The One Thing Needful
WueEN Christ ascended to heaven, and left His disciples in their utter impotence, amid the deadly enmity of the world around them, and the great work for which they were utterly unfit, they felt that there was but one thing that could help them — there was but one thing needful. And that was power from on high, the power of the Holy Ghost, Whom Christ had promised. They knew that in order to receive that Spirit and His power there was but one thing for them to do, — to wait on their Lord for the fulfilment of the promise, to continue with one accord in prayer and supplication until the promise was fulfilled, and they were baptized with the Holy Ghost.
During the ten days, from Ascension to Pentecost, it was literally just this one thing that occupied their hearts and that gave them courage gladly to face the future. The answer to every question that could be put was this simple one: In accordance with the command of our Lord we are waiting for Him to send us the Spirit from heaven. The same Lord Who had given the great Commission, “Preach the Gospel to every creature,” had also given as His last injunction the command: “Tarry; go not; preach not; wait until ye receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming on you.”
The Church has, during this last century, with ever increasing seriousness of purpose sounded the Great Commission: ‘‘ Preach the Gospel to every creature,”’ until it has gradually become with all earnest Christians an article of faith. Every Christian is bound to take his part in making Christ known throughout the world. That command was not meant for the disciples alone: they would within a few years all have passed away. The command was meant for all disciples, all believers, to the end of the world.
Christ meant the gift of the Spirit to be for all who believe in Him; and He counted upon it that everyone who had tasted His love would help to make that love known to others. And just as it was with this command, so it was with the promise that the Father should give the Spirit in answer to prayer. That promise is meant for every believer, and the command to wait for the promise of the Father and to yield to the Holy Spirit for the power to witness for Christ is also for everyone.
The promise of the Spirit, and the command to wait in prayer for his filling and fitting for service are meant for every child of God. And there thus rests upon every member of the Church the double responsibility; first of all, to be ready to obey the command of making Christ known to every creature, and then to wait and strive together in prayer until the fulness of the Spirit has come to us too.
But see what has happened; there are many who admit that the calling to obey the first half of the command, and to help to make the Gospel known to every creature, rests upon them, and who are willing to give their money or their aid in making that Gospel known. But they are not willing to obey the second half of the command, and to unite in fervent and unceasing prayer for the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them and the Church around them to testify in power for Christ.
Everyone can understand that it profits but little to help in making the Gospel known unless we are ready also to pray every day for the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Everyone can understand that just as the one thing needful from God’s side is the continual renewal of the gift of the Spirit, so the one thing needful on our side must be the willingness and the surrender in very deed to ask and to wait for and to expect the Spirit as the power for service.
The important question now arises: Can anything be done to rouse the Church to a right sense of the indispensable need of much, of continual, of believing prayer for the powerful manifestation of God’s Spirit, first in all His children, then specially in all ministers and workers, and then in the souls that as yet do not know God? We may be sure that there is no fate ruling over us condemning us to continue content with the present conditions. We know for certain that as God is an ocean of infinite love and compassion which He longs to pour out over us, He is as able as He is eager to work in us the great things for which His Spirit was promised.
Will it not be the beginning of the change, if each Christian will offer himself personally to the Lord to wait upon Him to be taught and trained as an intercessor to plead for the great gift from heaven. If this is indeed to come, then we need to give ourselves the time for fellowship with God, that He may sanctify us and inspire us with the desire and the courage of the first disciples, in view of the preaching of the Gospel in Christian countries or. among the heathen, to make the continual experience of the power of the Holy Spirit the chief thought in life and in death.
Let us not forget that God takes the sad condition of our Christianity far more to heart than any man on earth can do. God sorrows and is deeply grieved at what He sees, and longs far more than we have any conception of for a change. But He cannot give without the co-operation of man. He has entrusted man with the high office of sending up his supplication from earth, and must needs wait for him before He can reveal His glory.
And what God longs for in us may be put in a few words : —
1. WHAT THANKS WE OWE Him, that after having given His Son He has in very deed given the Spirit of that Son to live in our hearts and reveal Christ in the power of His Divine life working in us! And He has so ordered it that this indwelling of Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit should be the enduement with power from on high, giving us an all-sufficient provision for all the work that has to be done in the carrying out of the high commission. Let us take time to worship and to come under the deep impression of the inconceivable privilege of this communication of the: Spirit of God as our power for life and service. The Holy Spirit is in very deed the abundant and all-sufficient supply for every need, for every Christian, and that for every day.
2. WHAT REASON FOR SHAME AND ‘HUMILIATION we have that the Church has so little honoured the Holy Spirit so that His operations are but feeble compared with what He is willing to do! Every complaint in regard to the lack of power in the preaching of the Gospel, the great dearth of conversions, the feebleness of the Christian life in the converts, the loss of membership and Church-goers and Sunday scholars, the terrible power of the world and its self-pleasing, — all this is to be ascribed to one cause: the Holy Spirit is not sought and known and honoured as He should be.
Take time in true contrition of heart to come under the right impression of the real state of things until our hearts are driven to ask God graciously to interpose.
3. WITH WHAT ASSURED CONFIDENCE may we not count upon the promise of the Father to fill even now in these days the hearts of His servants with power from on high! If only we, like the disciples, are ready to forsake all and to follow Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings and cross; if we, like them, live as those who are crucified to the world, and seek to know nothing but Christ alone; — the power from heaven will be given to us as to them. Let us cultivate with our whole heart such an assurance, and yield ourselves to its power; — Christ will fulfil His Word: “He that believeth in Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.”
4. WHAT AN EARNEST CALL, to yield ourselves undividedly to the great work of united intercession, that God would pour down upon His people the Spirit of grace and of supplication! The call to yield one’s self to the great work of priestly intercession will become ever more urgent in the heart of each one who will only take time in God’s presence, to yield himself to the power of these thoughts.
May the Lord strengthen us to see that the greatest work that any man can do upon earth is this — to appropriate the great promise of the Father, to plead it before God, and with strong desire to expect the answer. Let the word — ‘ THE ONE THING NEEDFUL, THE POWER OF THE Hoty SPIRIT FROM HEAVEN,” take root in our hearts, and grow up and bear fruit in unceasing faith and prayer. Let us with it tarry in God’s presence. Let us in its light look out upon the Church with hearts full of compassion. Let us speak and pray about it with our brethren. God hears prayer, God will most assuredly give the answer.