The Communion of the Holy Spirit (9 page)

Acts 19.1-6.
The coming down of the Holy Spirit on this subsequent occasion is to reinforce further what had happened earlier at Caesarea. For on both occasions the outpouring fell upon the Gentiles. These here at Ephesus were true believers because (1) in verse 1 they are referred to as “disciples,” a term synonymous with Christians (see 11.26); and (2) if they were not already truly saved, then Paul could have been accused of preaching baptismal regeneration. Paul baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. By this they bore witness to the fact that they were united with the Head. And the laying on of hands immediately followed thereafter to testify to the fact that they were united with the whole body of Christ.

The above four passages of Scripture prove that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers is what the whole Body enjoys together. They also point to the power of ministry that was so much evident in these early servants of God. Why is it that there are so few today with real power? It is because most are lacking in the incorporating work of the cross in their lives. Having the “inside” Spirit as well as the “outside” Spirit results in power that was so evident in the ministry of these earlier ministers of the gospel. Paul talked much about the power of the resurrection of Christ. Without experiencing the inward resurrection life, there can be no real power. Resurrection is that life which enters into death and comes forth again, with all natural power having been eliminated. We possess natural strength, intelligence, personality and other facets of our undealt-with soul power. These must be cast aside before there can be the power of resurrection. All which does not come through regeneration must be let go. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3.6). How we depend so much on our natural strength to do sacred works! With our own earthly eloquence, we miss out on having divinely spiritual utterance. How we need a turning. We need to have revelation, to see the hatefulness and vanity of all these natural powers. God has no use for our natural power and wisdom, and many other soulish things.

We believers ought to live by the Holy Spirit, not by the law. Many do not know what the law is, hence they are equally ignorant of what the Holy Spirit is. They know neither what it means to live by the law nor what it means to live by the Spirit. Moreover, the reason for

our failure in God’s work is due to our working by the law and not by the Holy Spirit. Working according to the law gives no power nor spiritual result, for law deals with judgment.

The Old Testament law is not limited to just the Ten Commandments but also to the hundreds of rules and statutes that were subsequently given. All of them together constitute the Old Testament law. The children of Israel in the Old Testament period had the law. But so does the Church of the New Testament have law (see later below).

What is really the principle of the law? The law is God’s will inscribed on stone or written on paper, from one to thousands of articles. If people keep these thousands of precepts, they will be able to distinguish good from evil, right from wrong. They will know where they should go and not go, what they ought to do and not do. This is the law, and it is the law of death. When people conduct themselves according to such dead law, they put God behind their backs. Such a situation can be likened to a student who is able to keep the rules of his school without ever having to see the school principal for a whole month. This is what the law is. All matters pointing to right and wrong, good and evil are made known through the written-out law. All are kept intelligently-that is, by the mind- and not by means of the guidance of the God who dwells deep within. Such is the keeping of the law.

Like the student mentioned above and his school principal, many have the knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong without ever having to have any communion with God. Such knowledge is useless, and such people are under the law. By this principle, you can understand how many things are done under the law. Men love the law because it causes them to know right and wrong quite easily. Most people are afraid of living by the Spirit; they prefer to live according to certain rules. Although keeping the law is something rigid and dead, it is nonetheless also easy, for you are able to know how many articles you have kept and which article you have lacked observing. The law leads people away from God, for with it men can leave God outside without having to draw near to Him. But we who know Christ as life should never live again under the law: we must live by the newness of the Holy Spirit (see Rom. 7.6).

Let us now discuss what walking according to the law is. It was not until a few years ago-that is, in 1928-that I began to see what keeping the law means. I had been a preacher for some years, yet I did not know what it was. So far as theological knowledge was concerned, I could expound it. But I did not know it in practical experience. During that year, which was after the Lord had healed me of a very serious sickness, I was recuperating at a beach and I met Simon Meek. We lived there together. His health was also poor and he asked for my help. I asked him wherein I could help, and he answered that he could be helped if I could tell him whether divine healing was scriptural. I told him that God was most certainly able to heal; and yet Timothy still used a little wine, Epaphroditus was also sick and not healed, and that Paul’s eyes had gone so bad that he could not see small letters. But I also mentioned many in Scripture who
had
been healed. Whereupon brother Meek replied that the way I had answered was actually no answer at all. It was at this moment that I instantly realized what keeping the law was. Were the Bible to give us the statutes in successive steps, we could easily follow God’s instruction. And such could be called the keeping of the law. But God wants us to have fellowship with Him directly and follow after the revelation He gives. Only then can the Holy Spirit work.

People like to have everything clearly defined in the Bible. For example, concerning the very matter of divine healing, we would like to see the Bible spell out plainly whether or not God will heal us. Yet in the Bible we have on the one hand sickness healed and on the other hand sickness unhealed. The Bible does, not set forth a rule in this matter. For as in all matters God does not want His Church merely to keep the dead letter without coming before Him to ask. He takes pleasure in having us pray before Him and quietly wait. He does not want us to have any reliance upon anything except himself.

The law is the
past
wish of God, not His present desire. Men always try to learn God’s present desire through His past wish. But God looks for us to commune with Him, and through the Holy Spirit come to know his present desire. He does not want us merely to keep the law. Hence, we need to have fresh communion with God every day in order to know His will.

The law has its second-hand effect in regulating one’s life. But God has no desire to prearrange everyday church life. He wants to teach us how to maintain moment-by-moment communion with Him that we may know His will concerning ourselves. Were I to fix the life of a certain worker, he might be able to keep my rules for a day, a week, even a month without ever needing to have fellowship with me or ever needing to inquire of me about any matters. Such is the effect of the law. All who are able to do God’s will without ever having fellowship with Him are but keeping the law.

In Shanghai, I had a servant. He was a brother in the Lord. One day I came to realize how it was indeed best for me to serve the Lord with my spirit and not by law, because that was what the Lord desired. I wanted to test this out by seeing if I could succeed in treating my servant with the spirit and not with the law. In ordinary circumstances it is generally convenient to follow the law that is set down. If I were to lay down laws and directives, my servant would find it easy to follow and I myself must also keep it. But I agreed with my servant that I would not give him any instruction beforehand, and that he must not decide for himself but come and ask me on each occasion before proceeding to do anything. Several times, while I was talking with a friend, he interrupted our conversation and asked if I wanted to eat or drink something. I told him to wait. As a result, my servant found it much easier to serve according to rules than to have to ask me each time. From this we can see that keeping the law is quite easy, but working according to the leading of the Holy Spirit is not so easy. Regardless whether easy or not easy, God’s desire is clear. We cannot take the easy way. We must walk in God’s ordained path, which is not to live under the law but to live under the Spirit.

Life in the Spirit has no set rule. It lays aside all dead rules and seeks directly the will of God. It can be likened to the illustration of my servant cited above. After he has swept the floor, he does not know what the next work should be for him to do. Should he serve a meal at twelve o’clock or do something else? But life in the Spirit is very much like that: work only when there is the revelation of the Holy Spirit and at other times just wait on the Lord. Let us cite another example. How do we know whether a person is saved and ready for baptism? Should we examine him with every article of the truth on salvation and baptism? And if he can answer all the questions, can he then receive baptism? This would be doing things according to the law.

On the other hand, suppose you meet an old country lady who is illiterate and ignorant of Bible terminology. You question her about her regeneration, repentance, forgiveness and so forth. On none of these questions is she able to answer, yet she has peace in her heart. Will you allow her to be baptized? The issue does not lie in whether the candidate for baptism can pass your procedure and answer your various questions. It rests in whether she is really saved. Many country folk are not familiar with terminology, but they truly have the peace and the joy of the Lord within. Such people, though their minds be less bright than ours, are truly saved souls.

During meetings in Shanghai for the breaking of bread, strangers frequently visited us without previous notice. How long must we ask them to wait before they are allowed to partake of the bread and wine? Wait a week or a month according to some rule? If we know that the visitor is saved, can we not immediately invite him to partake of the bread and wine? There should be no need to wait.

Let us never lay down any law, but let the Holy Spirit work in each person. Everything in the Bible is living, that is to say, living in the Holy Spirit. If we turn all Biblical things into rules and regulations, they become dead. In order for Bible truth to be living, it must be in the Spirit. Take, for example, how on one occasion you received a message from the Lord, preached it, and many got saved. Next time you thought that because the last time you gave this same message it saved many souls it would certainly obtain the same result again. So you decide to preach the same message, but this time nobody got saved. You reflect that the message which saved souls before would no doubt save souls again. Nevertheless, it did not save any soul. Let us realize that the same message, if it is delivered in the Spirit, can and will indeed save souls; if repeated according to the law, however, it cannot save souls. Such is the difference between that which is done according to the Spirit and that which is done according to the law.

All that is not according to the living guidance of the Holy Spirit is the law. How frequently we use our past guidance of the Holy Spirit as today’s guidance. Yet we need to learn that past guidance used today turns into a matter of the law. Do not imagine that since the Holy Spirit led once before, He will necessarily give the same leading today. Copying yesterday’s leading is walking according to the law. Even in obeying Bible truth it can also become a matter of obeying the law. Today if you receive baptism only because the Bible says so, without also inwardly being led by the Spirit, this, too, can turn into a matter of observing the law. We must do what the Bible says,
plus
have an inner leading. The joining of these two gives accurate guidance.

Someone argues that because the Bible does not say a certain thing is wrong, therefore it must be right. This is altogether a thing of law. Many write and ask if to do or to say such and such a thing is wrong. My answer is: Do you have the Holy Spirit in you? If you do, why not learn to know the Spirit’s guidance within you? I am not a fortune-teller, so I cannot know God’s will for you. You instead must learn to recognize the inner guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In living according to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the first question we should ask ourselves is, What does the Holy Spirit say? Delay asking what the
Bible
says until a little later. Always first ask what our
inside
says. Today the majority of believers will first search to see what the Bible says; they do not first ask what the Holy Spirit in them says. This is rather abnormal. New Testament believers have the Holy Spirit indwelling them, which is a most precious reality. We ought to learn to know the leading of the Spirit within us. In the Bible can be found a distinction between principle and command. A believer needs indeed to keep the
command
of the Bible, but he must also practice the
principle behind
the command. For example, let us consider the subject of head-covering. If you practice head-covering simply because of 1 Corinthians 11, you are still as uncovered. For whoever keeps the word of the Bible without having the Spirit’s leading in keeping the word is not acting any differently from that one who disobeys the word. Such keeping is a keeping of the letter and is in appearance only. The issue, therefore, is what does the Lord say within you? If it is indeed the Spirit of the Lord who leads you to obey a certain truth in the Bible, your action is truly an obedience to God.

The Old Testament period was the dispensation of the law. Today, though, is the New Testament era. Unfortunately the Church today has too many Judaized Christians. They take the Bible as the law and try to keep the law. Many simply ask others what they should do. This shows they are unable to seek after the Holy Spirit that is within them. All these actions are abnormal.