In this message we shall cover the remaining aspects of the fourth stage of the Spirit’s work in the believers for the divine dispensing.
In Acts 16:6 and 7 we see that the Spirit guided the apostles by forbidding them and not allowing them. “They passed through the country of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia” (v. 6). The move of the Apostle Paul and his co-workers for the spread of the gospel was not according to their decision and preference, nor according to any schedule made by human council, but by the Holy Spirit according to God’s counsel, as in the mission of Philip (Acts 8:29, 39). They intended to speak the word in Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade them. Forbidding is also a part of the Holy Spirit’s leading.
Acts 16:7 continues, “When they had come down to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” The Holy Spirit’s forbidding and the Spirit of Jesus’ not allowing indicated that Paul and his co-workers should go directly forward, in a direction that was toward eastern Europe, in particular, toward Macedonia and Achaia. Paul, however, did not have the thought of going there. This made it necessary for the Lord to give him a vision during the night, and in this vision a Macedonian call came to Paul (v. 9).
The interchangeable use of the Spirit of Jesus with the Holy Spirit reveals that the Spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a general title of the Spirit of God in the New Testament. The Spirit of Jesus is a special term, a particular expression, concerning the Spirit of God and refers to the Spirit of the incarnated Savior who, as Jesus in His humanity, passed through human living and death on the cross. This indicates that in the Spirit of Jesus there is not only the divine element of God but also the human element of Jesus and the elements of His human living and His suffering of death. Therefore, the Spirit of Jesus involves more than the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit involves the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus, but the Spirit of Jesus involves His humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. Because the Spirit of Jesus possesses humanity, He could guide the apostles, who were carrying out in their humanity the propagation of the resurrected and ascended Christ.
In Acts 16 we see that the move of the apostles in their evangelistic work was strictly speaking not by the Spirit of God. Rather, it was by the Holy Spirit, who was involved with the Lord’s incarnation and birth, and by the Spirit of Jesus, who was involved with the Lord’s humanity, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension. These titles of the Spirit indicate that Paul’s move in His evangelical work was not in the way of the old dispensation. If it had been a move in the old dispensation, then the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Jehovah should have been mentioned. But in Acts 16 there is no mention either of the Spirit of God or of the Spirit of Jehovah. The fact that Luke speaks of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus indicates that the evangelical work of the apostles was a new move in God’s New Testament economy.
The kind of work we do for the Lord depends on the kind of Spirit by whom we are guided, directed, instructed, and constituted. The all-inclusive Spirit should become our constitution, and then our work will be the expression of this Spirit. As a vessel containing the Triune God, Paul was fully constituted of the Holy Spirit and of the Spirit of Jesus. As a person constituted of the all-inclusive Spirit, he could truly preach Jesus Christ.
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