Showers Of Blessing
The Supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ
Judges 15:17-19; Philippians 1:19 (last clause); John 4:10, 13-14.
I just had an impression, beloved brethren, as to the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. In this section of Judges, Samson had just finished slaying a thousand men with the fresh jawbone of an ass. He had just been through a period of conflict. In verse 14, it says "the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him", and there was the external manifestation of the power of the Spirit of God in what Samson did in this conflict. But after the conflict ended, it says "that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi. And he was very thirsty, and called on Jehovah." That expression, "he called on Jehovah", bears on the way exercise works out in second Timothy chapter 2, because at the completion of the exercise in verses 19 to 22, it speaks of "those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart." And that's after the exercises of the preceding verses — naming the name of the Lord, separation, and fleeing youthful lusts — are complete. Finally, you come to "those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart." I believe that corresponds, in a way, with what we have here in Samson: "he was very thirsty, and called on Jehovah, and said, Thou hast given by the hand of thy servant this great deliverance, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?" The Spirit of Jehovah had come upon him in an external manifestation of power, but now it's a question of what's inward, the caller's spring. It says that "God clave the hollow rock which was in Lehi, and water came out of it. And he drank, and his spirit came again, and he revived. Therefore its name was called En-hakkore" — meaning the caller's spring - "which is in Lehi to this day."
We've been through a time of conflict, beloved brethren, but then there's the exercise of being very thirsty. And how will we go on? How will we be maintained here in power and life for the balance of our time in the testimony? This caller's spring is in Lehi to this day. It continues! I think it's like the water that the Lord gives in John 4: "whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever." That's like the caller's spring, which is in Lehi to this day. It's the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, which is inward and continues. The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is available, in view of the saints continuing in power and life and vitality in a day of declension and outward ruin.
Think of those few women in Philippi by the river side. The testimony had not yet come to that part of the world; Paul had not yet come there and preached the glad tidings, but they were there, "where it was the custom for prayer to be", and they received the words that the apostle Paul spoke. There was a woman there "whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul." I believe that as we are imbued by the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, we will be attentive to the things spoken by Paul. I think one way in which John's gospel and Paul's epistles relate to each other, is what the Lord says to this woman in John 4: "whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life." Well, that's the caller's spring. This woman who came to the Lord Jesus here in John 4 had a great and deep need. She had her waterpot with her, and she says, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: whence then hast thou the living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?" She was looking at the physical side of things, the actual well that was there, but think of what the Lord Jesus was able to bring into her heart. He had living water available! He has living water available for each one of us — "the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life." We have that precious hymn in our book: "Spring up, O Spirit most holy! Move us to sing to Thee now." The Holy Spirit is a spring in the heart of the believer which causes him to respond to the affections of divine persons. It says that the Father seeks such as his worshippers. He seeks those who worship in spirit and truth, persons who are conscious of this inward spring. "the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers."
We may limit this thought of worshippers to the assembly occasion, the time of the Lord's Supper, but I believe the thought of true worshippers can be more extended than that. We can respond in worship to God in our private links with divine persons, and I believe the Lord would have us to increasingly commune with divine persons in our daily lives. The Holy Spirit as the spring in the believer would help us on, to be consciously in communion with divine persons.
I think we may not know too much about communion. Perhaps we think about communion when we assemble together, but communion is to be a living and abiding thing. It's to be constant with us. Paul writes of "unceasing prayer", and of "the communion of the Holy Spirit" at the end of his second letter to the Corinthians.
Well, one's simple exercise was that, in addition to the Holy Spirit coming upon persons in view of perhaps serving the Lord in some way, there is the needed inward side of the Spirit of God dwelling in the believer and becoming in the believer "a fountain of water springing up into eternal life."
May the Lord encourage us in these few thoughts. For His name's sake.
S. E. Hesterman
Warren, New Jersey, USA. May 11, 1993.