Let us quiet our hearts for a few minutes. Let us wait upon the Lord.
Lord, we thank You for giving us this wonderful conference. We thank You, worship You, and praise You for speaking to our hearts.
Our desire is not just to hear more messages. We want to discover together what is in Your heart—what You have asked for Yourself.
We commend our time to You. We pray that You will speak to us, that we will hear Your word, and that we will obey. To You be all the praise and all the glory. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting there and heard the brothers speaking about the many overlappings. Thank God for the many overlappings, because we can be sure that when God speaks, He speaks with one voice.
There is unity in His speaking to our hearts, because God is one and He has one will for His people. So I thank God for all the overlapping.
It just shows that what all our brothers have received came from the same source.
When I came to Seattle and understood that there would be many overlappings, I said that perhaps what the Lord had put in my heart for this afternoon had already been spoken by many of the brothers.
So I told one of the brothers that perhaps I should just stand here and say two words: “Hallelujah, amen.” Then we can all go home.
But thank God for His speaking to us. He has one will for His redeemed.
Let us turn to 1 Corinthians 2, beginning with verse 14.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God;
for they are foolishness to him:
and he cannot know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.
This is a very important verse, because spiritual things—things revealed by the Spirit—must be discerned spiritually. There is no other way.
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and that rules us out altogether unless the Lord does something in us supernaturally. Otherwise, none of us is capable of knowing anything spiritually.
Now let us look at verse 9.
Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not,
and which entered not into the heart of man,
whatsoever things God prepared for them that love Him.
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have these things entered into the heart of man. These are spiritual matters.
So the conclusion is that none of us is capable of entering into anything that is spiritual. These things are beyond us. We cannot reach them or touch them unless God does something supernaturally.
New birth is a supernatural act. Through new birth, we are given the capacity to know things spiritually.
Let us turn to 2 Timothy 2:7. This verse has had a real impact on my life in recent months.
Paul and Timothy were very, very close. Paul treated Timothy as his own spiritual son, and he loved Timothy very much.
Consider what I say;
for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things.
“Consider what I say.” What we have heard, we have to consider and reconsider again and again.
Our problem is that what we hear goes in one ear and out the other. So nothing is deeply registered in our hearts or in our spirits, and there is no true understanding of the message we have heard.
Paul told Timothy, “Consider what I say.” That is the key to understanding.
There is a need for repetition. There is a need for overlapping, so that we consider and reconsider again and again until we come to the real meaning of the message we have heard.
This is a lesson we need to learn for the rest of our lives. There is no shortcut. The work of the Holy Spirit is to call to remembrance what has been spoken before, so that we can consider and reconsider until we come to understand in the way God wants us to understand.
There is no quick understanding of spiritual things. It takes time, and it is costly. We need to hear, consider, and reconsider again and again until the Lord gives us true understanding.
This afternoon, my responsibility is to share on the Holy Spirit and the church. That is a huge topic, and it is beyond me. So, by the grace of the Lord, I will do what I can. As I share, pray for me and pray with me. Pray for our speaking, and pray for all our understanding.
The first thing I want to say about the work of the Holy Spirit is this: the Holy Spirit never does any work outside of the will of God.
The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and one with the Son. He is here for the Father’s interest and for the Son’s interest. He was sent here to secure what They want Him to secure.
That is a very important principle for us to grasp: the Holy Spirit will not do anything outside of the will of God. That is a settled fact.
Let me remind you of the first mention of the Spirit of God and the last mention of the Holy Spirit in Scripture.
The first mention of the Spirit of God is found in Genesis 1:2: the Spirit of God hovering over the waters at creation.
The last mention is found in Revelation 22:17:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
From these two mentions, we can draw but one conclusion: from the beginning of the activity of the Holy Spirit to the end of His activity, His work is to secure a bride for God’s beloved Son.
Let me put that another way. All the activities and work of the Holy Spirit throughout time have one mission, one objective: to secure a bride for God’s beloved Son.
From the first mention of the Spirit of God to the last mention, when the Spirit and the bride say, “Come,” the Spirit of God has never, for one moment, deviated from the mission He was assigned to accomplish.
He not only began the work and carried it through time, but in the end, He will secure what God wants for His Son.
God is very merciful, because He knows that along the way we are going to go through many ups and downs and many obstacles. What God wants, Satan hates. God knows what we have to go through before we arrive at His end.
In His mercy, He wants to strengthen our faith in Him. So He gives us the broad picture: how He began and how, in the end, He secures His purpose. That is the ground of our faith.
Our faith is based on a real, solid, sound foundation. What God has begun, in the end He will surely accomplish.
I want to mention one characteristic of the Holy Spirit in this work: how persistent He is. For one moment, He will never deviate from God’s will.
The Holy Spirit is one with God’s heart. The Holy Spirit and God’s heart are altogether one for God’s Son. So there is no deviation in the work of the Holy Spirit.
All the works and activities of the Holy Spirit have one overall objective: to secure a bride for God’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The best picture of this persistent work of the Holy Spirit is found in Genesis 24.
It is a very beautiful story. It is a very romantic story. All the romantic stories in Scripture have to do with the bride and the Bridegroom.
The Holy Spirit is the matchmaker. He knows where to look for the bride, and He knows how to bring that bride to the Bridegroom. That is the work the Holy Spirit is currently doing with all of us.
If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me to Genesis 24. We will look at some aspects of the Holy Spirit.
Those who know the Bible well know that Abraham is a type of the Father. The old servant is a type of the faithful Holy Spirit. Isaac is a type of Christ, and Rebekah is a type of the church.
Let us read Genesis 24:1-2.
And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age:
and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house,
that ruled over all that he had,
Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh.
And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth,
that thou shalt not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred,
and take a wife for my son Isaac.
Abraham’s whole life concern was Isaac—not only Isaac himself, but a wife for Isaac. Without Isaac, there would be no descendants.
Abraham’s whole occupation was Isaac, but also to seek a wife for Isaac. Abraham knew that Isaac could not enjoy all his riches by himself. He could not enjoy the fullness of Abraham’s inheritance alone.
Abraham loved his son so much that he wanted his son to enjoy the promised inheritance fully and completely. To enjoy it fully, Isaac needed a helper—not only to possess it, but to enjoy it.
It is just like the creation of Adam. After Adam was created, God said that it was not good for him to be alone. God made him a helpmeet to complete him.
Here we have almost a repetition of that story. Abraham wanted Isaac to be complete so that he could enjoy all the riches that Abraham would pass on to him. That is why the old servant was given this one assignment.
The assignment given to the old servant was very specific. He was not to take one of the daughters of the Canaanites to be Isaac’s wife. He had to go back to Abraham’s homeland and family to choose one of the daughters of that family for Isaac.
If we read this chapter more carefully, when the old servant went to Mesopotamia to seek a bride for Isaac, it was not by chance. In God’s sight, all the outworkings are predetermined in Him. The servant simply carried them out.
God works everything according to His will. He works out everything according to what He had planned long ago, even before there was time.
Let us look at Genesis 24:14.
And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say,
Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink;
and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also:
let the same be she that Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Isaac.
And then Genesis 24:44:
And she shall say to me, Both drink thou,
and I will also draw for thy camels:
let the same be the woman whom the Lord hath appointed for my master’s son.
We are not only chosen; we are already appointed to be the bride of Christ. He predetermined that we should be the bride of Christ. It is not by chance. It is by the determination of God.
The faithful servant went there to look for the appointed one. We belong to Him. We are His chosen ones.
Do we live like the appointed ones? Once we are called, we are chosen; and once we are chosen, we are appointed. There is no back door. We are appointed.
The Holy Spirit will pursue you until He finds you, until His purpose is realized in all of us.
The Holy Spirit will not give in to us. He will not rest until His mission is fully realized and completed.
Thank God for the Holy Spirit. If He gave us up, that would be the end of us. Thank God for His patience with us and for His consistency. He will not give us up, and He will see to it that His mission is a success.
The sooner we submit to Him, the better it will be for us. He will not change His mission. He will persist and insist that it is accomplished.
Is that good or bad? I think it is wonderful—wonderful. We are chosen, we are called, we are appointed, and He will not give in to us. What love! What patience!
He endures, endures, and endures as He patiently works with His people, because we are not yet what we ought to be. Still, He persists in working into us the character He is looking for.
Let us look at Genesis 24:33. The old servant and all his companions were now inside the house of Laban. Their feet had been washed, and food was set before them to eat.
But he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand.
And he said, Speak on.
Consider the persistence of Abraham’s old servant. He was, in a sense, obsessed with his mission. Nothing could deviate him from that mission. He would not settle until that mission was made known.
Food was set before him to eat. After travelling all the distance from Canaan back to Mesopotamia, through the desert, it was a very tiring journey.
When you are tired, you wish to have a time of refreshment. You want to be revived and refreshed. But the servant refused to be refreshed before completing his task.
“I will not eat until I tell you what I am here for.” That is the persistence of the Holy Spirit.
He will not give up. He will not give us up. He will not rest, and He will not settle down until His mission is fully accomplished.
That is the Holy Spirit. From the beginning to the end, He has one mission: to secure a bride for the Lord Jesus.
We often hear that phrase: once we are His, we are His forever. We are caught. We have no escape. His love has cornered us.
Sooner or later, we must surrender all to Him. That is the way to be blessed.
The Holy Spirit is not only the persistent pursuer of God’s purpose; He also has the ability to help us depart from our old home.
He has the ability to help us leave and forget our old home. He also has the ability to enable us to follow Him.
We have no way to depart from our old home—our earthly home, our old flesh. We have no way of getting rid of it. But the Holy Spirit has the power to help us rise up and follow Him, because the whole work is His work, if we will let Him do it.
Let us look at Genesis 24:61.
And Rebekah arose, and her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels,
and followed the man:
and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
These verses are very precious to me. How difficult it is for us to leave the old for the new. How reluctant we are to let go of old relationships.
Laban and Rebekah’s mother said, “Let her stay for a few days—at least ten.” That is always a great temptation: “Let her stay for a few days.”
Then they said, “Let us ask her what she would do.” And she said, “I will go.”
Before Rebekah left Mesopotamia, her heart was already captivated by Isaac because the old servant represented who Isaac was. If you read carefully, there is a description of all that belonged to Isaac.
Her heart was already captured by Isaac. So all the servant needed to do was go, and she followed.
We need the old servant to lead the way, because He is our attraction. He shows us Christ, and He brings us to the Lord Jesus.
Now we want to move on to another aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit. Let us turn to Matthew 16:18.
And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
As we read through the Gospels, we notice that shortly after those words in Matthew 16:18, He went to the cross. From the cross, He went to the throne. Did He actually build the church?
Apparently, He did not build the church during His earthly ministry. But what do we find on the day of Pentecost? When the Holy Spirit came down, on that day the church was born.
The church was born upon the resurrection, ascension, and glorification of the Lord Jesus. The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The gates of Hades speak of death. Death cannot touch resurrection. The church is built upon the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of the Lord Jesus.
This has already been accomplished in the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit works that reality into us corporately.
The church is not on the death side of the cross; it is on the resurrection side of the cross. That is where the church is.
The Holy Spirit takes what has already been accomplished in the person of the Lord Jesus and works it into us corporately.
Our brothers have mentioned baptism in the Spirit. There are four mentions in the Gospels concerning baptism in the Spirit.
Matthew and Luke speak of baptism in the Spirit and fire. Mark speaks of baptism in the Spirit, and John speaks of baptism in the Spirit. I do not want to dwell on the differences at this point, but I have been meditating on these slight differences in the four Gospels.
Let us look at John 1:30.
This is He of whom I said,
After me cometh a man who is become before me:
for He was before me.
And I knew Him not;
but that He should be made manifest to Israel,
therefore came I baptizing in water.
I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven;
and it abode upon Him.
And I knew Him not:
but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me,
Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him,
the same is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.
We have heard in this conference that the mentions of baptism in the Holy Spirit in the Gospels are prophetic in nature, because they point to an event yet to come.
Let us look at Acts 1:4-5, where the Lord Jesus quoted what we find in the Gospels.
And, being assembled together with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said He, ye heard from Me:
for John indeed baptized with water;
but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
In the Gospels, these mentions are prophetic in nature. They concern an event yet to come. In Acts 1:5, it is also prophetic: in a few days, this would occur.
And surely, on the day of Pentecost, it happened. In the upper room, they were baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body.
There are two occurrences of this event in the Book of Acts: on the day of Pentecost, and in Acts 10, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Gentiles in the home of Cornelius.
There were about ten years between these two occurrences. There was no repetition of the event. It occurred once on the day of Pentecost and once in the home of Cornelius among the Gentiles.
That was when Peter exercised the keys of the kingdom. He opened the door to the Jews, and he opened the door to the Gentiles. The church is neither Jew nor Gentile, but one new creation in Christ Jesus—one new man.
Between those two events, many thousands were saved, but this event was not repeated again and again. Scripture simply says that the Lord added to the church those who were being saved.
The church was born on the day of Pentecost, and from that day to this moment, the Lord adds to that one church.
I heard a story about an American brother who went to England to listen to a servant of the Lord speak on the church, which is the body of Christ. It was the first time he had heard this kind of message.
There is one body, though there are many members. We are all baptized into this one body by one Spirit.
After the message was over, he was in friendly conversation with a brother in England. He said, “That is a very timely word. The Lord really touched me. When I go back to the United States, I am going to start churches.”
The English brother said, “Brother, you are two thousand years too late.”
The church is already born. It is a reality: one Head, one Body, for the expression of His fullness. We have to see that clearly.
Let me share one further word. The explanation is found in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
In the Gospels, we have the truth. In Acts, we have the experience. In the Epistles, we have the explanation.
For as the body is one, and hath many members,
and all the members of the body, being many, are one body;
so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks,
whether bond or free;
and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
I want to make a very brief comment regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When it comes to us as individuals, it is our new birth. That is when we receive the gift of eternal life. That life comes to us through the Holy Spirit.
That is new birth individually. But at the same time, by that same Spirit, we are baptized into the body of Christ. There are two aspects of one act.
The moment we are born from above, individually we receive life. Immediately, we are grafted into the body of Christ by that same Spirit.
By new birth, I receive that Spirit of life. By being in the body of Christ, we are made to share that one life. Individually and corporately, we share one life, because there is only one Head.
To put it very simply, there is no other way we can gather apart from gathering unto the name of Jesus. There is no other way, because we belong to Him. He saved us for Himself.
How can we be separated? That is very clear.
No matter how we look at the condition of the church today—so divided, so fragmented, with each one going his own way—in God’s sight, He sees us as one.
Our divisions are a poor testimony of our one Head.
Another work of the Holy Spirit in us is to recover Christ as our one Head.
The Holy Spirit recognizes Christ alone as the one Head. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is jealous for His Head.
He is unhappy if Christ is not recognized as the one Head. The Holy Spirit is grieved if Christ is not recognized as the one Head.
We need to be sympathetic with the Holy Spirit. We sympathize with men, but we ignore the feeling of the Holy Spirit.
We need sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We need to be led by Him, not by the needs of people and not by our own feelings.
His right in us must be recognized, and His requirement is to restore Christ as our one Head. We are His one body.
The Holy Spirit never loses sight of His mission: to secure a bride for God’s beloved Son. To put it strongly, that is His one work.
All the other works are for this one work. No other work can substitute for this one work.
For the Lord to build the church, He has to gather materials. So He calls out a people from all the nations unto His name. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Evangelism is not the end. Evangelism is vital, but to us evangelism may be the end, whereas with the Holy Spirit, evangelism is a means.
The Holy Spirit works all the time with that ultimate purpose in view. We may lose sight of that ultimate view, but the Holy Spirit never loses it. Thank God for that.
Spiritual life is not the end either. Being spiritual is still a means for Him to secure that bride.
Conformity and transformation are also unto that ultimate purpose for which the Holy Spirit is working. He never loses sight of the end.
He calls people to His name, and they are for Him. They do not belong to us. You do not belong to me, and I do not belong to you. We all belong to Him.
We call a people out of the nations for His name. How we call ourselves is very crucial. We cannot use names and titles carelessly.
We are called unto that name. In that name we go, and in that name we stand, because that only name is worthy. We have to be very careful how we call ourselves.
In all His dealings with us, the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work and refining work are all for that end.
It is all for Him, not for us. When He gets what He is after in us, then we are satisfied.
Do not lose sight of this: the Holy Spirit is in us not for our own glory, but for the glory of the Lord Jesus—for His interests. When His interest is worked through in us, then we are truly blessed.
The day will come when the Holy Spirit can present us as the glorious church to the Lord Jesus.
Finally, I want to share one very practical matter. How can we respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit? What is the secret?
How is it that some of God’s servants seem to hear the voice of the Lord, while some do not? Some seem to see something of the heart of God, while others do not. Some see clearly, while others are very vague. Some even doubt whether there is such a thing as God’s eternal purpose.
See what a poor condition we are in. But there is one secret. May the Lord help us. I need it personally.
Let us turn to 2 Corinthians 3:16-17.
But whenever one shall turn to the Lord,
the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit:
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The key is in this word: turn. Who are we turning to? Who is showing us? How we turn is very important.
When you hear something in one direction, you turn. When you hear something in another direction, you turn. But if you turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
If we do not turn to the Lord, the veil is always there. Who is your focus?
My prayer during these last few days has been, “Lord, we do not only want to hear good messages.” Thank God for good messages. We are so blessed.
Where can you go in this world and hear the kind of messages we have been hearing this weekend? We are blessed, and therefore we are responsible for what we hear.
I have said, “Lord, thank You for wonderful messages, but we want to see beyond that. We want to see Your greatness.”
If your vision is small, then you are very small. You need to see Someone who is great, because He is bigger than you think.
We think in such small terms. Oh, turn to Someone who is great. When you turn to Him, all the other things disappear.
What can compare with Him? If you have only a glimpse of Him, what is there that can compare? We need to see Him. Seeing Him is our true deliverance.
If you do not see Him, you are in bondage. He is our great Deliverer. He is our emancipation.
Now the Lord is the Spirit. We have heard this week that the Lord is a Person, and the Holy Spirit is a Person. The Holy Spirit is God Himself. The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself.
Where the Spirit is Lord, there is liberty. Where the Spirit is, we are free.
One brother put it this way: we are free on both sides—free on God’s side and free on our side.
Where the Spirit is Lord, there is liberty, there is freedom. This freedom is on two sides: on God’s side as well as on our side.
He is free to lead us, and then we are free to follow Him. That is the key.
Whenever the Spirit is Lord, there is freedom. He is free to do what He wants to do with us, and we are free for Him to do whatever He wants to do with us.
Then the Lord, through the Spirit, will build His church, and the Holy Spirit will perfect it to God’s satisfaction: a bride for Christ, His beloved Son.
One last statement: the Holy Spirit, from the beginning to the end, has one mission. It is to secure a bride for God’s beloved Son, and He will succeed.
Father, we have to confess that our words are so weak and so feeble, but You are the powerful One. We thank You for the Holy Spirit.
His eyes are upon the goal until His mission is accomplished. We pray with those who love You: may this conference contribute to the hastening of Your return.
We give You all the glory. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.