POWER DEPENDENT ON LOVE
[p. 199] POWER DEPENDENT ON LOVE
I would suggest that divine Persons commit Their power to love. We must all feel the great importance of having spiritual power, and we are reminded that it belongs to God. It is evident that power in us requires faith, because faith lays hold of God. He complained in a former age that there was “none ... that stirreth up himself to take hold of” Him, Isaiah 64:7. The importance of faith cannot be exaggerated, for the Spirit of God will never carry us beyond the measure of our faith. The power of the Spirit is unlimited, but in its exercise it depends upon faith. We are apt to think of the Spirit as using us, but we ought not to lose sight of the fact that in a certain sense we may use the Spirit. For example, we put to death the deeds of the body, but we do it by the Spirit. We worship, but it is by the Spirit. It is we who act in the intelligent service of God, but we serve in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit is the great reservoir of power, but we have to learn to draw on it and utilise it.
Now there is a further thought: God commits His power to love. Only love can be trusted with power. If power were given to a man without love, it would only make him self-important; but love — the divine nature — can be trusted with power. When the Lord speaks of the other Comforter, He says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever”. How much do we love Him? I believe the blessed God delights to commit His power to those who are formed in love. Love would be prepared to sacrifice itself in every possible way to secure the spiritual profit of the assembly. God would not [p. 200] be faithful to Himself if He did not support from heaven both collectively and individually those who are imbued with the spirit of love. The Spirit is here to serve as our resource, but it is love that takes advantage of His presence.
Let us think of that little company at Pentecost. Their souls had been steeped in the spirit of Christ, for many of them had been in His company for three-and-a-half years. The Lord is greatly concerned about this matter. I can easily account for the lack of power in my own soul; I know it well.
‘Yet sure, if in Thy presence
My soul still constant were,
Mine eye would, more familiar,
Its brighter glories bear.
And thus Thy deep perfections
Much better should I know,
And with adoring fervour
In this Thy nature grow’. (51:4)
In His company we cannot fail to be imbued with the spirit of love; then we can be trusted with power.
The believer is characteristically a lover of God and a lover of Christ. Let us not wander about to find reasons why power is lacking, but let us search our own souls. It has been said that His power is the servant of His love, and each one of us has spiritual power in proportion as we have love. Peter said, “Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters”. And Jesus said, “Come”. Power became the servant of love, and power is commensurate with love. We are realising at the present time something of the hostile forces against the assembly, but the Lord presents Himself walking on the waters. He is supreme in presence of all the evil. Love says, “Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters”. He is superior to all the turmoil.
The word to Philadelphia was, “behold, I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut, because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. “A little power” is not reproach; it is commendation. In the last phase of the assembly’s history it is something to Him to have a few hearts who are marked by a little power, and have not denied His name. We are in the fourth watch of the night, which is just before the dawn. The Lord had fed the multitude and gone on high to pray; He had put the little flock into the boat to go on before Him to the other side. “And when even was come, he was alone there, but the ship was already in the middle of the sea tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary”, Matthew 14:23, 24. “In the fourth watch of the night” He comes to them walking on the sea. All is suggestive of conditions at the close of the present dispensation, and of the way in which power is available to those who love Christ and are prepared to move towards Him.