ROOM FOR THE SPIRIT
A.C.Craig
We have already been speaking, dear brethren, (see Issue No.20) about the way we might have to do with the Lord and of His proposals that we might come into the wealth of divine things. It is now in mind to say a word on a very often repeated thing and that is making room for the Spirit. I feel that I am going to be greatly tested in what I say but I hear this at nearly every meeting: Make more room for the Spirit; and I am sometimes left with a query in my mind, how will we do it? So this is the other side of what we have been speaking about, that we might give greater place to Him. It seems to me that the solution now lies in that. A slight is on the Spirit at the present time, indeed it has been for centuries. You recall the parable in Luke 16 immediately after the unfolding of that remarkable chapter 15, the Lord's skilful presentation of the truth of how the Trinity operates and has operated in that wonderful appeal to us. Chapter 16 opens by Him giving a parable about a steward who got into trouble with his master, his books did not balance and he was called in for an interview and was told, 'Get your things in order because you are to be dismissed', and he says 'What am I going to do, I cannot dig and I am ashamed to beg'; and I say to us all, dear brethren, unless we are ready for the side of exercise, digging and begging, I doubt if we will come into any gain of the blessed Spirit's presence. So he sees he is in a difficulty and he calls in those who owed his master certain things and says to the first 'What do you owe?'; he answered "a hundred baths of oil". 'Oh' he says, "Take thy writing and sit down quickly and write fifty". Then he calls in somebody else, 'and what do you owe?'; he said "a hundred cors of wheat. And he says to him, Take thy writing and write eighty". Now notice that, he gave the greatest reduction to the man who owed the oil; the slight is on the Spirit. That steward was a clergyman; that has often been said; if you make way for the clerical principle you shut out the Spirit. So to keep himself in a job and to maintain a clergyman he set aside the Spirit. That is a great sin of Christendom, against the Holy Spirit. So as I said, there was a slight on the wheat but the greater slight was on the oil: "Take thy writing and sit down quickly", get it over fast, "and write fifty". But what we want to know, beloved brethren, is how to make greater room for Him and to value His presence and service rightly.
So this is a very important subject; it brings up the whole question as to what the Spirit is with us, not in His prerogatives, but more I speak reverently) of His value in a trading sense. That is how we finished the reading, we are given talents with which to trade; as Luke has it: "Trade while I am coming", chap 19: 13. So we should know the value of things.. I do not want to use the word 'commercial value', but oil over against water as a type of the Spirit would give us that thought, His great trading value, what He can be to you in the way of increase, how you can increase your wealth by trading. Therefore the importance of knowing how to make room for Him. Of course this is a wide subject and I could have taken up other scriptures to bring out the thought but I keep to the side of this commodity oil. I speak ever so carefully about what the Spirit can be, what He is for our getting through righteously and also for our entry upon the divine wealth and what lies in the purpose of God for us. I could have spoken, for instance, of Numbers 21 where room was made for the Spirit by the hollowing out at the word of the lawgiver; that is on another line. Or of Genesis 24: "Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge?" (v 23). That is the great question: Is there room for the Spirit? He is ever so ready to fill any space that He might be given. Then also you remember as to Isaac digging the wells and the Philistines claiming them; there was one that they did not claim. That is a fine thing, that there can be exercise where you can outdo the Philistine - "Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land", Gen 26: 22. It is a great thing to have a sense that there is room for the blessed Spirit.
There is the side of the Spirit 's prerogatives where He is in charge of things down here. The Lord in John 20 finishes that wonderful visitation with "Receive the Holy Spirit" (v 22); and then in Revelation 22 the Spirit is the holy custodian of the assembly here, no one else; He is in charge and He has certain prerogatives: Other scriptures could be brought up to show that too: "Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them", Acts 13: 2. Immediately you admit that there are prerogatives that apply to the Spirit you admit His sovereignty, and if you admit His sovereignty you must admit His deity; therefore He is an object of worship. You wonder at people who deny this. I believe it lies in the fact that He had already been slighted, not only in the fact of His not being worshipped. So the need is to know how to make room for Him.
Now the ministry and service of Elisha are very interesting. It is not exactly the side of the prerogatives of the Spirit that are before us in the service of Elisha but a man in the gain of a risen and ascended Christ moving here in the power of the Spirit of God. So what ought to characterise us as already being in receipt of the gift of the Spirit is that we should be here in the full gain of moving in His power. Think of the grace of Elisha's service and the way that He would make way for the Spirit. Remember chapter 3 of this book when there were the three kings come together and there was no water for them to drink. When they came down to him to get some advice he says, I am not too sure about the associations here. Although Elisha was a man of grace he was a man who stood by the truth, and Jehoshaphat had no business to be linked up with these two other kings. So you see the strain under which this prophet served when he said "Fetch me a minstrel"; he felt he could not proceed until the minstrel was introduced, a very important principle; but he says "make this valley full of ditches"; make great room. I did not want to get into that but to confine myself to this thought of the woman with the unknown quantity of oil that she had. Oh! how insensible we are, dear brethren; we do not seem to value the oil, as obviously this woman did not. I wish to say something as to the process by which she found out what she had. That is a great matter, that we might become more aware of the value, the trading value of what we have in the Spirit so that we might be able to meet our requirements and get along together and to be led, in a conscious sense, into the greatness of the truth. Let us therefore be alerted at this time to what we have in the gift of the Spirit. And so she has certain things to meet. She fully recognises that the creditor has rights but her difficulty is how to meet them. So the question comes up; What have you in the house? She says "Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil", a kind of depressed outlook, a sort of outlook that minimises what she had. I think the Lord is helping us in our day to have a proper outlook, have an upward outlook, a hopeful one. That is a great matter because the sort of curtailed sphere that we now move in publicly tends to get us on the line of minimising things. I think the Lord would uplift us and give us encouragement to value what we have that stays. That is a fine thing, it is not withdrawn; “The word that I covenanted with you... and my Spirit, remain among you", Hag 2: 5. That is the resource for realising that the latter glory is greater than the former. It is not that God is introducing anything further, the thing is already here. The prophet did not add anything to what the woman had, it is a question of what she had herself. Oh! the potential that lies in what we have - wonderful potential! Nothing can arise in the course of your pathway or testimony that the blessed Spirit is not able to meet. That is what is presented here. She did not question the right of the creditor; neither can you. There have been certain claims established and it is a question of how we are able to meet them. I mean that we were taken up initially to be here for God's will, and I hold that that is what is meant by the debt. I think we are indebted to the blessed God to be here for His will; and the way to be here for God's will is to know what you have in the gift of the Spirit, how He is able to meet every righteous requirement. As it says in Romans, "that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit", chap 8: 4. So how to make room for the Spirit is the question that comes up always. How are you going to do it? Well, that is what the prophet I think tells this woman, he instructs her what to do that she might come into the knowledge of how to make more room for what she has. She did not have sufficient vessels at home to contain what the pot held. She had a pot of oil, although she said I have "not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil". Notice the language: "not anything at all", and yet she is going to come to know by a certain process the wonderful value of what the pot of oil meant. Think of the wisdom, think of the grace of the blessed God that He should have conceived of such a thing that we should be recipients of the Spirit in a way that everything might be met, being here for God's will and living on the rest. I will speak about that briefly but, first of all, there is this matter of the process by which she is brought to appreciate the wealth of what lies in the pot of oil. Oh! the potential. So he says to her "Go, borrow for thyself vessels abroad from all thy neighbours, empty vessels; let it not be few". Think of such instruction; how enlightening, how full of hope! I am sure the Lord is bringing in, amongst His people, ministry by way of the prophetic word that would give us to see the need for greater scope for the Spirit. So she is to bring in her neighbours. This, so to speak, cannot be confined to oneself, it is a question of getting as many vessels as possible. You can depend upon it there is more oil than vessels; that is what she learns. No matter how many she found, there was more oil. So she has to go in and shut the door. I want to say a word about the need for secret history, something that used to be much spoken about when I first came into fellowship. Three times in this chapter we have the shut door; and with all the rush and bustle of modern life let us not neglect our private intercourse with the Father: "go in, and shut the door". That is how we are instructed in Matthew 6 - go in and shut the door. I appeal to my younger brethren that they give time to these exercises, what may proceed in secret alone on your knees with the Scriptures before you. Do not be afraid, open your Bible on your knees, go over things in secret and they will open up to you. Shut the door. Then it says, "pour out into all those vessels". You think of what would come home to her as she is filling up vessel after vessel. She had this pot on the shelf, how long we do not know, without it being in use, and she is learning by a process, moment by moment behind the shut door, the wonderful, illimitable resource that lies in the oil she had. That is what I would like for myself, dear brethren, that I come to some sense of what the blessed Spirit can be to me, that I need not rely on anyone else. I say again, I have the strong conviction that He is the solution to everything now. I believe that He has been slighted within the last year or so, tremendously slighted, and what used to be His portion from some has been given up. Everything is depending on Him; the Father and the Lord Jesus have every confidence in the Spirit that He is equal to seeing the saints through; and the great demand, dear brethren, is that we might be here in the pursuit of God's will in a world that is rampant with man's will, where we are so aware of the readiness to exercise our own will and pursue a path that suits ourselves instead of being ready for the righteous requirements of the will of God. Wonderful that, that there is such a thing in this world and in the midst of Christendom, a few people who stand out amongst the others and who are prepared for every feature and submit to every requirement that the truth would bring up. It is a snare at the present time that brethren who once went on with the truth are seeking paths that suit themselves, but I believe that the Lord's eye rests upon the few who would be ready to meet every obligation of the truth, that do not accept the fatal principle that things are optional in Christianity; they are not optional, the will of God comes into it and the answer to it lies in the Spirit. Think of what this exercise of pouring out meant to the woman as she went from vessel to vessel, and it is coming home to her, typically, what wealth she has in the Spirit. In every meeting, in every day that we live, in every exercise that comes up, we should habitually revert to the Spirit . He is the answer to everything; I am sure of that. Every vessel, no matter their shape, their size, their capacity, He is equal to every vessel. The doctrine of it is in Romans 8 as you would be aware: "the righteous requirement of the law" is fulfilled in us. In that chapter there are fourteen different ways in which the Spirit serves us; seventeen references to the Spirit but fourteen different ways in which He applies Himself to vessel after vessel, and nothing can come up that He is not equal to. Oh! what wealth lies in Him. It is trading wealth too, wealth that can be had by circulation. She says to her son "Bring me yet a vessel"; she has to learn that she has more oil in the pot than any vessel they could bring along. Then she goes to the man of God and says, Well, it is wonderful what I have had. She "came and told the man of God"; think of what she would say. I do not know whether she counted the vessels or not, it makes no difference, they were all full. Now he says "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt". That is it is the answer to the debt and any requirement is that we trade with the oil. Oh how wonderful, what a commodity! I speak reverently of the blessed Spirit. As I said, it is not the side of His prerogatives, His rights, the side where He is viewed objectively; it is what He is as committed to you and me, as given to us to be in us, not exactly with us but in us, and in secret you work things out, you learn His value by a process; and too, as things arise, you find that the resource for meeting them lies in the Spirit. Oil is a very suggestive figure of the Spirit. It is not water. Much could be said about water as in John 4 and other scriptures, but it is oil, one of the three things that formed the blessing of God to Israel - corn, new wine and oil, something that gives you wealth. Water has no trading value, so to speak, that is not the idea in the figure. Oil has trading value, and we live here to trade while He is coming. So he says to her "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt". Think of the satisfaction the woman had in the way she was able to meet her debt. We should not be in debt, dear brethren, except to love one another. We are not debtors to the flesh, that is clear; that has been met by the death of Christ, that is terminated; but there are the requirements from day to day in our history here, and we have in the Spirit the divine provision to meet the requirements and to be here for God's will.
Well now, this is the matter, how to do it. Let us get behind this shut door and learn what the Spirit can be. I think God Himself would open up to us in a wonderful, attractive way what the Spirit can be to us, and also, in daily exercise, we can learn subjectively what the Spirit can be to us. The prophet says "Go, sell the oil and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest". There is the side of meeting the requirement but that is not all. "Live thou and thy sons on the rest" How do you live? Do you live well? You ought to live well. There ought to be no higher standard of living, and amongst the saints we should have a high standard of living. How do you live? "Live thou and thy sons on the rest". You could never say that He is here only to help you to meet the requirement. Oh no, "live thou and thy sons on the rest". What is that? Eternal life and sonship; that is what is developed in this chapter. The wealthy woman said "I dwell among mine own people" (v 13). She did not want to be spoken for to the king; she lived well, you could not raise her socially. Oh dear brethren, think of what is proceeding amongst some whom we love, used to break bread with. We should live well, we should be a testimony to the refinement of the truth. How do you live? In eternal life in sonship. So she said "I dwell among mine own people". To be spoken for to the king or to the captain of the host would not add anything to her. She lived well and was in the enjoyment, so to speak, of eternal life; she had brought forward the wealth that lay in "the rest". It speaks somewhere in the prophets about the residue of His Spirit (see Mal 2: 15, A.V.). It is not just the left over. "The rest" gives you a tremendous feeling of wealth . There is no end to that either, all we have been brought into, the blessedness of eternal life, wonderful blessing where you are content and happy, satisfied and having no longings for anything. Your life cannot be improved on although you are still here. Eternal life is introduced to meet a certain need and you are in the enjoyment of that, going through here in the enjoyment of eternal life with your brethren and in sonship. That is what the woman comes to eventually sonship. This is a wonderful chapter and I would like to have gone into it more in detail; but I give you a thought, dear brethren, that in ministry you can make up a subject and get numbers of scriptures together and yet it may be that the Spirit of God is in just one of the scriptures. I have learned that, that He helps you specially just to convey the thought; and I felt today that I must confine myself to this scripture and to this point of how to make room for the Spirit. This is the vital thing, and to keep to it today would be the most beneficial. We can live not only righteously - "the righteous requirement of the law ... fulfilled" - but we live well. We have the wealth in Him to live up to our high calling and the estate into which we have been brought in sonship. I think Mr Taylor sen has said in that connection that it would be a poor thing for someone to be brought into an estate and not have the capital to live according to it. But we have been granted the capital to live according to the estate, not in any mean or beggarly fashion but to live well; and we are comporting ourselves as persons who are not only for the divine will but for the divine pleasure. These two great lines of truth run through scripture - the divine will and the divine pleasure; and the answer to them both, dear brethren, lies in making room for the Spirit. May the Lord bless the word.
SUNBURY
27 July 1974