The Presence Of The Holy Spirit
THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
It is in mind to say a little about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been given to be with us and to be in us. In the prophet Haggai it says, “The word … and my Spirit, remain among you”, Hag 2: 5. Maybe what we have already had would relate to the word, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”, John 1: 14. That remains, dear brethren, the breakdown has not affected it. We can do nothing against the truth, the truth cares for itself. Whatever I, or any other may say, it does not affect the truth. The truth is the truth, and it centres in the wonder of the incarnation. It remains, “The word ... and my Spirit, remain among you”. It was in days of weakness like ours, that that beloved prophet prophesied. Then, thank God, the prophetic word is still among us, and will be, the Lord reserving His right to speak by the Spirit. He is not incarnate as is our Lord; He is in each of us. How wonderful to think of that! Each brother and sister here indwelt by the Spirit—what dignity, what respect it commands! We look round this circle on persons indwelt by the same Spirit. Oh, what a bond! It occasions no casualness. It is a wonderful thing, dear brethren, to be conscious that we are in the presence of the Spirit of God, and therefore it becomes us to be careful in His presence. So these things remain among us and there is a Priest on the right hand of the throne. What it suggests is the stability of the divine system, and, as I said, untouched by breakdown. The truth as it is in Jesus remains—how wonderful! And the Spirit remains, and as we shall come to it in John’s gospel. He was sent from that position of oneness, from the Father and the Son. Think of it, after the Lord was received up in glory, that for ten days there was the Father, and a Man in Sonship, and the Spirit. It would not become us to suggest what took place, it would be almost inscrutable, would it not? Think of the Persons of the Godhead together; redemption accomplished; the Father revealed as supreme in that wonderful economy of love, and the Spirit there ready to be sent to bring about an answer, positively and substantially, in those that divine grace has called and chosen. Does it not bow our hearts to think that the Father chose us before the world was? How much I have answered to it would search me; it was His glory that chose me then; the Lord was loved then. We get these touches that give us to feel we are on the threshold of what is beyond creature knowledge, yet it is there. How worshipful we should be as we touch these things. It was the glory of the Son who redeemed us; He paid the price with His blood. Let us, as we said, not leave the cross; let us keep in the precincts of the cross, in constant thorough self-judgment. What we need more and more, dear brethren, is the experience of a spiritual manifestation. Now the Lord intends to make the end of the dispensation spiritual. There is no short cut to that, let us face the exercises that are involved, that the Spirit may have full place, ungrieved and unquenched, and particularly that our gatherings become an experience of a spiritual manifestation in the assembly. So these things remain. My word and My Spirit remain among you, the whole mind of God is revealed, and the Spirit is here to form us in relation to the counsel of His own will. Up there, there is a Priest who shares the Father’s throne. He has not yet taken His own throne, but He will presently. How we long for that! He will rise up in the Father’s perfect timing, and take His own throne. How we long for Him to have His rights, they belong to Him. Meanwhile He is rejected, and He calls on us to be faithful to Him in His rejection. Every time, dear young brethren, you walk down the street do not forget He is rejected; He is not wanted and we are not wanted. If the world wants me there is something wrong with me. If I love the Lord, I will share His reproach. What an honour to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. None of us could acquire them in any case, and even if we did we would be in soul poverty. Beloved brethren, there is nothing to equal the knowledge of Jesus, and the Spirit is here to take of His things and to show them to us.
Now in Galatians the apostle is militant. He speaks of Judaism coming in, creeping in surreptitiously, secretly weaving its way in to rob the saints of their liberty. It is a military epistle, and there is that side of our exercises which must not be neglected; to neglect it would be a disaster. How does he meet it? What a warrior was Paul! He does not spare them. He would even meet Peter face to face; how faithful he was, but how brotherly he was. It did not impair their brotherly link at all, maybe it even strengthened it, but he did not neglect what needed to be met. How did he meet it? In travail. He says, I will travail again for you (see Gal 4: 19); as if he would say, I have been through it once, I will go through it again until Christ be formed in you.
I only mention this as leading up to this—allusion to, “He therefore who ministers to you the Spirit”. It is the feelings of the Spirit of Christ coming out in the beloved apostle as he sees, something coming in that would work ruin, bringing back the wretched principles of Judaism. We speak feelingly, and I trust with deep humility, for we have had to go through these things. We have seen that harsh system revived, and our judgment would be that it is not in keeping with the glad tidings or the new covenant. Let each of us be resolved that there is no reviving of what the Lord has judicially set aside. Christianity is not a carry over of Judaism, or any attempt at an improvement of Judaism, it is entirely new, because it centres in a Man out of death, in a scene that death can never touch, and we are united to that Man by the Spirit in a deathless scene. That is really where the assembly begins and where her destiny is too, so soon to be with the Lord.
Now Paul says here, “He therefore who ministers to you the Spirit”. What does he mean? There has only been the one outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, the assembly as the body was formed in the outpouring of the Spirit; we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body. Oh the privilege of coming into what already exists! And, of course, the body of Christ includes every believer on earth who has the Spirit. What a wonderful thing to think of that. But “He ... who ministers to you the Spirit”. What does it mean? It is as way is made the Spirit comes into things. When the Gentiles were first brought in, the Spirit interrupted Peter as he was speaking, and fell upon them, see Acts 10. I am not saying we would have that experience, but inwardly there is to be a renewal, a ministering of the Spirit. Oh, that something of this should be known, when the Lord if among us and the Spirit among us, in that inward quickening in our souls towards the One who is supreme in all things! He must have pre-eminence. Oh let it be, as we are trying to convey something, that the Spirit secretly, inwardly, is touching a cord in your soul—“He ... who ministers to you the Spirit”.
Then we read in John’s gospel, because in both those sections in chapters 14 and 15, the Lord firstly is ministering comfort. His own were to be left here as orphans. How we need an orphan spirit! If you are an orphan you need comfort. Publicly the assembly is in widowhood; every time we look at the emblems in the Lord’s supper we should be reminded of that; in this wilderness scene Christ has died, we are in widowhood. As we go out there, as we all have to, and face things without, it is as orphans. The Lord knew what it would mean for His lovers to be here in the time of His absence, so He says, I am going to give you another Comforter, “whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you”. Dear brethren, let us cultivate personal links with the Spirit. My conviction deepens that we have been left with the Spirit. He engages us with the heavenly Man. We need the authority of the Lord, in all our wilderness experiences we need to be under that authority, that is the kingdom. But it needs more than that to take us into heaven, it needs attraction, and the Spirit is uniting us, attracting us to the heavenly Man. How wonderful that is! We often refer to Genesis 24. How faithful was that servant; he had a long journey, so extensive, but how fruitful was his service. It is clear enough that Rebecca spoke to him, because she had said to the servant, “Who is the man that is walking in the fields to meet us?”, and he said, “That is my master!” Dear brethren, that is what the Spirit is saying to us today—“That is my master!” There is a heavenly Man; the movement has begun, the Spirit and the bride are saying, ‘Come’. Oh, to be drawn into the atmosphere, the feelings, that are true of assembly response! She was not jaded or weary even after the long journey, she sprang off the camel—I suppose a touch of John’s gospel—life. As I said, she was not weary or jaded with the wilderness journey, she was in victory; she was in love’s responsiveness to that word, “That is my master!”. I want to be ready to answer to that. The ten virgins in Matthew 25 all slept, even the real ones; the unreal ones had no oil, their lamps had gone out. Dear brother, dear sister, be sure you have received the Spirit. Do not rest until you are assured that you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those five went away, too late! While they went away the bridegroom came and the five that were ready went in. There will be a response for the Lord when He comes. That cry has gone out, that was at midnight; in some sense that cry has characterised the whole period of the recovery. But what I can see now is more than that has taken place; if you will bear with me I think we are past the midnight hour, it is the time of the morning star now. It is the place Christ is acquiring in the affections of His own—the morning star arising in our hearts; the dawn is about to break. What a wonderful thing to be ready when He comes! As the Lamb’s wife she makes herself ready. It is the time for making ourselves ready, individually and locally. We want matters complete. I do not mean that we are free from exercise and we will not be, I suppose, until the very end, our education is wrapped up in it; but the desire of every faithful soul would be to have things as the Lord would wish them to be when He comes.
So He has given the Spirit, that unspeakable free gift, and in the next chapter He says, “Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, he shall bear witness concerning me; and ye too bear witness, because ye are with me from the beginning”.
My impression is that John 14 is for inward comfort, John 15 is preparation for service, and maybe conflict in John 16. The brethren can ponder that; there may be, something in it. “They shall put you out of the synagogues”, and what awful suffering came in, and how much many have had to go through, “because they have not known the Father nor me”, the Lord says, see John 16: 2, 3. Surely the inference is that we need to grow in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. Let us engage ourselves more and more, dear brethren, and grow by the true knowledge of God.
Now just a reference to Timothy where it says, “the Spirit speaks expressly”. He has the right to do that. He is speaking to the assemblies, and we need the ear of the overcomer. As has often been pointed out, in the addresses to the last four assemblies, in Revelation 2 and chapter 3, it is the overcomer that gets the gain of what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies. It is wonderful to be in the company of a few overcomers. We could not point to any substantial position here; though some may claim it, I do not see it. I can see a moral basis in the overcomer, and seek to be one, humbly, and if I find another I will walk with him. We have precious links with one another, dear brethren, let us value them, and see that they are in no wise impaired by any infiltration of the corruption of the world, that would spoil the closing time of testimony. So it says, “the Spirit speaks expressly, that in latter times some shall apostatise from the faith”, much has that character. I do not know that we would be able to say that any person was an apostate; I do not know that I would dare to say that. It is said of Judas, of course, but only the Lord could do that. But we can see the character of apostasy where the truth has been given up, and we need to be warned by it—“some shall apostatise from the faith, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons ...” You can read down the list. I only draw attention to it that we may be on our guard. There is a grave danger of the human mind intruding into the things of God; philosophy and vain deceit. I repeat what we ventured to say in the reading, that knowledge without faith is dangerous. Dear brethren, let us continue humbly, simply, but in communion with divine Persons, and we will be preserved from those dreadful clouds of apostasy sweeping over a darkened Christendom, but in the midst of it to be a witness, a testimony in the power of the Spirit, to the truth of the Man up there and the assembly down here.
Now I go on to the prophet, not to attempt to say too much about it, but Elisha represents the time of the ministry of the Spirit. “If thou see me when I am taken from thee”, Elijah said. He had said, “Ask what I shall do for thee”, 2 Kings 2: 9, 10. How we would love to encourage one another to ask of the Lord. He would do for us far exceedingly above what we can ask or think. So begin to ask, you will get more than you ask for. What an encouragement, dear young brother, dear young sister, begin to ask. He will give you more, more than you realise. Oh, the abundance, we have hardly touched it! Remember that beloved servant who said at the end of his life that he felt he was standing on the brink of an illimitable ocean with a wave just lapping his feet. Dear brethren, there is so much to be explored; of course eternity will never exhaust the excellence of that blessed Man. The Spirit is here now to engage us with the coming One, with the Bridegroom, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom’.
So Elisha fell sick of his sickness in which he died. Servants come and they are taken, we have seen that. I do not know that we were too prepared. We cannot determine how the Lord may act. He has His own prerogative in how He acts; He is sovereign. He may appear in another way; as clearly He did to Elisha, who had a view of a man taken up, typically Christ. It is a little like Stephen. He saw a Man in heaven, the first time a man on earth saw a Man in heaven; and he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. We have not seen Him yet actually, but by the Spirit we know that there is a Man up there. Elisha asks for a double portion of his spirit; that means he is in the gain of a Man up there and the Spirit down here. This is Christianity; it is open to us all to find out that it operates, and, I need not add, it is wonderful to experience even a little of the power of the Holy Spirit. So Elisha is dying and the king comes down and weeps over him; he would represent someone that would be responsible, he says, “My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!” He is really wondering how the testimony is going to continue without Elisha. Dear brethren, the Lord is able for everything. In John’s gospel which is written especially for our day, it is the Lord who takes the initiative, at every point He took the initiative. He fed the five thousand and more, although the disciples had said, ‘What are five loaves among so many?’ They had not the faith for it. Have we? The Lord knows what He is going to do; we often quote that, but let it give a certain assurance to us, that there is no situation that can develop where He is not in control. Let us keep restful. Whatever may happen in the world, (of which we are not ignorant, and we should be praying about what is happening over there in the Middle East because of humanity, and God’s feelings towards men) be assured the Lord is in control of everything. The storm He can quiet; the raging of the waves He can still. Oh, who is able for everything! You can follow it right through John’s gospel: He could raise the dead, see John 11. How wonderful to think we have One who is able.
Well now, Elisha is in the faith of that, but he is dying; the Lord’s servants die, we all have to face this if we are left here, and if the Lord has not come we have to face our dissolution. Let us face it soberly and righteously, and be ready for it. He knows what He is going to do. Here is a man who is perturbed as to how the testimony is going to get on. He says, “My father”, which shows his deep respect for Elisha. And you get this very interesting instruction. Elisha says, “Take bow and arrows ... Open the window eastward”—now these are very suggestive things because we know who is coming in by way of the east; Ezekiel teaches us that, the east gate, that is where He saw, the glory of the Lord coming in (see Ezekiel 43). Now the morning star is the herald of it. I think the prophet is assuring the king here that everything is in control, you just shoot that arrow, just act in the obedience of faith—and Elisha identified himself in every movement. I am only, saying this, dear brethren, to emphasise the need of maintaining the precious truth to which we have been recovered. Do not let it go. Do not let it be weakened. What we speak of simply as the good teaching, keep near it, and also the current voice of the Spirit in the ministry; He will speak until the Lord shall come. The Lord, by the Spirit, will maintain a voice to the assembly, let us keep near it; keep your ears attentive to hear that voice.
Now this king is tested, “Take the arrows ... Smite upon the ground”. He is obedient and does what he is told, but he is put to the test. I wonder, dear brethren, if we are ready for this test—“And he smote thrice, and stayed”. Why did he smite only three times? Maybe he thought, I am on safe ground, but the prophet was wroth with him. What does it mean? He did not go far enough; he did not go deep enough to meet the thing in the depth of self-judgment that would have given him the power to overcome the Syrians, or whatever it may be. I think the Lord would search us, whether we have gone far enough in the depths of self-judgment to meet and complete assembly matters. He should have smitten five or six times, he said. Five would be to discover my own weakness, my own utter inability but in six times, the pride of man as such has to go. Oh, dear brethren, let us be alerted by this; I am not trying to explain its full meaning, but just to put it on the consciences of the brethren and myself maybe more than any, whether I have gone all the way in regard of the current voice of the Spirit of God. The precious teaching remains, and as accepting death morally, we can be like the man, who touched the bones of Elisha, and who revived, and stood on his feet, 2 Kings 13: 21. There is always a way through, dear brethren, let us be uplifted in our spirits. The word is here, “The word and my Spirit, remain among you”. May we be encouraged for His Name’s sake!
REDBRIDGE
25th August 1990
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