"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me
a great voice... and... I saw" (Rev. 1:10,12).
"And he came in the Spirit into the temple... and blessed God,
and said, Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, according
to thy word, in peace; for mine eyes have seen..." (Luke
2:27-30).
"But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that
the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Rom. 8:9).
Providing God with a Way
You will find this little phrase "in the Spirit" very frequently
used in Scripture, and almost invariably it is connected with
something that is about to happen; something is going to happen,
something from heaven, something of God, a new revelation or some
fresh stage in the revelation, some mighty work God is about to do
and, in connection with that, a showing or a doing from heaven. It
is said of the one immediately concerned, standing in relation to
God for the people of God who are to come into the meaning of that
divine movement, it is said of such that he was "in the Spirit".
You know how true that was in the case of John, "I was in the
Spirit... I heard... I saw." And John said that on several
occasions, if you care to look through the Revelation, "I was
in the Spirit and I saw." Of Ezekiel how often that was
said. He, in the Spirit, was shown, was taken, was lifted up. And
what a day that was when Simeon who had waited so long and had
perhaps almost given up hope, feeling that the long delay would go
beyond his swiftly closing days, but one morning he felt something
different. Yes, he would have gone into the temple perhaps as
usual. As he had gone into the temple almost countless times
through a long life, he would have done it again, but that morning
(he perhaps could not explain it) but he felt drawn, he felt
something pending, he felt he was in a different realm from the
usual, and he came into the temple in the Spirit. An ordinary day
was changed into a very extraordinary day when he came in in the
Spirit.
So it is perfectly clear that, while from the side of God
something may be going to happen, may be intended, may be
purposed, something tremendous, something revolutionary, something
that has never been before, there is the other side where those
concerned either to receive or to be the channels of that work or
revelation of God, where they are concerned, there is a need. It
will not just happen unless they are in the Spirit. God's mighty
things wait for a state, depend upon a state, where His people are
concerned. They have to be, as truly as ever John or Ezekiel or
Simeon or the Lord Jesus Himself of Whom the same thing is said,
just as true of us as it was of them, "in the Spirit".
Now, of course, in the case of these, something transpired which
may not transpire again. And I think this being in the Spirit had
a fuller meaning in their case at those particular times than the
ordinary being in the Spirit (if it is possible to be in the
Spirit ordinarily). John was carried away in the Spirit to a great
and high mountain and shown the holy city, new Jerusalem. John was
in the Spirit and saw all that which he has given to us in the
Revelation. So with Ezekiel, so with Simeon, in that particular
connection.
But the little passage in the letter to the Romans, as one among
many in the New Testament, puts us into this thing, "Ye are...
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you."
Ye are in the Spirit. Let me say again, everything that God has
revealed, that God would do, requires that those concerned shall
be in that state called "in the Spirit". What does it mean? Well,
simply and briefly, it means that we are just detached in
consciousness from ourselves and our fears and this world, and are
awake, alive, to God. We are attuned to God, we have come right
into line with God in Spirit, so alive to God, that He Who is
Spirit can communicate to our spirits. But what a lot hangs upon
this being in the Spirit! Revelation, coming to know, being made
intelligent as to the mind and purpose of God, the way of God...
our spiritual growth depends upon this. We are not going to grow
except as we live in the Spirit.
Made Children of God by the Indwelling Spirit
May I say here, before we go further, that this is the basic
thing which happens; making a difference between a Christian, a
true child of God, and any other one. The first thing about the
born anew child of God is this new consciousness of the inward
government of the Spirit of God. You are not God's, you are not
the Lord's, unless the Spirit of God dwells in you. And from that
moment that indwelling Spirit ought to begin to govern our
consciousness so that we have an entirely new intelligence. You
discriminate between people very often on the matter of
intelligence. You say, he is not very intelligent or he is a very
intelligent child. What do you mean? One who has taken note, who
is aware, who is all alive and who is 'up to things', who knows;
not all the time having to be told and outwardly directed and
corrected; they know. That is the basic characteristic of a true
child of God, and the growth of that intelligence is the mark of
spiritual growth.
I must add this, that, while not seeking to give any doctrine on
the matter as to whether this indwelling of the Spirit is
something subsequent to new birth, I do not believe that there is
anything in the New Testament at all that says that it is. That
is, that we receive the Spirit indwelling necessarily,
essentially, at some later time. It happens as to greater
fulnesses or fuller marks, but it can be at the beginning. With
many of us, we have gone on for years and not had this aliveness
to God, this intelligence, this sense of God inwardly governing,
and then something has happened. We know what happened, what was
necessary to make for that happening, and we came out, as it were,
from a sleep and woke up. It was not our new birth, but we did
wake up, and from that time we have had an aliveness to God which
we never had before. Do not resolve that into a doctrine of second
blessing and so on. It is unnecessary, it can be at the beginning.
Much depends upon the apprehension of the work of Christ. That is
a larger matter. But whether at your new birth you knew this or do
not know it yet, as a Christian you believe that you are the
Lord's, let me say that this is a thing which ought to be. And you
will not make very much progress and grow very much until it is
so, that you really know the Lord, the Spirit, in your heart
governing and telling you, not in words, but in ways very much
stronger than words, what and what is not according to the mind of
the Lord. Then to walk in the Spirit is something more than to
have that intelligence, it is to obey that intelligence and
adjust.
The Condition for Our Own Spiritual Growth
This is a matter which is going to govern our conduct. Oh, how
often we gather and are conscious of the presence of the Lord and
the word of the Lord, and then, less than five minutes after a
gathering is over, we are talking about anything. We are right
away; something is lost, something goes out, and if we are
spiritually sensitive and alive to the Lord, we have a bad time, a
miserable, wretched time because we allowed ourselves to be caught
away in that kind of talk and conversation and we have dissipated
the Spirit. If we have a bad time like this, that is exactly as it
ought to be so long as we adjust and say, 'That is not going to
happen again.' It is a matter of walking in the Spirit, adjustment
to spiritual consciousness and intelligence. It is the way of
growth. I have spoken about conversation. It applies to anything
in the matter of life and conduct, what we do or where we go. We
are not going to be governed by written laws any longer. We are
going to be governed by the Spirit Who wrote the laws and is now
not quoting Scripture at us necessarily, but making us feel the
weight of Scripture, the meaning of Scripture, and afterwards,
when we check up, we find the Scripture that governs our bad time.
The Holy Spirit has Scripture for everything that He says in us.
These are just pointers, firstly, a state necessary to what God
is intending to do, what is going to happen. This applies to every
gathering; if the Lord is going to say something it is going to be
made possible because He has a people in the Spirit for it. I
wonder what you say when you bow your head when you come into a
gathering. I am not questioning but that it is a true lifting of
heart to the Lord. Billy Bray said that the men came in and took
off their hats and read "Somebody's Cork Bowler Hat", and the
ladies looked down to see how their shoes looked - and that was
their prayer in going into church. His point was that it was not a
real touch with God; it is simply a suggestion that when we come
we should seek to be in the Spirit, and that our first act in
coming together should be that seeking the Lord very much that we
should be attuned to His intention.
The Enemy's Opposition
Seeing how vital this is, how much hangs upon it, there will
always be everything that can be against it. I am sure many of you
will bear me out when I say that the one great work of the enemy
is to get us out of the Spirit when the Lord is going to do
something, to make us say, I was not in the Spirit for it, or to
feel not in the Spirit. Sometimes we use another word - 'mood',
not in the mood. Well, it is the wrong word, it is not in
ourselves at all, it is in the Spirit. And the enemy has a very
shrewd knowledge of anything that is at least possible of the
Lord; if he does not know what the Lord is going to say and do, he
has a long experience of these things and he can at least put two
and two together. He senses the movements of God. He is always
seeking to anticipate. He has a Herod when Christ is born. He
always has his preparation to counter something of the Lord, and
so it may be days ahead of something of the Lord that is coming,
and the enemy tries to get us out of the Spirit, all upset,
annoyed, worried, distracted and cast down so that when the time
comes we are not in the Spirit. Something has got to happen with
us before the Lord can say or do what He desires. It is so real
that it really does call for a terrible battle. It is so real in
ourselves; it is wicked, it is simply evil. We could not find
words strong enough to express this sense of diabolical wickedness
in the atmosphere, it seems to get inside of us, to get us upset.
We blame somebody, anything, and then the hour comes and we are
out of the Spirit, and nothing but a tremendous battle will get us
through. I say this to make you aware of the meaning of these
things. We can put it down to circumstances, we can put it down to
people. But let us remember that back of these things, more often
than not, the enemy is trying to prevent us from being in the
Spirit at the crucial moment.
In the Spirit in Unfavourable Circumstances
"I was in the Spirit... and I heard... and I saw." With
these people, all these of whom it is so spoken, things were not
by any means propitious. John was in the isle of Patmos, an exile,
and John might easily have said, 'Well, this place will not see
very much of the Lord, not very much of the Lord here; I need to
be somewhere, perhaps among His people, in a better atmosphere
than this in order for there to be anything of the Lord.' Ezekiel
says, "I was among the captives by the river Chebar, (and) the
heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God" (Ezek. 1:1).
Simeon might well have given up in despair. He had gone on so long
and nothing had happened; He might have sunk down into his own
soul and become very depressed. The Lord Jesus, it says, was "led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness" (Matt. 4:1). All the
situations, the conditions, are against, and we would ask the
question, "Oh, is it possible to be in the Spirit where I have to
live, where my lot is cast, among the people who surround me, in
the atmosphere which I have to breathe? I must wait until this
phase is past and I get into my real life work or can be in closer
touch with the fellowship of the Lord's people; then things will
perhaps happen". No! "I am in the Spirit" is possible,
apparently anywhere. It is not in the flesh, it is not in the
world, it is not in things at all. Let us believe that and take
hold of it and be in the Spirit - in Patmos, in the wilderness,
among the captives far away, a despairing scene with their harps
upon the willows, saying, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in
a foreign land?" (Psa. 137:4). "And I", said Ezekiel,
"saw visions of God". It is hard, I know, for you to accept
that and believe it, but that is just the point. Do believe it. "I
saw in the Spirit".
But note - "if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you".
Ah, if that is true, anything is possible. "Greater is He that
is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). If He
is within, He is greater than conditions, greater than the forces
of evil, greater than our own souls, "if so be that the Spirit
of God dwells in you, ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit."
That is our hope, that is our assurance.
The need of a condition to provide God with a way, a basis. The
need of a condition for our own spiritual growth. We shall never
grow unless we know what it is to be day by day in the Spirit. The
Lord can speak and the Lord can do. Do not wait for a change in
your surroundings and circumstances in order that you may come
into the knowledge of the greater intentions of God. It has got to
be where you are. Remember the great activity of the enemy is
always to get us out of the Spirit, whatever that may mean to you
and to me. We may wake up in the morning out of the Spirit, find
everything irritating and troubling and worrying and everything to
get us out of the Spirit. Remember the enemy's activity, but
remember that it is not just one side, "I was in the Spirit".
We can be in the Spirit because the Spirit is in us. There is
God's side in us. But do not capitulate. Remember the battle,
remember the stand that has to be made. We have to hold on,
resist, until the atmosphere breaks, until the thing disperses and
is gone, it is very real.
Now for every day and for every gathering, bear this in mind: the
enemy will try to get us out of the Spirit. All that the Lord
would do and say, so far as we are concerned, depends upon our
truly being in the Spirit to hear, to see, to know. You will see
what a key this is to everything. You have only to go through the
book of Revelation and see what a key it is. In the end, because
John was in the Spirit, he saw the final, ultimate consummate
triumph of Christ and His Church; he saw all the heavenly forces
of evil cast down, deposed. He was in the Spirit to enter into the
good. It is not a study of prophecy, it is being "in the Spirit".