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Praying in the Spirit by William Gurnall

January 8, 2010 by ADMIN

Question: What is it to pray in the Spirit?

Answer: Interpreters generally comprehend in this phrase both [as] the spirit of the person praying, and the Spirit of God, by which our spirits are fitted for and acted in prayer. [It] is a prayer in the spirit, which, by the help of the Holy Spirit, is performed with our soul and spirit.  These two indeed go ever together.  We cannot act [with] our spirit without the Holy Spirit.   Alas—this is like a lump of clay in our bosoms till he quickens it; and we cannot but pray with our heart and spirit when the Holy Spirit moves upon it.  The Spirit’s breath is vital.  The Holy Ghost doth not breathe in us as one through a trunk or trumpet, which is a mere passive instrument; but stirs up our hearts, and actuates our affections in the duty.

Prayer is called “a pouring out of the soul to God.”  The soul is the well from which the water of prayer is poured; but the Spirit is the spring that feeds this well, and the hand that helps to pour it forth.  The well would have no water without the spring, neither could it deliver itself of it without one to draw it.  Thus the Spirit of God must fill the heart with praying affections, and enable them also to pour themselves forth.  From the words thus sensed, we shall a while dwell upon these two pro­positions.  First, He who will pray acceptably must pray in his heart and spirit. Second, He that would pray in his own spirit, must pray in the Spirit of God.

Praying in the Spirit is opposed to lip-labor – “they draw near to me with their lips, but their heart is removed far from me;” like an adulteress, whose heart and spirit is as far from her husband.  It is no prayer in which the heart of the person bears no part.   “My spirit prayeth,” says the apostle, I Cor. 14:14-15, “I will pray with the spirit,” and “sing with the spirit.”  The melodious sound which comes from a musical instrument, such as viol or lute, is formed within the belly of the instrument, and the deeper the belly of the instrument the sweeter is its music; the same strings on a flat board, touched by the same hand, would make no music.  The melodiousness of prayer comes from within the man.  “We are the circum­cision which worship God in the spirit,” and the deeper the groans are that come from thence, still the sweeter the melody.  There may be outward worship and in­ward atheism.

Now in handling of this, I must first show what it is to pray in our spirit, and then, why we are to pray thus.  We pray in our spirit when these three are found in the duty: (1) when we pray with knowledge; (2) when we pray in fervency; and (3) when we pray in sincerity.  These three exercise the three powers of the soul and the spirit.  By knowledge, the understanding is set to work; by fervency, the affections; and by sincerity, the will.  All of these are required in conjunction to “praying in the spirit.”  There may be knowledge without fervency, and this, like the light of the moon, is cold and quickens not.  There may be heat without knowledge, and this is like mettle in a blind horse.  There may be knowledge and fervency, and this is like a chariot with swift horses and a skillful driver in the box, who, being without knowledge, carries it the wrong direction.  Neither of these, nor both of these together, avails, because sincerity is lacking to make them stand to the right point, which is the glory of God.  He will have little thanks for his zeal who is fervent in spirit, but serving himself with it, and not the Lord.

First—To pray acceptably, or in the spirit, it is required that we pray with knowledge and understanding.

A blind sacrifice was rejected in the law (Mal. 1:8), much more are blind devotions under the gospel.  [Praying with understanding is essential because] …

1.   The saint’s eye is enlightened to see the majesty and glorious holiness of God, and then it reveres him, and mourns before him in the sense of his own vileness: “Now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself; and re­pent in dust and ashes,” Job 42:6.

2.   Again, by an eye of faith, he be­holds the goodness and love of God to poor sinners in Christ, and in particular to him, and this eye affects his heart to love and rely on him, which it is impossible for the ignorant soul to do.

Question. But you will say, why is it necessary for the praying soul to know?

Answer. There is required a knowledge that he to whom he directs his prayer is the true God.  Religious worship is an incommunicable flower in the crown of the deity, and that both inward and outward.  We are religi­ously to worship him only, who, by reason of his infinite perfections, de­serves our supreme love, honor, and trust He must have the crown that owes the kingdom.  “The kingdom and power” are God’s.  Therefore ‘the glory’ of religious worship belongs to him alone.

Answer Second. There is required a knowledge of this true God, what his nature is.  “He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him,” Hebrews 11:6.  The want of understanding his omniscience and infinite mercy is the cause of vain babbling, and a conceit to prevail by long prayers.

Answer Third.  We must understand the matter of our prayers, what we are asking for.  Without this, we cannot in faith say amen to our own prayers.

Second—To pray in the spirit, we must have fervency.

We pray in the spirit when we pray in fervency.  The soul keeps the body warm while it is in it.  When there is much of our soul and spirit in a duty, there is much heat and fervency.  If the prayer be cold, we may certainly conclude the heart is idle and bears no part in the duty.  In petition, we have fervency when the heart is drawn out with vehement desires of the grace it prays for, not so lazy wouldlings or wishings, but passionate breathings and breakings of the heart.

Question. But why must we pray thus in the spirit fervently?

Answer First.  We must pray in the spirit fervently from the command.  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart,” Deut. 6:5-6.  The external part of the duty is but the cup.  Thy love, faith, and joy are the wine he desires to taste of.  Without these, you give him but an empty cup to drink in.

Answer Second.  We must pray in the spirit to comport with the name of God.  The common description of prayer is calling on the name of God.  Now, in prayer, when we call upon the name of God, it must be with a heart of worship suitable to his name.

Answer Third.  We must pray in the spirit because the promise is only to fervent prayer.  Fervency is to prayer what fire was to the spices in the censer—without this, the smoke cannot ascend as incense before God.  There is a qualification to the act of prayer as necessary to the person praying:  “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  Feeble desires, like weak pangs, go over and bring not a mercy to the birth.  As the full time grows nearer, so the spirit of prayer grows stronger.  “Shall he not avenge his own elect that cry day and night unto him?  I tell you, he shall avenge them speedily,” Luke 18:7.

Question. How may we get this fervency of spirit in prayer?

Answer First. You must be certain that you are a believer.  There must be life in the soul before there can be life in the prayer.  All the rugs in the upholsterer’s shop will not bring a dead man to warmth; nor will any arguments, though taken from the most moving topics in the Scripture, make you pray fervently while your soul lies in a dead state.  Go first to Christ that you may have life, and having life, there is some hope to chafe you into some heat.

Answer Second.  If you are a believer, it calls for your utmost care to get and keep your soul in a kindly heat.  The saints have the spark of heavenly fire in their bosom, but this needs the bellows of their care and diligence to keep it hot.  Therefore, it is necessary that you be much acquainted with your own state so as to know what is the great clog in this duty.

Look narrowly at where your cooling comes.  Perhaps you heart is too much let out in the world and, at night, your spirits are spent when you should come before the Lord.  Wood that has the sap in it will not easily burn; neither will your heart readily take fire in holy duties when it comes so sopped in the world to them.  Drain your heart, therefore, your heart of these eager affections, if you mean to have them warm and lovely in prayer.  Now there is no better way for this than to set your soul under the frequent meditation of Christ’s love to you, your relation to him, with the great and glorious things you expect from him in another world.

Do you desire to pray fervently for others?  First, pierce your heart through with their sorrows, and, by a spirit of sympathy, bring yourself to feel their miseries as if you were in their case.  Then will your heart be warm in prayer for them when it flows from a heart melted in compassion to them.

Third—To pray in the spirit, we must have sincerity.

We pray in the spirit when we pray in sincerity.  There may be much fervor where there is little or not sincerity.  Now the sincerity of heart in prayer appears when a person is real in his prayers, and that from pure principles to pure ends.  First, a person is sincere when his prayers are real according to his real desires.  Second, a person is sincere when he prays from a pure principle to a pure end.  Now he that would pray acceptably must pray thus in his spirit, that is, with the sincerity of his spirit.  “The prayer of the upright is his delight.”  “The fervent prayer … avails much.”  It can do much, but it must be of a righteous man, and such the sincere man only is.  And no wonder that God stands so much upon the sincerity in prayer, seeing the lip of truth is so prized even among men.

Let us put upon the trial whether we thus pray in the spirit—whether you can find sincerity stamped upon your fervency.  If the prayer be not fervent, it cannot be sincere, but it may have fervor without this.

How may we get this sincerity in prayer?

(1)     Get your heart united by faith to Christ.  It is faith that purifies the heart from its false principles and ends in duty.

(2)     Make hypocrisy in prayer appear as odious to thee as possibly you can.  Consider how grievous a sin and how great a folly it is.  A lie spoken by one man to another is a sin capable of high aggravations; what then is that lie which is uttered in prayer to God?  Consider also what a folly it is.  Who but a fool can think to blind the eyes of the Almighty?

(3)     Crucify your affections to the world.  Hypocrisy in religion springs from the bitter root of some carnal affection unmortified.   So long as your prey lies below, your eye will be to the earth, even when you seem like an eagle to mount in your prayers to heaven.  “I am God Almighty, walk before me and be thou perfect,” said God to Abraham, Genesis 17:1.

To pray in the Spirit is to pray in or with the Spirit of God (Jude 20).

Prayer is the creature’s act, but the Spirit’s gift.  There is a concurrence both of the Spirit of God and the soul or spirit of the Christian to the performance of it.  Hence we find both the Holy Spirit is said to pray in us (Romans 8:26), and we said to pray in him (Jude 20).  By the first is meant his inspiration, whereby he excites and assists the creature to and in the work; by the latter, the concurrence of the saint’s faculties.

First, to pray rightly, it is necessary that we pray in the spirit. This is clear from Ephesians 2:18: “Through him, we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father.”  Mark those words, ‘by one Spirit.’  As there is but one Mediator to appear and pray for us in heaven, so but one Spirit that can pray in us, and we by him, on earth.  We may as well venture to come to the Father through another Mediator that his Son, as pray by another Spirit than by the Holy Ghost.  To plead Christ’s merits in prayer, and not by the Spirit, is to bring right incense but strange fire, and so our prayers are but smoke, offensive to his pure eyes, and not incense, a sweet savor to his nostrils.

Second, what is praying by the Spirit? It is to receive the assistance of the Spirit in our praying (Romans 8:26).

(1)     The Spirit puts forth to stir up the affections.  Never was any formal prayer of the Holy Spirit’s making.  When the Spirit comes, it is a time of life.  The apostle tells us the groans and sighs which the Spirit helps the saint to are such as “cannot be uttered,” Romans 8:26; no, not by the saint himself, who, being unable to translate the inward grief he conceives into words, is fain sometimes to send it with this inarticu­late voice to heaven, yet it is a voice that is well understood there and more musical in God’s ear than the most ravishing music can be to ours.  In a word, he stirs up affections suitable to every part of prayer, enabling the gra­cious soul to confess sin with an aching heart, as if he felt so many swords rak­ing in it; to supplicate mercy and grace, as with inward feeling of his wants, so with vehement desires to have them satisfied; and to praise God with a heart enlarged and carried on high upon the wings of love and joy.  Parts may art it in the phrase and composure of the words—as a statuary may carve a goodly image, with all the outward lineaments and beautiful proportions in every part—but still it is but the coun­terfeit and, image of a true prayer, for want of that something within, which should give life and energy to it.  This the Spirit of God alone can effect.

(2)     As the Spirit of God does excite the Christian’s affections in prayer, so he regulates and directs them. Who indeed but the Spirit of God can guide and rein these fiery steeds?  He is said in this respect to “help our infirmities, for we know not what to pray for as we ought,” Romans 8:26.  We, alas, are prone to over-bend the bow in some petitions, and want strength to bend it enough in some other.  One while we overshoot the butt, praying absolutely for that which we should ask conditionally; another time we shoot beside the mark, either by praying for what God hath not promised, or too selfishly that which is promised.  Now the Spirit helps the Christian’s infirmity in this respect, for he “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God,” Rom. 8:27, that is, he so holds the reins of their affec­tions and directs them, that they keep their right way and due order, not fly­ing out into unwarrantable heats and inordinate desires.  He, by his secret whispers, instructs them when to let out their affections full speed, and when to take them up again.  He teaches them the law of prayer, that striving lawfully they may not lose the prize.  Just as the Spirit was in the ‘living creatures’ to direct their motion, of whom it is said, “They went every one straightfor­ward: whither the Spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went,” Ezekiel 1:12; so the Spirit, acting his saints in prayer, keeps them that they lash out neither on this hand nor on that, but go straightforward, and draw their requests by his rule.

(3)     He fills the Christian with a holy confidence and humble boldness in prayer. Sin makes the face of God dreadful to the sinner.  Guilty Adam shuns his presence, and tells the reason, “I heard thy voice, and was afraid.”  If the patriarchs were terrified at his presence; how much more con­founded must the sinner be to draw near to the great God, when he remem­bers the horrid sins he hath perpetrated against him?  Now the Spirit eases the Christian’s heart of this fear, assur­ing him that God’s heart meditates no revenge upon him, but freely forgives what wrong he has done him.  Even more, he takes him for his dear child; and, that the Christian may not stand in doubt thereof, he seals it with a kiss of love upon his heart, leav­ing there the impression of God’s fatherly love fairly stamped, whereby the Chris­tian comes to have amiable thoughts of God, is able to call God Father, and ex­pect the kind welcome of a child at his hands.  This is the Spirit of adoption of which the apostle speaks (Romans 8:15) that casts away all servile fear and dread of God from the soul: “Ye have not re­ceived again the spirit of bondage to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”  And, (Galatians 4:6)“because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

Exhortation to Those Who Want the Spirit of Prayer

  1. O labor to get this heavenly guest to come and dwell in your hearts.  Prayer, you see, is not a work of nature, but a gift of grace; not a matter of will and parts got by human skill and art, but taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost.  How may one obtain the Spirit?  First, be deeply sensible of your deplorable state while without the Spirit.  The Spirit is often in Scripture compared to water, rain, and dew.  Now as the earth is barren and can bring forth no fruit without these, so is the heart of man without the Spirit of God.  Second, plant yourself under the word preached.  This is the vehiculum Spiritus—the Spirit’s chariot in which he rides.  They that cast off hearing the word to meet with the Spirit do as if a man should turn his back off the aim that it may shine on his face.  The poor do not stay at home for the rich to bring their alms to their house, but go to their door and there wait for relief.  It becomes thee, poor creature, to wait at the posts of wisdom, and not expect that the Spirit should come after thee apart from the Word.
  2. I beseech you not to grieve or quench the Holy Spirit in your bosoms. Now three ways the Spirit of God may be distasted by a saint, so as to cause him to deny his wonted assistance in prayer.

First, by some sin secretly harbored in the heart.  “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” Psalm 66:18.  Now when God refuses to hear, we may be sure the Spirit refuses to assist, for God never rejects a prayer that his Spirit incites and his Son pre­sents.  Sin is so offensive to the Holy Spirit, that wherever it is bid welcome he will show his distaste.  If you would have this pure dove stay with you, be sure you keep his lodging clean.  Hast thou deified thyself with any known sin, think not to have him help thee in prayer till he has helped thee to repent of it.  He will carry thee to the layer before he will go with thee to the altar.  The musician wipes his instrument that hath fallen into the dirt before he will set it to his mouth.  If thou wouldst have the Spirit of God breathe in thy soul at prayer, present it not to him besmeared with any sin unrepented of.

Second, by frequently resisting or putting off his motions.  As the Spirit helps in prayer, so he stirs up to prayer; he is the saint’s remembrancer and monitor.  Thy God waits for thy company, and expects thy attendance; now is a fit time for thy withdrawing thyself to hold communion with him, and pay thy homage to him. Now, when the Christian shall shift off these motions and not take the hint he gives, but from time to time neglect his coun­sel, and discontinue his acquaintance with God, notwithstanding these his mementos, he is exceedingly distasted, and, taking himself to be slighted, he gives over calling upon him, and leaves the soul for a time, till his absence, and the sad consequences of it, bring him to see his folly, and prepare him to enter­tain his motions more kindly for the future.  Thus Christ leaves the spouse in her bed, when she would not rise at his knock, and makes her trot after him many a weary step before he will be seen of her.

Third, by priding ourselves in and with the assistances he gives. Pride is a sin that God resists wherever he meets it; for indeed it is a sin that justles with God himself for the wall.  It is time for the Spirit to be gone when his house is let over his head.  He takes it as a giv­ing him warning to be gone, when the soul lifts up itself into his seat; if he may not have the honor of the work, he will have no hand in it.  Now the proud man makes the Spirit an underling to himself, he uses his gifts to set up him­self with them.  Instead of blessing God for assisting, he applauds himself and hath a high opinion of his own abilities, pleasing himself with what ex­pressions and enlargements of affection he had in the duty.  “I live,” says Paul, “yet not I” (Galatians 2:20).  “I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” (1 Cor. 15:10).  Thus should you, Christian, say, “I prayed, yet not I; I labored and wrestled, yet not I, but the Spirit of God that was with me.”

Fourth, when we go to duty in confidence of the gifts and grace we have already received, and do not acknowledge our dependence on the Spirit, by casting ourselves after all our preparations upon him for present assistance.  You know how Samson was served when he thought to go out as he used to do.  Alas, poor man, the case was altered, he was weak as water; the Spirit was gone and had carried away his strength with him.  God will have thee, O Christian, know the key to thy heart hangs at his girdle, and not thy own, that you should be able to open and enlarge it at your plea­sure.  Acknowledge God, and his Spirit shall help you; but “lean to you own understanding,” and you are sure to catch a fall.  When pride is in the saddle, shame is in the crupper; if pride be at the beginning of the duty, shame will be the end of it.

From, The Christian in Complete Armor.

Posted in William Gurnall | 1 Comment »

The Holy Spirit In The Covenant by C. H. Spurgeon

January 8, 2010 by ADMIN

“And I will put my spirit within you.” — Ezekiel 36:27

The Holy Spirit is the third Person in the covenant.  We have considered “God in the Covenant;” and “Christ in the Covenant;” and now, this morning, we have to consider the Holy Spirit in the covenant.  For, remember, it is necessary that the Triune God should work out the salvation of the Lord’s people, if they are to be saved at all; and it was absolutely requisite that, when the covenant was made, all that was necessary should be put into it; and, among the rest, the Holy Spirit, without whom all things done even by the Father and by Jesus Christ would be ineffectual, for he is needed as much as the Savior of men, or the Father of spirits.  In this age, when the Holy Spirit is too much forgotten, and but little honor is accorded to his sacred person, I feel that there is a deep responsibility upon me to endeavor to magnify his great and holy name.  I almost tremble, this morning, in entering on so profound a subject, for which I feel myself so insufficient.  But, nevertheless, relying on the aid, the guidance, and the witness of the Holy Spirit himself, I venture upon an exposition of this text “I will put my Spirit within you.”

The Holy Spirit is given, in the covenant, to all the children of God, and received by each in due course; and yet, upon our Lord Jesus Christ did the Spirit first descend, and alighted upon him as our Covenant-head, “like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments.”  The Father hath given the Holy Spirit without measure unto his Son; and from him, in measure, though still in abundance, do all “the brethren who dwell together in unity” (or union with Christ) partake of the Spirit.  This holy anointing flows down from Jesus, the anointed One, to every part of his mystical body, to every individual member of his Church.  The Lord’s declaration concerning Christ was, “I have put my Spirit upon HIM;” and he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon ME, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted.”  The Spirit was first poured upon Christ, and from him descends to all those who are in union with his adorable person.  Let us bless the name of Christ if we are united to him; and let us look up to our covenant Head, expecting that from him will flow down the heavenly unction which shall anoint our souls.

My text is one of the unconditional promises of Scripture.  There are many conditional promises in the Word of God, given to certain characters; although even these promises are in some sense unconditional, since the very condition of the promise is by some other promise secured as a gift; but this one has no condition whatever.  It does not say, “I will put my Spirit within them, if they ask for him;” it says plainly, without any reservation or stipulation, “I will put my Spirit within them.”  The reason is obvious.  Until the Spirit is put within us, we cannot feel our need of the Spirit, neither can we ask for or seek him; and, therefore, it is necessary that there should be an absolutely unconditional promise, made to all the elect children of God, that they should have given to them the waiting grace, the desiring grace, the seeking grace, the believing grace, which shall make them pant and hunger and thirst after Jesus.  To everyone who is, like Christ, “chosen of God, and precious,” to every redeemed soul, however sunken in sin, however lost and ruined by the Fall, however much he may hate God and despise his Redeemer, this promise still holds good, “I will put my Spirit within you;” and, in due course, every one of them shall have that Spirit, who shall quicken them from the dead, lead them to seek pardon, induce them to trust in Christ, and adopt them into the living family of God.

The promise is also concerning an internal blessing to be bestowed: “I will put my Spirit within you.”  Remember, we have the Spirit of God in his written Word, and with every faithful minister of the gospel, the Spirit is likewise vouchsafed to us in the ordinances of Christ’s Church.  God is perpetually giving the Spirit to us by these means.  But it is in vain for us to hear of the Spirit, to talk of him, or to believe in him, unless we have a realization of his power within us; here, therefore, is the promise of such an internal blessing: “I will put my Spirit within you.”

We come now to consider this promise in all its comprehensiveness; may the Holy Spirit himself assist us in so doing!  We shall take the various works of the Holy Ghost, one by one, and shall remember that, in all the works which he performs, the Spirit is put in the covenant to be possessed by every believer.

I. In the first place, we are told by Christ, “IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT QUICKENETH.”

Until he is pleased to breathe upon the soul, it is dead to any spiritual life. It is not until the Spirit, like some heavenly wind, breathes upon the dry bones, and puts life into them, that they can ever live.  You may take a corpse, and dress it in all the garments of external decency; you may wash it with the water of morality; ay, you may bedeck it with the crown of profession, and put upon its brow a tiara of beauty, you may paint its cheeks until you make it like life itself.  But remember, unless the spirit be there, corruption will ere long seize on the body.  So, beloved, it is the Spirit who is the Quickener; you would have been as “dead in trespasses and sins” now as ever you were, if it had not been for the Holy Ghost, who made you alive.  You were lying, not simply “cast out in the open field,” but, worse than that, you were the very prey of mortality; corruption was your father, the worm was your mother and your sister; you were noxious in the nostrils of the Almighty.  It was thus that the Savior beheld you in all your loathsomeness, and said to you, “Live.”  In that moment, you were “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  Life entered into you at his bidding; then it was that the Spirit quickened you.  The words of Jesus, so he told his disciples, “They are spirit, and they are life.”  You were made alive entirely through the might of the quickening Spirit.

“The Spirit, like some heavenly wind

Blows on the sons of flesh;

Creates a new — a heavenly mind,

And forms the man afresh.”

If, then, you feel at any time death working in you, as doubtless you will, withering the bloom of your piety, chilling the fervor of your devotions, and quenching the ardor of your faith, remember that he who first quickened you must keep you alive. The Spirit of God is the sap that flowed into your poor, dry branch, because you were grafted into Christ; and as, by that sap, you were first made green with life, so it is by that sap alone you can ever bring forth fruit unto God.  By the Spirit you drew your first breath, when you cried out for mercy, and from the same Spirit you must draw the breath to praise that mercy in hymns and anthems of joy.

Having begun in the Spirit, you must be made perfect in the Spirit.  “The flesh profiteth nothing;” the works of the law will not help you; the thoughts and devices of your own hearts are of no avail.  You would be cut off from Christ, you would be more depraved than you were before your conversion, you would be more corrupt than you were previous to your being regenerated, — “twice dead, plucked up by the roots,” if God the Holy Ghost were to withdraw from you.  You must live in his life, trust in his power to sustain you, and seek of him fresh supplies, when the tide of your spiritual life is running low.

II. WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT, AS AN ASSISTANT SPIRIT, IN ALL THE DUTIES WE HAVE TO PERFORM.

The most common Christian duty is that of prayer; for the meanest child of God must be a praying child.  Remember, then, that it is written, “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what to pray for as we ought.”  The Spirit of God is in the covenant, as the great aid to us in all our petitions to the throne of grace.  Child of God, thou knowest not what to pray for; rely, then, on the Spirit, as the Inspirer of prayer, who will tell thee how to pray.  Sometimes thou knowest not how to express what thou desires; rely upon the Spirit, then, as the One who can touch thy lips with the “live coal from off the altar,” whereby thou shalt be able to pour out thy fervent wishes before the throne.  Sometimes, even when thou hast life and power within thee, thou canst not express thine inward emotions; then rely upon that Spirit to interpret thy feelings, for he “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  When, like Jacob, thou art wrestling with the angel, and art nearly thrown down, ask the Holy Spirit to nerve thine arms.  The Holy Spirit is the chariot wheel of prayer.  Prayer may be the chariot, the desire may draw it forth, but the Spirit is the very wheel whereby it moveth.  He propels the desire, and causeth the chariot to roll swiftly on, and to bear to heaven the supplication of the saints, when the desire of the heart is “according to the will of God.”

Another duty, to which some of the children of God are called, is that of preaching; and here too we must have the Holy Spirit to enable us.  Those whom God calls to preach the gospel are assisted with might from on high.  He has said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”  It is a solemn thing to enter upon the work of the ministry.  I will just make an observation here; for, in this place, there are young men, who are striving to enter into the ministry before they scarcely know the alphabet of the gospel; they set themselves up as preachers of God’s Word, when the first thing they ought to do is to join the infant class in a school, and learn to read properly.  I know there are some, to whom God has given the desire thus to seek the glory of his name and the welfare of souls, and who humbly wait till he has opened the way; God bless them, and speed them!

But — would you believe it? — a young man was baptized, and received into the church one Sunday, — and he positively went off to a College on the Monday or Tuesday, to ask if they would receive him!  I asked him whether he had ever preached before, or addressed half-a-dozen Sunday scholars.  He said, “No.”  But what surprised me most was, that he said he was collect to the work before he was converted!  It was a call from the devil, I verily believe; — not a call from God in the least degree.  Take heed that ye touch not God’s ark with unholy fingers.  You may all preach if you can, but take care that you do not set yourselves up in the ministry, without having a solemn conviction that the Spirit from on high has set you apart; for, if you do, the blood of souls will be found in your skirts.  Too many have rushed into the holy place, uncalled of God; who, if they could have rushed out of it on their dying beds, would have had eternal cause for gratitude.  But they ran presumptuously, then preached unsent, and therefore unblessed; and, when dying, they felt a greater condemnation from the fact that they had taken on themselves an office to which God had never appointed them.  Beware of doing that; but if God has called you, however little talent you may have, fear not anyone’s frown or rebuke.  If you have a solemn conviction in your souls that God has really ordained you to the work of the ministry, and if you have obtained a seal to your commission in the conversion of even one soul, let not death or hell stop you; go straight on, and never think you must have certain endowments to make a successful preacher.

The only endowment necessary for success in the ministry is the endowment of the Holy Ghost.  When preaching in the presence of a number of ministers, last Friday, I told the brethren there, when one of them asked how it was God had been pleased to bless me so much in this place, “There is not one of you whom God could not bless ten times as much, if you had ten times as much of the Spirit.”  For it is not any ability of the man, — it is not any human qualification, — it is simply the influence of God’s Spirit that is necessary; and I have been delighted to find myself abused as ignorant, unlearned, and void of eloquence, all which I knew long before; but so much the better, for then all the glory belongs to God.  Let men say what they please, I will always confess to the truth of it.

I am a fool: “I have become a fool in glorying,” if you please.  I will take any opprobrious title that worldlings like to put upon me; but they cannot deny the fact that God blesses my ministry, that harlots have been saved, that drunkards have been reclaimed, that some of the most abandoned characters have been changed, and that God has wrought such a work in their midst as they never saw before in their lives.  Therefore, give all the glory to his holy name.  Cast as much reproach as you like on me, ye worldlings; the more honor shall there be to God, who worketh as he pleaseth, and with what instrument he chooseth, irrespective of man.

Again, dearly beloved, whatever is your work; whatever God has ordained you to do in this world, you are equally certain to have the assistance of the Holy Spirit in it. If it be the teaching of an infant class in the Sabbath-school, do not think you cannot have the Holy Spirit.  His succor shall be granted as freely to you as to the man who addresses a large assembly.  Are you sitting down by the side of some poor dying woman?  Believe that the Holy Spirit will come to you there, as much as if you were administering the sacred elements of the Lord’s Supper.  Let your strength for the lowliest work, as much as for the loftiest, be sought from God.  Spiritual plowman, sharpen thy plowshare with the Spirit!  Spiritual sower, dip thy seed in the Spirit, so shall it germinate; and ask the Spirit to give thee grace to scatter it, that it may fall into the right furrows!  Spiritual warrior, whet thy sword with the Spirit; and ask the Spirit, whose Word is a two-edged sword, to strengthen thine arm to wield it!

III. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GIVEN TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD AS A SPIRIT OF REVELATION AND OF INSTRUCTION.

He brings us “out of darkness into marvelous light.”  By nature, we are ignorant, extremely so; but the Holy Spirit teaches the family of God, and makes them wise.  “Ye have an unction from the Holy One,” said the apostle John, “and ye know all things.”  Student in the school of Christ, wouldst thou be wise?  Ask not the theologian to expound to thee his system of divinity; but, sitting down meekly at the feet of Jesus, ask that his Spirit may instruct thee; for I tell thee, student, though thou shouldst read the Bible many a year, and turn over its pages continually, thou wouldst not learn anything of its hidden mysteries without the Spirit.  But mayhap, in a solitary moment of thy study, when suddenly enlightened by the Spirit, thou mayest learn a truth as swiftly as thou seest the lightning flash.  Young people, are you laboring to understand the doctrine of election?  It is the Holy Spirit alone who can reveal it to your heart, and make you comprehend it.  Are you tugging and toiling at the doctrine of human depravity?  The Holy Spirit must reveal to you the depth of wickedness of the human heart.  Are you wanting to know the secret of the life of the believer, as he lives by the faith of the Son of God, and the mysterious fellowship with the Lord he enjoys?  It must always be a mystery to you unless the Holy Spirit shall unfold it to your heart.  Whenever thou readest the Bible, cry to the Spirit, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”  The Spirit gives eye-salve to the blind; and if thine eyes are not now open, seek the eye-salve, and so thou shalt see, — ay, and see so clearly that he, who has only learned in man’s school, shall ask, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?”

Those who are taught of the Spirit often surpass those who are taught of man.  I have met with an entirely uninstructed clod-hopper, in the country, who never went to school for one hour in his life, who yet knew more about the Holy Scriptures than many a clergyman trained at the University.  I have been told that it is a common practice for men in Wales, while they are at work, breaking stones on the road, to discuss difficult points in theology, which many a divine cannot master: for this reason, that they humbly read the Scriptures, trusting only to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and believing that he will lead them into all truth; and he is pleased so to do.  All other instruction is very well; Solomon says, “that the soul be without knowledge, it is not good;” we should all seek to know as much as can be known: but let us remember that, in the work of salvation, real knowledge must be obtained by the teaching of the Holy Ghost; and if we would learn in the heart, and not merely in the head, we must be taught entirely by the Holy Spirit.  What you learn from man, you can unlearn; but what you learn of the Spirit is fixed indelibly in your heart and conscience, and not even Satan himself can steal it from you.  Go, ye ignorant ones, who often stagger at the truths of revelation; go, and ask the Spirit, for he is the Guide of benighted souls; ay, and the Guide of his own enlightened people too; for, without his aid, even when they have been “once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,” they would not understand all truth unless he led them into it.

IV. I desire further to mention that GOD WILL GIVE THE SPIRIT TO US AS A SPIRIT OF APPLICATION.

Thus it was that Jesus said to his disciples, “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”  To make the matter still more plain, our Lord added, “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.”  Let me remind you how frequently Jesus impressed on his disciples the fact that he spake to them the words of his Father: “My doctrine,” said he, “is not mine, but his that sent me.”  And again, “The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”  As Christ thus made known the will of God the Father to his people, so the Holy Ghost makes known to us the words of Christ.  I could almost affirm that Christ’s words would be of no use to us unless they were applied to us by the Holy Spirit.  Beloved, we need the application to assure our hearts that they are our own, that they are intended for us, and that we have an interest in their blessedness; and we need the unction of the Spirit to make them bedew our hearts, and refresh our souls.

Did you ever have a promise applied to your heart?  Do you understand what is meant by application as the exclusive work of the Spirit?  It is, as Paul says the gospel came to the Thessalonians, “not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.”  Sometimes it cometh of a sudden; your heart may have been the scene of a thousand distracting thoughts, billow dashing against billow, till the tempest rose beyond your control.  Anon, some text of Scripture, like a mighty fiat from the lips of Jesus, has stilled your troubled breast, and immediately there has been a great calm, and you have wondered whence it came.  The sweet sentence has rung like music in your ears; like a wafer made of honey, it has moistened your tongue; like a charm, it has quelled your anxieties, while it has dwelt uppermost in your thoughts all the day long, reining in all your lawless passions and restless strivings.  Perhaps it has continued in your mind for weeks; wherever you went, whatever you did, you could not dislodge it, nor did you wish to do so, so sweet, so savory was it to your soul.  Have you not thought of such a text that it is the best in the Bible, the most precious in all the Scriptures?  That was because it was so graciously applied to you.

Oh, how I love applied promises!  I may read a thousand promises as they stand recorded on the pages of this Sacred Volume, and yet get nothing from them; my heart would not burn within me for all the richness of the store; but one promise, brought home to my soul by the Spirit’s application, hath such marrow and fatness in it that it would be food enough for forty days for many of the Lord’s Elijahs.  How sweet it is, in the times of deep affliction, to have this promise applied to the heart: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee!”  Perhaps you say, “That is all enthusiasm.”  Of course it appears so to you, if, as natural men, ye discern not the things of the Spirit; but we are talking about spiritual things to spiritual men, and to them it is no mere enthusiasm, it is often a matter of life or death.  I have known numerous cases where almost the only plank on which the poor troubled saint was able to float was just one text, of which, somehow or other, he had got so tight a grasp that nothing could take it away from him.

Nor is it only his Word which needs to be applied to us.  “He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you,” may be referred likewise to our Savior’s precious blood. We sometimes sing, —“There is a fountain filled with blood,” —and we talk of bathing in it.  Now, faith does not apply the blood to the soul; that is the work of the Spirit.  True, I seek it by faith; but it is the Spirit who washes me in “the fountain opened…for sin and for uncleanness.”  It is the Spirit who receives of the things of Christ, and shows them unto me.  You would never have a drop of blood sprinkled on your heart unless it was sprinkled by the hand of the Spirit.  So, too, the robe of Christ’s righteousness is entirely fitted on us by him.  We are not invited to appropriate the obedience of Christ to ourselves; but the Spirit brings all to us which Christ has made for us.  Ask, then, of the Spirit that you may have the Word applied, the blood applied, pardon applied, and grace applied, and you shall not ask in vain; for Jehovah hath said, “I will put my Spirit within you.”

V. WE MUST RECEIVE THE SPIRIT AS A SANCTIFYING SPIRIT.

Perhaps this is one of the greatest works of the Holy Ghost, — sanctifying the soul.  It is a great work to purge the soul from sin; it is greater than if one should wash a leopard till all his spots were obliterated, or an Ethiopian till his sable skin became white; for our sins are more than skin-deep, — they have entered into our very nature.  Should we be outwardly washed white this morning, we should be black and polluted before tomorrow; and if all the spots were taken away today, they would grow again tomorrow, for we are black all through.  You may scrub the flesh, but it is black to the last; our sinfulness is a leprosy that lies deep within.  But the Holy Spirit sanctifies the soul; he enters the heart, beginning the work of sanctification by conversion; he keeps possession of the heart, and preserves sanctification by perpetually pouring in fresh oil of grace, till at last he will perfect sanctification by making us pure and spotless, fit to dwell with the blest inhabitants of glory.

The way the Spirit sanctifies is this: first he reveals to the soul the evil of sin, and makes the soul hate it; he shows it to be a deadly evil, full of poison; and when the soul begins to hate it, the next thing the Spirit does is, to show it that the blood of Christ takes all the guilt away, and, from that very fact, to lead it to hate sin even more than it did when it first knew its blackness.  The Spirit takes it to “the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel;” and there he tolls the death-knell of sin as he points to the blood of Christ, and says, “He shed this for you, that he might purchase you unto himself, to be one of his peculiar people, zealous of good works.”  Afterwards, the Holy Spirit may, at times, allow sin to break out in the heart of the child of God that it may be more strongly repressed by greater watchfulness in future; and when the heir of heaven indulges in sin, the Holy Spirit sends a sanctifying chastisement upon the soul, until, the heart being broken with grief, by the blueness of the wound, evil is cleansed away; and conscience, feeling uneasy, sends the heart to Christ, who removes the chastisement, and takes away the guilt.

Again, remember, believer, all thy holiness is the work of the Holy Spirit. Thou hast not a grace which the Spirit did not give thee; thou hast not a solitary virtue which he did not work in thee; thou hast no goodness which has not been given to thee by the Spirit; therefore, never boast of thy virtues or of thy graces.  Hast thou now a sweet temper, whereas thou once wast passionate? Boast not of it; thou wilt be angry yet if the Spirit leaves thee.  Art thou now pure, whereas thou wast once unclean?  Boast not of thy purity, the seed of which was brought from heaven; it never grew within thy heart by nature; it is God’s gift alone.  Is unbelief prevailing against thee?  Do thy lusts, thine evil passions, and thy corrupt desires, seem likely to master thee?  Then I will not say, “Up, and at ‘em!” but I will say, — Cry mightily unto God, that thou mayest be filled with the Holy Spirit, so shalt thou conquer at last, and become more than conqueror over all thy sins, seeing that the Lord hath engaged to put his Spirit “within you.”

VI. THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS PROMISED TO THE HEIRS OF HEAVEN AS DIRECTING SPIRIT, to guide them in the path of providence.

If you are ever in a position in which you know not what road to take, remember that your “strength is to sit still,” and your wisdom is to wait for the directing voice of the Spirit, saying to you, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”  I trust.  I have proved this myself, and I am sure every child of God, who has been placed in difficulties, must have felt, at times, the reality and blessedness of this guidance.  And have you never prayed to him to direct you? If you have, did you ever find that you went wrong afterwards?  I do not mean the sort of prayers that they present who ask counsel, but not of the Lord; “who walk to go down into Egypt, . . . to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,” and then ask God to bless them in a way that he never sanctioned.  No; you must start fairly by renouncing every other trust.  It is only thus that you can make proof of his promise, “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.”  Take with you, then, child of God, an open confession; say, “Lord, I desire, like a sheet of water, to be moved by the breath of the Spirit; here I lie, ‘passive in thy hand;’ fain would I know no will but thine: show me thy will, O Lord!  Teach me what to do, and what to refrain from doing.”

To some of you, this may seem all fanaticism; you believe not that God the Holy Spirit ever guides men in the way they should take.  So you may suppose, if you have never experienced his guidance.  We have heard that, when one of our English travelers, in Africa, told the inhabitants of the intense cold that sometimes prevailed in his country, by which water became so hard that people could skate and walk upon it, the king threatened to put him to death if he told anymore lies, for he had never felt or seen such things; and what one has never seen or felt is certainly fit subject for doubt and contradiction.  But, with regard to the Lord’s people, who tell you that they are led by the Spirit, I advise you to give heed to their sayings, and seek to make the trial for yourselves.  It would be a good thing if you were just to go to God, as a child, in all your distresses.

Remember that, as a solicitor whom you may safely consult, as a guide whose directions you may safely follow, as a friend on whose protection you may safely rely, the Holy Spirit is personally present in the Church of Christ, and with each of the disciples of Jesus; and there is no fee to pay but the fee of gratitude and praise, because he has directed you so well.

VII. Just once more, — THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL BE GIVEN TO GOD’S CHILDREN AS A COMFORTING SPIRIT.

This is peculiarly his office. Have you never felt that, immediately before a great and grievous trouble, you have had a most unaccountable season of joy?  You scarcely knew why you were so happy or so tranquil, you seemed to be floating upon a very Sea of Elysium; there was not a breath of wind to ruffle your peaceful spirit, all was serene and calm.  You were not agitated by the ordinary cares and anxieties of the world; your whole mind was absorbed in sacred meditation.  By-and-by, the trouble comes, and you say, “Now I understand it all; I could not before comprehend the meaning of that grateful lull, that quiet happiness; but I see now that it was designed to prepare me for these trying circumstances.  If I had been low and dispirited when this trouble burst upon me, it would have broken my heart.

But now, thanks be to God, I can perceive through Jesus Christ how this “light affliction, which is but for a moment,” worketh for me, “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”  “ But, mark you, I believe that it is worthwhile to have the troubles in order to get the comfort of the Holy Spirit; it is worthwhile to endure the storm in order to realize the joys.

Sometimes, my heart has been shaken by obloquy, shame, and contempt; for many a brother minister, of whom I thought better things, has reviled me; and many a Christian has turned on his heel away from me, because I had been misrepresented to him, and he has hated me without a cause; but it has so happened that, at that very time, if the whole church had turned its back on me, and the whole world had hissed me, it would not have greatly moved me; for some bright ray of spiritual sunshine lit up my heart, and Jesus  whispered to me those sweet words, “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.”  At such times, the consolations of the Spirit have been neither few nor small with me.  O Christian, if I were able, I would bring thee yet further into the depths of this glorious passage; but, as I cannot, I must leave it with you.  It is full of honey; only put it to your lips, and get the honey from it.  “I will put my Spirit within you.”

In winding up, let me add a remark or two.  Do you not see here the absolute certainty of the salvation of every believer? Or rather, is it not absolutely certain that every member of the family of God’s Israel must be saved?  For it is written, “I will put my Spirit within you.” Do you think that, when God puts his Spirit within men, they can possibly be damned?  Can you think God puts his Spirit into them, and yet they perish, and are lost?  You may think so if you please, sir; but I will tell you what God thinks: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”  Sinners are far from God by wicked works, and they will not come unto him that they may have life; but when God says, “I will put my Spirit within you,” he compels them to come to him.

What a vain pretense it is to profess to honor God by a doctrine that makes salvation depend on the will of man! If it were true, you might say to God, “We thank thee, O Lord, for what thou hast done; thou hast given us a great many things, and we offer thee thy need of praise, which is justly due to thy name; but we think we deserve more, for the deciding point was in our free will.”  Beloved, do not any of you swerve from the free grace of God, for the babblings about man’s free agency are neither more nor less than lies, right contrary to the truth of Christ, and the teachings of the Spirit.

How certain, then, is the salvation of every elect soul!  It does not depend on the will of man; he is “made willing” in the day of God’s power.  He shall be called at the set time, and his heart shall be effectually changed, that he may become a trophy of the Redeemer’s power.  That he was unwilling before, is no hindrance; for God giveth him the will, so that he is then of a willing mind.  Thus, every heir of heaven must be saved, because the Spirit is put within him, and thereby his disposition and affections are molded according to the will of God.

Once more, how useless is it for any persons to suppose that they can be saved without the Holy Spirit! Ah, dear friends! men sometimes go very near to salvation without being saved; like the poor man who lay by the side of the pool of Bethesda, always close to the water, but never getting in.  How many changes in outward character there are which very much resemble conversion; but, not having the Spirit in them, they fail after all!

Rely on this; it is nothing but the grace of the Spirit of God that makes sure work of your souls.  Unless he shall change you, you may be changed, but it will not be a change that will endure.  Unless he shall put his hand to the work, the work will be marred, the pitcher spoiled on the wheel.  Cry unto him, therefore, that he may give you the Holy Spirit, that you may have the evidence of a real conversion, and not a base counterfeit.  Take heed, sirs, take heed!  Natural fear, natural love, natural feelings, are not conversion.  Conversion, in the first instance, and by all subsequent edification, must be the work of the Holy Spirit, and of him alone.  Never rest comfortable, then, until you have the Holy Spirit’s operations most surely effected in your hearts!

Preached by Spurgeon in 1856.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

A Godly Man Has the Spirit of Christ in Him by Thomas Watson

January 8, 2010 by ADMIN

“The Holy Spirit dwelleth in us” (2 Timothy 1:14; Galatians 4:6). The schoolmen raise the question whether a man receives the Holy Ghost himself or not. Montanus held that the godly so have God’s Spirit in them that they partake of his essence, and have become one person with him. But this amounts to no less than blasphemy. Then it would follow that every saint was to be worshipped.

I conceive that the Spirit is in the godly, in whom he flows in measure. They have his presence and receive his sacred influences. When the sun comes into a room, it is not the body of the sun that is there but the beams that sparkle from it.

The Spirit of God reveals himself in a gracious soul in two ways:

1. By his motions

These are some of that sweet perfume that the Spirit breathes upon the heart, by which it is raised into a kind of angelic frame.

Question 1: But how may we distinguish the motions of the Spirit from a delusion?

Answer: The motions of the Spirit are always consonant with the Word. The Word is the chariot in which the Spirit of God rides; whichever way the tide of the Word runs, that way the wind of the Spirit blows.

Question 2: How may the motions of the Spirit in the godly be distinguished from the impulses of a natural conscience?

Answer 1: A natural conscience may sometimes provoke to the same thing as the Spirit does, but not from the same principle. Natural conscience is a spur to duty, but it drives a man to do his duties for fear of hell — as the galley-slave tugs at the oar for fear of being beaten — whereas the Spirit moves a child of God from a more noble principle. It makes him serve God out of choice, and esteem duty his privilege.

Answer 2: The impulses of a natural conscience drive men to easier duties of religion, in which the heart is less like perfunctory reading or praying. But the ions of the Spirit in the godly go further, causing them do the most irksome duties, like self-reflection, self-humbling; yes perilous duties, like confessing Christ’s in times of danger. Divine motions in the heart are like wine which seeks vent. When God’s Spirit possesses a man, he carries him full sail through all difficulties.

2. By his virtues

These are various:

  1. God’s Spirit has a teaching virtue; the Spirit teaches convincingly (John 16:8). He so teaches as to persuade.
  2. God’s Spirit has a sanctifying virtue. The heart is naturally polluted, but when the Spirit comes into it, he works sin out and grace in. The Spirit of God was represented by the dove, an emblem of purity. The Spirit makes the heart a temple of purity and a paradise for pleasantness. The holy oil of consecration was nothing but a prefiguring of Spirit (Exodus 30:25). The Spirit sanctifies a man’s fancy, causing it to mint holy meditations. He sanctifies his will, biasing it to good, so that now it shall be as delightful to serve as before it was to sin against him. Sweet powders perfume the linen. So God’s Spirit in a man perfumes him with holiness and makes his heart a map of heaven.
  3. God’s Spirit has a vivifying virtue: “the Spirit giveth life” (2 Cor.3:6). As the blowing in an organ makes it sound, the breathing of the Spirit causes life and motion. When the prophet Elijah stretched himself upon the dead child, he revived (I Kings 17:22); so God’s Spirit stretching himself upon the soul infuses life into it. As our life is from the Spirit’s operations, so is our liveliness: “the Spirit lifted me up” (Ezek. 3:14). When the heart is bowed down and is listless to duty, the Spirit of God lifts it up. He puts a sharp edge upon the affections; he makes love ardent, hope lively. The Spirit removes the weights of the soul and gives it wings.
  4. God’s Spirit has a jurisdictive virtue; he rules and governs. God’s Spirit sits paramount in the soul; he gives check to the violence of corruption; he will not allow a man to be vain and loose like others. The Spirit of God will not be put out of office; he exercises his authority over the heart, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
  5. The Spirit has a mollifying virtue; therefore he is compared to fire which softens the wax. The Spirit turns flint into flesh: “I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). How shall this be effected? “I will put my spirit within you” (v.27). While the heart is hard, it lies like a log, and is not wrought upon either by judgments or by mercies, but when God’s Spirit comes in, he makes a man’s heart as tender as his eye and now it is made yielding to divine impressions.
  6. The Spirit of God has a corroborating virtue; he infuses strength and assistance for work; he is a Spirit of power (2 Tim. 1:7). God’s Spirit carries a man above himself: “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3:16). The Spirit confirms faith and animates courage. He lifts one end of the cross, and makes it lighter to bear. The Spirit gives not only a sufficiency of strength, but also a redundance.

Question: How shall we know whether we are acting in the strength of God’s Spirit, or in the strength of our own abilities?

Answer 1: When we humbly cast ourselves upon God for assistance, as David going out against Goliath cast himself upon God for help: “I come to thee in the name of the Lord”

Answer 2: When our duties are divinely qualified, we do them with pure aims.

Answer 3: When we have found God going along with us, we give him the glory for everything (I Cor. 15:10). This clearly evinces that the duty was carried on by the strength of God’s Spirit more than by any innate abilities of our own.

  1. God’s Spirit has a comforting virtue. Sadness may arise in a gracious heart (Psa. 43:5). As the heavens, though it is a right and lucid body, still has interposed clouds, this sadness is caused usually through the malice of Satan, who, when he cannot destroy us, will disturb us. But God’s Spirit within us sweetly cheers and revives. He is called the “the Comforter” (John 14:16). These comforts are real and infallible. Hence it is called “the seal of the Spirit” (Eph. 1:13). When a deed is sealed, it is firm and unquestionable. So when a Christian has the seal of the Spirit, his comforts are confirmed. Every godly man has these revivings of the Spirit in some degree; he has the seeds and beginnings of joy, though the flower is not fully ripe mid blown.

Question: How does the Spirit give comfort?

Answer 1: By showing us that we are in a state of grace. A Christian cannot always see his riches. The work of grace may be written in the heart, like shorthand which a Christian cannot read. The Spirit gives him a key to open these dark characters, and spell out his adoption, whereupon he has joy and peace. “We have received the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2:12).

Answer 2: The Spirit comforts by giving us some ravishing apprehensions of God’s love: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 5:5). God’s love is a box of precious ointment, and it is only the Spirit who can break this box open, and fill us with its sweet perfume.

Answer 3: The Spirit comforts by taking us to the blood of Christ. As when a man is weary and ready to faint, we take him to the water, and he is refreshed, so when we are fainting under the burden of sin, the Spirit takes us to the fountain of Christ’s blood: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened…” (Zech. 13:1). The Spirit enables us to drink the waters of justification which run out of Christ’s sides. The Spirit applies whatever Christ has purchased; he shows us that our sins are done away in Christ, and though we are spotted in ourselves, we are undefiled in our Head.

Answer 4: The Spirit comforts by enabling conscience to comfort. The child must be taught before it can speak. The Spirit opens the mouth of conscience, and helps it to speak and witness to a man that his state is good, whereupon he begins to receive comfort: “conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 9:1). Conscience draws up a certificate for a man, then the Holy Ghost comes and signs the certificate.

Answer 5: The Spirit conveys the oil of joy through two golden pipes:

  1. The Ordinances. As Christ in prayer had his counten­ance changed (Luke 9:29) and there was a glorious luster upon his face, so often in the use of holy ordinances the godly have such raptures of joy and soul transfigurations that they have been carried above the world, and despised all things below.
  2. The Promises. The promises are comforting: (i) For their sureness (Rom. 4:16). God in the promises has put his truth in pawn. (ii) For their suitableness, being calculated for every Christian’s condition. The promises are like a herb garden. There is no disease but some herb may be found there to cure it. But the promises of themselves cannot comfort. Only the Spirit enables us to suck these honeycombs. The promises are like a still bill of herbs, but this still will not drop unless the fire is put under it. So when the Spirit of God (who is compared to fire) is put to the still of the promises, then they distil consolation into the soul. Thus we see how the Spirit is in the godly by his virtues.

Uses:

Use 1: It brands those as ungodly who have none of God’s Spirit: “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). And if he is none of Christ’s, then whose is he? To what regiment does he belong? It is the misery of a sinner that he has none of God’s Spirit.

Use 2: As you would be listed in the number of the godly, strive for the blessed indwelling of the Spirit. Pray with Melanchthon, “Lord, inflame my soul with thy Holy Spirit;” and with the spouse, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden” (Song 4:16). As a mariner would desire a wind to drive him to sea, so beg for the prosperous gales of the Spirit and the promise may add wings to prayer. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?” (Luke 11:13). God’s Spirit is a rich jewel. Go to God him: “Lord, give me thy Spirit. Where is the jewel promised me? When shall my soul be like Gideon’s, wet with the dew of heaven?”

Consider how necessary the Spirit is. Without him we do nothing acceptable to God:

  1. We cannot pray without him. He is a Spirit of supplica­tion (Zech. 12:10). He helps both the inventiveness and affection: “The Spirit helps us with sighs and groans” (Rom. 8:26).
  2. We cannot resist temptation without him: “ye shall receive ­power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8). He who has the tide of corrupt nature and the of temptation must of necessity be carried down the stream of sin if the contrary wind of the Spirit does not blow.
  3. We cannot be fruitful without the Spirit. “The golden rain from heaven waters the thirsty hearts.” Why is the Spirit compared to dew and rain, but to show us how unable we are to bring forth a crop of grace unless the dew of God fails upon us?
  4. Without the Spirit, no ordinance is effectual to us. Ordinances are the conduit pipes of grace, but the Spirit is the spring. Some are content that they have a “Levite to their priest” (Judges 17:13), but never look any further. As if a merchant should be content that his ship has good tackling and is well manned, though it never has a gale of wind. The ship of ordinances will not carry us to heaven, though an angel is the pilot, unless the wind of God’s Spirit blows. The Spirit is the soul of the Word without which it is but a dead letter. Ministers may prescribe medicine, but it is God’s Spirit who must make it work. Our hearts are like David’s body when it grew old: “they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat” (I Kings 1:). So though the ministers of God ply us with prayers and counsel as with hot clothes, yet we are cold and chilly till God’s Spirit comes; and then we say, like the disciples, “Did not our heart burn within us?” (Luke 24:32). Oh, therefore, what need we have of the Spirit!

Finally, you who have the blessed Spirit manifested by his energy and vital operations:

1. Acknowledge God’s distinguishing love. The Spirit is an earmark of election (1 John 3:24). Christ gave the bag to Judas but not his Spirit. The Spirit is a love token. Where God gives his Spirit as a pawn, he gives himself as a portion. The Spirit is a comprehensive blessing; he is put for all good things (Matt. 7:11). What would you be without the Spirit but like so many carcasses? Without this, Christ would not profit you. The blood of God is not enough without the breath of God. Oh then, be thankful for the Spirit. This lodestone will never stop drawing you till it has drawn you up to heaven.

2. If you have this Spirit, do not grieve him (Eph. 4:30). Shall we grieve our Comforter?

Question: How do we grieve the Spirit?

Answer 1: When we unkindly repel his motions. The Spirit sometimes whispers in our ears and calls to us as God did to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel” (Gen. 35:1). So the Spirit says, “Arise, go to prayer, retire to meet your God.” Now when we stifle these motions and entertain temptations to vanity, this is grieving the Spirit. If we check the motions of the Spirit, we shall lose the comforts of the Spirit.

Answer 2: We grieve the Spirit when we deny the work of Spirit in our hearts. If someone gives another person a token and he should deny it and say he never received it, would be to abuse the love of his friend. So, Christian, when God has given you his Spirit, witnessed by those meltings of heart and passionate desires for heaven, yet you deny that you ever had any renewing work of the Spirit in you, this is base ingratitude and grieves the good Spirit. Renounce the sinful works of the flesh, but do not deny the work of the Spirit.

Edited and excerpted from The Godly Man’s Picture.

Posted in Thomas Watson |

The Divinity of the Holy Spirit By John Calvin

January 8, 2010 by ADMIN

Demonstrated In His Work

Accordingly, we ought to seek from the same source proof of the deity of the Spirit.  Indeed, that testimony of Moses in the history of the Creation is very clear, that “the Spirit of God was spread over the deeps” [Genesis 1:2, cf. Vg.], or formless matter; for it shows not only that the beauty of the universe (which we now perceive) owes its strength and preservation to the power of the Spirit but that, before this adornment was added, even then the Spirit was occupied with tending that confused mass.

And men cannot subtly explain away Isaiah’s utterance, “And now Jehovah has sent me, and his Spirit” [Isaiah 48:16], for in sending the prophets, he shares the highest power with the Holy Spirit.  From this, his divine majesty shines forth.  But the best confirmation for us, as I have said, will be from familiar use.  For what Scripture attributes to him and we ourselves learn by the sure experience of godliness is far removed from the creatures.  For it is the Spirit who, everywhere diffused, sustains all things, causes them to grow, and quickens them in heaven and in earth.  Because he is circumscribed by no limits, he is excepted from the category of creatures; but in transfusing into all things his energy, and breathing into them essence, life, and movement, he is indeed plainly divine.

Again, if regeneration into incorruptible life is higher and much more excellent than any present growth, what ought we to think of him from whose power it proceeds?  Now, Scripture teaches in many places that he is the author of regeneration not by borrowing but by his very own energy; and not of this only, but of future immortality as well.

In short, upon him, as upon the Son, are conferred functions that especially belong to divinity.  “For the Spirit searches…even the depths of God” [1 Corinthians 2:10], who has no counselor among the creatures [Romans 11:34].  He bestows wisdom and the faculty of speaking [1 Corinthians 12:10], although the Lord declares to Moses that it is his work alone [Exodus 4:11].  Thus, through him, we come into communion with God, so that we in a way feel his life-giving power toward us.

Our justification is his work; from him is power, sanctification [1 Corinthians 6:11], truth, grace, and every good thing that can be conceived, since there is but one Spirit from whom flows every sort of gift [1 Corinthians 12:11].

Especially worth noting is this saying of Paul’s: “Although there are divers gifts” [1 Corinthians 12:4] and manifold and varied distribution [cf. Hebrews 2:4], “but the same Spirit” [1 Corinthians 12:4]; because this makes him not only the beginning or source, but also the author.  This Paul also more clearly expresses a little later in these words: “One and the same Spirit apportions all things as he will” [1 Corinthians 12:11].  For if the Spirit were not an entity subsisting in God, choice and will would by no means be conceded to him.  Paul, therefore, very clearly attributes to the Spirit divine power, and shows that He resides hypostatically in God.

Demonstrated in the Testimony of Scripture

Nor, indeed, does Scripture in speaking of him refrain from the designation “God.”  For Paul concludes that we are the temple of God from the fact that his Spirit dwells in us [1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16].  We are not lightly to pass over this fact.  For, while God indeed frequently promises that he will choose us as a temple for himself, this promise is not otherwise fulfilled than by his Spirit dwelling in us.

Certainly, as Augustine very clearly states: “If we are bidden to make a temple for the Spirit out of wood and stone, because this honor is due to God alone, such a command would be a clear proof of the Spirit’s divinity.  Now, then, how much clearer is it that we ought not to make a temple for him, but ought ourselves to be that temple?  And the apostle himself sometimes writes that “we are God’s temple” [1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16], at other times, in the same sense, “the temple of the Holy Spirit” [1 Corinthians 6:19].  Indeed, Peter, rebuking Ananias for lying to the Holy Spirit, says that he has lied not to men but to God [Acts 5:3-4].  And where Isaiah introduces the Lord of Hosts speaking, Paul teaches that it is the Holy Spirit who speaks [Isaiah 6:9; Acts 28:25-26].

Indeed, where the prophets usually say that the words they utter are those of the Lord of Hosts, Christ and the apostles refer them to the Holy Spirit [cf. 2 Peter 1:21].  It therefore follows that he who is pre-eminently the author of prophecies is truly Jehovah.  Again, where God complains that he was provoked to anger by the stubbornness of his people, Isaiah writes that “his Holy Spirit was grieved” [Isaiah 63:10].

Finally, if blasphemy against the Spirit is remitted neither in this age nor in the age to come, although he who has blasphemed against the Son may obtain pardon [Matthew 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10], by this his divine majesty, to injure or diminish which is an inexpiable crime, is openly declared.  I deliberately omit many testimonies that the church fathers used.  They thought it justifiable to cite from David, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth” [Psalm 33:6], to prove that the universe was no less the work of the Holy Spirit than of the Son.  But since it is common practice in The Psalms to repeat the same thing twice, and since in Isaiah “spirit of the mouth” means the same thing as “the word” [Isaiah 11:4], that was a weak reason.  Thus I have chosen to touch only a few things upon which godly minds may securely rest.

From The Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 13, Sections 14-15.

Posted in John Calvin |

The Holy Spirit By A. W. Pink

January 8, 2010 by ADMIN

In the past having given consideration to the attributes of God our Father, and then to a contemplation of some of the glories of God our Redeemer, it now seems fitting that these should be followed by this series on the Holy Spirit.  The need for this is real and pressing, for ignorance of the Third Person of the Godhead is most dishonoring to Him, and highly injurious to ourselves.  The late George Smeaton of Scotland began his excellent work upon the Holy Spirit by saying, “Wherever Christianity has been a living power, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has uniformly been regarded, equally with the Atonement and Justification by faith, as the article of a standing or falling church.  The distinctive feature of Christianity as it addresses itself to man’s experience, is the work of the Spirit, which not only elevates it far above all philosophical speculation, but also above every other form of religion.”

THE IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING THE HOLY SPIRIT

Not at all too strong was the language of Samuel Chadwick when he said, “The gift of the Spirit is the crowning mercy of God in Christ Jesus.  It was for this all the rest was.  The Incarnation and Crucifixion, the Resurrection and Ascension were all preparatory to Pentecost.  Without the gift of the Holy Spirit, all the rest would be useless.  The great thing in Christianity is the gift of the Spirit.  The essential, vital, central element in the life of the soul and the work of the Church is the Person of the Spirit” (Joyful News, 1911).

The great importance of a reverent and prayerful study of this subject should be apparent to every real child of God.  The repeated references made to the Spirit by Christ in His final discourse (John 14 to 16) at once intimates this.  The particular work which has been committed to Him furnishes clear proof of it.  There is no spiritual good  communicated to anyone but by the Spirit; whatever God in His grace works in us, it is by the Spirit.  The only sin for which there is no forgiveness is one committed against the Spirit.  How necessary is it then that we should be well instructed in the Scripture doctrine concerning Him!  The great abuse there has been in all ages under the pretense of His holy name should prompt us to diligent study.  Finally, the awful ignorance which now so widely prevails upon the Spirit’s office and operations, urges us to put forth our best efforts.

Yet important as is our subject, and prominent as is the place given to it in Holy Writ, it seems that it has always met with a considerable amount of neglect and perversion. Thomas Goodwin commenced his massive work on The Work of the Holy Spirit in Our Salvation (1660) by affirming, “There is a general omission in the saints of God, in their not giving the Holy Spirit that glory that is due to His Person and for His great work of salvation in us, insomuch that we have in our hearts almost forgotten this Third Person.”  If that could be said in the midst of the balmy days of the Puritans, what language would be required to set forth the awful spiritual ignorance and impotency of this benighted 20th century!

In the Preface to his Lectures on “The Person, Godhead, and Ministry of the Holy Spirit” (1817), Robert Hawker wrote, “I am the more prompted to this service, from contemplating the present awful day of the world. Surely the ‘last days’ and the ‘perilous times,’ so expressly spoken of by the Spirit, are come (1 Timothy 4:1).  The floodgates of heresy are broken up, and are pouring forth their deadly poison in various streams through the land.  In a more daring and open manner the denial of the Person, Godhead, and Ministry of the Holy Spirit is come forward and indicates the tempest to follow.  In such a season it is needful to contend, and that, ‘earnestly, for the faith once delivered unto the saints.’  Now in a more awakened manner ought the people of God to remember the words of Jesus, and ‘to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.’”  So again, in 1880, George Smeaton wrote, “We may safely affirm that the doctrine of the Spirit is almost entirely ignored.”

And let us add, wherever little honor is done to the Spirit, there is grave cause to suspect the genuineness of any profession of Christianity.  Against this, it may he replied, such charges as the above no longer hold good.  Would to God they did not, but they do.  While it is true that during the past two generations much has been written and spoken on the person of the Spirit, yet, for the most part, it has been of a sadly inadequate and erroneous character.  Much dross has been mingled with the gold.  A fearful amount of unscriptural nonsense and fanaticism has marred the testimony.

Furthermore, it cannot be denied that it is no longer generally recognized that supernatural agency is imperatively required in order for the redemptive work of Christ to be applied to sinners.  Rather do actions show it is now widely held that if unregenerate souls are instructed in the letter of Scripture their own willpower is sufficient to enable them to “decide for Christ.”

THE PROBLEM: EFFORT IN THE FLESH

In the great majority of cases, professing Christians are too puffed up by a sense of what they suppose they are doing for God, to earnestly study what God has promised to do for and in His people.  They are so occupied with their fleshly efforts to “win souls for Christ” that they feel not their own deep need of the Spirit’s anointing. The leaders of “Christian” (?) enterprise are so concerned in multiplying “Christian workers” that quantity, not quality, is the main consideration.  How few today recognize that if the number of “missionaries” on the foreign field were increased twenty-fold the next year, that that, of itself, would not ensure the genuine salvation of one additional heathen?  Even though every new missionary were “sound in the faith” and preached only “the Truth,” that would not add one iota of spiritual power to the missionary forces, without the Holy Spirit’s unction and blessing!

The same principle holds good everywhere.  If the orthodox seminaries and the much-advertised Bible institutes turned out 100 times more men than they are now doing, the churches would not be one bit better off than they are, unless God vouchsafed a fresh outpouring of His Spirit.  In like manner, no Sunday School is strengthened by the mere multiplication of its teachers.

O my readers, face the solemn fact that the greatest lack of all in Christendom today is the absence of the Holy Spirit’s power and blessing.  Review the activities of the past 30 years.  Millions of dollars have been freely devoted to the support of professed Christian enterprises.  Bible institutes and schools have turned out “trained workers” by the thousands.  Bible conferences have sprung up on every side like mushrooms.  Countless booklets and tracts have been printed and circulated.  Time and labors have been given by an almost incalculable number of “personal workers.”  And with what results? Has the standard of personal piety advanced?  Are the churches less worldly?  Are their members more Christ-like in their daily walk?  Is there more godliness in the home?  Are the children more obedient and respectful?  Is the Sabbath Day being increasingly sanctified and kept holy?  Has the standard of honesty in business been raised?

THE NEED

Those blest with any spiritual discernment can return but one answer to the above questions.  In spite of all the huge sums of money that have been spent, in spite of all the labors which has been put forth, in spite of all the new workers that have been added to the old ones, the spirituality of Christendom is at a far lower ebb today than it was 30 years ago.  Numbers of professing Christians have increased, fleshly activities have multiplied, but spiritual power has waned.  Why?  Because there is a grieved and quenched Spirit in our midst. While His blessing is withheld there can be no improvement.  What is needed today is for the saints to get down on their faces before God, cry unto Him in the name of Christ to so work again, that what has grieved His Spirit may be put away, and the channel of blessing once more be opened.

Until the Holy Spirit is again given His rightful place in our hearts, thoughts, and activities, there can be no improvement.  Until it be recognized that we are entirely dependent upon His operations for all spiritual blessing, the root of the trouble cannot be reached.  Until it be recognized that it is “‘Not by might, (of trained workers), nor by power (of intellectual argument or persuasive appeal), but by MY SPIRIT,’ saith the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6), there will be no deliverance from that fleshly zeal which is not according to knowledge, and which is now paralyzing Christendom.  Until the Holy Spirit is honored, sought, and counted upon, the present spiritual drought must continue.  May it please our gracious God to give the writer messages and prepare the hearts of our readers to receive that which will be to His glory, the furtherance of His cause upon earth, and the good of His dear people. Brethren, pray for us.

From Studies in the Scriptures, January 1933.

Posted in A. W. Pink |

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