LIVING AND WALKING BY THE SPIRIT
D. Robertson
I felt, beloved brethren, that there would be something for us in these two thoughts in verse 25 as to living by the Spirit, and walking by the Spirit. God is interested in the way we live and in the way we walk; His eye is upon us. I think it would be right to say that living by the Spirit would be that we are kept in the enjoyment of our relationships with divine Persons. I believe it is important that we learn to live in the enjoyment of relationships with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is great blessing in it for us. Not only so, but I believe we develop in character as we live near to God and in the enjoyment of our relationships with divine Persons. I do not think there is anything more important than to live in the sense that we have been brought to know God, to appreciate that, and we may say to be active in it, because living is an active thing. You could not think of anything living that is not active. It is a fine thing when the believer is active in the enjoyment and the practice of relationship Godward. Our prayers are not to be formal, for we are speaking to a God who is well known, whose help we know. Mr. Darby refers so beautifully to that secret help long proved.
I am sure most of us, even some of the young ones, can look back and see how God has come into our histories and helped us in a secret way. I was thinking of the beginning of Psalm 91
in the light of what we are saying as to living by the Spirit, “He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91: 1).
What thoughts these are. It is what is available to those who are living in the practical joy and power of our relationships with divine Persons. We need power in these days. Where do we get it? The psalmist also says that strength belongs to God (Psalm 62: 11). But it is available to those who know what it is to dwell in the secret place of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I would encourage the brethren to learn the secret of living by the Spirit. It is a wonderful thing that the Spirit is available to us in this way, to maintain us in the enjoyment and in the practical power of relationship with God. I do not know anything greater or anything more needed. I do not want to speak of what surrounds us, but there is much to detract, there is much that would draw the heart away, there is much that would cause our feet to be diverted from the path of faith. The remedy and the power are to be found in our relationships with God, “live by the Spirit”.
Then it says, “let us walk also by the Spirit”. It is that our paths become governed by our relationships with divine Persons, not governed by the circumstances around us, and not governed, I would say, by the circumstances that come upon us at times; these are sometimes very heavy and very sorrowful, but we are governed by our relationship with God. It is an important matter, beloved brethren, and in that way our pathway is controlled by our knowledge of God. They would not be hesitating steps, they would be definite steps, walking by the Spirit. My impression of a person who is walking by the Spirit is that such a person walks with Christ before them. That would be the way, the direction in which the Spirit would always be leading us. If we are walking by the Spirit you can be sure that Christ would be before us. What a fine thing it is to see a man or a woman, or even a boy or a girl, walking as having Christ before them, that is Christ as your Object. Some are turning away, they are going out of the path.
Why is that? They have ceased to walk by the Spirit; persons that once maybe did it in some measure. We must seek the Spirit’s help for our walk, and our walk must be governed by the living enjoyment of our relationships with divine Persons. The believer who walks in this way in the power of the Spirit, and has Christ before him as the undivided object of his affection, attracting his heart on, will be looking forward to that final moment when Christ will finally translate us out of this scene altogether. I believe that is walking by the Spirit.
There is an admonition in verse 26 which says, “Let us not become vain-glorious”. How easy it is to become that way, vain-glorious. May we be preserved from it. May we be found walking in this powerful yet humble way. Walking by the Spirit would not be a proud way, it would be a humble way, it would be the way of dependence upon God. So it says, “Let us not become vain-glorious, provoking one another”. We do not want to become provokers of one another; we want to be helpers of one another. That help is provided by persons who are walking by the Spirit and who are living near to God. Then it says, “envying one another”. If you are walking by the Spirit and having Christ before you as your Object, you have something which makes you superior to envying anything. You have all that you need. You are finding that Christ as your Object is sufficient to fill the heart with the deepest satisfaction. I believe one of the greatest needs, beloved brethren, at the present moment is satisfaction with Christ. It is the solution to many problems and many exercises just to be satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. May the word be used by God to help us, that we may be exercised and concerned to know what it is to live by the Spirit and also to walk by the Spirit.
Word in meeting for ministry. Dundee, 18 November 1997
EXTRACT
H.P.
What is suggested in the seven stars in the right hand?
JT They are said to be the angels of the seven assemblies, representatives of the seven assemblies. Our verse, Revelation 2: 1, says that He holds these stars; later on it says that He has them. “These things saith he that has ... the seven stars” (Revelation 3: 1). He is not said to hold them in addressing Sardis, but in addressing Ephesus He is. The public position is still owned and supported of God, but He is walking, nevertheless, in it in those early days. Paul had already said that all they that were in Asia had turned away from him—
from him personally. Something had arisen against Paul in that section, and permeated the whole. Now the Lord is saying, I am walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps, meaning that He will see things as they are in the assemblies. He will have first-hand knowledge of everything. He is visiting them, not in open affection, but in a judicial way. For things have already ceased to be just what they should be—there had been a fall, hence He says, “I have against thee”—the assembly at Ephesus had left its first love. ...
...
S.S.
Ephesus is held responsible as having had the whole counsel of God declared to them.
JT Yes. It had been declared to them by Paul, and evidently they had taken it on, too, but now they had left Paul. In the beginning they loved Paul, but their love for him waned, and not only waned, but they turned away from him. It was a question of Paul, it does not say they turned away from the Lord, but their love for Him had waned. Leaving Paul would reflect their reduced love for Christ. Jehovah said to Samuel, ‘They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me”. The rejection of a servant like Samuel meant the rejection of Jehovah, and rejection of Paul meant rejection of Christ, in principle, at least, so the Lord is taking the matter up.
J. Taylor (Vol. 46, pp.154, 155)
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