The necessity of obeying this injunction is shown by this statement: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." (Romans 8:9)
The possession of the Spirit of God is not something that is optional with the Christian. Many seem to think that the receiving of the Spirit merely marks a higher state of Christian experience, --one which is very desirable, but yet not absolutely essential. They talk much about the "higher Christian life," as though there were two kinds of Christian life, one all ordinary, everyday life, and the other special and extraordinary, marked by being filled with the Spirit.
All this is most erroneous and misleading. The people who talk so much about the "higher Christian life," are good, and sincere, and well-meaning, but they nevertheless do a great deal of harm, by giving their hearers and readers a false idea of Christianity.
By talking about the "higher Christian life," they convey the idea that there are two kinds of Christian life,--a high and a low life. It is in reality the Roman Catholic distinction of "saints" and ordinary Christians.
The lower life is supposed to be good enough for all ordinary purposes, and sufficient for salvation, while the other is thought to be for people who are devoted to great deeds, and who live outside of the reach of the petty trials that fall to the lot of common people.
The Spirit for All
Now when we read that "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His," (Romans 8:9) we see that any teaching that tends to make anybody satisfied without the full possession of the Spirit of God, and that makes people think that any life is Christian that is not the very highest, is contributing to their destruction. "But where is the Spirit? and where shall I go, and what shall I do to receive it?"
These are important questions, and most easily answered. Let us take them one at a time. "Where is the Spirit?"
Rather ask, "Where is He not?" "Whither shall I go from your Spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139:7-10)
Instead of being difficult to find the Spirit of God, there is on the contrary no place where one can escape His presence.
All Power in Heaven and Earth
The Holy Spirit is Christ's Representative. "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." (John 14:16-18)
It is by the Spirit that Christ dwells in the hearts of His people. Christ is the power of God, and this power is seen in everything that is made; so that every manifestation of what men call "natural force," is but the working of the Spirit of God.
In the heaven and in the earth, even to its very depths, the Holy Spirit is working to hold all things in the shape which was given them when in the beginning He brooded over them. There is no power but the power of God, who "gives power to the faint, and increases strength to them that have no might;" (Isaiah 40:29) and it is by the Spirit that God strengthens with might: "That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." (Ephesians 3:16)
Therefore we see that the Holy Spirit of God is the source of all strength. The moving of the Spirit is what makes it possible for men to move.
The Measure of the Gift
Thus we see that the Spirit of God has been working in the earth, and in men, from the very beginning. There is not a man on the earth, with whom the Spirit has not striven. And as Christ "died for all," (2 Corinthians 5:14) when He ascended on high He poured out the Spirit on all flesh. How much, if any, difference there is between this manifestation of the Spirit and that which existed from the beginning, we cannot know; but one thing we may be assured of, and that is that the receiving of the Holy Spirit in fullest measure is the privilege of every person on the earth. Moreover, if one really "receives" the Spirit, he must receive the fullness of the Spirit, "for God gives not the Spirit by measure." (John 3:34)
Not Manifest in All
Someone will perhaps say, "If this is so, then there is no need of answering the question as to how we are to receive the Spirit, since it seems that everyone is in possession of it already, and therefore everybody must be saved."
Not quite so fast. It is true that the Spirit has been poured out on all flesh, but it does not follow that everybody has received Him. The fact that the Spirit is obliged to "strive" (Genesis 6:3) with men, shows that He is not received. The trouble is that men resist, instead of receiving. Only those who absolutely yield to the power that works in all created things, even in men, "receive" the Holy Ghost. "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." (Isaiah 40:31)
There is no strength but from the Lord, and they that wait on Him receive fresh supplies of it continually. It is the power of an endless life, that is forever young. Waiting on the Lord, therefore, is the essential for receiving the Spirit, and the consequent power; for power comes with the reception of the Holy Ghost. "But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
Waiting on the Lord
What is this waiting on the Lord? It is very simple. It is the constant actual acknowledgment that we are dependent on Him for everything, and that He alone is our rightful Ruler. It is to acknowledge in a practical manner that we belong absolutely to the Lord, to be used by Him according to His will. And it is to do this constantly.
It is complete submission to Him. It is the attitude of waiting on Him, waiting for Him to speak to us, or to take us in hand to use us, and yielding absolutely to Him when He does proceed to use us. It is to have no will of our own, but to accept His will.
Do you say that this is too hard a requirement? that it is too difficult a thing to do? Why should it be so difficult? It requires no strength whatever. The Lord knows that we have no strength, and His way provides for such a case, by giving us His strength. All that is required of us is to let go, and rest; it is to be still, and know that the Lord is God.
It is quite true that such self-effacement does not suit proud human nature, but it is evident that there can be nothing easier, if there be the willingness, since all that is involved is the letting go and holding still.
How much power will be imparted to the one who receives the Spirit? All power. This is the privilege of every person, and is at the demand of every believer. Nothing less will do for anybody. The Christian life is a new creation, and nothing but God's everlasting power can create. Infinite power is required for the creation of the smallest particle of matter, and nothing less than just that power is revealed in the smallest thing that God has made, and no greater power is required for the creation of the universe.
So we see that the power which God gives by the Holy Ghost is for all circumstances, great as well as small. There are not two Gods, neither are there two powers. As God is one, so is His power one, and undivided. The same power that performs mighty miracles is the power that is required to enable a man to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being faithful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10)
Not for Self-Exaltation
It is a great mistake to suppose that being filled with the Holy Ghost necessarily makes one a wonder-worker. God is "meek and lowly in heart," (Matthew 11:29) and therefore the possession of His Spirit makes one the farthest possible from being inclined to "show off." John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from birth, yet he never did any miracles.
Jesus was also filled with the Spirit, yet there was nothing about Him that distinguished Him from other men, except to those who had spiritual discernment. It is true that mighty works did show themselves in Him, yet He was known among men as the carpenter of Nazareth.
Jesus was as full of the Spirit when He worked at the carpenter's bench, as when He preached the Gospel. He was no less full of the Spirit when He sat weary and hungry and thirsty on Jacob's well, than when He taught the multitudes on the mount.
In the wilderness, tempted of the devil, He possessed the same fullness of the Spirit that He did on the stormy sea of Galilee. The same fullness of the Spirit was required:
• to enable Him to answer questions correctly, or not to answer at all;
• to take the little children kindly in His arms and bless them;
• to feed the multitudes;
• to wash the feet of His disciples;
• to talk with Nicodemus; or o to raise Lazarus from the dead.
"Love vaunts not itself." (1 Corinthians 13:4)
Therefore the possession of the Spirit, whose first-fruit is love, does not lead one to esteem himself different from other men, or apart from them. The one who is filled with the Spirit is the same in all respects as other men, except that he is constantly possessed with a consciousness of utter helplessness.
He knows that he has no strength, and that therefore as the power that is given him is not his own, he has no right to attempt to use it for his own purposes. And since it is not possible for a mere man to do the works of God, he is in a constant state of passive submission to the will of God, that He may work in him "both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
That which the inanimate creation does unconsciously and involuntarily, he does consciously and voluntarily.
It is God That Works
Then whether God chooses to do what men would call little things through him or great things, it is all the same to him. To be used as the instrument of a small work, overlooked or even despised by men, does not depress him, nor does it elate him to be used as the instrument of what men call something great, and which they would naturally applaud.
When one is so well acquainted with the Lord that he can recognize the greatness of God's power in the least things, then God can use him in the performance of what men call great things; and yet he may never be used in that kind of service. If he is so used, however, he takes it just as much a matter of course in the line of God's working, as he does in what men call the ordinary things of life.
This is not because he has any lack of appreciation, but just the contrary, He lives in constant recognition of God's infinite power in all the details of life, and gives Him all the glory; and he can do no more. He has constant appreciation of God's power, and since he knows that it takes the same power to do the small things as the great, he praises God just as much for the one as for the other.
The Free Spirit
This is the lesson which all nature teaches us. Much more might be said, and the subject can never be exhausted, but this is certainly sufficient to show that the reception of the Spirit of God is not an indifferent matter. No one can be a true Christian without receiving the Spirit, and no one can really "receive" the Spirit, without being filled with it, since God does not give the Spirit by measure. (John 3:34)
The Spirit is as free as the air. Give the air all opportunity, and it will rush in; yield to the Spirit, and He will take possession. And there is no such thing as yielding by degrees, since resistance is resistance, be it ever so feeble; so that receiving means absolute submission. Therefore he who "receives" the Holy Ghost must necessarily be filled with the Spirit. Only so can he live the true Christian life.
Do not make the mistake of saying that you have yielded to the Spirit, and that therefore all that you do must necessarily be the Spirit's working. In other words, let us beware of mistaking our own spirit for the Spirit of God. The man who is filled with the Spirit will make no parade of his goodness. He will make no claim for himself. Love vaunts not herself. His religion will not be in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
There is no limit to the possibilities before the one who is yielded to and possessed by the Spirit, for the Spirit of God is "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:2)
Yet the possessor, conscious that he has this treasure in an earthen vessel, will be humble, giving glory to God. A vessel? Yes, he himself is only a "vessel," a means of conveying the Spirit to others. "He that believes, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (John 7:38)
Obeying the Truth Through the Spirit
How to receive the Spirit? Study the story of creation, not simply that which is recorded in the 1st chapter of Genesis, but that which is written on the earth, the sea, and the sky, and you will know. Then when you say to the messenger of God, bringing God's word, no matter what it is, "Behold the servant of the Lord; be it unto me as You will," the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you, and all that comes from you will be holy. (Luke 1:38,35)--Present Truth, July 21, 1898.