Seeking the Spirit of the Kingdom, chapter seven
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Important messages
There are evangelistic methods, probably
many, that are pragmatic… that is, they produce results… just as surely as
McDonald’s and Coca Cola produce results. But, if you intend to see that the
people you contact in evangelism walk on streets of gold some day, you had better
be sure of two things: 1) That you are using Biblical principles and 2) that
these principles are anointed with the Holy Spirit.
Abraham and Sarah put two and two
together and produced an Ishmael. It was a successful plan and totally within
the realm of human possibilities… and therein lay its weakness. It was not
according to God’s promise or His supernatural power. God simply was not in it.
Every person who comes into the Kingdom of God enters through a supernatural,
God-exalting, heavenly new birth. God, and only God, can do that work
(Jn.1:12,13) Read in this chapter about the essential work of the Holy Spirit
in evangelism.
CHAPTER 7
THE
HOLY SPIRIT IN EVANGELISM
THE MESSAGE OF THE LOVE OF GOD IS FOR BELIEVERS
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Jesus also spoke of the Holy
Spirit in the work of evangelism: “And He, when He comes, will convict the
world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because
they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the
Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of
this world has been judged” (John 16:8-11). It is important, before we
consider these verses, to see a question put to Jesus by Judas (not Iscariot): “Lord,
what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to
the world?” (14:22). Jesus first answered the part of the question,
concerning manifesting Himself to His own, and afterwards the part about the people
of the world: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will
love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (verse 23).
Jesus’ purpose was to establish a personal relationship of love between His
disciples and God. In His prayer to the Father in chapter 17:3, He showed us
that eternal life consists in knowing the Father and the Son: “This is
eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
You have sent.”
The commandment over all other
commandments is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the goal of everyone,
who is born again and enters into a relationship with the Father and the Son.
When the Holy Spirit enters and does His work, transforming the heart of the
new believer, He opens his eyes, so that he can see the abundance of God’s love
for him, demonstrated in the cross of Christ. “The love of God has been
poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom.
5:5). This is not a result of an effort by the believer and it is not a
process. It is a miracle that only the Spirit can do.
We have told how Jake
DeShazer experienced that miracle in a Japanese prison and how his hatred
turned to love for the Japanese. He affirmed that such a love is impossible for
a human being to cultivate into his life. God did it in him, when he
surrendered to Christ. A process does follow, in which this love is perfected
in the converts.
In this study, it is most
important for us to know that the Spirit manifests this work in the believer,
not in those that are still of the world. Since this is very important, I would
like to quote as much as necessary from the Bible, so that this teaching will
be sufficiently clear. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and
the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” (John
14:24). The unbeliever does not have the capacity or the possibility to love
God. By nature, he cannot keep His word or understand the things of God.
Paul did nothing more than
confirm in 1 Corinthians, what John recorded of the words of Jesus in his
Gospel. Taking into account the question that Judas made to Jesus, “What
then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the
world?”, Paul gave us this answer: “Things which eye has not seen and
ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God
has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Paul affirms that God manifests
Himself to those that love Him. “To us God revealed them through the Spirit;
for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (verse 10).
Only the Holy Spirit reveals the mysteries of God to those that love Him. “Even
so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that
we may know the things freely given to us by God… But a natural man does not
accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he
cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (verses
11-14). The natural men, without the Spirit of God dwelling in him, only has
the spirit of the world and for that reason, he cannot understand the things of
God.
In order to effectively reach
the lost, we must recognize this teaching. According to 21st Century culture and the mentality, which
accompanies it, the way that Jesus talked about sinners is not correct or
acceptable. For that reason alone, and probably for many other reasons, if
Jesus came back to this earth, he would be resoundingly rejected. He instructed
His disciples, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your
pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and
tear you to pieces” (Matt. 7:6). It is clear that He was not speaking of
literal animals, but of men with unregenerate spirits. They can never
understand heavenly riches and, above all, they cannot correctly capture the
meaning of the love of God. They will misinterpret and despise it. The gospel
in our time, which offers the sinner the pearls of God’s love, is ignoring and
throwing aside the teaching of Jesus. The result is that our churches are full
of “half-converted” people.
THE SPIRIT CONVICTS OF SIN,
RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT
The message that the Holy
Spirit wants to give to the world through His people is not “Jesus loves you”,
but one that convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Spirit of God
came to a world that had rejected Jesus Christ and, therefore, He must confront
the sinner man with these three matters. The sinner must see them as terrible
realities, so that, knowing that he has no one or nothing else to turn to, he
will turn to Christ for salvation. The Spirit brings this conviction to the
heart in such a way that the heart of man is totally in His grasp. He is more
than convinced; the reality of eternal things takes possession of his being and
he cannot find peace, until he surrenders.
Concerning sin, because they
do not believe in Me. The faith that
comes from God and finds Jesus alone as its objective is the only means to
salvation in anyone’s life. Man, by nature, is an unbeliever and cannot truly
believe. If he pretends to be a Christian, he must know that his own faith has
only produced a false hope and, in spite of his personal religion, he has not
truly believed in Christ. Since he does not have in himself the necessary faith
to come near to God, he can only cry out as a repentant sinner, with nothing else
to fall back on, and beg him to have mercy, as the publican in Luke 18:13.
However, he can only come to this place through a work of the Spirit, who gives
grace to bring him to a repentant state, as the first step toward salvation.
Until he repents, he cannot believe. Why should God grant faith to someone who
does not want to abandon his sinful lifestyle? Therefore, the Holy Spirit first
deals with the matter of sin in a person’s life. This is the negative part,
that which must be surrendered or renounced, so that he can take the first
positive step of faith. He brings conviction to the heart through His word.
Once he arrives at this point of desperation and surrender, God gives the
necessary faith to enable him to trust in the faithful and divine Person,
the God/Man Christ Jesus, and then believe in His powerful work on the
cross and his victorious exit from the tomb, in order to be saved. God creates
this faith by means of the preaching of His word: “Faith comes from hearing,
and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
Concerning righteousness,
because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me. The sinner man must know that God is righteous and his
righteousness is perfect. He will not pass over the slightest infraction of His
law. The perfect righteousness of God does not permit forgiveness without
effecting a full and just payment for each offense. If this were not true, no
one could have any guarantee of a happy eternity, but as the Bible comes to an
end, it assures us that in His holy city, “nothing unclean, and no one who
practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose
names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). Jesus fulfilled
and satisfied the perfect righteousness of God and ascended to heaven. He was
accepted by the Father and His disciples saw Him no more. Now, the work of the
Holy Spirit here in the world, by means of His people, is to convince men of
this.
Concerning judgment,
because the ruler of this world has been judged. Perfect righteousness demands a sure judgment. In His
death, Jesus “had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public
display of them, having triumphed over them through the cross” (Col. 2:15).
The prince of this world has been judged and one day his entire kingdom will
come down with him. All his subjects live in the City of Destruction and, as
the pilgrim in John Bunyan’s book, they must come to this conviction and flee
from condemnation. The Spirit works in the inner man to make him recognize and
tremble before the reality of hell. Therefore, the message must be presented to
such a degree by those that He anoints that the listener will know that a
judgment, which will determine his eternal destiny, lies before him.
This was the message of Paul
and we see him in action in the book of Acts 24:25: “As he was discussing righteousness,
self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, ‘Go
away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.’” The Holy
Spirit convicts of righteousness, judgment and sin… Here it speaks of
righteousness and judgment, but the word “sin” is not used. However,
“self-control” is the term Paul used to demonstrate to Felix that he was a
sinner (for his lack of self-control). It is the power to say ‘no’ to temptations,
which everyone knows, because he has a conscience, are wicked and destructive.
This man, as many important men, was a slave to his passions and was subject to
them. The message convinced him of his sin, but instead of repenting, he wanted
to escape, sending Paul back to his cell. Truthfully, Paul was free in spirit,
while Felix was a prisoner of sin and destined to eternal punishment.
We have seen much more
positive results in many people. For example, a young lady in Germany told me
of not sleeping for two or three nights, after receiving a gospel tract in the
mail. Also, one of our granddaughters went through a time at only five years of
age, when she would break out in tears because of her sin, even in public
places, until she found peace in Christ. Similarly, an American commander of a
military base in Germany had frightful visions of himself in the flames of
hell.
If you will investigate how
people, who were useful for the salvation of souls and who worked hand-in-hand
with the Spirit, presented the message, you will be convinced that they all
spoke of sin, righteousness and judgment. Preachers such as John Wesley and
George Whitefield, after presenting these three matters to thousands in the
open air, saw a corrupt England stand morally on its feet again, because of
their ministries. According to conservative estimates, 500,000 people received
Christ through the ministry of Charles Finney, of which 90% continued faithful
to Christ throughout their lifetimes. Many times, speaking very directly of the
sins of his listeners, at first he would see them angry, then frightened, but
finally, as salvation was offered, they became joyful and tranquil. Duncan
Campbell, used in the revival of 1949-50 on the Hebrides Islands off Scotland,
did not preach the gospel in his public meetings, but afterwards in homes to
people, who had fallen under a heavy conviction of sin in the meetings. They
were desperately afflicted because of their condition before God.
Besides all we have already
mentioned, C. H. Spurgeon said that the hearts of lost men cannot receive the
gospel, until they are convinced of their transgression against God’s law and
of the judgment that results. He was the famous pastor of the Nineteenth
Century in London and one of the most read authors since then, by all the true
church regardless of denomination.
I am sure that some, if not
many of those who will read these words, will have to admit that they have
never heard the salvation message presented this way. That demonstrates how far
the people of God have detoured from the work of the Spirit in evangelism. I
also must warn of a dangerous lie that is the cause behind this erroneous
direction in which the church has gone today. Beware the person, who
consciously or unconsciously, will deceive you by saying, “Yes, but those
things are in the past. We are living in different times and people have
changed. We can’t live in the past. We must see how to reach today’s people.”
Have you ever heard that
argument? I have, many times. I saw a movement during the 1950-60s that pulled
strongly in that direction, based on some verses, in which God spoke of doing
new things. As is the tendency, there were people who reacted in radical form,
eliminating almost everything that had to do with the past, including the old
hymns of the church. In our times, some still exist who were influenced by
these ideas and continue today with the same mentality. It is an old argument,
which God’s faithful have had to withstand in past generations. My friend,
Leonard Ravenhill, was accused of the same. He responded, “I will speak of true
Christianity, wherever I find it, whether in the past or in the present.” The
problem is that there is much less true Christianity to talk about in this 21st Century,
than that which existed in days gone by.
Since this argument has
always been common, someone with not a little irony and good humor wrote this
little song many years ago:
Twas an old-fashioned meeting in an old-fashioned place,
Where some old-fashioned people had some old-fashioned
grace;
As an old-fashioned sinner, I began to pray,
And God heard me and saved me in the old-fashioned way.
It’s the “old-fashioned”
gospel, in which the Holy Spirit brings a strong conviction of sin, righteousness
and judgment, that saves the soul eternally. I am a little encouraged to hear
news of a movement among God’s people, who recognize the loss of these jewels
and want to go back to the basis and the principles, which never change. The
Holy Spirit moves among them.
A RIVER OF LIVING WATER
In the same text, in which
Jesus is speaking of the gift of the Holy Spirit, He also gave the following
promise: “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father
may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). I go to something that I say and
write many times: Prayer should be the primary activity of the church. As Jesus
said, the church should be recognized as “the house of prayer”. In speaking of
prayer, we are not talking about a religious ritual, weighed down with
repetition and vain human effort, but we are speaking of souls passionately
moved by the Spirit, who pour their longings and needs before the Father’s
throne.
Luke clearly connects prayer
with the Holy Spirit and for this reason His Gospel is sometimes called The
Gospel of Prayer. For any person, who would like to study this fact in more
depth, I give here a list of verses from the Gospel, in which references are
made to prayer: 1:10, 13; 2:37; 3:21; 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28, 29; 10:2; 11:1-13;
18:1-14; 19:46; 21:36; 22:40-46. It can also be called The Gospel of the
Holy Spirit, because that theme appears from the first chapter: “(John
Baptist) will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb…
The Holy Spirit will come upon you (Mary)… Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit… His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit…” (verses 15,
35, 41, 67).
Not a few have suggested that
Luke’s second book should be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit” instead
of The Acts of the Apostles, and I think they are right. The first verse
of the book begins, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all
that Jesus began to do and teach.” (I only briefly draw your attention to
the order of the verbs used: First Jesus did and then He taught.) In
other words, in the Gospels we have only the beginning of the word that Jesus
continued to do and teach in the book of Acts. We see this also at the end of
Mark’s Gospel, stating that the disciples went out and “preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that
followed” (Mark 16:20). As you see, it says the Lord was working
with them, referring to Christ Jesus. Although He had ascended into heaven to
be at the Father’s right hand, His presence continued to be a reality among the
disciples through the Holy Spirit. Faithful to His character and ministry, the
Spirit glorifies the Father in the Son. He attributes the work to Christ. As
Jesus taught, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”, in the same way,
he who experiences the work of the Spirit, experiences the work of Christ.
It is the Spirit, who leads
us into the life of prayer, so that “the Father may be glorified in the
Son”. Why is prayer related to the Spirit? The answer is that He keeps us
continually conscious of our great need of Christ, as Jesus said, “Apart
from Me you can do nothing.” For that reason, the Christian, kneeling
before the Lord, recognizes his weakness and his need for God. It is the only
motivation that should take him to prayer, mindful that he cannot even pray
without the help of the Spirit. He must be completely dependent upon God,
because if he is not, prayer will be the work of an egotist, seeking God’s help
to fulfill personal desires. The Spirit directs us to prayer in accordance with
the will of God and for His glory. All these prayers are heard and answered.
Before Jesus began His
ministry, John Baptist spoke of Him in relation to the two principle works that
He would carry out. In the first place, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world and then secondly, He would be the baptizer in the Holy
Spirit (John 1:29, 33). In the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus
presented the second work, when He exclaimed, “If anyone is thirsty, let him
come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, from his
innermost being will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). In the
following verse, John declared, “This he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who
believed in Him were to receive.” The Holy Spirit is the fountain of living
water that, through people like you and me, generates life wherever it flows.
When Jesus gave this cry, He
must have been referring to Ezekiel 47, where water flowed from under the threshold
of a prophetical temple. What this temple signifies prophetically at the end of
the age is a study into which I cannot enter now. However, Paul taught us that
at this time we are the temple of the Holy Spirit: “Do you not know that
your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
If you would observe this
scene from the threshold of Ezekiel’s temple, what you see flowing from beneath
it could never be called rivers. This great life of the Spirit that
dwells in us, His temple, has unlimited possibilities. However, because of the
danger of pride, God does not permit us to be fully conscious of the evidence
of life that this water produces, as it flows from us. We only are allowed to
see a little, sufficient to encourage us to continue on. We know that the glory
must be only for Him, who is worthy to receive all honor, because only He is
the fountain of living water.
Ezekiel stated that, as he
was led through the water about 500 yards, the water reached his ankles. Going
an additional five hundred yards, the water reached his knees and, when he had
walked 500 yards more, it reached his hips. Finally, after another 500 yards,
he was carried by the river, because now he could not keep his feet on the
bottom. There is no way to explain the growth of the river, unless we believe
it to be a river, which has life in itself. In verse 9 of Ezekiel 47, it no longer
spoke of a single river, but rivers that gave life wherever they flowed. It
illustrates the unexplainable work of the Holy Spirit. According to what Jesus
said, this will happen to those who come to Him and drink. Not only will He
satisfy their thirst, but their lives will serve to generate life in others.
THE BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
Many have confused the
Baptism in the Holy Spirit, of which John the Baptist wrote, “This is the
One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33), with a work of the Holy
Spirit that Paul described. In the last chapter, I quoted Paul’s statement, “By
one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether
slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor.
12:13). This, however, is not the same baptism, of which John Baptist wrote.
John declared to us that Jesus is the baptizer, but in the teaching of Paul
above, the Holy Spirit is the baptizer. The substance, into which the Spirit
baptizes, is a body, the spiritual body of Christ, which is the church. But the
substance, into which Jesus baptizes, is the person of the Holy Spirit.
The Christian is a new
creature. The new creation is a work that took place in the person of Christ
Jesus. Paul taught that He is the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). The human race
began with the creation of Adam, whom God formed from the dust of the earth and
breathed the breath of life into him. A new race came into being through
a creation brought forth through Jesus Christ. After His death and resurrection,
reunited with His disciples, He breathed on them and said, “Receive
the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Everyone who is born again, is born again of
the Spirit in this way (John 3:5), and having received Him, He dwells within
him (Rom. 8:9). It is the Holy Spirit that makes every believer a member of the
body of Christ, meaning that He baptizes him into that body.
Nevertheless, that which took
place on the Day of Pentecost in the upper room is told at the beginning of a
book, based on the practical work of evangelization and the formation and
development of the church. In the first chapter, it gives us a promise and the
result of having experienced that promise: “You will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts
1:8). In chapter 2, the Holy Spirit fills the house and all those present were
submerged in the Holy Spirit. Peter attributed this outpouring of the Spirit to
Jesus: “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which
you both see and hear” (2:32-33). In chapter 4, the same people were filled
anew of the Spirit (4:31). In chapter 8, the believers in Samaria had been
baptized in water, the symbol that they had died to the old life and had been
born into the new. After this, the Spirit came upon them.
In like manner, the history
of the church gives the testimony of many people, who after having been born of
the Spirit, He fell upon them to bring them to another spiritual dimension. We
will not have space in this book to recall the testimonies of men like Jonathan
Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, Charles Finney, D. L. Moody, A. B. Simpson,
and many, many others, who were filled with the Spirit to overflowing. Not long
ago, I listened to a message by John Piper at a pastor’s conference, speaking favorably
about a book by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, written over the theme of the Baptism
in the Holy Spirit, called “Joy Unspeakable”. Those who God calls
according to His will are given enablement through His Spirit.
In the Old Testament, we
observe that Israel was not only saved from slavery and the reign of Egypt,
when they supernaturally crossed the Red Sea, but they also entered the
Promised Land, when they supernaturally passed through the Jordan River. This
second experience took them into a very different dimension from the one that
they had experienced during forty years in the desert.
Then, we also see Elisha, a
disciple of the prophet Elijah, asking his teacher for a double portion of his
spirit. He began his spiritual journey, when Elijah threw his mantle over him.
Elisha left his old life of farming behind, sacrificing his oxen and plow.
Joined with Elijah, he supernaturally crossed the Jordan River. Elisha was
witness to the ascension of Elijah into heaven and, for the second time, the
mantle fell upon him. So he received the double portion and began a ministry
that surpassed that of Elijah (see it in 1 Kings 19:19-21 and 2 Kings 2:8-14).
Jesus said to His disciples, “You
are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke
24:49). This promise was fulfilled in 120 obedient people. As the children of
Israel in the desert, as Elisha before crossing the Jordan with Elijah, as 120
poor and incapable disciples of Jesus, every person, who is born of God, needs
a second experience. In the beginning of his spiritual experience, he lives due
to the birth of the Spirit, but afterwards he meets the question concerning how
he is to walk in Him. If he is not enabled by the Spirit, then how will he
function in the Kingdom of God? A. W. Tozer testified, “At the age of 19, while
I was fervently in prayer, kneeling in the living room of my mother-in-law, I
was powerfully baptized in the Holy Spirit… Whatever small work that God has
done through me, has to do with what happened to me in that hour.”
Each member of the human body
has a natural gift so that the body can function, but when that member does not
work correctly, it complicates and affects the rest of the functions of the
body. The same thing happens in the body of Christ. Each member of that body
can only function through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual body,
in which we cannot serve with our natural capacities. Everything has to do with
the fullness of the Holy Spirit working in us.
Perhaps this chapter has
produced a certain dissatisfaction and one sole question and longing comes to
your mind: How can I be baptized in the Holy Spirit? Since I want to live a
life that will give glory to Christ, how can I know His work through me and not
my own efforts? Well, the only thing I can do is direct you to the fountain.
Jesus said to the multitude as the feast came to an end, “If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” It was a very personal offer for
each individual, was it not? I cannot tell you how He will do it in your life,
but what I do know is that His work in you will not be exactly as He has done
in the life of anyone else.
It does not have to do with
the emotion produced in a large meeting or going to a person considered
especially “spiritual” so that he can pray for you. It simply has to do with
going to the One who baptizes to drink from Him. He is giving the offer and it
is His desire to do it. You do not have to convince Him to do, what He already
wills to do.
Go to Him and, as with
everything that has to do with God, you receive by faith. He who is the same
yesterday, and today, and yes forever, has said this, “I say to you, all
things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and
they will be granted you” (Mark 11:24). Do not tell Him how He should do
this and what you expect to experience at that moment, because it is very
probable that it will not be as you think. Trust Him, put your life in His
hands, and expect a real fulfillment of your simple petition.
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