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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman
In the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10, we read the following words,. "...the thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.".
James, in writing his book, gives us one of the keys to having the abundant life, and that is in James 1, 22,. "...but be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.". I want to share some thoughts with you concerning the normal Christian life, or what people call the abundant Christian life, which is actually the normal Christian life.
The normal Christian life is that for which Christ came and died that we might have. Andrew Murray wrote on the temple of the Holy Spirit. He said with a reverential awe, "...I will meditate and be still until something of the overwhelming glory of the truth fall upon me, and faith begin to realize it.
I am his temple, and in the secret place he sits upon the throne.". Now, after he wrote that, he prayed, and this is the simple prayer that he prayed, "...I do now tremblingly accept the blessed truth, God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who is God Almighty, dwells in me.
O my Father, reveal within me what it means, lest I sin against thee by saying, and not living it.". The inexplicable becomes plain when we recognize the presence and the law of the Spirit. It balances scholarship and gives discernment beyond all human learning.
Indeed, learning without the Holy Spirit blinds men to the realities of divine truth. The person who thinks he can know the Word of God by mere intellectual study is greatly deceived. Spiritual truth is spiritually discerned.
The eyes of the heart are opened by the Holy Spirit. The knowledge he gives is something more than information. It is a knowledge that leads to trust, it is knowledge that brings life, and it is knowledge that inspires love.
The Scripture teaches that ye shall know, and ye shall ask, and ye shall do. The promise of our Lord concerning the Spirit gather round the centers of knowledge, prayer, and service. In that day, ye shall know, ye shall ask, and ye shall do.
Certainty, prayer, work. You have certainty in knowledge as a Christian. You can have assurance in prayer and power in service. The fullness of the Spirit brings the certainty of revelation to the soul.
No theological instruction could have given Simon Peter the doctrine he preached concerning Christ's life, death, and resurrection. They knew the things Jesus had said they should know. They knew the essential relationship between Jesus Christ and God the Father.
The mystery baffles all investigation, but it was made known to them, the apostles, when the Spirit of the Lord came into them. They also knew the mysterious union of the believer with Christ, that we are in Christ as the Son is in the Father.
It can never be explained, but there is no uncertainty in the knowledge. The secret is disclosed to the heart, and no one sees the writing but the soul that receives it. They also knew that Christ is also in the believer, as surely as the Christ and the Father are one.
So profound are the seven tiny words, ye and me, and I in you. The Spirit-filled believer knows. Their certainty is the secret of their power. They have knowledge that comes not of flesh and blood, but from the Spirit, who knows the deep things of God, for he himself is God.
And the Spirit not only reveals the deep things of God, but gives also illumination for all the practical affairs of life. All questions are answered in him. The Spirit-filled are not left in uncertainty as to the mind of God.
In 1 John 2, 27, we read, The anointing which ye received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that anyone teach you, but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie.
And even as it taught you, ye abide in him. So there is certainty in knowledge, but also the Holy Spirit makes the believer mighty in prayer. Prayer is an impossible task without the Holy Spirit. We know not what we should pray for as we ought on many occasions, but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities.
He makes intercessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, Romans 8, 26. None but the Spirit-filled know that kind of praying. It pleads the name of Christ. It enthrones the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and claims the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It prays in his will. It presents his promise and decrees in his power. The Holy Spirit instructs and inspires prayer. The Holy Spirit gives intelligence and intensity to intercession. And it is the Holy Spirit who brings reality and joy to communion with God.
The Spirit-filled love to pray in prayer that is in the Spirit must prevail. So the Holy Spirit makes the believer mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit is also always associated with power. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of power.
Everywhere in the scriptures, he is associated with the might of Almighty God. In the Old Testament, you recall, he wrought mightily even though he was not yet given. In the New Testament, he is God's crowning gift of power.
He clothes himself with sanctified men and women, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. The measure of our power is in the energy of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us.
He gives us all fullness of life, all resources of vitality, all certainty of assurance, all victory over sin in the flesh, all prevailing power in prayer, all certitude of glory. All and everything is in the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And then we have the inheritance that is for the spirit-filled Christian. Romans chapter 8 is the fullest exposition of the life which comes through the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ. It is the chapter of the believer's inheritance in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit brings deliverance. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes men free. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. He is the Spirit of power and the first demonstration of power is emancipation, the setting free.
He breaks the power of cancelled sin. There is no bondage from which he cannot deliver. He breaks the fetters of the soul and opens the prison doors of the redeemed. Salvation comes with the suddenness of a mighty rushing wind or may come as the breath of the morning and the light of the dawn.
But however it comes, it comes to set you free from all that brings into bondage and condemnation. It is the gospel of liberty to all imprisoned life. There is no slave the gospel cannot save. One of the greatest deliverances of all of these is from the moral impotence of the dual personality of Romans 7.
The measure of completeness is in the word. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8 .1. They are delivered from all and everything that brings condemnation. The Holy Spirit also brings abundant vitality as well as deliverance.
Our Lord came that we might have abundant and abounding life and it is found in the gift of the Spirit of life. The gift of God is living water springing up unto everlasting life. Living water is the water of vitality from the eternal source of life himself.
The Holy Spirit strengthens the inward man. The spirit of life he is as he indwells in men. He permeates their being, sanctifies their nature, quickens their power, vitalizes their mortal bodies and radiates their life.
Then they live, they really live. They live a life that is life indeed. The Holy Spirit turned anemic believers into exuberant saints. They were vivacious with abounding vitality. The Holy Spirit wakes people up.
He vitalizes latent powers and makes the utmost of every faculty and gift. Those who would live life that is abounding life, satisfying life, glorious life must yield to the Holy Spirit. Life is the best medicine for every kind of sickness.
It cures all ills, ends all weariness and conquers death all the time. So the Holy Spirit does this. The Holy Spirit always, he brings deliverance and he brings abundant vitality. He also brings understanding.
The question comes, where did Simon Peter get the sermon he preached on the day of Pentecost? Who taught him? How did he know the hidden meanings of prophecy? How came he to understand the meaning of the cross and discover the explanation of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?
Who instructed him in these things? The Lord himself tells how he had come to know that he was the Christ, the Son of God. And that one explanation explains the rest. He knew by the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
The spirit of truth guides into all truth. Ye shall know. We know by the spirit that we are sons of God and joint heirs with Christ. We know that the world is redeemed and therefore travails in hope, waiting for its redemption through the revealing of the sons of God.
A new creation by regeneration. We know and we do not despair at present circumstances. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8 28. We also know that at the last we shall be saved and we shall stand approved in Christ at the judgment seat of the Lord. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8 38 39. The Holy Spirit is familiar with the deep things of God. And he takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto those who receive him. He is the spirit of wisdom. He leads in practical wisdom as well as guides into all truth.
He makes men wise with the wisdom that is from above. The Holy Spirit does this for us. The Holy Spirit also brings a new fellowship in prayer. In Romans 8 26 and 27. We don't know what to pray as we ought many times.
But the Holy Spirit knows and he assists in that prayer. That is the secret of prevailing prayer. And then the Holy Spirit also brings power. The Apostle Paul said we are more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us.
The Apostle John ascribes victory to testimony in Revelation 12 verse 2. And they overcame him that is Satan because of the blood of the Lamb and because the word of their testimony and they love not their lives unto death.
The spirit of power is given for witnessing. But also the Holy Spirit brings the zeal of God. Fire in the Bible is one of the chosen symbols for moral passion. It is emotion aflame. Spirit-filled souls are ablaze for God.
They love with a love that glows. They believe with a faith that kindles. They serve with a devotion that consumes. They hate sin with a fierceness that burns. They rejoice with a joy that radiates. Love is perfected by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit brings the zeal of God, but the Holy Spirit also brings a passion for the souls of men. Romans chapter 8 flows into the Romans chapter 9 that ninth chapter. The experience consummates in anguish and tears for the lost.
There is no sterner test of grace than the attitude to the lost. The Holy Spirit always leads back to Gethsemane into Jesus Christ's redeeming passion. Spirit-filled hearts are always tender and they see men through the tears of holy compassion conveyed to them by the Holy Spirit of God himself.
This is what he's speaking of when he talks of the abundant life, the spirit-filled life. I mentioned the Holy Spirit as the spirit of power. Let me add some thoughts concerning power. There are two words for power in the New Testament.
One which stands for authority and the other which stands for force. Just as the two words for perfection stand respectively for completeness and consummation, so the two words for power stand for authority and effectiveness, right and efficiency.
Man has an instinct for power. Man wants power. There's probably no instinct of the human heart so strong as the craving for the sovereignty of power. Might is the attribute of God most coveted by men.
Satan snatched at it and fell and the same craving was the undoing of the human race. Ye shall be as God, he said to man and woman. That was the appeal that prevailed and its success was in the fact that it appealed to the craving for sovereignty.
Man was made for thrones and dominion and he knew it. He snatched at it and he fell. Even then the instinct for power remained. It is the dominant passion of the human race and the key to its history.
The determination to possess it as is responsible for more than half the bloodshed of the world and its urge has been the dynamic of civilization in all ages. The kingdoms of this world are built on the love of power.
Babylon stands in the Bible for the symbol of human ambition. The Tower of Babel was to reach to the heights and make a name for its people that should endure forever. The spirit of Babylon is still with us.
Man was meant for the heights. God made him for sovereignty and he cannot fulfill his destiny without power. God destined him for a throne. Satan promised him a kingdom. The difference between God's purpose and Satan's promise is a difference of method and purpose.
The kingdoms were not the same. Neither was the way the same. God's way is the way of grace. Satan's is that of lawlessness. God brings it as a gift for which man must wait in patient obedience and humble trust.
Satan bids man snatch at it, demand it as a right and take it. The devil's doctrine has always been that might is right. No authority must stand between man and his will. Animal instinct, the gratification of the desire, the passion to have and to know are declared to be the only justification man needs for taking what he wants provided he has the power.
Satan's way to thrones and dominion is by the assertion of self for self-realization. God's way is by the surrender self on the all spice. Calvary is God's way. In the kingdom of heaven the Lamb is in the midst of the throne and in the midst of everything else that abides.
The way of sovereignty is by the way of the cross. The badge of authority is service. The mark of distinction is humility and the right to rule is the power to obey. God's way gets there. The other ends in the ditch and the pit.
Let's think for a moment about the promise of power. Man needs power. He is of no use without it. Dominion is impossible without authority and authority is useless without power. Man must have power. It is his supreme need.
Without power he can do nothing. He needed a character and inheritance. He can be what he was made to be. He can be what he was made to do. He can be what he was made to do. He can be what he was made to do.
The Holy Spirit was given to man at his creation and it was the breath of God that distinguished man from the rest of God's creatures. During the period recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures, the Holy Spirit was given to men chosen for special tasks.
In the New Testament, Jesus manifested the Spirit as he revealed the Father. By his promise the Spirit was to succeed the Son with increased effectiveness and enlarged dominion. The gift of the Spirit is God's gift of power, but for effective witnessing, holiness of life, and consecrated service.
He gives authority, aptness, and force in speech. On the day of Pentecost, you recall, they spoke with authority, certainty, and power. Excuse me, because they spake out of an experience of revealed truth interpreted by the Holy Spirit.
No man has a right to speak for God who has no personal first-hand knowledge of him. He certainly will not speak with power. The Spirit of God sanctifies, vitalizes, and energizes the natural faculties and makes possible things beyond their most perfect development.
God's man becomes mighty in the power of the Almighty. Personality, of course, is the seat of power, and the gift of the Spirit is the gift of a God-possessed personality. So think with me for a moment about power in personality.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift of personality. It turns ordinary persons into extraordinary personalities. Personality is the discovery of the age. It is not easy to define. It is meant to imply more than a person.
It is a person of distinctive quality. Remarkably enough, the New Testament never uses. God asks for persons and turns them into personalities. It is a quality that counts. We read, for Shemgar slew 600 Philistines with an oak's goad and saved Israel.
But the men of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. Now, the reason was not in the weapons, but in the men. Personality is the supreme power. Superior to heredity, stronger than environment, higher than prestige, mightier than adversity, a man's personality conquers, compels, and commands.
It gives distinction in art, effectiveness to energy, and character to life. In all the work of the world, it is personality that counts. And everywhere it is held that the qualities of powerful personality are courage, strength, sympathy, and unity.
Not one of these can be spared. I do not know that the order can even be changed. Now, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. The gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift of personality that possesses man's spirit, quickens man's faculties, sanctifies man's power, and empowers him for all the will of God.
The Bible nowhere uses the word personality. God never asks for personalities. They are the first condition with us in all enterprises that call for power, but God asks for persons. There is no divine quest for supermen.
He calls all sorts of people and chooses quite ordinary men and women for his tremendous work. He somehow calls persons and makes them personalities. He gives power. Our Lord said to his disciples, Behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you.
Carry in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. To be clothed means something more than to be covered. The Holy Spirit of God clothes himself with sanctified humanity, and in him sanctified humanity is clothed.
He fits in with every element of personality, illuminating power upon every theme in reason, conscience, and heart, and brings to pass the ideals, desires, and purposes of God in heart and life. Every kind of power comes in the spirit.
Intellectual power, moral power, spiritual power, and physical power. There is no higher quality of man anywhere, and he can be produced everywhere by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the spirit of truth, the spirit of holiness, and the spirit of power.
He quickens the mind, purifies the heart, and strengthens the whole man. Power. Power belongs to God, and in the gift of the Holy Spirit, he makes all grace abound to us, that we, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.
Power. Power is what man cries for. The supreme need of man, and the crowning gift of God, is power. Power to conquer, power to attain, power to achieve. The Spirit of God is the spirit of power. But let me add a thought in a different vein.
The lamb of power. You see, all power is conditioned. It's a very little thing that will stop a car, or plunge a city into darkness. Spiritual power is subject to conditions. Once it failed in the hands of the Apostles, the same chapter that tells of its gift, tells how they tried to cast out an evil spirit from a demon invaded lad, and could not.
The power of the Holy Spirit is inseparable from his person. God does not let out his attributes. His power cannot be rented. It cannot be detached from his presence. He strengthens by indwelling. The Holy Spirit works through spirit.
He is not simply the giver of power. He wills the power. No one else can. It is his power working in us, that makes us all powerful for all the will of God. Is it not in this we so often fail? Is there not often in our praying for power more desire for it, than for him?
Is it not possible to be more anxious for the achievements of power, than for the spirit of power? We want visible results, dramatic wonders, mighty works, and it is not always for these the spirit of power is given.
Power may be as necessary for silence as for speech, and as mighty in obscurity as in high places. He comes to make us effective in all the will of God. In the one spirit there are diversities, both a function and a manifestation.
The work of the spirit depends upon the power of the spirit. No, no other power will do. The energy of the flesh cannot do the work of the spirit. For his power there is no substitute. Where the kingdom of God covets Babylonia's gold and envies Babylonia's garments, copies Babylonia's ways, and adopts Babylonia's altars and fights with Babylonia's weapons, her strength fails because the spirit of power is lost.
Carnal resources are no asset in spiritual enterprise. The weapons of this warfare are not carnal. Prayer brings power, for the spirit of power is given to them that pray. Testimony is a chosen weapon of conquest according to Scripture, and the Holy Spirit is given for witnesses.
It is by the power of the spirit that there comes conviction of sin, conviction of righteousness, and conviction of judgment. The work of the church of Jesus Christ is supernatural work. It cannot be done in the strength of the natural man.
It is not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. There is no excuse for the church's failure, no justification for ineffectiveness, for the spirit is the inheritance of every believer in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The question comes, where is the spirit of power? The atmosphere of the apostolic church is charged with the divine power. Their word was with power. Conviction accompanied their speech. They uncovered the hearts of evildoers, and heaven put its seal upon their judgments.
Rulers trembled in their presence, and demons were subject to their word. The presence of the spirit endued men with the divine authority and power. They were sure in the mind of God, for they were taught of the spirit.
They wrought mighty works, for they were strengthened in the might of the spirit. The normal life of the church was filled, inspired, and empowered in the fullness of the spirit of the living God. The study of Pentecost reveals a startling contrast between the promise of power and its absence in the church today.
Judged by its own standards of power, the church is not effectively doing its own proper work. This is the conviction of devout and thoughtful men in all the churches. The question, why? Where is now the Lord God of Elijah?
Where is the spirit of power that cleansed the lepers, and cast out demons, and transformed men into saints and heroes of God? So far as external conditions can be judged, they are more favorable to the work of the spirit than they have been for many years.
There is a revolt against materialism and rationalism. There is an intense belief in the reality of the spiritual world. All of these things have opened a great and effectual door to the witness of the Holy Spirit of God, and yet, the church has less power than the days of aggressive antagonism.
Why? The question is why? The arrest of the church's extensive effect is due to the decay of its intensive faith, while a mere piety muffles the laws. There is no substitute for the Holy Spirit. The sufficiency of the church is not of men, but of God.
The one vital cause of failure in the church is in the poverty of the spiritual life of its people. All the causes of our failure go back to this one common source. Do we believe in the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, giver of life?
Without his guidance, wisdom gropes and darkens, and without his strength, there is no might. Light becomes darkness, and strength weakness apart from him. But there are many who would save the church by linking it up with the powers of the world.
Christ was the good physician who healed by the spirit of life. But the modern Savior is an engineer who will redeem people by organization, accommodation, and program. The salvation of the world is not by might, nor by power, but by spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
In speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit, of course the Holy Spirit has been given to the believers and to the church. The Holy Spirit is God's gift to the church of his Son. For the work of redemption, the Son of God emptied himself of the prerogatives of his divine status.
But for his ministry, the Father gave him the Spirit. And as it's closed, we remember he said, the scripture says, he made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly spheres, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.
And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this which you see in here.
Now, let's think for a moment about the Holy Spirit in the church. The sphere of the Spirit is in the living temple of sanctified humanity. He dwells not in temples made with hands. The temple in Jerusalem was permitted by God during that dispensation, and the tabernacle was a type of heavenly reality.
But God cares not for costly buildings and everything for loving hearts. He seeks men, he wants men, and he dwells in men. Ian Bounds, the great Christian, said the following, quote, God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else.
Men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods. God is looking for better men, end quote. Yes, God has trusted his gospel to men. He has given his Holy Spirit to people. The church is on the look for new methods, new plans, new buildings, new organizations, but the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
The Holy Spirit does not come upon methods, but upon men. He does not anoint machinery, but men. He does not work through organizations, but through men. He does not dwell in buildings, but men. He indwells the body of Christ, directs its activities, distributes its forces, empowers its members.
If you recall, those who gathered in that upper room were prepared for the Holy Spirit's indwelling. They were disciples who acknowledged the lordship of Jesus Christ. They had realized his saving power and surrendered all to his sovereign will.
For ten days they had been in prayer, purging themselves from self, and for the greater part of three years they sat at the feet of Jesus. When they realized his sonship, he blessed them, and then the promise was fulfilled.
They were indwelt and filled with the Holy Spirit. He had come to reign over each and all. Jesus Christ had defined his mission and outlined his program. He was to form them into one body, guide them into all truth, and strengthen them for all service.
In the church, he is the supreme executive, but he has his seat in the soul. He directs all things from the spiritual center of the inner life. The body prepared for the eternal son was born of a virgin.
The body prepared for the indwelling spirit is begotten of faith in Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. The church is the sphere of his ministry, the agent of his purpose, and the place of his presence.
The church being the body of Christ. So think with me now of the spirit in the believer. We know the spirit is in the body. These believers were indwelt and filled by the Holy Spirit. The whole is for each and is for all.
We'll notice that Peter now moves in a blaze of the sun. Throughout the gospel narrative, he is a man of impulses with many failings. He utters his resolves with a emphasis of the irresolute and often fails in the hour of testing.
But the day of Pentecost reveals him transformed. He has the certainty of revealed truth in his speech and the confidence of invincible power in his bearing. The man who cringed a few days ago stands upon both feet utterly destitute of fear.
Temperament and natural aptitude are unchanged. But the man is radiant with a new energy, transfigured with a new spirit, and effective with a new power. The Holy Spirit has clothed himself with Peter.
Peter speaks with the same Galilean accent, but his words are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul put the same truth another way, did he not? I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live. And yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me.
The indwelling presence is clothed with sanctified manhood and becomes the very life of life and the very soul of the soul. I live, yet no longer I. We notice the Apostle attributes all spiritual effectiveness to the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.
He said our sufficiency is of God who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. There are other kinds of ability than that which comes of God through the Spirit, but they are death dealing and never life-giving.
It is the Spirit that quickens. Everything else fails. Oh, the letter may be faultlessly orthodox. The method may be marvelously ingenious. The man may be tremendously earnest, but only the God made, God inspired, God enabled will actually prevail and avails to anything.
Carnalities kill. The power that quickens and transforms, perfects, is of God the Holy Spirit. Believers who are not empowered by the Holy Spirit cannot do the work of the Spirit. So each believer is in dwell with the Holy Spirit.
Clothed by the person and the personality, the Holy Spirit guides that life that yields to him. But we also have the Holy Spirit in the world. It is this mystery that has filled the history of the church with anabolas.
Inadequate men are always doing impossible things. Ordinary people achieve extraordinary results. God's biggest things seem to be done by the most unlikely people. Unknown Davids kill terrifying Goliaths.
The weak confound the mighty. Things hid from the learned and wise are made known to unlearned and un-university trained people. The all-wise seem to delight in nothing so much as turning the wisdom of the vain to folly.
And the strength of the proud to shame. He has declared the insufficiency of all but himself. But man struts and sets himself to demonstrate his own sufficiency. Pride of logic, pride of skill, pride of personality, pride of power, all perpetuate the spirit of Babel in the Church of God with the same inevitable result.
It ends in defeat, disaster, and dishonor. There is no conquest of the world for God, but by the Holy Spirit. He alone can convict the world in respect of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. There is no other power that can do that.
And without conviction there can be neither salvation of the soul or spiritual righteousness. Our one lack is the power that comes of the Holy Spirit. For holiness, service, and for victory, here's our one need.
The Holy Spirit is God's gift to mankind for enablement. The power cannot be bought either by money or merit. A gift can only be received or rejected. This gift is for all who believe and crown Jesus Christ in their hearts, Lord of life, as well as Savior of their soul.
I believe that it is important that we think for a moment when we talk about being clothed of the Holy Spirit, clothing himself with personality, with mankind. Think with me about the indwelling spirit.
Inwardness is the distinctive feature of the Holy Spirit. The Son of God reveals and works from without, but the Holy Spirit of God dwells and works from within. The Son is the Word. He reveals the living and eternal truth and is the express image of the invisible and glorious God.
The Spirit is the secret presence. He is the source of life and truth. He is the source of light and life, wisdom and power. He is the dweller in the innermost of all secret places. In all the Old Testament references to the Holy Spirit, there is the suggestion of inwardness.
You recall at the creation God made the heavens and the earth, but the Spirit is said to have brooded over the face of the waters as if he would beget rather than create. When God threatened to destroy the world for its wickedness, he said, my spirit shall not always strive with man.
Striving implies an inward contest rather than an outward compulsion. From within he sought to instruct, correct and save. When God chose Israel to be his peculiar people, Nehemiah says, thou gavest also thy God's Spirit to instruct them.
The instruction covered a wide area, of course, from Bezalel, the craftsman who was filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship, to the prophets who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
There is one rendering that is both emphatic and illuminating. The Spirit of God clothed himself with Gideon, the scripture reads. He did not come upon him like a garment, but the Spirit clothed himself with Gideon as with a garment.
Think with me from with to in, W-I-T-H and I-N. The distinction is potent enough in the New Testament. The very first promise or the word of promise concerning the Spirit in the upper room emphasized it.
You know him for he abideth with you and shall be in you. The change from with to in marks the transition from one dispensation to another. The very essence of the Christian faith is in the realized presence of God in the soul and this presence is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Son comes in the coming of the Holy Spirit and he abides in the soul in the presence of the Spirit. And in the coming of the Son through the Spirit the Father comes and abides also. He will come, I will come, we will come, all refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit as promised in our Lord's farewell talk with his disciples John 14 verses 16 and 23.
In their relation to the human soul the Father and the Son act through and are represented by the Holy Spirit and yet the Spirit is not merged in either the Father or in the Son. There is absolute unity with perfect distinction of persons in the Trinity.
They are never confused in the unity nor divided in the distinction. Each is divine and all are one. The Spirit works from within. That is the distinction that makes all the difference. Christ said he that abideth with you shall dwell in you and so it came to pass that the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
It is not enough to represent the Spirit of God as coming as a help of man's spirit supplying strength which he lacks and an associate or a juxtaposed force or some kind of a supernatural auxiliary. There is no simple addition of divine power and human power in the Christian life.
The Spirit of God identifies himself with a human me into which he enters and whose life it becomes. It is individualized in the new moral personality he creates. The Spirit of God identified with the human me.
The human me identified with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ and the experience of Galatians 2 20 is the result. That is as our Lord promised. He that is with you shall be in you.
I in you and you in me. Now the Spirit in the Son, think with me, the Apostle Paul singles out the fact of our Lord's resurrection to set forth the work of the Spirit in the mediatorial work of the Son.
He selects the resurrection because it was the culminating and representative act. But the same Spirit was in all our Lord's life and ministry. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the key to both his personality and his work.
When he became man, he emptied himself of all the prerogatives and privileges of deity. He himself was unchanged for he is the same yesterday, today and forever. But he laid aside all that belonged to his exalted state and submitted to the limitations of humanity.
But God gave to the self-emptied Son the fullness of his Spirit and our Lord was in all things dependent upon the Spirit by his own will. His body was prepared for him by the Spirit. He grew in wisdom and in stature under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
His teaching was given to him by the Holy Spirit. Miracles were wrought in the power of the Holy Spirit. At the last he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead.
The standard of the Holy Spirit's power is demonstrated in the Son. He is the Spirit's unit of measurement. The standard and sample of what the Holy Spirit can do in and for and through sanctified humanity.
So think with me about the Holy Spirit in the believer. The believer's fellowship with the Son is as absolute as the Son's fellowship with the Father. He has made possible to us whatever was or is accessible to him.
The gift of his Spirit includes all his inheritance just as the Father gave all in his Son. He shall be in you. The very same Spirit that was in him shall be in us. The Spirit dwells in the believer as he dwelt in the Son.
There is no other interpretation to be put on such scriptures as 1st Corinthians 6 19, 2nd Corinthians 6 16, Romans 8 verse 9 and Romans 8 verse 11. What does it mean to say he dwelleth in you? Christian teachers are often disposed to interpret the language of the scriptures as a strong figure speech.
Dying with Christ, fellowship in his resurrection and the mutual indwelling of the believer in our Lord are attempts to express the experience of the soul in its relation to spiritual life and power. They argue that these expressions are not to be taken literally, but as types of great spiritual realities in the soul.
But what does the scripture say? The New Testament abounds with teaching and testimony that demand a deeper explanation. If the terms used do not involve personality, there is an end of intelligible speech.
The indwelling is that of a real personal spiritual presence. It is not a gift that can be located somewhere in the brain or the heart of a man, but a personal spirit that indwells another personality.
A personality within a personality by which the Spirit becomes the life of my life, the soul of my soul. An indwelling that secures identity without confusion and possession without absorption. He that is Christ, not merely as the Spirit of Christ ruling in him, leading him and guiding him, sanctifying him, preparing him body and soul for glorification, but has him also as the new animating soul of his soul, spirit of his spirit.
That is the mystery of grace that passes all understanding and the miracle of grace by which the Incarnation is perpetuated in the body of Christ. That is the mystery of the ages. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.
John 14 20. It is a mystery. What is promised transcends human achievement and human understanding. It is a work of divine omnipotence and love. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the most personal act of the Godhead.
It is the goodness of God alone that must give it. It is his omnipotence that must work it in us. It is a supernatural gift, a wonderful act of God in the soul. It is an unspeakably holy and glorious thing that a man can be filled with the Spirit of God.
The Incarnation of the Spirit brings many thoughts. When we read Judges 6 34, a literal rendering of Judges 6 34 will help us at this point, especially if we read it in the light of New Testament experience.
A literal reading is the Spirit clothed himself with Gideon. The Spirit clothing himself with humanity is the miracle of the Incarnation. A body is as necessary to the Holy Spirit as to the Son. For the Son, a body was prepared by the Holy Spirit.
For the Holy Spirit, a body is made possible by the Son. The Spirit lived in and through Gideon. The Spirit clothing himself with humanity is the miracle of the Incarnation. A body is as necessary to the Spirit as to the Son.
For the Son, a body was prepared by the Spirit. For the Spirit, a body is made possible by the Son. The Holy Spirit lived in and through Gideon. The life of Gideon became the life of the Holy Spirit. The man was endued and the Spirit was clothed.
The Spirit thought through Gideon's brain, felt through Gideon's heart, looked through Gideon's eyes, spoke through Gideon's voice, wrought by Gideon's hands, and yet all the time Gideon was still Gideon and the Holy Spirit was still the Spirit.
The same Spirit quickens our mortal bodies by dwelling in them. Romans 8 verse 11 is a present experience. The Holy Spirit that dwells in us quickens our mortal bodies. It does not create new faculties, but it awakens the dormant and develops the latent.
The natural endowments of a man are the basis of the Spirit's energy, but there is no part of a man's being that is not vitalized and strengthened by his power. The Holy Spirit gives fullness of life.
He gives health as surely as he gives life. Fear of extremes must not be allowed to frighten us from truth. Sickness may be and is in the will of God for some of his children, but even in them strength is made perfect in weakness.
Faith health is better than faith healing, and the quickening Holy Spirit makes for vitality and vigor as surely as he makes for sanity and spiritual power. The Holy Spirit redeems the material through the spiritual.
Creation groans for deliverance through the Holy Spirit, and for social redemption there is no other way of salvation. The Holy Spirit dwells in men, clothes himself with consecrated humanity, and accomplishes extraordinary things through quite ordinary people on the three simple conditions.
Abiding surrender, implicit obedience, and simple faith. May God grant us be true as we follow him.