GOD HAS BEEN MANIFESTED IN FLESH

Exodus 23: 20, 21; John 14: 15–21; 16: 7–15; Revelation 22: 16, 17

NJH Yesterday we sought help from the Lord as to what is referred to in 1 Timothy 3, “God has been manifested in flesh” (1 Timothy 3: 16). The wonder of it is that God has entered into circumstances that we are in, come in Himself in Christ, and that the manifestation of God in flesh involves the three Persons of the Godhead. The revelation was in Christ personally, the only One who became flesh, and we are privileged to know something of the communications that took place between divine Persons. No other dispensation will know it as we have known it, no dispensation ever knew it before; the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in conversation and movements, yet in holy oneness, recognisable as to who is speaking. That is a great privilege.

So in the first reading we took up the Sent One here in John’s gospel, how He could say “Father, glorify thy name”, John 12: 28. The glory of the Father was in His heart, we have these words He said to His Father about it, and the Father answered that as we know. In communicating the name that had been given Him, the Father’s name, He said to His own, in resurrection, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17.

Then in the second reading we took up something of what the Father and the Spirit were towards Christ. In the baptism of Jesus we have the voice of the Father, and the Spirit’s descent as a dove to bring out the greatness of the One that was here. We had reference in 2 Peter to the mount, the Father and the Spirit entering into that matter too.

I thought we should look today at how the Father and the Son would be particularly concerned as to how we approach respectfully the person of the Holy Spirit. Thankfully we have received help to address Him objectively, as we do, and that is a wonderful thing. But while the Spirit comes down, we might say, to our circumstances, I think we are apt in our hearts and minds to bring Him down to where we are, instead of seeing a divine Person is with us to raise us up to what is in God’s mind for us. If we do not reach that it will mar and affect our walk. It will affect our relations with God if we do not give the blessed Spirit the place He is due. I was thinking this morning of Matthew 28, as to our baptism which is to the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28: 19), as if at the very earliest point in the history of each individual believer that this name was before God in His thoughts for them, that they would enter into something of the fulness of the revelation of God which has taken place in Christ; that is God manifested in flesh.

In Exodus 23 it says, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place that I have prepared”. Now that suggests the committal of the Spirit for the whole dispensation. It is a long view, the dispensational committal of the Holy Spirit. What was referred to as ‘prepared’ in chapter 15, and here in chapter 23, the Spirit would bring us “to the place that I have prepared”. It says, “Be careful in his presence” (Exodus 23: 21). And then the last thing is “for my name is in him”. I thought we could get a little help from this typical scripture, but there is nothing like, for the subject we are speaking about, to come to the gospels and the epistles to find out what is in the heart of God.

JS It says, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee to the place that I have prepared”. Do you think we get some sense of that when the Lord said, “the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth”, John 16: 13?

NJH Yes. God knew that failure and breakdown would come in, in the history of Israel, but at least in Joshua and Caleb there is carried through a certain seamless life from Egypt through to the land, so God had a basis to go on with His people to keep them in the way. And we need to be kept in the way, otherwise breakdown will come in. We need to be kept in that way, and the power for that is the Holy Spirit.

JS It goes on to say “hearken unto his voice”, that will be how it is to be accomplished is it?

NJH Yes, “the Spirit speaks expressly” (1 Timothy 4: 1), we get in the epistles. I do not want to speak irreverently, but it is not light speaking, it is great moral speaking from the Spirit to keep us in the way. We are in conditions where what is moral in the soul is an essential matter, to see that we are moving rightly in the power of the Spirit.

JS So that although we go through exercises, it involves our coming to a knowledge of the Spirit, do you think?

NJH Yes, there is an end in exercise, we are apt to see the exercises as great difficulties, but as Mr. Darby says you do not divert round it, you go through it in the strength that God gives you and you will learn God in it, that was the point in the wilderness. It was the God that you have to learn as Mr. Darby’s hymn says (Hymn 76).

GBG So at the end of the dispensation, the Spirit is as energetic and committed to His commission as He ever has been. Therefore do you think we should be more dependent and marked by faith in that Person, to know what He is able to do?

NJH That is needed. One of the names of God is “the Same”, and the Spirit is the same. He remains the same in His commission as if He was freshly sent by Christ, after the work of Christ was done, all the moral matters met in His life and death and resurrection, new life out of death and exaltation. The Spirit comes from there, and He has maintained down here the quality and the standard that was in the presence of God. You say, Well I am in difficulty and I need to overcome because it is a tainted world we are moving through; but you get strength for it. The great thing is to lift you up, the conflict is not to be always in your soul, the flesh lusting against the Spirit; you are to recognise that you must be on moral ground, but the Spirit is to lift you up to remind you of your place in Christ.

GBG His is an ever-present patient, loving, gracious service. It is a wonderful thing that a divine Person serves persons like us in that way.

NJH Yes, and to be with us and in us as we have in John; to be so near to us.

RDP Is it always in view of another place and another man; “to keep thee in the way”, that is one thing, then “to bring thee to the place”. I just wondered if the Spirit’s service always has another place and another man in view. It is never in order to settle here. In Genesis 24, see “Beware that thou bring not my son thither again” (Genesis 24: 6).

NJH I am glad of that reference because in Exodus 15 it refers to the place “that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling” (Exodus 15: 17), and it is linked with John 14: 2, the prepared place, and as you say, it is not to leave us here; He is a heavenly personage and He is in believers to link us with the final place. It makes us heavenly. I do not see how we could be heavenly unless we had the Spirit, the blessed Spirit come into us.

QAP God says as to Caleb, “because he hath another spirit in him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land”, Numbers 14: 24. Does that show that the land is really in view in the indwelling of the Spirit, do you think?

NJH It is by faith you lay hold of things and that is the wonderful thing. You are assured of your salvation, you get the enjoyment of it, the assurance comes into your soul when you accept Christ, there is no doubt about that. But the person has to be changed, it is not only what is old that has to be set aside, it is something heavenly that is to come out in the saints, and I think the Spirit of God has to do with that refinement.

JS Would the reference to the glad tidings being preached by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, help us in that regard? He is sent from heaven and has in mind to lead us there.

NJH Sent from heaven means it has just freshly taken place. It is often said we break bread as if it was the first Lord’s day it was placed in the assembly, it is so fresh to you. The Spirit sent from heaven is a very fresh matter.

JAG I wondered if there may be any suggestion here of “the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession to the praise of His glory”, Ephesians 1: 14.

NJH That is linked to the place. It is God that has acquired it and He wants us in it. They did not know the way that they would take, they did not realise the course their waywardness would bring in the pathway; but nevertheless the Angel was viewed as sent to keep them in the way, and to bring them to “the place that I have prepared”.

JCG The presence of the Angel is stressed, “Be careful in his presence”. How would you work that out in its bearing upon us in our gatherings and our personal lives?

NJH Well that is what we are trying to get at I trust in this meeting, because I can only speak from my own experience. I think that in your mind you would not deny His divinity, but you would think it is more to do with the moral side, and that is essential, the moral side is essential. But the Spirit of God is linking us with another scene where Christ is; He has come from a glorified Man and we are linked by the Spirit indissolubly with that blessed Man. Why should the blessedness of that not fill my pathway and fill the meetings?

JCG Yes, that helps. It says, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”, Ephesians 4: 30. I was thinking it is very important that the presence of the Spirit is reverenced, not only in our lives but in our gatherings especially, so that room might be made for what is of Christ to come forward, and nothing extraneous or what is of the flesh be allowed. NJH Well I think it is how we view the brethren too.

JDG In Ephesians 4 the believer participates in the new man; conversion and then the exercise is that the Spirit of God will help us to walk in the features of that new man. That scripture also brings in “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which ye have been sealed for the day of redemption”. I think that would help in relation to what has gone before.

NJH Yes, that would help. The new man is in place of the old, it is while we are here that the new man is in expression, and as we know it is Christ characteristically, not Christ personally. The Spirit is committed to that order of manhood. He wants that order of manhood to come out in the saints, and that is the new man.

JDG And He finds pleasure in that, it comes back to that scripture, do not grieve Him.

NJH It is good to bring forward the pleasure of divine Persons. God should find pleasure in us.

RT Laban’s word was to wait only ten days (Genesis 24: 55), but that was provoking the Spirit typically, was it not? The servant said, “Do not hinder me”, and then Rebecca said, “I will go”.

NJH That is good and she journeys. “Wilt thou go with this man?”; the test was the man there. You might say, well he had portrayed what Isaac was, the heavenly man; I am sure that is what endeared her heart to that Person she was going to be united to, but her committal was really to the Spirit as typified in the servant.

RT We are slow to rise to His level of things, we are apt to bring it down, “some days, or say ten”; it did not seem too much, but it is hindering, and it is really provoking the Spirit.

NJH Yes, and in our language she would miss a Lord’s day, so we would need to be urgent if we are to be ready for the next presentation to Christ.

JWeb There is a scripture in Isaiah that says, “when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left, thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isaiah 30: 21. And I was just thinking of this word here, “hearken unto his voice”, the Spirit of God has a voice, has He not?

NJH Yes He has, and it is to be listened to, he that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says, not only to the assemblies, but you want to hear what He is saying. I sometimes think Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord, and she actually heard what the Lord said to Martha in adjustment, but it never diverted her from the Lord. I think we get diversions, so instead of keeping our eye on Christ and listening to His word, we are apt to say—Well just a minute, what is the Lord saying to Martha? but you see it did not distract Mary.

DBR I was thinking of what it says here, “my name is in him”. That would give a peculiar touch as to the position the Holy Spirit has taken up. God is one; that would be maintained by the Spirit; therefore we should be anxious not to grieve Him. What would you say about that, “my name is in him”?

NJH I do not know if I could say much, except what you say. There is equality in deity, there is oneness, but in the relative position that the Spirit has taken up, we should not allow it to take away from the glory of the Person. So I think “my name is in him”, must involve that.

DBR It is something to grasp, for the younger ones, that the Spirit is actually here, not just influentially, but that Person is actually here, He is with us and in us.

NJH Yes exactly, and we need the Spirit to discern these communications between divine Persons. Now the Spirit came upon persons in previous dispensations, but never in them, that is peculiar to our time. I think it is important to go over these truths, for all of us, but for the young as well.

JS It is important to get assurance in our souls as to the person of the Spirit, the greatness of His Person. We may tend to think He is an influence, but the Lord would assure us of the greatness of His Person.

NJH Yes. I had a feeling that the Father and the Son would particularly have in mind that we would get a fresh view of the glory of the Spirit.

RGr Do you think there is a certain correspondence between the Spirit’s service and the Lord’s? I was thinking of what has been said already, He shall be in you and shall be with you for ever; the Lord said typically “I will not go free” (Exodus 21: 5). He is fully committed to this service.

NJH Yes, He points out as well from the scripture read in John 16, that there would be a seamless changeover, but an additional one, because He says there, “It is profitable for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you”. In other words there is an additional thought, Christ above and the Spirit here, but it is a seamless service. Everything they felt

that Christ did in His service to them while here was immediately to be experienced by His own in His absence.

RGr So what we experience now in the way of present help (someone has stressed that the Spirit is actually here) is very much what the disciples proved with the Lord’s help when He was here, do you think?

NJH Yes, it is the same love which is active towards us. We say that the nature of God is love, well that nature is expressed in each of the divine Persons that is known to us; divine love is there.

GAB In Acts 13 it says they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, and then the Spirit said, “Separate me now” (Acts 13: 2). Would the fact that they were ministering to the Lord make way for the Lord to facilitate the Spirit’s speaking, do you think?

NJH It does not say how it came about but the emphasis was on the Spirit. And that is exactly what we are getting at. Divine Persons are working so that there is spiritual intelligence, or priestly intelligence in the saints that discerns what the voice is for the moment. I think that is important, we need it in the present day. And here the Father and the Son are so intertwined in their service, in John chapters 14, 15 and 16, to make everything of the Spirit. It is the glory of the Spirit we are emphasising.

CKR Say a word about the Spirit dwelling in the house. It says, “Be careful in his presence”; Paul stresses to Timothy how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house (1 Timothy 3: 15). The Spirit’s activities collectively in relation to the house of God would be important as being a right representation of God in the testimony down here, and that is really by the Holy Spirit, is it not?

NJH Yes, and that really comes in by way of the demonstration in the assembly. The unbeliever that comes in in Corinth, he falls before all and says, God is among you of a truth (1 Corinthians 14: 25). Now that was the Spirit he recognised in the house, in principle, the Spirit was in the house, and the power is there as the saints are gathered; it involves the power of the Spirit and you have to be careful there.

JS I was thinking of the reference you made to the Father’s involvement. The Lord says, “And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever”. Do you think this suggestion of Another Comforter is Another One like Jesus? He had been among them and they were going to lose Him, but then they would have Another One like Him.

NJH Yes, and given the same designation as Himself. He knew He was a Comforter to them. He could speak to them as orphans. That scripture actually referred directly to His leaving them. He says “orphans”. The Lord Jesus as the Comforter knew the feelings of these dear disciples as He left them. Well the same designation is given to the Spirit, He is going to comfort us. If matters are too great for us, you will find the Comforter coming in and giving help to us, and strengthening us.

NMcK With regard to the Spirit in the house, is Ananias and Sapphira a practical example of that? The Spirit being in the assembly was denied there, but He came in in tremendous power to meet the matter, then the saints were together after that, “with one accord in Solomon’s porch, but of the rest durst no man join them” (Acts 5: 12); tremendous power came in after that.

NJH That is a helpful reference because that really links with the Angel in Exodus, that transgression will not be overlooked, and we have to remember that. There is the sober side that transgression is not overlooked by the Spirit. He is true to what Christ did in His death, and His work and therefore it says there, “why has Satan filled thy heart that thou shouldest lie to the Holy Spirit” (Acts 5: 3); that is a good reference, that confirms what we have said as to Exodus 23.

JD In Acts 19, when Paul came to Ephesus, he came by the upper districts, and then he speaks about the Spirit, so do you think the Spirit coming would involve the thought of elevation? Here in John the Spirit is coming because the Lord is going to the Father. Would it link on with your thought that we should not only know the Spirit as striving in us, but dwelling in us and lifting us up, do you think?

NJH That probably links on with chapter 16 where the Lord says, “I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when he is come, the Spirit of truth, he shall guide you into all the truth—for he shall not speak from himself; but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak; and he will announce to you what is coming”. I think it awaited the Spirit’s service bringing out the truth through Paul’s ministry

RHB The Angel is said to go before them, is that important? It speaks of the Spirit leading in Romans, and guiding, “he shall guide you into all the truth”. Departure has come in through persons losing contact with the Guide.

NJH That was the threat at Colosse, it was the mind of man. But that would come through losing contact with the Guide, it says “See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit” (Colossians 2: 8); that is exactly the position and that mind of man, that Philistine mind comes in and interprets. Immediately you allow that in you will drop to a lower standard, and you will turn to a lower standard of fellowship as well.

RHB It raises the question practically as to whether I am guidable, or whether I prefer my own opinions, does it not?

NJH Yes, schools of opinion are the works of the flesh. The Spirit is the guide, He leads and our safety is in following. Following Christ is our safety and following the Spirit is our safety.

DBR Independence leads to a party spirit. The great antidote to that is the recognition of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit in the saints. So that we need to respect the saints, I think that is a needed feature always; that we need to respect the saints because the Holy Spirit is in them. He is here in this room in the saints, and I think we need to be preserved from any party activity. Would you agree with that?

NJH I absolutely agree with that. Because at Pentecost they saw how the others got the Spirit, it “appeared to them”, Acts 2: 3. So they must have looked and seen how everybody else got the Spirit in that gathering. So while you know that you have received the Spirit yourself (if you have) you recognise those that you meet with, and you look on the brethren and you see that they are persons who have received the Spirit. So how could you walk slipshod over them, how could you not recognise the exercise, the spirituality of them? The teaching or whatever is there is for my good and I want to listen to it, I want to get the gain of it; that is how the Spirit speaks.

JAB Would it help us then to remember what we spoke about yesterday afternoon, that there is a divine Person who is in this room, in the saints? He is the same divine Person who came down on Christ at the waters of baptism; we are speaking about the same Person, are we not?

NJH Exactly, and no doubt the bodily form was because of the peculiar special conditions that were there; but it still set out the whole matter objectively to us as to the Trinity.

JAB We must ever remember that the Spirit was on the Lord Jesus in a unique and special way. When He came upon the assembly the tongues of fire were necessary, but nevertheless the Person is the same, and the power is the same.

NJH It is only a type, but God did not bring another spirit when He took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy men (Numbers 11: 25); it was the same Spirit.

JWr I was thinking about what has just been said, that when the saints are led forward into the truth, some adjustment may come in, and you would expect it to come out in the temple among the saints, would you not?

NJH If the Lord speaks in a meeting, you accept a certain alignment in your own soul.

I think there is a general adjustment as we are moving forward spiritually in our histories. When we come into the temple we speak of temple enquiry. You feel the Lord comes into a meeting, and you feel yourself getting adjusted in your outlook. I know of course we might need to sometimes come to the temple to enquire as to what is needing to be met, but generally when the voice of a divine Person speaks, it is for me to listen and align myself. When Enoch walked with God he would be aligning himself every day. Think of God coming down to the pace of a man; what grace! But think of God coming down to the pace of a creature, and Enoch would be just following as he should; walking with God. I think that comes in John, I think generally the temple is in view of our blessing and our uplifting as has been said.

JWr That is the way help has come in among the saints as to the truth, there has been progression in that way, would you say?

NJH Yes, and if we go over matters as to the worship of the Spirit, and as to the sonship of Christ and so on, light came in gradually. Light came into the temple and persons became convicted. We want to do as much as we can to go on together to the prepared place that was referred to in Exodus.

RDP The reference we had earlier as to being careful in His presence, we tend to think about that in relation to our conduct and so on, but that would apply at all times would it not? The Spirit is not historical, “Wherefore, even as says the Holy Spirit, Today”, Hebrews 3: 7. The Holy Spirit is currently speaking, and we would need to be careful in His presence in relation to the way we hear, do you think?

NJH Yes, we have been given an ear, “He that has an ear, let him hear”, Revelation 2: 7. We do not get that ear from nature, but it is the receptive part of a believer that can take in what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies.

RT We need diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4: 3), along with what we are saying now. The unity of the Spirit would be universal, would it not?

NJH Exactly, it is not unities, it is unity. Otherwise a locality becomes isolated. They thought in Corinth or Galatia they could do what they wanted, but the apostle says it is with those in every place (1 Corinthians 1: 2); you are linked with other saints universally.

RT It speaks of the Spirit of truth, there is an authoritative side to the Spirit’s activities, is there not?

NJH Yes there is, it carries its own power.

JAG In the epistle to the Colossians for instance there is a manifestation of the Spirit glorifying Christ, and the substantiality of it is that you are not thinking about the things on earth, but what is above and your life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3: 3).

NJH That is the place, in your heart you are already there, where the Christ is. No one should have any doubt where the Christ is. Well set your mind on the things that are above; that is your responsibility and my responsibility. I think that is a good thing you have mentioned, because the Spirit has the final object in mind, the prepared place. He is in our hearts and He can link us in His own power with Christ where He is; our life is hid with the Christ in God.

JAG It is a hidden position and it has to be found out.

NJH A day will come when it will be manifested what our life really was. They think we are strange, so be it, but we are not strange there, in these courts above. You get a sense that you are at home there, with the Christ in God.

JCG If we align ourselves as you helpfully said with the Spirit’s operations in our gatherings to make way for what is of Christ, quickening would come in. The Lord says that in John 6, “It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing” (John 6: 63). And that was when persons were saying this word is hard, indicating that the life that the Lord spoke about as being with the Father, that we should eat Him and live as well; the Spirit is the quickening power for that.

NJH It is by the Spirit. I know the Spirit had not come upon them, but Peter could speak for the company there, and we should be able to speak for the company; “we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God” (John 6: 69). That is what the Spirit works out in our history so that we are saying the one thing “we have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”.

AM Paul in second Corinthians brings in the ministry of the Spirit and he ends that section with “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord ... are transformed” (2 Corinthians 3: 18). Do you think the ministry of the Spirit abounding and glorious is what we are touching just now?

NJH That scripture was a little on my mind to read so I am

glad it has come in. Now that is the Spirit’s power known inwardly, operationally, and it is very close there; the Lord, the Spirit and so on, very close proximity between the operations of divine Persons so that we might be in the same image, come out changed to the same image as Christ Himself.

DBR The Spirit draws us into the current of divine communications. I was thinking of this word. It is a very precious word, “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”, the Spirit is constantly in touch with the Father and the Son and bringing us into the current of that.

NJH Yes exactly. There was the virtue and blessedness of the ten days when the three divine Persons were together positionally, but it is more than that, it is “for he shall not speak from himself’. You say, well He is a divine Person, but in the position He has come into in the economy it says that “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”; now that is today! If I have an ear for it, it is today.

DBR I thought it was the functioning of the economy. We use that word a lot, the ‘economy’ (see footnote ‘l’ to Colossians 1: 25). But it is a wonderful thought that there is such a thing as the divine economy, and we have part in it. And the Spirit really maintains us, you might say to use a simple term, in the life of the economy.

NJH Yes, that is interesting, because the Lord did that when He was here. It was the words of the Father that came through Christ, and here the Spirit is saying what He hears. The economy is kept intact in the divine mind, the operations of the Trinity.

DBR Do you think that if we experience that it becomes a great preservative amongst us, we do not give way to other things?

NJH Exactly.

JWr The Spirit requires vessels through whom to speak, does He? As He hears He speaks. Do you think that raises exercise with me, am I hearing? If I am going to be available to the Spirit, am I a person who hears?

NJH Well Corinthians brings it out as to one and the same Spirit. It is prophecy and so on, the operations of the Spirit are for our good and there should be no envy. We just want to get the gain of what the Spirit is saying, so we respectfully sit together and the vessels are available. I do not know who spoke in Corinth, and some spoke along party lines. But Paul’s authority brought in the mind of God. Maybe the least esteemed would say something of God in the place. You have Chloe and Stephanas who were actually vessels for the Spirit.

PM Is it affecting regarding the Spirit’s communications as it says, “whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”? Is this to give us an impression that all that divine Persons say within the realm of revelation is communicated to the assembly by the Spirit?

NJH Yes that is interesting, it is as if there is nothing said within the sphere of revelation but what is given to us by the Spirit.

GBG Do persons having the Lord’s commandments and keeping them provide an area where the Spirit is free to speak? That is needed is it not; because otherwise we could be restricted?

NJH Well lordship is attached to the Spirit as well, is it not? You would have to provide conditions.

GBG So what we have in chapter 15 underlies this, does it not? persons individually exercised to have the Lord’s commandments, and to keep them.

NJH Yes, and also the reference in both cases to “the Spirit of truth”. The Spirit of truth involves moral conditions for Himself and for His word; and as we keep the Lord’s commandments there is moral suitability for Him to speak.

QAP Paul says to the Ephesians “So then ye are no longer strangers and foreigners” (Ephesians 2: 19), and I notice that follows on directly from “For through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”.

NJH I feel that there is something that we need to lay hold of as to the glory of the person of the Spirit.

PM You referred earlier to the personal reference to the Spirit, ‘He’. We often refer at the time in the service of praise to what He does, but I wondered if a reading like this would help us to be more acquainted with who He is personally and the glory that He holds.

NJH In the place He has taken in what we refer to as the economy and the revelation of God, He is looking jealously after the interests of the Father and the Son, He is serving them, that is the position He has taken. But then there is this side of what is due Himself, His own personal glory as you say, and I think that is something to consider and be exercised about. We should pray that the Father will give us greater understanding of the personal glory of the Spirit, because the Father and the Son will be very ready to do that.

PAG Is the fact that the Spirit is distinguished personally on the first page of the Scriptures helpful in relation to what is being said? The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. He was not put forward as a type; He was put forward as a Person on the first page of the Scriptures. I wondered if there was a looking forward to the fact that He would take a place of service, but in that sense it is established that He is a Person in His own right, before any of the other aspects of His service are brought before us.

NJH Yes, because largely it is in type that the Holy Spirit is referred to in the Old Testament, but as you say the Scriptures begin with the Spirit of God; you might say anticipating the whole order of things that was in the divine mind; creation was only to serve a purpose. It was the theatre of God’s operations, and was to serve a purpose. It was the sensitive actions of the Spirit hovering over the waters waiting for some result, no doubt speaking of what would come out in the death of Christ finally. I think it is good to bring the Person in there.

RT We would not really know the place that Christ has in those courts above apart from the Spirit’s service to us. We need to be enlarged in what we can say to the Spirit. What He has told us about Christ in glory and the assembly here promotes worship.

NJH What the Lord said, “I have yet many things to say to you”. He would have loved to have opened up the truth that was in His heart. He carried them in His heart, and the main point in John’s gospel was the revelation of the Father and their place in sonship. But He had so much to open out and He waits really for the Spirit to come.

RT I thought of that journey that Rebecca took, she followed the man and what he must have spoken about on that journey—the offering up of Isaac would be one thing, and Abraham’s love for Isaac; it has all been delivered to us by the Spirit being here.

NJH He brings the vitality of all these operations. Think of what Christ has done in the way He went in the type of Isaac being offered up, it is meant to fill our hearts. That is the service of the Spirit, and then what we get in the exalted epistles of Paul setting us in heavenly places.

JCG Do you think that the various titles that are given in Scripture of the Spirit enhance to us the glory of His Person? You get the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of the Father. Does that help us in relation to the response to the Spirit in the divine service?

NJH We are getting help together. It shows the knowledge we have of the Spirit, and I think that is vital. Because in the service of God it is a vital touch, to see what He is in His Person, and what He does of Himself

JS Do you think it is in the recognition of His Person that we worship Him as God? I was thinking we worship the Father because He is God, we worship the Son because He is God, we worship the Spirit because He is God.

NJH Yes, exactly, and then as God in what He does. Think of the great matter of power coming in in the Spirit and it underpins the service of God; the power of the Spirit is there in our address even to Christ.

JS Do you think the greatness of His Person therefore enhances the glory of what He does?

NJH Yes I think it must do; it brings out His personal glory.

EJM I was thinking of Isaiah 11, the Spirit of Jehovah coming upon the Lord, it says “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah” (Isaiah 11: 2), it helps to expand our thinking of Him does it?

NJH Yes it does, you see the spirit in Ephesians 1, it is not the Spirit directly, but the Spirit must be behind “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1: 17). I think something must come into us of the Holy Spirit in regard to that. I think there is a whole breadth of things we could say to the Spirit if we knew Him better.

PM I think it is important to remember who He is in His Person as God, and as God He is worthy of worship, it belongs to Him.

NJH Yes, so that while the revelation was complete in Christ the Spirit brings us into increasing knowledge of God.

KM Whatever we may have to say in the service of God, essentially I think should come spontaneously, and that spontaneity is by the Spirit so that we are contributing in the power of the Spirit. So we should have something very valuable to say to the Holy Spirit, something very thankfully and effectively, personally because of what He has led us up to and what He will bring us into.

NJH Spontaneity is important. It has been said that if there is no quickening in the service of God, there is no worship. I find that quite testing, that there is something that comes into your soul and you express it; and there is a quickening touch comes in, you know the Lord’s presence; there is a quickening touch comes in through someone who is affected by the Spirit.

HTF Is that implied in the type in Numbers 21, “Rise up, well! sing unto it” (Numbers 21: 17). The spontaneity, the depths that the Spirit Himself has are involved in that, would you think?

NJH That is a good reference to make, there is depth there, but the depth does not hinder spontaneity, a touch of quickening coming in. But it is not something dry, an impression comes in and no doubt the soul answers to it in the power of the Spirit. The impression must come from Christ because He comes in and takes over, and as we know new creation comes in after the Supper. But there is a whole order of things that is available under the hand of Christ and the power of its release is in the Spirit.

RGr Could you say something then please about the character of the service of the Spirit? I am enquiring as to the fact that He is very gentle and if difficulties come in or unsuitable conditions He retires for the time, He may be grieved. I am also thinking of the fact that there is very much carried on the spirits of the brethren, and to get the benefit of the Holy Spirit’s service we need to maintain conditions, which very much involves our relationships with one another. What would you say about that?

NJH Have you more in mind?

RGr Well the ultimate I suppose is when the Spirit and the bride say “Come”; that is the bride is saying “Come” entirely, there is no divergent thought and the Spirit is saying “Come”. But there are exercises that we carry, and we need to be right in our spirits and at ease in our spirits. We need the word, we need the commandment, but we need too to be free in our spirits with one another.

NJH Yes, I think that the service of the Spirit as to that matter would develop a priestly state, and if a priestly state is there carrying things before God, there is no hindrance to response God-ward.

JDG The Lord says “I Jesus”; that brings about the immediate response of the Spirit and the bride.

NJH That is it exactly, otherwise we get bogged down. In Zechariah it says that horns come in and the effect is that no one can lift their head (Zechariah 1: 18, 21); they cannot look at Ephesian truth or ground, they are held down, but then the four craftsmen come in and they revive all the truths that were lost through the time, and that is what has happened in the time that we are in. I think the priestly state is developed by the Holy Spirit in our relations with Him during the week. We carry things before God, we feel before God as to things that are not consistent; but it should not affect the service of God if that state is there.

JCG It would bring out the body feelings that are amongst us. In Ephesians 4, the first circle that is referred to is “There is one body and one Spirit” (Ephesians 4: 4). Does that indicate that the Spirit is operating where conditions are ripe for making way for the Christ to be known amongst us, and conditions that would be suitable without any dissenting voice as it were?

NJH Well exactly, we are slow to recall what has often been said that state is met by ministry. If something is lacking a ministry of Christ is what is needed. There was poison in the pot, someone had brought in wild colocynths unawares and put them in the pot (2 Kings 4: 40). There was death in the pot; what did they do? They brought in meal, brought in Christ; and that is going to meet our state, that is as far as I know how things have developed in the recovery.

RT So that was Paul’s exercise at Corinth to get the body working.

NJH That is it exactly; to get the body working. He carried things; think of what he must have carried in his heart. Maybe someone said, Paul what are you coming with to Corinth?

RT Personal opinions hinder that.

NJH Yes you are right.

RDP It is interesting that when the first defection came in Acts with Ananias and Sapphira, Peter speaks to them as lying to and tempting the Spirit of the Lord (Acts 5: 9). It is almost as if the offence was against the Spirit really. They proceeded on a higher level, did they not, in the upper room? It is almost as if these things came in on a lower level.

NJH Yes, they acted as if the Spirit was not in the company. That is just what we have been considering. They acted as if the Spirit was not in the company. And they wanted to look good. They thought that God would accept that they were sacrificing, and the brethren would think well of them, because they had obviously thought well of Joseph, because he had been surnamed Barnabas. He was recognised because of what he was, and here is an imitation and it was an imitation that was contrary to the Spirit of God in the company.

RDP I am struck with what you said at the beginning, that the Spirit acts on a higher level; in Acts they went to an upper room where they waited for the Spirit to come. These actions here of Ananias and Sapphira are on a lower level. We were speaking about party spirit and other things, and they have not been things we have not known about, but they belong to a lower level, and I think it is good to see that the Spirit operates. They went to the upper room and that is where they remained, that was the area of things in which the Spirit of God was acting.

NJH Special friendships are contrary to the assembly.

GBG In Galatians “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness” (Galatians 5: 22). That meets all that kind of thing, and these features there are the expression of spirituality. That is in our ordinary relations together spirituality can express itself.

NJH Yes, that is how it is meant to be. I think the main thing is that issues that have to be taken up are not overlooked, but it is how they are taken up.

JAG The Lord reserves the right to exercise discipline in support of the Spirit’s service. I am thinking of “many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep”, 1 Corinthians 11: 30.

NJH There were persons who were hindering the state in Corinth but they were laid aside. That was discipline from the Lord, He had a right to do that.

DBR The bride is presented as an entity, representing the cumulative glory of the operations of the Spirit.

NJH Exactly, and it is one voice. Think of the whole dispensation, only a divine Person could gather up the whole dispensational thought there, in “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”.

RT At the end of Ephesians 3 you are strengthened by the Spirit to apprehend length and breadth and depth and height and to know what passes knowledge.

NJH It shows the indispensability of the presence of the Spirit in this dispensation to arrive at what God wants from this glorious vessel that is going to fill its place above all other families in the eternal day.

PM And He is saying the same thing in each local assembly. It is to the assemblies.

NJH Exactly. He is working towards unity of assemblies. That is another point we need. There is no place for independent assemblies. It is the same voice to all assemblies; He works on the principle of unity, the body.

RDP I was just thinking in Revelation you get the fulness of the Spirit really, the seven spirits of God. You get the seven spirits before the throne, and the seven spirits of God at Sardis.

NJH Yes, how important He is in operations of the Trinity, the Spirit working and bringing this result, the bride; that is freshness.

DBR “Come” is the only recorded word in Scripture that the bride says. I think it is an entity absorbed with the glories and the beauties of Christ, and that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s service.

JDG It is the voice of the bride saying “Come” to the husband; very intimate link there.

NJH Yes, she did not need to name Him, it says in verse 20, “come, Lord Jesus”, but in verse 17 it just says “Come”, because there is no question that He is only Person she would address.

JDG She would recognise His voice.

Reading No. 3 at Dundee
7 April 2012

KEY TO INITIALS

G. A. Brown	A. Gray	R. D. Plant
J. A. Brown	R. Gray	Q. A. Poore
R. H. Brown	N. J. Henry	D. B. Robertson
J. Drummond	N. McKay	C. K. Robinson
H. T. Franklin	A. Mair	J. Strachan
J. A. Gardiner	E. J. Mair	R. Taylor
G. B. Grant	K. Marshall	J. Webster
J. C. Gray	P. Martin	J. Wright
J. D. Gray