Here in Los Angeles we have many meetings with the resurrected Christ, but on some occasions we also have meetings for the ascended Christ. Now we need to be exercised more that we may learn not only to meet with the resurrected Christ, but even more for the ascended Christ. To meet with the resurrected Christ is easy: we can on such an occasion have a sense of the Lord’s presence. It is not difficult to obtain some feeling of the presence of the resurrected Christ. However, when meeting for the ascended Christ, it is frequently very difficult to obtain any feeling. We all can testify that many times we do sense the presence of the resurrected Christ, but we do not have the sense that we are in the heavens with the ascended Christ. This requires living faith. To meet with the resurrected Christ we may have the feeling, but to meet for the ascended Christ we need not the feeling, but the faith. We can feel something of the resurrected Christ, because He is here; but how can we feel something of the ascended Christ? How can we feel something which is in the heavens while we are here on this earth? You see, this must be by faith. We all need to exercise our faith to meet for the ascended Christ.
Today in Christianity this matter of the ascended Christ has been made a matter of feeling. Some will tell you that you must pray and fast for three days and three nights, and then something great will fall upon you, giving you a certain kind of feeling. So many dear Christians single out the cases of the Samaritans in Acts 8 and the Ephesians in Acts 19 to show that when we are saved we should have a wonderful experience and speak in tongues. But we must never forget the principle of the first mention. The first group of people who were saved as recorded in the book of Acts were the three thousand on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). Concerning these, there is the record in Acts chapter two, covering a number of good points, but not saying a word regarding their speaking in tongues. But do you not believe they had the filling of the Spirit? Surely they did.
This matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was once for all accomplished on the day of Pentecost. It is not for any individual believer as such, but has been accomplished for the Body of Christ, the church, and is given absolutely to the church. Now, since we have all been baptized into the church, the Body, we have the position to believe that what was accomplished for the church on the day of Pentecost is for us. Therefore we may claim it, take it and apply it by living faith. Though we may feel nothing, we may boldly take by living faith what has already been accomplished.
Let me tell you some real stories. You cannot deny the stories—they are history, they are facts. For instance, I learned of some actual incidents of the saints suffering persecution during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in China. At that time many Chinese Christians were slaughtered. Most of those Christians had not received much teaching; they only knew how to believe in the Lord Jesus, the living One, and how to call upon His name. They knew little concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but when they were persecuted and martyred, they were wonderfully empowered with the Holy Spirit. I met one brother in the Lord who eventually became a full-time preacher for the Lord Jesus. He told me that in 1900, when he was a young man, he was an apprentice at a market in the old capital of Peking. One day, due to the Boxers’ persecution and execution of the Christians, the market was closed, but he was within. Suddenly, he told me, the street without was filled with tumult and shouting. He peered through the crack in the entrance and saw the Boxers, swords drawn, leading a young girl, not over twenty-five years of age, to her execution. Do you know what this girl was doing? She was full of joy, singing and praising the Lord. Though she was being led to her death, she went fearlessly and joyfully. Though she was in the midst of hateful, threatening, murdering Boxers, she could sing and praise. When this young man saw this, he said to himself, “I must contact some Christians to learn their secret.” He did, and he was saved.
Tell me, what kind of experience did that girl have? That was the real filling of the Holy Spirit. That was the real experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! We can tell the Lord’s people that the baptism in the Holy Spirit has already been accomplished upon the church, the Body of Christ. It is ours; we can apply it by faith. What will be the outcome? What will be the issue? That is His business.
Now, whenever we come together, if we must function for the building up of the Body—this means for the ascended Christ—you and I must immediately exercise our faith. We are the Body of Christ, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is upon the Body. We can claim the baptism and act upon it by living faith to function in the meetings for the building up of the Body.