by T. Austin-Sparks
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1965, Vol. 43-4 - 43-5.
The Spirit of God has taken meticulous and strong measures to make it clear for all time that the birth of the Church, and therefore the nature of the Church, was quite supernatural. All the features of that event were above the natural. "The Holy Spirit sent down from heaven" was inclusive and characteristic. This was not something of men, of this world, or in any sense ordinary. It could not be accounted for on any ground but a breaking in of God and Heaven. This is a wholly spiritual thing answering to Christ's dictum: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." The Spirit of God is not at the command of man, neither in time nor place, but, like the wind, 'bloweth where (and when) it listeth'. The Church - the true Church - never was, and never is, a man-made thing. It is something born, not made.
