Pentecost was a wonderful reality to the believers in Christ who were gathered in the upper chamber where the Holy Spirit came upon them. One important thing that should be noticed is that the Spirit, when He came upon them, filled all their hearts. All that He did to make Pentecost wonderful was brought about by His having control of the men to whom He came. In this there has been no change. To us as workers today, as to the first disciples, the Holy Spirit is sent not merely to be with us, but to be in us, filling us with His presence and His power.
We hear far too much about "a visitation" of the Holy Spirit, when in reality He has not come merely to visit but to abide. It is God's purpose that our bodies shall be the "temple of the Holy Ghost," and that He shall dwell in His temple, not as a guest but as master. His control of us in the new life, which we have in Christ Jesus, is our guaranty that there shall be no return by us to the old life. It is of first importance to us, therefore, that we quench not the Spirit just as He is beginning to do His work, but that we honor Him, and obey Him in all things.
Observe how completely He was in control of the first disciples. Peter, the man through whom the Spirit spoke at Pentecost, declared to the apostles and brethren at Jerusalem on one important occasion, "The Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting, . . . and we entered into the man's house." Acts 11:12. The Spirit was in control of Peter. On another occasion, when Paul and Timotheus purposed to go into Asia preaching the Word, they were positively forbidden so to do: "Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not." Acts 16:6, 7.
The Spirit had rulership with these men. When He bade them "go," they went; and when He suffered them not, they were wholly under His restraint. This control of our lives by the Spirit is the secret of joyous, loving, peaceful, victorious Christianity and Christian ministry, and that we may experience this in its fullness, we are admonished to "live in the Spirit" and to "walk in the Spirit," that we fulfill not the lusts of the flesh.
