- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE CALLING AND SENDING OF THE SPIRIT.
By Arthur Pierson.
In Matthew 9 v37-38 Jesus said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest field”, and in the beginning of Acts 13 we read of the early church doing just that, and the bringing to birth of mission to the Gentile world. Here in Acts we have a praying church, and the divine calling and sending out of the workers. When the church offered believing prayers “the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’ ”. How could the personality and activity of the Holy Spirit in the affairs of the church be more plainly taught! Only a person speaks, calls by name and sends. The Spirit names the very men He has chosen, and sends them forth.
Here is a new exhibition of the Spirit’s authority, “The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went . . .” The Holy Spirit has his apostles, for the word apostle or missionary, means one who is sent. Till now the term apostle had meant those chosen by Christ personally or in Christ’s name, but in the next chapter, referring to Barnabas and Saul, we read, “The people in the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles” (Acts 14 v4). The Spirit of God gives authority and sends whom He will as apostles. The important thought is that these men, whom He had chosen, were sent. The church at Antioch prayed, but the Holy Spirit commissioned and sent. Those who were called by the Spirit and sent forth by Him would be accompanied by signs of His presence and power. Saul no sooner begins his new ministry at Paphos than he is given proof of being filled with the Spirit as he calls judgement on Elymas the sorcerer (Acts 13 v9). As this chapter closes we are told that “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” and the divine Person is kept before us, and fullness of joy is seen to be one of the acts of the Holy Spirit.
In chapter fourteen, verse three we have another example of the Spirit's working, the Lord “confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders”. Christ had promised that as the disciples bore witness to Him they would find Another bearing witness with them and to them, a greater testimony confirming and sealing their own (John 14 and 15). And all through these Acts of the Holy Spirit we may trace this double witness going forward, where there was in fact a threefold witness, to them, with them and through them. Here His testimony is referred to in relation to its confirmation of them and their work. While they witnessed to the risen Christ, the Spirit also gave His testimony to them and to their word, by signs and wonders wrought in the power of the Spirit, and by working that greatest of all miracles, a regenerate heart. The Holy Spirit’s joint testimony with that of disciples referred to in this verse can be compared with such verses as, “the Spirit of truth . . . will testify about Me. And you also must testify” (John 15 v26-27). “Then the disciples went out preaching, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it” (Mark 16 v20). “God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will” (Heb. 2 v4).
Acts 14 v26 reads, “From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed”. This is like Acts 15 v40 where a similar phrase may be another indirect reference to Holy Spirit’s guidance, and shows that the Holy Spirit had specially set apart these two for mission work. The commitment, presence, guidance and power of the Holy Spirit is linked with the submission of all true co-workers. Endorsement on the one hand and commitment on the other are the secrets of power in service. The Holy Spirit can administer only so far as we commit ourselves to His blessed rule and control, and all those who are committed by the church and entrust themselves to His divine guidance and governance will have, like Paul and Barnabas, much to tell to the church of what God has done with them. God the Holy Spirit acts through human instruments and can do great things, both in opening doors of faith to unbelievers, and in confirming the work of faith in believers, if He finds instruments who are wholly committed to His keeping.
This entrusting and committing of ourselves to the Spirit corresponds to that aspect of saving faith which is properly called trust. It has been said, “Faith is receiving, trust is committing”. The one gets, the other gives. One takes the gift of eternal life from God on the basis of His Word, and then gives back that life to be kept and used by Him. This is expressed by the word yield or offer, “offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life” (Rom. 6 v13). Paul writes to Timothy, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him”. Here are the four degrees of faith, knowledge, belief, conviction and commitment.
So in our relationship to the Holy Spirit there is a double aspect. First we receive him as Christ’s ascension gift, then we commit ourselves to His indwelling, working in us and then outworking to others. The former act is the opening of the heart and whole being to His blessed incoming, the latter is the giving up to His possession and power, service and control, of the whole being so that He may find every member of the body, every faculty of the mind, every affection of the heart, obedient to His behests and ready to do His bidding.
The supreme lesson to be learned by all disciples is this cheerful, grateful and whole-hearted self-yielding to the Spirit. All His power is at the disposal of every believer who is first at His disposal. “The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went . . .”, that is, being sent they went at once, implicitly surrendering themselves to His guidance. A supernatural gospel is meant to accomplish supernatural results, and needs a supernatural power behind it and its messengers. We who are the heralds of Christ need to feel that we are not only dealing with divine things but with a divine Person, and that only as we obey Him and submit to His control and guidance can we have power. There can be talk of consecration, mere human resolve, which has no experience of the Spirit taking possession, changing the whole life and shedding abroad the love of God. It is possible to have labour, but all in human endeavour and not of the Spirit. How wonderful when one is sent forth by the Spirit, going at His bidding, and can say with Micah, “I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord” (Micah 3 v8).
When Barnabas and Paul had completed this first missionary journey they returned to Antioch, and “on arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14 v27). Then, on their way to Jerusalem, “as they travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad” (Acts 15 v3). In the same way, at Jerusalem, “they reported everything God had done through them” and “telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles” (Acts 15 v4&12).
Those sent by the Holy Spirit and going forth at His bidding will always have much to tell, but not about themselves. We receive eternal life as a gift from God, and when we receive the Holy Spirit, He gives, or rather becomes power in us, but this power will cease to be ours the moment we become self-reliant or self-confident. The only hope of the believer or of the church for power in praying or preaching, living for God or labouring with God, is found in the perpetual in-dwelling and in-working of the Spirit. If He is loved, worshiped and adored as God, if His presence and control are recognized and cherished, if all is done under His authority and for the glory of Jesus, He will continue to make the Church the true body of Christ.
From: ‘The Acts of the Holy Spirit’.