The
Heavenly Guest
Unless you are a
spiritual orphan, the Holy Spirit has taken
up a permanent abode in your heart. On the
night preceding His crucifixion Jesus told
His disciples that He would send them
‘another Comforter.” In the
original Greek one of His promises in regard
to this Comforter reads: “I will not
leave you orphans, I will come to you.”
John 14:18. He wanted His disciples to know
that the Comforter would replace His personal
presence. Even though He knew they would be
slow to comprehend, Jesus told them that God
would give to them His Spirit, the very same
Spirit that had accompanied Him throughout
His earthy sojourn. As ‘another
comforter, the Holy Spirit would stand in
Christ’s stead and provide for them the
same inner assurance that Christ’s
personal presence had provided.
Strange, eventful
happenings faced the disciples, the meaning
of which they would not immediately
understand. They would see the earth mantled
with darkness, feel the solid ground quake
beneath their feet, and hear Christ’s
last piercing cry from the cross. They were
to carry His lifeless form to Joseph’s
new tomb. Then they were to experience a
painful loneliness-they would feel like
orphans. However, Jesus did not intend that
they should be orphans. At His very first
meeting with them after His resurrection,
“he breathed on them,” saying,
“Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” John
20:22
In Old English the
word ghost had a more personal connotation
than the word spirit. In effect, Jesus
invited His disciples to receive a person. No
one knows the indwelling presence of the
divine Guest will ever feel alone. The action
of receiving is vital, however. The heavenly
guest offers companionship only to those who
invite Him into their lives.
Jesus admonishes
today, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
God as never forced any to be a spiritual
orphan, an outcast, or a derelict. He never
abandons any man. Rather, man forsakes God.
“Your iniquities have separated between
you and your God.” Isaiah 59:2. Through
disobedience, man has made himself a
stranger, an alien-a spiritual vagabond.
God longs to dwell
with every one of His children. That, indeed,
is the meaning of Christ’s Incarnation
and the ultimate purpose of the cross.
However, in the natural man-that is, the
unconverted person-the place that God has
made for Himself to occupy is filled with an
impostor. Nevertheless, God is not deterred
in His desire to dwell in man because of an
impostor’s presence. He freely offers
liberation to all who will choose Christ. If
a man desires, Jesus will evict the deceiver
and send the Holy Spirit to indwell the soul.
To believe in Christ
is to receive the Holy Ghost into our hearts.
This is to be a permanent relationship. To
underscore this Jesus told of a certain man
whose house or soul had been swept and
garnished, his sins forgiven, and the evil
spirit driven out. However, this man, like
many others, failed to continue welcoming the
Holy Spirit into his heart. Later the evil
spirit returned, and, finding the house
empty, he recruited seven other evil spirits,
and eight of them invaded the old premises to
set up a new tyranny far worse than the
first. (Matthew 12:43-45.) The soul will not
remain unoccupied. It will be indwelt by
either unholy spirits or by the heavenly
Guest.
The tragic story of
Saul, Israel’s first king, illustrates
how a man may lose God’s Spirit. God
gave young Saul His Spirit. (1 Samuel 10:6.)
Saul gladly obeyed at first. However, later,
when reproved for disobedience, Saul became
moody, dissident, and disagreeable. He wanted
to be a part-time believer, a partway
follower. Affable one moment, he would
indulge a violent temper tantrum the next.
Thus, he developed a split personality.
However, God never works in partnership with
Satan. Christ said, “Ye cannot serve God
and mammon.” Matthew 6:24. The heavenly
Guest left Saul, and an evil spirit possessed
him. (1 Samuel 16:14.) Eventually life itself
became so intolerable to Saul that during a
battle with the Philistines, Saul asked his
armor bearer to kill him, the servant refused
and Saul fell on his own sword and died.
Saul’s
successor, King David, also faltered in
obedience and became a prodigal son in
Heaven’s sight. Sin made David’s
devotions meaningless. He sang the songs of
Zion, bowed his head in worship, went through
the other emotions of religion, but existed
as only a wooden man, an actor, not a
worshiper. The heavenly Guest could not
continue to dwell within while he refused to
confess the sin of his heart.
Months went by. Then
God sent Nathan the prophet to expose to
David the guilt that plagued his soul. With
the dreadful history of Saul before him, he
saw the Holy Spirit soon would give up
striving with him and leave him forever to
that merciless spirit that had plagued his
predecessor. In desperation David prayed,
“Create in me a clean heart, O
God.” He realized that heart cleansing
preceded Spirit indwelling.
David’s prayer
continued: “Renew a right spirit within
me.” Psalm 51:10. Realizing that without
the Holy Spirit he would be a spiritual
castaway and banished forever from God’s
presence, David implored, “Take not thy
holy spirit from me.”
As assurance of
forgiveness came, David pledged himself to
become a missionary witness: “Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold
me with thy free spirit, then I will teach
transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be
converted unto thee.” Psalm 51:10-13
Today we have the
same merciful God, and we need the indwelling
of the heavenly Guest just as urgently as did
David. There may be no active hostility
toward the heavenly Guest in our soul, but
there may not be any genuine hospitality
offered Him either. Satan overcomes many by
little sins, mere trivia. They love the
things of this life, its pleasures, and its
sweet nothings. For many, life’s little
goings and comings crowd out the fellowship
of the Spirit just as effectively as would
some great sin.
We must recognize
that activity, busyness-even in the
Lord’s work-cannot substitute for the
presence of the Holy Guest.
Psalm
51 “Have mercy upon me, O
God, according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me
thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me
from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and
done this evil in thy sight: that thou
mightest be justified when thou speakest, and
be clear when thou judgest. Behold,
‘I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin
did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou
desirest truth in the inward parts: and in
the hidden part thou shalt make me to know
wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that
the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out mine
iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast
me not away from thy presence; and take not
thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy
free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto
thee. Deliver me form bloodguiltness, O God,
thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall
sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open
thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth
thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it: thou delightest not in
burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O
God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy
good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls
of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt
offering and whole burnt offering: then shall
they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
