T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

Providing God With a Way

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice... and... I saw" (Rev. 1:10,12).

"And he came in the Spirit into the temple... and blessed God, and said, Now lettest thou thy servant depart, Lord, according to thy word, in peace; for mine eyes have seen..." (Luke 2:27-30).

"But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Rom. 8:9).

You will find this little phrase "in the Spirit" very frequently used in Scripture, and almost invariably it is connected with something that is about to happen; something is going to happen, something from heaven, something of God, a new revelation or some fresh stage in the revelation, some mighty work God is about to do and, in connection with that, a showing or a doing from heaven. It is said of the one immediately concerned, standing in relation to God for the people of God who are to come into the meaning of that divine movement, it is said of such that he was "in the Spirit".

You know how true that was in the case of John, "I was in the Spirit... I heard... I saw." And John said that on several occasions, if you care to look through the Revelation, "I was in the Spirit and I saw." Of Ezekiel how often that was said. He, in the Spirit, was shown, was taken, was lifted up. And what a day that was when Simeon who had waited so long and had perhaps almost given up hope, feeling that the long delay would go beyond his swiftly closing days, but one morning he felt something different. Yes, he would have gone into the temple perhaps as usual. As he had gone into the temple almost countless times through a long life, he would have done it again, but that morning (he perhaps could not explain it) but he felt drawn, he felt something pending, he felt he was in a different realm from the usual, and he came into the temple in the Spirit. An ordinary day was changed into a very extraordinary day when he came in in the Spirit.

So it is perfectly clear that, while from the side of God something may be going to happen, may be intended, may be purposed, something tremendous, something revolutionary, something that has never been before, there is the other side where those concerned either to receive or to be the channels of that work or revelation of God, where they are concerned, there is a need. It will not just happen unless they are in the Spirit. God's mighty things wait for a state, depend upon a state, where His people are concerned. They have to be, as truly as ever John or Ezekiel or Simeon or the Lord Jesus Himself of Whom the same thing is said, just as true of us as it was of them, "in the Spirit".

Now, of course, in the case of these, something transpired which may not transpire again. And I think this being in the Spirit had a fuller meaning in their case at those particular times than the ordinary being in the Spirit (if it is possible to be in the Spirit ordinarily). John was carried away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and shown the holy city, new Jerusalem. John was in the Spirit and saw all that which he has given to us in the Revelation. So with Ezekiel, so with Simeon, in that particular connection.

But the little passage in the letter to the Romans, as one among many in the New Testament, puts us into this thing, "Ye are... in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you." Ye are in the Spirit. Let me say again, everything that God has revealed, that God would do, requires that those concerned shall be in that state called "in the Spirit". What does it mean? Well, simply and briefly, it means that we are just detached in consciousness from ourselves and our fears and this world, and are awake, alive, to God. We are attuned to God, we have come right into line with God in Spirit, so alive to God, that He Who is Spirit can communicate to our spirits. But what a lot hangs upon this being in the Spirit! Revelation, coming to know, being made intelligent as to the mind and purpose of God, the way of God... our spiritual growth depends upon this. We are not going to grow except as we live in the Spirit.

Made Children of God by the Indwelling Spirit

May I say here, before we go further, that this is the basic thing which happens; making a difference between a Christian, a true child of God, and any other one. The first thing about the born anew child of God is this new consciousness of the inward government of the Spirit of God. You are not God's, you are not the Lord's, unless the Spirit of God dwells in you. And from that moment that indwelling Spirit ought to begin to govern our consciousness so that we have an entirely new intelligence. You discriminate between people very often on the matter of intelligence. You say, he is not very intelligent or he is a very intelligent child. What do you mean? One who has taken note, who is aware, who is all alive and who is 'up to things', who knows; not all the time having to be told and outwardly directed and corrected; they know. That is the basic characteristic of a true child of God, and the growth of that intelligence is the mark of spiritual growth.