The Holy Spirit

… Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come again unto you. Now the 26th verse. But the comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Now the 15th chapter. And the 26th verse. But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning. Now the 16th chapter. And the 7th verse. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for me that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot fear them now. Howbeit, when he the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and show it unto you. Now the first chapter of the Acts. And the sixth verse. When they were therefore come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times, or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and the cloud received him out of their sight. The second chapter. And the first verse. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now the fourth chapter. And the thirteenth verse. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And then the thirty-first verse. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. Then in the third chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. And the sixteenth verse. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. And lastly in the sixth chapter. And the nineteenth verse. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which is God's. I'm going to do something that I don't usually do, and that is speak from these notes this morning, because you know I've got a wandering mind, and maybe I'll miss one of these points if I speak without them. Now in speaking of this subject this morning, the subject concerning the Holy Spirit, I feel that as we look into this subject, it's one of the most important subjects that we can turn to. I don't think for a moment that unless there had been the work of the Holy Spirit, and that there was the work of the Holy Spirit today, and there will be the work of the Holy Spirit in the day to come, I don't think that we would be gathered here in this way. We must realize how important it is, not only in this day, but in days that have previously been, and in the days that have come, that it's important that the Spirit of God works. And as we've thought of this work, firstly we have as our first point, who is He? Now I suppose if you turn to many people that are in this world, and perhaps many people that are believers, they would say to you, Well, the Spirit of God is an influence that comes over believers alone, and that influence works in them for good, and in power, and in many ways in the people of God today. And maybe as you think of those words concerning Him being an influence, you might be led, if you are not very careful, to agree that He's an influence. And He's an influence for good in this world. He restrains evil, and He is with those that belong to the Lord Jesus, and it may be that we may have that thought, Well, there's something in that. But let's remember that as we turn to the Word of God, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks concerning the Spirit of God. And as He speaks, on every occasion He mentions Him, not it, He mentions Him as He. I don't think that if you look through the whole of your Bibles, you'll find on any occasion where the Spirit of God is called It. I've heard older brothers, by mistake I know, and they've been corrected, speak of the Holy Spirit as It. But never in the Scripture do we see that the Holy Spirit is spoken of as It. He is a person, and we must always remember that He's a person. Is He an influence? Well, naturally speaking, when we see a person in this world, He is an influence, but on the other hand, we must realize that the Spirit of God is not only an influence, He is a person. He being a person also, we would realize concerning Him, He's an eternal person. As we look back into the beginning of the Genesis, we shall find there that in that first chapter, I think the Spirit of God moved. The Spirit of God moved there way back right at the beginning, before man was created. There He was. And as we think of Him as an eternal person, we must also remember that He's God. So often, I don't know why, I'm a rather a dim sort of chap, but so often we hear Him spoken of as the third person of the Trinity. I don't know why, I may be mistaken in my thought with regard to this, but I would realize that with regard to the Trinity, we have God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and those three are often spoken of in that way, and that's the only reason why I feel that He's called the third person of the Trinity. There may be other reasons that are hidden from me to this moment, but when I think of them each, if I was a third person of a group of persons, and there were three there, I would think that I was the most insignificant. Well, that mustn't be, because when we think of the person of the Holy Spirit, we must realize in conjunction, in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, they are co-equal and co-eternal. So we see firstly then for the question, who is He? He is not an influence only, He is a person, He is eternal, He is God. Now the promise of His coming, and when we think of the promise of His coming, that promise alone can come from the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives the promise, doesn't He? And in those chapters, the 14th and the 15th, and the 16th chapters of the Gospel of John, there we see Him speaking of that blessed person that would come down into this world, and He had a definite time when He came. Now when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, He had a definite time to come, didn't He? We think of Him coming into this world in the fullness of time. And when we think of Him coming, and when we think of things that had happened previous to His coming, I think that in all this, we see the purposes of God being unfolded. Let's look at it in this way. I think that there are three phases, with regard to the workings of God in this world, with regard to the sinner that's found in this world. Now you remember, right back in the Garden of Eden, in those times when man had sinned, it wasn't God's will that they should continue to be away from Him. No, not at all. It was His desire that those people that had so willfully sinned against Him, when they propagated this world, that there might be a people in this world to His praise, not a people just to live in this world, although there will always be a people that are living in the world after we've gone, but a people who in heaven and on earth will bring praise to their God. Well, how was that going to be possible? Because if a man had sin in his mind, on his conscience, how could he be found in the presence of his God? And how also could he be one that would worship? And therefore it was in God's mind, in the mind of the Holy Spirit, in the mind of the Lord Jesus, so to work, so that it might be brought, possible that man might be brought back and put into a position so that on earth and in heaven, as we read in Isaiah, there might be melody to Him. How did it happen? Firstly, He tried men, and it would be too long a task for me to speak on all the kinds of ways that He tried men, but He tried in various ways, and lastly, we see that the law was brought in, that as God brings the law in, what is the law brought in for? Now, we see in Galatians that the law is our schoolmaster, not to bring us to Christ because it hasn't got that power. The law is our schoolmaster until Christ, and I dare say if you look into a good concordance, you'll find that that schoolmaster is somebody that directs to Christ. I've seen on one occasion, I can't remember where it is now, that the word means a pedagogue driver, something that drives. The law driving, yes, in this sense that it was that as the law came in, the law showed man his guilty position before God, and in seeing that position, he felt with his sin upon him, and God's judgment before him, well, something must be done about this. And when man's guilt and sin was brought before him by the law, then it was that Christ was brought in, who alone could meet the law in all its requirements, and who alone could take our place, so that we wouldn't have to meet those requirements as before a holy God. So in due time, Christ Jesus comes and dies for the ungodly. His work was then to die, so that we might be brought back to God. Yes, and in dying, the scripture says concerning him that he loved the church, and he gave himself for it, and he was going to bring this church in by the work that he did. But how was he going to bring the work in? Well, I think that brings the third phase, where when the Lord Jesus Christ has finished his work with regard to sin, then the work of the Holy Spirit must come, and that work is to baptize believers into one body. That work was, as we will go into details in a minute, the working of the church period. So in the Holy Spirit coming, this begins a new period in the history of this world, and that's the church period. The Lord Jesus knew, and it had been in the mind of God, the Father, and in the mind of the Spirit, that man left here, although he may be a believer on the Lord Jesus, that man, or those men, could not act by themselves in any power that they had, apart from himself, to bring together those that might believe, so that they might form the church. And therefore we see that the Holy Spirit is sent down, so that his work through them was to gather out a people for himself in this world. Now, where does he abide? Now, before we speak of where he does abide, we must remember that the Holy Spirit is eternal, and evidently we would agree here to this morning, wouldn't we, that he worked in Old Testament times, but how did he work then? In a different way in which he works today, in the fact that in those days we see him working, we see him coming upon a certain person and acting through him on an occasion, and therefore when we see that David says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me, we would realise that in those days the Holy Spirit could be upon a person, and a godly person. On another occasion that Holy Spirit was taken away, and therefore we see that the Holy Spirit worked and moved at that time with people, he acted in those people, didn't he? With regard to speaking today and saying, take not thy Holy Spirit from me, that would be a wrong thing to do, wouldn't it? Because we will see as we go down and continue to think of this subject, that he's with us, and he abides, he's come to abide, and therefore in this point that we have here, where he abides, he abides in every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. You say every believer? Yes, because the scripture says, he that hath not the Spirit of God is none of his. So this morning, if we have not the Spirit of God, it shows that we do not belong to him, but with regard to every one of us that are here this morning, that trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And when we think of that, you know, it's shattering at times to think of that, isn't it? Don't you think that if we thought more on those lines and realised who that person was that indwells us, we would be very, very careful, much more careful than we are where we go and what we do and what we'd say on occasion when we realise who he is and the holiness of that person that's with us wherever we go. Would we be free to do what we do today? Would we be free to go where we go or to say so often, so easily what we do say? Yes, but also we would remember that the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit. And when we think of us as a gathered people, because no doubt with regard to most of us that are here today, we are those that gather to the name of the Lord Jesus somewhere. With regard to this gathering, don't you think that it ought to have a marked effect on our actions to one with another? As we gather together where we are, there shouldn't be the bickering and the things that happen among us. If we only realised that the person of the Holy Spirit was with us as we gathered there, we'd be very, very careful what we said. We'd be very, very careful even as we looked across the meeting and saw somebody that we don't like, what we thought about that person. We'd be very, very careful how we judged a brother when he got up to speak or how we judged perhaps his long prayer when he prayed. We'd be very, very careful knowing that the Spirit of God was in the midst and he knew all that which was in our hearts. Now, we read, didn't we, in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. But it isn't everybody that's filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm not going to say, as some say today, we can have a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If you look into the Scripture and read concerning the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it's going to be on God's earthly people in a day to come. I'm not expecting, with regard to the people of God that are here today, that there's going to be a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and that's not so, and I do not see it so from the Scripture. But on the other hand, with regard to this, I will mention that it is possible for us, those of us that are here this morning, not to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It may be that we're not filled with the Holy Spirit. We look around today and we see things that are happening in the Church, and you say, well, why don't they happen as they did? At Pentecost, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And as we think of ourselves, it may be that we are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, that would give us food for thought, because if we're not filled with the Holy Spirit, we must be filled with something else, mustn't we? Don't you think that it is, that I remember a brother praying this morning, spoke concerning ourselves, giving ourselves wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you think that there's something in that? If we desire to know that filling of the Holy Spirit, it must be that we give him the whole of our lives, give him the whole of our lives, so that he's able to, by his Spirit, come into our hearts and fill our hearts? When we think of the great Apostle Paul coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, we see him there, prostrate on that road, on that Damascus road, and he says, Lord, what will thou have me to do? As much as to say, I'm finished with what I'm doing up to this moment, I've been doing, I've been doing, I've been doing because I'm Saul of Tarsus, and I know what I wanted to do for God, a holy God. Lord, Lord, I leave myself in your hands and I want to be led by your Spirit right the way through. What will thou, thou have me to do? And the man who is Spirit-filled is one who is willing to say, Lord, what will thou have me to do? Yes, but if we want to know what the characteristics of a Spirit-filled man are, we've only to turn and think of those that were found on that day of Pentecost Now, we see at the end of the Gospel of Luke, I think it is, chapter 24, that they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising and blessing God. They were the people that were filled with the Spirit later on. What were they doing? They were praising and blessing God because now they had a great appreciation of what the Lord had done for them upon the cross of Calvary. What God was willing that the Lord Jesus Christ should do for them. And therefore, in that great appreciation of what he'd done, there they are praising and blessing God. You say they got their everyday lives? No, just at this moment, it's strange to say they weren't acting as they had usually done before. But we see concerning them that they dwelt in that upper room still. There they were found in that upper room and I would suggest to you that this would give me to believe that they were separated from those people in Jerusalem. They were in a different sphere altogether. There they were found as now separated people and not only were they a separated people but when Peter passed John in the room he might not have passed him in a way that he did before the cross. He might not have rushed by him without speaking because there was feeling between them before the cross. But now it says to them that they had all things common and they were of one mind. Yes, so as gathering there, each one of them just before that day of Pentecost there they were in unity, the one with another and the man that's one that desires to be filled with the Spirit he will be one who will desire unity with his brother. We were speaking about this in Upminster the other evening in connection with the epistle to Peter and it was mentioned with regard to myself. I mentioned it myself and you can point to me again if you like about this. I mentioned that I'm not a brother in the meeting that thinks that what I say and what I do is 100% right and then other people are to conform to that. That would be uniformity and it wouldn't be the right thing to do and neither would I find it possible. It wouldn't be that we get uniformity but we can have unity and that's what the Lord would desire of each one of us and as we see them there at Pentecost just previously we see that they've given themselves much to prayer and how important that is for the Spirit-filled man. Now what's his office really? We see firstly with regard to his office we didn't overlook it, we sung about it didn't we in that first hymn that we sung. I know that Peter is speaking only of the Old Testament there because the New Testament hadn't been fully written but I know also that the New Testament was written in that same way. Holy men spoke, wrote and spake as they were moved by the Spirit of God. So what do we see in that book that I have there? Because it's written by the Spirit of God through holy men I have everything in that book that I need of God this side of the glory. I won't have to inquire outside that book as to what I should do in any circumstance in my life I feel that God's given me everything in that book only if only I can find it and if only I can apply it. There it is in that book. That's what the Holy Spirit did. He so worked so that we might have this wonderful book in our hands this morning and what a wonderful effect it's had on the lives of men hasn't it? Well we couldn't go without this book, we wouldn't be anywhere where would we be this morning? This hall wouldn't even have been built there wouldn't have been any thought of gathering to the name of the Lord Jesus apart from the work of the Spirit through those holy men of old. Now as we think of those holy men of old writing and speaking as they were moved by the Holy Spirit let's remember with regard to it that all we need is in these writings but it's only revealed by the Spirit. I know that God applies his word in the gospel to those that are unsaved, he does do that doesn't he? We shall go into that in a moment but with regard to the word that we have in the scripture we must realise that this word for teaching is for believers only. I can't, if I'm not a believer and if I'm here this morning not a believer, I can't take those words as teaching to myself because they don't apply. They apply to myself as a believer on the Lord Jesus and I can't take them because I don't know them. Doesn't it say in the Corinthians that the natural man receiveth not the things that are of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them he hasn't got the ability, he hasn't got the capability to know them because they are spiritually discerned. See they are made known by the Spirit and therefore this scripture that we have is then all that we need and then also it is that we have the Spirit that can apply the word that we have. Now we read didn't we with regard to the Lord Jesus he mentioned with regard to the Spirit that he should reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and what a wonderful work that is isn't it? When we think of the Holy Spirit reproving the world of sin and when we think of his work in that connection I know that on several occasions that I've read about and know one first hand where the Spirit of God has worked alone by the word in such a way that a person's been converted. I know a man even now who lives in London and he was a man that had never read a Bible and didn't want to read a Bible and then he had a desire that he might read and he went to a gospel service. After going to that service somebody in the hall said look you won't get anything here if you go down the road to so and so you'll get something. He went in and befriended the people there and they befriended him and they said look if you want to read the Bible you can come in the hall you can have the key of the hall and you can come in and you can read your Bible there and that's what the man did. And as he read his Bible the Spirit of God so worked in that word so that he was converted through the word that he read. That's the working of the Spirit of God. Now that's how we have to look upon it because it's not that a brother speaks and by his eloquence or by his persuasive powers somebody's brought upon to believe. No it's not by power or by my spirit said the Lord and therefore as the word goes forth to those that are unsaved well it is that the word reproves the world of sin and of righteousness. Yes but the Spirit of God has another working hasn't he because not only is there that reproving that happens in the first place people are converted and souls are gathered into the name of the Lord Jesus and as they're gathered they find themselves to be worshippers and they gather to the name of the Lord Jesus they gather around him and then how have they got to act when they're there? Is it to be that they think of another company that's somewhere else and they act just like they do and give out the hymns that they do? I don't know whether I've told you before but I was in a meeting a little while a year or so ago and there was a brother who gave out a hymn and I thought it rather strange and so I said to a brother afterwards I said the brother gave a hymn out this morning I didn't think it really fitted in you know I was a bit naughty to think that well he said it will surprise you to know with regard to that poor brother he said to me once before I come to the meetings I generally go through my hymn book and get three or four hymns get the numbers ready and then I give one of them out and it's surprising sometimes how near to mark they are now we laugh but that's a man that's in fellowship he's been years in fellowship and that's where he is but we must remember that as we gather to the name of the Lord Jesus to remember him if we take part at all it's to take part by the spirit the spirit leads. You say but how do I know? Well I've been a young brother and I've felt my heart pump so much that I wondered if I'd be able to speak when I gave out the number of the hymn. I knew because of the fact that there the spirit was telling me and I feel that with regard to each one of us when we're young and when we're older we know the leading of the spirit. I can't really explain it but I know. On the other hand let's be very careful those of us that may be older because we can know themes of meetings and quite easily we can give out hymns that are appropriate so we think that they might not be of the spirit. Let us as we gather together realise that there's one there who can take those things and he can make them good he can take what we have if we have it he can take what we have and he it is that leads us in our worship. Let's never think that we've got to prepare ourselves and when we come together we've got to have something ready because after all that will help in the meeting, it won't. Let us be so filled with the spirit and let us also be so filled with this wonderful word that the spirit of God can direct our mind to the word that he would have us to say, can direct us in prayer and let us know our hymn book and let us know it so well that there's not only 50 hymns that are given out in the meeting but all those that are there that are appropriate for the time when we gather together and also he is the one that helps and leads us in our service let's ever remember that. Do you remember that we read in the first chapter was it the first chapter? Yes it was the first chapter of the Acts that the Lord Jesus speaking to his disciples there said and ye shall receive power. Now he'd said that twice he said and he used the same words in the 24th chapter of Luke concerning receiving power. Now that's important because you know with regard to the power that they received it says concerning them that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit they received that power let's remember that that power has never been taken away with regard to ourselves here this morning then you'd say we have that power? The believe that as the people of old received that power from God that power was vested in the church by the Spirit of God and there the power is still there for me to be a servant of the Lord. Now that makes it that today some things that we do are all up the spell I don't like to use that word but it's true we try in many ways to prop up the working of the Spirit of God and because of that we have failure. There are things that we do that we think will help on this and help on that but the working of the Spirit of God to the means of saving of the soul is the work of the Spirit of God and the working of the Spirit of God alone. I remember a great man speaking once and he said when he was younger he was in the presence of an evangelist and the evangelist said to him don't try to convert people he said well I thought that's what you were always doing. No he said I'm not always doing that I'm leaving that to the Spirit of the Lord because he's the one that converts. Now if we have that power vested in us then it's a wrong thing to pray for power isn't it? You know quite easily in our prayers we can pray for power and in one sense it's right but in another sense it's definitely wrong to pray for power. Supposing for instance I went into my home at home. I went into my home and I switched on and I saw with regard to the electricity it wasn't coming on but in the other room it was coming on and I think to myself well I'll go up to the electric place after all. I'll go to the electric offices there and tell them because I haven't got the power and I'd go there and say look will you come to my house because I haven't got the power in one room. Don't you think you'd better go home and look at the appliance and see if there's something wrong with that appliance. Don't you think you'd better go home and take a bulb out and see if it wants a new bulb. It's not the power, the power is there but there's something hindering the power in coming through and showing itself and don't you think that we ought to be more occupied in that which is not coming through that which is hindering. The power is there the power is at their disposal it was given at Pentecost but I feel brethren today all of us every one of us however young or however old we are if there's a power not manifest we should get down before the Lord and ask him what's hindering that power in our lives Now as we look at the next point, the fifth point, the effect of his coming. Now we see how that power worked, the effect of his coming and how it worked out in the lives of these men. In the second chapter we read in the fourth verse and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they all spake they were all filled and they spake therefore at that moment right at the beginning of the church period then they had the ability to be a testimony to the Lord that's what they had right at the beginning they had an ability to be a testimony to the Lord and don't you think that we had that ability through him it is that now in this day he would have us as spirit filled people showing the ability we have to be a testimony to him they were all filled, they spake it was a natural thing to, you know it's the most natural thing to speak. If you went outside now and it poured yes it's natural to say it and it ought to be a natural thing to speak of the one that's coming to our lives and has revolutioned our lives it ought to be just a natural thing for us to speak about him after all he's done so much for us or we say he has, well why not be able to speak and to witness in this way in our word firstly. But then we read farther down didn't we in the next instance yes in the next instance we read farther down in that fourth chapter there we read that with regard to Peter and John as they stood before their judges those that they had witnessed before and now they were speaking to concerning the testimony here we see that those judges looked at them now how do you think those judges felt about them well if there was one thing that was in the heart of these here these that were trying them because of their faith there was bitterness toward them they hated the men that stood before them and yet it says concerning them that they marveled at them being ignorant and unlearned men now why did they marvel this time not because of their words so much but it says they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus it means to me that with regard to Peter and John these people had seen the Lord Jesus they had seen him working and they had seen him living among the people and although they had said with others away with him we will not have this man they knew what sort of man he was they knew what sort of man the son of man was and as they looked at these two they saw in them that which they saw in the Lord Jesus Christ and they were the enemies and they said they are just like Christ and that's not now speaking but it's living and that's something that characterized believers that were filled with the Spirit of God that they lived Christ I suppose you've heard the story I think it's Mr. Dudley's story concerning the missionary that went to a field a new field and when he got there and began to speak of the Lord Jesus they said the people said concerning the Lord Jesus well you know he's been here and he was so puzzled to hear that these people that he spoke to concerning Christ all said yes and that man's been here and wherever he went he heard the same words and that man's been here and he began to make inquiries as to what had happened and that had been a missionary living there previously and he'd lived Christ Christ had been there and isn't it something that we should seek to emulate in our lives to be as these two men here be with Jesus so that people might take knowledge of us now then we go a little farther on and we see in that same chapter the fourth chapter and the thirty first verse that there were a company that were filled with the Spirit and with regard to that company that were filled with the Spirit it says that they were all together with one heart and one soul they were Spirit filled people and we see there that the place was shaken and you know brethren if only we went back to our little meetings in that Spirit there'd be a shaking where we come from you'd say well there's only five in my meeting yes but if there's only five that are filled with the Spirit there's weakness and there's the power of the Spirit of God as well and you'll be a shaking in that place the Spirit of God worked in these ignorant and unlearned men turning the world upside down and although expecting another Pentecost God doesn't fully restore a broken down testimony days could be different today than what they are now lastly we have the last point the effect of his departure when the Spirit of God departs we must remember that we shall be going because the scripture says doesn't it and the word of the Lord that the Holy Spirit when he comes he will abide with you forever and when the church goes the Holy Spirit goes and may act in the way that he acted in this world in the Old Testament time that he goes with the church and we see that in Thessalonians don't we the scripture mentioned that the mystery of iniquity doth already work but he that letteth or hindereth will let until he be taken out of the way then will that wicked be revealed what does that mean to me that here in this world we as a company of people are indwelt with the Spirit of God but when we go the Spirit of God is to be taken with us he's going with us now what are things like in the world today you see things are hopeless aren't they you know the mystery of iniquity is working but that man that wicked that's spoken of there is not here he couldn't be here because there's a greater a power here the Spirit of God himself is here and while he's here that wicked person that wicked man cannot be revealed but when he is revealed what a terrible condition is going to prevail in this world I know that the Lord will destroy him with the spirit of his mouth then it will be after that that the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon his people down here and what a wonderful day that will be …