INDWELT BY DEITY

"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him" (John 14:23, NKJV).

Devotion 7 of 9

THE SPIRIT, #1

For centuries the professed church has been divided in its view of the Holy Spirit. For some, He is at the heart of the Kingdom. For others, He is a non-entity for our time. Both positions are wrong. In fact, these two extremes represent efforts to avoid error rather than efforts to appropriate truth. You will find very little in Scripture about the Holy Spirit Himself. It is His work that is primary in the revelation of Him. You must see this in contrast to what is said of the Father and the Son. We are told considerable about the Father: His qualities, purpose, loves, and hates. His role in salvation is a particular emphasis in Scripture. Even more time is spent delineating the Son to us. We are told of Him volunteering to come and do the Father's will (Heb. 10:9). Significant detail is provided concerning the involvements of Him becoming a man (Phil. 2:5-8). Remarkable details are provided concerning His earthly ministry. His present activity is expounded, together with His imminent return. But we do not have this sort of detail about the Holy Spirit. I am going to venture a bold statement, knowing that some will recoil when they read it. We do not have enough information about the Spirit Himself to worship Him. While we read of the Gospel of God (Rom. 1:1; 15:16; 2 Cor. 11:7; 1 Thess. 2:2,8,9; 1 Pet. 4:17) and the Gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16; 15:19, 29; 1 Cor. 9:12; 2 Cor. 4:4; Phil. 1:27), we never read of the Gospel of the Spirit. Repeated references are made to holy men preaching Christ, but nowhere do we read of men preaching the Spirit. Such considerations are arresting, particularly when we find prominent religious men proclaiming the Spirit above Jesus. Be assured that the Holy Spirit was not sent to upstage the Savior. The fact that He has been so presented only confirms the spiritual threat of the environment in which we find ourselves. Some will charge me with not believing in the work of the Spirit, but this is an imagination. Others will say that men of God did preach the Spirit, citing references such as Romans 8, Galatians 4, and others, to support their statement. I AM NOT saying holy men did not say anything about the Holy Spirit. What I am saying is this: when the Holy Spirit inspired men to write concerning what was preached, he said they "preached Christ," "the Kingdom of God," repentance and remission of sins," 'the Gospel," "the cross of Christ," and "the Word." But it is never said that they "preached the Spirit"--NEVER! He was not the subject of their preaching, but the Worker who brought the preaching home to the heart, convicting and persuading men of the truth. The point here is that the indwelling of the Spirit is not an end of itself. It is what He DOES that is the point. Spiritually uninformed people have made RECEIVING the Spirit the point. The Word of God makes WHAT HE DOES WITHIN the point. That may seem like a technicality, but it is not. The indwelling Spirit is the appointed means to the realization of God's will within you. This is what makes you able to do His pleasure. It is what empowers you to overcome a world destined for fire. Several hundred years before Jesus, God revealed His purpose. He was going to put His Spirit in His people. This was a revolutionary thought to the ancients. Ezekiel proclaimed it with remarkable clarity. "And I shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD." (Ezek 37:14). "And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them" (Ezek 36:27). Observe that putting His Spirit within was not the real point. Rather, it was the result of that action. "And ye shall live" . . . "and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements and do them." This parallels Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant. (Jer. 31:31-34). Later, the Spirit revealed that this referred to the covenant we have in Christ (Heb. 8:10-13; 10:16). The indwelling Spirit is the appointed means to the realization of God's purpose within you. "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)" (John 7:37-39). The uniqueness of the day of salvation, together with the restrictions of the day prior to it, are here revealed. Until Jesus was glorified, the Spirit could not be "given" as He is today. That means that Moses, the holy prophets, and even David, did not have the Spirit like those in Christ. He did not indwell them as He does those in the Son. It is not that they were less qualified than us. In fact, person to person, they stood far above most of us. In their day, sin had not been "put away" (Heb. 9:26). This prohibited the giving of the Spirit as is now realized. "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey Him." (Acts 5:32). It is important to note the relation of the Holy Spirit to obedience. This is obedience in its initial or primary sense. The reference is to our beginning obedience to the Gospel. Peter referred to it as repenting and being baptized (Acts 2:28). Jesus called it believing and being baptized (Mark 16:16). Paul referred to it as believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). He also called it being baptized into Christ and putting on Christ (Gal. 3:27), and being "baptized into His death" (Rom. 6:3-4). No person should balk at this, or think of this as a sectarian approach. No one in all of Scripture was ever asked to "pray the sinners prayer," or "ask Jesus into their hearts." The presence of such approaches today must not cloud our minds. Jesus did not say to do these things, and the Holy Spirit is not promised to those who do them. He is given to those that obey the Lord! PRAYER POINT: Father, I thank You for the precious guft of the Holy Spirit. I know I have no power of my own, but you have graciously endued me with power through your Spirit -- power to walk and talk in harmony with Yourself. Thank you for that marvelous blessing.

-- TOMORROW: WHO ARE THE PEOPLE OF GOD? --