Receiving the Holy Ghost
Having considered what it is to Resist the Spirit, let us now look at the blessedness of Receiving Him. We turn to the 19th and following verses of the 20th chapter of John: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, because of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them. Peace be unto you. And when He had so said. He showed unto them His hands and His side.” Why? Because upon those wounds were based the peace which He spake to them. “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again. Peace be unto you; as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And when He had said this. He breathed on them” — the Greek word is not “breathed upon’ but “breathed into them” — “and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.’’
This is the first message to the assembled disciples after He rose from the dead. Nothing is more instructive in the New
Testament when all the surroundings of this utterance are remembered. The risen Christ, risen no more to die, death having no more dominion over Him, is meeting His disciples now, together, in assembly, for the first time after His resurrection. And He says to them three things. First, “Peace be unto you; second, “As my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you”; th,ird, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” The first is a message oi peace the last is a message of power] and the middle one is a commission] Peace founded upon the blood of the Cross, a testimony founded upon the salvation that comes by the blood, and power for the testimony to be given. It might truly be said that, beyond this, in the New Testament there is not a new idea; all practical truth is here; and everything that this means may come to a disciple at once.
The word, “receive’ is one of the leading words of the Gospel according to John. He tells us in the 20th chapter and the 31st verse: ‘‘These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” — eternal life through believing.
WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE?
The answer is in the first chapter and the 12th verse: “To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on His name,” Believing is receiving, and receiving is believing; and the simplest act possible is the act of receiving. When Christ says. Peace be unto you,” all we have to do is to receive it; when he says, “I send you, as the Father sent me,” all we have to do is to receive the commission; and when He inbreathes the Holy Spirit, all we have to do is to breathe in what He breathes out. It is throughout reception.
Jesus still stands among us in His risen power, and says, showing His hands and His side; “Peace be unto you. Receive My peace, on the basis of My death.” And immediately He says as soon as we receive His peace: “I send you now, as the Father sent Me, to tell what you have received; and here is the power wherewith to tell it: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
In the 2nd chapter of the Acts, 2nd verse, the same thought is again brought before us. When they were all with one accord in one place, “suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind.” It is not “wind” — the Greek word is ^^breathl “There came from heaven the sound as of a rushing mighty breath, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.... And they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost.” Here is God breathing out a rushing mighty torrent; and, in that flood of breath, they are all filled.
See what this means, and what it involves. The great sacrifice on Calvary is finished. He appears before us the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He shows us His pierced hands and wounded side, and says; “Peace be unto you.’’ Pardon is free, death has brought life — will you have it? Atonement has brought pardon — will you have it? You may be immediately reconciled to God, through the death of His Son, and have peace with God, now, this moment, if you will receive it. Having received His peace, begin at once to tell others what a Saviour you have found. Recommend them to come to the same crucified but risen Christ, for the same peace. There is your commission. And where is your power? He inbreathes the Holy Spirit, and says, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost”; and now you are qualified for your great commission.
We talk about the profound things of God, and they are very profound; but it is quite as marvellous that they are likewise so simple. There is not a little child, able to understand anything, who cannot grasp these three things: The crucified Christ has borne your sins in His own body on the tree, and bids you go and tell what you have found in Him; and all you have to do is to receive now the Spirit He gives, and you shall be fitted for your work.
What do you do, in the act of breathing?
Two things: you create a vacuum and you fill a vacuum. You breathe out and then you take in. You could not breathe in if you did not first breathe out; the lungs must be emptied of the air, before you can take in more. If you want the Holy Spirit abandon every other dependence and then appropriate His sufficiency.
What are the effects of breathing? Very simple; what is in the air outside comes into the lungs inside; and the same life-giving properties that are in the atmosphere are thus in you. You receive the Holy Spirit, and
THE LIFE WHICH IS IN GOD BECOMES THE LIFE THAT IS IN YOU I
You put the iron in the fire, and presently the fire is in the iron. The effect of putting the iron in the fire is, that what is peculiar to the fire becomes peculiar to the iron. So the result of receiving the Holy Spirit is briefly comprehended in this — that what is peculiar to the Spirit, becomes characteristic of your own spirit. Take this thought and trace it, following the lines of the New Testament teaching, and it will be found to run all the way through. In the Acts of the Apostles, the atmosphere that enveloped disciples was the holy atmosphere of God they breathed it, they were filled with it, they were qualified by it for all their activities. In the Epistle to the Romans, in the 8th chapter and the 2nd verse, we read:
“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death,” This Breath of God that comes into you is, first of all, the Breath of life and in the 8th of Romans, in thirty-nine verses, there are over twenty references to the Holy Spirit. He is represented as the Spirit of life, teaching you, like a little babe, to walk with God and talk with God. For what is “Abba “? It is the Aramaic word for “Papa” — the infant’s prattle, when the babe can only deal with consonants and vowels that do not need teeth for their enunciation. “Abba “is “Papa “; it is the Holy Spirit, taking the child into whom He has breathed life, turning his attention to God, and teaching him to say “Papa,” and so learn the dialect of Heaven.
As the Spirit teaches us to walk and to talk, He also directs our spiritual intelligence to the right objects. That is spiritualmindedness, when the mind is fixed upon. Divine things, as an affectionate mother turns the intelligence of her child to the things that are best calculated to awaken and nourish the highest order and capacity of thought and affection.
In the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 6th chapter and 17th verse, we read: “He that
is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” When you take in the living breath from the Lord Jesus Christ, His life passes into you. His
Spirit is united to your spirit; and now you participate in His nature — His Spirit is His nature. This, the wedlock of the Divine Spirit with the human spirit, is one of the most inspiring conceptions presented in the Word of God. In the Epistles to the Corinthians the Spirit of God, entering into us and wedding our spirit, is treated as moulding and shaping the whole spiritual life, so that we can, in our measure, reflect the attributes of God — His wisdom in our knowledge, His righteousness in our rectitude, His order in our obedience. His unselfishness in our service and love, His sanctity in our holiness.
In the Epistles to the Galatians, this Holy Spirit, who has become the Spirit of life as in Romans, and the Spirit of unity with God, as in Corinthians, is the Spirit who fosters in us such holy desires that the desires of the flesh are overcome. We read in the 5th chapter: “The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye may not do the things (under the Spirit’s influence), ‘‘that ye would” (incline to, under the influence of the flesh). Lust is here ascribed to the Spirit. “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” Has then the Spirit, lusts? Certainly. What are lusts but overmastering desires? The lusts of the flesh come up from the lower realm, and drag the man down; the lusts of the Spirit come down, from the higher realm, and draw the man up — that is the difference.
WHAT ARE THE LUSTS OF THE SPIRIT?
“Love, joy, peace ’’ — Godward; “long-suffering, gentleness, goodness ’’- -manward;
‘‘ fidelity, meekness, humility” — selfward. Love puts hate down, joy puts gloom down, peace puts down discontentment. These virtues and graces are the Spirit’s lusts, to quell the lower. That is the way the Spirit masters the lower by the higher. This is a wonderful revelation. You have the love of God in you, you are one with God by the Spirit wedding your spirit; and now that Spirit fosters in you desires like God’s, to quell and quench the baser desires. And that is the secret of a holy walk with God.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians, stupendous mystery I we are taught that the Spirit of God, received unto us, lifts us to the higher level of the heavenlies. It is the climax of all revelations in the New Testament, as to the fact of the Spirit taking possession. You breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit imparted by Christ, and the life that God lives you live. In Corinthians, you see what God sees; in Galatians, you love what God loves; in Ephesians, you live on God’s level; and what is the ultimate effect? You sway a sceptre like that God sways; for, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, you have the highest revelation of the power oi a child of God. Look in the 6th chapter: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the heavenlies.” Against these consummate foes by which we are encompassed, with Satan at their head — probably the grandest being God ever created, without exception — against all of these we simply clothe ourselves in the armour of God, and then stand and defy them. It is a remarkable conception — the life of God in me so that I live as He lives; the wisdom of God in me, so that I know as He knows: the love of God in me, so that I desire what He desires; the victory of God with me, so that I win as He wins — that is the full effect of the reception of the Holy Spirit.
We could follow this idea all through the New Testament, and shew that there is not an Epistle which does not contain some new and glorious revelation of what it is to have the Spirit possess and control. The life, impossible to the natural man and the carnal man, becomes possible to the spiritual man. “The things which are impossible with man are possible with God,’’ and “all things are possible to him that believeth.”
The power of these spiritual lusts, to control and subdue the lower, is a moral miracle.
Twenty-seven years ago, I, with three children, was in the water half an hour, in peril of drowning. One of those children was the beloved daughter who fell asleep in India in November, 1903. She was then a mere child; but when she was saved out of the water, and went home, she took pen and paper and with her own hand, wrote: “God having saved me to-day from drowning, I give myself henceforth to Him.’’ When, in India, she had almost died, two days before she actually departed, a companion said to her: “Louise, you almost left us yesterday. If God had called you would you have been glad?” Oh I wouldn’t /,” she replied. The Spirit had awakened such over-mastering desires after God, that, when He called, she leaped like a tired child into her Father’s arms.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN JESUS STANDS
AMONG US,
stretches forth His pierced hands, shows us His wounded side, and says, “Peace be unto you?”
It means. How abundantly God pardons. A few years ago, when Adolf Beck had been in prison because he was confounded with another man, and when his innocence was established, the Government tried to make some amends for the disgrace and shame that had come to him and his family. It was one of the most remarkable illustrations of what God’s forgiveness is. Mr.
Beck, received from His Majesty a “free pardon,’’ the effect of which is much greater than can be conveyed by the word, “pardon” in its ordinary sense. The Home Secretary wrote these words: “A free
pardon, issued by the King, not only forgives crime, but wipes out the whole conviction and obliterates every stain which the law had ever attached to the alleged offence That is what God says to you now, as He offers you a free pardon — not only forgiveness, but something more; all that appertains to the past is wiped out, every stain of guilt obliterated. Are you, as yet, a sinner unforgiven?
“Jesus stands among us.
In His risen power;”
and He says: Here is a free pardon for you, wiping out conviction, abolishing penalty and judgment, and obliterating every stain.
What does the Lord say to us about power? “If you will receive the Holy Ghost, power is yours.’^ You need not care at all about your feelings it is a fact irrespective of your feelings.
In the days of what was called “the underground railway” in America, they used to get the poor fellows in the South away from slavery by secret means, hiding them in cellars and garrets, and conveying them at midnight across the land, from one hospitable house to another. One escaped slave had found his way to Canada, and, when he stepped on English soil he became a free man. As the train moved on into the Station, Harriet Tubman, herself an emancipated slave, who had helped hundreds of others to freedom, went in and saw the poor fellow crouching down in a corner, mortally afraid that some slave owner or slave catcher might be after him, “Joe, you fool,’^ she said, “what are you cowering there for? You have shaken off the lions’ paw; you are a free man on free soil. Praise the Lord, Joe I” And, when we see some sinner who has accepted Jesus Christ, and has this free pardon, crouching down and cowering as though he were yet under the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil, we feel like saying; “You fool, you have shaken off the lion’s paw; you are a free man. Praise the Lord!” If you have accepted Jesus Christ, cast your doubts away, cast away all your fears, your hesitation; just believe in your freedom and publish to the world your declaration of emancipation! Yes, Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
The late George H. Stuart, President of the Christian Commission established to help poor soldiers in hospital or on the battlefield dying of their wounds, to find Jesus, had permission to go within the lines, and at midnight, appeared on the outskirts of the Union Army. The sentinel challenged him to give the countersign. “Washington,” he replied. “Not correct, and my orders are to
Receiving the Holy Gho€t shoot every man who does not give the password.” “Then let me go to headquarters and get the right password; for I must have been misinformed,” He was allowed to go, and came back. The sentry challenged him. “Potomac.” “Right, enter the lines.” “And now,” said Mr. Stuart to the sentry, “I have given you the right password, may I ask whether you have the right password to heavenV” “Oh yes, Mr. Stuart, it is: Jesus Christy the same yesterday and to-day and for ever. ’”
And so He is the same Saviour that He was on the Lake of Galilee; the same Saviour as in the upper room amongst those diiples. He shows the pierced hands and the wounded side, and offers the same invitation to all, to receive a free pardon, to accept a glorious commission, and to accept an adequate and all-sufficient power. Will you receive Him? Will you live the life that he lived? Will you know the truth that God knows? Will you love the things that God loves? Will you get somewhere near God’s own level, and know something about the power which God sways?