THE VOICE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
A.J.E.Welch
Our hymn to the Spirit prompted me to read this verse, which, as we know, is addressed separately to each of the seven assemblies. What it is in mind to say has doubtless often been said before, but I truly believe that the Spirit's voice for the moment is of immense import in these present times. It is a very remarkable thing that the seven letters, each containing the word of the Lord to one or another of these seven churches, embrace a very great variety of conditions, from the gravest departure in some to the richest promises and conditions acknowledged as pleasing to the Lord, particularly in Philadelphia. We have the apathy of Protestantism, and the idolatry of the false bride, but the same Spirit, in an expression couched in the same way in each address, is presented as an answer to the situation. This affords us a very distinctive sense of what is divinely and absolutely to be relied upon. We might say that absoluteness of reliability must of necessity be linked with a Person who is Himself God. The scripture read in fact uses that simple title, the Spirit, which we have been led to understand is a particular reference to His Person, His glory, His right as being who He is. What a comfort this is, dear brethren, in the midst of rapidly changing circumstances, which in the public sense, and in the religious sense, mark this present time peculiarly; in the midst of it all we have the Spirit, the same Spirit, having been here since Pentecost. He came at Pentecost in a way which always affects us, in the cloven tongues as of fire, as if to give a guarantee of the maintenance of a right judgment of everything in the midst of the tide of evil that would flow right down the dispensation. What a comfort it is to know the Spirit in this sense. But it is noteworthy that the word is addressed to him "that has an ear". The Lord has helped us in reading the epistles to Timothy in which - in the second one especially - the necessity for coming into things personally and individually has been before us in view of the assembly. Let us not fall short of the assembly in saying that; let us hold dear what relates to Christ and to the assembly. But the way into the real experience in depth of that is the basis in 2 Timothy 2 of departure from iniquity and a path which each of us, severally, as with God, must take.
So here it is, therefore, "He that has an ear". The word is addressed to each of us. The letters are addressed to the assemblies and the Spirit is speaking to the assemblies; it is "what the Spirit says to the assemblies" in the plural, so that the bearing of His speaking is very wide. Our interest would be, in some sense, correlative with that; our interest and concern would be wide and embrace the assemblies, in the plural, ever cherishing what is so dear to Christ's heart in the living expression of features that He can approve and describe, features that He can name. This section of the prophecy is marked, as we know, by the Lord naming things and by His use of the expression "I know thy works". The Lord knows things, is scrutinising things and naming things, but the Spirit comes in as the unfailing resource in all these circumstances. He would engage us with what is divinely precious so that we may be moving on lines which assure, to the heart of Christ, the condition of things here in the assemblies that delights His heart, and furnishes scope for God to be glorified under His hand in the service of praise and in the course of the testimony.
So whilst the word is so simple it is very penetrating: "He that has an ear, let him hear". Shall we not be marked off, dear brethren, in these times when what is precious to Christ is being relinquished by so many, as persons who have an ear to hear? Shall we not be alert to the Spirit's voice, and not only alert as to it but concerned as receiving it in grace from time to time to bring into expression what that voice might convey? We know that what the Spirit's voice conveys is infinitely pure, and infinitely applicable to the times in which it comes and the conditions in which the assemblies may be found. It is a very simple point, but I believe it is a very weighty point at the present time that the voice of the Spirit be heard, that we have, an ear to hear. Let each of us be concerned for this in definiteness and exercise of heart, in love for Christ, for His Name's sake.
LONDON
17 March 1981