In
this quest for the secrets of power and effectiveness as
characteristic of things in the book of “The
Acts”, we are seeing that these secrets are so
largely found in what happened in the apostles
themselves, not in a complete system of teaching and
practice or order in a Blue Book in their hands. It is
still quite impossible to know exactly how they conducted
their meetings. There are certain features mentioned and
a number of details given as to things that happened, but
so much was just spontaneous and unarranged. There is
enough known to make a present-day conformity to it so
revolutionary as to upset very much of our common forms,
acceptance, and procedure. For instance, our present form
of the “Holy Communion” or “Lord’s
table” bears very little resemblance to the New
Testament way, and the meetings of the local church were
almost entirely different from our “church
services”. Apart from a very few major and basic
factors and features, and even those more general than
specific, such as baptism and the FACT of the
breaking of bread, there is no rigidly specified
blueprint in the New Testament. It is therefore a false
hope and effort to try to “form” perfect
“New Testament churches”. This does not mean
that there are not very definite spiritual principles
which, if really governing, will produce the power and
effectiveness of those early times. It is to unearth
these that we are giving ourselves in these
considerations.
The
spiritual principle to which we are now giving attention
is one around which there rages the strongest controversy
and opposition. That is usually true in the case of the
matters of greatest importance, and we are convinced that
this matter now before us is of VERY great
importance indeed. It is what we will call
Release by Illumination
In
this connection we must begin with what happened to the
apostles on the day of Pentecost.
It is
surely clear to everyone that, in spite of all the
teaching and explanation given personally by Jesus to His
disciples, they neither understood Him nor their
Scriptures. Even when He gave two of them what must have
been a masterly and matchless discourse on the key to all
the Scriptures, from Moses onwards, and for the moment,
“opened their mind that they might understand the
Scriptures”, it is evident that the “root of
the matter” was not IN them. It was like
Peter’s transient illumination as to the Person of
Christ, of which Jesus said that flesh and blood had not
revealed it to him, but His Father, who is in heaven. The
fleeting illumination did not save Peter from the most
tragic and terrible thing that a man could do: deny the
knowledge of Jesus with anger and vehemence. No, up to
the burial of Jesus and for fifty days afterwards, their
Bible was largely a closed book.
But
look and listen on the day of Pentecost! Peter and the
eleven are in the good of an opened Bible; the Scriptures
are all alive. Look at the quotations, citations and
interpretations. The Bible was all alive and was pricking
men’s hearts and making them cry out.
The
closed book had meant bound and imprisoned men. Spiritual
illumination was their release. The Lord was released by
the Holy Spirit and thereby they were released men.
So
far, no one will raise any objection. But we have to go
further. What we have as our New Testament is the product
of the continuance of that illumination. How glad we
Christians ought to be that our Christianity is not a
matter of treatise and handbooks on religious subjects,
discourses on the philosophy of religion or doctrine, but
divine truth revealed to meet crucial situations arising
in real life. Light given by the Spirit of God in the
midst of battle, adversity and absolute necessity.
Spiritual history hammered out on the anvil of deep
experience. The New Testament is revelation given over
against conditions and situations needing nothing less
than sheer salvation, life or death as to destiny. It is
not a volume of abstract theories but of light from
heaven to deliver souls. Therefore its value is
practical, not theoretical; it is vital, not static; it
is consequential, not optional or capricious.
So
far, so good. But now we come to the vital point.
Let
us hasten to say quite categorically and emphatically
that, as a divine revelation in substance and
instrumentality, the Bible is closed and complete. There
is no adding to it in substance and content. God will
give no more Scripture any more than He will give an
extra Christ. In giving His Son He has given in Him all!
With the Scriptures He has given ALL in content.
But
when we have said that we can be just with the New
Testament as were the disciples with the Old. We may have
the letter, the Book, the record, and still not have the MEANING.
The work of the Holy Spirit was twofold in this
connection. Firstly to give the all-sufficient substance
and seal as final in that respect. Secondly to reveal or
illuminate what is in the substance. The first reached
its climax and finality when the last apostle left this
earth. The second goes on. The New Testament uses two
words in this matter. It speaks of “knowledge”
(i.e. of Christ) and it also speaks of “full
knowledge” (“of him”). One is by initial
eye-opening; the other is by continuous illumination.
Hence, the apostle Paul prayed for BELIEVERS that “He
would grant unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the (full) knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being
enlightened” (Ephesians 1:17-18). It is by such
illumination that life is maintained, growth is secured,
and release is made.
The
disciples on the day of Pentecost were emancipated men
and a mark of their emancipation was the coming alive of
the Scriptures by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
But it did not end there. See Stephen’s discourse.
See Peter in the Cornelius episode. See Philip and the
Ethiopian, and so on. This is no claim to special or
extra revelation to add to the Scriptures, but it is a
declaration that “the Lord has yet more light and
truth to break forth from His word”.
In
this matter hear what a highly respected and accepted
servant of the Lord has to say:
“The
inward kernel of truth has the same configuration as the
outward shell. The mind can grasp the shell but only the
Spirit of God can lay hold of the internal essence. Our
great error has been that we have trusted to the shell
and have believed we were sound in the faith because we
were able to explain the external shape of truth as found
in the letter of the Word. From this mortal error
Fundamentalism is slowly dying. We have forgotten that
the essence of spiritual truth cannot come to the one who
knows the external shell of truth unless there is first a
miracle of the Spirit within the heart.” (A. W.
Tozer in The Divine Conquest.)
Many a
servant of God has had his entire life and ministry
revolutionized and released — like the apostles
— by the illumination of the Holy Spirit of the Word
of God which had for long been in his hand and very
familiar as to its language and substance. This is
certainly one of the secrets of the power and
effectiveness of life and preaching “As it was at
the beginning”. The same Scriptures can be used by
two distinctly different preachers or teachers with as
distinctly different results. One with an opened heaven
and anointing ministering by spiritual illumination in
his own spirit, with the result that heavenly impact is
registered and life imparted. The other with but a mental
apprehension, studied and more or less clever, but
spiritually unproductive, leaving the heart empty.
Thus
far, in this particular connection, we have only stated
facts. We cannot be too strong in this statement. There
remain two things to be done. One is that the Lord’s
people, especially His servants, should realize that the
gift of the Holy Spirit (which is for ALL born-anew
believers) is definitely for illumination, or, as the
apostle says — “A spirit of...
revelation”; to uncover, to interpret, and to guide
into “all the truth”. John makes a very
definite point of this in speaking of “the anointing
which ye have received”. He says that “the
anointing teacheth you all things”. All believers
should be living in the good of new eyes and new sight as
an integral part of their new birth. This faculty of
spiritual sight and apprehension should be increasing in
strength and depth throughout the whole life. It is not
an extra; it is the growth of a capacity given at new
birth.
However,
there may be a certain necessity, even a crisis, which
results in the release of the Spirit, and the release of
the disciple. It is to be recognized that the ministry of
the apostles, so very largely to believers, had this
spiritual illumination and understanding as its motive,
which means that even true believers can be limited in
this matter. Let us, however, believe in our birthright
of spiritual illumination and have definite exercise
about it before the Lord.