Truth Archive

It is a special privilege for me to be here. My thoughts have been concerning Jesus, about His Spirit, and His Spirit as He entered into every experience. When He knew His hour had come facing the cross, He prayed again and again, and again. His concern in His heart was that His Spirit would be totally and wholly submitted to the will of His Father. He had human feelings just like we have. He cried, “If it were possible, let this cup pass from me,” but He knew if He kept that Spirit, even going to the cross would not achieve what God had planned it would, so He kept praying until His Spirit was right.

The most important part of a meeting is the part that takes place before a meeting: getting into the right spirit;   going to the meeting with the right purpose, just one purpose. There is a dear old lady, over 80 years of age, who struggles on her walking stick, down the mountain for three hours to be in the Sunday morning meeting and Wednesday night. She never misses. She is deaf. Shouting in her ear, she was asked, “Why do you come? You can’t get anything from the meeting.” She said, “I come here because God is here.” How special is it to us that we can come and meet with God and He can talk with us.

That is the spirit that is going to make it possible for God to speak to us. That dear old lady sometimes comes in pouring rain. One Sunday morning she did not arrive. One young boy who had recently professed, was concerned. Right after the meeting he encouraged a friend, found a little three-wheeled cart and went up the mountain to see what was wrong. They crossed streams, rocky ledges and got to her house to find she had fallen and broken her ankle. They took her down the mountain, carried the cart over streams, and cared for her until she could walk again. We can see the spirit of that dear lady still wanting to be where God is, and I love to see the spirit of the young man, doing everything possible to see that others could be where God is. That young man has had several years in the Work now. It is a wonderful thing, not only preparing ourselves for the meeting, but doing everything necessary to help others to be there.

Matthew 5:23-24, “If you remember your brother hath ought against thee, go and put it right.” How can we feel at ease in a meeting knowing our brother is not free, and very likely because of something I may have done, or maybe should have done? It has made me realize the great importance of preparing for the meeting. We know and can see all that has gone on in preparation for the Convention here, and we know that without the Spirit of God all is in vain. The Spirit of God makes all the difference. Without the Spirit of God everything is vain.   Many people gather as we gather today, speak of the very same things, but the effect is very different just because the Spirit of God is among us.

I was thinking of the time Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain. They saw Moses and Elias, and Peter said, “It is good for us to be here.” We have been here three days and that is the feeling of all of us, that we would not want to be anywhere else. But then, we don’t just want that feeling of being here, not just at Convention but it would bring good results if we could just take this Spirit with us when we go from Convention and have this spirit at every meeting, and every experience in life. I need to prepare my spirit for these experiences.

For many years my greatest concern was having a part in a meeting, preparing words. That is not the most important thing, but to have a prepared spirit, that there is in the meeting something there for me. Don’t take offence, but take heed. If our spirit is prepared by prayer, we will never take offence, but will take heed, and like Jesus, we will pray for submission to what God has planned for us, that we will take heed to the rescue message that has come from God.

Peter appreciated being there, and he wanted to stay there, but that was not possible, but the effect of that meeting was a lasting effect, and later when he wrote, he was still thinking and remembering the things they had seen and heard in the holy mount. Isn’t that the case as we go from Convention? We continue to think about and feed upon the things we have heard in the holy mount that will keep us going forward.
Psalm 63:1-2, “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee…to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.” We have seen new beauties these days, have seen Jesus in a way we have never seen Him before, and appreciate His life and sacrifice as never before, and we want to see Him like that when we go out from this Convention. We don’t want to lose the effect. We want to be keeping a watch of our spirit that will help us in all these experiences.

There was another experience when Jesus felt the need to pray. In every experience He felt the need to pray. He came to the Temple and saw what was going on. The Temple was to be the house of God, the house of prayer, and He found it full of business, buying and selling, and He went out that night, and went up the mountain and prayed. Then He came back the next morning and cleansed the Temple.

On another occasion, when He was to choose the twelve disciples, He spent all night in prayer. The only way I can really prepare my spirit is in prayer, in the place of prayer; and as we consider the life of Jesus and all He taught and the spirit He showed to everyone, that teaches us how our spirit can also be acceptable to God. Jesus was praying before He went to the cross, and then could have the spirit He was able to show on the cross, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” If His spirit had not been prepared, what hope would we have today?

We are so glad for people who still have as the most important thing in their life this concern of being in touch with God, so that their spirit will be as it should be. We could say and do many things, but if they are not said and done in the right spirit it is not going to have the right effect.

I have appreciated that picture we have of David. It shows us how easily our spirit can be affected. David was a special man, a godly man. One day he heard secondhand, something that someone had not treated his herdsmen very well, and that changed his spirit. He was full of wrath, his heart full of hatred and murder. That is a very important thing, our spirit. David went off with his heart filled with wrath. He went off to kill that man, but another person had another spirit, who was able to help him to see what he was doing. We are glad for people who can help us to see ourselves.

We read of Abigail and the spirit she had. She was prepared to show the spirit of a humble person, and that is what got the victory and helped David to humble himself. We should humble ourselves and take the blame even if we are not to blame. This is all against human reasoning, against our human nature, but it is the spirit that is going to get the victory and help us. When David realized what had happened within his own spirit, he was willing to humble himself and take advice. He did not take vengeance, but he took advice and that saved the situation.

When we think of the spirit of Jesus after His resurrection, and to find, even still that His disciples were divided, but the spirit of Jesus was to still help them. It was a spirit of help. If we could just take that spirit into every meeting it is going to be helpful. Look at the spirit of Jesus, what it consisted of. It was simply a spirit of love and that is what makes all the difference. That is what was lacking in David that day. There was not a spirit of love but a spirit of murder. In the heart of Jesus there was a spirit of love and that enabled Him to get the victory over human thoughts and reasonings.

In Isaiah 55:10-11, we can read a little of what God is doing for us and how He works in us. “It shall accomplish that which I please.” I was thinking of Convention, Sunday morning meetings and Bible study meetings. There is something God wants to see accomplished as a result of our gathering together. It is just that we be fed spiritually, strengthened, corrected: the main thing is that that purpose would be accomplished.

We read of a time in Acts when there was a problem. Someone was complaining that they were not getting enough attention. They saw the apostles who said, “Look ye out men who will take care of this matter.” We read of those men who were chosen and of Stephen, filled with the Holy Ghost. That was the solution to the problem. If there is a problem we can be sure it is because of a lack of the Holy Ghost, lack of the Spirit, and the solution is to get more of the Spirit. More often we try to get some fitting words, but I realize now we must make sure that we have the right spirit. We can try and solve it without the right Spirit, and then become part of the problem.

Stephen was a man full of the Spirit and no one could resist it. We are so grateful today, for those who have this same feeling, that the number one thing in life is to have the Spirit and be guided by the Spirit. Our service to God, if it is not filled with love and willingness, it is in vain.

As Workers, as we go in search of the lost, we need to be guided by the Spirit. There is no end to the places where the Gospel has not yet reached. We could spend our time and effort to no gain. Our only hope is to be guided by the Spirit, but often we have to wait until we can be sure that God is in it. That has been a very special experience for my companion and me, going into a new area, and our prayer was that God would guide us by His Spirit. We felt moved to go to a certain village.

My companion and I began visiting all the homes in that village. My companion came to the edge of the village until there were no more homes. He didn’t know where to go. He felt something in himself and went into the woods where there were no homes, but after a little while he met a lady walking down out of the woods and he asked her to the meeting. She asked a few questions, and was at the meeting that very night and never missed a meeting. That was a very reassuring experience for us, for that young Worker just starting out, being led by the Spirit. It means going against human reasoning. If we are directed by the Spirit we see good results.

That woman was just like Lydia. We don’t have the opportunity to stay in a place for six months. We spent two weeks in that place and had to move on, and this lady was showing interest, with others. We went back later for two weeks more, and during those two weeks, fourteen days, she was in twenty six meetings. That proves how hungry she was. It is just so helpful to know that God will guide, and He makes no mistakes. So, if there is anything in our lives and we don’t know what to do, the answer is by the prompting of the Spirit. That lady had been through ten different churches and all wanted to baptize her, but she said, “This is not right,” and the Spirit kept her. She came to the place where she just prayed, “Lord, send me your true messengers. I will wait till you do.” It was just one week before she met my companion.

In confidence we wait on the Lord. Isaiah 40:31, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles.” They shall rise up with new strength, and like the eagle, to fly higher than ever before. We can appreciate why Jesus was so careful about His Spirit before every experience. If we see in experiences where we have failed, we can see it is where we have not waited to be led by the promptings of the Spirit. On other occasions we did wait. This encourages us to be more earnest in seeking the guidance of the Spirit.

There was a thought in a Bible study about the parable of the sower and the Seed, and of the good soil that brings forth thirty, sixty, or one hundredfold, and that was if we are willing to do everything, but if someone has to ask us to do it, it is just like thirty fold. If we do it because we see others doing it, it is sixty fold, but if we can do it by God prompting us by His Spirit, that is like one hundredfold. Nothing means more to us than that contact with God. “Praying always in the spirit…” We are grateful for the spirit of this Convention, and we want to take it with us through the year. As we go into every meeting, we should make sure we take the right spirit with us and we will get the right effect.