Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Jan 1964

The consideration of the Holy Spirit is a subject to which we all should give more attention than we do, so that we may know somewhat of His working, particularly in this dispensation of grace in which our happy lot is east.

In every phase of the work of God in every epoch and dispensation the Holy Spirit is an active Participant. He is seen moving on the face of the waters at the beginning of the work-days of God in Genesis 1.2, and He is seen in that last chapter in the Bible (Revelation 22.17), in association with the Bride of the Lamb, inviting all that are athirst to come and drink of the water of life freely.

The Spirit of God made man (Job 33.4) and gives him life. By His Spirit God garnished the heavens with their innumerable stars (Job 26.13), and David also, as well as Job, refers to this work, when he writes, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained" (Psalm 8.3). Again the psalmist writes of the creation of creeping things and small and great beasts, "Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created" (Psalm 104.30). And in this same verse he refers to the renewal of the face of the ground, I judge by the same work of the Spirit.

There are but three references in Genesis to the Holy Spirit, one already referred to in Genesis 1.2, and in Genesis 6.3 God said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever", showing how God wrought with man to bring him back from treading the road to destruction. The third is in what Pharaoh said about Joseph who had showed him the meaning of his dreams and advised a course of procedure which would save Egypt from the dread effects of the coming famine. "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?" (Genesis 41.38).

As we go on throughout the Old Testament, references to the Holy Spirit become more frequent. Men such as Moses, Joshua, the seventy elders who were chosen to assist Moses in the work of ruling the nation of Israel, the man in charge of the building of the tabernacle, Bezalel the son of Uri, were men to whom God gave the Holy Spirit. References to the Spirit in the book of Judges are more frequent and so it is in later books of the Old Testament.

The leaders of the Remnant of Israel lately returned from Babylon were shown by Zechariah that, whilst Satan was active in being an adversary to the work of God being done by the Remnant, the Spirit of the LORD of Hosts was also active, empowering the leaders and the people in the work of rebuilding the temple and re-establishing the service of God which for seventy years had ceased during the time of the captivity.

"This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of Hosts" (Zechariah 4.6).

The history of the New Testament opens with the announcement by Gabriel of the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zacharias. John was to be filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth, a unique event in Scripture. The character of the Holy Spirit with whom John was filled was that of the Spirit who empowered Elijah the prophet, "He shall go before His (God's) face in the Spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1.8-28). John's ministry, like Elijah's, was to be a ministry of restoration.

Whilst the birth of John the Baptist was unique in that he was filled with the holy Spirit from birth, the Lord's birth was more wonderful still, for He was the Son of a virgin who received power from the Holy Spirit to conceive and bring forth a Son. The Son of God from all eternity became the Son of Man by being born of a woman. Then at His baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit came upon Him in form as a dove and He went forth in the power of the Spirit into His public ministry, and at length to offer Himself through the Eternal Spirit unto God (Hebrews 9.14).

According to the promise of the New Covenant each child of God is indwelt by the Holy Spirit on the principle of faith alone and not by works or prayer. Prior to the Cross and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Lord spoke of the Father giving the Holy Spirit to them that asked Him.

J. Miller | Jan 1964
Jottings