THE SPIRIT OF GOD

Let us remember that God never gives us instruction in His Word that is impossible to carry out. No, God has set the believer in the most blessed position of being "in Christ," and now tells him to live up to the position in which he has been placed. God gives us all the instruction we need for this in His Word, and gives us the power to do it. That power is the Spirit of God.

Only the Spirit of God can minister Christ to our souls and take us right out of ourselves. Romans 8 brings this before us: "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8:5, 6)

We may well ask what it means to be "spiritually minded." If we are truly saved, we have life in Christ. It is the more abundant life about which the Lord Jesus spoke in John 10:10, and is meant to be lived in the power of the Spirit of God. This is very much neglected among Christians today, for instead of being led by the Spirit, we try to live the new life in our own strength.

Recently I read a book written by a Christian on the subject of knowing the will of God. His whole thrust was that we had to use our own judgment within the framework of the Word of God, and that as long as what we wanted to do was not contrary to the Word of God, we could feel free to use our own best judgment in making a decision. This is totally contrary to what is taught in the New Testament, for we are to live, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

In John 14:16, the Lord Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the "Comforter," and tells us that He will send Him to abide with us forever. Perhaps "comforter" is the best word we have in English, but it does not adequately convey the thought contained in the original Greek word "paraclete." This word is also translated "advocate" in 1 John 2:1, and means "one who takes charge of and looks after all your affairs." Do we realize that we have a Person of the Godhead dwelling within us to look after us in every possible way? Yes, He is here to do that, but do we let Him lead and guide as we should? Or do we trust our own thoughts, our own strength, and grieve Him by allowing sin in our lives?

We do not have to ask or prompt the Spirit of God to guide us. Rather we have to be careful to remove the hindrances to His working. When we are in a good state of soul, and have no unjudged sin on our conscience, then the Spirit of God occupies us with Christ, and brings joy to our hearts. When we have sinned, then the Spirit of God must occupy us with that sin until we confess it and experience God's forgiveness (1 John 1:9).

We see then that the Spirit of God is the power of the new life we have in Christ, but that sin which is allowed in our lives grieves the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), and prevents Him from carrying out His true work. We are responsible to deal with the hindrances to His work, and this is subject of our next section.

SELF-JUDGMENT

We have seen that we are to reckon ourselves to be "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:11). When we have seen our true Christian position as being dead, buried and risen with Christ, then we can never be satisfied with anything less than this for ourselves. By faith we accept what the death of Christ has done for us and accept the fact that we are dead and risen with Him. But how easily we fall back into our old ways! We must go to 2 Corinthians 4 to find how this tendency is to be overcome.

2 Corinthians 4:10 reads, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." This is a step farther than reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin. We may take this blessed position before God, and it is right to do so, but then we find that our old, sinful nature does not take kindly to being put in the place of death [i.e. separation]. We find that Satan does not leave us alone just because we view ourselves as God sees us, as dead and risen with Christ. The more we want to live for Christ, the more the sinful nature will rear its head. More than this, every new truth that the Spirit of God reveals to us will find its corresponding rejection in some part of my sinful nature.

When I was younger, I used to look at older ones who seemed to be walking with the Lord, and it seemed that the sinful nature became "burned out" after a while. As I got older I realized how untrue this was. It was rather that those who seemed to be walking with the Lord had learned in their measure not to have any confidence in that sinful nature. They had learned the truth of this verse, that it is a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment exercise of self-judgment to keep the sinful nature in the place of death [i.e. separation].

There is a very special significance to the way this verse is worded. Notice that it does not say, "Always bearing about in the body the fact that I am dead to sin." No, we are to bear about in our bodies "the dying of the Lord Jesus." It is the practical reality of applying the death sentence to the desires of our natural bodies. The Lord Jesus appeals to our hearts, and reminds us that it cost Him His life in order that our "old man" might be "crucified with Him."

We will never be able to walk properly as Christians unless we are continually brought back to the cross. It is not enough for us to know in an intellectual way that God sees our old man as crucified with Christ, and that we are dead to sin. It is not enough for us to know in our minds that God wants us to be occupied with Christ, and not with ourselves. We will continually fail unless our hearts are touched by the fact that it cost our Saviour His life so that we might be able to reckon ourselves as "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God." We will never be able to separate from this world in a right way unless we remember that it was this world that put our Saviour on the cross. God appeals to our hearts rather than our intellects, for it is only when our hearts are right that we can live the Christian life properly.

It is not the one who knows the most who makes the best Christian, but the one who loves the most. I would encourage you to read the Word of God and also the good, written ministry that is available, because they bring Christ before you. But knowledge itself will not keep you focused – the Person of Christ must be precious to you. Sometimes we see a simple believer who knows relatively little about the Scriptures, but who seems to be closer to the Lord than we are and seems to have more joy in his soul. Perhaps we have been brought up in a Christian home, and have heard these things from our earliest years. We may have been saved for many years, and know so much more. Why do we not have that joy? It is because that simple believer is enjoying what he does know of Christ, while we have allowed some hindrance to come in.

Perhaps you say, "How do I get that love in my heart for the Lord? I want to love Him more!" A brother now with the Lord used to remind us constantly, "Never try to love the Lord any more than you do! Just think of how much He loves you!" If we have been taken back to the cross and are occupied with the Lord's love for us, then our love will flow back to Him, and we will find that these things will become clearer to us.

I can hear some of you saying, "But you don't know the difficulties and problems in my life. You don't know the home I come from, the job situation that I have to face every day. You don't know the loneliness and the temptations that I have to cope with. It is easy to talk about these things, but it is hard to put them into practice!"

To answer this objection, let us read Jeremiah 2:13: "For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." A fountain is a continual source of water, while a cistern is only a place to store water that has been put into it. A cistern is a good thing, but if there is a crack in it all the water runs out, and it is useless. We should ask ourselves which we are going to have, the fountain or the broken cistern? We may find ourselves looking at this world and saying that we have to have companionship. If we cannot get Christian companionship, then perhaps we look for worldly companionship. Others may look at material things, or a career, thinking that it will satisfy them. Some who are older may focus on their families, or travel, or a hobby. While there is nothing inherently wrong in some of these things, we have to realize that they are all broken cisterns. The truth must get hold of my soul that only Christ can satisfy my heart.

What about service for the Lord? I may say to myself that I will go out and preach the Gospel – perhaps that will satisfy my heart. I may want to go to some foreign field and serve the Lord. Or I may make the local assembly my focus, and turn all my energies towards making it a happy place, because I want to see it grow, and see my brethren encouraged. Will any of these things make me happy? No, they will not. "But," some may say, "are not all of those things good things to do? Does not the Lord tell us to preach the Gospel, and to encourage other believers?" Yes, but they fall short of the highest motive God has set before us. In all of these things, our sights are too low. If I set out to preach the Gospel and perhaps do not see much blessing, I will tend to become discouraged. If I set out to make my family my focus, I may well neglect what is due to the Lord.

What is the answer to it all? The Word of God teaches us to have our sights above it all, on Christ Himself. When He is before us, we do not depend on anything down here for our happiness. He is unchanging, and when our hearts are occupied with Him, there is a steadiness, a calmness, a peace that nothing can shake. If our joy depends on anything down here, even the best things, then our state of soul will go up and down depending on how things are going down here. God wants to lift us above it all.

Will being occupied with Christ make us neglect our responsibilities down here? No, for the thought that we want to please Him in all things makes us want to do everything for Him and in the best possible way. We will not neglect our work, our family, the local assembly or even ourselves. But they will not be our object – rather we will want to do everything for Christ.

One of the biggest problems among Christians today is that we are using the failures of others in the body of Christ as an excuse for our own failures. We are making our joy dependent on the behavior of others and our ability to live as Christians dependent on how others walk.

I say with complete conviction that our joy in Christ should not depend on anyone else. If it does, then we have allowed something to come between us and the Lord, and He loves us too much to let us be truly happy under such circumstances. Our happiness may last for a while, but then the Lord will test us, perhaps by removing that one on whom our happiness depends, or permitting some trial to come into our lives. Then it becomes clear that others and other things are really our object, and not Christ.

I knew a brother who moved away from the assembly where he was because things were difficult there. He thought that if he took his family to another place things would be better and his family would be happier in the Lord. It did not work, because neither our brethren nor the assembly should be the source of our joy. If we cannot overcome in the situation where we are, we will not be able to overcome anywhere. This applies to a family situation, a work problem, the local assembly, or any other situation. Christ is able to give the grace for any circumstance in which He places us. My brethren may be a real encouragement, and a happy assembly is a great blessing, but both are helpful only to the extent that they bring Christ before me.

Of course, the Lord may sometimes lead us to change our circumstances, and in doing so may remove us from a difficult situation. Then we can be thankful for the removal of the trial, and take it from the Lord. But only the Lord can guide us in such cases, and we should be much before Him, lest we make the move for our own reasons, and not because it is His mind.

I should make it clear that I am not speaking about a situation where the Lord would not have us. Sometimes we ask the Lord for His help in a situation where His only will for us is that we should not be there at all. In such a case, we must leave that situation whatever the cost. We cannot overcome where we are in direct disobedience to the Word of God. But in a situation where the Lord has placed us, we should submit to what He has allowed and learn the lesson He is teaching us. ¢

To be continued in the next edition of the GFJ.

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