Reading: Rom. 8:3-6,9; 1 Cor. 2:6-15, 12:1; Eph. 6:12,13.
Continuing our meditation on the rule of the
Heavens, we have in part seen two of the great symbolic meanings of the
heavens - that is, universality and sovereignty or ascendancy. Now we come to a
third significance of the
term "the heavens," and that is spirituality. It is an exceedingly
important matter. It is really basic to all else. If it is true, as we have been
seeking to show, that the last word from God's standpoint in every matter is the
heavenly word and the heavenly meaning and the heavenly interpretation of a
thing - the Divine thought about it, not men's thought or judgment or conception
or presentation, but what God means by it - if that is final, it is then clear at
once that spirituality in that sense is the great governing factor - the ruling
thing.
We at best, even the Lord's children, are very
materialistic in our conceptions, in our judgments, in our appraisals, in the
way in which we receive things and measure things. We are so tremendously governed and dominated
by these soul-senses of ours, by how things effect and impress others naturally,
what their reaction is to them, just how far they carry weight amongst men. So
the bulk, the size, is a very great factor in the eyes of men. It is just how it
impresses the world, and what others think about it. It is a part of the real work of the Cross in us to bring us to
the place where it does not matter what the world thinks. It sounds easy and it
sounds as though we ought to be there, and yet there are times when we are all
found out in that matter. Just how it appears to men, how it affects them, how
it stands before them, just whether it would carry weight with men, what we have
been trained to call "success," all judged and decided and determined by this soul-life of ours.
This is all materialism and all relates to the senses, and
we have to come to the place where these things cease to influence us at all and
where we get the heavenly viewpoint about everything - where we come to see that two or three
gathered in the Name of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit represent a mightier
factor in this universe than a thousand or five thousand gathered
together in some earthly cause.
Spirituality is a tremendously potent factor,
and it is true that we are tremendously materialistic even in our spiritual lives.
It sounds like a contradiction, but there is no doubt about this; and what the
Lord is seeking to do with every child of His who is going on with Him is to
make Him spiritual, to develop spirituality. The Lord seeks most definitely to
add to the spirituality of His children. The new birth is a spiritual birth,
and "that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." You have in a truly born-again
child of God two entities, not what the natural man calls the good and the bad
but you have got this outer man, this old man, this man who is still the man of
natural reasoning, natural feeling, natural choosing. He is still with you, but
inside of him there has been brought to birth by the quickening of the Holy
Spirit another man, the inner man of the heart, a new entity, and he
is
spiritual. That which is from God is there.
God's Focal-point of Interest
It is with that "new man" that God is
concerned. All His interest is in that. What He is after is to develop, that and
to bring that into a state of maturity. He knows that He can deal with the rest
of the man through that. The soul and the body, while having their place in
redemption which is in the Lord Jesus, God begins with the spirit, the new
creation man, and works out through that to the rest of the man to bring his
natural man into captivity. It is with this new man, with a new set of
faculties, that God is concerned. The natural man has his faculties of reasoning
and understanding and feeling, of expressing himself, of acting, of choosing,
all these things are connected with this outer man. He has none of the spiritual
faculties until he is born again, born from above, and the new man comes in. This new man is
endowed with a whole new set of faculties which the natural man has not got. He
has a faculty of understanding which is spiritual understanding. He has a new
sense of value of things Divine. The Lord's attention, by the Holy Spirit, is given to the development of
those faculties. The writer to the Hebrews speaks about our "child training"
which the Father of our spirits brings us into and brings upon us. It is in
order that we may have our senses exercised thereby to discern good and evil,
but those senses are the senses of our spirits - to bring our spirits to
full-grown manhood.
Having seen this, we are able to understand a
good deal of the Scriptures. "We walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit." "The mind of the flesh is death, the mind of the spirit is life and
peace." That is one of the great governing principles in guidance, how to know
whether a thing is of God or not. If you are walking in the Spirit, you decide
whether a thing is of God or not by whether you have life and peace, or whether
you are without it. If the thing is not alive, and if you have a good deal of
unrest about it, you leave it alone. But, if walking with God, you have peace
and life about that, then you have the mind of the Spirit. It is not the
reasoning of the natural man as to whether it is right or wrong. It is because
the Holy Spirit is resident within your spirit giving life. It is more than an
enlightened conscience it is the Holy Spirit bearing witness to the things of
God.
What Spirituality Is
Spirituality is that which is signified by the
heavens, and it is that which governs. The measure of spirituality is the
measure of finality, certainty, definiteness and power from God's standpoint.
What do we mean by spirituality? We have met so many people who have thought that when you speak of being spiritual
you mean that you are other-worldly, unreal and only imaginary: that you have
become an abstraction and have lost all that is practical. It is not that. It
is a very practical thing indeed. There are others who think you are only using
another term for mysticism. But there is a vast difference between mysticism and
spirituality. It is a dangerous thing to use the word "mysticism" and we
ought to make it clear what the word "mystery" when used in the New Testament
means. "Mystery" in the New Testament only means a thing which up to a
certain point was covered and a secret, but which has now been brought out to
light. "Mysticism" is another thing entirely. It is always trying to find
some hidden, psychical reason for things, getting back behind things that appear
just to give them some kind of suggestion that is not apparent. Many a saint has been called a
mystic, and it has spoiled his ministry entirely. It is a different thing
entirely from spirituality. It is often on the imaginary side of things.
Spirituality is real. One is purely a soul thing. You can have "mystics" who
can produce the most beautiful presentations of things, and they may be evil to
the core of their moral characters.
Coming then to the matter of the increase of
spirituality as the governing thing. You will remember that Paul said, "I
could not write unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, as unto babes. I
fed you with milk, not with meat." And yet Paul's letter is full of the
spiritual. "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren" (ch. 12). The
significance of this is that these people were exceedingly interested in
spiritual things. They were perfectly fascinated with spiritual things. The "spirituals" were the things which occupied them tremendously. Speaking with
tongues, and many other things called the spirituals. Yet Paul says, "I could
not write unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal." It is possible to
have a carnal interest in spiritual things. A good many people today are
interested in speaking with tongues, but carnally interested. It is something you can demonstrate. If you want spiritual things for
display purposes,
that is carnality. If it is because they are evidences to your senses, that is
carnality. If you want just to be able to prove things in that realm, that is
carnality. And so you can be interested in spiritual things, and yet be carnal.
And you know what follows, how he speaks of their saying "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos... are ye not carnal, and do ye not speak as men?" The spiritual
man cannot speak as man, but as God. You are commanded not to speak as men.
Interest in those things is no mark of spirituality. It may be just the
opposite.
The proof of spirituality is that you are able
to walk with God without any demonstration at all. When He hides Himself, when
you have to walk in sheer faith and you do. Like Abraham, when everything was
seeming to deny God, not when all the time you are wanting something to
demonstrate God. He is seeking to bring His children to the place where He can
count on them to walk with Him by faith without His giving a multitude of
evidences to their senses that He is there. It is infancy when we have to depend
on God to give us proof. Very often in the history of God's work among the
unenlightened He has done wonderful things to demonstrate His
power. But, as soon as they begin to really stand on their spiritual feet,
gradually those things were withdrawn and God called on them to trust Him for
Himself. That is growing up and increase in spirituality.
And are we not being brought to that place in
these days? Where He can wean us from signs and wonders and the satisfying of
our senses? Where we will walk with Him by faith? Where He will not always be
saying to our senses, "It is all right, I am here?" And you notice where the
Apostle lands them at last. He says, "Now, concerning the spirituals,
brethren," and went through the whole catalogue of them, and then he said that
when all that was said, and when you have dealt with all that which you are so
interested in, after all there is a spirituality which transcends that (ch.
13). Though I have all these spiritual gifts and be lacking in love, I am not
complete. So the spirituality presented is the presentation and manifestation of
the love of God according to 1 Cor. 13. When you have read that through
carefully, you will see that represents spiritual growth. If only we could come
up to that standard, we would be growing spiritually. Of course, love is not a
substitute for spiritual gifts, but an indispensable foundation and governing
principle of them.
So these Corinthians represented retarded
spiritual growth, even while they were so interested in spiritual things. Thus
you have to go on to see more of the meaning of spirituality, which is getting
God's side of things. It is, to begin with, matter of state. "He that
is spiritual." It is the condition of our life, and we never apprehend
spiritual things only as we are in the spiritual state. And after a spiritual
state, it is a matter of spiritual things.
The Nature and Power of Spiritual Knowledge
Take the matter of knowledge. Men say that "knowledge is power," but they mean
natural knowledge. They mean intellectual knowledge. Amongst men it may be
power, but there is a spiritual knowledge which is far more mighty than natural
knowledge, and Paul says again that the wisdom of this world is so foolish that
it crucified the Lord of Life. That is wisdom at its highest development in this
world; the rulers did it, the wise people did it. "We speak a wisdom...
of God." Spiritual knowledge is a tremendous thing. It is the rule of the
heavens. The knowledge of the Lord Himself is the most mighty thing that has
ever been given to men - true, personal, inward knowledge of the Lord.
Ultimately it is going to be spiritual
understanding that counts. Men are going to to be at their wits ends, and they
are fast approaching it. They do not know how to solve the problems of this
world, they do not know how to cope with this world's situation. And when that
day comes, when men have been utterly defeated in the matter of the wise
government of this world, then it will be those who know the Lord who will be
strong, who will be at rest. They will be the ones that count. And when men's
hearts, fail them for fear, it will be those who know the Lord to whom they will
turn.
But do you see that the whole universe is going
to be governed by spiritual understanding and knowledge. If the heavens rule
now, how do they rule? How do angels and archangels know the will of God and
run to do His bidding? We see them co-operating with God in the government of
this world. They do not know because they are told, and they do not know
because they sit down and reason it out. They know intuitively. Intuition is a
faculty of the spirit, not of the soul. They know the same as you would know if
you had lived with a person and come to perfect understanding of that person.
You would be one with them by long living with them, and you would not need to
be told what to do, and it would not be necessary for you to sit down and puzzle
it out. You would intuitively know what their mind about a thing was. If God is
going to govern the universe through the church, it will be through the
intuitive knowledge of His will. We will know what He wants done next. This is
the outcome of a close spiritual walk and fellowship with the Lord.
Are we not coming under the hand of God, in His
dealing with us? Are we not coming in a minor way to sense what the Lord
would have done at a certain time? You know in your hearts what the
Lord wants and what He does not want, and you know when the Lord wants it. It
has come to you by the Spirit. It is spiritual discernment, spirituality which
is spiritual knowledge. But we will get these heads of ours into things and try
to bring Divine knowledge down to human understanding, and the Lord has to
bewilder us and stun us and bring us to the place where we are in a fog because
we try to deal with spiritual things by natural equipment. He wants us to
come where He is able to bear witness in us
of His will.
"The Word of God must dwell in us richly in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding."
This reaches out to a large number of other
things. The world thinks of force as power, the Lord thinks of love and
meekness as power. It is love that has conquered; faith that overcomes. It is
meekness that has brought God's great victory again and again. And God would
develop those. One of the mightiest forces in this universe is holiness. The
Lord will go on to add spirituality if we will go on, but His trouble with us is
that we do not go on. We still walk in and cling to the flesh and try to bring
over all this natural equipment of ours to do spiritual things. We have thought
that our zeal and our passion and our energy and our thinking out of all this
thing was counting for God. Whatever has been accomplished by that has got to
stand the test of the fire yet. What abides for eternity is that which is done
by the Holy Spirit, and only that. Only the Holy Spirit can do God's work, and unless the
Holy Spirit is doing God's work through us, all that we are doing for God is
going to be in vain.