Salvation: Five (excerpt of Three Deaths and Three Resurrections: Volume One)

SALVATION: FIVE (EXCERPT OF THREE DEATHS AND THREE RESURRECTIONS: VOLUME ONE)

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Hosea Six: First Day
Three Outpourings of the Holy Spirit
Healing Commences with Tearing
The Glory of the First Outpouring
Following on to Know the Lord
Water to the Ankles
Captured by the Holy Spirit
The Seal of the Holy Spirit

Hosea Six: First Day

Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight.
Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning [of the Day of the Lord]; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter [harvest] and former [seed] rain to the earth. (Hosea 6:1-3)

Three Outpourings of the Holy Spirit

There are to be three principal outpourings of God’s Holy Spirit under the new covenant: the first day, the second day, and the third day.

When we are drawing attention to the overall plan of redemption it is necessary that we do not lose sight of our present opportunities. God’s Holy Spirit always is available to the individual Christian as he pursues the will of Christ for his own life. It is not wise to become so involved with the historical acts of God to the point that we are left with the impression that we must wait for some momentous happening before we can seek Christ.

The reason each of us does not have more of God than we do is that we do not take advantage of our inheritance in Christ. We do not possess because we do not ask. Only our lack of faith stands between us and revival in our own life and circumstances. It always is God’s will that when two or more Christians gather together in Christ’s name that Christ Himself come to bless the assembly with His power and glory. In many instances our deadness and dryness are due to our own lack of faith and obedience.

Nevertheless, it may be helpful and heartening for us to understand the plan of redemption from the historical view, as God works in the earth perfecting the Body of Christ and making the necessary preparations for the establishing of His Kingdom, His will, on the earth.

The three outpourings of the Holy Spirit are as follows:

The first appearing of Christ and the outpouring of power and revelation on the Christian Church of the first century.
The second outpouring of power and revelation, commencing with the Protestant Reformers and continuing to this day. We believe that the second outpouring will increase in intensity and scope until the extent of the Glory of God on the Church will exceed by a wide margin that of the first century.
The second revival, the latter rain, will peak and then be withdrawn for a season. It will be withdrawn for two reasons: so that the sun of persecution and testing can bring the wheat of the Church to maturity, and so that the forces of evil can attain maturity. The wheat and the tares will grow to maturity side by side until the end of the age.
The third of the three outpourings, the Kingdom-Age Jubilee. Just prior to the appearing of Christ from Heaven, and in conjunction with His appearing, the fullness of the Presence of the Godhead will enter the Body of Christ in fulfillment of the Levitical feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:39; John 14:18-23; Isaiah 60:1-3). Then the Lord Jesus will appear in the clouds of the heaven and the Holy Spirit will be poured on the earth to a degree we cannot imagine in the present hour. The Glory of God will cover the earth just as the earth originally was covered with water. The Glory of God will be everywhere.

The new heaven and earth reign of Christ is not really a fourth outpouring of the Spirit; rather, it is “waters to swim in.” In the new heaven and earth reign of Christ, the Throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the earth rather than in Heaven. At that time the Holy Spirit cannot come down to earth from Heaven as a “rushing mighty wind” because He will be abiding in His Fullness in the earth for eternity.

The Christian Church is the new Jerusalem. The Throne of God is being fashioned in the hearts of the members of the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit always flows from the Throne of God. The saints will enjoy the fullness of the Presence of the Spirit forever.

Healing Commences With Tearing

Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. (Hosea 6:1)

The Lord has torn us and He will heal us. He has struck us and He will bind us up. God’s process of healing commences with a tearing, His process of binding up commences with a striking.

The Day of the Lord begins with the evening, the darkness. It is in the latter part of the Day that the light and the joy appear. We always must keep that order in mind or we will become discouraged when the darkness is pressing us down.

Each of the three resurrections we are describing in this book commences with a death. There is no route into a deeper phase of redemption other than by the indicated death, the necessary judgment. The three hangings of the Tabernacle portray the three deaths.

“Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
“A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
“Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you. (John 16:20-22)

Whenever the Lord prepares to bring forth an individual or a church into an increase in the joy of His Presence, He causes the individual or the church to go into sorrow and travail. Our deeper experiences with God often are preceded by a period of trial and heart searching. Then the enlargement comes. It can be true also of an assembly of people that God will bring a group of believers through a travail of spirit just before He adds to their spiritual strength.

If we would know the power of Christ’s resurrection we must be willing to carry our load of Christ’s sufferings.

The Glory of the First Outpouring

After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. (Hosea 6:2)

So great was the outpouring of the first of the two “days,” the first-century outpouring of God’s Glory, that the account seems legendary when compared with the condition of the Christian Church during the subsequent centuries.

Nearly two thousand years ago Christ came in the Fullness of God. Christ walked on the earth in the power of the coming Kingdom Age, in the glory of the Kingdom Jubilee. Jesus did not communicate with the people of His day through a ministry or gift of the Spirit as we do. He Himself is the Fullness of the Spirit of power and revelation. Christ does not see dimly as in a mirror. He knows and understands just as He is known and understood by the Father.

Yet, Jesus was tested and required to walk by faith. At the necessary time God turned away from Christ until the sin offering could be made. Then Christ ascended. As part of the power and glory of His ascension He gave gifts of ministry to His Body, the Church. All these gifts are part of Christ Himself. Christ came to the first-century Church through the ministry of the apostles, the prophets, the teachers, the word of knowledge, and so forth.

There was a powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit on the ministries of the early churches, an anointing that resulted in the spreading of the Gospel to the ends of the earth; that resulted also in the writing of the New Testament. The writings of the Apostles have been the judge of all spiritual activity that has taken place since that time.

Then, it appears, the first anointing was lifted.

God knew that mankind was not ready to possess the full flowing of the Holy Spirit just as God knew that Adam and Eve would be unable to possess the Garden of Eden. It is one matter to be visited with the Presence of God. It is quite a different matter to be able to maintain that Presence successfully.

The church of the first century paralleled the life of Abraham. Abraham wandered in the land of promise as in a strange land four hundred seventy years before his descendants crossed the Jordan and began the conquest of Canaan. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not able to occupy so large a territory. Also, the sin of the Amorites had not come to the time of judgment (Genesis 15:16).

Therefore the Lord directed Jacob into Egypt as the place where the children of Israel were to multiply until they were numerous enough to become an invading force, and until the sin of the Canaanites had descended to depths sufficient to merit judgment and destruction from the almighty God.

The first-century revival was a parallel situation. The Church was not spiritually developed enough to occupy the earth. Also, the sin and rebellion of the peoples of the earth had not reached the depths sufficient to justify the judgment and expression of God’s wrath that has been determined.

The Apostles and the early Church wandered as Abraham in the land of promise, so to speak. Christ realized that His Church was not strong enough at that time to occupy the earth, which is His ultimate plan. Also, the fierce wrath of God, kindled from before the foundation of the earth, was not ready yet for its awful exercise.

The first-century revival was as a season of planting seed, as well as a first reaping of the earth. The ministry of the early Church was dominated by the Apostles. Christ called multitudes of people out of the bondage of the spirit of the world as He ministered through and with the Apostles. Also, the believers went everywhere preaching the Word.

We understand from Paul’s writings that considerable confusion existed in the young churches. Apparently the transition from Moses to Christ gave the Jews severe theological problems. There was dissension even among the Apostles themselves. Peter and James were advocating circumcision while Paul was teaching doctrine so new and complex that some were misunderstanding it and going off into error (II Peter 3:16).

Not all the Christians were certain of Paul’s apostleship because he had not been one of the twelve. We find in the beginning of several of the Epistles that Paul felt it necessary to affirm his apostleship. It must have been discouraging to Paul to discover that Judaizers and other misled teachers were following behind him and undoing the work he had accomplished by so much travail and pain.

It seems that Paul was not a popular teacher much of the time and that his physical appearance was not attractive. The attendance at his meetings may have been small. The latter part of his life was spent in and out of custody. Some of the Epistles were written from the confines of a Roman jail.

We may have a mistaken concept of the first-century revival. Although God the Father ministered through and with Christ for three years, it appears that the contemporary historians were not impressed enough with that fact to discuss it. It was accepted for centuries that the historian, Josephus, wrote of Christ. Now it is believed by some scholars that the references to Christ in Josephus are additions inserted several hundred years after the death of Josephus. This may or may not be true.

The Roman Empire was the greatest civilization of the world, but Jesus of Nazareth apparently did not accomplish enough visible work to excite the interest of most of the empire, at least not during His lifetime on earth. The same condition of obscurity was true of the first churches. We may think of the early Christian churches as a fantastically popular movement alight with the Glory of God. It is more likely that the early assemblies consisted in the main of small groups of quite ordinary people meeting in homes, making a sincere effort to please God just as we do today.

The stupendous Glory of Christ and of the Church was not visible to the eyes of the unsaved just as the golden Lampstand of the Holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Congregation was not visible to the curious. The Scriptures portray how the working and Glory of God appear to the eyes of the Holy Spirit, not to the gaze of the unconverted.

If we could see with the eyes of the Holy Spirit what is occurring in the Body of Christ today we might notice that it exceeds in glory that which took place in the first century. We need to ask the Lord to anoint our eyes with His ointment so we can see as He sees.

The first “day” of Hosea was a time of planting seed. It was characterized by the ministry of Christ in and with the Apostles and by the spreading of the Gospel throughout the earth. It was characterized also by the establishing of the definitive Scripture, the New Testament writings.

When we contemplate the magnitude of the ministry of the early Apostles it can be seen that the first-century churches were influenced greatly by them—the Apostles being lifted to such high status that “fear came upon every soul.”

And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch.
Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. (Acts 5:12,13)

The exaltation of the Apostles apparently caused multitudes of believers to be added to the Lord. The supremacy of the ministry of the Apostles was a necessary part of the infancy of the Church.

We do not fall into the temptation of idolizing men if we keep in mind that the ministry of the Apostles was nothing more nor less than the ministry of Christ Himself, God’s Apostle, being exercised through them. Peter, James, John, Thomas, Paul, and the rest were ordinary men, as we can observe from the account of their actions. Christ will use whom He will.

This same type of exaltation took place when Moses, another “apostle” of the Lord, was commissioned to wrest Israel from the hand of Pharaoh. Few people have stood on the earth in the power in which Moses appeared before the supreme authority of Egypt. At the word of Moses the land was reduced to shambles. Moses, an imperfect individual, was lifted to a high station of preeminence. The lifting up of a human being was a necessary part of God’s plan. Someone had to represent God before the earthly ruler, and Moses was chosen.

Men had to stand before the forces of Satan at the time that God gave birth to the Christian Church. The Apostles were chosen, and called by name.

The conversion of the Apostle Paul is an extraordinary example of the sovereign manner in which God calls leaders in terms of His own purposes and grace. No one could claim that Paul was a righteous man seeking God during the period he was murdering the Christians. Paul was filled with pride, self-seeking, and the frantic energy of an ambitious man seeking the approval of other men so that he may increase in fame and power. This was the spirit of the Pharisees who murdered Christ.

Yet God, in His grace and mercy, according to His own predetermined purposes, struck Paul down and used him to explain the transition from the Law of Moses to the redemption that is in Christ. Also, Paul set forth the concept of the Body of Christ—no other writer uses this term.

We have seen, then, that the first “day” of Hosea typifies the revival of the first century. It was a time of calling Israel out from the spirit of this age, of explaining the mysteries of the plan of redemption, of the ministry of the Apostles of the Lamb.

There were many other ministries given during the first century, and Paul points toward the necessity for the variety of ministries in the Body of Christ. The Apostles in particular stood before “Pharaoh,” as it were, and called the people of God into the spiritual wilderness—the proving grounds of the Holy Spirit.

God understood that the first-century Church could no more hold the glory of the new covenant than Abraham could hold the land of Canaan. God dipped into human affairs in the first century, laid the foundation of the Body of Christ, and gave a blessing to His people. Much of the glory withdrew with the death of the Apostles. (God issues His Glory to specific individuals.)

The following generation of church leaders and officials lacked the spiritual power and authority to do more than quote the Apostles of Christ. After a few more generations of Christians had come and gone, the glory and revelation of the first-century Church was a dimming memory and men began to apply to the churches their own notions of what God desired in the earth. The inevitable took place—the Christian Church, that seamless robe of Christ, became fragmented into competing schools of thought.

Let us never lose sight of one fact. The revelation of Christ in the first century was a Divine intervention that occurred in the will of God. The people concerned were no more remarkable, no more holy, no more deserving than we are. At any time God can intervene with a restoration of the same power and revelation or (as actually will occur) with a magnificently greater outpouring of the power and revelation—the promised latter rain of the Spirit.

Following On To Know the Lord

Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning [of the Day of the Lord]; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter [harvest] and former [seed] rain to the earth. (Hosea 6:3)

The way to come to know God is to “follow on to know the Lord.” We cannot just read about the Lord and master factual information. We must get up each morning with the intention of being obedient to the Spirit of God.

No person comes to know God in a moment. Considerable time, much seeking, as Paul informs us in the third chapter of Philippians, is required in order to come to know Christ.

The “going forth” of the Lord is as the dawning of the day. We are in the “night” of the Lord in the present hour. The Day is at hand.

How does Christ come to us? He comes to us as the “rain.” The seed (former) rains of October soften the clods baked hard by the half-year drought of the summer (in Israel) so the ground can be plowed and planted. The harvest (latter) rains of March bring the wheat to maturity.

We may say, therefore, that the first “day” of Hosea is the day of the seed rain, and the second “day” may include both the harvest rain and also the seed rain (Joel 2:23).

The third “day” is the period when “he will raise us up,” the time of our resurrection from the dead.

Water to the Ankles

And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles.
Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.
Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. (Ezekiel 47:3-5)

The “river” of Ezekiel typifies the Water of the Holy Spirit in the earth. The sixth chapter of Hosea, which we have just mentioned, portrays the coming of the Lord as the rain. In Ezekiel we see the same coming of the Lord portrayed as a river flowing in the earth.

The River of God always flows from the Throne of God, from the Temple of God. We are the Temple of God, as Paul tells us plainly (Ephesians 2:21).

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)

Notice the source of Ezekiel’s river:

Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. (Ezekiel 47:1)

The “house” is the Temple of God. Christ is the “door” of the Temple of God. The term “east” refers to the dawning of the Day of the Lord. Do you remember the instruction of Hosea: “His going forth is prepared as the morning”? The man “that had the line in his hand” went toward the east. As he progressed toward the east, toward the “morning,” toward the coming of the Lord, the waters rose on Ezekiel who is, in this instance, a type of the saints of Christ. The man with the measuring line advanced four thousand cubits before the waters reached their fullness.

The number four symbolizes the fullness of the Holy Spirit, four being the number of the Lampstand.

The “line” with which he was measuring represents the judgment of God. As we have stated previously, the working of God in us always is preceded by a “death”—a judgment on our person. After God has measured (judged) us and our ways with His “line,” He turns and blesses us with an increase of the Holy Spirit. Each time we go deeper in the Spirit there must be a more penetrating and complete judgment of our person and ways.

The three judgments symbolized by the man with the line in his hand bring us as far as the waters “to the loins” (just above the hips). After that, the waters become so great as to be our total environment, as will be true during the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

Waters to the “ankles” speaks of the salvation experience.
Waters to the “knees” (the Christian walk) portrays the sanctification (holy living) experience.
Waters to the “loins” (the area of reproduction and strength) represents the conquest experience.
The “waters to swim in” is the complete mastery by the water, as will be true when we are immersed eternally in the Fullness of the Spirit of God during the new heaven and earth reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. After we are totally redeemed we are to give back our personality to the Lord and be ready to be a vehicle for His Glory as it is directed toward other people.

Captured by the Holy Spirit

We can witness this same “taking” of the individual by the Spirit of the Lord, in Isaiah 28:9-13:

“Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people,
To whom He said, “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,” and, “this is the refreshing”; yet they would not hear.
But the word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,” that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught. (Isaiah 28:9-13)

Notice the expression: “for with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people.” Paul applies this passage to the speaking in tongues that we Christians do (I Corinthians 14:21).

“This is the rest,” Isaiah claims. So it is that speaking in tongues, as well as the other manifestations of the Holy Spirit in us, brings us into the rest of God (Hebrews, Chapter Four), into the perfect will of God in Christ.

The man with the line in his hand, and the above passage from Isaiah, both portray a progressive capturing of us by the Spirit of God. The Spirit takes the Word of God and uses it as a hammer to break the rock of our heart into pieces. The Word of the Lord breaks us down each day as the Spirit applies it “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little.”

The purpose of the hammering on us is that we may “go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”

“Go, and fall backward” refers to our turning away from the works of the flesh.

“Broken” speaks of our coming to the end of our own ability, and trusting God for the work of redemption. Our proud will is broken and we learn to trust in the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of Christ.

Coming to the cross for salvation is such a blow to the pride of the person who has trusted in his own merit, ability, and strength to make himself acceptable to God that some individuals never can take that step of faith and humility. Their pride prevents them from coming to the foot of the cross for salvation.

“Snared” reveals the actions of the Holy Spirit in bringing into captivity to Christ our deeds, words, thoughts, motives, and imaginations. We do not come into holy behavior overnight. We do pass from death to life, from the authority of Satan to the authority of Christ, and are forgiven all our sins, the moment we believe in Christ.

However, the change in us from unrighteous behavior to holy behavior requires a period of time for its accomplishment. It is command upon command, rule upon rule. We fuss, kick, complain, resist, but the Spirit of the Lord gently leads us into paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. We are “snared” by the infinite wisdom of the Holy Spirit as He directs our circumstances until we come willingly into the kind of behavior that is pleasing to the Lord.

“Taken” is the end result of the dealings of the Holy Spirit with us. The waters of the Spirit come up to our “loins,” up to the source of reproductive power and strength. We are not just broken, we are not just snared, we are taken as well. Our will is so transformed by the Spirit of God working through the Word of God that we choose to perform the will of God. We begin to please God by our thoughts and actions.

When we first were saved we continually were opposed to the will of God, our human mind being an enemy of God. After God completes His deepest workings in our nature we will long to do the things that please Him. Our greatest joy will be to act in the manner that God desires. Our will shall be synchronized with God’s will so that the two wills, God’s and ours, shall coincide in all matters great and small.

Sometimes people who are well-placed in their vocation are heard to say: “I feel guilty about picking up my paycheck because I am so happy in my job.” There are those who would not cease to perform their tasks even if they possessed millions of dollars because they are enjoying so much what they are doing. Yet, their work may be difficult and challenging.

That is the way it is with us when the Spirit of God completes His work in us. We desire to do what God desires that we do. Here is an important dimension of the rest of God. “It is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

God enjoys opening His hand and satisfying the desire of every creature. However, there are seasons during our training when He cannot do this. His will and our will are opposed for a time. There is a prolonged withholding of our most intense desires so we may be perfected. At the end of the period of restraint we shall discover that God’s will and our will have become one will and we then shall receive the desires of our heart.

May God soon bring us to the place where we are “taken” by the Spirit of God such that our will corresponds to His will. Our joy is His joy. Our plan is His plan. Our sorrow is His sorrow. Our desire is His desire. Our judgment is His judgment. Only then will we be fully in the rest of God. Then the Father and the Son can find rest in us.

We do not come permanently into the fullness of the rest of God the instant we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. There is a progressive capturing of us by the Spirit of God.

In the illustration of Ezekiel’s river, the first death and resurrection are portrayed as the measuring of a thousand cubits and the bringing of us through the waters until they are to the ankles. The number one thousand suggests a “day” of the workings of God.

You may recall that the dimensions of the Tabernacle building were ten by ten by thirty cubits. This totals 3,000 cubic cubits. The first three judgments of the man with the line in his hand include 3,000 cubits, suggesting that the two thousand years of the Church age, and the one thousand years of the Kingdom Age, have been accomplished and we now are ready for the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

The first judgment of God, that which brings the waters to the ankles, is the judgment brought on Christ at the cross of Calvary. It is the judgment on the gods of the present evil age (the prince of the world is judged). Calvary is a work of judgment, from God’s viewpoint.

If we enter it, the first judgment brings us to the place where the Holy Spirit is up to our ankles, so to speak. We still maintain control over our actions, over our deeds, words, motives, and imaginations. Much of what we do and say is mixed with the lusts and desires of our flesh and human mind.

The “ankles” experience is close to the shore. We can run back up on the beach if we change our mind about serving the Lord. We definitely have entered a new environment, the Kingdom of God. Although most of our personality is still “dry,” our feet (direction of our life) are submerged in the Holy Spirit of God.

If we are willing to follow the man with the line in his hand (the Holy Spirit), He will lead us into deeper waters.

The Seal of the Holy Spirit

Part of the act of salvation is the “renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Every true Christian has the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in him, the Spirit of eternal life.

not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5)

Little ponds of water on the beach are stagnant until the tide comes in and the ponds are renewed by the water from the ocean. Each human being is as a stagnant, dead pond until the Holy Spirit breathes the breath of life into him during the first step of salvation.

After the blood of Christ has been applied to our life, the “oil” of the Holy Spirit comes upon the blood. We then are “sealed” to the coming Day of Redemption, the Day of the Lord.

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who is the guarantee [pledge] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession [physical body], to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13,14)
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

Most of us have seen the seal of a notary public or that of a university or government. The seal is pressed into a document, thereby making it an official instrument of the issuing institution. So it is that God seals us with the Holy Spirit. The sealing establishes us as belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the preceding passage we can notice the expression, “which is the earnest of the purchased possession (our entire personality—body, soul, and spirit).” The term earnest means a pledge, down payment, firstfruits, foretaste, guarantee. We receive an initial indwelling of the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ. The waters are “to the ankles.” It is the beginning of life lived in the Spirit of God.

After we receive the pledge of the Holy Spirit, which is the first installment of greater glory yet to come, we then are to live each day before Christ in such a manner that our whole personality gradually is brought under the control of the Spirit of God. Learning to be led of the Holy Spirit requires time and much experience. It demands the attention of our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The Holy Spirit opposes our flesh and soul in many decisions and our flesh and soul oppose the Holy Spirit in many decisions. We ourselves decide whether the victory of the moment goes to the Holy Spirit or to our fleshly nature. As we attend to the Spirit, the influence of the Holy Spirit increases in our life. We may have known people who possess a continuing strong Presence of the Holy Spirit.

We are not speaking now of the powerful anointing that accompanies an outstanding ministry. That is another matter. The anointing for outstanding ministry is not always associated with godliness of character, unfortunately. The anointing for ministry lifts when the minister no longer is being utilized.

We are speaking, rather, of those ordinary Christian people who walk before the Lord so conscientiously that the Holy Spirit abides on them. The increased fullness of the Holy Spirit is more than the first installment given to every believer, it is more in the area of the waters “to the knees,” or “to the loins.”

Every true saint without exception has the down payment, the earnest of the Holy Spirit. If any individual does not have this sealing on him he does not belong to God, the King.

Receiving the pledge of redemption by being “sealed” is not the full measure of the Holy Spirit that the believer is destined to enjoy. As we sow to the Spirit each day, patiently waiting on the Lord, accepting the Spirit’s judgment on every action, every word, every motive, every imagination of our heart, we receive a greater portion of the Holy Spirit.

The holy anointing oil that was employed to anoint the priests of the Tabernacle of the Congregation is a type of the Holy Spirit. Every priest had the oil placed on his ear, thumb, and toe (Leviticus 8:23,24). The high priest of Israel had the oil poured on his head (Leviticus 21:10) and was known as the “anointed priest.”

The holy anointing oil was to be used only in the ministry of the Tabernacle and never was to be placed on the flesh of people. (Exodus 30:32). The fact that every member of the Body of Christ is anointed with the Holy Spirit, the “oil,” reveals that every member of the Body is a priest of God.

The touch of the Holy Spirit on our “ear” (hearing the Lord’s voice) on our “thumb” (the works of our hands) and on our “toe” (the way we walk in the world) sets us apart as a holy priesthood to the Lord God of Heaven.

We always can tell a true Christian because there is a touch of the Holy Spirit on him or her.

(“Salvation: Five”, 3271-1)