If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (4:14)
This verse tells us that the Spirit is of glory, that He is full of glory. Furthermore, the phrase the Spirit of glory and of God means that the Spirit of glory is the Spirit of God. When you are persecuted for the Lord, the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of glory, rests upon you.
What is glory? Glory is God manifested, God expressed. When Stephen was martyred, his face was transfigured to resemble the face of an angel; that was the glory of God being manifested. With the martyrs, usually at the moment they suffered martyrdom, there was a condition showing that God was expressed. That was the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon them.
I can never forget the time more than thirty years ago when I met a fifty-year old brother who was zealously preaching the gospel for the Lord. When I asked him how he had been saved, he said that he was from the Shantung Peninsula. When he was young, he had gone to Talien and stayed in a hotel there. The owner of the hotel was a zealous Christian who preached the gospel to him and brought him to salvation. The owner himself had a special story about his own salvation. He had owned this hotel for sixteen or seventeen years, and prior to that time he had been in Peking learning the business in a certain shop during the year of the Boxer Rebellion. One day there was rioting in the streets, so all the shops were tightly closed. He watched through a crack in the shutters and saw the Boxers carrying swords and marching by. In their midst was a donkey pulling a cart in which a young girl was sitting. It turned out that she was a Christian who had been captured by the Boxers, and they were taking her off to execute her. This girl was singing hymns in the cart. She was not only joyful but also shining. This incident gave the man a deep impression. He said, “I must find out about this. What is the religion of Jesus? What kind of medicine did she take to give her such strength?” Hence, he later went to find a believer in Jesus, heard the gospel, and was saved. My intention in telling this story is to show you that when a person is martyred, persecuted, or reproached for the Lord, the Spirit of glory rests upon him.
If we put together the verses above, we see that the Epistles of 1 and 2 Peter emphasize the Spirit of glory. These Epistles speak about how, when Christians suffer for the Lord, the Spirit of Christ rests upon them to express and release God from within them. When people suffer for a worldly matter, they are troubled so much that they always have a sad or distressed expression and are unable to get through. However, Christians are not like this because the indwelling Spirit, who is also the Spirit of glory, rests upon them to manifest the glory of God.
Now let us come to 1 John. The Holy Spirit mentioned in 1 John has a special place in the Bible. The most important verse is the following:
The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone teach you; but as His anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, abide in Him. (2:27)
The anointing mentioned here refers to the Holy Spirit. This anointing is constantly moving and working within us. The purpose of this moving is to add the element of God into us. The element of God is like paint, and the moving of the Holy Spirit within us is like someone painting a piece of furniture. We understand God’s will and God’s leading not by an explicit word in letters but through the inward anointing. For example, I may be a painter painting a room, and you may ask me what color I am painting it. I do not answer you with words; instead, I simply apply some paint on the walls and you know as soon as you see it. Today the inward moving and anointing of the Holy Spirit causes us to have more of the element of God. When God’s element increases, we understand more of what God wants, and we are clearer about God’s leading.
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