We believers are made to drink of one Holy Spirit. The same Spirit
Spirit, the Church was born. The Lord is risen, so the Church becomes the body of Christ, being filled with the nature, and becoming the vessel, of the resurrected Christ. Christ is the Head, and the Church as His body is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. As Christ is, so is the Church. As Christ is unrestricted, so the Church is not restricted. There is no better analogy to describe Christ and the Church than that of the human body. In the latter, the head and all its members share one life, having one nature. And to be the body, all its members must be present. So is it with the body of Christ. I may make a chair short of one leg, but the body of Christ cannot be short of any leg, arm or whatever.
2. The Holy Spirit manifests the resurrection power of Christ in the Church. We believers are made to drink of one Holy Spirit. The same Spirit causes us to be the body of Christ. For this reason, wherever two persons on earth touch the resurrection of Christ, what they bind two persons on earth touch the resurrection of Christ, what they bind 20). The minimum of the Church is two persons. If, then, two can touch the power of resurrection and stand on the ground of resurrection, they can command all situations. In former days the Church was ignorant of this potential, hence it probably took decades to make any progress. Now that we know what the Church is, we can make great strides. Even your personal, impossible situation will be quickly resolved. For the Church is the reservoir of the power of the resurrection of Christ.
What is the work of the Holy Spirit today? The Spirit today is manifesting the resurrection power of Christ in the Church. All problems are now solved: "the gates of Hades shall not prevail against" the Church, said the Lord (Matt. 18.18b). I personally am persuaded that this word suggests that all the gates of Hades shall be open towards the Church; and yet these gates shall not prevail against the Church. Why? Because Hades represents death, whereas the Church represents resurrection. The Church shall therefore prevail.
Hence, for the Lord to have His way on earth today, it lies not in how much our walk has changed, or in how much truth we know, but in whether there are people who really are willing to pay any cost to know resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church. But if so, the Church shall have a glorious testimony.
In Practice
In practice each one of us has already experienced something of resurrection, since the salvation of any soul is the work of resurrection. On the other hand, people may endure suffering, and even die a martyr's death, for the Lord. All of this is because of the power of resurrection. First Corinthians 15 is a chapter in the Scriptures on the truth of resurrection. It concludes with the word, "always abounding in the work of the Lord" (v.58b), which work is done in the power of resurrection. It is also in this power of resurrection that people bear the cross, receive spiritual edification, see some light, and arrive at holiness.
During the last two thousand years these truths have been brought—here a little, there a little—to today's understanding. If today people would stand on this resurrection ground, there would be a great result. I have an idea that people today do not see sufficiently enough of the Lord's resurrection.
The Lord is powerful. He transcends all things and is able to break down every barrier. Yet He is but the Head. What is marvelous is that today God wants us to be joined with the Lord in one. Such a New Man in Christ is beyond restriction and is well able to manifest the power of God. Oh, this is such a tremendous thing. Unless in our day we have this revelation we will not be able to make any advance in testimony. Were we to receive some light before the Lord so as to see, we would save much time and energy. May the Lord be merciful to us and open our eyes that we may see resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church and their interrelatedness.
2 Resurrection, the Holy Spirit, and the Church (2)
Death Is the Greatest Restriction Last Lord's Day we spoke on Resurrection, the Holy 2Spirit, and the Church. Today we want to speak further about these matters. What we saw last Lord's Day was that death is the greatest restriction. We want to reinforce this word. All living creatures end at death. Accordingly, for all living things the ultimate limitation is death. Small animals end at death, but so do the big animals. All living things, from plants to animals, are altogether circumscribed by death. Yet this is also true with respect to human beings. Man's intellect may advance considerably, such as in the case of the rich man spoken of in one of the parables of the Lord Jesus (in it, interestingly enough, God addressed the rich man as, "Thou foolish one"). The advanced intellect of this rich man enables him to plan and plot for his future, but he is finished and done for when God requires his soul (see Luke 12.16-21). Many of our loved ones—such as our fathers, mothers and children—have died. And once having died, they are never recalled to life. But so many great men suffered the same consequence; however powerful and influential they were in their lives, they too died and are gone. Hence, death is the greatest restriction.
Resurrected Man Is God's Appointed Man When the Lord Jesus was on earth He was the representative man. During His forty days after resurrection He was still the representative man. In His thirty three years on earth He was the representation of morality, but in His first forty days after resurrection He stood as the representation of power. In fact, these forty days manifested His power. Fundamental theologians view the Lord Jesus on earth as the typical or standard man. They correctly deduce that if the Lord had not died for us God would for sure have condemned us for our sins because we have all fallen below the standard, and are thus under condemnation. Had Christ not died and the veil in the temple not been rent, God would have condemned us for our sins instead of having saved us. But past theologians did not clearly see the truth surrounding the resurrection of Christ. Only in this century have people begun to see resurrection truth in a fuller light. Resurrected man alone is God's man of design: "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Heb. 1.5). As we have indicated already, this
declaration by God has reference to the time when the Lord Jesus was risen and came out of the tomb. After the Lord was resurrected and had emerged from the tomb, God said to Him, "This day have I begotten thee." It was there and then that God obtained the Man of His heart desire.
Our being the children of God also begins with the resurrection of Christ. Ever since the fall of man we human beings have all come short of the glory of God (see Rom. 3.23). Except for resurrection, we cannot be saved. Of all human beings the Lord Jesus alone has not fallen short of God's glory for He is the perfect man. However, besides His desire for a perfect man God had an added desire that this perfect man must be a man of power. God wants a powerful man as well as a moral man. From the moment of His birth on earth in Bethlehem, the Lord is a man of morality. But from the moment of His resurrection He has manifested himself as a man of power; for after His resurrection Christ is able to be omnipresent. Time and space can no longer limit Him since He has become a man with resurrection power. Thus does the Lord Jesus fulfill God's plan in the creation of man and becomes the Man of God's desire.
Resurrection Transcends All After His resurrection, the Lord is not only unrestricted by time and space but is also unbound by death. He has broken the barrier of death. The rising of Lazarus from the dead is different from the Lord's resurrection: with Lazarus it is but a resuscitation, not a real resurrection: he was still bound by graveclothes and eventually he died: the power of death was yet upon him. At the resurrection of the Lord, however, the boundary of death was broken through by Him, "because it was not possible that he should be holden of it [held in its power]" (Acts 2.24). The gates of Hades could not close against Him nor swallow Him up. Christ is risen and He dies no more. Death has no power upon Him.
When the Lord was resurrected, even His disciples, such as Peter and Thomas, did not believe it. Mary Magdalene ran and reported to Peter and John that the Lord was not to be found in the tomb. These two immediately left to investigate. They saw "the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, that was upon his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself"; yet the Lord was not there (see John 20.1-8). In the case of Lazarus coming out of the tomb, we know that he was still "bound hand and foot with grave-clothes" and "his face was bound about with a napkin"; he was still under limitation
(see John 11.44). But at the Lord's resurrection, the linen graveclothes and napkin were left in the tomb, yet He himself had departed. This indicates that the Lord has transcended all restrictions. And hence His resurrection is essentially different from that of Lazarus.
Brother Sparks had two words about the Lord and resurrection: It is not His coming but His appearing; it is not His going, but His disappearing. Since His resurrection, nothing can confine Him. In Christ Jesus nothing can limit Him, neither death, nor time, nor space, nor anything else. Not only that, after He was resurrected, the Lord Jesus was exalted by God to the highest place, seated in heaven at the Father's right hand, "far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come" (Eph. 1.20-21). Consequently, the resurrected Christ transcends all. Today the Lord is leading us, on the one hand, to be as moral as He is and, on the other hand, to have resurrection power such as He has. The man whom God desires is morally, as well as powerfully, perfect.
The Church: Born of the Spirit after the Lord's Resurrection to Be the
Body of the Resurrected Christ, Joined in One with the Head It is after His resurrection that Christ became the Head of the Church. Before His resurrection, He was on earth as a man; He had not become the Head of the Church. Only after resurrection did He ascend up to the Father and receive the promised Holy Spirit, whom He then poured forth to give birth to the Church. The Lord is resurrected in order to be the Head of the Church as well as to join us believers together to be the Body. God now makes Christ the Head and us the body of Christ. Just as the nature of the human head is, so is the nature of the human body. The word of God shows us that just as the Lord is in resurrection so the Church is in resurrection. Hence what is the Church? It is that which holds the resurrection of Christ.
The Church is built on resurrection ground, or else it cannot be reckoned as the Church. Ephesians 1.19-20a speaks of "the exceeding greatness of his [God's] power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." Today this same resurrection power works in us. This power in Christ makes Him the Head; this same power in us makes us the Body. This is what the Church is. Hence, unless we experience the power of the resurrection of Christ we do not know what the Church is. The Church should not be restricted
at all, but should overcome everything just as Christ has.
Why is it that the letter to the Ephesians is considered to be the book in the Bible which uncovers the height of truth? Because it reveals the body of Christ. In nature and in power the body of Christ is the same as Christ. Yet to understand the body of Christ we need revelation. Otherwise, what we profess to know about the Church is but a matter of terminology. We need to stand on the ground of the Church experientially. There should be at least two persons who together touch that resurrection power of Christ and pray with one accord. The word of the Lord is clear: "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28.19-20). Today the Lord entrusts us with the execution of this authority. This is because we are His body. Besides the fact of our still being in these earthly mortal bodies, there is also the fact that we are joined to the Lord in one spirit. We are not different from the Lord spiritually. What a tremendous reality this is!
Need the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation When we see what resurrection is, we become clear about what the Body is. After His resurrection the Lord poured forth the Holy Spirit to give birth to the Church. He becomes the Head, and the Church becomes His body. How all-important is the Body! There is nothing higher than that a person would be willing to accept others to be members of his body. Just so, the Lord Jesus accepts us to be members of His body and He gives us His authority to exercise. How great is the Lord!
Brother Sparks also said this: the work of the Holy Spirit is found wherever the resurrection power of the Lord is working; otherwise, it cannot be reckoned as His work. Once again, it must be said that this cannot be comprehended by the human mind. We must pray and ask God to grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation. What we need today is this revelation, the revelation concerning the power which God has already given us. If there be two or three believers with this revelation and praying with one accord on the ground of resurrection, they can execute the authority of heaven.
Hallelujah, today we do not need to have more of what we already have; rather, we need to see how glorious, rich and great that indeed is which we already have. Heavenly authority is glorious and exceedingly great, but it is being restricted by earth. If today, however, two persons on earth recognize resurrection and stand on resurrection ground, they can shake the ends of the earth. Now we are merely touching the hem of the resurrection garment, for
only in these recent years have we begun to have the word of the Lord on resurrection. Praise God! What He has revealed to us uncovers the height of Biblical truth: that we are one with the Lord! The problem today is on our side. May we all humble ourselves before God and pray: "O God, grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may see."
PART TWO
THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT∗
∗ The nine messages which comprise this Part were delivered in Chinese by the author at either
Chuenchow or Shanghai in China between 1935 and 1942, as will be more specifically indicated at the beginning of each message. The contents of these nine messages to follow have been derived from extensive notes taken down in Chinese by those who were present at the meetings concerned, and have now been translated into English.—Translator
1 Outpouring of the Holy Spirit Explained∗
∗Notes of message given at Chuenchow, Fukien Province 18 November 1935.—Translator
Concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it is a subject that is not easy to explain. Being limited in time, we can only share a little today. This, however, does not mean that the Bible has only this much on the subject. We can only scan through the material; we cannot conduct an in-depth study. Nevertheless, let us study as much as we can on the one hand and pray much on the other. May God give us more light.
Outpouring of Holy Spirit vs. Outpouring of Evil Spirit With regard to the outward appearance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, many wonder about some "abnormal" or unusual phenomena. In the Bible, such phenomena are truly mentioned. Over the past eight or nine years as I have studied this subject, I discovered that these manifestations are indeed in the Bible. Nevertheless, abnormal or unusual phenomena in and of themselves do not necessarily prove the genuineness of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The biblical proof is found in 1 Corinthians 12.1-3. Verse 1 speaks of spiritual gifts. However, we find that the English word "gifts" has been placed in italics in the text, which indicates that this word is not in the original Greek. So Paul is not speaking here of spiritual gifts. The Greek word pneumatikos here is equivalent to "spiritualities" or "spiritual inspirations." Govett, Pember, Panton, and other Biblical scholars translate this as "being inspired"; that is to say, the spirit in question comes upon a person, thus causing strange movement or manifestation. In verse 2, "led away" originally refers to a being inspired by the evil spirit. And hence, in the original this phrase does not point to a being led away according to the common, ordinary understanding; rather, it has to do with supernatural matters. Paul wants the Corinthian believers to know about spiritual inspiration.
In our brief study today we shall come to see the difference between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the outpouring of the evil spirit. Paul has not
told us here of the outward manifestations of these two outpourings. He certainly knows, but he does not explain. In spite of his omission, though, we still need to pay attention to them. Outwardly these two outpourings are quite difficult to distinguish, yet inwardly the differences are great.
The Two Outpourings Differ in Speech The main difference between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and that of the evil spirit lies in the area of speech, not in body movement, attitude and so forth: "No man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12.3). Whether or not a person receives the outpouring of the Holy Spirit can be recognized by the word of his mouth. Only those who are inspired by the Holy Spirit can say that Jesus is Lord. This cannot be falsified. Unless a person is inspired by the Holy Spirit, he is not able to say "Jesus is Lord." He who cannot say this is definitely being poured upon by the evil spirit. When a spirit comes upon a person, we can use this method to examine and test that spirit. He who can say "Jesus is Lord" has the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, he who cannot say "Jesus is Lord" is poured upon by the evil spirit. If when a person is challenged, and he moves away, it becomes doubtful that he has been poured upon by the Holy Spirit. But if he can say, "Lord, I am unworthy, this is Your grace," he is being inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Yet do not doubt simply because there are sometimes "abnormalities." If inspiration is common and regular, it is no more inspiration. He who is inspired by the Holy Spirit has the Spirit upon him. Hence he should be somewhat different from the ordinary.
Holy Spirit and Evil Spirit Differ in Working Principle We may also judge the difference between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and that of the evil spirit by the diverse working principles involved. In order for the evil spirit to be poured out upon a person two conditions are required. First, there must be a passive will. One with a passive will can easily give ground to an evil spirit. For this reason, Christians should not be passive. Second, there must be a vacant mind. The minds of many are idle. These people are unwilling to exercise their own minds. Such people can also be easily deceived by evil spirits. So then, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit differs profoundly in principle from that of an evil spirit. The main differences are in the stances taken by the human will and mind. People who receive the