THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT
THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT
John 14: 17 is very plain in the original; the reading literally is that the Spirit “abides with you” (the company), “and shall be in you” — remaining with you, in contrast to Christ’s going away; “He shall be in you” is the way He would be here. I quite see the importance of maintaining the distinction between the presence of the Spirit of God in the individual and in the assembly of the living God.
The assembly is God’s habitation by the Spirit. This cannot be denied. The question is — could the Spirit be there apart from the vessel, which, in my judgment, you rightly deny. I see that the Holy Ghost is quite distinct in His operation in the individual and in the assembly. I believe that if the Spirit has been occupying you with your own state up to your entering the meeting, that He would then and there occupy you with your privileges and responsibilities in the assembly. In John’s gospel the operation of the Spirit in the individual (chapters 4 and 7) is distinct from the operation of the Spirit in the company; chapters 14: 26 and 15: 26. It has helped me that in chapter 15: 26 the Lord says, “The Comforter ... whom I will send unto you” — the eleven; He is not sent to the world, and hence I see that any one who had been in the assembly, as in 1 Corinthians 14, and had been where the Holy Ghost was, whether with two or a million, would be a “companion of the Holy Ghost”, and an apostate if he ever returned to Judaism.