THE greatest need of this sin-stricken world is a Spirit-filled church. And the greatest need of the church is to be filled with the Spirit.
“Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” said Jesus to His disciples. And to the Ephesians Paul wrote, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Eph. 5:18. To the Romans he declared, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Rom. 8:9.
The question of a Spirit-filled church is one of primary importance. It is fundamental. It vitally affects every professing Christian, and concerns every unsaved sinner. The continual presence of the Holy Spirit is as necessary to spiritual life as a constant supply of food is to physical life. Its abiding presence is of as much greater importance than bread as the realm of the spiritual is greater than the realm of the physical.
The Conditions—What Are They?
Like all other proffered blessings of the Gospel, there are conditions to be complied with in order to receive and retain the Holy Spirit in all its fulness. These conditions are clearly expressed in the Scriptures. Note the following:
1. Obedience.—In his defense before the Jewish council, the apostle Peter said: “We are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” Acts 5:32, R. V. Obedience is therefore a condition upon which the Holy Spirit is given. This is the first, the most comprehensive and all-inclusive, condition. Taken in its fullest and broadest sense, it might be said to be the only one, tho the emphasis given to some of the varied phases of obedience seem to place them before us as separate and specific requisites.
There can be no baptism of the Holy Spirit, no Spirit-filled church, when obedience to known duty is refused. “Obedience is the great foundation law of the Christian life. If you turn to Scripture, you must read almost every page if you would get all the statements and illustrations of obedience and its opposite.”
“If ye love Me, keep My commandments,” were the words with which Christ prefaced the promise, “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth.” John 14:16, 17. Three times in this same conversation with His disciples about the promise to send the Spirit to the church, the Saviour directs their attention to the obedience that must be rendered in order to receive the promise.
2. Righteousness.—That Spirit, which is holy, must have a holy dwelling-place. He can not, and will not, abide in a sin-polluted heart. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” 1 Cor. 6:19; 3:17. In order to be filled with the Spirit, the heart must be emptied of sin. It is the glory of the religion of Christ that it provides complete and continued victory over sin. Before there can be a Spirit-filled church, there must be a sin-cleansed church. The believer in Jesus must know that each day he is washed from his sins. One sin cherished will hinder the Holy Spirit in His operations, and ultimately exclude Him from the heart. Because Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity as no one else did, He was anointed with the Holy Spirit above all His fellows. Heb. 1:9. To Him the Spirit was given without measure.
3. The Denial and Crucifixion of Self.—Perhaps the most searching and testing of all the requisites to a Spirit-filled church is the denial and crucifixion of self. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matt. 16:24. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Gal. 5:24. “Self is Satan’s personal representative in every human heart.” That which Christ calls “self” is described by Paul as the “flesh,” the “carnal mind,” the “old man,” “the body of sin.”
Self and the flesh are the same thing. As another has pointed out, the “flesh” is “self” spelled backward, with the letter “h” prefixed. Self must be denied, the flesh must be crucified, “that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin (Rom. 6:6, R. V.); and this “because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7). The fact that self, the flesh, the carnal mind, is at enmity with God, and can not be brought into subjection to His law, is the reason why it must be surrendered, denied, crucified. The “old man” must die.
Paul said: “I die daily.” “I am crucified with Christ.” 1 Cor. 15:31; Gal. 2:20. This must be the experience of every believer if there is to be a Spirit-filled church. “In every heart there is a cross and a throne, and each is occupied. If Jesus is on the throne, ruling, self is on the cross, dying. But if self is being obeyed, and so is ruling, then it is on the throne. And self on the throne means that Jesus has been put on the cross,” and is thus being crucified afresh.
4. Grieve Him Not.—The holy Spirit does not come as a Sovereign, but in the humble form of a helper, to teach, guide, remind, prompt, and assist. The Spirit does not take His rightful place by force, but by hearty, cheerful invitation. If the Spirit is to be retained as a constant, abiding helper, the blessed presence of that Spirit must be recognized and cherished constantly. Every day we must ask anew His presence in our heart. His divine teaching must be received, His safe guidance followed, His most tender promptings obeyed, and His proffered help made use of by earnest co-operation.
Unless this is done, to what purpose is His presence? Of what service can He be? Why should He remain? This is a vital consideration. It is just here that many professing Christians grieve the Holy Spirit, and lose His abiding presence. When the Spirit’s kindly, gentle help in the way of teaching, guiding, prompting, and serving is either not appreciated, or is positively disregarded, He quietly departs. Then come blindness, confusion, a seared conscience, bondage to sin, and a Spirit-less, instead of a Spirit-filled, church. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30.
5. Thirst, Drink, Believe.—“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” John 7:37-39. The church that would be Spirit-filled must be a thirsting, drinking, believing church. To thirst is to desire intensely. Thirst for the Holy Spirit is created in the heart by communion with God through reading the Scriptures, by prayer, and by the operation of the Spirit upon the heart. To drink is to take, to appropriate. Those who thirst and come to the fountain of the water of life must drink. It is not enough to desire, nor to ask. There must be a conscious, definitive reception. Jesus says, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22, R. V. To believe is to receive. Faith is active. It is the evidence of things not seen. It appropriates. When we truly thirst for the Spirit, and earnestly pray that the Lord will fill us, we must believe that He does. Then there will be a filling and flooding that will send forth rivers from us that will help and bless others.
6. Consecration to Service.—One of the highest and most important purposes of the church of Christ is service. “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” “I will bless thee, . . . and thou shalt be a blessing.” Gen. 12:2. “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” 1 Peter 4:10. Saved to serve is the divine arrangement. It is thus that the church is the “light of the world,” the “salt of the earth.”
It is the Holy Spirit that enables Christ’s followers to render effectual service. He first gives them victory over their sins. He then uses them as witnesses for Christ to those who have not experienced what they have. No phase of the Spirit’s ministry in the church is made so prominent in the Word as this. In His parting instruction to the church, Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses.” Luke 24:47-49; Acts 1:8, R. V.
Nothing could be plainer than that a most essential requisite to a Spirit-filled church is the consecration by the church of its time, talents, and means to the service of God for the redemption of a lost world. It is idle for the church to pray to be filled with the Spirit if she declines, or even neglects, to make this consecration. The Spirit is Christ’s invisible ambassador to this world to finish His work. The church is the Spirit’s visible medium through which He is to bear witness for Christ to all men to win them to Him. The church that does not understand this and consent to the plan can not be a Spirit-filled church.
As the church of Christ includes all the individual believers in Christ, all that pertains to the church as a whole affects each member personally. To have a Spirit-filled church there must be Spirit-filled pastors, church officers, and individual members. The conditions with which the church must comply in order to be filled with the Spirit, are precisely the conditions with which each individual believer must comply in order to be filled. This whole question, then, is intensely personal. It is of no special value as a theory. Nothing less than personal experience will answer.
