Are We Ignoring The Holy Ghost?

In searching the Scriptures to ascertain what has been revealed concerning the Holy Spirit and His ministry, we discover a striking vocabulary of phrases and synonymous terms that are both interesting and instructive. We find that out of thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is mentioned in twenty-four of them, at least 84 times. Another remarkable fact in the Old Testament study of this subject which I observed is that the Holy Spirit is not named at all in the books of either Joshua, Jeremiah, or Daniel, but the marks of His presence are there. He wrought mightily in each of these three lives.

I speak of these features of the Old Testament for I think that most Christians are under the impression that we are dependent upon the New Testament entirely for our knowledge of the Holy Ghost and His ministry.

I pointed out last Lord’s Day, when dealing with this subject, that a new and greater ministry of the Spirit began with the ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It was at that time the convicting, comforting, guiding, and empowering of the Holy Spirit began, as predicted by Jesus in John, chapters 14 to 16.

When Christ Went Up The Spirit Came Down

On the Day of Pentecost, He came not only to take the place of Christ in their lives, but to bring them into a fellowship and blessed intimacy with their risen Lord, yea with the Father and the Son, that had hitherto been unknown to them. “He shall be in you,” “He shall abide with you forever.”

Executive Of The Church

It is frequently said that the Holy Spirit is “the Executive of the Godhead.” This term may be a bit perplexing to the average disciple, but let me say this morning, that He has come to be the Executive of the church—the Administrator of her affairs, and the Director of her enterprises, and most of our trouble today comes from ignoring this fact.

Let me give you an illustration from the Old Testament. When Joshua was called to succeed Moses and lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land, before the first battle was fought, he had a strange, but blessed experience. It was probably in the dead of night; he stood over against Jericho. I imagine he was taking in the whole situation and deciding on his plan for the taking of that city, when suddenly, he was confronted with a supernatural Presence—“A man with his sword drawn in his hand,” but nothing daunted, for Joshua was every inch a soldier, he “went unto him, and said unto him, ‘Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?’” and I am sure that he was greatly surprised and also greatly relieved at the reply which he received.

Interviewed By The Commander-In-Chief

“Nay,” said the Divine Presence, “as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.” You see friends, He was to be the Commander-in-Chief; Joshua was to hold the subordinate position, and true man of God that he was, he “fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?” and there upon that holy ground, with his shoes removed from his feet, “standing at attention,” he received the divine plan for taking the city.

Took God’s Plan And Won

And right here, beloved people, let me say that when we subject our wills to the divine leadership, we must be prepared “to scrap” many of our own plans and ideas for “His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts.” In that conquest of Canaan, in those battles with thirty-one kings, Joshua suffered but one defeat, and it is surely suggestive that the defeat came as a result of ignoring the Invisible Presence. He made an attack upon Ai without receiving divine marching orders and was greatly humiliated in consequence.

The World’s Greatest Undertaking

In the beginning of this day of grace, we see a little company, who were in the estimate of the scholars of that day, “unlearned and ignorant men,” undertaking a greater conquest than Joshua’s. indeed, it was the greatest undertaking in the history of men. Their commission read: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” “make disciples of all nations.” But He also commanded them that they should not depart...but “wait for the promise of the Father”—wait until the Invisible Presence should take the command. “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication...and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began,” —that is, they did not begin until the great Administrator and Executive of the church possessed Himself of them.

Then follows the story of His power and His presence. The publishers of our bible entitled the book of Acts. “The Acts of the Apostles,” but as the late Dr. Arthur Pierson said: “A better title is ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” for here we see Him in action, as Christ foretold—convicting, converting, adding to the church, presiding over their councils, selecting their deacons, calling their missionaries, and solving their social problems, all because His Invisible Presence was recognized and was real to them.

A common question of our day is “What is the matter with our church?” I am afraid the matter is that we are ignoring, grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit. We are depending too largely on the arm of the flesh, on human plans, and He is not manifesting Himself.

To Ignore The Architect Means Disaster

For an example, we are building a great church at this time. The plans were in the mind of the architect before they appeared on paper, then they were made visible on blueprints and by specifications. The foundations have been laid and the building is appearing before our eyes, but suppose that the pastor or some member of our Committee would be going out to these workmen every day insisting on certain changes being made, and all the time ignoring the architect whose business it is to see that these plans are carried out correctly. How long do you think that he would remain on the job? Not very long, I am sure. Such actions would be considered an affront and an insult. How much more do we grieve the Holy Spirit by taking out of His hands that which has been placed absolutely in His control.

God has a plan for every life; God has a method for doing His own work and we, like Joshua, should be subordinate, absolutely submissive to His will.

A Hopeful Sign

There is one thing that fills my heart with hope, a great number of Christians are feeling very much dissatisfied with the spiritual poverty of the church. A God-given hunger is possessing them and a real cry is going up to the throne for His fullness, and this indicates that better things are just ahead of us, for soul travail is always a sure sign of a spiritual blessing. “As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth.” “He satisfies the longing soul.” “He filleth the hungry with good things.” It is the self-satisfied that He sends away empty.

A Witness Must Know And Be Spirit-Filled

“Ye shall be witnesses unto me.” We are not all called to be preachers or to be singers, but God expects every believer to be a witness, and the world today needs the witness unto Christ more than it needs anything else.

We have all sorts of religious organizations and numerous churches all crying out against corruption and crime, but the great multitude is unmoved, paying little or no attention to any of these things. But with “certain Greeks” many are saying, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” We can only give effective testimony to the Christ when filled with the Holy Spirit. “But when the Comforter is come,” said Jesus, “whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me; and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Indeed, the Spirit is the real witness. You know evidence in a court is accepted only from one who has seen with his eye or heard through his ear certain things.

Now we have never seen the Christ; we never heard Him speak, but the Holy Ghost is the eye witness. He was there at His birth, with Him through all those silent years to the beginning of His ministry, when He “descended like a dove, and lighted upon Him.” It was by His Invisible Presence that Christ wrought His miracles and spake His parables, as Peter declared in his address to the household to Cornelius: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.”

It was “through the Eternal Spirit that He offered Himself without spot, to God” on Calvary, and the Holy Ghost raised Him from the dead.

Mighty Because Spirit-Clothed

“He shall testify of me,” said Jesus, but He must have a human instrument. He would clothe Himself with me; He would clothe himself with you, and give testimony to the Christ. There is a splendid illustration of this in the book of Judges, chapter six. It was a day of terrible darkness in Israel; a crisis in the nation. The people were oppressed and dispirited, God sought Him a leader and so He came to a man threshing grain behind a wine press—a very ordinary man of himself, but suddenly he becomes great, a mighty man. He marshals friends and commands his fellows. They only see in him Gideon, the son of Joash, but the secret of his power and triumph was in the fact that the spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon. It was the Invisible Presence that made the difference between just Gideon, the farmer, and Gideon, the mighty man of Israel.

The Only Willing Man At Hand

In the New Testament we have also a striking illustration of a black man from the heart of Africa journeying to Jerusalem, seeking after God, but it would appear that he was returning to his home without much light. Someone, however, had given him a copy of Isaiah’s prophecy, and so hungry was his heart that he was intently searching the book for truth. Now the Holy Ghost desiring to help that man, sought for a human instrument that He could use, and away over in Samaria was an evangelist, called Philip, doing a mighty work. Some have asked why he should have been taken from that great work and sent to Gaza to meet one man. To my mind it was simply because there was no other human instrument that He could possess, who was any nearer to Gaza than Philip, and you remember that delightful story how Philip found him reading the 53rd chapter of that prophecy, and with modest diplomacy, made his approach to the chariot, with the result that the Ethiopian was brought out into the light, baptized, and sent on his way rejoicing, all because Philip recognized the Invisible Presence.

A number of years ago, while conducting a meeting in a Canadian city, a young lawyer who was a member of the church in which the meetings were being held, became greatly dissatisfied with his Christian experience. He attended several afternoon services where the Spirit-filled life, and kindred subjects, were discussed. I missed him for two or three days and wondered what had happened. When he came back to the meetings again it was evident a great change had taken place. His face radiated holy gladness. The evening services were purely evangelistic and the place was crowded to the limit. As we were singing the closing hymn one night and appealing for decisions, the lawyer quietly left the front where he had been sitting and walked to the back of the building, and in a moment returned with an elderly lady on his arm. The tears were falling over both faces and, as they passed the people coming up the aisle, I could see that every heart was deeply touched. Turning to the pastor of the church, who was standing by my side and in whose eyes the tears had also appeared, I asked what it meant. “Oh,” he said, “She is his mother, a very proud and worldly woman, most indifferent to spiritual or religious things.” But that night everything changed, and she immediately became a great power for God in the community.

How Lawyer Won Proud Mother To Christ

In talking with the lawyer after the meeting, he said to me, “You know, Mr. Philpott, while singing that hymn I was praying for my mother and a voice seemed to say to me, If you will go to her seat and simply lay your hand on her arm, she will come at once to Christ,” and he said, “I was simple enough to obey, and you see what happened.”

I am sure that if our faith were more simple and we recognized that voice that speaks when the life is fully yielded, more such things would happen. “We are His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.”

The promise of the Spirit’s fulness is given to all believers. It does not pertain merely to the apostles, the early church, or a favored few in subsequent ages. This is the common need of all Christians and it is a common gift to all who trust the Christ, neither is there any gift that the Heavenly Father is more willing to bestow than the fulness of the Spirit. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give mood gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?