THE HOLY SPIRIT OF PROMISE
Ephesians 1: 14,15; 2: 18; 3: 14-21; 6: 17,18
WMP Following on our impressions at the Supper this morning, my primary thought is what comes into chapters 2 and 3 of this epistle. I think we had a distinct sense of the operations of the Holy Spirit in order that we might be found in full response to the heart of the Lord Jesus, and then what was for the Father in the response of sons who serve Him. We get this reference to one Spirit, “access by one Spirit”. We might enquire why it is put that way, and then speak with one another about what is the import of being strengthened by the Father’s Spirit, that is His Spirit, the Father “of whom every family is named”; the Spirit of that One giving power for all that follows in that section.
I would be interested in what the brethren would say about the first reference to the Spirit here where we read in chapter 1. In this first chapter, we have, “Blessed be the God and Father” (v 3); we are introduced to the spiritual blessing that comes to us from the Father. Then we have “the Beloved; in whom we have redemption” (v 6, 7), “the Christ” in whom all things are to be headed up, v 10. And then the Spirit: you get an impression of the completeness of all that is set out for us here. So this passage cannot end without the introduction of the Holy Spirit, otherwise how could these thoughts be effectuated in us? How would we come into the practical gain of all that is set out for us were it not for the service and power and sealing of the Holy Spirit?
AAC I would like to enquire more as to the sealing, but I was thinking of what was in the Lord’s heart, and how He knew the importance of the Spirit coming; He knew what the effect of that power and coming would be. That was something that man naturally could not understand - why was the Lord going to go? But the Lord said, “if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you”, John 16: 7. I was thinking as you were speaking that we might have some apprehension of what was in the Lord’s own heart when He said those words - He knew the fulness of what we have entered into today, and the fulness of what we are brought into by the Spirit. The Lord Jesus knew all about that; these souls did not perhaps quite understand the fulness of what was explained to them, but when the Spirit had come they began to realise the greatness of what is there and is opened up.
WMP I think what you say is most helpful and we might perhaps just refer to these verses in John as amplifying the thought. The Lord Jesus was known to them and He had made the Father known. I like what you say, that there could not be completeness in what was going to be for the divine pleasure without this matter of the Comforter coming. Which part of John did you have in mind?
AAC Chapter 16: 7: “But I say the truth to you, It is profitable for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you”. We often take account of His asking the Father but this passage draws out the Lord’s own activity to send the Spirit to us that that which is of Himself may be seen, that which is for His own glory and the Father may be released.
WMP So, following on from what is said, is that why it is the Holy Spirit of promise, because the Lord had spoken of Him?
DAB I was wondering after we read in Luke 24 yesterday about the purpose of Luke’s writing. He touches on what we are saying: they were to await “the promise of my Father” (Luke 24: 49); and that came to me when you spoke about the way in which the Father and the Spirit are brought into Ephesians 1. He says they would be “clothed with power from on high”, that is from the world into which He was going; “on high” is the world into which He was received up.
WMP So that is important. As John 14 and 15 bring out, the Spirit comes from that realm, coming from a realm where there is an exalted and glorified Man.
DAB As the Lord closes His relationships with His own on earth, He has all this in His mind; but the Spirit would have to come before they could know it. He has, as it were, let out the kernel of it, “the promise of my Father”. And there is a connection too with the gospel, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name”, v 48. His heart was full of the things that have been opened up now that the Spirit has come.
WMP These persons then would have been in the expectation of that. The Lord served them in the forty days, did He not, to introduce them to what was to come following His departure? We have His receiving up in Acts 1, and it strikes me that there was a period of ten days in which we might say three divine Persons were in holy communion in that realm; but all having in view that the Spirit would come and seal persons.
RDP He is spoken of here as “the Holy Spirit of promise”. He is referred to in the note to John 14: 16 as like a solicitor, someone who takes up our affairs. He helps us in all the breakdown and weakness; but here it is “the Holy Spirit of promise” - this part of the chapter speaks of things that have not yet happened - or some of it has not. I wondered if the whole of the Spirit’s service carries with it that side of promise and what is positive. It is victorious it seems; “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” suggests a bright end to the whole operation.
WMP I fully go with that. So the fulness of what is expressed in Ephesians 1 awaits us, but the present enjoyment of it, the appreciation of it, the Spirit helps us about that.
RDP I think He maintains it through the whole of the Christian pathway. This glorious prospect is going to happen, and we have “the Holy Spirit of promise”; that is the seal. We go through trials, and we shall go through trials, but we have to see the operations of “the Holy Spirit of promise”. We have a hymn,
We expect a bright tomorrow’ (Hymn 86).
He is with us as “the Holy Spirit of promise” the whole way through.
DAB When God makes a promise, He commits Himself to do everything that will be needed to bring it about.
WMP Yes, I think that is important to understand, that the divine promise is not anything like the promises of this world. There is a divine certainty about them.
DAB Well, just to use the example in the passage you have read in chapter 2, Paul discusses the cleavage between Jew and Gentile. There is the “wall of enclosure”, and Christ Himself has broken down that wall. Now there is no difference, so that we both have access. I was impressed with that this morning, that before the passage mentions access, it brings all those who will have that ingress together; annulling all the differences that led some to think that they had a way in and others not. Christ has broken down the wall of partition, and if that meant the cross and the shedding of His blood, He was committed to that; God was committed through His promise to making a way through the veil.
WMP So the Holy Spirit of promise must have in view that being maintained; souls do not just have a mental apprehension of it, but it becomes substantially formed in persons.
DAB It is a matter of experience; in other words, if you take this way, you will find it has been made. You are not testing whether or not it has been made; you will find it has been.
RDP And if in any sense we touch the service of God - I speak advisedly in saying that - it is not just us few; if we touch the service of God everybody is there. There is no thought of weakness or what is partial. It is not that we are unthankful for the few who may be present; but if you touch the service of God, the Holy Spirit of promise gives the full thought. Is that right?
WMP It is, yes. A brother mentioned that this morning in response to the Lord Jesus, that we are part of a whole thought. It is not the few here; we enter into what belongs to the whole.
JES Would you say what the Holy Spirit would engage us with when it speaks of Him as “the earnest of our inheritance”? It brings in the full thought of what God had in His mind for us.
WMP I think so. It seems to me that if we are to prove the “access by one Spirit”, and the Father’s Spirit is to strengthen us inwardly, it must be first in this character that we know Him, making things good, all that is in the purpose of God, the knowledge of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the knowledge of the Beloved, the One who is the Christ; all that become effectual in our souls.
JES I was thinking of that verse in Genesis where it speaks of Abraham’s servant, “the eldest of his house, who ruled over all that he had”, Gen 24: 2. It may link with your thought as to the greatness of the Holy Spirit and what He has under His hand. Everything that God has in His mind he would have under His hand and would show to us. Would that link with this verse here as to “the earnest of our inheritance”?
WMP That is very good. I like what you say, that what the Spirit brings to us are not partial thoughts; He has got the whole. This section in Ephesians gives us the scope and glory of divine thoughts and divine operations; and the Spirit says that He can make all that good for us.
AAC Is it characteristic of divine revelation that we know each of the three Persons of the Godhead in different ways? We have referred to the Holy Spirit as the promise, opening up these great things and helping us in the enjoyment of them. We also speak of Him as the Comforter, looking after our affairs. There is One who dwells in us, helping us in a practical way; who will be there in an eternal day in the Father’s house where there is nowhere greater to be. Likewise, we call upon the Father for simple, practical things; and yet it is the same One in whose house we shall have liberty of expression. The Lord Jesus has taken up our individual cases, and not only individually, but every aspect of our lives and pathway; and yet He is in glory above and our Object eternally. It seems to be characteristic of divine revelation that, in each of the ways in which God has made Himself known to us, He comes very close to us; and yet that closeness is maintained as we are sealed. And He is the One who helps us into that inheritance, leaving all that earthly stuff behind - it is all gone and forgotten in one sense - as we enter into the greatness of His thoughts, which is what we have here in this chapter.
WMP That is helpful. So it says, “in whom also, having believed”. That was your point: it is a starting point for us.
AAC Exactly. I have been impressed recently with the importance of that, the way believing comes into everything. It is a starting point, and what we have here in a sense is the end, this glorious doxology. But it is the Spirit Himself who is the One who seals us.
DAB My father used to say when I was young that the Earnest is greater than the inheritance.
WMP If you would just open that up for us, please.
DAB The Earnest is a divine Person; it is not simply what God has done: it is God Himself. The Holy Spirit is not just a sample; we need to get away from that idea. Someone might want to make a new dress and they ask the warehouse to send a sample, but they cannot make the dress out of the sample that is sent. Sometimes we approach spiritual things like that, as if we have just got enough to see what they look like. But the Spirit gives us a completely different idea. He is fuller and greater even that what we will enter into, and therefore spiritually speaking (I do not mean in actuality when faith gives way), the fulness of the inheritance can be enjoyed.
WMP I think that is most helpful to see. So in this passage we have the greatness of the three divine Persons presented to us. It is all from the side of purpose; this is a divine provision that there might be glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus.
DAB We might think about what the Lord says about the Spirit; He says three things in John 14: 17: “ye know him” - that is objective as the note says; “for he abides with you,andshall be in you”. Believers are conscious of the Spirit within, but we cannot reduce the Spirit to our measure; and I wonder if that idea of “with you” allows in our minds that there is Someone who is too great for the compass of our measure, but can nevertheless associate us with all His own things, the things that He has brought.
WMP I go with that. So what you bring up is as to the indwelling Spirit - He has come to dwell in believers, but the assembly is a vessel of praise. It is a vessel of testimony too, and that is by the Spirit.
My thought was to get some sense of the Spirit’s service, and first in this matter of access. What had to be broken down was this wall of partition and the differences. What is applied there is the cross; so you might say we are in exalted territory here. The cross was necessary that all the differences - even those that exist today - might be taken out of the way.
DAB I was struck with that this morning. It was not part of the plan that Moses had, or Solomon’s plan, but the Jews erected a “wall of partition” in the temple court (I understand that bits of it still survive) and Gentiles were not allowed to cross it. It was a man-made barrier. Much greater still, the entrance into the holiest was closed; the veil was in the pattern and was therefore a completely different kind of barrier, but there it was. And God has swept all this away, and now presents His true thought of the veil: it may exclude man in the flesh, but it admits the man in Christ. That is very precious is it not?
WMP It is, and that is exactly what we have here.
DAB And all the things that created differences have been annulled at huge cost to God. We have not paid anything towards that annulment; we have not ransomed ourselves from that bondage: “the blood of his cross” is the means by which God has done that. It is preparatory to our access.
WMP I wonder then if that is why it is “one Spirit”, because we go into together in that sense in the power of that one Spirit.
DAB And the body, the assembly, is the most remarkable creature thing that God has ever made. You might say that to preserve something in the nation of Israel was remarkable enough, but “out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev 5: 9), every social stratification, even differences of gender, all these things, He “has made both one” to the point where “one Spirit” can be identified with it.
PFE In the verses we have read there is the thought of being rooted; it is not something from which we can be taken away.
WMP Yes, it is something very stable. So, in order that that might be so, in order that we might be rooted and founded in love, it seems to me that we need to know the Spirit’s service in this particular way as the Father’s Spirit, and strengthening in the inner man. We may come to that in a moment. But we ought to go with what we are speaking about, that in order for us to go in in unity in the service of God, it has to be in the power of one Spirit. I like the point that He is able to identify Himself with the oneness there is in the company because all that separated us naturally has been taken out of the way. It is most attractive.
DAB Although we often speak about the rending of the veil in the temple, actually, in the pattern given to David in Samuel, there was no reference to a veil - there were doors. The rending of the veil in Herod’s temple revealed that God was not in the Jewish system any more, but He was coming out at the cross; and coming out in all His love, and the grace of which we sang, His readiness to forgive. He must want this very much indeed!
RDP This thought of both having access is preceded by the idea of reconciliation: “reconcile both in one body to God by the cross, having by it slain the enmity”. This is not just an agreement between the two warring parties. It is that He “might reconcile both in one body to God by the cross”. You could put those two words together, reconciliation and peace, and it is with God. Normally, if you get an agreement between nations, you have to something that polices it to make sure everyone complies with it; but this is reconciled - each and to God. Reconciliation is a great matter because it brings in the pleasure of God; reconciliation is for God. He has given us access by the Spirit. How can we know that? It is very difficult for us to throw off the idea of warring parties reaching some kind of agreement, but in reconciliation the gulf is not only bridged; it is removed.
WMP I think that helps our thought very much. So it says here, “through him”, that is Christ Himself serving, “we both have access by one Spirit to the Father”. What do you understand by access?
AAC I suppose it is the realisation of the place that has become ours because of what the Lord Jesus has done. We are enabled without any of the history - whatever it might be has all gone - and we are made suitable then to express what is due to God in answer to His love. We are set at liberty; to me this opens up the whole of what God is looking for: that remarkable vessel which is now able to respond in liberty. It completes the matter. I thought what was said as to being rooted is quite key here because each stage is complete. At the start, we had what was “sealed”, but as we work through the whole thing, the Spirit’s influence is such that what is there is complete: even today the answer to the Lord Jesus in the assembly is not a partial response, it is a full response, although we struggle to comprehend what it will be when all those who love Him will be there.
WMP I like your thought that we go all the way in. When you fly somewhere, you go to the airport and then you go through security and into the lounge, and then you have to be called to your gate before you get on to the plane. But there is no such thought with access - we have immediate entrance in the power of one Spirit to the Father’s presence. We might ask if we are conscious of that: we are actually led into that area of favour.
DAB We have been taught before about the glad tidings of place. Reconciliation means that both parties are put on to ground on which neither of them were before; and that ground is in the holiest. We can understand why Paul says this is a mystery; nobody imagined such a thing.
What raised the wondrous thought … ?
(Hymn 92).
WMP What you have said is interesting because that goes on to what he says in chapter 3, “ye can understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ”. And then he shows us how he got that intelligence. It was being “strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man”, and he got that intelligence.
DAB The point about a mystery is that you can know it if you have the key, so that you can unlock the mystery. But there is more than that I can see now: you do not only need the key, you need the power. The door is open, but as John found in Revelation, it is one thing to see in, but to go in we need the Spirit.
WMP That is my thought; so how could we know in a full way all that follows at the end of chapter 3, Christ dwelling in our hearts, without the Spirit strengthening inwardly, the Father’s Spirit inwardly? So we can see that that is the realm of the Spirit’s operations. It is not in our mental capacity but in the affections of the saints.
DAB And Paul’s intelligence included that, because he prayed for this very thing: he asked the Father to strengthen them that they might enter into it. It was not enough for them to see it.
BHM I was looking at this “rooted and founded in love”, and thinking about the order of the words. You start by being rooted and then you get the foundation. You might think that something would be set up, and then you start building and establishing it; but here you have everything that you need, the nutrients, stability, support.
WMP Yes, it is good to bring the organic thought into it. To be rooted in love means you are drawing from it. We cannot be in this spiritual realm and be maintained by our natural thoughts. We can only be maintained as we draw on all that is in Christ and His love, His grace, His support. Being rooted is organic, and what results from that is life. So if a plant is rooted properly, it demonstrates life; and then you are suggesting that in being founded there is something very stable with persons, so that they are able to be in this realm of divine praise.
RDP We often refer to the idea of rooted as agricultural, and the other is construction, as if they are two illustrations so that the brethren can understand it; but I think this is one expression - “rooted and founded”. I think it is founded and rooted: there is a solid foundation; and at the same time it is rooted, it is growing, it is moving. I think “rooted and founded” are not two alternative suggestions to help us in intelligence: “rooted and founded” is one thing.
WMP I think that is most helpful.
RDP If we talk about natural, human things, like this meeting room here, if you say it is rooted as well as founded, you would start worrying because you cannot have one with the other; but in divine things you have the two things together.
AAC And part of this is that “rooted” suggests a supply. It is not something that causes problems as it would with this meeting room, this is a supply that maintains that structure.
RDP If you have a building like this room here, you keep the two ideas separate. If there was something rooted and growing underneath this place, you could have problems; but being “rooted and founded” in the way this is expressed here - we are not talking about human logic - we are talking about something that is solid, founded, safe and yet also living.
JES I was just going to say what you did, that it is living; is that the glory of Christianity? And to be able to apprehend the breadth and length and depth and height, it is something with a living supply, and a constant flow of blessing from God as we increase our apprehension of it.
WMP I am sure of that. The operation of the Spirit in this way is to quicken us; He quickens our affections in relation to God the Father. Hezekiah could say, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee” (Isa 38: 19); so it is that expression of life that is sustained by the Holy Spirit.
DAB And the veil is a Man: we have access “through the veil, that is, his flesh”. Heb 10: 20. As I understand it, that is a reference to the Lord in resurrection; He is a living Man. It says, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus” - which is the same thought we have in Ephesians 2 - “the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh”. I think we have been taught that a reference to His flesh and blood would refer to what He was here as Man; but He is still a Man, so this is access into the holiest of all through a living Person. In the tabernacle, the most beautiful thing in the structure was the veil, and it is as if God looked at it and He thought, ‘I can give access, even if I want perfection’. That is a wonderful secret in God’s heart, and that perfection has been found in a Man in His presence.
WMP So you can see that what He has in His presence in this responsive scene must speak entirely of what that Man is; so there must be access through Him.
DAB And the temple, the place where God’s service is, is living, is it not? There is no concrete, or stones or bricks; it is all living. It says, “yeare the living God's temple”, 2 Cor 6: 16.
RDP We made reference to two areas: there is what is within the veil, but the believer also has the pressures of ordinary life, the meetings, and so on. What is within the veil is not a development; it is final. Our lives are a matter of progress and development, but what is within the veil is entirely complete. And the believer by the Spirit has access into this place. Men in the present time are looking for something, constantly searching; but the believer is within the veil.
DAB Mr Ernest Palmer who was local here and knew the river a bit said Hebrews 6: 19 refers to a particular kind of anchor. It is not an anchor to hold station; it is an anchor that is used to navigate. It is carried out in front of the ship, so that when the chain is wound in, the ship is pulled towards the anchor - a kedge anchor. That is what we need, and what this reading is intended to promote. We have that anchor within the veil; it connects to us in the world in which we are, and it draws us out of it to that place of God’s purpose. The Spirit serves us in that way, does He?
WMP In the way of power; so to use the analogy, to draw that anchor in requires power; there is power in the inner man.
AAC I was thinking that all that we have been speaking of is part of the “in order that” which we have here. It takes us back to what we were saying as to John 16. We have here “in order that ye may be fully able”. We have that anchor which we are drawing on - I suppose that drawing is also from the divine side; but it is in order that we should be able to touch that which we have been speaking of.
WMP Why then is it His Spirit? It is said to be the Spirit of the Father “of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”. Why is it His Spirit that is referenced particularly?
AAC I do not know, but I always enjoy the way that God does everything Himself. It is His own; it is His Son; it is Himself, it is His Spirit. He does not delegate; it is Himself; all that we have is the result of His work, it is His own Spirit.
WMP It is.
DAB Mr A J Gardiner used to say that the Father’s Spirit helps us to love the Son like the Father loves Him.
WMP Thank you for that: it is to bring us into His appreciation of all that has been found in Christ. So that if it dwells by faith in my heart, it must be according to that.
DAB The Spirit of God’s Son is the one whereby we cry, “Abba Father” (Gal 4: 6); so in that way, He helps us in response to the Father; but the Spirit of the Father gives in our hearts the place that Christ has in the Father’s.
JES Does that link with what has been said a few times recently in fellowship meetings, that if someone was able to give us his spirit, we would know his affections, his thoughts and feelings? The fact that, in His greatness, God has been able to give us His Spirit means that we can understand His thoughts and His feelings, and His affections - not only as towards His own Son, but as to His thoughts in purpose.
DAB Yes, it was Mr Eddie Walkinshaw who said that - as he said, if I could do that, you would live in my life. And that is what we have here, living in the life of God, with Christ in the place that the Father has given Him.
WMP I am really enjoying this thought, arriving at that appreciation of Christ as the Father appreciates Him. Why is He presented in this way here, as the Father “of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named”? It is the Father in that connection.
DAB Well, there are many families, they represent different stories in God’s ways, and to quote him again, Mr A J Gardiner said he thought the Father had named every family according to what He saw of Christ in it.
WMP So that really confirms our thought as to it. It seems that we ourselves are drawn into the scope of all that is in the Father’s heart for Himself. So while this is assembly response in its fulness, we are also made conscious that there is a much wider thought of glory to God.
DAB I do not think we should lose sight of that; and actually as to the rapture we should have that in our minds - “those that are the Christ's” (1 Cor 15: 23) is a very wide idea, is it not? It is the threshold across which that whole redeemed multitude pass into eternal conditions.
WMP It is.
PFE Do you think this “according to” shows the real delight to the Father’s heart to have this?
WMP Yes, in chapter 1 it is all “according to” is all from the divine side. Here it is “according to the riches of his glory”. Give us a bit more about your thought in it.
PFE It speaks of knowing the love of the Christ; it is to be the portion of every believer to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge.
WMP So that drinking into the cup, and the remembrance of the Lord Jesus after His coming in among us, and prior to entering into the service of God as we say, is intended to give us the sense of that, and the fulness of divine love towards us, and that expands then; the Spirit helps to expand that thought in our minds.
RDP In this reference to the Father, it is not by whom they are named, it is “of whom every family” is named. We have often wondered about the families, heavenly and earthly, and we know very little about them; but it is “of whom”, as if there is something of the character of what the Father is is represented in variety.
WMP Yes. We had yesterday “the Father who is of heaven” (Luke 11: 13), that is, the characteristic: would it be the same idea?
DAB I think that is right: something of His character is imparted, is it not? That is one of the wonderful things about adoption. I think Mr Walkinshaw also said that an adopted child never receives the father’s spirit, but we do. We can say we are of the Father.
AAC Have you something for us as to the sword of the Spirit?
WMP I hesitated whether to read it or not because there is a certain glory and fulness about what we arrive at. The Spirit as the Earnest means that we are to prove these things; the Spirit’s desire is that we might experience access by one Spirit to the Father, through Christ; and that we might be strengthened, know His strengthening power. I suppose that we come out from that realm of privilege - we have been there this morning, at the start of a week; but the Spirit is available in this sense, so that we can use the Spirit intelligently - use the sword against ourselves. Is it a reference to self-judgment? That is always necessary if we are to come up next Lord’s day in the oneness that has been suggested; we need to be applying self-judgment.
AAC So this would speak of the way in which what we have been taking account of is preserved.
WMP Yes, that is a good word.
AAC I am glad that you touch on it because it is essential for us; otherwise we reach it and we fall away. That is not God’s thought. Whilst we cannot remain as we were this morning, God’s thought is that we are able still to touch that. We are not prevented from going in to worship before God. He would have us maintained in that. There is a stark contrasting idea in the sword of the Spirit which is in a sense alarming, but it is necessary because of what is within if these things are to be maintained. But the Spirit has that authority.
WMP What is here is a protective thought; it is what is to protect us, and it protects us from what is within too: from what is within and of man.
DAB There are spiritual powers of wickedness in heavenly places; that is what this panoply is for. I think it has been said - I believe it was Mr Stoney’s exercise - that Satan is especially against believers enjoying what we have spoken of, eg vol 3 p97; vol 8 p174. And the Spirit is “against the flesh”, Gal 5: 17. I think it is very fine that the power to meet that is in the word, God’s word. It might be a word of Scripture, or is it more the word we might get in communion with the Spirit?
WMP I would go with that thought. We come together for example for a meeting for ministry, and the expectation is that we will hear God’s word. And in a reading also we would hear God’s word.
RDP What is the setting of the panoply of God here? It would secure everything; the whole aspect of what lies in the Spirit. I wondered if this is a particular aspect. Of course the devil is attacking Christians on this earth everywhere, but I wondered if the special aspect of the panoply of God here is in relation to the whole spiritual aspect. We have references to “the artifices of the devil” (v 11) - I was thinking of what has been said that “our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies”, v 12. I am asking about the particular aspect of this panoply; other scriptures speak of a similar thing.
WMP You will remember that the children of Israel crossed into the land, but there was opposition there; there were enemies there that had to be overcome. They had to be exercised about it and counting on God.
RDP I met a brother who had left (not recently), and he was expressing how he had gone from this company and that company, and I asked if he did not miss anything. He said, ‘I never found anywhere where the truth of the heavenly and spiritual is known’. I wondered if in a way that is a particular thrust of the devil, to remove these things from us; it is not to take away our faith, but to remove the aspect we have been speaking about from the Christian’s experience.
WMP I think that. It should sober us that those are the circumstances we are in here, but there is a power available.
DAB I am struck by what you said about this referring to self-judgment; I had not heard that before. If we speak of Israel in the land, they did not have too much trouble with the enemies, but they lost the energy and the desire; and the sword of the Spirit would keep that quick and lively with us, do you think?
WMP That is very helpful. It was when they departed from the divine thought and looked to their own strength and power.
DAB And they lost desire too; they fell short of God’s thought.
WMP Yes, that is good.
JES There is a reference in a note (l v 17) to what is imperative; I wondered if that was key to an exercise, that it is not as if we come up against something and we put on the panoply to meet it, but it is something we are exercised that we have to have. It is imperative because if we do not the enjoyment of everything we have which is in a spiritual realm will be taken away from us, and our enjoyment of Christianity will go.
WMP Well, we often say that when the enemy comes in it is the top shoots that go first; that is, what is new and fresh and living in our affections for God. It is his first point of attack with us. We are to be encouraged that we can enter into what is spiritual, and then we have inward power in the Spirit to deal with all that is within ourselves that might hinder that remaining fresh with us.
LONDON
19th May 2019
Key to initials -
Local unless otherwise shown
D A Burr; A A Croot; P F Eagle; B H Morris; W M Patterson, Glasgow; R D Plant, Birmingham; J E Smith, Strood