We must now consider something which lies at the heart of all our experience as the vitalizing power of effective life and service. It is the personal presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. God does not give His gifts at random, nor dispense them in an arbitrary fashion. They are given freely to all, but they are given on a definite basis. God has truly blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), but if those blessings which are ours in Christ are to become ours in experience, we must know on what ground we can appropriate them.
Upon what basis was the Spirit first given to the Lord Jesus to be poured out upon His people? ‘Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:33). ‘Behold I send the promise of My Father upon you’ (Luke 24:49). It was upon the fact of His exaltation to heaven. These passages make it quite clear that the Holy Spirit was poured out because Jesus was exalted. The outpouring of the Spirit has no relation to our merits, but only to the merits of the Lord Jesus. The question of what we are does not come into consideration at all, but only what He is. He is glorified; therefore, the Spirit is poured out. The Holy Spirit has not been poured out on us to prove how great we are, but to prove the greatness of the Son of God.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on the earth to prove what had taken place in heaven – the exaltation of Jesus of Nazareth to the right hand of God. The purpose of Pentecost is to prove the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We can know that Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings because He has poured out His Spirit upon us. Hallelujah! Jesus is Lord! Jesus is Christ! Jesus of Nazareth is both Lord and Christ!
The principle on which we receive the endowment of the Holy Spirit is the same as that on which we receive forgiveness of sins. Some of us, even though we agree with the facts, have no experience of it. Shall we sit down and say we have everything when we know perfectly well we have nothing? No, we must never rest content with objective facts alone. We need subjective experience also; but that experience will only come as we rest upon divine facts. God’s facts are the basis of our experience.
If we lack the experience, we must ask God only for a revelation of this eternal fact, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the gift of the exalted Lord to His Church. Once we see that, effort will cease, and prayer will give place to praise. It was a revelation of what the Lord had done for the world that brought to an end our efforts to secure forgiveness of sins, and it is a revelation of what the Lord has done for His Church that will bring to an end our efforts to secure the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We work because we have not seen the work of Christ. But when once we have seen that, faith will spring up in our hearts, and as we believe, experience will follow.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are in a life-partnership, You and I, and the Father has promised us two things – glory for You, and the Spirit for me. You, Lord, have received the glory; therefore it is unthinkable that I have not received the Spirit. Lord, I praise You. You have already received the glory, and I have already received the Spirit.
Faith is again the key
As with forgiveness, so equally with the coming upon us of the Holy Spirit, the whole question is one of faith. As soon as we see the Lord Jesus on the cross, we know our sins are forgiven; and as soon as we see the Lord Jesus on the throne, we know the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us. The basis upon which we receive the endowment of the Holy Spirit is not our praying and fasting and waiting, but the exaltation of Christ. The Spirit has been poured out to prove His goodness and greatness, not ours.
You can pray and wait for years and never experience the Spirit’s power; but when you cease to plead with the Lord to pour out His Spirit upon you, and when instead you trustfully praise Him that the Spirit has been poured out because the Lord Jesus has been glorified, you will find that your problem is solved. Praise God! No single child of His needs to agonize, nor even wait, for the Spirit to be given. Jesus is not going to be made Lord, He is Lord. Therefore, I am not going to receive the Spirit; I have received the Spirit. It is all a question of the faith which comes by revelation.
The Diversity of the experience When the Holy Spirit falls upon God’s people there will be some things which the world cannot account for. There will be supernatural accompaniments of some kind, though it be no more than an overwhelming sense of the divine Presence. We cannot and must not stipulate what particular form such outward expressions will take in any given case, but one thing is sure, that each one upon whom the Spirit of God falls will unfailingly know it.
The Holy Spirit came upon R.A. Torrey after he had been a minister for years. The Spirit of God came upon D.L. Moody and transformed his life and ministry. Charles Finney experienced great power of God when the Holy Spirit came upon him. When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon God’s people their experiences will differ widely. We must leave God free to work as He wills, and to give what evidence He pleases of the work He does. He is Lord, and it is not for us to legislate for Him.
The Spirit Indwelling Christians have become preoccupied with the visible signs of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring and are making much of tongues and miracles, while at the same time their lives are full of contradictions and are a reproach to the Lord’s Name. Paul writes, ‘Know you not that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?’ (1 Corinthians 3:16). Paul also prays for enlightenment of heart, ‘that you may know’ (Ephesians 1:18).
We need the eyes of our understanding opened to know that God Himself, through the Holy Spirit, has taken up His abode in our hearts. In the person of the Spirit, God is present, and Christ is no less truly present too. Thus if the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts we have the Father and the Son abiding in us. That is no mere theory or doctrine, but a blessed reality. We may perhaps have realized that the Spirit is actually within our hearts, but have we realized that He is a Person? Have we understood that to have the Spirit with us is to have the living God within? We fail at times to realize the greatness of the One who has come to make His abode in our hearts.
The Treasure in the Vessel Oh, that our eyes were opened to see the greatness of God’s gift! Oh, that we might realize the vastness of the resources secreted in our hearts! I could shout with joy as I think, ‘The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere influence, but a living Person; He is very God. The infinite God is within my heart! The Spirit of God within me is a Person. I am only an earthen vessel, but in that earthen vessel, I carry a treasure of unspeakable worth, even the Lord of glory.’ All the worry and fret of God’s children would end if their eyes were to see the greatness of the treasure hid in their hearts. Do you know, there are resources enough in your own heart to meet the demand of every circumstance in which you will ever find yourself? Do you know there is power enough there to move the city in which you live? Do you know there is power enough to shake the universe? Let me tell you once more – I say it with the utmost reverence – You who have been born again of the Spirit of God – you carry God in your heart!
Do you realize what happened at your conversion? God came into your heart and made His temple. In Solomon’s days, God dwelt in a temple made of stone; today He dwells in a temple composed of living believers. When we really see that God has made our hearts His dwelling place, what a deep reverence will come over our lives! All lightness, all frivolity will end, and all self-pleasing too, when we know that we are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells within us. Has it really come home to you that wherever you go you carry with you the Holy Spirit of God? You do not just carry your Bible with you, or even much good teaching about God, but God Himself.
“The reason why many Christians do not experience the power of the Spirit, though He actually dwells in their hearts, is that they lack reverence, and they lack reverence because they have not had their eyes opened to the fact of His presence. True revelation of the fact of the Spirit’s indwelling will revolutionize the life of any Christian.
The absolute Lordship of Christ When we see that we are the temple of God, we shall immediately acknowledge that we are not our own. Consecration will follow revelation. The difference between victorious Christians and defeated ones is not that some have the Spirit while others have not, but that some know His indwelling and others do not, and that consequently some recognize the divine ownership of their lives while others are still their own masters.
Revelation is the first step to holiness, and consecration is the second. There must be a day when, without reservation, we surrender everything to Him – ourselves, our families, our possessions, our business, and our time. All we are and have become is His, to be held henceforth entirely at His disposal. From that day we are no longer our own masters, but only stewards. Not until the Lordship of Christ in our hearts is a settled thing can the Spirit really operate effectively in us. He cannot direct our lives until all control of them is committed to Him. If we do not give Him absolute authority there, He can be present, but He cannot be powerful. The power of the Spirit is stayed. Our complete surrender of ourselves to the Lord generally hinges upon some one particular thing, and God waits for that one thing. He must have it, for He must have our all. He is not calling us to devote ourselves to His cause; He is asking us to yield ourselves unconditionally to His will. If we yield wholly to Him and claim the power of His indwelling Spirit, we need wait for no special feelings or supernatural manifestations, but can simply look up and praise Him that something has already happened. We can confidently thank Him that the glory of God has already filled His temple. ‘Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have from God?’