This is why the disciples had to wait at Pentecost, not wait to get
themselves into a certain receptive spiritual state, but wait till
the Son of man was glorified and the Holy Spirit was sent forth. They
did not need further knowledge of the facts about Christ the Saviour.
But before they became witnesses to Jesus Christ, they themselves
must become living messages, living witnesses, by having Jesus Christ
revealed _in them_. This is what the Holy Spirit did, and this is what
would be impossible without the Holy Spirit given in this new way.
Some one has well said that the Holy Spirit is for the servant, rather
than for the service. The service and the life is the normal outflow
when the servant, the man himself, has been filled with the Holy Spirit.
The fulness of the Spirit, this new work of the Spirit for the
believer, is just the Christ life manifested in the believer. This is
the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22, 23). This
is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit
given unto us (Rom. 5:5). This is the earnest of our inheritance――the
hope of glory that puts not to shame (Eph. 1:13, 14; Rom. 5:1, 5). This
is the transforming power for growth in grace (2 Cor. 3:18). This is
the thirteenth of First Corinthians made real in our experience, the
love which is the fulfilling of the law.
The Holy Spirit convicts and comforts. He convicts the world, and also
the believer when he walks after the world. He comforts the saints,
and we have noted something of what this means. The Holy Spirit makes
possible the life of victory in Christ. The fulness of the Spirit,
walking in the Spirit, the Spirit indwelling the life (that is,
controlling it), are all other ways of saying, the life that is Christ,
the Victorious Life, the life kept from sinning, the Christ-controlled
life.
The Holy Spirit gives distinct gifts for worship and service, he works
miracles, he does many things for the believer. But these things which
he does for different believers, dividing to each severally even as He
will, must be kept distinct from the one central purpose which is the
same for every believer, namely the manifesting of Christ in the life
(Gal. 3:5; 1 Cor. 12 to 14; Eph. 4:14-16).
And the one proof that Christ is not manifested, is _sin_. Thus victory
over sin is central in the work of the Spirit in our salvation.
We have asked and briefly answered two questions concerning the Holy
Spirit: “Who is He, and what does He do?” “Who has Him, and what
do they do?” There remains a third question, the answer to which
determines whether His miracle working power shall be available in
present experience: “Has He me?”
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