The Normal Christian Life (13 page)

All spiritual blessings come to us on a definite basis. God’s gifts are freely given, but there are conditions to be fulfilled on our part before their reception is possible. There is a passage in God’s Word which states the conditions of receiving the outpoured Spirit: “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him” (Acts 2:38–39).

Four things are mentioned here: repentance, baptism, forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. The first two are conditions, the second two are gifts. What are the conditions to be fulfilled if we are to have forgiveness of sins? According to this scripture they are two: repentance and baptism.

First is repentance, which means a change of mind! Formerly I thought sin a pleasant thing, but now I have changed my mind about it; formerly I thought the world an attractive place, but now I know better; formerly I regarded it a miserable business to be a Christian, but now I think differently. Once I thought certain things delightful, now I think them
vile; once I thought other things utterly worthless, now I think them most precious. That is a change of mind, and that is repentance. No life can be truly changed apart from such a change of mind.

The second condition is baptism. Baptism is an outward expression of an inward faith. When in my heart I truly believe that I have died, have been buried and have risen with Christ, then I ask for baptism. Thereby I declare publicly what I believe privately. Baptism is faith in action.

Here then are two divinely appointed conditions of forgiveness: repentance, and faith publicly expressed. Have you repented? Have you testified publicly to your union with your Lord? Then have you received remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost? You say you have only received the first gift, not the second. But, my friend, God offered you two things if you fulfilled two conditions! Why have you only taken one? What are you doing about the second?

Suppose I went into a bookshop, selected a two-volume book, priced at ten shillings, and having put down a ten-shilling note, walked out of the shop, carelessly leaving one volume on the counter. When I reached home and discovered the oversight, what do you think I should do? I should go straight back to the shop to get the forgotten book, but I should not dream of paying anything for it. I should simply remind the shopkeeper that both volumes were duly paid for and ask him if he would therefore kindly let me have the second one. Without any further payment I should march happily out of the shop with my possession under my arm. Would you not do the same under the same circumstances?

But you are under the same circumstances. If you have fulfilled the conditions, you are entitled to two gifts, not just to one. You have already taken the one; why not just come and take the other now? Say to the Lord, “Lord, I have complied with the conditions for receiving remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost but I have foolishly taken only the former. Now at length I have come back to Thee to take the gift of the Holy Ghost and to praise Thee for it.”

But you ask: “How shall I know that the Holy Spirit is come upon me?” I cannot tell how you will know, but you will know. No description has been given us of the personal sensations and emotions of the disciples at Pentecost. We do not know exactly how they felt, but we do know that their feelings and behavior were somewhat abnormal, because people seeing them said they were intoxicated. 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 we must not, stipulate what particular form such outward expressions will take in any given case. But one thing is sure: Each one upon whom the Spirit of God falls will unfailingly know it.

When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples at Pentecost, there was something quite extraordinary about their behavior; and Peter offered an explanation from God’s Word to all who witnessed it. This, in substance, is what he said: “When the Holy Spirit falls upon believers, some will prophesy, some will dream dreams, and others will see visions. This
is what God has stated through the prophet Joel.” But did Peter prophesy? Well, hardly in the sense in which Joel meant it. Did the hundred and twenty prophesy or see visions? We are not told that they did. Did they dream dreams? How could they, for were they not all wide awake? Well then, what did Peter mean by using a quotation that seems scarcely to fit the case at all? In the passage quoted (Joel 2:28–29), prophecy, dreams and visions are said to accompany the outpouring of the Spirit; yet these evidences were apparently lacking at Pentecost.

On the other hand, Joel’s prophecy said not a word about “a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind,” nor about “tongues parting asunder like as of fire” as accompaniments of the Spirit’s outpouring; yet these were manifest in that upper room. And where in Joel do we find mention of speaking in other tongues? And yet the disciples at Pentecost did so.

What did Peter mean? Imagine him quoting God’s Word to show that the experience of Pentecost was the outpouring of the Spirit spoken of by Joel, without a single one of the evidences mentioned by Joel being found at Pentecost. What the book mentioned the disciples lacked, and what the disciples had the book did not mention! It looks as though Peter’s quotation of the book disproves his point rather than proving it. What is the explanation of this mystery?

Let us recall that Peter was himself speaking under the control of the Holy Spirit. The book of the Acts was written by the Spirit’s inspiration, and not one word was spoken at random. There is no misfit, but a perfect harmony. Note carefully that Peter did not say “What you see and hear fulfills what was spoken by the prophet Joel.” What he was saying was “This is that which hath been spoken through the
prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). It was not a case of fulfillment, but of an experience of the same order.

“This is that” means that “this which you see and hear is of the same order as that which is foretold.” When it is a case of fulfillment, each experience is reduplicated, and prophecy is prophecy, dreams are dreams, and visions are visions. But when Peter says “This is that,” it is not a question of the one being a replica of the other, but of the one belonging to the same category as the other. “This” amounts to the same thing as “that”; “this” is the equivalent of “that”; “this is that.” What is being emphasized by the Holy Spirit through Peter is the diversity of the experience. The outward evidences may be many and varied, and we have to admit that occasionally they are strange; but the Spirit is one, and he is Lord. (See 1 Cor. 12:4–6.)

What happened to R.A. Torrey when the Holy Spirit came upon him after he had been a minister for years? We will let him tell the story in his own words:

I recall the exact spot where I was kneeling in prayer in my study . . . . It was a very quiet moment, one of the most quiet moments I ever knew . . . . Then God simply said to me, not in any audible voice, but in my heart, ‘It’s yours. Now go and preach.’ He had already said it to me in His Word in 1 John 5:14, 15; but I did not then know my Bible as I know it now, and God had pity on my ignorance and said it directly to my soul . . . . I went and preached, and I have been a new minister from that day to this. . . . Some time after this experience (I do not recall just how long after), while sitting in my room one day . . . suddenly . . . I found myself shouting (I was not brought up to shout and I am not of a shouting temperament, but I shouted like the loudest shouting Methodist), ‘Glory to God, glory
to God, glory to God,’ and I could not stop . . . . But that was not when I was baptized with the Holy Spirit. I was baptized with the Holy Spirit when I took him by simple faith in the Word of God.
¹⁰

The outward manifestations in Torrey’s case were not the same as those described by Joel or by Peter, but “this is that.” It is not a facsimile, yet it is the same thing.

And how did D.L. Moody feel and act when the Spirit of God came upon him to transform his life and ministry?

I was crying all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, one day, in the city of New York—oh, what a day!—I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths; and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world—it would be as the small dust of the balance.
¹¹

The outward manifestations that accompanied Moody’s experience did not tally exactly with Joel’s description, or Peter’s, or Torrey’s. But who could doubt that “this” which Moody experienced was “that” experienced by the disciples at Pentecost? It was not the same in manifestation, but it was the very same in essence.

And what was the experience of the great Charles Finney when the power of the Holy Ghost came upon him?

I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my
mind that there was any such thing for me, without my recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love.
¹²

Finney’s experience was not a duplicate of Pentecost, nor of Torrey’s experience, nor yet of Moody’s; but “this” certainly was “that.”

When the Holy Spirit is poured out upon God’s people, their experiences will differ widely. Some will receive new vision, others will know a new liberty in soul-winning, others will proclaim the Word of God with fresh power, and yet others will be filled with heavenly joy or overflowing praise. “This . . . and this . . . and this . . . is that!” Let us praise the Lord for every new experience that relates to the exaltation of Christ, and of which it can truly be said that “this” is an evidence of “that.”

There is nothing stereotyped about God’s dealings with His children. Therefore we must not, by our prejudices and preconceptions, make watertight compartments for the working of His Spirit, either in our own lives or in the lives of others. This applies equally to those who require some particular manifestation (such as “speaking with tongues”) as evidence that the Spirit has come upon them, and to those who deny that any manifestation is given at all. 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.

Let us rejoice that Jesus is on the throne, and let us praise Him that, since He has been glorified, the Spirit has
been poured out upon us all. As we behold him there, and accept the divine fact in all the simplicity of faith, we shall know it with such assurance in our own hearts that we shall dare to proclaim once again with confidence “This is that!”

We move on now to the second aspect of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which, as we shall see in our next chapter, is more particularly the subject of Romans 8. It is that which we have spoken of as the Spirit indwelling: “. . . if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you”; “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you . . .” (Rom. 8:9, 11).

As with the Spirit outpoured, so with the Spirit indwelling, if we are to know in experience that which is ours in fact, our first need is of divine revelation. When we see Christ as Lord objectively—that is, exalted to the throne in heaven—then we shall experience the power of the Spirit upon us. When we see Christ as Lord subjectively—that is, as effective Ruler within our lives—then we shall know the power of the Spirit within us.

A revelation of the indwelling Spirit was the remedy Paul offered the Corinthian Christians for their unspirituality. It is important to note that the Christians in Corinth had become preoccupied with the visible signs of the Holy Spirit’s outpouring and were making much of “tongues” and miracles, while at the same time their lives were full of contradictions and were a reproach to the Lord’s name. Quite evidently they had received the Holy Spirit, and yet they remained spiritually immature; and the remedy God offered them for this is the remedy He offers His church today for the same complaint.

In his letter to them, Paul wrote, “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). For others he prayed for enlightenment of heart, “. . . that ye may know” (Eph. 1:18). A knowledge of divine facts was the need of the Christians then, and it is no less the need of Christians today.

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?

To many Christians the Holy Spirit is quite unreal. They regard Him as a mere influence—an influence for good, no doubt, but just an influence for all that. In their thinking, conscience and the Spirit are more or less identified as some “thing” within them, that brings them to book when they are bad and tries to show them how to be good. The trouble with the Corinthian Christians was not that they lacked the in-dwelling Spirit, but that they lacked the knowledge of His presence. They failed to realize the greatness of the One who had come to make His abode in their hearts; so Paul wrote to them, “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Yes, that was the remedy for their unspirituality—just to know who He really was who dwelt within.