Words of Spirit & Words of Life
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Blessings
“I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
“Verily I say unto you, There are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16:28).
“They therefore, when they were come together, asked him, saying, Lord, dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).
“Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
“Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven… And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying, Behold are not all these that speak Galilaeans? And how hear we, every man in our own language wherein we were born? …we hear them speaking in our tongues the mighty works of God… But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice… saying…” (Acts 2:5-14).
The whole matter of the kingdom of heaven can be reduced to one simple issue. In all the above passages it is undoubtedly the kingdom of heaven which is in view, and which is governing. Pentecost saw the Son of man coming in His kingdom, and the exercise of the authority concerning that kingdom of which the Lord had spoken to Peter. The disciples still had some earthly ideas of the Kingdom, but by the happenings on the day of Pentecost they were lifted completely out of their old ideas and came to see that the whole matter of the Kingdom, as regards this dispensation, was bound up with the person of the Lord Himself - that it is Himself present and manifested in power by the Holy Spirit.
The Kingdom is not, in the first place, what is so commonly implied when people speak of ‘extending the Kingdom,’ meaning thereby the realm in which Christianity is propagated and converts are secured. The Kingdom in its inception at all times is the Lord Jesus present in power. “Ye shall be my witnesses” - that is the simple issue of the Kingdom. It is not a movement, it is not a teaching and it is not an institution. It is firstly Christ; then it is ‘ye’. It is Christ present by the Holy Spirit in people - and manifestly present.
This coming of the Kingdom on the day of Pentecost, or Christ the Son of man coming in His kingdom, changed everything from negative to positive. Up to that point, everything was negative where the disciples were concerned. Now everything became positive. The Kingdom is very positive. Christ is very positive. The Holy Spirit is very positive. Where Christ and His kingdom by the Holy Spirit are in people, things are of a positive character. It is not a case of just being there, just going on from day to day, just waiting for something to happen; the Kingdom is there. There is a witness for Christ. It does not have to be organised. At Pentecost it was not organised at all. I recently read the statement of a modernist trying to interpret these things, and his word on this matter was that on the day of Pentecost the Apostles came to the conclusion that they had to form a society. Nothing could be farther from the mark, more utterly out of keeping with what God was doing, than such a statement. What happened was spontaneous; and that is the point about the Kingdom - it happens. Where it is a matter of lives made positive by the power of Christ in the Holy Spirit, everything else follows.
It is remarkable how much was included in this. First of all, you notice that the feature of the universality of Christ was very clearly and powerfully displayed. There were all these languages and tongues represented in Jerusalem. There is a Rabbinical statement that the whole range of human languages at that time was seventy. It seems clear that the intention of Luke was to show that practically the whole world in tongue and language was represented in Jerusalem, and then, by this miracle, all those differences of language, tongue, nationality, were suddenly transcended. The universality of Christ, of His gospel, of the Church, of the Kingdom, transcended all the earthly aspects; and more - it overcame all the results of Satanic interference with the race in disintegration and division. What a marvellous thing it was! But that is all part of the Kingdom.
The point is, the Kingdom is so positive, and it is not an organised thing. It is not something set up in an external framework. It is the Lord present in us in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that, without any appointments or institutions, constitutes us positive factors; there is nothing negative about us at all. I do feel that is a point upon which we should focus for personal exercise. Supposing we take out of our lives any given period of a few months or a year; how far can we say that our life in that period has been positive, there has been some registration, some real impact? How far do we have to say that it has just been a matter of carrying on, and we have not been positive at all; there has been no impact? It is a simple, concrete issue which we ought to take up before the Lord day by day. ‘Now, Lord, today at least my presence here must be a positive thing so far as the Kingdom is concerned, so far as Thou art concerned; I desire that Thou shalt be positively manifested whatever I am doing.’ I think that both men and the powers of evil should have something to reckon with in our being here. That is how it was in the “Acts”. The world and the devil had to reckon with the presence of these people. Their mere presence was a menace. It must be like that, that we count, that we mean something that is positive, that there is some mark left by our going on from day to day. “Ye shall receive power… and ye shall be my witnesses”. That implies the presence of men in whom the Kingdom has become a reality by the power of the Holy Spirit.
First published in “A Witness and A Testimony” magazine, May-June 1950, Vol 28-3
What have you made the center of your life? If I told you there were millions of dollars buried in a field and you believed me, what price wouldn’t you pay to buy that field. You’d sell the little you do have to get the great riches buried in the soil. Those riches can not compare to Jesus in value or worth. Yet not many people are willing to give up comfort, family, fortune, pleasures of this world, etc., for Him.
One of the psalmists said in Psalm 73 that after watching the wicked prosper he grew angry and bitter. He resented that He had kept his life pure because all it brought was nothingness. We has jealous until He entered God’s presence. In the midst of God’s presence he saw the truth. The wicked were walking on slippery rocks and setting themselves up for ruin. He then realized that it was good to be near God. The NASB says
“for I have made the nearness of God my good.”
Do we value the person of Christ? Do we view nearness with him the chief prize of our lives? Are we willing to trade all lesser treasure for the Lord?
May God give us an anointing of abandonment. That we would give all and make Him our Prize and being near him our good.
More to Come Soon…….
From T. Austin Sparks, Mike Bickle, Frank Viola, and many more!
Please leave comments and suggestions.
The human heart from corner to corner of the globe shares basic qualities. Every heart craves relationship, love, purpose, peace, happiness, loyality, passion, and to be fascinated. We humnas are attracted to beauty and fascinated by it. The other thing we share is that our hearts are deceitfully wicked.
The corruption is not in these desires. The corruption is in thinking we can fullfill them in anything other than intimacy with Christ. This error is not helped by a Church culture that breeds passivity and rational/emotional expereinces over the Glory realm of God. Once again nothing is wrong with rational thinking or emotion. The corruption is when they replace God and the Spirit.
Believers are handed shallow and earthly practices in replace of tools to further deep intimacy and revelation of the person and pressence of Christ. When Christ is not our fascination, preoccupation, passion we are on dangerous ground. We need a revelation of the beauty realm of God.
We encourage you to realize that nothing is holding you back from intimacy with Christ other than perhaps your own preoccupation or the religious lies that demand that you jump through hoops.
Be Set Free from those now in the name of Jesus.
2 Kings 2:12-15
And Elisha saw it and he cried, my father, my father! The chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. And he took the mantle that fell from Elijah and struck the waters and said, where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? And when he had struck the waters, they parted this way and that, and Elisha went over. When the sons of the prophets who were [watching] at Jericho saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.
Something has been on my heart for some time. I find myself repeating a certain phrase in my prayers now and again. The urgency and desperation that clenches my spirit as I offer this cry is so intense it causes my body to burn. The cry is, “Where is the Lord God of Jesus?”
Upon the ascension Christ bestowed all authority and power to His people that by Him (Now living in us through the Spirit) might continue the Kingdom invasion and building of the House of God. That through the union we have with Him His presence would become real to this world and he would manifest His true glory.
This is how Jesus ministered. He was filled with the Father’s presence and is spilled out of Him conforming this world to the Kingdom. From the deep well of intimacy the infinite became reality. The sick were healed, the dead raised, the tears of the grieving wiped away. Christ brought good news and good hope. This lifestyle has given to His people (us). It’s called living in the Spirit.
Much is made in some circles of the indwelling Lord. Let’s look at this shall we. The OT picture of man in the temple or tabernacle. When they finished building the temple as God had ordered look what happens,
“And he erected the court round about the tabernacle and the altar and set up the hanging or screen at the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud [the Shekinah, God's visible presence] covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle! And Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud remained upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ” Exodus 40:33-34
To manifest” is generally, “to make apparent”. The Shekinah was God’s presence manifest and tangible. It was in the form of a cloud. Literally Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the Lord’s presence was so apparent. Isn’t that the ministry of Jesus? The Father so apparent in everything Jesus did, said, thought, was, and is. The Father was so apparent in Jesus that He said, “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father!” This same lifestyle has been given to us. It has been conferred to us by the cross and now we by the awesome person of the Holy Spirit What is all this in relation to the indwelling Lord? The Lord’s purpose for indwelling us is to manifest through us. The Lord has filled us as His tabernacle and to be made apparent through us.
The glory of the lord carries with it the atmosphere of the Kingdom. There is wholeness, freedom, redemption, love, mercy, grace, in His presence. We the walking arks of His new covenant are called in our daily life to spread and make Him apparent all over of this world. I believe with new vigor that this is how the true House is built. Not by plans, not by models. This is organic. This is the church. People consumed with the glory of the Lord and spreading Heaven everywhere they go.
This brings me full circle to my prayer. Where is the Lord, the God of Jesus? I know He’s supposed to be in me but is that good enough? To rest in the finished work of the cross but it never actually materializes? A God who indwells but never shows up is not worth very much. A gospel that remains ethereal is NOT good news! Good news is healing my life, my body, my heart. That’s good news.
When people are near us it should be Him they feel. Meeting us should be an encounter with the Eternal One. They should say “Here come the Christians in the Spirit of Jesus!”
WE CAN and WILL do what HE DID and SO MUCH MORE
So, I accidentally spent this past week in NY. Basically I went in to see a friend for a couple of hours and ended up hanging out for four days. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge, went to a jazz club in Harlem, spent a couple of nights in Greenwich Village, had lunch in Crown Heights, ate dinner in China Town, and got lost in lower Manhattan. All in all it was a great time, but amidst the revelry of NYC one subway ride still haunts me.
We were heading into the West Village one night when a homeless man stood up and asked for every body’s attention. He then proceeded to sing a song he’d written while playing a recorder with one hand and a drum with the other. Afterwards this man asked if anyone could spare some change. He received none. (Sorry pal. Your competition cleaned us out)
After he left I leaned over to my friend and said, “At least he was entertaining”.
“Yea, you should have been here last week” he responded.
“Oh, what happened?”
He answered by telling me a story about a kind of spiritual darkness that pervades NYC. “I was riding the subway and this homeless man walked on and started harassing every body. He was going from person to person getting right in there faces and saying the most evil perverse things I’d ever heard. It was obviously demonic.”
“Wow, that’s scary. What did you do?” I asked.
“We all just ignored him until he went away. That’s all you can do.”
This response is the commonly accepted wisdom in NY. If you engage them they might hurt you, so just ignore them and they’ll go away. That’s what I’ve always done and so does every one else, but this time it didn’t sound right. Something kept nagging me. I had a thought. “What do you think would have happened if Jesus was on the train?” I asked.
He looked at me as if it had never occurred to him. “I’m not sure. What do you think would have happened?”
“Well I don’t know exactly, but I think it would have ended with Jesus saying something like ‘Shut up, and come out of him! You have no authority here.’ The same thing probably would have happened if Paul or any group of first century Christians had been there. My question is why doesn’t that happen today? Is it because God isn’t in charge anymore, or is He just not interested?”
My friend’s response was typical and probably reveals more than he intended. “I don’t know, but we shouldn’t dwell on it.”
Now, I’m familiar with the school of thought that confuses impotence with spirituality. I used to belong to it. But for me it doesn’t hold water. What’s the point of going around calling Jesus king if His authority is just theoretical? I can’t do it. It’s to close to lying. So, what can I do? Should I stop declaring the truth just because it’s invisible, or is there another option? Is it possible that God intends for us Christians to make the intangible tangible (I don’t mean this in the ethereal bridal/body mysticism sense). Perhaps scripture can give us a clue.
What is God’s intention for the church, and more than that what is God’s intention for humanity? In Ephesians Paul tells us that God’s intention is “through the church to make known the many-colored wisdom of God to the demonic rulers and powers in the heavenly places, for this was the eternal purpose that God had planed to work out in Christ Jesus our Lord. And because of Christ Jesus and our faith in him we can enter God’s royal presence with no fear and in perfect trust.” (Ephesians 3:10-12 Barclay)
As we all know, because of Christ sacrifice, we can live always in God’s presence. But God’s purpose is two fold. He also intends for His “royal presence” to dwell on earth. This means that not only are we to love Christ as His bride, but we are also to do His work as His body. Through the Spirit God intends for us to fellowship with Him and establish His dominion over the earth. We can see the beginning of this in the life of Adam.
God said:
Let us make humankind, in our image, according to our likeness!
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the
heavens, animals, all the earth, and all crawling things that
crawl about upon the earth!
So God created humankind in his image,
In the image of God did he create it,
Male and female he created them.
God blessed them,
God said to them:
Bear fruit and be many and fill the earth
And subdue it! (Genesis 1:26-28 Fox)
YHWH, God planted a garden in Eden/Land-of-Pleasure, in the east,
and there he placed the human whom he had formed.
YHWH, God, caused to spring up from the soil
every type of tree, desirable to look at and good to eat,
and the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden
and the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil. (Genesis 2:8-9 Fox)
YHWH, God, took the human and set him in the garden of Eden,
To work it and to watch it.
YHWH, God, commanded concerning the human, saying:
From every (other) tree of the garden you may eat, yes, eat,
But from the Tree of the Knowing of Good and Evil—
You are not to eat from it,
For on the day that you eat from it, you must die, yes, die. (Genesis 2:15-17 Fox)
In these passages God’s purpose for creating man is clearly explained. First we are to bear his image. Second we are to have dominion over all the earth including the crawling things. Third we are to fill the earth and subdue it. And, finally we are to eat of the Tree of Life.
Now, we all know what happened. Our ancestors were outwitted by one of the crawling things. They were cut off from their purpose, and instead of taking dominion they were dominated. But God wasn’t finished. Before casting them out of Eden He said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
damned be you from all the animals and from all living-things of the field;
upon your belly shall you walk and dust shall you eat, all the days of your life.
I put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed:
They will bruise you on the head, you will bruise them in the heel.” (Genesis 3:14-15 Fox) God had a plan for man to reclaim his destiny.
We can see the development of God’s plan through the lives of all the major biblical figures. First He started by giving Abraham a small piece of land in Palestine and promising that,
“I will make a great nation of you
and will give-you-blessing
and will make your name great.
Be a blessing!
I will bless those who bless you,
He who curses you, I will damn.
All the clans of the soil will find blessing through you!” (Genesis 12:2-3 Fox)
This plan continues to unfold through Israel’s population of Canaan, the prophets’ call to turn to God and denounce paganism, and the promise of Messiah and the coming kingdom. Eventually we come to Jesus invasion of first century Judea as recorded by Mark:
And after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, making a public proclamation with that formality, gravity, and authority which must be heeded and obeyed of the good news of God, and saying, The time has been fulfilled with the present result that the present moment is epochal in it’s significance, and the kingdom of God has drawn near and is imminent. Be having a change of mind regarding your former life, and be putting your faith in the good news.
And while He was walking along the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon, casting their net about in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, Come, after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And immediately, having put away their nets, they followed with Him as His disciples…
And they go into Capernaum. And immediately on the Sabbath, having entered the synagogue, He went to teaching. And they were completely amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching as one who possesses authority, and not as the men learned in the sacred scriptures. And immediately, there was in their synagogue a man with a spirit, an unclean one. And He cried out, saying, What is there in common between us and you, Jesus, Nazarene? You came to destroy us. I know you who you are, the Holy One of God.
And Jesus rebuked him, the rebuke not resulting in any conviction or confession of sin, saying, Shut your mouth and come out of him at once, And when the unclean spirit had torn him with convulsions, he screeched with a loud voice and came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they kept on inquiring and demanding of one another, saying, What is this? Fresh teaching backed by authority. And the unclean spirits He commands, and they obey Him. And there went out the report concerning Him immediately throughout the whole region of Galilee. (Mark 1:14-18, 21-28 Wuest)
Finally there was someone living out God’s intention. Jesus was the visible image of God. He was running around taking dominion over the creeping things. And He was the tree of life. The only problem was that there was only one of Him. He had to multiply. That’s why He was raising up “fishers of men”, and that’s where the Spirit comes in. In John 16:7 Jesus Himself said it was better for Him to go so that He could send the Helper. In Acts we can see why. All of a sudden instead of one man running around subduing the earth there were thousands. God was colonizing this planet!
In Matthew Jesus told His disciples “upon this massive rock I will build my Church. And the councils of the unseen world shall not overpower it. I shall give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth, shall have been already bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, shall have already been loosed in heaven.” (Mat 16:18-19 Wuest). Again in Luke 10:1-24 Jesus sent out the seventy to announce the kingdom and heal the sick saying, “The harvest is indeed great, but the workers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to thrust out workers into His harvest. Be going your way… And the seventy returned with joy, saying Lord, even the demons are marshalling themselves under our orders in your Name. And He said to them, I was beholding with a calm, intent, continuous contemplation Satan having fallen in one fell swoop from heaven like lightning. Behold I have given you the authority to advance by setting foot upon snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will in any case harm you… And having turned around to the disciples, in private he said spiritually prosperous are the eyes that are seeing the things which you are seeing, for I am saying to you, Many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you are seeing and did not see them, and to hear the things which you are hearing and did not hear them.” (Luke 10:2-3, 17-19, 23-24 Wuest)
That brings us to today. Now, anyone who has been involved with the “deeper life” segment of Christianity will be thoroughly familiar will everything I’ve just said. We know that the Spirit lives in us. We know that we are to bear God’s image, so what I am suggesting is not a departure from the things we have learned. Rather, it’s the logical conclusion.
I propose that if God is to get what He is after we must stop keeping Him to our selves. Christ has given us the keys to the kingdom, and we are His method of conquest. Let us loose His Spirit and bind all others until God’s Life fills all of humanity.
I will leave you with John’s description of what God intends us to be. Please, read this, and meditate seriously upon how we can live out our purpose.
Then one of the angels, who held the seven bowls which were filled with the seven last plagues, came and spoke to me. “Come here,” he said, “And I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” He took me away in a trance to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, with the sheen of God’s splendor on it. Its radiance was like the radiance of a very precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a huge high wall with twelve gates. At the gates there were twelve angels. Names were inscribed on the gates, and the names were the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. The city walls had twelve foundation stones, with the twelve names of the Lamb’s twelve apostles on them.
The angel who was speaking to me had a golden measuring-rod to measure the city and its gates and its wall. The city was built in the shape of a square. The length and the breadth were equal. He measured the city with his rod, and the length of the sides was fifteen hundred miles. It’s length and breadth and height were all equal. He measured the height of the wall, and it came to two hundred and sixteen feet. (This is in human figures, which the angel was using.) The wall was constructed of jasper. The city was of pure gold, as clear as glass. The foundations of the city wall were adorned with jewels of every kind. The first foundation stone was a jasper; the second, lapis lazuli; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, carnelian; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, turquoise; the twelfth, amethyst. The twelve gates consisted of twelve pearls. Each gate was made of a single pearl. The city streets were of pure gold, like translucent glass.
I saw no temple in the city. Its temple is the Lord God, who holds all things in his control, and the Lamb. The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the splendor of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations shall walk by its light. The world’s kings will bring there their splendor to it. Its gate will never be shut in the daytime, and it will never be night there. The splendor and wealth of the nations will be brought to it. Nothing unclean will ever be allowed into it, nor anyone whose conduct is foul and false. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s roll of the living will be allowed to enter it.
Then he showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal. It issues from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flows down the middle of the city street. On each side of the river grows the tree of life. The tree produces twelve crops of fruit. It gives a crop for each month in the year. The leaves of the tree are meant to be the cure for the nations. No accursed thing shall exist any more. The throne of God and the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. They will see him face to face; his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no night any more. They do not need the light of any lamp or even the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light. And they will be kings forever and ever. (Rev 21:9-22:7 Barclay)
The Well Within
by T. Austin-Sparks
“The water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life.” (John 4:14)
“And Isaac digged again the well of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them up…” (Genesis 26:1 
The Word makes it clear that from the Lord’s side the life of the Holy Spirit, with all its up-welling and outflowing, should be a spontaneous thing. On God’s side there are no difficulties. So far as He is concerned there is nothing more to be done to make possible the reality of the well within. The very fact that when the Lord Jesus ascended to glory in the power of a completed and perfected work, the Holy Spirit spontaneously came down from heaven, is proof that from God’s side there was nothing remaining to be done to effect that release. The Lord had made full provision. On the other hand, though, such a spontaneity of up-welling and outflowing of the waters of the Spirit is not as general among Christians as it should be. It is our intention to seek some explanation of this limitation.
The well is there; the spring is provided. If we have believed into Christ and truly belong to Him, then His Spirit is present as the well within. There can be no doubt about this if we are true believers. But we may have seen a swampy patch, with all the evidences of water but no freshness or flow, and have discovered that although a spring existed, its water was interrupted by some stone or obstacle which hindered its flow. This can happen in human life. The spring of the Spirit may be present, but with various obstructions lying heavily upon it, preventing the outflow in a definite course.
Abraham was noted for the wells which he dug. He was a man of faith, and faith always digs wells. The Philistines, however, blocked them up with rubbish after he died, so that his son, Isaac, had to unstop them. Isaac speaks of the power of a risen life in union with heaven, and this gives a good indication of the meaning of the opened wells. The Old Testament type finds its fulfilment in the Lord Jesus, the greater Isaac who, in the power of His resurrection, ascension and heavenly life, has opened up anew those fountains of the Spirit which had been blocked and choked by many things which were contrary to the will of God. The wells are opened in His resurrection. The Spirit is now freely given. But we have to see that no obstacles are allowed to hinder the flow. Perhaps it will help us to do so, if we consider a few of the hindrances which need to be removed if the well within is to be unstopped and the water allowed to flow freely.
HINDRANCES IN THE REALM OF THE MIND
Firstly, there are hindrances in the realm of the mind. We have been told that man is quite unable to cope mentally with the spiritual and heavenly things of God. For this reason God has provided the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth, of revelation and of spiritual knowledge. So there will obviously be hindrances to the free flow of the Spirit if we try to reason things out for ourselves instead of heeding the Spirit-inspired Scriptures. If we try to think things through ourselves, we become involved in all sorts of problems and questions. We are specifically told that: “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God… he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged” (1 Corinthians 2:14), a fact which needs to be accepted and remembered by Christians for themselves, as well as for the world around. There will always arise moments of crisis or experiences full of perplexity and seeming contradiction, for which the only answer is that we must trust God. If we resolve that we will reason the matter out, or if we turn to other men for their explanations, we will never understand the ways of God. His Word is our only source of light. It will, at times, be hard to understand. It will, perhaps, be difficult or even impossible to explain. But if we heed its message we will be delivered from man’s foolish reasoning, and we will have lifted off a load of rubbish which was blocking up the well within.
There are bound to be matters which defy analysis or argument, for the ways of God are past finding out. The real test is whether we will trust God when we cannot fathom His ways; whether we will deliberately and positively take up a position of faith reliance on His faithfulness. Even that may not provide us with an answer which satisfies our minds and solves all our intellectual problems, but it will bring us that blessed peace which is promised to those whose minds are stayed on the Lord. This is just the opposite of the mind of the man who is stayed on himself and his difficulty. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3). It does not say that his heart will be at peace because he knows the answers to all the questions. No! The basic thing is a faith attitude towards God’s faithfulness. To act in this way is to remove a big stone, and I venture to say that it will clear the way for a new joy, and new peace and a new strength. The Holy Spirit has been pent up, blocked, hindered, arrested, by incessant reasonings of the natural mind. He is released by the simple exercise of a faith which feeds on God’s Word and relies on His faithfulness.
HINDRANCES IN THE REALM OF THE HEART
There is another possible realm of hindrances to the up-welling of the Spirit, and this is the realm of the heart. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of love. If there is coldness towards the Lord, a lack of true devotion to Him, then this is like a heavy stone which makes the life more like a quagmire than a fresh spring. Any reserve which we have, not in the knowing of God’s will but in the willingness to do it, will inevitably stem the flow of the Spirit’s power. It is always the work of God’s enemy to clog up our lives by introducing love of self or love of the world, and it needs ruthless determination to remove the accumulated rubbish and re-dig the well in purity of devotion to Christ.
It may well be, though, that the hindrances arise from lack of love to our fellow believers. We must remember that the Holy Spirit can never have free course in us and through us if we harbour unloving thoughts concerning other of God’s children, let alone put those thoughts into actions. He is the Spirit of fellowship, so that if we fail in that realm then we fail in the matter of love. It is so easy to allow unworthy considerations to quench brotherly love, to be clogged up with resentment or to be wrongly influenced by our susceptibilities or hurt feelings. What is more, we find it the easiest thing in the world to say or hear unkind things about others, things which put them in a bad light and somehow make us feel self-righteous. We must not dismiss such matters as unimportant, for although they may seem small in themselves, they become the deposits which unite to clog up the well of the Spirit.
This matter of personal relationships is one in which we have to set ourselves definitely to digging out the earthiness which stops up the wells of the Spirit. We must refuse to speak and refuse to listen to those critical accounts of other believers which would grieve them if they heard and do grieve the Spirit who is always present and who always hears. More than that, we have to be active in positive cultivation of fellowship. To some it is quite natural to be independent. For them deference to others represents a major difficulty. Sometimes they may deliberately ignore or despise others, but sometimes they just prefer to do it alone and never seriously think of inter-relatedness and inter-dependence.
The Word of God, however, is most explicit in ordering us to esteem one another, to submit to one another and to live and work together. The Holy Spirit demands that the people of God live according to a team order of things, that they should be governed by a family spirit. Anything which is of an isolated or detached nature, which fails to recognise and fully accept the family thought of God, is a check on Him. By failing to observe fellowship we quench the Spirit. It is not only a matter of avoiding giving offence but of active pursuit of fellowship. Some may be wondering why there is so little up-springing from the inner well, when they are sitting back in a wrong kind of modesty, failing to bring in their own personal contribution to fellowship life and ministry. Unkindness is not the only obstacle in this realm. Shyness and diffidence can equally rest like a stone on the flow of life. The only thing to do is to dig it up and move it away. Get in, get right in, and let yourself go! Do not always choose the back seat because you like to be left alone, but come forward in the Lord’s name and give the Holy Spirit a free course in your lives. He is well able to check you if you become too self-assertive, but there is little He can do if your well is all stopped up with fears and inhibitions.
HINDRANCES IN THE REALM OF DAILY LIVING
There is one more area of life in which this hindering work may be found, and that is that the flow of the Spirit may be checked by inconsistencies in the daily life. The question which constantly faces us is whether or not we want to know the free flow from the well within. Do we want that springing up of living water, of which the Lord Jesus spoke? Do we want that, as He promised, rivers of living water shall flow out from our inner life? If we do, then we must always give serious consideration to anything which may serve as a blockage. Any disobedience, yes, any reservation in obedience, from our side will be sure to hinder the flow from God’s side, acting as a deterrent to the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can never know the well springing up and the river flowing out if at any point where God has revealed His will, we fail in the matter of obedience.
This well is choked by disobedience to the known will of God. It is choked and blocked by inconsistency of walk. The Lord wants more than mental agreement with His Word; He expects to see it working out in practical terms. He is concerned with how we spend our time, how we manage our financial affairs, how we behave both alone and before others. He watches us in the home and at our work, as well as in our fellowship activities, always looking for a walk worthy of the gospel which we believe and preach. Not that He desires us to have a narrow life. Far from it! The Spirit has come to bring enrichment and fulfilment to us. God’s command to us, though, is that we must not quench the Spirit nor must we grieve Him; in other words that we do not allow any rocks, stones or rubbish to accumulate as a hindrance to the springing-up well. We need to watch the practical expression of our daily life and so avoid a quagmire of suppression, whereas God provides for a well of water springing up into eternal life.
From “Toward the Mark” July-August 1976.
When we act God waits: When we wait God acts
Blessings!
