The Presence and Work of the Holy Spirit
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 1 - The Holy Spirit's Power
The familiar passage of Scripture, in the fourth chapter of the
prophecies of Zechariah... the prophecies of Zechariah chapter 4:
"And the angel that talked with me came
again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep. And he said
unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have seen, and, behold,
a candlestick all of gold, with its bowl upon the top of it, and
its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the
lamps, which are upon the top thereof; and two olive trees by it,
one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left
side thereof. And I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me,
saying, What are these, my lord? Then the angel that talked with
me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, No, my lord. Then he answered and spake
unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel,
saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou
shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the head stone
with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it. Moreover
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands
of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands
shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts
hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small
things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the
hand of Zerubbabel; even these seven which are the eyes of the
Lord, they run to and fro through the whole earth."
We could hardly fail to link with that tenth verse the so familiar
words of Acts
1:8: "Ye shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit
is come upon you..." "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit
saith the Lord of Hosts."
Power... by the Holy
Spirit.
The thing which we all feel the need of, perhaps
more
than anything
else, the thing which the church of God needs more than anything
else: power. The
declaration is made by the
Lord Himself, "Ye shall
receive power
when the Holy Spirit is come upon you... by My Spirit, saith the
Lord of Hosts".
If, as is so much
the case, we are conscious of powerlessness, of our weakness,
and of the
weakness of the people of God generally, of the church in this
world, it is
useless to bemoan the weakness and deplore the lack of power;
the need is to
enquire why it is, to discover the causes, the reasons, the meaning,
for evidently
it is not the Lord's will. It's contrary to His own declared
intention for His
people.
When Israel met that great setback at Ai after Jericho,
Joshua
prostrated himself before the Lord, and cried unto the Lord. The
Lord in effect
said to Joshua: "In defeat and failure it is useless to cry unto
Me! The thing
to do is to find out why, to investigate the reason. I can't
do anything," the
Lord virtually said, "However much you cry, I can do nothing
until you have laid
your hand upon the cause, brought it to light. When you've
done that, and the
thing is exposed and dealt with, then the obstacle is removed
and we can go on. And the power of further mighty conquest can be
renewed and
restored." And so it does
become necessary in a day of defeat, and limitation, and weakness -
loss and lack
of power, to find out why.
Now, we are not going to spend a lot
of time on
uncovering the faults, failures, wrongs that may be in us or in
the church, but
there are some things which in a general way would be well to
take note of. As
those of us who feel the situation most acutely, and in our
responsibility for
the Lord's interests and the Lord's people think about the
situation and about
the matters of the people of God, some things do press upon our
consciousness and
recognition that may be profitable to mention here this
evening. And I feel
that I shall find a considerable amount of agreement when I say
that perhaps
the greatest, or amongst the greatest, of our needs, the needs of
the people of
God in our own time, now, and even here, is a new apprehension and
appreciation of
the great basic realities of our life and position as
Christians.
Our second hymn
this evening contained some of the most wonderful things of
which it is
possible for man to conceive. When you went
through that hymn, singing it (I have no doubt with all good
meaning and
heart) I wondered how much we were alive to the tremendous
things that were
passing through our lips: "No spot of guilt on me remains..." A
mere fragment
in a long hymn, but what a mighty thing for any mortal, human
part of this
creation to say: "No spot of guilt on me remains... while Jesus'
blood through
earth and sky..." do you see what I mean? I feel, dear friends,
that we take so
much for granted; almost as a matter of course. It has become so
familiar, so
oft repeated, and yet it is true. It is true that true and
genuine believers,
born from above believers, children of God, are God's mightiest
miracle in this
universe. Every one is the embodiment of the greatest thing
that
ever God has
done!
We've only to run
our fingers over the features and factors of our faith, our
Christian doctrine,
and mention them one by one. And in every single instance and
aspect we are
dealing with, we are in the presence of an immensity that will
take all
eternity, all eternity, the ages of the ages, to comprehend.
Every one. Again,
we are not going to do that. We could think back into the
eternal counsels of
God and find ourselves in that foreknowledge, foreordination,
predestination, "...chosen in
Christ before the foundation of
the world". Can you comprehend that? I say it will take
all of eternity to
compass that one thing! The incarnation of the Son of God... that
has defeated
and defied all human attempts and efforts to explain, and define,
and comprehend. God, infinite and eternal God, found in human form,
comprehended in a Man. Do
you understand that? That's the mystery of God. So we go on.
We
have said: "While
Jesus' blood cried through earth and sky", have we ever yet,
shall we ever
fathom, exhaust and measure the infinite value and virtue of
that
precious Blood? Born
again, from above, of the Holy Spirit. Why, Nicodemus was the
teacher in Israel,
and had a vast amount of knowledge in the things of God, but
that beat him. That
absolutely put him out of court; he stood before that with a
mighty question,
"How? How? How?" I could go on like that. Dear friends, you and I,
as
children of God, are
supposed to be the embodiment of these things. This is our
faith, not a creed,
not something objective to ourselves; something that has made
us, constituted
us, is a part of us. So I repeat: the great need in the matter of
recovery of
power may very well be a recovery of the wonder and greatness
of the things
which have become so commonplace to us that we can hear them,
sing them, and
never feel the thrill, never feel startled by a single clause
that has eternity
in it. True, isn't it? It's true.
And among the many,
many things of which that is true I think one of the major
things is the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit... sent forth by God from heaven to
indwell the children
of God, to indwell the church of God. The Holy Spirit! Do you
not feel that we
take the Holy Spirit too much for granted? When we come to
discuss this as a
subject, what do we say? Well, in controversy over it, its many
interpretations, many designations, we resolve the thing so
often by saying,
"Well, of course every born anew child of God has the Holy
Spirit!" And that's, so
often, the beginning and the end of it; that is what it amounts to.
If we are really born anew from above by our new birth we
receive the Holy
Spirit, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. Yes, yes! Agreed, but
the Holy
Spirit - God the
Holy Spirit, an
equal member of the Divine Trinity, very Jehovah in equality,
God of all the
ages, the God of heaven and earth, God over all; God!
Infinite in power, infinite in wisdom,
infinite in grace, and
much more, much more which we may see in these days. That One
resident within
you, as you sit there where you are, and in me, as I stand here
where I am. Is
that Christian truth? Is that the teaching of the Scripture? Is
that the
revelation of the Word of God? Is it?
Don't you agree, we
need to recover
something with a new apprehension and a new appreciation of the
greatness of
the fundamental things of our very faith? "Ye shall receive power
when
the Holy Spirit is come upon you". "By My
Spirit, saith the Lord
of hosts" and not the Lord of earthly hosts, because, as
you notice, the
margin there says, "Not by
an army." Not by an army, not by earthly and worldly hosts,
and they
have done great
things in history and can do great things in this world. But,
says the Lord, "Not, not
that". And I see in this an invidious comparison between that
"Not... but".
An army? Well, look at some of the armies in the Bible; look at
the great army
of Sennacharib spread over the land. Look at the hosts of the
Midianites, the
Amalekites and all the children of the east, "like locusts", it
says, covering
the earth. Was it by an army over against an army, three
hundred up against a
host like that, that Gideon gained the day? "Not by an army, but
by My Spirit,
says the Lord of (other) hosts", those hosts that Elisha's
servant saw when
his master prayed his eyes open: "the
chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof", the Lord of greater
hosts than all the hosts of
men.
Power by the
Holy Spirit
It's a romantic
story of the forces, the immense forces, that have lifted
themselves against the
Lord of Hosts - empires and their Caesars, their rulers,
straddling the path of
the onward movement of the Spirit of God and where are they?
Where are they?
God determined His Son as the Heir of all things, the Heir of
this world... He
made it for Him. And again and again men have lifted themselves
up to take
world dominion to themselves. And what an exhibition of power
they have made, what
shouts and screams they have given forth in their assertion of
their power and
ability to take the earth, to take the nation. Where are they? Where
are
the Caesar's who did it? Where is the Hitler, and the Mussolini, and
the others, who
made a bid for the inheritance of God's Son: world dominion?
The same fate
awaits those today who are on the same business, and all who will
follow them. "By My
Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts", the Lord of Hosts.
Where are they?
Where is the Holy Spirit? He is still intact, He is still on the
field, He is
still pursuing the Divine purpose.
Power by the Holy
Spirit... and we are so weak, so impotent, so powerless; almost
helpless, aren't we? What's wrong?
I ask again, it may be this: it is not that
we so much
need God to send the
Holy Spirit,
which He has done, and He is here; it may be that we just need to
recognise more
clearly and grasp more livingly the tremendous thing that God
has done in
sending the Spirit. How great the Spirit of God is! There will
ever and always
remain the mystery and the wonder that defeats our intellectual
powers to explain. We'll never be able to comprehend with our human
mind this thing,
and yet to have some perception of the fact of it, is essential
to power. When
that was really recognised at any time, people were down on
their faces in the
presence of God the Holy Spirit. Broken. Yes, that's not just
language, look
at them, look at them! Down prostrate... in adoring worship and
wonder....
Oh
friends, this is what
has been coming home to me, this, amongst so many matters, is a
matter for us to
bring back into its right realm. When the Holy Spirit came, in
His advent, on
what is called "the day of Pentecost", they were filled with
amazement! Everybody
said, "What is this? What is it?" The old question about the
manna, defeating all
powers of definition, explanation, and recognition came here
with this
visitation from heaven. "What is this?" They were amazed! They
were perplexed.
All their mental powers broke down before this in an effort to
give an
explanation.
Now, I am not
saying that we've got to have another experience of
Pentecost
like that. All I
am saying, dear friends, and yet it's a big enough thing to
say, is that we do
need to recover something of the wonder of the Holy Spirit
having come, and
being with us, and being in us. It's going to make such a large
number of
changes in us; it's going to have so many effects through us,
not all
pleasant, true, but better. Better for men to be antagonistic to
something that
is really of God, than to be able to ignore the presence of God
because there's nothing to take note of.
Well, I was saying that
amongst the many things needed to be recovered in the wonder of
the faith of
the Christian, is the wonder of the Holy Spirit. It would be no
exaggeration to
say that this is a matter that could occupy us without monotony, and
without
repetition, for a year of days. I thought about it, I could see
quite easily
fifty-two evenings through the year, once a week, filled to the full
with this matter
alone: the
meaning of the Holy Spirit. And I suppose that's limiting the
Holy Ghost even
to put it like that.
Well now, come for
a few minutes to this, where we have taken our Scriptures in
Zechariah and in
Acts chapter 1. Just in broad outline without the closer examination
that must come,
there are these things: there was a task before the Lord's
people in both instances,
on both occasions.
A Task
They were conscious of being in a
purpose of God. For
them, relationship with God was not a matter of believing
certain truths,
performing certain rites, going through a certain ritual,
attending services
and going away having done their duty. For the people of God
(and this is true,
or should be true, of all people of God in all ages if they
are really
alive to the meaning of their relationship with God) for them,
in the days of
Zechariah and in the days of the Acts, the thing which
controlled their
consciousness, that mastered, and gripped their awareness as the
Lord's people, was
that they were bound and horizoned by a Divine purpose. In the Old
Testament it
may have been represented in symbolic form or form of type, but
lying behind
that was the spiritual reality. They inwardly were aware
that
this thing
represented a Divine thought, a Divine desire. It contained a Divine
meaning. It stood related to God in purpose, and so they were a
people in
the grip of
this sense of being a people apprehended by God for a purpose,
for a work, for
an achievement of God; they were in it.
That was true of this
remnant that had
come back from the exile. Weak, feeble, but nevertheless unable
to turn from
this business, this Divine business, and just settle down in the
land and
cultivate their fields, and their vineyards and the rest. The
central thing was
this that was so near to the heart of God, representing this
eternal thought of
God. They were in the grip of that.
We know how true that
was at the beginning of the book of the Acts as they waited during
those ten days
after the Lord's ascension. There is little doubt that they were
in the grip of
a sense of having been laid hold of for a purpose. Whatever may
have happened
when He was crucified, in the devastation of vision and outlook
and hope, during
the forty days that had been recovered and restored, and during
those ten days
up to the fiftieth, they were men gripped together; people
possessed by some
thing that was to be, some thing in the purpose of God that
was
ahead. A mighty
controlling anticipation, expectation and if they were under
command to wait,
to tarry until... you may take it for granted that it was a
restive waiting,
it was a stretched out waiting. As it says, "they continued
steadfastly", the word meaning, "stretched out,
extended"! It is a picture word of the head thrust forward,
looking, waiting,
reaching out - something has laid hold of them; there is
something to be.
That is how the Lord's
people ought ever to be because God is a forward looking God.
He has not
reached His end yet. God is an expectant God: God with
anticipation, God who is
reaching on toward an end, who is moved Himself, governed by
what is so often
called "the eternal purpose". Purpose! He is the purposeful God.
His people who come under His apprehending hand ought to be like
that in
spite of all
set-backs, and discouragements, and frustrations, and oppositions,
and difficulties,
and conscious self-helplessness and impotence. There ought to
be in us this
sense, God-given sense, that there is yet something in the
purpose of God
intended, and we're in it, we're a part of it. That is the
meaning of vision;
it's like that.
Again, I am making statements; as I have been
saying, I am
stating Divine truth. Sitting there, how do you feel
about that? Do
you assent with your mind? Yes. Do you agree to the proposition, the
suggestion, the
idea? Do you like it? But, is that enough friends? Is it
really in us? Called
according to His purpose. The purposeful God; that's the
beginning of the
Spirit of God. That is where the Spirit of God begins! If you
have had anything
of a real experience of being translated out of the authority
of
darkness into
the kingdom of the Son of God's love, or, put that same
experience in any of
the many ways in which it is put, if you really have had an
experience
of salvation, of
new birth (put it as you will) that crisis in the life which
means transition
from an old to a new; is it not true, whether you have been
able to put it into
words and define it or not, is it not true that the first
consciousness of your
new experience has been, "There's something to live for
that I never had
before. Now I sense that there is some meaning in life that
I
never sensed
before!" Is that not true? It's the beginning of the work of
the Spirit in a
life, to constitute us according to the God of purpose.
Here then, were
these people in the days of the return from captivity. Here
were these
people at the beginning of the church era (the book of the
Acts) very conscious of meaning, purpose, call, apprehension
by
God. And yet... in
both cases, in both instances, a consciousness that it could
never be achieved
unless God Himself came and did it. Look at them after the
captivity: this little,
weak, despised, beset remnant. You've got, of course, to read with
Zechariah
the book of Ezra; they go together. Purpose? Yes, no doubt about
it, they've
come back with that.
But... look what's up against us; look what's up against
us! Look what we're up against in ourselves... what are we?
What can we
accomplish? What can we do? Look at the forces we have to
contend with
within and without. And the same Holy Spirit who caused the
stories to be
written, has taken pains to let it be seen that there was plenty
to be overcome
if this was to be done. Why this in our passage? "Who art thou, oh
great mountain?" Oh great
mountain. What was the
mountain? We can't be sure in the case of the remnant, we can
make some
guesses perhaps, quote some passages that might relate. But
taking the whole
situation as we read, in Ezra, and later in Nehemiah, there's a
mountain good
and high.
A Great Mountain
The Lord
calls it a great mountain. Sometimes what we call great
mountains are very
little things with the Lord, but the Lord here says, "Oh great
mountain... I know
how great the difficulty, I know how strong the opposition, I
know the fury and
the subtlety of the enemy... oh great mountain!"
The church was
confronted with
a great mountain; the Lord had taken account of that
mountain when He
said: "If you have faith
as a grain of
mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Be
thou removed and be
thou cast into the sea". What was He talking about? The
thing that dogged
the steps of the apostle Paul over the whole area of his
missionary journeys:
Judaism! Tracking him down. Working by every subtle and
often
diabolical means to
prejudice his ministry and message and destroy his influence; that
Judaism that
was up against the Lord Jesus Himself. And at last, at last
(speaking from the
human and earthly side) brought Him to the cross. That's a
mountain; that's a
mountain, but "Who art
thou, oh great
mountain?" A great mountain, and a little, weak, helpless
remnant! "Not by might,
nor by power, but by My Spirit,
says the Lord of Hosts". And mark you, by the end of the
life of the
apostle Paul, that mountain had been laid low. The letter to the
Galatians is
the letter, is it not, of the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit. And
it was that
weapon that struck a mortal blow at Judaism.
Yes, well, the
temple was
finished, and the wall was completed, in spite of the great
mountain. But what am I
saying? How helpless the people are in themselves, therefore how
necessary that
God comes in if the purpose which has gripped them is to be
realised. The
necessity of the Holy Spirit... Jesus knew it. You see, He
was
meeting this
opposition every day of His life! It was resisting Him wherever
He went. Oh,
what a force it was that was up against Him, both human and
Satanic. He met it.
Then there came that evening when He sat down with His disciples
at the table,
(13th of John) and began to speak. They arose and left the table and
went out and He
began to talk further, and talked through all those chapters, as we
have His talk, John 14, 15, 16 and 17. He prayed. What is He doing?
He has
taken the
measure of the forces that are going to be up against them in
this world. He
has met those forces Himself, and He knows that His church is
going to meet
them wherever it goes with its testimony to Him. Yes, it's a
tremendous thing
that confronts them - this world, this world, this world! Listen
to Him in that
prayer, chapter 17: "the
world... the
world... the world..."! What a force it is, as in the
grip of the evil
powers. He knew!
But what is He doing in this long conversation
and discourse?
What is the thing to which He heads everything else up?
"When He the Spirit is come!" All 16, chapter 16 and a
lot more of 16, is on the coming Holy Spirit: "It is
expedient for you that I go away, if I go not away the
Paraclete will not
come. But if I go, I will send Him unto you, and when He
is come..."
In a word, the great mountain will find its match and its
master. "And you, little
flock... you...
so weak, so small, so helpless in yourself... will, because
you will receive
power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you, will be equal to the
situation, and
more than equal." The Holy Spirit. See, He has pointed to
the way in which
a feeble people in the earth, with every mighty force in this
world against
them, can accomplish the purpose of their calling: the Holy
Spirit.
Oh, how great, how
wonderful, the Holy Spirit!
There, then, is the task. There,
then, is the need. There, then, is the adequacy of the Holy Spirit
to meet it. But,
there's
another point on which I am going to close, where, as I said at
the beginning,
there needs to be recovery on our part. We make very much of
course, and
rightly so, of the sovereignty of God. It's a very comforting
truth, it's a
very strengthening doctrine, it's a wonderful reality - the
sovereignty of
God. Do you not think, dear friends, that it's just possible to
leave too much
to the sovereignty of God? Don't misunderstand me, what I mean
is this, "Oh well,
God is God, the Creator of the heavens and earth; He is on the
throne of the
universe. He has in His hand all power. He has purposed, and He
can and will
accomplish His purpose. All we have to do is to trust that
sovereign power and
wisdom of God!" And, in effect, sit down in our armchair and wait
for the
sovereignty of God to do it. Now, of course, you wouldn't, and
I wouldn't put
it like that, yet, here is a point of peril. Here's a point of
peril. We have got to
recognise that,
although all that is true of God, and much more in the same
realm, alongside
of that, alongside of that there is ranged, what? Well, with these
hundred and
twenty after He
had gone to the throne, a continuing steadfastly in prayer
about what? This
that He had promised - the coming Spirit, and the power by the
coming Spirit.
Doubtless day and night through those ten days, that fixed
period, they were
stretched out on this matter. He has said it! And is there not
much more like
that that indicates...
[Unfortunately the message ends here.]