Life In The Spirit # 1

Life In The Spirit # 1

"And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway from the water and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16).

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He afterward hungered. And the tempter came and said unto Him, 'If Thou art the Son of God..." ' (Matt. 4:1-3).

"Again, the devil taketh Him unto an exceeding high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and he said unto Him, 'All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.' Then saith Jesus unto him, 'Get thee hence, satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" ' (Matt. 4:8-10).

"And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13).

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:14).

"And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared upon them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom ye crucified" (Acts 2:2-4, 36.)

In the first of these passages we see the link between the Holy Spirit and sonship: the Spirit is seen lighting upon the Lord Jesus and a voice out of the heavens is heard saying, "This is My beloved Son." That truth is taken up again in the passage in the Letter to the Romans, chapter 8:14, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." In the second passage, Matthew 4, the Son, under the government of the Spirit, is led into the wilderness, and the issue of that particular leading of the Spirit was a mighty victory for the rights of God.

"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth Him," as Luke adds, "for a season." That is the end of that battle and it is victory in the hands of the Son under the government of the Spirit.

What I feel the Lord wants us to recognize at this time is what a life or church that is led and governed by the Holy Spirit does; what it means to be led and governed by the Holy Spirit so far as we personally and collectively are concerned: in other words, what are the marks of sonship. You see, beloved, we have to begin here, that sonship is proved by our being led by the Spirit. How do we know that we are sons: what is it that evidences sonship: in what way does sonship manifest itself and work itself out? The clear, precise statement of the Word of God is that it is by our being "led by the Spirit." It was so in the case of the Lord Jesus. The marks of His Sonship were in His being led of the Spirit. The statement moreover is quite positive in Romans 8:14. How tremendously important it is, therefore, that we both have the Spirit and are governed by the Spirit. That is fundamental to everything.

I venture to say that if that which I feel the Lord wants to bring to us now could be truly got over to us, it would be a matter of tremendous value to every one of us. Let me repeat: the basis, the foundation of everything so far as our relationship with God and with God's purpose is concerned, is the presence and the government of the Holy Spirit; and that government, of course, means and presupposes the absolute Lordship of the Holy Spirit: because the Holy Spirit does not come save on the ground of death, burial and resurrection. It was when Jesus was baptized and came up out of the water that the Holy Spirit came upon Him; and baptism, as we all know, sets forth in testimony the fact that, so far as any other government is concerned, be it the government of satan, or that of the world, or be it the government of the self-life, that government is broken and we are out of it; and our resurrection, typified in our coming up out of the baptism, means that we are alive, and alive unto God only. Thus the ground is provided for the Spirit to come in as Lord, and so become the basis of everything in our relationship with God and God's purpose. The thing that I feel we want to recognize is what that really means.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)