The Ministry of the Spirit - A. J. Gordon (fantasy novels to read TXT) 📗

of the Holy Ghost, according to his will" (Heb. 2: 4)—the sermon greeted with applause and the clapping of hands, or "the word received with joy of {145} the Holy Ghost" (1 Thess. 1: 6)?—admiration of the preacher possessing all who listen to the discourse, or "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word" (Acts 10: 44)? Language cannot express the vital moment of the question which we are here discussing. Our generation is rapidly losing its grip upon the supernatural; and as a consequence the pulpit is rapidly dropping to the level of the platform. And this decline is due, we believe, more than anything else, to an ignoring of the Holy Spirit as the supreme inspirer of preaching. We wish to see a great orator in the pulpit, forgetting that the least expounder of the word, when filled with the Holy Ghost, is greater than he. We want the gospel, forsooth; but in the strenuous demand that it be set forth according to the "spirit of the age" we ignore the supremacy of the "Spirit of God." And the method of discourse soon tells upon the matter. We cannot very long have the truth in the pulpit after we have lost "the Spirit of truth" therefrom. "When one possesses not the whole of life," says Vinet, "he possesses not the whole of truth."

In all that we have said we do not ignore the human element in preaching, nor undervalue good learning and sanctified mental training, as a furnishing for this high office. We only emphasize the extreme peril of making that supreme which God has made subordinate. As it is genius which raises the great {146} painter or poet far above the common man, so it is the Holy Spirit which lifts the preacher far above the man of genius. A gifted artist spoke wisely when one, thinking only of the implements of his profession, asked, "With what do you mix your paints?" "With brains, sir," he replied. The preacher who brought three thousand to believe on a crucified Christ, under a single sermon, anticipated the question of those who, with an eye upon the mere human accessories of his sermon, might ask after the secret of his power; and he unfolds that secret in a single terse sentence: "With the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven."

(2) Prayer is a most vital element in the worship of God's church. "Lord, teach us how to pray, as John also taught his disciples." Jesus complied literally with this request of his followers. As John, under the law, could only give rules and rudiments, not yet having come to the dispensation of grace and of the Spirit, so did Jesus give a form of prayer, a lesson in the "technique of worship." But only when he reaches the eve of his passion, when he announces the coming of the Comforter, does he lead his disciples into the heart and mystery of the great theme, teaching them to pray as John could not have taught his disciples. "Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name," said Jesus, in his paschal discourse. But now that he was about to enter into his mediatorial office at God's right {147} hand, and to send forth the Comforter into the midst of his disciples, this joyful privilege was to be accorded to him: "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you"[4] (1 John 16: 23). The words are equivalent to "in me." The thought is not surely that of using the name of Jesus as a password or as a talisman, but of entering into his person and appropriating his will; so that when we pray, it shall be as though Jesus himself stood in God's presence and made intercession. Nor is it "as though"—it is the literal fact. We become identified with Christ through the Spirit, now sent down, and his will is wrought within us by the Holy Ghost, so that to ask what we desire of him is to ask what he desires for us. We are inwilled by his will, because inspired by his Spirit, who lives and breathes within us. Therefore we may know that we are always heard, since we are in him who can boldly say to the Father: "I know that thou always hearest me." It is Christ's mediatorship with the Father, and the Holy Ghost's mediatorship with us, that gives us this high privilege of praying in the name of Jesus, as it is written: "For through him we both have access in one Spirit unto the Father."

When therefore, under the fuller development of {148} doctrine as found in the epistles, we read of "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Eph. 6: 18), and of "praying in the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20), it is simply an admonition to use our privilege of asking in the name of Jesus. For to be in the Spirit is to be in Christ, united to his person, identified with his will, invested with his righteousness, so that we are as he is before the Father.

In that fullest exposition of the doctrine of the Spirit, given in the eighth of Romans, we see clearly that the ministry of the Comforter consists in his effectuating in us that which Christ is accomplishing for us on the throne. Especially is this true of prayer. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read: "Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near to God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7: 25, R. V.). In the Epistle to the Romans we read: "And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity; for we know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8: 26, 27, R. V.). These passages, read together, clearly show the Spirit doing the same thing in us which Christ in heaven {149} is doing for us. And, moreover, they reveal to us the method of the glorified Christ in helping those who know not what to pray for as they ought, teaching them, not by an outward form, but by an inward guidance. Indeed, the prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit is often so deep that it cannot be expressed in formal words, but reaches the ear of the Father only in unspeakable yearnings, in unuttered groanings. The keynote of all true intercession is the will of God. In the disciples' prayer, as taught them by the Master, this note is distinctly sounded: "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven." In the Saviour's garden-prayer it is heard again, as with strong crying and tears the Son of God exclaims: "Not my will but thine be done"; and in the revelation of the doctrine of prayer through an inspired apostle we read: "If we ask anything according to his will he heareth us." It is the Spirit's deepest work in the believer to attune his mind to this exalted key, as he "maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." There is a promise which all disciples love to quote for their assurance in prayer: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 18: 19). The word translated "agree" is a very suggestive one. It is, sympsônêsôsin, from which our word "symphony" comes. If two shall accord {150} or symphonize in what they ask, they have the promise of being heard. But, as in tuning an organ all the notes must be keyed to the standard pitch, else harmony were impossible, so in prayer. It is not enough that two disciples agree with each other; they must both accord with a Third—the righteous and holy Lord—before in the scriptural sense they can agree in intercession. There may be agreement which is in most sinful conflict with the divine will: "How is it that ye have agreed together [synepsônêthê, the same word] to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?" asks Peter (Acts 5: 9). Here is mutual accord, but guilty discord with the Holy Ghost. On the contrary it is the Spirit's ministry to attune our wills to the Divine; thus only can there be praying in the Holy Ghost.

We cannot therefore emphasize too strongly the administration of the Spirit in directing the worship of God's house. The use of liturgical forms is a relapse into legalism, a consent to be taught to pray as "John taught his disciples." True, there may be extemporaneous forms as well as written forms, praying by rote as well as praying by the book. Against both habits we simply interpose the higher teaching of the Spirit, as belonging especially to this dispensation, in which the Father seeketh worshipers who "worship in Spirit and in truth." To pray rightly is the highest of all attainments. And it is so because the secret lies {151} between these two opposites; a spirit supremely active while supremely passive, a heart prevailing with God because prevailed over by God. "O Lord," says a high saint, "my spirit was like a harp this morning, making melody before thee, since thou didst first tune the instrument by the Holy Spirit, and then didst choose the psalm of praise to be played thereon." Most solemn and suggestive words these have always seemed: "The Father seeketh such to worship him." Amid all the repetition of forms and the chanting of liturgies, how earnestly the Most High searches after the spiritual worshiper, with a heart inwardly retired before God, with a spirit so sensitive to the hidden motions of the Holy Ghost that when the lips speak they shall utter the effectual inwrought prayer that availeth much!

If any shall interpose the objection that what we are saying is too high to be practical, it may be well to confirm our position by the witness of experience. We are not speaking of pulpit prayers especially, in what we have said. The universal priesthood of believers, which the Scriptures so plainly teach, constitutes the ground for common intercession, for "the praying one for another" which is the distinctive feature of the Spirit's dispensation The prayer meeting, therefore, in which the whole body of believers participate, probably comes nearer the pattern of primitive Christian {152} worship than any other service which we hold. To apply our principle here, then, what method is found most satisfactory? Shall the service be arranged beforehand, this one selected to pray, and that one to exhort; and during the progress of the worship, shall such a one be called up to lead the devotions, and such a one to follow? In a word, shall the service be mapped out in advance and manipulated according to the dictates of propriety and fitness as it goes on? One, after many years of experience, can bear emphatic testimony to the value of another way—that of magnifying the office of the Holy Spirit as the conductor of the service, and of so withholding the pressure of human hands in the assembly that the Spirit shall have the utmost freedom to move this one to pray and that one to witness, this one to sing and that one "to say amen at our giving of thanks," according to his own sovereign will. Here we speak not theoretically but experimentally. The fervor and spirituality and sweet naturalness of the latter method has been demonstrated beyond a peradventure, and that too, after an extended trial of both ways, the first in ignorance of a better way, with constant labor and worry and fret, and the last with inexpressible ease and comfort and spiritual refreshment. Honor the Holy Ghost as Master of assemblies; study much the secret of surrender to him; cultivate a quick ear for hearing his inward voice and a ready tongue {153} for speaking his audible witness; be submissive to keep silence when he forbids as well as to speak when he commands, and we shall learn how much better is God's way of conducting the worship of his house than man's way.[5]

(3) The service of song in the house of the Lord is another element of worship whose relation to the Spirit needs to