POWER

Acts 4: 31–37; 5: 1–13; Ephesians 3: 14–21

JM It was thought that we should in this meeting look into the matter of power. The dispensation commenced in power, and we have read some verses from the Acts which show that. But then, even allowing for the fact that breakdown has come in, I judge the dispensation is going to close in power. Therefore it is a subject that should be of great interest to us and, I might also say, great exercise that we should be marked by it at the present time. The question of God’s power is really unassailable. There is a testimony to men in His creational power and divinity, but greater than His creational power is His power in resurrection, and therefore that lies at the basis of what we would consider. Think of the power of God, “the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”, Ephesians 1: 20. So that the position of Christianity is not exactly one of weakness, although publicly we would have to feel that, but really it is a position of great power. We need to encourage one another that we should allow that to govern us. We have accustomed ourselves in these closing days with small numbers, and so on (some of our meetings are very weak, as we might say) and we might come to accept weakness as being the norm, but it is not the norm. What is in the divine mind is that there should be power here.

Not only has Christ been raised from among the dead, but He has been set at God’s right hand, and that is a place of power. Then the Spirit has come so that the power that is resident in Christ where He now is can be known here in a practical and living way, and it is a very real thing. That lies at the bottom of what we have read in the book of Acts. I thought we might look at first the power of prayer, and then also the power in the testimony; it says “they … spoke the word of God with boldness”. There they were, a small company, (we might think they were large but in relation to the nations they were a very small company of persons) in the seat of opposition, to Christ, but what power marked them. Then there is the power of oneness. That is something that we really need to think about. It says, “the heart and soul of the multitude of those that had believed were one”.

Not just that they were united, but they were one. Oneness is greater than unity. I read in chapter 5 because there you have the power to discern and deal with evil, and that is a very necessary thing. Again we might think what is apostolic comes into that, and it does, but it is nevertheless recorded for us, and it is to have its bearing upon us. There is power not only to discern and deal with evil, but as the chapter goes on there is power to keep it out, which is something to be cherished. The way the enemy works is very insidious but there is power in the Spirit among the saints to keep evil out. Then finally I thought we might look at Ephesians and see the power that comes in to reach the divine end. I wondered if that might be helpful to us.

JW I am sure it would. I recall a remark of Mr. Stoney, he says, We have the power but have we the heart for Christ? That is really what marked the early saints, was it, they really had heart for Christ?

JM Yes, Christ was everything to them. As far as the hundred and twenty were concerned they had had recent experience of Christ in a variety of ways. Some of them accompanied Him in His public pathway, and then there were the forty days in which He went in and out amongst them, they had experience of Christ; undoubtedly their hearts were rent as He was taken from them.

EO I am very impressed with your reference to oneness, because in John 17 we have this wonderful reference by the Lord who says, “I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word; that they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us (John 17: 20, 21). It gives you to see the importance of it.

JM It is a very important matter; I trust it may open up as we come to it in the reading. It clearly marked the beginning of the dispensation, and it is the divine intent that it should also mark the end. When the Lord comes it will not be because the position is so weak that He has no alternative but to take us out of this scene, rather He is coming to what represents Himself and what attracts His own heart. Hence as our brother has said, what underlies it all is love for Christ.

JW Were you thinking that whilst there would not be the same outward evidence of power that there was in the beginning, yet the features that were seen in the saints then are to be seen at the end? I think it has been said that features that really mark them are their occupation with Christ and their dependence, I wondered if that would bear on the matter of prayer which you spoke of.

JM I think so, and there was not only dependence upon the Lord but also dependence on the Spirit. The Lord may help us to see that there is the power of Christ on high, and that is a tremendous power, and the fact that He is there and He is glorified there should draw out our affections; but then the Spirit here is commensurate with that. That is a great thing to get into our souls. I know we would all accept the doctrine of it, but we need to get really into our souls that the Spirit is here in power, and the testimony therefore is going to go out in power.

DJH So the gifts have not been withdrawn, have they? You were referring to the apostles, and there are not those today that we can identify as apostles, but the gift remains as held in the Spirit, does it, so that there shall be that power in authority in the ministry at the present time?

JM That is exactly it. From the divine side nothing has changed. We have no apostles formally as such, the twelve and Paul are now with the Lord but what is of apostolic character remains among the saints, and it is exercised in the power of the Spirit. I think it is a great thing to see that from the divine side there has been no diminution of power. There is no change. The change that came in through the breakdown is a change here, but there is no change on the divine side, and what is really of God goes through.

GCB Is it good to remind ourselves that the Spirit is power at every level, including the Ephesian level that you read, and in every department too?

JM Yes, one of the greatest needs amongst us is to really make way for the Spirit. Now that is a, simple thing to say, and if you were in conversation with any of the brethren they would all acknowledge that the Spirit is here. But then we need the results of it, and that raises the question as to how much scope I give to the Holy Spirit of God. I take that home to myself.

DJW It says in the verse where we began reading in relation to the prayer, that “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”, no doubt, as you are emphasising, there was power in their prayer and the sense of divine approval in it.

JM What comes in is divine approval, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. It strikes you as you read these early chapters the place that the Spirit actually had in the affections of the saints, and no doubt the breakdown has come in because that feature waned among the brethren. Now we are in days of revival and we are actually recovered to the quality of what was there at the beginning, not to the actual position, but we are recovered to the quality of it.

LWB In Thessalonians, Paul says, “For our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1: 5), and our faith is not to be in word exactly, it is to be in God’s power, is it not?

JM That is right. Paul says that to the Corinthians, does he not? He says if he came to them he wanted to know not the word but the power.

LWB What do you understand by that? The power must mean to effect something in us and with us, do you think? What is meant by power is really that something is effected by the word of God.

JM Yes, if you examine it, what is involved in power is that the Spirit is manifested in persons. It is not the power of man, it is the power of God, but it is manifested in persons.

LWB Yes, do you think in persons really that are kingly? I was reading in Mr. Taylor’s ministry, and he said there is a great need for us to be kingly persons, able to effect what is right. I thought it was a very good reading, it was in connection with Josiah’s recovery.

JM Yes, power is connected with the king. I know in the world today that the power of the king has waned, it is practically non-existent, but in the divine mind power is connected with the King. The Lord has taken His position on high and He sets out kingly power, but then, as we have said, we must carry the fact that all that power that is resident in Him can be known here in the Spirit. The coming of the Spirit is especially set out in the chapters just before this to emphasise that.

LWB It really is moral power to effect change, is it?

JM It is, it effects change, and here it has its effect on the testimony, it says, “they … spoke the word of God with boldness”. There they were, relatively a small number of persons right in the middle of the city which had recently crucified Christ.

LWB In another place Paul speaks of those who dared “to speak the word of God fearlessly”, Philippians 1: 14.

JM Yes, fearlessly. There was worldly power in Jerusalem at that time, and they crucified the Lord. Of course they could never have done that if He had not submitted Himself to it, but that was the kind of power that was there. But here is a small company, they are a good bit bigger than we are, but a relatively small company of persons in the heart of that very city, and what marked them was heavenly power.

DER So for faith all divine resources remain, but we need to be near to the Spirit to be in the gain of those resources.

JM I have no doubt about it that one of the most important things is to be in thorough self-judgment, so that there is no hindrance whatsoever to the actings of the Spirit in us.

DJH I thought of your reference in prayer to the hymn as to idle nature’s poor delight, the word to the Ephesians is, “be not drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit”, Ephesians 5:18. As you say, the matter of self-judgment and the exclusion of what is of nature is necessary, is it not, in view of the Holy Spirit’s presence being known in power?

JM I am sure of that, and then in chapter 4 there is a very, very clear division between the saints of the assembly and the world. You might say they were in opposition to each other. There is as clear a division as possible. There is a need to be exercised about that, that the division between the saints of the assembly and the world is absolutely clear, that there is no fudge about it, if I may use that expression, there is no uncertainty about it. Mr. Darby said that our power lies in our separation, and that comes out in this chapter.

DJH I was thinking of that when you referred to the background that was here, the recent crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, but the background morally is the same today, is it not? and the power should be manifest against that background.

JM There is no change, and the world has not changed. The world has not changed its opposition to Christ, therefore there should be a clear division between the saints of the assembly and the world, and unless there is that we will be robbed of our power.

DJW There could not be a greater contrast, as you say, that they were charged not to speak in the name of Jesus, that is from the opposition in the testimonial point of view, is it not, but in verse 23, “having been let go, they came to their own company”? I wondered if that is a very attractive thought, it is the Christian circle really, is it not, in contrast to the opposition in the world?

JM It is a beautiful thought, “they came to their own company”. Well how much do we value our own company, a place where we can be free and be at ease, that is where we belong, to rest there. The line of division between the saints and the world in this chapter is crystal clear.

LWB The outward deportment is important, is it not, for men and women to be right in their outward deportment?

JM Yes, the outward deportment should reflect what is inward. So the great need is for us to make room inwardly for what is of God, for the Spirit is here. Then the result of that will be that Christ is actually borne out in testimony. We were interested somewhere else speaking about the notice-boards and meetings, and a brother said, and I came across it, Mr.

Raven would not allow a notice-board on the Greenwich meeting-room; he said, The saints are the notice-board. I am not saying do not have notice-boards, let me be quite clear about that, but I think what he said is a very powerful matter, the saints are the notice-board.

LWB It would mean really that people take account of us, do they not, take account of us as we go into the meeting?

JM They should discern, and it should be crystal clear that there is no connection with the world at all. We belong to a different world altogether, because the Man who is the object of our affections is no longer in this world, he is cast out of this world, but where He is He has a world of His own; coming to their own company relates to that, that they came into where there was a totally different world altogether.

DH Is it interesting that this Joseph, Barnabas, comes in at the end of chapter 4, it does speak of “owners of lands or houses, selling them, brought the price of what was sold and laid it at the feet of the apostles”, but it mentions this Barnabas by name. I just wondered whether it was not an encouraging positive thing, that it is mentioned before what we might regard as more negative in the next chapter, not that we do not need what is negative to bring out what is positive.

JM The world has many features. There is the material world, and the material world is very prominent and, sad to say, it has a place amongst us. Now the actions of these persons spring from love for Christ, and spring from the great fact that they did not belong here, they belonged elsewhere; therefore they are not saying that the things of this world were useless, they could see a use for them, but their use was that they should be devoted to the testimony. There is a great need at the present time of our being preserved from the materialistic world, and that comes about through being occupied with Christ as the centre of another world.

CS This great power here is connected with great grace. Could you say something about that?

JM It shows that powerfully there in the saints in that day are the characteristics of Christ.

CS Does the Lord not say somewhere that His power is perfected in weakness? He says, “My grace suffices thee”, 2 Corinthians 12: 9. Do you think there should not be a struggle for power within the believer? I mean, there is power connected with the natural man, what I am as man, but there needs to be that effect of grace, does there not, so that there is room made for divine power?

JM Yes, except, of course, the actual fact is that it is a struggle, because to acquire power of this description means that you have an absolute and thorough judgment of yourself, and that really raises the moral teaching, and the moral issues and experience of chapters 7 and 8 of the epistle to the Romans, and that is a struggle.

CS Yes, but I was thinking of the state that is arrived at. Paul speaks in the beginning of the epistle to Timothy that he was given power, “our Lord, who has given me power” (1 Timothy 1: 12), and then he speaks to Timothy about the spirit of “power, and of love, and of wise discretion”, 2 Timothy 1: 7. It seems that there was a state that would make room for divine power. That is what is needed, is it not?

JM That is what we are trying to get at, that room should be made; the power is there.

EFW I was wondering whether power is closely connected with being filled. It says, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. In chapter 5 we find that there is room for Satan to fill the heart of Ananias, and then finally, you may well have something to say about it at the end, being “filled even to all the fulness of God”. Thinking of the water vessels, they were filled to the brim, and therefore there is no room for the enemy to operate in my heart as he would like to do.

JM That is one of the gains of being filled with the Holy Spirit. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit it means that you have no room for anything else. That is something that we need to think about. Romans 8 is where a believer begins to learn the power that he has in the Spirit, not in himself. It says, “that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit” (Romans 8: 4). You now have an entirely new power. There is a great need for our younger brethren, but for us who are older too, to work out the truth that you get in these chapters in that epistle.

DER Is the unworldliness of this company here in the Acts continued morally in Philadelphia, they had not denied the Lord’s name, they had kept His word, and hence they had a little power?

JM Our day is marked by the revival of the truth, we are actually in a revival, we are recovered to what was at the beginning. Not exactly what has come in in the history of the testimony with all the failure that attaches to it, we have to take our bearings from the beginning. If you take your bearings from chaos, from breakdown, then you will always be marked by breakdown. You take your bearings from what was there at the beginning and, as we have said, from the divine side the power is unchanged. It would help us to go through in the scene in which we are, completely apart from the world, and as demonstrating clearly the testimony as to a risen and glorified Man.

JW We have to learn, as you say, in Romans 8 to use the Spirit, to do things by the Spirit. In Romans 7 we come to it that we cannot in ourselves do anything, but there is the power in the Spirit as we use the Spirit. Do you think that is the way to practical oneness among us, by doing things by the Spirit?

JM I am sure it is. As you say, the man in Romans 7 has no resource whatsoever. We should not need to say too much about Romans 7, there was quite a controversy about that some years ago; but I think the question that may be raised is that, although we may be perfectly clear as to the doctrine of it, what about the practice of it? The practice of these things is always the challenge.

JW The Spirit is power for deliverance, and you cannot but feel that these persons here in their unselfish outlook were delivered persons.

JM Yes, absolutely delivered, delivered from the world. Of Barnabas it says, “being possessed of land, having sold it, brought the money and laid it at the feet of the apostles”. As far as he was concerned material matters did not govern him at all. He made it all available for the working out of the testimony here. It is a great thing to come to in our souls that what is really important, and what power the Spirit would bring into our souls, is in relation to the heavenly realm where Christ is, enshrined there, and everything that is ours is resident in Him there.

DJH So Paul in his prayer in Ephesians 1 speaks of that power as being toward us. There is no question of it being toward us, it is a question of our experience, is it?

JM Yes, our experiencing it and our deliberately taking it up. As our brother has said, in Romans 8 you have to use the Spirit, “if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8: 13), so it comes down to practical everyday matters.

DEB We have not said very much about what you said was your first point in this subject, the question of prayer. I wondered if you could say something for our help on the use of prayer, the power of prayer, and how we engage in it.

JM I have to own for myself that I do not pray enough; not only would I say I do not pray enough but there is the need to be exercised that there should be power in our prayer, power to move God. Paul in that prayer in Ephesians 3 is putting a request to God that is tremendous. He is proving God to the limit in his prayer. God loves to be proved. How do we pray for the saints? We pray for our own circumstances, I trust we do anyway, every morning before we commence the day, commit our circumstances to the Lord, but how much do we pray for the saints, and what do we pray for the saints?

LWB it says of Elias that “he prayed with prayer”, James 5: 17. There was a certain fervency there with Elias in connection with the rain; he prayed with prayer, which means really that he was fervent in it.

JM James says, “The fervent supplication of the righteous man has much power”, James 5: 16. Elias is an example of what we are saying, “he prayed with prayer”. There is a certain intensity about that. No doubt as we come to Ephesians we might see it when Paul said “I bow my knees”; a certain intensity and power comes into that. Paul put God to the proof; God loves to be proved. Maybe we are a bit too shallow in our prayers; I am anyway.

JW Do you think we need to be simple and direct in our prayers? These persons asked for boldness and they spoke the word with boldness.

JM Yes, they had an immediate answer. It is not only assembly prayer but there are our private prayers. How much time do we spend in the presence of God in relation to His testimony and in relation to His saints? Does that help any Mr. B? What was your thought yourself?

DEB Yes I was just thinking about your reference to the end of James’ epistle, and the word there is “fervent” and the note says ‘effectual’. I think it is ‘effectual’ in the Authorised Version, but the effectual prayer. Now how can we be sure that our prayers become effectual?

JM We should be exercised about it. What you say is most important, effectual prayer availeth much. As you take account of circumstances amongst us, things go on week by week, and there seems to be no change for good. Why is there not any change? Maybe it is because the fervency of our prayer needs to be encouraged and the effective character of prayer needs to be encouraged. There is an immediate answer here. It has often been commented on that the building shook. It was a gentle shake, a shake of approval. There is the lifting up the voice in prayer and there is an immediate answer.

EO Is it of great interest that when the Lord Jesus was here He spent the whole night in prayer? He spoke about persevering in prayer, and also God in His faithfulness warned us that there would be an attempt to draw us away from His love; so the Lord Jesus when He was here drew attention to the wonderfulness of God’s love, and speaking of His greatness too so that we should be caught up in prayer in that way. Prayer is a great matter, and I often think of how God is interested in the prayers of His people in regard of the exercises through which they go, and yet relating it to Him and the testimony. The truth and the testimony are two great glorious matters.

JM I think we can bear the exhortation. I feel it for myself anyway. It is very exercising why there is an immediate answer to the prayer here. Now we have to review things and say, Well are my prayers answered like that? Maybe it is because they are not fervent enough.

JW Is Asaph an example of one going into the presence of God, the immediate effect is a change with Asaph? The immediate effect would be a change with me.

JM There is a change with you, and God loves to hear His saints pray for what is pleasurable to Himself, not just in some generalised way, but praying specifically for the state of things among the saints, and carrying that feelingly in your spirit into the presence of God. I think it is very much needed at the present time.

JSG It seems from verse 24 that the collective prayer is described as “with one accord”; they “lifted up their voice with one accord to God”. Is that in your mind as something that might be behind the power for actual results from prayer?

JM I am sure that is right, “with one accord” would give power to the prayer. If the brethren are divided they cannot lift up their voice with one accord. That would be unquestionably a weakness. So these things ought to concern us, and we should not just go on day by day accepting them as the normal thing. We should be deeply exercised about it and before God, and I think as we are God will come in for us.

JSG Do you think it enters into the question of what results there are from the much ministry we have received?

JM That is right. You think of the much ministry we have received, you could say a lot about that but there is power in that ministry.

PJW Do you think the two prayers in Luke are interesting for us, the tax gatherer and the Pharisee? I was just thinking of the difference in spirit between the two men in relation to what our brother spoke of as to the change of Asaph. The tax gatherer was really a truly repentant man and ready for change, was he, whereas the Pharisee was not?

JM One of them was conscious that he was in the presence of God, and the other presumed to be. As you come into the presence of God, the first thing is that you are searched yourself. But God loves to have us in His presence, and He loves to have the saints carrying the burdens of the testimony, feeling truly what the situation among the saints actually is, having a right discernment as to it, and coming to God about it, I am sure if there is fervency of prayer, that kind of prayer, that God will answer it.

DH Does it help to refer to Daniel 6? It says his windows were open, that is to say, that was his attitude, heavenward. “But those men came in a body, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God” (Daniel 6: 11).

JM In 1 Timothy 2: 1 Paul exhorts “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men”. I understand that that is general and contemplates prayers going up to God at any time. But he also refers a few times to “at my prayers” (see Ephesians 1: 16). I understand these would refer to specific times when Paul would draw aside from the normal things of the day and be before God in relation to the testimony. That is like Daniel, three times a day his window was open towards Jerusalem. What he had in his affections, Jerusalem, was a ruin, but he had that city in his heart.

EOPM That links with what you said earlier that it is a question of where our affections are. His affections were at Jerusalem and what it meant to God. Not the breakdown and the travesty of what had come in and the situation he was in, but I notice here it says, “the place in which they were assembled shook”, as though there was some feeling for Jerusalem, the saints assembled. Does this help us with this matter of power?

JM I think it does. It would be a good thing for all of us, I include myself in it, if preparatory to prayer we come into the presence of God and ask God to search us, and be prepared for divine searching, be prepared for God opening up things, and then coming to a judgment of yourself. Then the prayer of such a person would be effectual.

TJH I was going to enquire if what you are bringing before us as to the experience of being before God in our prayers would preserve us from merely saying our prayers, if you know what I mean by that. It is possible to use our minds and say a lot, but the point is to come from our hearts and what God has put in our hearts, is it?

JM That was the difference between the two men in Luke. The one went into the temple, but the other one could not, he stood afar off, but he was the one who was in the presence of God. But consider this matter of, “Search me, O God ... And see if there be any grievous way in me”, Psalm 139: 23, 24. It is very opportune at the present time to seek the presence of God, and spread out what is in your heart before God, and ask Him to search you as to whether you are carrying anything that may hinder God answering your prayers.

KGS Would the doing of that, going into the presence of God and asking Him to search you, prove whether it is God’s will, that what you are asking is according to that will?

JM I am sure that is right, that is what it would do. It is important that we should have to do with God. Spread things out before God. He loves to have them spread out, and He might indicate to us that in certain matters we need adjustment. As we accept the adjustment we find that our prayer has power. Elias “prayed with prayer”, it says, I think that is a man who prayed in power.

JW Would these personal relations with God you are stressing help us to be one in our prayers collectively?

JM That is the point of it. It underlies the assembly. We have often heard in our younger days about living in meetings, but I am very loathe to speak about these things, because I do not want to put our young people off coming to the meetings, indeed there is a great need to encourage them to come to more; but we cannot live on meetings, we should be exercised to maintain personal links with God.

Coming now to chapter 5, some would say it was before the breakdown and we would not have that power at the present time, but it is recorded for us in the scripture, and if it is recorded for us it must be for our gain. We can well contemplate the situation here, and see something of the power that was among the saints to deal with evil, and to keep evil out so that it does not even come in. That is what you get at the end of the section we read, that there is a power to keep it out. It says, “great fear came upon all the assembly, and upon all who heard these things”, and then it says, “but of the rest durst no man join them”. There is a power to keep evil out.

LWB True kingly power, is it not, and the ability to discern as there was with Solomon, wisdom to discern?

JM Yes, it is both priestly and kingly. I suppose the ability to discern as seen in Peter here was, priestly power. Nobody told him what happened. I know in the present day we have to go on witnessed facts, but at the same time I think there is power available to judge evil and to keep it out. I have said a number of times, one of the things that always strikes me about that letter of that beloved man, Mr. Trotter, at the time of the Bethesda issue, in speaking about the great blessings to which we have been recovered, he includes in these blessings the power to deal with evil. (‘The Recovery and Maintenance of the Truth’—A.J.G., p.8). Now that is a tremendous blessing to hold on to and to cherish.

DJH Is there the importance of the recognition of the implication of the presence of the Holy Spirit? In each case it is lying to the Holy Spirit, and tempting the Spirit of the Lord. Do you think sometimes we do not realise the tremendous implication that the Holy Spirit. God is here Himself in the person of the Spirit?

JM Not that we have time to go into it, but that raises a good deal. There is a dignity about the assembling of the saints, there is a holiness, and we need to make sure that we do not do despite to that.

DER Is it encouraging to see that the outcome of faithfulness is that multitudes both of men and women are added? We might think this was a recipe for causing trouble and disaster and division, to take up matters, but it results in multitudes being added.

JM It does, and it is something that we should keep constantly in our minds, that the assembly is not bound to go on with evil. There will always be a way out. It tests our priestly discernment and priestly wisdom, but the assembly, as we have been taught, is never put to the wall; there is no obligation, no compunction on the assembly to go on with evil. Therefore if there is evil there, we should be concerned about it, and as we are before God He will give us the priestly power, spiritual power to deal with things.

JW Do we get that priestly power as we really make the sin our own?

JM Yes, that is one of the ways to it. Much could be said about it, but that is clearly one of the ways to it. It is not going in self-righteousness into the presence of God, but it is really feeling things and making it your own. The sins of the assembly are my sins.

DER Many might have been taken in by this action of Ananias, but how do we discern then what is evil?

JM The scripture in Corinthians is fairly clear, “the spiritual discerns all things, and he is discerned of no one”, 1 Corinthians 2: 15. The closer you keep to the Spirit the greater will be your power of discernment.

DER The psalmist says, “holiness becometh thy house, O Jehovah, for ever” (Psalm 93: 5), and concern as to the holiness of God’s house is the way for the preservation of what is for His glory and the blessing of the saints.

JM That is right. It is quite remarkable that Peter says here, “why has Satan filled thy heart that thou shouldest lie to the Holy Spirit ...?”; not just to the Spirit, but “lie to the Holy Spirit”. There was holiness in Peter, and we can encourage one another to be exercised that way, and the nearer we keep to the Spirit the clearer we will have divine discernment.

DH You probably know, Mr. Coates likens this incident here in the Acts to Achan, in Joshua 7. It was not so much greed and material things with Ananias and Sapphira, it was making out what they were not, and what would be represented in the beautiful garment.

JM Yes, the people failed to discern that. God had to bring them up, and then they went and enquired and they got the answer, but the sobering thing was they did not discern that. We should be careful not to be too critical, but we should have to say, Well how do you get on yourself? Peter actually discerned it here. There was nothing wrong with Ananias and Sapphire selling some of the property and giving some of it to the brethren. There is nothing wrong in that. Peter says, while it was your own you could do with it as you liked, but that is not what they did. They actually gave part of it, but they took the place of giving the whole, which was a lie.

DH I think there are some things you say which are a challenge to each of us.

JM Yes, and it is a lie. We need to be very careful of lies. You might say, Well it is not exactly a lie. People speak in the world of a ‘white lie’. There is no such thing. A lie is a lie, and Peter names it here. He did not do anything. It says, “Ananias ... fell down and expired”, and so his wife. So that the discernment made room for God to come in in judgment.

GCB In the city at the end of Revelation everything is clear, is it not? We should have that in our minds and hearts, not to bring any element of shadow or darkness. “Every one that ... makes a lie” (Revelation 22: 15) is outside the city.

JM Well maybe we have said enough about it. I did just want to refer to the tremendous privilege that is ours. In this section of Ephesians we are touching what is eternal; but we are touching it now, “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”.

JW Is Paul’s prayer here in view of there being a subjective answer to the truth that is ministered? I wondered if “the power which works in us” really is what is working subjectively.

JM That is right. It is the Spirit working subjectively in us, so that what he is concerned about is that the saints should be marked subjectively by what he has brought out in the ministry. The ministry is objective but the ministry is to be taken on, and we are really touching the highest level of things here, “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love” and then “apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. You have to say to yourself. What do I know about these things? There is a power here not only to give us the knowledge of it, but to bring us into the inward experience of it.

DJH And “the riches of his glory” is the undiminished resource that you referred to at the beginning which is still available, is it?

JM That is right, “the riches of his glory” is the undiminished divine resource to effect everything that is in the mind of God, and it is effected in us.

DJW I was wondering whether the expression, “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think” gives us some impression of the supremacy of God, and the faith that we are to have in relation to the One we are praying to who is able to do that.

JM I think so. God loves to be proved by His saints. This prayer of Paul, bowing his knees, suggests power, but that prayer would have called out the intense interest of heaven.

JW The power seen operating in the saints would be through divine Persons operating in them. The Spirit of the Father, the Father’s Spirit, and Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith, as we have been told, is dwelling there operationally. So the power really is divine Persons operating in the saints, is it?

JM I am sure that is it, and what you will notice is that it is all inward. What a blessing that is. I think we should appreciate what has come to us in these closing days, the way in which the truth as to the service of God as flowing out of the Supper has been opened up to us, and maybe we can get on our feet on Lord’s day morning and say things, but this is inward. It is a question of our inwards and where we are in our inwards.

DER So this challenges us as to whether we know something of this power in our inwards.

JM Yes it does. The hymn says,

‘E’en now we taste the love,

And know the mighty power,

By which we’ll rise to realms above

When waiting time is o’er’. (Hymn 225)

That power is known now. It is a tremendous matter, and the more you contemplate it, the more you would want to make sure that there is nothing in your conduct whatsoever that is going to mar it.

PJW So it is encouraging that Paul links “the surpassingness of the power” with “earthen vessels”.

JM Yes, “the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us”, 2 Corinthians 4: 7. That is really a tremendous matter, but I think here you are really touching the height of the truth. You can go no higher than this, you are really touching eternal things, but in the power of the Spirit there is inward power for us to really reach these eternal things now.

PJW Yes, that is what I thought. We reach it now while we are still in that state of an earthen vessel.

JM Yes, it is earthen vessels, I think that shows that “the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us”, and, as you remember, that is a reference to Gideon where the vessel is broken before the light shines. That is really in the sphere of testimony. But what we are touching here is the highest level of the truth that creature can ever touch.

JW This inward spiritual power is what we really experience in the assembly, is it, particularly in the service of God?

JM You can only experience it in the assembly in the service of God. One has to say, I experience it if I have. Paul brings it out here in his prayer in order that he might whet our appetite that we should go in for these things. One thing that needs to be clear is that Paul is not writing to the Ephesians to help them into the truth, the Ephesians were already in the truth. The Spirit had secured at Ephesus what is contained in the epistle to the Ephesians. It was there in a formative way. Mr. Raven says that it needed to be put into print because of days of breakdown, which were to come, but there were persons that were actually in the gain of this in Paul’s day at Ephesus. He sends Timothy there, so that that should be continued.

The sad thing is, of course, it broke down. But now we have taken it up, we have come into revival and we can take it up, and I would encourage all of us to be exercised about experiencing this power inwardly so that there might be this full answer to God.

KEY TO INITIALS

D. E. Burr

D. J. Hutson

C. Smith

L. W. Burton

J. Mitchell

J. Walkinshaw

G. C. Bywater

E. O. P. Mutton

E. F. Woodford

J. S. Gray

E. Oliver

D. J. Wright

T. J. Harvey

D. E. Remmington

J. Wright

D. Hawgood

K. G. Samways

Reading at Havering
10 May 2003