December 1924
T H E
K I N G ’ S
B U S I N E S S
773
Our Continual Meed of the Holy Spirit for Service Dr. F. E. Marsh, England VI.
In this series of messages on “ The Holy Spirit” , Dr. Marsh has already shown five results of the Spirit’s indwelling. The believer will be filled with: ( 1 ) Faith for the conversion of the lost; (2) Truth in testimony; (3) The Life of God Himself; (4) The power of God; (5) Blessing for others. Now he comes to the seeming paradox, “ One who is filled with the Spirit will continually feel his need of the Spirit.”
the Spirit. We are to pray in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, work i à the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, war in the Spirit, sow in the Spirit, praise in the Spirit^ and love in the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit, we shall love the lost, and long for their sal vation, like the Master. As He wept over sinners, so shall the Spirit of love', who sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, cause us to weep.
|NE who is filled with the Holy Spirit will continually feel Ids need of the Spirit. This may seem like a
paradox, but then the Christian life is made up of paradoxes. When we are most satisfied we are most thirsty, for the Lord’s blessings, while they satisfy, create an appetite. When we are most conscious of the
Filled with the Spirit, we shall have liberty in the Lord, and be loosed from cankering care and crippling unbelief: for “ where* the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.” ! Filled with the Spirit, we shall love to labor with the Lord. His will shall be our will in life, His Word shall be our weapon in conflict, and His work shall be our delight in service; for the Spirit is the oil of unction and the unit ing power that enables us to have fellowship with Christ. Filled with the Spirit, we shall be lowly before the Lord, for as the Spirit is likened to dew which falls ' upon the ground, so He, filling us, shall cause us to be filled with humility, and the same mind which was in Christ shall be in us. Filled with the Spirit, there shall bè likeness to the Lord, for as the die on the soft wax leaves its impression, and the likeness of the seal is seen, so does the Spirit, who is the seal, manifest Christ in the fruit of Himself. Filled with the Spirit, we shall ever be learning of the Lord, for, knowing that thé truths of Scripture arei spirit ually discerned, and only apprehended as we are under the direction of the Spirit, we shall seek His instruction, as did the disciples who delighted to ask Christ to explain His teaching. Filled with the Spirit, we shall listen to the Lord, and long to see Him, as we have it in the last chapter of Revela tion, where Christ says: “ Behold I come quickly,” and the Spirit and the Bride respond, “ Come.” “ Be filled with the Spirit” is the Divine and definite com mand of the Lord. It is not something we may choose or not; it is a command. Shall we dishonor the Lord by dis obedience? We must not, for we are not our own. We dare not, simply because it would be dishonoring Him. O brethren, shall we not saÿ with one who thus expressed himself when the command to be filled with the Spirit was brought home to him: “ Yes! this is just what I want to be. The powers of the world are becoming intensely earnest, and I am feeling every day more keenly the great need of being possessed by an Almighty spiritual power to enable me to so witness that Jesus will be glorified in the salvation of men. For many years I have been sowing, sowing, sow ing, scattering— as I supposed— bushels of precious seed, and only a solitary blade here and there seems to be the outcome of all my labor. It ought not to have been so. “ Then am I only unfortunate? or am 1 guilty before God? Judged by my fruits, I have not been filled with the Spirit, and as a consequence I must have been dishonoring the Holy One. Yet I know that, as a son of God, I have the Spirit of God dwelling in me, and that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. But if this temple had been filled with the Holy Spirit, it would have been impossible that my past testimony should have been so fruitless. I believe that if I (Continued on page 818)
Lord’s presence we are most conscious of our weakness. We continually need the Holy Spirit to fit us for service. As the lamps in the Tabernacle had to be trimmed and supplied with oil ( “ pure oil olive, beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually: Aaron shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually’’ ), so must we allow the Divine Aaron to come to us continually with the supply of the Spirit for life and service, and to trim His “ lamp” with the “ snuffers.” of the truth that our life and labor may reflect Himself. We continually need the Spirit to furnish us for service, As the shew-bread was to be continually fresh, week by week— "every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually”— so we must come week by week, not with the mouldy bread of a past experience, but with the fresh bread made of the flour of truth, that has been ground •in the mill of prayerful meditation, baked; in the oven of a personal experience, and is warm with the fire of God’s Spirit. We need the Spirit in order to have the joy of the Lord in service. The Queen of Sheba said of the men who stood continually in the presence of Solomon: “ Happy are thy men, and happy are - thy servants who stand continually before thee.” Infinitely more, as we constantly recognize the presence and power of the Lord, and ever act as before Him, seeking His glory alone, shall we know what it is to have “ joy and peace . . . . . . through the Holy Ghost.” We continually need the Holy Spirit to have fellowship with the Lord, by His Word, in service. As Mephibosheth “ did eat continually at the king’s table” -'‘so must we con tinually partake of Christ in the Word. As Jeremiah has it, “ Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” It is only as we meditate on the Word that we are healthy in life, wealthy in experience, and helpful to others. The Apostles felt this when they gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. We continually need the Holy Spirit to inspire us to pray in service. The Lord Jesus felt the necessity to continue in prayer— "He continued all night in prayer”— to be strength ened to do the will of the Father, and to accomplish the work committed to His charge. How much we need to cry that the Lord should accomplish His own purpose in and through us! As the early Church continued in united, definite, earnest, believing prayer and supplication (Acts 2:42; 46) so we need to pray to Him for ourselves, and supplicate Him for others. We continually need the Spirit for our life in service. As the mill-wheel needs continually the supply of water to keep it going, as the body needs food to strengthen it, so we need the supply of the Spirit. In social life, in business life, in private life, and in church life, we need the supply of
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