The Mastership of the Spirit
“* Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” — AcTs xx, 28,
Fis] An Ghost is a very different thing from Satig being made an overseer by the world. To be made an overseer by the world is to be made a master, but to be created overseer by the Spirit is to be made a servant. One would have expected the words to be “the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, therefore take care to rule.” Instead of that it is the contrary, “the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, therefore take care to feed, to nourish, to minister.” Divine power is not like any other power. Every other power lifts me above my brother, but divine power puts me beneath my brother, it is the power of stooping. God Himself has purchased His
TO be made an overseer by the Holy conquest “with His blood.” It is because the power of His Spirit is a power of sacrifice that the’ presence of His Spirit in me must be manifested in sacrifice. The Son of man proclaimed Himself a king when before the judgment seat of Pilate He put on the martyr’s crown; even so, the hour when the Spirit makes me overseer must also be that hour in which I feed the wants of men.
Spirit of Christ, give me the sign that Thou art in me. The sign that Thou art in me is the possession of Thy power, and Thy power is sacrifice. It is the sacrificial blood of love that makes Thee a Providence; let the same life make me an overseer. Thou rulest in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth because Thou openest Thy hand to satisfy the desires of all that live; Thine empire is built on ministration. Even such would I have my empire to be. I would have it founded on the seas and established on the floods. I would have it constructed on the power to toil with those who work, to bear with those who are burdened, to weep with those who weep. Help me to realise -day by day that the possession of the keys of Thy kingdom is the commission to feed Thy sheep. Help me to learn hour by hour that the test of loving more than others love is the stooping to feed Thy lambs. The measure of my power shall be the measure of my self-forgetfulness; I shall know that Thou hast made me an overseer when in sacrifice I have shed my blood.