Please turn to 2 Corinthians 4:2.
But we have rejected the hidden things of shame,
not walking in deceit, nor handling the word of God deceitfully;
but by the manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
Also turn to 1 Corinthians 12:7.
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for gathering us together here this morning. We know that whenever we gather together unto Thy name, there is Thy presence. We are standing on holy ground.
We want to remove our shoes from our feet and bow down before Thee. We ask, “Lord, what hast Thou to say to us?” Speak, for Thy servants hear.
Oh, how we pray and thank Thee that, even in these last days and late hours, Thou still dost desire to speak to Thy people. We pray that Thou wilt give us a hearing heart, an eager heart, that Thy word may really fall into good ground and bear fruit unto Thyself.
Our heart’s desire is that Thou mayest be glorified in the midst of Thy people. We want to give Thee all the glory. In the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We thank God for gathering us together again this year. Every time God’s people are privileged to meet together, I feel most grateful to God. We do not know how many more times there will be that we can gather in this way. Every time He gathers us, He wants to bless us.
Some of you who have been with us during the past two years know that two years ago the theme of our conference was knowing God—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Last year, our theme was knowing Christ: knowing His death, His resurrection, and His ascension.
This time our theme is knowing the Holy Spirit.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, when we mention God the Father, it seems that we are able to understand Him in a limited way because we have our earthly fathers. By knowing our earthly fathers, we come into a small understanding of our heavenly Father.
When we mention knowing the Lord Jesus, it seems that there is something to which we can relate, because our Lord Jesus came into this world to be a man. He is in every way the same as we are, even though He is in every way different from us. Yet we find there is a kind of relationship.
But when we come to the Holy Spirit, it seems that we have nothing upon which to base our understanding. We have no image to which we can look. That is the reason why the Holy Spirit is so much misunderstood.
Our prayer and desire is that, by the grace of God, this time the Lord will reveal the Holy Spirit to us, that we may know Him in a living way.
Our two brothers have already shared with us on the Holy Spirit. One brother shared with us on the person of the Holy Spirit. I feel that this is the most important thing that we need to understand.
The Holy Spirit is not an “it,” a thing. The Holy Spirit is not just an influence. The Holy Spirit is a person—not just any person. He is the divine Person. He is God Himself. I think this is so important to us.
Our brother Christian has shared with us on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. All the work of God is entrusted to the Holy Spirit. Thank God for the words that have been released.
My part is on the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Now, the word manifestation means to make something clear, to make something visible, to make something known. It is to disclose and to display.
In other words, what is hidden is now made visible; what is unknown is made known; what is dim is now made very clear.
So, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit simply means this: the Holy Spirit is Spirit. We cannot see Him; He is invisible. But there is a way in which He makes Himself visible to us.
The Holy Spirit is a great unknown. But thank God, the Holy Spirit has a way to make Himself known to us.
This word manifestation in the New Testament is used only twice in the original language, and only in the two verses that we have read.
In 2 Corinthians 4:2, it is the manifestation of the truth. Truth is reality. Truth is not just a teaching. Truth is not just a doctrine. Truth is that ultimate reality; it is something real and living.
We know that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He comes to manifest the truth in a living way. The manifestation of truth is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit Himself, because He is the One who makes truth living, real, and operative in our lives.
When the Holy Spirit comes, He leads us into all truth. It is more than His making us understand truths intellectually. He leads us into the truth so that these truths may become real, living experiences in our lives.
How are these truths manifested? They are manifested in lives. In our lives, these truths may be manifested. Here we find that the matter of manifestation touches our inward character. This is a matter of life.
The Holy Spirit manifests Himself by bringing life into us, changing our lives, transforming us, and conforming us to the image of Christ. This is one manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Then, in 1 Corinthians 12:7, we find that the Holy Spirit manifests Himself by giving gifts to men. Through these gifts, the body of Christ may be built up.
In this aspect of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the emphasis is more on power and gifts. In the other manifestation, the emphasis is more on the Person and on life. One is for service; the other is for living.
We find that the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in these two different aspects. Our two brothers have already mentioned these two aspects, so I would only try to re-emphasize them.
This is also the difference between the Gospel according to John and the writings of Luke. John and Luke have different emphases on the matter of the Holy Spirit.
John is a person who always goes back to the very beginning. When you go back to the very beginning, you touch the Person of God.
In the beginning was the Word.
—John 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
—Genesis 1:1
In the writings of John, he always leads us back to the very beginning—to God Himself, to the Person of our God. John is not concerned with outward appearance, form, or organization. There is nothing technical in John’s writing. All his writing is centered upon life, upon something spiritual.
Therefore, when you come to this matter of the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel, you find that our Lord Jesus mentioned the Holy Spirit during that last night before His betrayal, as He gathered with His disciples.
Even though His disciples did not really understand what was going to happen, when our Lord Jesus told them that He was going, they felt very sorrowful. In order to comfort them, you find in John 14 that our Lord Jesus said:
I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may be with you for ever.
—John 14:16
Our Lord Jesus Himself was the Comforter to the disciples because He was alongside them, helping them all the time. But now He was leaving, and His disciples felt that they were left as orphans.
But the Lord said, “No. I promise you, I will ask of the Father and send another Comforter to you.” Now, “another” means another of the same kind, not another of a different kind. In other words, the other Comforter is the same as the first Comforter—exactly the same.
The only difference is that the first Comforter, our Lord Jesus, was leaving. He had been with them for three years. He always took care of them and taught them. But now He was leaving because, at that time, He was in the flesh.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among men, full of grace and truth. In that physical body, He declared the Father to us, and in that same body He accomplished the work of redemption on the cross.
But as long as He was in that body, He was restricted by the physical body. When He sent the disciples out, He was not with them. All that our Lord could do was to be with them as much as possible. But one day He would be leaving.
The other Comforter whom He promised to send to the disciples is exactly the same as our Lord Jesus—nothing more, nothing less. Yet there is a difference: He is Spirit. He is not limited by time and space. He is able to come into us and to be with us all the time. Wherever we go, He goes. We can never leave Him behind.
Now, what is meant by the word Comforter? I think the best explanation is that the Comforter, in old English, is the advocate.
When we think of an advocate, we think of a lawyer today. When we have a case, he comes and represents us and pleads our cause. But in the old days, an advocate was a person who would do four things:
He is like a manager who manages everything for his client. So, when our Lord said, “I will send you another Comforter,” what did He mean? Who is this client? Whom will He represent?
Oftentimes, when we think of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, we think that we are His client. But, brothers and sisters, the client of the Comforter is the first Comforter. In other words, His client is none other than our Lord Jesus Himself.
The Comforter represents Christ. He pleads the cause of Christ. Is this not very true? The Holy Spirit in you is not pleading your cause. He is often on the other side, pleading the cause of Christ.
He is in us to protect the name of our Lord Jesus, and He is to manage all the affairs of our Lord. This is the other Comforter.
We find that He is a divine Person. He is one with Christ, as the Father and the Son are one. The Holy Spirit and the Son are one.
Even though our Lord Jesus has ascended on high and is no longer with us in a physical sense, in a spiritual sense He is still with us. How? By the Holy Spirit.
As our brother already said, when the Holy Spirit dwells in us, the Son dwells in us. All that is of God dwells in us.
When our Lord was on earth, He had a difficulty with His disciples because our Lord is so heavenly and His disciples were so earthly. Our Lord is so spiritual, and His disciples were so carnal. Our Lord is so otherworldly, and the disciples belonged to the world.
Even though they believed in the Lord Jesus, their minds were still natural. When you read the four Gospels, you find that our Lord was often frustrated. Whenever He spoke about something, the disciples understood it in another way.
For instance, when He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,” immediately the disciples said, “We forgot to bring bread.” The Lord said, “I am not talking about bread. Do you remember how five loaves and two fishes fed five thousand people? Bread is no problem.”
Then the disciples realized that He was speaking about the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Even during the last night before His betrayal, Philip could still ask, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.”
How frustrated our Lord was. The Lord said, “Have I been with you all this time, and dost thou still ask to see the Father? Do you not know that if you see Me, you see the Father?”
But they did not understand. Why? Because they did not have the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal spiritual things to us. With our natural ability, we are not able to grasp spiritual things. No. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal spiritual things.
So our Lord Jesus said, “I will ask the Father to give you another Comforter. In that day, you will know that I am in the Father, the Father is in Me, I am in you, and you are in Me.”
In that day, you will understand. Before that day, you would not be able to understand. Then you will understand spiritual things—things that are real and eternal.
How can the Father be in the Son, and the Son in the Father? How can the Son be in us, and we in Him? This indwelling reality can be understood only when the Holy Spirit comes.
Now, brothers and sisters, which is that day? There are different opinions about it, but I can only share with you what I understand.
Our brother Lance mentioned last night that, on the day of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, that very night the disciples were gathered in a room with the doors shut. Suddenly, our Lord appeared to them.
In John 20, when our Lord appeared to them, He breathed into them and said:
Receive ye the Holy Spirit.
—John 20:22
You remember when God created man: He breathed into the nostrils of man, and man became a living soul. Here you find our Lord Jesus breathing into these disciples and saying, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”
Can it be only symbolic? It does not look like it. God deals with reality; He is not just dealing with symbolism.
Personally, I believe that the promise of the Son concerning the Holy Spirit was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection, because our Lord Jesus had already accomplished the work of redemption. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was given.
Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, how could the one hundred and twenty pray with one accord for ten days? Where did Peter receive the understanding that another apostle should be appointed?
The promise of the Holy Spirit as a divine Person was given to us by the Son, and that promise was fulfilled on the day of His resurrection. Therefore, understanding was given.
This is one aspect of the Holy Spirit: He is a divine Person, He dwells in us, and He teaches us in all things.
Then, when you come to the writings of Luke, you find that before the ascension of our Lord Jesus, the Lord said, “Wait in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father.”
That is, “You will be clothed with power from on high.” Then, in Acts 1, before the ascension of our Lord Jesus, He said the same thing to the disciples: “Wait in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father.”
The Holy Spirit will be poured out upon you, and then you will be My witnesses. You will preach the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Notice here that the Holy Spirit is promised by the Father, and that promise concerns the power of the Holy Spirit. When that power comes, they will be clothed with power from on high.
This is not in them; this will be upon them. You see the difference here. This power is for service. It is for the sake of the work. Its fulfillment was on the day of Pentecost.
You can see these two aspects of the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit is a divine Person, and He is to dwell in us. He is there for life, that we may be like our Lord Jesus. This will be our testimony.
On the other hand, the Holy Spirit is power. It is not an impersonal Spirit, but the power itself is impersonal. It is from on high; it is upon us; we are clothed with it. It is for the sake of witnessing and service.
Even though there are these two different approaches and aspects of the Holy Spirit, yet it is the one Spirit.
Another thing you may notice is this: What should be our attitude toward the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the divine Person. How should we respond to this divine Person?
In Acts 5:32, it says that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Because He is the divine Person, we must obey Him.
Do you know that the Holy Spirit who dwells in you is God? He is a divine Person. To that divine Person, there is only one thing you can do: obey Him.
We need to obey the Holy Spirit and do everything that He commands us. Do not neglect Him. Do not quench Him. Do not grieve Him. Our only way to respond to the Holy Spirit is to obey, because we are dealing with the divine Person. We are dealing with God Himself.
Now, how about the power? The power is also the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Yet that is power, not the Person. The power comes from that Person, but the power itself is impersonal.
In 1 Corinthians 14:32, you find that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
In other words, the spirit of the prophet is the power of the Holy Spirit. Because it is a power given, the prophet has to control that power. The prophet cannot simply be moved by the power without any control. The prophet has to use that power wisely.
In these two aspects of the Holy Spirit, these two manifestations, we have to be very careful.
Unfortunately, in Christianity there are two schools concerning this matter of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
One school emphasizes totally the inward aspect. They emphasize holiness, the higher Christian life, and the need to obey the Holy Spirit. They speak of absolute surrender and abandonment to the Holy Spirit, so that He may transform our lives and that we may grow spiritually.
That is one school found in Christianity. The Keswick school belongs to that school.
Then there is another school whose emphasis is on power. What we need, they say, is power. Therefore, you find that this is the emphasis of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements.
But these two aspects, though distinguishable, cannot be separated. We need to distinguish them, so that we will know how to deal with the Holy Spirit, but they cannot be separated because it is one Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one Spirit.
When you separate these two things, you find that these two schools seem to argue with one another. The result is that those who emphasize the Person of the Holy Spirit and learn to surrender completely to that divine Person often do grow in spiritual life.
There is such a demonstration of the life of Christ in these people. But unfortunately, many of them who have this deeper life with the Lord turn so inward that there is less expression. You find a lack of power. What they have within them has no channel through which to be expressed.
On the other hand, those who emphasize power may have a great demonstration of gifts, and there seems to be great power. But unfortunately, their lives may still remain as babes. Their minds are immature. You do not see the corresponding life in them.
That is a tragedy today. What we need, by the grace of God, is a balanced and unified understanding.
On the one hand, we need to know the Holy Spirit Himself. Without knowing the Holy Spirit Himself, our spiritual life will never grow. The more you obey Him, the more the life of Christ increases in you.
On the other hand, we need to know the power of the Holy Spirit and know how to use the gifts He gives to us for the building up of the body of Christ.
My burden is to speak about these manifestations. This morning, I would like to begin with the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in grace—knowing Him as a Person.
Let us turn to Galatians 5:22-23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control;
against such there is no law.
Also turn to 2 Corinthians 3:18.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit.
When the apostle Paul blessed the church in Corinth, in 2 Corinthians 13:14, he said:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.
Here you find the Trinity. We find the love of God, and we find the grace of our Lord Jesus. How do we know the love of God? How do we experience the grace of the Lord Jesus? All these are through the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Without the work of the Holy Spirit, the love of God is always there, but we have no relationship to that love. No matter how loving He is, we are not able to enjoy that love.
The grace of our Lord Jesus is tremendous; it is infinite. Yet without the Holy Spirit, we cannot even taste a little of the grace of our Lord Jesus.
What God has planned and what the Son has accomplished, the Holy Spirit communicates to us. The Holy Spirit is a great communicator. Our whole spiritual life is involved with the Holy Spirit.
We would like to approach this from experience. Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we had no real sense of sin. We had no real understanding of righteousness, and we did not really know what judgment was.
Even though we all felt that we were not perfect, we did not really have a sense of sin.
I remember before I believed in the Lord Jesus. I was raised in a Christian family and educated in a Christian school. I knew about the Bible from my childhood. I knew that all had sinned and come short of the glory of God, but I did not really know what sin was.
I always felt that I was all right. I was not perfect, but I was okay. I even thought that I did not need the Lord Jesus. He came to save sinners, but I was not a sinner. I had some faults, but everybody has faults. Therefore, I did not feel the need of a Savior.
Even though I had heard all these teachings from my childhood, I had no sense of the sinfulness of sin.
Not until I was fourteen did the Holy Spirit begin to work in me. Nobody pointed his finger at me, yet the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin.
I felt that, from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, there was nothing good. Even though at that time I was only fourteen or fifteen, sometimes when I was alone I wept over my sin. I wept over my sin.
I began to realize that I needed a Savior. I knew that Jesus is the Savior of the world. I began to seek Him, but somehow He evaded me. For a whole year, I sought after Him. I wanted to be saved, but I was not saved.
But one day the Lord opened my understanding. I do not know how. I just believed that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Who did this work in me? Nobody but the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. That is the beginning of our Christian life.
Of course, we know from John 3 that that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who begets us.
Yet, even though we are begotten by the Holy Spirit, we do not see Him. We do not know Him, and we do not even know that He is there.
How do we know the Holy Spirit? How do we know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us? How does He make Himself known to us?
I believe, brothers and sisters, that we all have some spiritual experiences. I love the story in Against the Tide. I do not know whether the young people have read that book, but I think it is a very good illustration.
How do we know the Holy Spirit as a divine Person? How does the Holy Spirit reveal Himself to us? How does He make His presence known to us?
In that book there is a story about a man who was an electrician. At that time, he was the only electrician on Mount Kuling, and he was almost illiterate.
Our dear brother Watchman Nee was physically weak, so he went to Kuling Mountain to recuperate. It was arranged that he would have meals with this electrician, and they had opportunities to converse with one another. That man was saved.
I knew that brother. People went to Kuling Mountain during the summer, but in the winter they left. He still lived there, and in the winter it was very cold.
This brother had the habit of drinking wine. Every time he drank, he got drunk. When winter came and it was cold, he asked his wife to warm the wine. The wine was put on the table with supper.
The brother said, “Now let us pray.” He began to pray, but in the midst of his prayer he suddenly stopped. He looked up at his wife and asked, “Can a Christian drink?”
His wife was totally illiterate, so of course she did not know. The husband said, “Take the Bible.” The Bible was brought to him. At that moment, he could not find anything in the Bible about drinking wine.
Fortunately, he did not find the passage concerning Timothy and wine. The wine was getting cold. Someone asked, “Why don’t you drink it? Next summer, when Mr. Nee comes, you can ask him.”
So he said, “All right, let us pray.” He began to pray, but he could not finish. He again asked, “Can a Christian drink?” After several attempts, he gave up.
The next summer, Brother Nee went to the mountain, and the brother asked him the question. Brother Nee asked, “Why did you not drink?”
The brother said, “My boss—my boss within me—would not allow me.”
He did not even know the name of the Holy Spirit, but he realized that there was a resident Boss within him, and that resident Boss would not allow him to do it. Thank God, he obeyed. He was a dear brother in the Lord.
How do we know the Holy Spirit? How do we know Him as the Spirit of holiness? By these experiences.
When you first believe in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit dwells in each one of us. He is there as the anointing to teach us in all things—in small things and in big things—that we may obey Him and abide in Christ.
But unfortunately, brothers and sisters, many people ignore Him. He is there. He is speaking. He is manifesting Himself. He is dealing with you. He is telling you that He is there, that He is different, and that He is holy.
He tells you that what you are doing is unholy, that it is something which displeases God. He is trying to teach us and to lead us, but we totally ignore Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, especially when you first believe in the Lord Jesus, you need to be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit within you. It is a still, small voice. We need to listen.
Old habits and all things of the old life need to be dealt with. He is purifying us. He is glorifying Christ in us. But do we obey?
If we do not obey in small things, how can we obey in great things?
It is in our daily life, brothers and sisters, as we walk on this earth, that the Holy Spirit teaches us all the time. Are you conscious that He is there? Are you careful because He is there?
Such an honorable Person is there. How careful we must walk.
This is the way that we come to know the Holy Spirit. He will deal with the flesh in us. He will deal with the world in us. He will deal with the self-life in us.
He will bring Christ into us, that daily we may be transformed and conformed to the image of God’s beloved Son.
This is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. May He manifest the life of Christ in each one of us more and more.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy promise. We thank Thee because that promise has already been fulfilled. We thank Thee for the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Lord, teach us how to obey Him, how to be sensitive to His voice. Enable us not to quench Him and not to grieve Him, but to obey Him.
We commit ourselves to Thee. May the Holy Spirit have freedom, and all glory be unto Thee. In the precious name of our Lord Jesus.