The Holy Spirit Awaits Our Demand and Reception
By D. H. KRESS, M. D.
Anciently the Lord led a people out of Egypt toward the Land of Promise. Shortly after they began their journey, they came to a place where “there was no water for the people to drink.” Had they only been patient and trustful, all their needs would have been supplied. Here was a needed test; but they found fault with their surroundings, and murmured against Moses, and said, “Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” “And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.” Then the Lord told Moses what to do. He said, “Go on before the people, and take with thee . . . thy rod. . . . Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.” Exodus 17. It required a water supply equal to that of the city of New York to supply the millions of human beings and their cattle with drink, and with water for bathing purposes. The psalmist, in speaking of this says, “He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.” Ps. 78: 15, 16. Twenty years later they were brought to a similar test. “There was no water for the congregation.” Num. 20: 2. And again the people chid with Moses and said, “Why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?” This time the word came to Moses, “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water.” Only once was it necessary for the rock to be smitten to supply the famished people with drink; after this it was only needful to speak to the rock, and the water would gush forth. “That rock,” we are told, “was Christ.” Christ said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. . . .” But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7: 37-39. After his crucifixion (after the true Rock was smitten) Jesus ascended on high and gave gifts unto men. He had commanded his disciples that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. He said, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me.” Acts 1: 8. They tarried and prepared their hearts, by confession of their sins and faults, for this promised blessing. When their part was done, “and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. . . . And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2: 1-4. In a miraculous manner they were able to speak fluently in the tongues of the people who had gathered at Jerusalem. A mighty miracle had been wrought. And the people “were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?” Verse 12.
Then “Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, . . . This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” Peter then referred to the crucifixion of Christ, and said, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up.” Verses 14-24. “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.” Verse 33. The Rock was smitten, and the water of life gushed out, not merely in a stinted stream, but “he clave the rocks . . . and caused waters to run down like rivers.” We are told in “The Desire of Ages,” page 671, that “Jesus . . . rejoiced because of the abundant help he had provided for his church. The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that he could solicit from his Father for the exaltation of his people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. . . . It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon his church.” This wonderful transformation of character took place among the recipients of this blessing at Pentecost. Thank God that the “fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness” is still giving forth its life-giving, health-giving waters. It is not necessary that the Rock should be smitten the second time, or that there should be another such invitation as was witnessed at Pentecost. The river of life is still with us, and the invitation is, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy.” Jesus is still saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” That Rock which followed the children of Israel in the wilderness is still with us. All that is now necessary is to speak to the Rock, and the water will gush forth. We are living in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. All that was given at Pentecost, God designed his people should have to the end of time. The promise was not merely to the believers at Pentecost, but to their “children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2: 37-39. “This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and he is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive.”—Id., page 672. If devoid of the Spirit of God, if the life is not one of victory, do not find fault with your surroundings, or with men, only “speak ye unto the Rock; . . . and it shall give forth his water.”