SPIRITUAL QUALITY (11)

SPIRITUAL QUALITY (11)

1 Kings 1: 38 - 40; 1 Chronicles 29: 20 - 22; Ezekiel 48: 5 - 12

SMcC The thought came into some of our minds this morning as we were together in this place that there is a suggestion of a stream or a current in relation to Zadok, moving in relation to the great thoughts of God as to Christ typified in Solomon, God’s anointed. One has been impressed this morning and in continuing to think about it, that there is a definite suggestion in the type, in this stream and current of movement that God seems to make so much of, of that which is linked with the Holy Spirit. Not that we are saying that Zadok is a type of the Holy Spirit, I would like that to be clear, but there is that with Zadok, and what he does and the way he moves, that particularly draws our attention to a stream and current of movement that is marked by the Spirit’s presence in type, both in the horn of oil in 1 Kings, and in the matter of the anointing in 1 Chronicles 29, I think it is important to see how the Spirit of God seems to have a right-of-way in a vessel like Zadok as counteracting the anti-Christian and apostate influences suggested in Adonijah. We are faced with that all the time. It is not our intention to dwell upon that side so much, being the first day of the week we want to keep the positive side as presented in Zadok more before us, but it is essential to a clear apprehension of the truth, that we see how he entered upon things in the opening of Kings; that it is a matter of what is according to the mind and purpose of God going through, and the flesh, of course, in these others (particularly Adonijah who sought to exalt himself) is operating to thwart, we might say, the divine end in regard to, in type,

Christ, God’s Anointed One. There are various elements that act and react in the chapter in regard to the matter of Solomon. Solomon would represent what is peculiarly choice and fittingly linked with our day and time in relation to what is before us in the assembly. We should, because of the time and the need for keeping to our scriptures that we have read, abide by what has been suggested. It says in verse 39, “And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon.” I do not think we will have much difficulty in seeing how the Spirit of God enters into this movement, especially a movement that is linked with the universal position, suggested in the tabernacle. It is not like David’s own anointing so much, where the word to Samuel was, “Fill thy horn with oil” - a matter of the personality of the great prophet Samuel, and the spirituality marking him, in “fill thy horn with oil,” because the allusion would be to Samuel himself, and the power of his prophetic personality and ministry, and service: it is somewhat different when we come to Solomon, it is more a matter of what is linked with the whole position of the assembly, as it says, “The horn of oil out of the tabernacle” - the tabernacle or tent of meeting being a suggestion of the assembly, I thought we might be helped in seeing for a moment how Zadok comes into view in relation to the horn of oil in this setting of the tabernacle and making way for what Solomon suggests. We might think of the beginning of the work of recovery of 130 years ago as fitting in with the Davidic side, the powerful personality of God’s servants suggested in Samuel, their horn filled with oil; how matters were met on that principle, powerful personality in prophetic ministry. Of course, it descends to our own time too, and in Solomon’s time things that were passed over in David’s time are not passed over in Solomon’s time, they have become adjusted. A lot of things have come up that perhaps the brethren at the beginning of the revival did not take up in the same way as they are now, under the hand of Him who is Son over God’s house.

HLH What would correspond in our day to making Solomon king?

SMcC I think it would correspond with what is transpiring in the assembly, the wonderful way that Christ has been signally distinguished beyond doubt in the ministry, especially as to the truth of the Lord’s supper in the last fifty years. Time after time, year after year, the truth as to the Supper has been enlarged upon, and the service of God, and the unique place of Christ particularly standing out all the time, especially in regard to what followed the readings at Barnet as to the Lord’s sonship.

ELE Would that answer to “anointing Solomon the second time”?

SMcC There seems to be something like that in it. It seems to me what you might call an added touch in the way of what love would do, as in a realm where the truth is so wonderfully full and so wonderfully free, as in 1 Chronicles 29.

LAC Would you explain for us, so as to make the matter quite clear, why Zadok cannot be regarded as a type of the Holy Spirit?

SMcC Well, I am just seeking to guard going too far with the types. It says, “Zadok the priest,” and we would hardly refer to the Spirit as a priest. While we may refer to the Spirit as augmenting the priesthood of Christ, it would not be quite in keeping with the truth, nor would it be comely to refer to the Spirit as a priest.

LAC Is it also because in certain connections here in Kings he, Zadok, is found along with others, apparently on their same level?

SMcC Exactly, such as our section opens with Nathan, Benaiah, and the others, all these representing elements, I think, that the Spirit of God would use to furnish a kind of a background for the horn of oil to come forward, that is, the liberty and freedom of the Spirit’s movement in the distinguishing of Christ. I think Zadok is more a type of the stream and current in which the Spirit is moving in view of the distinguishing of Christ. He represents one in whom the Spirit has a right-of-way, he is the priest, “Zadok the priest,” representing one who has the Spirit and who is marked by the Spirit in what he does. As the priest he typifies what, in Christianity, is marked by the presence of the Spirit, because the priests in Christianity represent those that have the Spirit, those who are capacitated to think and to act for God by the Spirit.

CB Are you stressing a priestly state amongst the saints by which the Spirit can be free to carry through God’s thoughts?

SMcC That is helpful, that Zadok represents a state among the saints in which the Spirit of God has particular right-of-way and liberty in bringing forth the distinctions and uniqueness of Christ, as in the type before us.

WH It says, “the people rejoiced with great joy.” Zadok moves intelligently?

SMcC He did. I think we can see at the present time in what Zadok represents, a remarkable stream in the assembly in which the Spirit is moving, and we may reverently say, flowing! Because the types of the Spirit are very fluid and liquid in the Scriptures. So that in the language of the type we can refer to the Spirit as moving or flowing in this stream and current, that is, making way for Christ: because it is evident that the Spirit of God will not support anything that makes room for any of us - I mean, as over against Christ.

RAE Is it your thought that we are to be brought into this current? It says in verse 40,

“All the people came up after him,” he gives a lead but the people come up after him.

SMcC That is the point, that you have a rallying thought in this great movement where the Spirit of God is operating, typified in the oil, in the setting of the tabernacle as before us. It is not the oil outside the tabernacle, but it is the horn of oil out of the tabernacle, meaning that it is the Spirit in relation to the assembly, because the Spirit is not in the world. He is in the assembly.

SGH What is the thought of their causing Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule?

SMcC I think it is just to show that Solomon is a counterpart of David, that in the way of looking at the truth we must take David and Solomon as one, the one is a counterpart of the other in that way, do you not think?

MSS Is what is moral suggested in Zadok’s history? I was thinking of the way Abiathar was displaced because of unfaithfulness.

SMcC That is one of the things that has been in mind in the line of enquiry suggested, that the moral side runs through in Zadok. In Ezekiel we will find in looking into the last chapter in the presence of the holy heavings, the holy movements of devoted strength and love amongst the people of God, in the appreciation of the purposes of divine love, that a place is found for Zadok. You see how the moral line, as we might speak of it, merges into the line of purpose, and counsel, in Zadok’s position in the different phases in which he is viewed.

HLH So there should be a gathering-up of power as things go on, accessions of light rather than a diminution of it?

SMcC That is the point, and so the passage that we have read is very important, verses 38, 39 and 40, “all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy,

so that the earth rent with the sound of them.” We can see how the power extends. The matter of Adonijah and those that were linked with him, Abiathar and Joab, is weakened and the whole position got the foundation taken from under it - not that there was any foundation perhaps to it - but there anyway their movement was gathering strength, but this movement is gathering strength, and the Spirit of God particularly before us, in vessels, as in Zadok the priest with the horn of oil, linked with the assembly, in type, in the tabernacle.

CBl So you would say that Zadok represents a person who gives place to the Spirit in order that room may be given to Christ in that way?

SMcC That is it. That is the great end of the service of the Spirit - to make room for Christ in our souls.

PET Is strength and power seen in the horn?

SMcC I think that is good. I think that is just what is suggested in it. It is a question of power, power as linked with the Spirit. You will remember we have allusions to horns particularly in relation to the Davidic line. You do not find it in the same way in other parts of scripture. For instance, Hannah’s horn, she says, “My horn is lifted up in Jehovah,” she is making way for God’s anointed as she refers to this in the end of her song there. Then we get, in Psalm 132, God taking account of David’s horn. He is going to cause the horn of David to bud, and then we get in 1 Samuel 16, Samuel’s horn, the prophetic horn; we get the priestly horn of Hannah - of prayer; the prophetic horn of Samuel, and the kingly horn of David - God’s king, in Psalm 132, causing his horn to “bud forth,” his enemies are clothed with shame. And the horn here now is standing linked, not with any particular person as belonging to a person - it is not a question of powerful personality here in relation to the horn as in Hannah,

David and Samuel, but it is a question of the assembly. What the Lord is stressing at the present time more and more is the assembly. The tabernacle is a type of the assembly, and the power that is linked with that realm to set off and to carry through, as the Spirit has right-of-way in such persons as these, the divine thought as to Christ.

VB Would you say that in verse 40 we have the power seen in the universal position?

SMcC I thought so. So that what we had this morning in this room was a little touch of the buoyancy as linked with this position, as the liberty of the brethren was marked in the service of God. The idea of what was sustained. It is a little forerunner, of what is coming in in the world to come.

“Thou dost make us taste the blessing
Soon to fill a world of bliss.” (394:5)

We touch it now in the assembly.

HAL As far as Zadok is concerned, would you link the two sons of oil in the reference in Zechariah?

SMcC I suppose by long extension to Zechariah there would be a link there, because they represent what is in the current of the Spirit’s power.

AT In verse 38 there is no instruction given them as to what to do, yet there is movement.

SMcC That is good. Of course what precedes this and what we have not gone into, but we should keep in mind is Bathsheba and how Nathan comes into the matter. Thank God for Nathan, the prophet, he comes into the matter too, and Zadok the priest, and what seems to mark the position here now to which you are referring is the intelligence in these men. Zadok apparently has no instruction as to the horn of oil, specifically, I mean, he seems to understand and to know what is required. As it says, “And Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon.” It is specifically linked with Zadok. And as we are stressing, he represents a channel in whom the Spirit is moving, in this wonderful stream and current, where Christ as typified in Solomon is to be made way for. And I think it is important in our gatherings, in the light of the assembly, that the Spirit should have right-of-way in this particular matter, because the great point is Solomon and what he is to God - Christ and what He is to God - what is in the divine mind in relation to the matter of government, and as to the strengthening of his hands.

RAE So that while it applies to the whole general position, would you not say that we can make a special application of it as being linked peculiarly with the Supper and what follows, as to the distinguishing of Christ amongst us, that we need to carry in our minds that it is the Spirit operating in the saints that does that?

SMcC That is what I was thinking about, I was particularly linking our subject with this morning, the Lord’s supper and what flowed out of it. We do not want to be in the current of Adonijah or Joab or Abiathar, they are all centring around the man of sin and shame: how much part they can take, and the kind of part they can take, and how well worded it may be, all that is really in the spirit of Adonijah in which Joab and Abiathar are moving, whereas Zadok the priest, and Nathan and the others are moving in the current of the Spirit who is distinguishing Christ.

MSS Would this show that there is what is public connected with the service of God? It is a question of a public matter, is it not, the assertion of Solomon’s position, faced with the apostasy?

SMcC As the word says in 1 Corinthians 11, “For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come,” verse 26. That is, it is Solomon in mind.

That is, the appearing, not the rapture, the appearing of the Lord to take up His rights in administration and government in the world.

AKH Do the Pelethites and the Cherethites bear out that thought? In Samuel there is reference to them as being the executioners or bodyguards, is there not that feature about the Supper?

SMcC Well, there is. A very important feature this, of bodyguards, those that surround the king, those that are concerned about the king’s honour and the king’s glory, and who he is. So the Cherethites and the Pelethites represent certain features of the work of God in the saints that stand in this way around Christ.

SW Would Abiathar represent the official side?

SMcC In a wrong way, yes. There is the official side in a right way but Abiathar represents the official side in a wrong way. He is in a distinguished office but he is carried by a wrong current, wrong movements that really link on with the man of sin and shame that the Lord has set us free from.

SW So you would then say that where the official side has broken down and failed, the moral side goes through?

SMcC That is it, that is how we should look at it, and it fits in with our time - that the official side has broken down, but the moral side is maintained and goes through in Zadok, right through to Ezekiel.

SP So in our day we need the Spirit to be preserved out of the anti-Christian and apostate element that exists around us.

SMcC Well, we do. It is the only way that we will be preserved and kept from going out of fellowship - getting into the anti-Christian stream. Now that is what going out of fellowship means. Do not let us think anything less of it. To go out of fellowship means we are in danger of getting into the anti-Christian stream, and the danger of being carried completely off with it. The young brethren need to bear that in mind - salvation is in the assembly, in keeping among the saints. To get out of the stream where the Spirit of God is. He is in the assembly, to get out of it means virtually that you may go into the anti-Christian stream, and we want to keep out of that.

CB The blowing of the trumpet here was to bring about a decision in the minds of the people as to who they were going to follow?

SMcC Very good. It seems to be a suggestion of the wonderful way in which the ministry has called attention to the honour and glory of Christ in the revival of the truth. I think we want to keep to the thought of the assembly, the greatness of the realm, what we are as together in assembly, the power that there is in the realm rather than the individuality that belongs to us. There is power in the realm and there is great comfort in that, because a young brother may not think he has got much, but if he has a desire to take part and he takes part he will be carried in that power, maybe carried beyond his measure. The power is not in the individual but in the realm - in the assembly realm; “all the people” stresses that thought.

RS I was going to ask if “Behold, his couch, Solomon’s throne; threescore men are about it,” if the mighty of Israel does not bear on it? Not only Solomon’s throne but Solomon’s couch.

SMcC Very good, I am sure it does. I was thinking of that a little bit earlier when reference was made to the Cherethites and the Pelethites. We have had the feeling and sense, in the way that the ministry has been moving, how there has been that thought of guarding the Person of Christ, care and concern as to the honour and glory that belongs to Him, His peculiar distinctiveness.

ELE If anyone doubts that let them read our hymnbook.

SMcC Exactly.

HEB Would what you are saying link with Genesis 24, where the servant says, “My master has one son [there were other sons we know] and to him he hath given all that he hath”?

SMcC Yes, you are referring to Abraham and Isaac. It is wonderful how attention is focussed on Isaac, and also on Joseph, the generations of Jacob - we get Joseph, and that is all. We have to wait till all the moral exercises are followed through before we get the rest of the genealogies.

SK If there is anything to be ministered to the pleasure of divine Persons it must be in the power of the Holy Spirit?

SMcC I think that must be understood. Any activity outside the Spirit in the assembly would not have any power, “We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God.” What we had last night was stressing the Spirit’s power in the matter of the application of the truth.

AY Would you say that this power in the truth was even recognised by the opposing element?

SMcC Well, it is, and it will always be so, that where you get a current and stream where the Spirit has right-of-way in priestly elements, in prophetic elements, you will find that the opposition will have to recognise where the power is.

AY So in verse 43, “And Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, Indeed, our lord king David has made Solomon king. And the king has sent with him Zadok,” and so on. They recognised the power that was there in Solomon.

SMcC Exactly. Now in 1 Chronicles 29, we have a remarkable setting where things are sustained. I think if there is one thing that tests us more than anything else in the assembly it is the matter of the sustaining of things, and this is a wonderful realm and environment we are in in 1 Chronicles 29, it is filled with glory. It is the fortieth year of David’s reign. Great things are in it - the greatness of God, the greatness of Christ, the greatness of the Spirit too is in mind in the anointing - all giving character to this environment, and we may say, the greatness of the saints. There is a remarkable allusion to this matter of the saints in this section. We might have thought that all the splendour and glory of the fortieth year (there was so much wealth entering into it, so much power and glory entering into it), that out of the way elements might be forgotten about, but there is an interesting allusion in chapter 26: 31, “Of the Hebronites was Jerijah the head” (notice this bracketed remark because the Spirit of God has something in it), “(as to the Hebronites, according to their families according to the fathers in the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of valour at Jaazer in Gilead;)” Now there is something choice about that, because if there is one thing I think the Lord is drawing our attention to it is the essential need of everybody in the service of God. And while the fortieth year of David marks great profusion in wealth and richness in regard to the service of God, great glory before our souls, yet there was the seeking of these elements, the Hebronites, and the bringing of them into the current that flowed, in which these things are moving. I think it is a most delightful to see that and I think the Lord is drawing our attention to it in the assembly at the present time.

ELE Perhaps we do not seek for them enough.

SMcC Maybe.

HLH Who would you say the Hebronites represent?

SMcC Well, I would say they are a people according to their name, who have some kind of link with another world - with that world in the resurrection from among the dead.

CB The present activities and service of the Spirit are furnishing the assembly for that world at this time?

SMcC Exactly.

RS As this stream goes on and there is more power there is more to be recovered into the position from the captivity?

SMcC That is what I am thinking of. And material that may have been dormant is more and more coming into the stream, and actively moving in it, flowing in it, because things are very fluid in this section as to David and all through this section as to Solomon. Things are not according to a creed, according to pure ritual, because Solomon is anointed a second time. And then it says, as we were noticing this morning, in verse 21, “They sacrificed sacrifices to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings to Jehovah, on the morrow after that day.” That is, things are multiplying as they go on, not according to a specific ordinance, but according to the elasticity that belongs to the realm where the Spirit is particularly free.

HLH I was noticing that the first thing in connection with the anointing in Kings, is that joy and gladness flow from the anointing, whereas in Chronicles the anointing seems to issue out of the joy, as if conditions there were such that they anointed Solomon a second time.

SMcC A remarkable thing that. We anoint him once but then we anoint him again, as it were, as we move on. That is, the greatness of Christ affects our souls, so that in the presence of this kind of glory there is this un-prescribed movement.

ELE You get in this section the suggestion of God as Head, is not that remarkable?

SMcC It is indeed. The chapter is a very choice one. It is remarkable that the only two persons mentioned outside of David and Solomon are Jehiel the Gershonite, a man you know who followed principles through, and then this man Zadok the priest, but as the chapter ends of course it gives us a backward reference to all the wealth of the ministry that had preceded the matter, that is, Samuel the seer, the book of Nathan the prophet, and the book of Gad the seer - all the wealth of prophetic ministry that had preceded and enters into what is present here, and we have to think of that in our time.

MSS Are we to understand from verse 22 that Zadok himself was anointed?

SMcC That is how I understand it, it says, “Anointed him to Jehovah to be prince, and Zadok to be priest.” And so we have the supremacy of God alluded to in the chapter, no doubt the Father would be typified in Jehovah, and we have got the distinction of Christ, but then what is linked with the Spirit stands out in the anointing. The Spirit is before our souls in this great matter of the anointing, both as to the governing side, the side of dignity in the prince, in type; or as to the side of the service of God and holiness among the saints. Although, I suppose, there may be a certain way of referring to Christ, too, in relation to Zadok the priest.

LAC It is the Spirit who stresses, “All the congregation” so much. I was wondering whether it was not the Spirit’s mind distinctly to draw brothers and sisters alike into this marvellous stream. There are two women who are associated with the activities in 1 Kings, which we are reading, and the scripture referred to in the Song of Songs, as a counterpart to the warriors there are the daughters of Jerusalem who paved the palanquin of Solomon with love. Is that not all, so to speak, seen here in the expression “the congregation”?

SMcC Very good, I think it is. As we were referring to it this morning, it is to be noticed, the ‘alls’ in this chapter. It is remarkable from the beginning right through. First in relation to God’s position as exalted as Head above all, and then as we come down we get this matter of, “and David said” (verse 20) “to all the congregation” - that is, brothers and sisters. It is a matter of the complete idea of the assembly.

HEB Do you think it would be on the level of Ephesians, where the apostle, after unfolding all the wealth in the first chapter, prayed that we might apprehend with all saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height. All saints are included there again as representing the universal position?

SMcC I think so, I think there is something in that. It says “the drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel.” Well, think of these refined, rich thoughts, standing related to the whole position. Not just one or two but the whole position is in mind. The Lord has that in mind at the present time, the idea of the whole assembly.

LAC In verse 14, we have the expression “for all is of thee, and of that which is from thy hand have we given thee.”

SMcC Very good, showing how things are flowing from God and going back to God. Then the chapter finishes with, all the reign of David, as it says in verse 30, “with all his reign and his might.” There is no idea of 2 Samuel 12 exactly, here, although it is in the background, but it is not referred to here. “With all his reign and his might” alludes to the completeness of the idea, the power that was there in David abstractly all the way through in relation to the anointing.

MSS In connection with the anointing of Zadok, would there be the suggestion of the resources and ability in the Spirit, as being in and with the saints in this great matter of the service of God?

SMcC Well, that is what I am thinking. It is a question of the freedom that the Spirit has amongst us, in relation to these great thoughts, because we need the Spirit, it is a question of His power pervading - “By the Spirit all pervading” - that is what the anointing of the prince and the priest suggests.

MSS We might think we are not equal to the great matter of the service of God, but the thing is, it is the Spirit’s power.

SMcC Well, exactly, the Spirit’s power. The power is here in the way in which we are now looking at it, not at the right hand of God. There is power at the right hand of God, but there is power here, the Spirit is here, and we touch every phase of the service of God: both in relation to the dominical side, in relation to the side of union, in relation to the side of the family, the Father, or in relation to the fullness of God - we touch it all in the Spirit here, not in heaven, but here.

AT Would you say verse 20 is what is final?

SMcC That would be a kind of a leading note, of course, in the chapter. It is the Lord helping the saints, in type in David. “David said to all the congregation, Bless now Jehovah your God. And all the congregation blessed Jehovah the God of their fathers, and did homage to Jehovah and the king.” Notice it is not just the God of David, the God of David is alluded to elsewhere, but it is the God of their fathers: it is all the accumulated light entering into the environment, giving added touch and tone to the service.

HOE Has not the presence of the assembly here an effect on the earth generally?

SMcC Well, it certainly has. We want to see that more and more, what the assembly means at the present time, the power and influence that is linked with it in the light of the Spirit’s presence.

HOE At the end of our first scripture it says,

“The earth rent” (1 Kings 1: 40), and at the end of the second, “Over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries,” 1 Chronicles 29: 30.

SMcC Very good, showing us the extensive range that this kind of influence affects.

EMe Does that link with the queen of Sheba and how she was affected and came in? She was affected as seeing this wonderful realm.

SMcC No doubt, there is something in that. She was particularly affected by the altar, the manner of the ascent and the like.

RS Would this expression “God of their fathers” save us from living merely on the past? All that the Father has given is to be brought forward on the principle of accumulation?

SMcC That is the whole point. It is a great thing to see that. Mr. Darby’s ministry does not conflict with the present day. Mr. Stoney’s ministry does not conflict with the present day, all the ministry is carried forward, and the light and power of it is all in the assembly at the present time, giving added touch and tone to the service of God.

RS In saying that there may be time to add this. Mr. Raven says that if the Spirit could be looked at objectively we could worship Him. And then he goes farther and says later on that the Spirit is with us as well as being in us.

SMcC Very good. We should see all that in regard to the past ministry of these beloved men of God. We have been careless in not taking account of certain details which they refer to. As for instance, the opposers of the truth as to our Lord’s sonship. As the truth of our Lord’s sonship came forward the opposers readily took hold of Mr. Darby’s expression, but never one of them quoted the expression in the Notes and Comments on John, chapter 1, they knew better.

ELE So with F.E.R., he did not bring it forward at the time when he got it.

SMcC No, he did not. Now we must finish with a word as to Ezekiel. I think it is important to see that this stream, and the flowing of things in which the Spirit of God may be viewed in the type in relation to Zadok is honoured of God. We have a wonderful realm of love and glory in Ezekiel 48. From chapter 40 onwards spirituality is tested. As to the ministry of this book, we follow devious routes and devious ways; one way they go in and they go out, and they turn backward and they go forward; they take all kinds of turns and we are tested as to all that in the understanding and apprehension of the truth, as it is viewed in Ezekiel’s system. But now the chapter ends with this remarkable touch as to the heave offering, showing that after all the exercises in the book, strength and power is contemplated in the saints, as moving in the appreciation of God’s choice thoughts - the inheritance, and Zadok is particularly considered for. You will notice that it says just before, “And the sanctuary of Jehovah shall be in the midst of it. It shall be for the midst of it. It shall be for the priests that are hallowed of the sons of Zadok” (verse 11) as if God must dwell by Himself with this line.

LAC What way exactly is this stream flowing? You referred earlier to the fact that it is a matter of our enjoying these things on earth in the Spirit’s power. Is it that the stream, so to speak, is the Spirit, bringing things that properly belong to heaven to us, or are we carried to heaven in Spirit to enjoy them there?

SMcC No, it is what you said first. We do not go to heaven, the Lord will take us to heaven at the rapture. The Spirit brings heavenly things to us, so that we enjoy in the power of the Spirit all that is linked with heaven, all that is linked with the eternal side, we enjoy it anticipatively in the Spirit’s power. It is all here in the Spirit.

LAC I believe that is a very helpful thing to lay hold of. In our minds, I believe we have been more or less in the habit of believing ourselves carried away by some remarkable power into realms beyond, whereas the truth is, is it not, that in the power of the Spirit, who is here in us and with us, all things that properly belong to heaven can be enjoyed now.

SMcC The Spirit is here and we touch in the Spirit all that is linked with what is outside of this world, as here in the assembly. The Spirit is not in the world, He is in the assembly.

CBl So it would be right to say that we are in an out-of-the-world condition of things and yet not actually in heaven?

SMcC Exactly, what we touch in the Spirit is not linked with the world, it is an out-of-the-world condition of things, it is none the less heavenly because we ourselves are heavenly, the assembly is heavenly, the assembly is out of heaven. What is heavenly is touched in the power of the Spirit here in virtue of His presence in the assembly, and I think the apprehension of that would give us to see how much we owe to the Spirit. Everything in regard to the truth can only be touched rightly in His power and by virtue of His presence.

Chapman Street, Bridgetown, Barbados.