Three times we are assured in the Gospels that Jesus came to His work of earthly ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit. After His baptism, as He returned from the Jordan, He was led by the Spirit; then as He returned from the wilderness to Galilee, He was led by the power of the Spirit; and when He came again to Nazareth where He had lived so long, it is declared that the Spirit of God was upon Him. He was filled with the Spirit, so that His words were "with power." Through these differing experiences He was brought by the Spirit. In the wilderness He was tempted. In Galilee He was made famous by His works. In Nazareth the people essayed to kill Him.
I believe that in that thrice-stated fact is the secret of successful evangelism,—being led by the Holy Spirit, being full of the Holy Spirit, and because of the Holy Spirit upon us, our words being with power.
It is necessary for God's men to be under the restraint as well as the constraint of the Holy Spirit. The association of those two ideas is something worthy of our study. The secret of powerful evangelism is our being filled with the Holy Spirit and our being controlled by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, being filled with the Spirit means being under the control of the Spirit. It is just as necessary to be restrained by the Holy Spirit as it is to be sent by the Holy Spirit; for if left to our own judgment in matters of our service, we might go to the wrong place or go at the wrong time. The Spirit of God must send; and the same Spirit must restrain.
Observe how fully the Spirit controlled the apostles: "The Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house." Acts 11:12. What did the Spirit do? Bade him go. What did he do? He went. Why? Because he was under the control of the Spirit. Why was he under the control of the Spirit? Because the Spirit filled his heart.
There is no such thing as being filled with the Spirit of God in this ministry, and being out of control of the Spirit at the same time. When the Spirit bids us go, and our hearts are filled with the Spirit, and therefore we are under His control, we go. We do not begin any argument about going. We do not begin to reason that going will not suit our personal wishes. Such an attitude does not grow out of a heart that is filled with the Spirit. When Spirit-filled, we do not begin to weigh reasons, we do not ponder this, that, or the other before we go where the Spirit bids us go. Spirit-filled men obey the Spirit. I do not mean to say that we necessarily go when men say "go." But when the Spirit speaks to our own hearts, and we do not as He bids us, we are not under the control of the Spirit. There must in the very nature of the case be willing obedience on the part of those who are Spirit-filled.
But there is a price to pay for this infilling. We must yield all. It is only when we are willing thus to yield all, that the Spirit is able to take control of us. When control of us by the Spirit is unhindered by our selfish wills, the Spirit makes known God's purpose to us. Had there not been such yielding to the guidance of the Spirit on the part of the disciples, they never would have understood God's purpose for the Gentiles through their preaching of the gospel. If those men had not been taken by the control of the Spirit into territory where they had not the least thought of going, they never would have understood God's purpose for the Gentiles through the Christian church.
In Acts 16:6, 7, we find another demonstration of the control of the Spirit: "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." Now here is an instance of where the Spirit restrained them. They had set their hearts on going in a certain direction. But it was the wrong direction, and the Spirit spoke to them and restrained them. What was their response to that restraint? They went where the Spirit directed.
The Lord is the one to choose our field. That I believe with all my heart. In order to have us where the Lord wants us, it is just as necessary sometimes to be restrained from going as it is to be sent. But the Spirit of God should be the one to do both for us. I do not believe in restraints that are not of the Spirit's ordering; but I certainly do believe in the restraints of the Spirit, and believe that we sometimes would act wrongly without His restraint. I believe, too, that very few of the mistakes that so often mar the work would occur if we placed ourselves under the control of the Spirit in a way that would give the Spirit opportunity to restrain us.
Now I wish to read concerning the believer's birthright. In the eighth chapter of Romans we have our sonship brought to view. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." Rom. 8:16, 17.
Please let this truth impress itself on your heart, There is a spiritual birthright for the believer. Through the Holy Spirit there is an heirship for the child of God. We do indeed have a birthright. The teaching of this eighth chapter of Romans is simply this, If there is to be any vital change in us from what nature has made us, the Holy Spirit must control our minds. The Holy Spirit must be in control of the mind if we are to have right to that which the Spirit brings.
Two laws are brought to view in this chapter, —the law of sin and death, and the law of the spirit of life. Have you noticed that both of these laws operate through the mind? The first operates by keeping the mind in a state of carnality, and the carnal mind means death. That is the law of sin and death. But the second transforms, us by the renewing of our minds. (See Rom. 12:2.) So these two laws both operate in the life through our mind, one for death, the other for life and peace.
Let us follow those laws: This chapter teaches in verse five that they whose minds are renewed by the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. They whose minds are controlled by the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. They are in the flesh. When the mind is yielded to the flesh, we have not the Spirit of Christ, and we are none of His. Thus we find in verse eight that it is then impossible for us to please God. When the mind is yielded to the Spirit, the Spirit leads us, and "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." What_right _have we to-maim sonship if we allow not our mind to be led by the Spirit of God? If sons, "then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Then there is a birthright for us.
Jesus spoke of the new birth as being a birth of the Spirit. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." John 3:3, 5, 6. Why? Because, by being of the flesh, it is a partaker of the fleshly nature. But "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Why? Because by being of the divine Spirit it is a partaker of the divine nature. There is as much difference between that which is born of the flesh and that which is born of the Spirit, as there is essentially between the flesh and the Spirit. Why then do we undertake to do the work of the Spirit in the power of the flesh? We cannot possibly be of the flesh, and think and live and serve spiritually.
We who are born of the Spirit, therefore, need to be filled with the Spirit. And the fullness of the Spirit I earnestly believe is our birthright. I do not for a moment think that the teaching of the Scripture gives us any right to believe that when we are born again we are of necessity filled with the Spirit. Paul was born again on the way to Damascus, but he was not filled with the Spirit until later.
No believer, notwithstanding the assurance of his sonship, should be satisfied until his heart is filled with the Spirit. The Spirit is to come into our hearts and completely fill them. It is from filled hearts that the rivers of power are to flow out, and our ministry is to be a ministry of soul-saving power. Let us give earnest attention to the matters of the Spirit in us, the Spirit filling us, and the Spirit outflowing from us. The new birth in itself is not enough for a ministry of power. Nothing less than an infilling will do. That is our birthright. Let us not barter it for anything that the flesh might crave, or that would satisfy a fleshly mind, for a ministry that the Holy Spirit empowers is not served in any spiritual sense by the things of the flesh.