Category: General

God reveals Himself only to faith. Unbelief never receives anything from God. Everything we get from God, we get through faith. Righteousness cometh by faith (Philippians 3:9). Salvation cometh by faith (Ephesians 2:8). Without faith, the heavens are locked. God decreed that the just shall live by faith (Romans 1: 17). Without Faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11 :6)

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). The basis of all faith is the Word of God. The written Word is the record God gave us of His Son, the Living Word. Faith believes the record. Unbelief makes God a liar (1 John 5:10).

“He sent His Word and healed them … ” (Psalm 107:20). Here is the great secret and plan. Here is described the wonderful way of God with the children of men. The Word is the gateway to God and the supernatural. Faith believes the Word and the promises. God is faithful. He never disappoints faith in His Word. When we meet the conditions, the promises are ours.

The Bible is the story of men and women who have believed God’s Word and have performed great exploits of faith. Faith and patience inherit the promises. The Word inspires faith. Faith obtains the wonderful promises of God.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). To faith, the Scriptures are discovered to be the infallible, unfailing, eternal Words of God (Matthew 5:18). Faith regards no circumstances, favourable or unfavourable. Faith asks only, “What saith the Word?” Faith banks all, risks all on the faithfulness of God in His Word.

FAITH IN GOD AND HIS WORD IS NEVER DISAPPOINTED

Faith knows no impossibilities. To the father of the dumb boy, Jesus said, ” … If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23). He also said, “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14). The possibilities of faith are unlimited. God literally turns the universe over to faith. Did not one man bid the sun to stand still, and it obeyed? (Read Joshua 10: 12.)

Faith is not fear, but confidence and trust. Faith and fear cannot exist in the same heart. In the storm, Jesus wearied, slept. The disciples fearing, woke Him, crying, ” … Master, carest thou not that we perish?” (Mark 4:38). Awakening, He calmed the storm, and rebuked them, saying, ” … Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? … ” (Matthew 8:26).

Faith is not worry. Faith is freedom from worry. “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Worry is sin. Worry is unbelief. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).

WHY WORRY WHEN YOU CAN PRAY

Faith leaves the outcome with God. Like Esther going in to the king, ” … if l perish, I perish” (Esther4: 16).

Faith never despairs. Like Paul on the Alexandrian grain ship, when all hope had fled, cried, ” … be of good cheer: for I believe God … ” (Acts 27:25). Faith, like David at Ziklag, when all was lost and his men sought to stone him, encourages itself in the Lord (1 Samuel30:6).

“Is any thing too hard for the LORD? … ” (Genesis 18:14). ” … faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises … ” (Hebrews 11 33). Faith is the victory ( 1 John 5:4). When men believe, God works.

Have Faith In God! For faith proves the promises of God and the faithfulness of God. (Read Mark 11 :22-26.)

Faith proves the promises of God. Faith proves the faithfulness of God.

“…. let God be true, but every man a liar …” (Romans 3:4).

” … Abraham believed God … ” (Genesis 3:6). The essence of faith is simply taking God at His Word. “What more can he say than to you he hath said?” ” … he hath said … so that we may boldly say … ” (Hebrews 13:5-6). We are thrown back upon revelation, not reason. God has spoken and holy men recorded it. Back of everything stands the record. If we are to believe the Living Word, we must accept the Written Word. Jesus accepted the Old Testament as the Word of God, and He told us that His words were spirit and life. “Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus”- but how do we trust Him? The next line has it, “Just to take Him at His Word.”

Not “a feeling fond and fugitive,” not a frame of mind strenuously maintained, but a calm reliance on, “It is written,” that is it. For ” … these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). Take His Word for it!

Why don’t we hear of Hell anymore? Why don’t preachers warn of Hell fires as Jesus did (Matthew 5:22,29,30; Matthew 10:28; Matthew 25:41,46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:23-28)? The answer is found in the following statement, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

In these last days there has been a falling away from the faith (Luke 18:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:3), and a number of minsters, rather than risk losing lucrative positions, have well-nigh ceased to proclaim that everlasting punishment awaits the individual who rejects Jesus as Lord of his life. Nevertheless, it is still true that “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).

If there were not a Hell in which the sinner will have to spend a hideous eternity, Jesus would not have needed to come to earth to die for fallen man in order that those who repent, believe that He bore our sins, and shift the burden of guilt to Him (thus escaping the penalty which otherwise will be exacted by a just God) might have everlasting life.

Many people think that if they are fairly respectable and have lived in an upright manner that they will go to Heaven. Nothing is farther from the truth. The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). At a terrible cost, Jesus suffered and died for all humanity because He knew that Hell awaits those whose sins are not forgiven. Anyone who says there is no Hell is trampling Christ’s blood under foot. Before Jesus was born, the sins of those who looked forward to His first coming were rolled ahead; and, at death, these Old Testament saints went to Paradise in the lower parts of the earth, while the lost were consigned to Hades. After His death, Jesus visited this region and took the spirits of the righteous to Heaven, because He had completely atoned for their transgressions. Now, those who die go either to Heaven or Hell, depending upon whether or not they believe that Jesus rose from the grave as Lord and Saviour of mankind.

What would you think of a mother who took the labels off bottles of poison and placed them within easy reach of her children? However, many preachers who are responsible for the spiritual welfare of God’s children have removed the warning signs from false teachings, and are allowing their congregations to imbibe freely of the devil’s deadly notions, one of the most dangerous of which is the suggestion that Hell does not exist.

In earlier days, ministers were true to their trust. Jonathan Edwards, the eminent Puritan preacher, is noted, in particular, for his sermon entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” When this message was delivered, many of the members of his congregation began to weep in such distress at the realization of their lost condition that the missionary had to ask for silence so that he might continue. He told the people that the wrath of God is everlasting. “You must suffer it to all eternity: there will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery. When you look forward you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you … You will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all; you … must wear out … millions and millions of ages in wrestling and conflicting with this merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains, so that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! It is inexpressible and inconceivable: for ‘who knows the power of God’s anger?”‘

Dear friend, if you have not yet made sure that you will escape this frightful fate by asking Jesus to forgive your sins, and to accept you into the family of God, I plead with you to fall upon your knees this very moment and cry to Him, “Oh, Lord, I believe you died for me and rose again from the dead to give me eternal life, and I believe that you have borne all of my sins. Save me now, and keep me during the remainder of my earthly journey and through all the ages to come. Amen.”

Offer this prayer from your heart and He will give you a new spiritual birth so that you will pass from death unto life, and will know that Heaven (not Hell with its terrors) will be your eternal abode.

Every Christian should be looking to the Lord for something to do in the kingdom of God, and everyone ought to be asking God to honour him with a job too big for him. That’s why I pity anybody who can do everything he is trying to do, who limits himself timidly to that which he knows he can do.

What a sad thing for a Christian to say, “I’m going to serve the Lord, but I’m going to serve God strictly within the framework of my own ability to get the thing done.” If we are to accomplish what God expects of us, the improbability of our task will surely drive us to our knees with the cry, “O God, who am I?” I think it may be safely said that God is still looking for men who know their own insufficiencies so well that He can perform the miraculous through them.

A prime illustration is in the life of Moses, as recorded in Exodus chapter three. Moses asked the question, “Who am I?” in the face of a staggering call from God- a call to go back and face a hostile empire and to liberate and bring out of Egypt a whole nation of more than a million people.

Moses said, “I can’t.” God said, “Moses, I know you can’t, but go and do it!” If Moses had arisen immediately upon receiving the call, and said, “All right, when do I start?” God would have had to put him through another furnace of testing.

This is a principle so true of us all in our human experiences. Whenever I think I can stand up and say, “I am now strong enough, sufficient enough, I can do it!” then God fades out, and there comes only grief and woe and sterility and fruitlessness and, finally, eclipse.

So, we are faced with new tasks, with the need of cleansing, with the need of atonement, with the mysteries of life and death and immortality, and I say, “O God, who am I?”

And God replies, “Son, it doesn’t make too much difference who you are- I am all you need!” So, I give to you today the One Who is everything you need. Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is our holiness forevermore, redemption full and sure-He is all we need.

In this day of glorification of human talent, we are grateful for all human abilities, but we are not envious of any of it. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

It is Scripture which says, “His watchmen are … all dumb dogs, they cannot bark … ” (Isaiah 56:10). What a terrific indictment! Of what value is a “dumb dog” when danger is near and those in peril are not warned?

Who are God’s watchmen? Every Christian leader, every Christian worker, every missionary of the cross, every pastor, evangelist, Bible teacher, heads of Bible institutes, editors of Christian papers, and all true Christians are God’s appointed watchmen. God commands that they “Cry aloud, spare not… ” (Isaiah 58:1). But who today is doing this? Who is laying the needs of this fateful hour to heart? Who is sounding the alarm in Zion and blowing the trumpet in God’s holy hill? Through the lips of Jeremiah, the Lord says, ” … the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart” (Jeremiah 12:11). This is God’s indictment upon us today!

America-A Vast Sodom and Gomorrah

America is facing the greatest crisis of her history. People must be shocked and shaken loose from their deadly lethargy. The church and the nation must be aroused to instant action!

When the church was aroused by the preaching of such men as Jonathan Edwards, Peter Cartwright, Sam Jones, and Billy Sunday mighty wrongs were righted. Because of their bold and fearless denunciations against the sins of the people, the towers of iniquity tumbled into the dust. Today we need to pray for fearless, spiritual, God appointed leaders in church and nation to clean up our cities, and hurl anathemas against the liquor traffic and a thousand other evils which threaten our very existence.

Sound An Alarm

Let us quit the “Pilate act” of trying to wash our hands of the responsibility of crying out against the sinfulness of this generation! America is being driven by the forces of Hell. These forces must be checked and challenged by the forces of righteousness. America must be shaken to a deep consciousness of its need of God by God’s watchmen crying out and lashing out against the spiritual and social iniquities of this hour!

God’s watchmen may be alarmists. They may be extreme in their stand. They may be too loud, but their message is as necessary as a burglar alarm when thieves are busy.

Brethren, let us hear and heed the Word of the Lord! He commands His watchmen to “Cry aloud … ” (Isaiah 58:1), and not be ” … dumb dogs … ” (Isaiah 56:1 0). We may say it is no concern of ours; we fool ourselves, but we do not fool God.

It is my affair, and it is your affair! We think someone ought to do something about conditions- but not me! Oh, hear the Word of the Lord! “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression … ” (Isaiah 58:1). Cry aloud, then! Warn the people of impending judgment. Call them to repentance. Be no longer on of Satan’s “dumb dogs.” Be a trumpet for God!

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm … ” (Joel 2: 1) “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children … Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep …let them say, Spare my people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach … Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto His people … I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen: But I will remove far off from you the northern army … And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten … And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh … And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered … ” (Joel2: 15-32).

Who will blow the trumpet? And when the trumpet sounds, who will answer it?

The doctrine of the Lord’s return is a valuable means of motivation in relation to Christian living. Some people say that this doctrine is unimportant and not at all practical. Since it deals with the future, it is held by those who oppose it that no practical good comes by teaching it. Some even go so far as to say that those who do teach and preach it are mere visionaries and up in the air, theologically unsettled, and stargazers. It is contended that we should teach doctrines that have to do with the present realities and refrain from worrying about things that are still in the future. What about this line of argument? Is it sensible or is it based on mere prejudice and unbelief?

We observe also that many today would deny the possibility of the soon coming again of our Lord. Even in spite of the fulfilment of prophetic signs, there are many who, as our Lord prophesied in Matthew 24:48, are saying, ” … My Lord delayeth his coming.” Similarly, there are scoffers saying, ” … Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4). On the contrary, the Scriptures teach the imminent (soon to occur) return of the Lord, and we observe also that the notion that the Lord delays His coming is harmful. In the parable of Luke 12:35-48, concerning the returning lord and the waiting servants, that notion led to beating of fellow servants and to evil excesses and careless living. This can be one of the terrible dangers of so called Post-millennialism. Put the coming of Christ away off and you will have a worldly and factious church.

Many professing churches of today, instead of seeking to win souls along Scriptural lines and seeking through the preaching of the Word to edify the believers, have become apathetic and are nothing more than religious clubs. Feasting, sporting, dancing, fairs, banquets, entertainment, and all types of flesh gratifying things are now the order of the day. On the contrary, the honest belief in the imminent and premillennial coming of Jesus leads to sanctification of life, separation from the evils of the age, as well as to earnest, urgent evangelism and faithful preaching of the Word of God. When we take the Bible in hand and open its pages and carefully study its teachings, we readily come to the conclusion that any contention against the imminent premillennial return of Christ is founded on prejudice and unbelief, and has no scriptural foundation at all.

The Bible most assuredly has a great deal to say about this doctrine. It is interwoven in the very fabric of Scripture and referred to directly and indirectly some three hundred times in the New Testament, and about one thousand two hundred times in the entire Bible. It is a vital part of Bible doctrine, promise, exhortation, duty, virtue, and practical Christian living. It is so thoroughly interwoven in the fabric of Scripture that if it is rejected the Scriptures themselves will be mutilated and made practically useless. If we accept the Scriptures at all, then we must, by the force of commonsense and honesty, accept the doctrine of the Second Coming of the Lord as authentic, imminent and important. This fact of the Lord’s second coming will have a very practical effect on your whole way of life and our attitudes.

Let us observe a few aspects of the practical nature of believing and teaching the Second Coming message:

1. The truth of the Lord’s soon return will cause the believer to be alert regarding behaviour, service, and consistent witnessing for Christ. We are exhorted to so abide in Him as to be rewarded rather than rebuked at Jesus’ coming. 1 John 2:28, ” … abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.”

2. This truth has a powerful appeal to holiness and purity of life. Titus 2:12-13, “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

3. The doctrine of the Lord’s return is bound up with the appeal to watchfulness and Christian behaviour. Matthew 24:42, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

4. This message is associated with teaching about our love of God and patient waiting for Christ. (Read 2 Thessalonians 3:5 and James5:8.)

5. In view of the soon coming of Christ, we are exhorted to abound in love to one another and indeed all people. 1 Thessalonians 3:12, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men … “

6. The doctrine of our Lord’s return is bound up with exhortation concerning our Christian walk or manner of life. We are to press onward and upward with Heaven in focus while we look for our soon-coming Lord. Philippians 3:20, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Read Philippians 3: 12-21.)

7. Paul exhorts Timothy in 1 Timothy 6: 11-14, in view of the soon coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, to “Fight the good fight of faith … ” (verse 12).

8. Similarly, in 2 Timothy 4:1-8, Paul uses this doctrine as a challenge to fidelity in pastoral and preaching service.

9. This great truth is used in Hebrews 10 as an exhortation to steadfastness, and this includes a solemn appeal concerning corporate worship and encouragement. We might here also recall 1 Corinthians 11 :26 and Paul’s reference to keeping the Lord’s Supper to remember our Lord’s death until He comes again.

10. If we need assurance and encouragement in this sad and grief-stricken world, what an encouragement is had in remembering the future hope. For the Scriptures use this messages as a word of encouragement and comfort to the bereaved. (Read 1 Thessalonians 4: 18; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; and Luke 21 :28.)

11. There is hardly any more practical and pertinent appeal than the one that says, ” … be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44). The truth of the Second Coming is one of the most powerful motivating truths for the preparation of our personal life, and gives a most solemn warning to those who are outside of Christ.

Much more could be stated about the practical value of the great truth of the Lord’s soon return. From what the Scriptures teach about this doctrine, we cannot deny its prominence or its importance. Take away this truth and you do despite to the Gospel and greatly imperil the lives of men and women. Let us who still believe the Scripture teach this blessed doctrine in all faithfulness and earnestness.

Nothing recovers evangelical fervour or rekindles a passion of holy zeal or gives a yearning for practical sanctification as much as a realization of the great fact that Jesus will come again to receive those who are ready unto Himself, and that He may come at any moment.

There are many true believers who are not enjoying the fulness of the Spirit as they should. They need a crisis, a step of surrender and faith, a yielding to the control of the Holy Spirit who dwells within.

There is one great crisis taught in Scripture, the crisis at regeneration, passing from death to life, from darkness to light. The normal life for a Christian is to go on in the power of the Spirit, abiding in Christ, and growing in grace. But what of the Christian who is not doing this, who is defeated and dissatisfied, who perhaps has not had a clear-cut experience of conversion? He needs a crisis! Not a second work of grace, but getting back to what he had, or entering into the realization of what salvation means.

Let us not limit God in his working and let us not fail to be ready for new and great outpourings of the Holy Spirit in the closing days of this age. For the days are upon us when nothing will avail to break through the overwhelming power of the enemy except supernatural power beyond what most Christians have known anything about.

There is a great and mighty power awaiting any Christian who will truly believe the Word of God. For no part of the word of God is void of mighty power.

Here is a missionary who has had miracles of answered prayer and marvels of God’s grace at home and abroad. The great flood-tide of new power came into this missionary’s life through accepting our Lord’s prayer promise in John 14:12-14,”… He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do … whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do … Here is another missionary whose testimony for Christ is beginning to shake a whole continent; his transformation came, and his whole being was shaken with joy and power when he realized the meaning of the words that “… Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates” (2 Corinthians 13:5). This young missionary’s hunger for God was stirred by Hudson Taylor’s testimony of the transformation of his own life through learning the meaning offaith; then it was that Hudson Taylor entered into the meaning of John 4:14,”… whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst … “”

We might go on and tell of the miracles that followed when some Word of God was believed. I am thinking of miracles wrought through Christians who believed one or another of these mighty words: ” … Have faith in God” (Mark 11 :22); “… My grace is sufficient for thee …” (2 Corinthians 12:9); “… yield yourselves unto God … ” (Romans 6: 13); “For to me to live is Christ … ” (Philippians 1:21 ); ” … God is faithful…” (1 Corinthians 10: 13).

All the most mighty promises of supernatural power are conditional upon that which is simplest in the Christian life – believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to those who believe that the rivers of living water are promised (John 7:37-39). It is those who believe on Him who shall do greater works than those Christ did in the days of His flesh (John 14:12). Faith is the key that unlocks the reservoirs of power laid up for us in Christ, which the blessed Holy Spirit is eager to make available in our lives (Mark 11:22; John 16:14-15). Whatever the mystery of His working, ours is to yield and to believe. This is all we can do (Romans 6:13).

In the Middle Ages, as the lord of a manor lay critically ill, he asked a servant, “What do I have to do to go to Heaven?”

The servant replied, “Go to the pigsty, get on your knees in the mire and muck and pray, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!”

The lord said, “I couldn’t possibly do that.”

The servant went away.

When the lord’s sickness became worse, he sent for the servant again and asked, “What did you say that I would have to do to go to Heaven?”

The servant said, “Sire, you will have to go to the pigsty, get on , your knees and pray, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!”‘

“Well,” said the lord, “if that is what I have to do, I am ready to do it!”

The old servant smiled and said, “Sire, you don’t really have to go, but you have to be willing to go!”

Psalm 10:4 says, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thought.”

Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).

Are you willing to come to Jesus to be saved?

If you are, please contact us at All the Counsel of God Ministry (allthecounselofgod@gmail.com)

The blood is important because “… the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1 :7). It is through the blood that we have redemption, “…for thou…hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

Through the blood we have “…propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Through the blood we have forgiveness from sin, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Through the blood we have peace with God, “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross … ” (Colossians 1 :20).

Through the blood we have nearness to God, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2: 13).

Through the blood of Christ we are sanctified, “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13: 12).

Through the blood we have cleansing from sin as we walk in the light as He is in the light, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1 :7).

Through the blood of Christ we shall have victory over Satan in the last and final conflict, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Revelation 12: 11 ).

There is no salvation without the blood of Jesus. Beware of any religion without the blood! There may be solemn services, but without the blood there is no life. There may be splendid ceremonies, beautiful music, scholarly preachers, but without the blood of Jesus there is no life.

There are various features of the work of the Holy Spirit of which it is interesting and important to distinguish. We know that He is the active Agent of all God’s work. Thus, in connection with creation, we read that, “… the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1 :2). So, too, in God’s providential care and the administration of order upon the earth, no doubt, the Spirit is the Agent. But in speaking of that work which is connected with salvation, it is important to distinguish between what is common to all time and what is limited to the present dispensation.

1. NEW BIRTH. ” … Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Water is a type in Scripture of the Word of God, the instrumentality used by the Holy Spirit. In the same connection, our blessed Lord declares, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh … ” (John 3:6) or, as we read elsewhere, ” … they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). Thus, if one is ever saved, irrespective of what dispensation he may have lived in, new birth has necessarily taken place. One would be without the faculty of enjoying God – he could not endure His presence – unless he had a nature imparted by the Holy Spirit in new birth, capable of such a relationship. As birth brings one into the natural family, so new birth, by the Holy Spirit, brings one into the family of God, of which the saints in all ages and dispensations are members, by faith in the Word.

2. SEALING AND EARNEST. “…In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession … ” (Ephesians 1: 13-14).

This is a distinctive truth for the present dispensation alone. We never read of Old Testament saints being sealed with the Holy Spirit, for the simple reason that the Holy Spirit was not given until Jesus was glorified (John 7). The gift of the Spirit was bestowed at Pentecost, and, ever since, believers have received this divine sealing. Its meaning is very plain. A seal is a mark of ownership with which no one can interfere. No one dare disturb that which is marked as belonging to God. What a wondrous mark this is! A present, living, divine Being, the Holy Spirit! Each one who has believed, no matter how feebly, or how little his apprehension, has received this seal of the living God. It is a great mistake to confine this to those who have made special attainment in knowledge, or even have a full and distinct apprehension of all that the Gospel means. If there has been faith to touch ” … the border of His garment … ” (Luke 8:44), a single look of faith at Christ, God seals the soul; not according to its measure of apprehension, which would be incomplete in any of us, but according to His knowledge of the value of Christ and His work.

Closely connected with sealing is ” … the earnest of the Spirit … ” (2 Corinthians 1 :22). The “earnest” means a pledge and a foretaste. As the “sealing” is upon the ground of the finished work of Christ, so the “earnest” looks forward to the coming inheritance. It is thus a pledge that those who are marked as belonging to God shall be brought into the full fruition of redemption in glory; and during all this time the believer has the Spirit abiding in him, according to our Lord’s promise in John.

3. THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body … ” (1 Corinthians 12: 13).

When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He took up His abode not only in the individual believer, but formed that assembly of God which is the body of Christ upon earth. He links each believer with Christ and unites them as members one of another, each in his appointed place in that body upon earth. The moment one believes, he is united to Christ and united to that one body which is the only true church, composed of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4).

The Spirit, who has put us into the body of Christ, endows each one of us with the special functions appropriate to our individual membership. As the body emphasizes the unity of the church of Christ, so the gifts declare the variety of individual activities in that body, ” … all members have not the same office” (Romans 12:4). As each member of the body has its own special function, so every single believer in the body of Christ has a function which none else can perform and which, if neglected by him, affects the entire body. The Spirit has qualified each one of us for just the work that is our privilege to perform. All that is needed is an ungrieved Spirit and abiding communion, and we will, by the very nature of our gift, make use of it.

5. THE ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT. “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you … ” (1 John 2:27).

This is partly what is suggested by the anointing. It was the mark of induction into office in the Old Testament, whether priestly, kingly, or prophetic; but apart from its official significance, it was typical of the bestowal of power, enabling for the right fulfilment of official duties. Thus, in the anointing of the Spirit, we have no mere official designation of our position in the body of Christ, but rather that endowment of power which enables us for every true activity. This includes instruction in the Word of God and the power of testimony and indeed of the entire life.

6. THE FILLING WITH THE SPIRIT. “…but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5: 18).

This is in contrast with the mere stimulus of human energy, however given. We have the Spirit dwelling in us, but, alas, we may not be filled with the Spirit. Mind and heart may be occupied by other thoughts, so that practically the Spirit has not control in every department of the life. This is intensely practical. If one is to be used of God, if the anointing which we have received is to be practically manifested, it must be in a Spirit-filled life, the opposite of which is the allowance of anything which would grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

7. THE LONGINGS OF THE SPIRIT. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come … ” (Revelation 22: 17).

The blessed Spirit of God has come to glorify Christ. This is His one object in whatever form His activity may appear. Therefore, He forms in the heart of the Lord’s people the longing for His coming again. This has precedence over everything else. No attainment, growth in grace, service, nor Gospel testimony can usurp the mastering desire which the Spirit produces, when unhindered in the hearts of the saints, for the coming of the Lord Jesus. In proportion as He fills the heart and life, the cry will be, ” … Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20). May this be true of us all!