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THIRD READING AT VALENCE

WJH At these meetings we have been considering a few of the features that marked the church at the outset, having in mind that the Lord will end with the same features. We were noticing the Lord with the disciples for forty days, conveying to them a complete assurance of His resurrection. Then we saw how the Lord said they were not to be occupied with times or seasons, but that the Spirit of God was coming and that the great thing would be to hear His voice. Then that the Lord was taken up to heaven in their sight, as it says, “they beholding him”, Acts 1: 9. We saw thus that the object of their hearts was no longer on earth, but in heaven. Then that they returned to the upper room — an unpretentious place being suggested by the room, but it is above the moral level of the world. Where, it says, abode certain ones, each bringing in, as we saw, his own particular feature, and the women, that is the subjective secret side was there as well as the public side. Then there was the exercise that Judas should be replaced. I think that covers the main points we have been looking at, and one felt that the Lord would bring these features back; indeed, it is a delight to see them appearing in various parts of the world. Then I thought the chapter we have just read brings before us the character of the Spirit’s presence in the church, so that we should make room for the same character of His presence now.

I sometimes wonder if we fully believe scripture. The Lord said, “It is profitable for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come”, John 16: 7. If we were to speak exactly what is in our minds, I wonder if we would agree that it is better to be on earth in the Spirit’s day than in the day when Jesus was on earth. I think many would say that they would have liked to have lived when Jesus was actually here, that that would have been sublime happiness and privilege, but the Lord said, It is profitable for you that I go away. So that we are living in the most privileged day in the history of time — more privileged than those who lived when Jesus was literally here. But to come into that we must make room for the Spirit. The character of the Lord’s work as moving about in this world was largely external, benefits being received in relation to people’s bodies; in one case it says, “he healed them all”. But except for a few, not many seem to have got much gain in their souls.

There does not seem to have been much spiritual formation, so that even the disciples on the eve of the Lord’s death, when He was going to give up everything, were disputing amongst themselves who should be greatest; showing how little positive formation there was even in those who had been with Him personally and so closely. But as soon as the Spirit came you see not physical benefits merely, but most wonderful spiritual formation. Take a man like Stephen, the very living expression of Christ. It says, he was full of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7: 55). The Spirit has come to form something within us spiritually, not to heal our bodies in an outward way, though, of course, what the Lord did outwardly was representative of what He would do inwardly, but the work of the Spirit is in us, and abides eternally when our bodies as we now have them have passed away. It says, “By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens”, Job 26: 13. The Spirit in that way has come to gather the gems with which God would garnish the heavens.

Rem You think the Lord being here was more the objective side, but the Spirit more the subjective side, what is within us?

WJH That is always the position; Christ is the object. The Spirit has come to form Christ in our hearts, in our minds, in our spirits, and Stephen is a kind of climax that is reached, so that as you look at Stephen you cannot help thinking about Christ, because you see Him expressed in that vessel. But that came by the Spirit’s work; it was not natural to Stephen, but it says, “Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost”. I do hope the brethren will get hold of the thought of this wonderful period, that a divine Person has come to earth to form in the believer, for eternal expression, the character of Christ. That is what I believe the Lord meant when He said, It is profitable for you that I go away.

Ques It says in Psalm 118: 24, “This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”. Would that be the Spirit’s day?

WJH That day is the day in which the stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. It says, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made ... “ That is, Christ is exalted as supreme, as we noticed in the last chapter. Then the Spirit comes. But to get the gain of His presence we must have these features. So that the first thing mentioned is that they were all together, and the total number, we are told, was a hundred and twenty. It says, “the crowd of the names” meaning that each one was different — a hundred and twenty names. But it says they were all together, and that is not a physical idea but a moral one. In object and heart and mind they were together. And I think that is essential if we are to have the Spirit’s presence in power.

Ques You are not thinking of each individual believer having the Spirit, but rather the collective idea?

WJH Yes; we shall come to the individual side presently, but here it is the consciousness of His presence amongst God’s people as together.

Rem So that in Psalm 133, where the brethren are seen dwelling together in unity, we have the thought of the precious oil and the dew of Hermon.

WJH Yes; unity provides a condition in which the Spirit can come down. Whatever number you have walking together, every one is different; every brother and sister is different; each one has a name. But if we are going to have the consciousness of the Spirit’s presence we must be really together. It is not a question merely of being in one room, but together in heart and mind. If one brother or sister brings in an element of discord, or envy, or malice, then we are no longer really together; we might still meet in the same room, but once these elements are allowed we are morally apart, and that will interfere with the consciousness of the Spirit’s presence. So that one would urge that we should all continually judge these things, so that we can be really together, so that we should not miss the great privilege of the present time, that into our midst might come that which corresponds to the “sound from heaven”; there is no sound like that. None of us want to interrupt that.

Ques And what do you think that sound suggests?

WJH That sound from heaven brings right down into our hearts a report of the glory of Christ. That is why He has come. “He shall glorify me”, John 16: 14. That sound would bring down a message as to what is going on in heaven, and you can listen to nothing better than that.

Ques Why is it described as a rushing mighty wind? In another connection we have a still small voice.

WJH That is another feature, indicating mighty, irresistible power, but first let us look at this sound from heaven. There are sounds travelling through the air today, and some are listening to them. Such sounds may tell you what is going on in the commercial world, while a good many are of the moral character of hell. You will never hear one message from heaven through those sounds, and I would urge that none of us give our ears to them. I do not refer, of course, to cables or such like messages, but to other things that are being used, things that bring that which originates with Satan into the houses of men. But the sound from heaven brings a report of Christ, and that is the sound we want to hear.

Ques You think, then, that this sound continues?

WJH Where should we be if we did not hear it? What would there be worth listening to? The apostle says, “The Holy Ghost testifies in every city”, Acts 20: 23. As he went from city to city he heard the voice of the Spirit, showing that the Lord would have it in every city.

Ques Do you think he would have heard that voice, that sound, in the circle of the saints?

WJH Surely; that is how the Spirit speaks; He has not become incarnate. He speaks through the vessels that He occupies, and He will occupy all our hearts if we make room for Him.

Ques Has not that side of things been largely lost sight of? Is not the Lord drawing attention to it now?

WJH I am sure of that. It is one of the great features of the recovery, that the voice of the Spirit is recognised and listened to, so that there has been a wonderful expansion in the enjoyment of what is heavenly, in the knowledge of Christ in heaven, of the place of glory and power that belongs to Him. The sound from heaven has brought that.

Rem From what you are calling attention to, it is evident already that it is better to live in the Spirit’s day.

WJH Yes; if we see that more clearly we shall not waste a day; every day will be precious.

Rem I suppose the Spirit would touch our hearts. The exhortation is that we should not harden our hearts (Hebrews 3: 15). The hardening would prevent our getting His touch.

WJH Quite so. Nothing touches the heart more than a message about Christ. John Baptist said, He must increase, and He will continue to increase until He fills all things. He has gone up, it says, far above all heavens that He might fill all things (Ephesians 4: 10). So that we need not think we have discovered the fulness of Christ; He is so supremely great that He is going to fill heaven and earth.

And the sound from heaven makes Him greater and greater, until at last He fills our hearts.

Rem The Spirit has much more to say to our hearts about Christ if we are prepared to listen.

WJH I believe there is much more to be said in our day — a further appreciation of the greatness of Christ. Then we come to what our brother referred to, that is, the mighty tempestuous blowing which indicates that the movements of the Spirit will be sovereign. Nobody can attempt to direct the wind. What would you think of a man that went out in a gale and tried to direct the wind? The Lord said, “the wind bloweth where it listeth”. You do not know whence it comes, and you do not know where it goes (John 3: 8). It is not in our hands.

Rem Though as to the Spirit I suppose we can say whence He comes.

WJH We can in that sense; He came from heaven. But in the character of the wind His movements are not discernible; He goes where He will.

Rem You mean that knowing whence He came is not the point of the wind.

WJH We cannot direct the wind, but we can follow it. If we get into the current we are in irresistible power, but if we get out of the current, then the ship cannot go at all. It is like a sailing vessel getting becalmed. Come into the wind and everything goes well, but get out of it and you can make no progress at all. The Lord wants to bring us into the wind to move on till the moment of His coming.

Ques Would Philip be an example of a servant who moved in the current of the wind?

WJH Quite so. He might have said, Why go down to the desert? Why leave Samaria where the Lord is blessing me? But he was subject; he was where the Spirit could use him.

Rem And the Spirit also caught him away to Azotus.

WJH So with the apostle Paul; it says, “they attempted to go to Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them”, Acts 16: 7. Then they were directed to Philippi, that is, to Europe instead of eastward to Asia. Now the natural mind would say, Why not go into Asia; look at all the Asiatics, 1,000,000,000 (one thousand million) human beings there, Indians, Chinese, Japanese. The apostle was moving that way, and it says, the Spirit suffered him not. We might say, Why? But we cannot control the wind. The wind blows where it will blow. All we can do is to follow the wind. Paul did follow the wind, and all that the Lord has got out of Europe came out of his doing it.

Ques What does it mean that the wind filled the house? (Acts 2: 2).

WJH That is a very important remark; it means that there is to be no other power in the house. If it filled the house, there was not one corner anywhere that had room for any other sound or any other power. What it would have been if the church had kept to that! How many other powers have come into christendom from the human mind, from heathenism, and indeed from Satan himself. But the divine thought is that the house should be filled with the wind, that every movement in the assembly should be in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Rem It says it “filled all the house where they were sitting”. Does that mean that there was no movement on the part of man?

WJH That is so; they were restful, waiting for the promise when they would be clothed with power from on high. And we do well to wait for that, and not move without it. Going back for a moment to the rushing mighty wind, I occasionally meet those who would much like to have the kind of ministry that they had forty years ago, they complain that things are different. But, you see, they are trying to control and lead the wind. The Spirit of God knows what is needed for our day. The dangers of forty years ago, and the character of Satan’s attacks forty years ago are not the same today. But the Spirit brings what is needed for the day in which we are. So that the Lord says seven times over, “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”. It is not what He said, but what He says; it is the present thing, something that will last till the Lord comes. If we fail to hear what He says we shall not be fortified to meet what Satan is bringing in at the present time. For the Spirit’s work is to bring what we need at the moment to help God’s people.

Ques May not the hardness of our hearts hinder that?

WJH That is true, but the thing is to come into the current; that is the idea in this section, to come into the current of the Spirit’s movements.

Ques It says, “there came suddenly a sound out of heaven”. Is there a sudden movement today?

WJH Well, it all emphasises the sovereignty of the movement. It springs from divine Persons. There is a tendency in certain quarters, to complain that we do not do now exactly what was done ten or twenty or thirty years ago. What is meant really is that the wind should not have blown any more since then. But the movements of the wind will continue. We might get out of the current, and then say, There is no wind. But the wind does blow, and many hearts are being strengthened by it. We want to come into that current.

Ques Does not what you are saying involve a lack of submission? As we were seeing submission is the first essential.

WJH So that the selection of Matthias immediately precedes this; that is, they submit to the sovereign selection of the Lord. We might have just a word about the cloven tongues of fire. We have already had the sound from heaven; that is the first feature. Then there is the mighty tempestuous blowing. Then we have seen that it filled the house, and now there appear these cloven tongues of fire, and it says, it sat on each one of them, which, I think, is a wonderful thing. The reference to the tongue is clearly the power to speak, the power to be here in testimony. And the Spirit of God is that for every one of us. The gift of the Spirit is what empowers us to be here in testimony for the Lord.

Rem The sound precedes the tongues.

WJH Well, that is the source of what may be said. What you are going to speak of is what you have heard. If we do not hear we have nothing to speak about. But the reference to fire means that the testimony is to be rendered in self-judgment; the fire refers to the judgment of what is evil, and it is only as we are walking in self-judgment by the Spirit, as it says, “putting to death the deeds of the body”, Romans 8: 13, that we can take our place in the testimony. The point here at the beginning was that it sat on each one, and the Lord wants each one in this, not the old brothers only, but the young brothers and the sisters too. It says, it sat on each one of them, having in view that each one of God’s people should be spiritual. And I am sure the Lord is seeking to bring that back. Instead of just one or two brothers who are spiritual in a meeting, the Lord wants to bring each one into it, and the Spirit is the power if we will allow Him to bring about spirituality in our hearts.

Ques Would there be a connection between the filling of the house here and the odour of the ointment filling the house in John?

WJH There is a connection; John 12 in present application would be the result of this. The sound from heaven would bring such an appreciation of Christ into our hearts, if we listened to it, that we should be able to bring out of our affections such a response to Christ that the odour of the ointment would fill the house.

Rem One would be what comes from heaven, and the other what comes from the earth.

WJH Yes; from the affections of the saints. Mary had been listening to the sound from heaven. She sat at Jesus’ feet and was listening to His word. We do that by listening to the voice of the Spirit, and the result in Mary was that she went and took the ointment, and brought it out and filled the house with the odour. I believe the morning meeting would contain that, if we were listening to the sound from heaven. The house would be filled with the odour of the ointment, of affections that are poured upon Christ.

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