An Inward Division

My friends, we must become familiar with the Holy Spirit if we are going to be Christians. If you read the New Testament, you know that Christians are supposed to be people of the Spirit. People who walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, love in the Spirit. Their fellowship is in the Spirit; it is the sharing of the Spirit of God. They are to be baptized into one Spirit, washed, regenerated, renewed by the Spirit. They are to begin in the Spirit and be careful that they do not continue in the flesh. They are to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, to have spiritual wisdom and understanding, to be sanctified by the Spirit, produce the fruit of the Spirit, to be careful not to grieve or quench or resist the Spirit in any way. We are supposed to hear to voice of the Spirit, feel the power of the Spirit, be purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit. 

Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Here we see Jesus’ understanding and experience of being born of the Spirit. People born of the Spirit are like the wind, blown here and there by the will of God. They do not follow the voice of their own will, or the movement of their own desires. They are moved by another, both inwardly and outwardly. 

This is what a Christian is. And if it isn’t our experience, it should at least be our desire, our goal. 

The one great cause of the great apostasy that has overspread the church-world, has been people trying to be Christians without the Spirit of Christ. When I say “the apostasy” I mean the fallen condition in which the church currently is. The reason for this falling away is because, in general, we simply don’t know the Spirit. We know words about the Spirit. But we don’t live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. We are not blown by the Spirit in our own heart and will. These Biblical realities have become strange and uncommon in our day.

There was a time when there was no New Testament, and apostles went about turning people to the Spirit of God in themselves. Paul was sent by Christ to turn the nations from the darkness in them, to the light in them. From the power of Satan in them, to the power of God in them. They were not first turned to doctrines. They were turned to light and power. They were not first turned to rules and practices and beliefs. They were turned to an inward teacher, an inward anointing, a God that lived in them, and in whom they lived and moved and had their being. 

This is what Paul said to the gentiles. He said there is a God who is near you, extremely near you, and yet you don’t know Him. He is an omnipresent Spirit and power, and yet you do not know Him. But He created you so that you would turn to Him, seek Him, grope for Him, find Him and experience Him. 

I am not at all against doctrines, beliefs, or practices, or anything that the Truth leads into for the benefit and edification of the body. But I am sure beyond a doubt that the great reason why the church looks like the world, and acts like the world, and runs after the world with the same eagerness, greed, and lust as the rest of humanity, is because we have tried to be Christians without the Spirit of Christ. 

In the beginning of the church, they were careful to warn people that the kingdom of God was not in words, but in power. They were concerned that people could be convinced by persuasive and elegant words instead of united to the resurrected life and light of the Son of God. The apostles taught by the Spirit. Their authority was the measure of the Spirit that moved and reigned in them. That was the only authority known in the church in that day. It wasn’t an authority based on human gifts, abilities, titles. It didn’t matter who your father was, where you were educated, or how eloquently you could speak. Paul said, “ But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.” (1 Cor. 4:19). 

They came in that power, they led people into an inward familiarity with that power in the heart. They taught people how to turn to, and become familiar with the work of God in the heart, the One who worked IN THEM both to will and to do His good pleasure. They taught the church to seek after, to feel after, to follow and obey the One “who was able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that they ask or think, according to the power that works in them.”

And when these apostles had grown old or passed away, their writings were gathered up and preserved. The Lord saw fit to do this, so that the church would have writings that were “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” These writings were like boundaries, or like a hedge of protection around the power. They pointed to the life and power, warned people to stay within it, they manifested the errors of those who did not live in it and by it. They declared, as we have already seen, that Christianity was a life in the Spirit, a growth in the Spirit, a righteousness and purity and love in the Spirit of God.

And it was good and appropriate for the Lord to give us these Scriptures. I believe that every word that the Spirit has seen fit to preserve in Scripture is right and true and useful; it is a wonderful gift of God. Nevertheless, at that point in time, because the spiritual teachings were now in a book, or in a collection of letters, the natural mind could meddle with them, could learn them, and teach them WITHOUT knowing and experiencing their Author. Now, at this point, man began to find something he could do, something he could BE in the church, without needing the Spirit of Christ. He could use his brain to study, his mouth to talk, and his human wisdom to judge things that his inward eyes had never seen. 

Yes, he could interpret without having the key of David. He could teach without knowing the anointing in himself. And perhaps even worse, he could bring an authority into the church that has nothing to do with the measure of growth and maturity in the life of Christ, the Spirit of Christ. He could begin to use titles that have nothing to do with the equipping, empowering and sending of the Spirit of God. He could be a leader just by being a gifted talker. He could be an elder, because he had more education, more money, more influence. But this is all natural authority, an authority that comes from human greatness, human education, human understanding, human abilities, eloquence, wisdom, human power. And this is precisely the kind of authority that Christ excluded from His church. 

Mat. 20:25  But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—

And in this way, something else began to sit in the temple of God, and set itself up as God, and demand respect and honor and attention. This was another power working in the body of Christ. It was an abomination that brought desolation. It was antichrist. 

And although I know that there have always been Christians in every generation who have truly known the Spirit, and grown up in the Spirit, and been led by the Spirit, I believe that it is apparent to all that there has been a great apostasy, a great falling away from a Christianity that is in, and that IS the Spirit of Christ. We have fallen away from a gospel that turns us to the presence and power of the Spirit within us. We have turned away the work of the Spirit in the heart, and settled for a collection of ideas and beliefs in the brain. We have fallen from the expectation of having a life led by the Spirit, a soul purified by the Spirit, a righteousness and love that are the nature of the Spirit, a mind renewed by the Spirit, a wisdom that is the mind of the Spirit. We are excited by clever phrases and new revelations and 30 second videos on social media, and we are bored by those who preach that the Spirit of God can actually put to death the deeds of the flesh, and purify our hearts to fervently love each other. 

So I say again, we must become familiar with the Spirit of God if we are truly going to be Christians. A man can do many things without the Spirit of God, but he cannot be a Christian. 

Seeing this great apostasy, feeling it to be true, both in myself and in the church at large, has made me want to become extremely familiar with the Spirit of God. It has raised in my heart a great cry, a great longing, a desperation to be a man who knows the Spirit of God, who walks in the Spirit of God, who is changed, and cleansed, and led, and taught by the Spirit of God, living in the love and humility of the Spirit, and finding the fruits of the Spirit growing on me more and more every day. I know there are some here in this room that share that desire. I hope that all of you do. 

I hope that all of you have seen and felt something of this great apostasy in yourselves. That is where you need to see it. Anyone can see it in the church at large. Even the unbelieving world can see it. But if you want to be part of the solution, you need to see it in yourself. And you also need to let it birth in you a groan and a cry to be free. 

And what are you groaning to be free from? You are groaning to be free from yourself. Because the only thing that keeps you from knowing and feeling and finding the Spirit of God, is the fact that your days are filled with knowing and feeling and finding your own desires and pleasures. So much could be said about this, but I want to help you (in whatever little measure that I can) to turn back to the Spirit of God. I want to help you to find and follow your Guide. This is what we all need. We need to be turned to the Spirit and power of God in our hearts. We need to learn how He speaks, what He does, and how to follow Him. If we can find our leader, then He will lead us out of the apostasy. But we must find something greater than words. 

And so I will begin by pointing out to you something that you already know, but perhaps (like many Christians) you have not considered or discerned with sufficient clarity. You must begin by understanding and perceiving that there are two very different things in you, and that these two are at enmity one with the other. This is where true spiritual discernment, spiritual experience, and spiritual growth must begin. This is the beginning of God’s self-revelation and communication with the human soul. This is how we find our Guide. If we try to skip over, or give little attention to this crucial reality, then we will not get very far. And yet, because it is so important, because an inward discernment of these two things is so absolutely fundamental, God has made the truth of it absolutely undeniable to every person who is willing to be honest with themselves. Yes, the mercy of God has made the most important things self-evident to every human being.

There are two things in man, and everybody knows it. There are two contrary powers or seeds, and everything of practical Christianity, and everything involved in experiencing the benefit of what Christ has done for us outwardly, in His death, burial, and resurrection, begins with understanding these two things, knowing what they are, where they are, and then what it means to die to one of them, and live in the other.

What are these two things? The first is man in his natural, fallen condition. It is the first man, the first birth, the nature of flesh. It is a human will broken off from the will of God to live in its own lusts and desires, in its own false light and false wisdom, seeking the things of time, the passing pleasures of sin, taking delight in unrighteousness, living the life of self. This is what Scripture calls the body of sin, because man has become a body for a contrary will, or a garden for a contrary seed, or the house of a strong man, who is the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience. This is the nature into which all of us were born, because it was the nature of our first father and mother after their fall. We were not (as some wrongly affirm) punished for their transgression, but we were born in their image and likeness. And therefore, this is the first nature, seed, or power that man finds and feels working in himself. It is always pulling like a vacuum towards self, and always producing manifestations of pride, lust, envy, anger, and fear. Who can deny it? Who cannot feel this nature in themselves? Who has not been ashamed and at times even shocked at his own thoughts, his own appetites, his own selfishness and pride? 

But this is not all that is in man. There is something else that appears within us that has an entirely contrary nature, and that pulls the heart in a completely different direction; something that not only refuses to approve of sin, but actually rebukes it and abhors it in our own hearts! We can feel it sometimes checking or warning us just before we speak an evil word, do an evil action, or click an enticing link on the internet. And if we yield to the temptation, we often feel it again, forcing us into some awareness of our wrongdoing, and making us ashamed or regretful for uniting our will to evil. 

Take a minute and think about this. There are two contrary things in your heart. I find it astounding that this reality is not talked about more in the church, because it is an absolute and self-evident proof of the existence of a God who is both holy and kind. It is evidence that God is holy because His light in the heart opposes every form of evil and corruption. It is evidence that He is kind, because He has given this gift to you, and has not left you in darkness and blindness about things of such great importance. How can anyone deny it? When you feel these warnings and corrections for sin, or these reproofs for joining your will to evil, will anyone say this is the nature of flesh rebuking itself? Will anyone say it is the kingdom of Satan divided against itself? Will you claim that it is simply the education of your culture, when in moments of sobriety you have felt it disapproving and despising many aspects of your own culture, or even your own family? No. It is a gift of God, a seed of God, a heavenly light that shines in the soul of man. 

This truth is so simple and so clear that a five year-old child can understand it. Ask a five year old child if he feels strange desires in his heart to do selfish and bad things. Ask him if he feels something inside of him that does not want to share with his siblings, sometimes that wants to lie, or hide evil deeds, or disobey his parents. Then ask the same child if he also feels ashamed for these things, feels frightened by evil, and has desires to be good. 

What are these two things? I say again: one is the condition of man in the fall, where the seed of the serpent has brought forth his image. This is what you and I have called our life. It is the life that Jesus told us we must lay down, lose, even hate in order to be His disciple. The other is the mustard seed that begins as the smallest seed in the garden of your heart. It is the seed that has been sown into every kind of soil. It is the heavenly leaven that is meant to spread. It is the treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, the talent that was given to you in order to increase. 

My friends, spiritual life, spiritual growth, life in the Spirit does not begin by learning doctrines, memorizing Bible verses, or attending meetings. All of these things have their place, but to be a spiritual Christian, you have to find the Spirit. You have to discover His workings in you. You have to learn to hear His voice, to turn to His light, to pay attention to His teachings, and to follow Him. I am not suggesting that these checks, reproofs, and corrections are the only appearance or activity of the Spirit of God. But I am suggesting, and I am insisting, that if you try to skip over an inward familiarity with the light of Christ in your heart dealing with you in this way, if you pay no attention to this inward DIVISION between light and darkness, between the power of God and the power of Satan, then you are missing your way at the very beginning. 

Jesus was very clear about Paul’s mission. “I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.” (Acts 26:17-18)

You must first recognize these two things in yourself, hear how they speak to you, how they pull you in contrary directions. You must first learn to deny the one and follow the other. If you try to understand the words of the Spirit in Scripture, without paying attention to the life of the Spirit in your heart, you will only hurt yourself. If you try to change your life without denying the one seed and clinging to the other, you will only meet with great disappointment or deception. If you want to be a spiritual Christian, you must become familiar with the Spirit. And the Spirit of God is a nature, a seed of life and light that appears in your heart to call you out of darkness.