Revival - Part 10 — Doc Greenway

Revelation Comes Through Simple Faith

God is never discovered along the pathway of human reasoning. God is not found in that line at all. But he is revealed to simple faith. When the Scripture says that no man by searching findeth out God, it is not some empty statement.

It is a statement of fact. We may know about God by the exercise of our reason, but we cannot know God except by revelation. And this we have to learn sooner or later in the pathway of life. If we are attempting to reason our way to God, we shall not find God.

But if we come as little children expecting that he will reveal himself to us, then certainly we shall never be disappointed. For many years I thought that the way to find God was by seeking him and searching after him, using my intelligence, my human reason.

But it wasn't very long before I found out that this wasn't God's way at all. And that in the language of Jesus, he could say, I thank thee, Father, thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

This is God's way. And so when we think in terms of what awaits us, as we heard tonight in Gordon's prayer, when we think concerning our inheritance in Christ and what God has apportioned to us, we have to understand that neither by natural observation, nor human instruction, nor even by some personal intuition are these things to be known.

Paul makes this clear when he writes in the first letter to the Corinthians, the second chapter, and the ninth verse,. For I hath not seen, it's not by natural observation, nor ear heard, it's not by human instruction, neither hath it arisen up in the heart of man, it's not by personal intuition, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him are not discovered in this way at all.

And so on the unassisted level of human understanding, there is no real perception of spiritual things which belong to our heritage as those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think Paul makes this quite clear in the same chapter, the second chapter of 1 Corinthians, verse 14, when he says,.

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Quite positively, then, we are shown that where the natural man is concerned, there is no appropriation of spiritual things.

The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit. He can't lay hold upon them. He fails to appropriate them. He is unable to make them his very own. The natural man is the unconverted man, the soulish man, the man who does not know regeneration.

And so there's no appropriation of spiritual things where he is concerned. And there is no appreciation of spiritual things. They are foolishness to him. They don't make sense. They have no meaning. How foolish on our part, then, to attempt to impart to such people the spiritual riches which Christ has imparted to us, expecting them to see these things and to understand and comprehend them.

This surely is not the case. They are foolishness unto him. And there is no apprehension of spiritual things. Neither can he know them, certainly not by experience, and certainly not know them in the area of intellectual understanding.

And I believe that this is an important point to remember, that the things of God are spiritually discerned, that we have to be taught of the Spirit and initiated by the Holy Spirit into an area of understanding which is above the human and beyond the natural altogether.

Faith Stands on God's Word

The trouble with us is that we want to understand things. But as we have often said, and I think on many occasions even in this room, faith is not called to understand. Faith is called to stand, just to stand on the Word of God and on the promises of God.

The things, then, that constitute our heritage as Christians are on a higher level than the human. So, God employs a special method of making them known to us. And this is His divine condescension. Seeing that they are spiritually discerned, God employs a method of imparting these things so that we can, as believers, as His children, lay hold upon them.

In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10, you read,. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. This, then, is God's special way of imparting knowledge to you and to me concerning, in particular, our heritage in Christ by revelation, apocalypses, apo, away from, and kalapto, to cover.

And so, it's to remove the cover from something. Removing the cover so that our eyes, the eyes of faith, and the eyes of our heart can behold these things which no natural man can understand, or perceive, or comprehend, or apprehend, or anything else.

The Holy Spirit Reveals the Truth

Now, the work of revealing is the function of the Holy Spirit Himself. And as we are shown here, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. So, the source of revelation is, therefore, the Holy Spirit.

And this is exactly what Jesus promised when He spoke of the coming Comforter. Remember how in John 16 and verse 13, speaking to His disciples, He said to them, I have yet many things to say unto you, but He cannot bear them now.

That is, He had to exercise divine reticence where they were concerned, because they were unable to receive what He could have given them. They weren't able to carry the revelation which He was able to impart.

And so, this teaches us that revelation by the Spirit of God is progressive, and that God always accommodates Himself to our finite minds, if you like, and to our human limitations, because He knows us better than we know ourselves.

But then, you know, He continued to say, having told them that He had many things to say that they couldn't bear, that they couldn't receive just then, He went on to say, Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.

For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He also speak. So He has a voice, and He will show you things to come. That's John 16 and verse 14. Here Jesus teaches us four things about revelation by the Holy Spirit.

Revelation by the Spirit Is Decisive

First of all, He says it will be decisive. When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you. He won't stand alongside you and say, This is the way, walk ye in it. But the word here used, hegiomai, means that He will go before you and lead you in the way and point out things to you as you go.

If you like, it's like a guided tour. And you know very well that the guide can show you many things, either real or imaginary, which you would have missed had he not been with you. But where this guide is concerned, the Holy Spirit of truth, well, as we walk with Him and as we are taught by Him, then what He gives us will be decisive because He is the Spirit of truth.

Now, you may have false enthusiasm, and there's quite a bit of it around. And I know that you may have false emotionalism, but you can't have false truth. And so because it is the Spirit of truth who is guiding us and leading us, then we can be sure that what we are given in revelation by the Spirit, not by imagination of our own understanding, but by revelation of the Spirit, will be decisive.

We can depend upon it. The second thing that Jesus taught about revelation by the Spirit is that it will be comprehensive. He will guide you into all truth. Now, this is possible to Him because we read, The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

Therefore, what He leads us into is bound to be comprehensive. The amazing thing is that the indwelling thoughts of God are more clearly known to the Spirit of God than the outflowing works of God are known to us.

We are so constituted, we reason from the seen to the unseen, from the manifest to the mysterious, from the designed to the designer. And we do this from the outflowing works back to the indwelling thoughts of God, that is, the thoughts that gave rise to what we see.

But the Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God, the hidden recesses, if you like, the abysmal depths of God's designs are as clear to Him as the works of God which we see with our natural vision.

And this certainly opens up a tremendous area of truth upon which He can draw. But here is the amazing thing. Although He has such a tremendous storehouse and has the ability to plumb the depths of all the riches contained in the hidden things of God, yet He kindly and graciously accommodates Himself to our own finite limitations and sees to it that His revelation is progressive, here a little and there a little, line upon line and precept upon precept, as we are able to bear it, as we are able to take it in.

Never flashing light upon our eyes to blind us, but casting light upon our pathway to leaders. My mother was a lovely person, and I'm saying that with all my heart. She taught me so many things in spiritual life.

But there was one thing that bothered her. In the church which we belonged, some teaching had come about concerning sanctification as an experience, the blessing of a clean heart. And my mother couldn't see it.

She couldn't see it. She'd been a school teacher. She had an analytical mind that I think perhaps I've inherited some of it from her. But she always wanted to see her way through things. And I used to say to her sometimes, Mother, if only you could cut your head off, you know, you'd get on much better, really.

But no, she couldn't see it. And then one day, by faith, she laid a hold of Christ as her sanctification. Not positionally, but experientially. And that day, God did something in my mother's life that transformed her, revolutionized her.

And the amazing thing is that whereas before she couldn't see it, she couldn't see it. Now she couldn't see anything else. And isn't it like this when we come to the question of being filled with the Spirit?

I can't see that, brother. I can't see this. I can't see the other thing. I can't see it at all. I don't get that out of the word. No, you never will. It's there to stay. You know, it goes to this sort of reasoning about it.

Then suddenly, God comes and meets with you. You are filled with the Spirit of God. You've entered into a glorious experience. And you can understand why people can't see it. How human we are, how natural we are.

But the Holy Spirit, understanding these limitations of ours, accommodates His revelation to our earth-born eyes, that we may take in that divine light as we are able to receive it. It will be comprehensive, but in this sense of progressive revelation.

Revelation by the Spirit Is Conclusive and Instructive

And revelation by the Spirit, Jesus taught, will be conclusive. For He shall not speak of or as from Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He also speak. This is conclusive because He does not act as an independent deity.

But He moves in union, in perfect rhythm and purpose, with the Father and with the Son, in the unfolding economy of redemption. In making known the things that belong to our heritage, He does it in company with the Father and the Son.

And therefore, you see, with a Trinity in action on your behalf and mine, in the area of revelation, what comes through the Spirit is bound to be conclusive. And the fourth thing Jesus taught about revelation by the Spirit is that it will be instructive.

And He will show you things to come, said Jesus. Now, here the things to come are not in the far distant future, things to come in the sense of prediction, but things pertaining to the near future, especially pertaining to our heritage as believers in Jesus Christ.

He will show you things to come. These are the things which the Holy Spirit is longing to reveal. Now, we understand that by the gift of prophecy, there is certainly prediction which has to do with age-end events.

And there are many people who are tremendously concerned about these things. And they are forever delving into what is going to happen in days to come and what's going to take place, you know, in the ensuing years.

And they've got it all tied up nicely, and everything is arranged in order in their thinking. But I think that the important thing for us is to live one day at a time, and to trust God one day at a time, and to know that as thy day, so shall thy strength be, and also that sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

This surely is God's purpose for you and for me. I know it's interesting, and I know that it can be instructive to be taken up with things that belong to the far distant future. But what about now? We are living in a very real world now, and we need a living Saviour now.

We need the power of the Spirit of God to give us victory now. And after all, when the Lord does come, He won't find us as we were. He'll find us just as we are at the moment. And so, to get back to this idea, He shall show you things to come.

The things to come in this particular context are the things that belong to our heritage as Christian believers, the things which I believe are very, very precious to us right here and now, not simply in the far distant, dim future.

Now again, taking into account our human limitations, when God gives us revelation by the Spirit, He accommodates Himself in many ways to our finite understanding. He does this so that we may comprehend something of the character of our inheritance, both as it relates to the present and to the future.

The Holy Spirit as the Earnest of Our Inheritance

And because it has to do with our inheritance as believers, I want tonight to consider with you the Holy Spirit as the earnest. The Holy Spirit as the earnest. I mentioned this to some Christians recently, and they said they'd never even heard the term.

So I thought it was high time somebody said something about it. The Holy Spirit as the earnest. In general terms, the Spirit as the earnest assures believers of what is theirs in Christ and of what awaits them in Christ as their pledged heritage because of their relationship with Him.

And so I want to ask one or two questions and attempt to answer them. And the first is this. What is imparted when the earnest is given? And I think the answer is in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, where you read, the promised Holy Spirit which is the earnest of our inheritance.

So the earnest is the Holy Spirit Himself, not some separate ministry or act of the Holy Spirit. Some people seem to believe that this is so. You're born again of the Spirit, brother? Yes. Have you had the earnest?

And they act and talk as though this was something altogether different. A work or a ministry or a function or a revelation or a demonstration of the Spirit which is somehow different. The earnest is the Holy Spirit Himself.

This surely is taught as I've mentioned in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. Now there are still others who believe that the earnest of the Spirit refers to the gifts of the Spirit, particularly the list that you have in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

And that these spiritual gifts, they themselves constitute the earnest of the Spirit. Well, there are many who argue in this way and reason concerning this. But I personally can't see it at all and I don't believe it.

I don't believe that any one of the gifts of the Spirit constitutes an earnest in the sense of New Testament teaching. But I believe that the person of the Spirit Himself is the earnest. That when you are born again of the Holy Spirit, then you receive the Holy Spirit as the earnest of your inheritance, there and then.

There are still others who have a different theory. They maintain that the earnest of the Spirit means the graces or the fruits of the Spirit. Mentioned in Galatians 5 and 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance of self-control.

Against such there is no law. Now, dare you have the earnest of the Spirit, they say. Well, I grant you that these may be regarded as facets of the character of the Holy Spirit, but it is still the Holy Spirit Himself who is the earnest.

The Character of the Indwelling Holy Spirit

And thus, when we speak of the character of the earnest in the present context, what we mean is the abiding presence of the Spirit of God as a living, indwelling person in every believer. We can, of course, describe Him quite fitly, taking into account the graces which are mentioned as a loving person.

For He is the Spirit of love, and how loving the Holy Spirit is. I mentioned when we were talking about the Holy Spirit as due, that the most beautiful thing to me about the Holy Spirit is the intensity of His love for Jesus Christ.

And I like to think that the love of God which we enjoy as believers is shed abroad in our hearts by this same loving Holy Spirit. And so it's quite fitting to describe Him as a loving person. Or you could speak of Him as a living person, because Romans 8 tells us that He is the Spirit of life.

And surely with His incoming and His indwelling, life is imparted to the believer. We can accept this. And what a very humble person He is. Is He not? Because, you know, He's always in the background, never putting Himself in the forefront of the picture at all, but keeping Himself out of sight, as it were, living a truly self-effacing life.

So He is a humble person. And He is a dedicated person, because the sole objective that He has is to exalt and enthrone Jesus Christ in the life of every Christian. He has given Himself to this ministry.

It is His own absorbing passion. And it seems as though nothing else really interests Him, except to exalt the Savior and see Him enthroned as Lord in the hearts and lives of God's people. Oh, He's a dedicated person.

And I would say surely He's an intelligent person, for He is the only administrator of the affairs of Christ in His church. Every single ministry, every bit of blessing we receive, every bit of light that we have, every single thing that adds to our stature as believers, it all comes to us, because He is the controller, the one who is the administrator of the affairs of Christ in His church.

And no one else has a part in the picture at all. It's the Holy Spirit Himself who is in charge here. So He is an intelligent person. And what a bountiful person He is, since it is He who in the area of spiritual gifts divides these gifts severally as He will.

And so bountiful, when you think, for instance, of Corinth, what a cosmopolitan crowd they must have been. Not many mighty, it doesn't say not any, not many mighty, not many noble, but here they are, artisans, yes, but slaves as well.

And yet this bountiful Holy Spirit can impart a rich, deep gift of prophecy to the most abject slave in the assembly, and perhaps pass over the person who was mighty or noble when it comes to the distribution of spiritual gifts.

And in my own experience as a man of God, as a servant of the Lord, I have seen Him do this kind of thing over and over again, imparting tremendous gifts to people, uneducated people. And when the Spirit of God would come upon them, and He who imparted and distributed the gift would exercise and use it, you listened in amazement to what came through those lips.

You knew that it must be God who was speaking through that person, for that person was incapable even of language such as was being used. Hallelujah! It's a marvelous thing, isn't it, to know that we are serving a bountiful Holy Spirit, and He is not limited to human intelligence merely.

And Jesus promised that He would be an abiding person, for He said He shall abide with you forever. What an amazing promise this is. He is with you, said Jesus to His disciples, for as long as Christ was alongside them, then the Spirit was with them, para, alongside them.

But He may abide with you, no longer para, alongside, but meta, identified with, part and parcel of, bound up with you. And the Lord Himself expounds His own statement when He says, He is with you, He shall be in you.

And so, in a marvelous way, we have Him as an abiding person. Do you know the meaning of the word abide, meno? Someone has entered into my heart, has settled down there amid His home, and now is exercising His influence over every part.

Of my being. What a wonderful abiding person this Holy Spirit is. But you see, having said all this, we are simply attempting to define or describe the character of the earnest as a person, not as a ministry, not as a gift, not as a revelation even, but as a person.

The Father Bestows the Earnest

Just as we are convinced that the character of the Holy Spirit here must be seen as the earnest in person, so we are taught in the Word of God something concerning the bestower of the earnest. We are taught who is the giver of this precious gift.

And there is no doubt about this. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 5. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 5. Now He which hath brought us for this selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. The context here will show that Paul has been speaking of what is to happen at the second advent of Christ. When God clothes the believer with a glorified resurrection body.

And this is an earnest of the future heritage of the Christian. The Father bestows the Spirit to every believer as the earnest of this particular heritage. But don't run away with the idea that this exhausts the inheritance.

That the clothing upon of this poor mortality with immortality, that that is simply the whole of our inheritance and the only thing about which the Holy Spirit is concerned and of which He is the earnest, not at all.

This is only part of our heritage in Christ. God is, as the Father, is the bestower of the earnest because it is He who especially is mentioned as the giver of the Holy Spirit. Now, first, we'd better clear up something here.

There are several references in Scripture which appear to show that there is a joint sending of Father and Son where the Holy Spirit is concerned. Acts 2 and 33, for instance, this seems to talk about a joint bestowment.

You remember, it occurs in Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost when they asked, what is this? And he tried to tell them that this is that. You remember that during this time of preaching to them, he said, therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, talking of Jesus, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.

And then there's another reference in John 14, 16 and another in John 14, 26. And I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever. But the comforter which is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.

Now, notice, when John quotes directly what Jesus said, it is always quite clear that the Lord regarded His Father especially as the bestower of the Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He says.

You see this in John 15, 26. But when the comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me. See again, He is sent from the Father.

He proceedeth from the Father, what the theologians call an eternal procession of the Spirit, always proceeding from the Father. And so, as the earnest is Himself the Spirit of God, the bestower of the earnest is the Father.

The Earnest Guarantees the Believer’s Inheritance

And this is quite clear from Scripture. Now, the second question I want to ask is this. What is indicated when the earnest is given? Well, it is described as the earnest of our inheritance. The earnest, he arabon, in the Greek, is a deposit on account, the guarantee of what awaits us as our inheritance.

And so, it is a kind of title deed, you may say. It pledges the security of our heritage in Jesus Christ. What is the inheritance that we possess? Surely, all that is given us through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, under the law, the nearest kinsman had the right to buy back, to purchase back again an inheritance which through some circumstance or other had been forfeited. That's Leviticus 25, 25. That's under law.

Under grace, the Son of Man had both the authority and the glorious ability to purchase back again the inheritance we had lost through sin. And as we have already indicated, the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one ground on which the Holy Spirit is given.

He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. And the extent of the inheritance is given specifically in Romans 8 and verse 17, where it reads,. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

So, we have a share in whatever Christ is heir to. For we are joint heirs with Christ and we are really heirs of God. So, it's no wonder that Peter, when he begins his first epistle, writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.

So, the Holy Spirit is the earnest or the title deed, both of the security and the continuity of our inheritance. For it fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you and for me. And it's a good thing to be sure of a heritage like this, isn't it?

When I was in Adelaide in South Australia many years ago, at the end of one church service, an elderly gentleman beckoned to me. And I walked across him and he said, Looking around first to see if anybody was observing, Come with me, he said.

And he took me into the vestry. Then stealthily he closed the door, came across to where I was standing, wondering what was happening naturally. And he said quietly so that no one else could hear, I'm going to leave you the sum of sixty thousand pounds.

Well, about the only thing I could say was, If I'm dreaming, let me dream on. Sixty thousand pounds. Then he said, You see, he said, I have a share in an inheritance worth over five million. Then I found out he had said this to every minister who had ever visited the church.

And the millions existed only in his imagination. So my hopes were raised only to be lowered very quickly. But when we come to our heritage in Christ, there is no doubt about this. There is no mistake here.

If we are joint heirs with Christ, think of all that belongs to his heritage. Remember that you and I have a share in that. What a marvelous thing to contemplate. And the proof positive is that we have the title deed to that heritage in the earnest already in our hearts, which is the Holy Spirit himself.

The Holy Spirit Is a Token of Future Blessing

Then the Holy Spirit as the earnest is also a token gift. You see, the earnest pledge is not only the security and continuity of the heritage, but also the identity of the inheritance. As the grapes brought back by the spies were a sign and a token gift and an evidence of the fruit of the goodly land of Canaan, and as Eliezer, you remember, gave jewels to Rebekah, which were a token of Isaac's great wealth, so it seems to me the Holy Spirit in the heart and life of the believer is God's token gift of much that we have not even yet seen and of a great deal that is yet to come that we have not contemplated, but it is a token gift, the fact that we possess the Spirit of God and that he possesses us.

This is the earnest, which signifies the identity of the inheritance. And since he is the Holy Spirit, then surely our heritage is spiritual. As we have often said, Israel is to be blessed with all material blessings in earthly places, but the church with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.

So our heritage is spiritual and the earnest is the token gift concerning this. There was a time, you know, in Australia when surveyors and engineers and miners and especially newspaper men all said there was gold to be found in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

I've been there many times, didn't find any gold. And then a man arrived in Melbourne one day with a sample of the gold that he had found in Ballarat, and then the rush was on. And this is how it seems to me it is where the Holy Spirit is concerned.

You can have your head filled with theories and ideas and your mouth filled with arguments and reasons and all the rest of it. But when you become conscious of the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit in your life, then you have the answer that satisfies you.

This is the token gift. Now, only as a pointer in the right direction, if the Spirit is the token gift and involves a personal relationship with God through Christ where we are concerned, then surely it is something we may enjoy now in a measure.

And not simply have to wait for the future to comprehend it, to lay hold upon it, to apprehend it by faith, not at all. And I think that, as I say, as a pointer in the right direction, think of the present experience of fellowship, even as we have it here tonight, and think of this as a token gift of something which is yet to be in a far grander and nobler way than we can imagine perhaps here tonight.

Fellowship with God and Other Believers

In the first epistle of John, the first chapter and the third verse, you have the Apostle writing like this, That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.

And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. This word, fellowship, is one of the great words of the New Testament, koinonia, sometimes translated communion. But the meaning of it, of course, is a mutual sharing in the common interests of life.

I like that, a mutual sharing in the common interests of life. This is this word, koinonia, fellowship. It was used in the marriage service in the days of the New Testament, and now the Holy Spirit takes it up, invests it with a deeper content of meaning, and then applies it to the members of the body of Christ.

And in John's statement, there are three areas of fellowship mentioned, as you notice. Fellowship with one another, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and the basis of this fellowship, notice it, the acceptance of the witness of the Apostles to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This was the basis on which fellowship proceeded. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. The simple creed of the early church was simply this, Jesus Christ is Lord.

From this, everything else of value stemmed. And this is the first essential. Fellowship with one another is possible on the basis of personal belief in the supreme Lordship of Jesus Christ. And I don't see any other basis that will stand the test.

Unto this the Spirit himself bears witness. No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost we read. The bond of this fellowship is the conscious recognition of the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ as Lord, made evident to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The conscious recognition of the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ as Lord, and this made evident by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus prayed for his own, I am them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.

This is the bond of fellowship. And it is this kind of fellowship with one another that the Spirit is the earnest of. Because what we are experiencing here and now is simply a token gift of what is yet to be.

And we can say in the language of the hymn, if here it is so blessed, what will it be of there? If here fellowship is a lovely thing, and it is, isn't it? Don't you look forward to these Tuesday nights for the sake of fellowship?

Apart from many things I do. I live from Tuesday to Tuesday, I'm finding now. Not simply because I want to come and I'm raring to go when it comes to ministry, but because of the fellowship of the people of God.

Just to think, here we are from all kinds of denominations I guess, with all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of outlooks, all sorts of dispositions, and idiosyncrasies and fanocities, and here we are, all of us come together in fellowship.

Isn't it a marvelous thing? But it's only a foretaste, it is only the earnest of what is yet to come. And I believe that the Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to see that if the basis and the bond of our fellowship is right, we can expect the blessing of God descend upon us.

And it is descending, bless his name. Then fellowship with the Father, that's the second area. And truly our fellowship is with the Father. Why? Well because an affinity has been established. You read in Galatians 4 and 6, Because he our son, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your heart, crying Abba.