Would you turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 14? We will read from verse 16.
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever,
Even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.
Then from verse 25 in the same chapter:
These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you.
But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
Then in the same Gospel, chapter 16, from verse 7:
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.
And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Of sin, because they believe not on Me;
Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more;
Of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.
He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.
All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He taketh of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.
So we have a further word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, we really need You. We are moving into times of great turmoil and disorder, and we need You in a very real way.
We thank You for gathering us together. As we come to the ministry of Your Word, we acknowledge before You, Lord, that without that anointing of Yours, nothing of real and eternal value will be done.
But You have, Lord, at great cost, provided us with such an anointing. Into that anointing, grace, and power we stand by faith, for the speaking of Your Word, the translating of Your Word, and the hearing of Your Word.
Dear Spirit of God, will You Yourself bear witness this evening? Neither I nor Jonathan are worthy to speak of Your Person. Come Yourself and do Your own work in our midst.
We shall be careful to give our Lord Jesus all the glory. We ask it in His name. Amen.
The theme, you I think all know, of this conference is knowing the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
In my estimation, because of the time in which we live, there is no subject of greater significance, or more essential to the people of God, than this matter.
The world is at a crossroads. The so-called Christian nations are throwing away the Word of God. This can only bring judgment.
We are moving into days of enormous turmoil, like a sea that is whipped up by a typhoon. Out of this will come the antichrist; but, far more wonderful, so will the Lord come.
And we need to know the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of all things—everything of God. He is the supervisor. He takes the will, the counsel, the purpose of the Father and Son, and watches over its fulfilment.
Therein lies the vital necessity of knowing the Holy Spirit.
My part in this conference is to speak about the Person of the Holy Spirit. I said to my dear brother Stephen yesterday, or the day before, “I do not know how you talk about the Person of the Holy Spirit and do not also somehow talk about the work of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.”
But it is knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit that is essential. Ignorance of His Person, negligence of His Person, has always led to backsliding, to fruitlessness, barrenness, and apostasy.
It is a terrible and destructive thing to somehow or other neglect the Person of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is often treated as an “it.” He is treated as if He is a mere instrument, a mere means, a mere vehicle—a kind of impersonal channel for God, for the Father and the Son.
He is treated as if He has no feeling and no personality. He is often treated as if He is a commodity, a thing, a power—a kind of way to be able to overcome.
He is rarely treated by Christians as a Person.
In John 16:13, there is a verse in the King James Version which has been used to justify the ignoring, even devaluation, of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.
In the King James, it is translated, “He shall not speak of Himself.” In the Greek, it is very simply, “He shall not speak from Himself.”
For example, the American Standard Version of 1901 correctly translates it; so does Darby. The New American Standard Bible puts it like this: “He shall not speak on His own initiative.” The New King James Version puts it, “He shall not speak on His own authority.”
In other words, the real meaning of this is not that the Holy Spirit never speaks of Himself, but that He will not speak, as it were, out of Himself. He does not speak, as the New American Standard Bible puts it, on His own initiative.
If I tell you, “I will not speak of myself,” it means I will not say anything about myself. But this whole Book is the work of the Holy Spirit. At least two hundred times it says, “The Holy Spirit signifies,” “The Holy Spirit this,” and “The Holy Spirit that.”
It is the work of the Holy Spirit to disclose the Lord Jesus to us. It is His work to fix our gaze, not on Himself, but on the Lord Jesus.
It is His work that the Father and the Son may come to dwell in us in reality. Therefore, He is always turning our gaze upon the Father and the Son.
If we ignore the Holy Spirit, we do so at our own great loss. Probably the most successful tactic, or strategy, of Satan to paralyse the believer and the church has been to use this translation in the English-speaking world to get people not to understand the essential Person of the Holy Spirit.
Consider for a moment the history of the church. Every move of the Holy Spirit has, within a couple of generations, been frustrated. What has happened?
It has been the ignoring, or the devaluing, or the quenching, of the Holy Spirit. If the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the enthroned and glorified Messiah, once He is shelved, as it were, once He is ignored, once He is devalued, we no longer see the enthroned Christ.
Then, as believers, we live defeated lives. In the church of God, we have defeat after defeat after defeat. We watch the deterioration of spiritual life and are unable to do anything about it.
We see that the church is in a straitjacket, absolutely imprisoned, having lost its freedom of action—unable to exercise authority, unable to use the keys of the kingdom, unable to overcome.
No subject is more important than this subject of knowing the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a Person. That is why you can know Him. Just as you know the Father and you know the Son, you can know the Holy Spirit.
He can be grieved. You cannot grieve an agency, an instrument, or an impersonal commodity. You can only grieve a person.
This is in Ephesians 4:30:
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.
Or again, there is a word in Isaiah 63:10. In modern versions it is translated, “His Spirit was grieved with them.” In this instance, I think the King James Version is better. It says, “His Holy Spirit was vexed.”
That is anger, almost irritation. You cannot irritate a thing. You cannot anger an agency or an instrument. You can only anger a person.
Then take Acts 5:3-4. Peter said, “Why did you lie to the Holy Spirit?” You can only lie to a person. You cannot lie to an instrument.
Then consider again something else. In John 14:16:
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever.
Has the Holy Spirit ever revealed to you this amazing statement? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.”
So the Lord Jesus is already the Comforter, and there is another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever.
The Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God. As God, He is everywhere, but He is actually at the right hand of God, and He will return from that place. He even has marks in hands and feet and side.
It is this other Comforter who is with us for ever. The word in Greek is paraklētos: one alongside, advocate, helper. It is translated all these ways.
“I will pray the Father, that He send you another Advocate.” You have an Advocate at the Father’s right hand. This is the Lord Jesus. But you have an Advocate with you: the Holy Spirit.
You have a Helper at the right hand of God, but you also have a Helper with you. He intercedes within your spirit.
I do not know whether I am making any headway, but I find this tremendous. When the Lord Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and make disciples of all nations,” He also said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”
How is He with us always? Somehow by the Holy Spirit.
“All authority and power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth”—all authority in the hands of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. How is it made real to us? By the Person of the Holy Spirit.
If we do not know the Person of the Holy Spirit, we have no authority, no power.
Dear brothers and sisters, I say it again: I can think of no matter more important than this matter of knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit.
When a human being knows the Person of the Holy Spirit, that human being, redeemed by the finished work of our Lord Jesus, becomes a lover of the Lord Jesus.
That child of God becomes centred in the Person of the Lord Jesus. They follow Him.
Think of some of the terms that are used about the Holy Spirit. He is referred to as a leader. A commodity cannot lead you. He is a Person.
Think of Romans 8:14:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Those whom He leads are sons of God.
Think again, John 16:13:
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth.
Certainly the Holy Spirit is referred to not only as a leader, but as a teacher. “He shall teach you all things.”
The apostle John wrote in one of his letters, “You have an anointing from God that teaches you all things.” That is 1 John 2:26-27:
These things have I written unto you concerning them that would lead you astray.
And as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in Him.
This does not mean that we do not need teachers in the house of God, that we do not need teaching. What it means is this: you do not need someone to tell you, “This is wrong and that is right. This is a cult and this is of God.”
You have an anointing inside of you, even the Spirit of God. Simply, He witnesses.
How often the youngest believer has this witness: “There is something funny about that—something not right.” But we who are older believers start to use our heads and say, “No, no, I am temperamentally different to this person,” and we argue back.
We begin to use the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We put everything on this side, it goes down; this goes up. Then we put more on this side, it comes up. So it goes up and down, and up and down.
But some young believer, who does not know anything and has only found the Lord, will say, “Is there something wrong with that person?” They witness something in their spirit.
I am trying to speak, or seeking to speak, about the Person of the Holy Spirit. He is a leader. He is a teacher.
What a tremendous thing it is when you young people really get to know your Bible. People all the time read books on the Bible instead of reading the Bible.
You read the Bible. The Holy Spirit is able to reveal things to you. Then you can go back to the book. That is how I always understand it, anyway. Otherwise, everything is second-hand.
The Holy Spirit is a wonderful teacher.
The Holy Spirit is a commander. An agency or an instrument cannot be a commander. Take Acts 13:
And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Actually, the Lord Jesus is the Head of the church. He is the One who gives apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. Yet the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”
Then verse 4 says:
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia.
You see? The Holy Spirit is the commander. He is the managing director. He is in charge of the work.
The Holy Spirit is a communicator. Listen to the Lord Jesus. He says to John, “Write down what you hear and send it to the churches.” This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
John said, “I turned to see,” and there was the Lord Jesus. Then the Lord Jesus said:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
What a beautiful word it is—best translated in the New American Standard Bible by the English word disclose. In my version, it is “declare.”
He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall disclose unto you the things that are to come.
He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it unto you.
It is a wonderful thing when the Holy Spirit takes up the things of the Lord Jesus and discloses them to us. He reveals them; He illuminates us. Somehow or other, what is in the Lord Jesus becomes ours.
The Holy Spirit is an intercessor. In Romans 8:26:
And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered;
And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
This amazing, amazing Person of the Holy Spirit intercedes in the believer.
It is such a work that He does that we cannot somehow put it into words. It is conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word carries the thought of agony or pain.
You know what it is to have something trapped inside that cannot get out until the right moment. The believer knows something is inside. Sometimes we need each other.
When we use words in prayer, we feel relief—but only for a very short time, until this burden is fulfilled. That is the Person of the Holy Spirit as an intercessor.
The Intercessor is at the right hand of God, and this intercessor is dwelling within us. You see, it is the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, within the believers.
The Holy Spirit is a builder. It is very interesting when you take Zechariah 4 and you have a lampstand all of gold. It is the lampstand of the tabernacle and temple.
The amazing thing is that this lampstand represents a building programme—a divine building programme.
Zechariah cannot understand the vision. “What is it all about?” he says to the angel. The angel says, “Knowest thou not what these are?” Then he puts it like this:
This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the top stone with shoutings of Grace, grace, unto it.
It is a building programme.
When you come to Revelation, the first three chapters of Revelation, it is amazing. Instead of beginning with the Lion of Judah, the Lamb as it had been slain, you have seven churches, and in the midst of them the risen, glorified, ascended Messiah.
These churches are anything but perfect. There is Jezebel in one of them. Some say they are alive, but they are dead. Some of them have lost their first love.
One of them believes it is wonderful. It has Bible studies, prayer meetings, the Lord’s Table. It is a New Testament church, founded on the right foundation.
It says, “We are rich, we have become wealthy, we have need of nothing.” And the Lord says, “You are blind, miserable, naked.”
And the most amazing thing: He is knocking.
If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in.
He is outside of the church. The Head of the church is outside of His own church.
How incredibly moving is the word of the Lord Jesus: “If any man hear My voice.” A New Testament church, and no one was hearing the voice of the Lord. They were wrapped up in their routine. They felt they were really something.
Now, every one of these seven churches is represented by a golden lampstand. In other words, a divine building programme.
Who is the builder of the church? The Lord Jesus. He said:
Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Who is the foreman of the work? The Holy Spirit. He is the builder. Is that not amazing?
And then one other thing. The Holy Spirit—I do not know how to put this. If someone can give me a better word for it, I will be very happy, because it does not sound very good. The Holy Spirit is a producer.
Listen:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
Is that not interesting? The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” From the very beginning, the Holy Spirit has been the One who has sought to produce the bride.
It is foundational to know the Person of the Holy Spirit. We have to recognise Him and know Him as a Person.
He is to be loved, understood, and obeyed. You can know neither the work of the Holy Spirit nor the manifestation of the Holy Spirit unless you know and honour the Person of the Holy Spirit.
Unless we hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, we are not hearing the Lord Jesus. There lies the whole importance of this tremendous matter.
We know that sometimes the Holy Spirit has been so misrepresented. You have some assemblies, fellowships, and groups of Christians that never mention the Holy Spirit. Then you have others who speak about only the Holy Spirit.
We need to know the Holy Spirit in reality. After all, the only qualification the early church looked for was men and women filled with the Holy Spirit.
Is that not interesting? Why did they not look for people filled with the Lord Jesus? Very simple: to be filled with the Holy Spirit was to be filled with the Lord Jesus.
It was His fullness, His beauty, His power, His grace. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you become, as it were, an expression of the Lord Jesus.
But the Scripture says, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit,” because we cannot ignore the Holy Spirit. If we do, our knowledge of the Lord Jesus will be theoretical. It will all be Bible study.
Only by the Person of the Holy Spirit can a man or a woman become a living expression of the Lord Jesus.
Only by the Spirit can the church become an expression of the Lord Jesus. Then, when people come amongst us, they see the Lord, and they are convicted.
It is the very work of the Holy Spirit. He convicts people. He convinces people.
Shall we pray?
I want to ask a good question: Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
And if not, will you surrender to the Lord Jesus?
No one can call Him Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Many people say, “Lord, Lord,” but you cannot call Him Lord and mean it except by the Holy Spirit.
Only by the Holy Spirit can you surrender to His lordship and His headship.
Lord, we are so thankful that You have poured out the Holy Spirit. We are so thankful that You have received the promise of the Spirit.
You know our hearts. You know where there is emptiness, where there is need, where there is a sense of defeat.
Lord, will You this night touch our hearts? Do not let us go, Lord. Pursue us.
In these days ahead, we shall need the power of Your Holy Spirit. Lord, touch our hearts. Do not let us be the same.
Confront us, Lord, and confront us with Your claims.
We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.