In The Believer: Baptism In The Spirit, And The Indwelling Spirit

by Doodson, A. T. | Category: The Holy Spirit And His Work | Nov 1952

It must have been a very solemn moment for King Solomon when in the presence of all the congregation of Israel he spread forth his hands and began to address the LORD before whose altar he stood. Great preparations had been made according to the instructions of David, and a house for the LORD had been built. Would there be any sign from heaven that this house differed from all others upon the earth? Within the holy place had already been evidenced the glory of God (2 Chronicles 5.18-14), but was the day of visible manifestation of the presence of God completely past? Perhaps something of this questioning attitude possessed the mind of Solomon when he asked God the pertinent question, recorded in 2 Chronicles 6.18 :"But will God in very deed dwell with man on the earth? Behold,

heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have builded!"

At last the prayer was ended, the earnest beseeching of God came to its culmination:

"Now therefore arise, 0 LORD God, into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark of Thy strength: let Thy priests, 0 LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness" (2 Chronicles 6.41).

It was a prayer of faith and the response of God was convincing, when the fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and

"The glory of the LORD filled the house ... and all the children

of Israel looked on" (2 Chronicles 7.1-8).

Just as surely as in the days of Moses, God made it evident that He was prepared to dwell with men upon the earth. For the second time God made it evident that His house on earth was a place of habitation for Himself. It was not to be questioned again as to what God desired, the proof would not be repeated as often as the hearts of men waxed cold. Men of faith must in future take it as completely proved that God did desire to dwell with men upon the earth, so that in the days of Ezra there was not the same visible manifestation of the pleasure of God in His house upon earth. Men of faith such as Ezra knew it and rejoiced in it and did not require visible proof.

It was not until the Day of Pentecost that anything corresponding to this occurred again upon the earth. There had been forewarnings of the imminence of exceptional divine manifestations even from John the Baptist:

"He that sent me to baptize with [in] water, lie said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is lie that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit" (John 1. 33).

Many other notable events had first to take place before this statement by John could be understood by those who heard it. That One whom

John declared to be the One of whom God had spoken, and whom John boldly declared to be the Son of God, had firstly to manifest Himself by mighty works. In one sense the question of Solomon could be answered by a Yea, verily, for God in the Person of His Son was dwelling with men upon the earth, but after a few short years He would return to His Father's throne, having done all that was necessary as an offering for sin. But He gave the disciples every assurance that they would not be left desolate. It was expedient for Him to go away so that the Comforter could be sent unto them (John i6. 7), but it is evident that the disciples did not understand either His going away or what would be sent unto them. It may be doubted whether they really understood His words which He spake shortly before His ascent to heaven; as He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father:

"For John indeed baptized with [in] water; but ye shall be baptised in the Holy Spirit not many days hence" (Acts 1.5).

They would probably understand His later words when He told them that they would receive power, when the Holy Spirit had come upon them. Other men before them had had such power conferred, and it would be with an air of expectancy that they waited for the day of. manifestation. The descent of the Holy Spirit filled the house with the sound of a rushing mighty wind, and tongues of fire sat upon them, "and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit". This event was even more remarkable than that of Solomon's day for now it is more than a building that is filled with the manifested glory of God, and it was more remarkable too in that this descent of the Holy Spirit was the beginning of something permanent. Henceforth God, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, would dwell with men upon the earth.

We shall not follow up the various manifestations of the Holy Spirit coming upon men, nor shall we enquire here as to why there were variations in the manifestations, nor why in later times the day

of visible things gave place to the day of faith alone. We are assured by the word of God that every believer in Christ has shared in this baptism in the Holy Spirit:

"For as the Body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the Body, being many, are one Body: so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free" (1 Corinthians 12. 12-18).

There is an entity which is called "the Church which is His (Christ's) Body", something which depends only upon Christ the Baptizer, for He is the One who does the baptizing in the Holy Spirit. That Body is not wholly an earthly thing, for many believers have gone by way of death to be with Christ and are just as much members of the Body as those disciples who are still on earth. The Body makes no distinction between race or sex, and it does not function as an entity upon earth; that is left to visible churches of God.

The manifestations of the Holy Spirit upon earth to-day are to be seen in individual believers and in the gathered-out churches of God, and we proceed to consider some of the implications of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. It is in Him that we see the fulfilment of the question asked by Solomon, for we are assured that in Him God will continue to dwell with men upon the earth.

There is a fundamental characteristic of any dwelling-place which God may have, and this was shown out by Isaiah:

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isaiah 51. 15).

What is true of that High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity is true also of the Holy Spirit. Holiness becomes the House of the LORD whether in the days of Moses and Solomon or our day. That holy thing which the Lord has sanctified and which is His Body fulfils all that God would demand, for the Lord Himself sustains it and human effort or failure affects it not. But in every dwellingplace of the Holy Spirit the same characteristic should apply. This is brought out very clearly by Paul when writing to the Corinthians about many matters of defilement of the bodies of believers, when he brings the illumination of heaven to bear upon the matter:

"Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body" (1 Corinthians 6.19, 20).

It is the illumination of heaven because the believer is not now simply an earthly man with earthly desires or lusts; he is something more, nothing less than a heaven]y man, albeit confined for the present in an earthly body. That body with its desires must be kept in subjection under the sweet influences of the Holy Spirit. It is His dwelling-place and should be clean and holy in all manifestation of holy living. Alas! how often we grieve the Holy Spirit by our actions, how often we suffer defilement and do not pause to consider our heavenly Guest! It is marvellous that this Guest will never leave us despite our lack of consideration for Him, and we may indeed thank God that it is so, for the hosts of Satan would soon overcome us. Nevertheless we have a solemn responsibility to remember the principle given by Isaiah, for the Holy Being who dwells with us delights in the humble and contrite that He might give them a reviving.

We may note in passing that the word "temple" does not imply a plurality of temples, for the word is used to indicate characteristic quality. We are to live as though our bodies were temples, all showing the characteristic of a holy place. The same usage of the word "temple" is also found in 1 Corinthians 3.16-17:

"Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."

This applies to the Church of God in Corinth, and thus to churches of God everywhere. Men had been acting, despite the leading of the Holy Spirit, in disputes and separations, and such a state of things would ultimately have led to the complete disruption of the Church. It would have been destroyed. Unlike the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in the believer, with whom He abides for ever, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit with men in a church of God is conditional upon their behaviour. If that church is not functioning as it should, if it is manifestly not holy, it will cease to be characteristically temple of God. Holiness having departed from it the Holy Spirit will no longer indwell it. Thus it is a solemn responsibility for a church of God to be exercised that all things such as bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, railing, and malice be put away, and that there is manifested the tender fruit of the Spirit. Moreover, the dwelling-place of the Spirit is a place where the Word of God is supreme, where men's thoughts and ways find no place, but where there are humble-minded men with whom God will delight to dwell. <Author:A. T. Doodson>

Doodson, A. T. | Nov 1952
The Holy Spirit And His Work