who had been so faithful, he would need a double portion of his spirit. If we think of Christ, and what He was as the faithful and true Witness, how perfectly He maintained the truth as to God, surrendering nothing, but carrying it through in perfection to the end! We may feel how utterly unequal we are to having the truth of God entrusted to us, and yet in the power of the Spirit of God we can be equal to it. It is striking that in the history of Elisha we find no failure, and no contingency to which he was not equal, showing in a remarkable way that the Spirit of God in the saints is capable of maintaining every feature of the truth of God here in testimony. Elijah said, “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so”. Elijah would thus impress Elisha with the fact that at all costs he must keep his eye upon the one who was being taken up into heaven.

Now that is the position which comes before us in the first chapter of the Acts, where the testimony was about to commence after Christ had gone on high. The two men in white clothing standing by the disciples said to them, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. They saw Him being taken up into heaven, and would get an impression of One who was in every way suited to that realm. The dispensation commenced with Jesus being taken up into heaven, and it is to close with His coming again in the same way.

This is something for us to bear in mind, that the testimony here is to take character from the One whom God has taken up into heaven. John says the fathers had known Him that was from the beginning. Christ was before them and they knew Him; that was everything to them, and Christ is thus to give character to the testimony right through until He comes. We are tested by this as to whether we are marked by impatience, and grow weary, or whether we are carrying through the testimony of God in the Spirit of grace that marks the dispensation, untarnished to the end. Now the power for that is in the Spirit, and so it says as to Elijah, “there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into the heavens”. Elisha got an impression of the power that was available to the people of God here in the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. It is thus a question of power; we do not now see Jesus, but the position is to be filled out in the power of the Spirit which has come down from Jesus, and so it says that Elisha rent his own clothes in two pieces. That was drastic and it was final. He understood that if he was to be here in the testimony of God, it must be entirely in the Spirit of Christ. He took up the mantle that fell from Elijah—the power and the character of the man who was taken up into heaven—and henceforth he would move in the testimony invested with that power.

Hebrews 4 shows that the Spirit of God will take account of conditions among the saints and will speak in relation to them; this is something to which we should pay attention—the Spirit of God speaking. He may speak privately in an individual, or He may speak to us through the saints in the assembly, as He did in Antioch. He also spoke to Paul through the disciples at Tyre. What comes to light in Hebrews is that the Spirit speaks: “Wherefore, even as says the Holy Spirit. To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts”.

If any one is beginning to get away from the Lord, neglecting the reading of the Scriptures, and becoming careless and formal as to prayer, the Spirit sees that and feels it. The Spirit has first-hand knowledge of what is going on in the saints individually as well as when they are together. Sin is very deceitful, and its hardening effect is quickly seen; hence the Spirit's gracious appeal—“harden not your hearts”.

In Acts 20 we have the Spirit presented in a double way. Paul said that the Holy Spirit testified in every city that bonds and tribulations awaited him. It is a very comforting and assuring thing that One who has divine and perfect knowledge of all that is to arise in opposition to the testimony should be at liberty to warn the saints of it. We read in Timothy that “the Spirit speaketh expressly”. We should be impressed with the fact that the Spirit of God is here in charge of the testimony in the saints: “He dwelleth with you and shall be in you”. He is in the saints that the truth of God in testimony in the world should go through, whatever develops in opposition to it. Paul is conscious of that. He says, “the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me. But I make no account of my life as dear to myself, so that I finish my course, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the glad tidings of the grace of God”. This is an important matter to bear in mind—that we are to finish our course, which means that every feature of the testimony is to find its place before the assembly is taken to be with Christ.

It is a great thing to keep ourselves in the sense of grace, and that the heart should be established with grace. We have to do with the God of all grace, and the character of His grace towards us is set out in Christ where He is—we are “taken into favour in the Beloved”. Nothing alters that! It is a great thing to keep the full standard of grace before our hearts. The apostle was concerned that he should minister to the end the gospel of the grace of God. He also says, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. That is, the Holy Spirit is in charge of the position. He is speaking now to those who are elders and on whom the responsibility rests of caring for the flock. David was able to meet both the lion and the bear in order to rescue a lamb. He would not surrender to the devil in either guise—as the lion with its intimidation or as the bear in its stealthy character. In whatever way Satan seeks to overcome the saints, the great thing is to be alert and to resist him. David proved his fitness to be set over God's inheritance by the way in which he cared for his father's flock. The ability to keep ourselves, so that the wicked one touches us not, lies in the Holy Spirit whom we have received. If we allow things that are grieving to the Holy Spirit, we are opening the way for the devil to gain a hold over our souls.

The Spirit of God operates through those who are available and who, through experience with God and the influence of the love of Christ, are prepared to care for the saints, shepherding “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. This is a most touching expression; showing what great value God attaches to His assembly; He was prepared to pay that great price, the blood of His own Son, in order that He might have the assembly as a vessel to serve Him acceptably. It is composed of persons who are regarded here as sheep needing to be cared for, fed and shepherded, calling for the exercise of self-sacrificing love.

May the Lord help us to recognise the presence of the Holy Spirit more fully, that we may become more available to Him.

LONDON

From Words of Truth 1951

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