The Ministration of the Spirit and Prayer
"If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children;
how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him?"--LUKE xi. 13.
Christ had just said (v. 9), "Ask, and it shall be given": God's giving
is inseparably connected with our asking. He applies this especially to
the Holy Spirit. As surely as a father on earth gives bread to his
child, so God gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. The whole
ministration of the Spirit is ruled by the one great law: God must give,
we must ask. When the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost with a
flow that never ceases, it was in answer to prayer. The inflow into the
believer's heart, and His outflow in the rivers of living water, ever
still depend upon the law: "Ask, and it shall be given." In connection
with our confession of the lack of prayer, we have said that what we
need is some due apprehension of the place it occupies in God's plan of
redemption; we shall perhaps nowhere see this more clearly than in the
first half of the Acts of the Apostles. The story of the birth of the
Church in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and of the first freshness
of its heavenly life in the power of that Spirit, will teach us how
_prayer on earth_, whether as cause or effect, _is the true measure of
the presence of the Spirit of heaven_.
We begin with the well-known words (i. 13), "These all continued with
one accord in prayer and supplication." And then there follows: "And
when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And the same
day there were added to them about three thousand souls." The great work
of redemption had been accomplished. The Holy Spirit had been promised
by Christ "not many days hence." He had sat down on His throne and
received the Spirit from the Father. But all this was not enough. One
thing more was needed: the ten days' united continued supplication of
the disciples. It was intense, continued prayer that prepared the
disciples' hearts, that opened the windows of heaven, that brought down
the promised gift. As little as the power of the Spirit could be given
without Christ sitting on the throne, _could it descend without the
disciples on the footstool of the throne_. For all the ages the law is
laid down here, at the birth of the Church, that whatever else may be
found on earth, the power of the Spirit must be prayed down from heaven.
The measure of believing, continued prayer will be the measure of the
Spirit's working in the Church. Direct, definite, determined prayer is
what we need.
See how this is confirmed in chapter iv. Peter and John had been brought
before the Council and threatened with punishment. When they returned to
their brethren, and reported what had been said to them, "all lifted up
their voice to God with one accord," and prayed for boldness to speak
the word. "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken, and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with
boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were one heart and one
soul. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all." It is as if the
story of Pentecost is repeated a second time over, with the prayer, the
shaking of the house, the filling with the Spirit, the speaking God's
word with boldness and power, the great grace upon all, the
manifestation of unity and love--to imprint it ineffaceably on the heart
of the Church: it is prayer that lies at the root of the spiritual life
and power of the Church. The measure of God's giving the Spirit is our
asking. He gives as a father to him who asks as a child.
Go on to the sixth chapter. There we find that, when murmurings arose as
to the neglect of the Grecian Jews in the distribution of alms, the
apostles proposed the appointment of deacons to serve the tables. "We,"
they said, "will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word."
It is often said, and rightly said, that there is nothing in honest
business, when it is kept in its place as entirely subordinate to the
kingdom, which must ever be first, that need prevent fellowship with
God. Least of all ought a work like ministering to the poor hinder the
spiritual life. And yet the apostles felt it would hinder them in their
giving themselves to the ministry of prayer and the word. What does
this teach? That the maintenance of the spirit of prayer, such as is
consistent with the claims of much work, is not enough for those who are
the leaders of the Church. To keep up the communication with the King on
the throne and the heavenly world clear and fresh; to draw down the
power and blessing of that world, not only for the maintenance of our
own spiritual life, but for those around us; continually to receive
instruction and empowerment for the great work to be done--the apostles,
as the ministers of the word, felt the need of being free from other
duties, that they might give themselves to much prayer. James writes:
"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction." If ever any work were a
sacred one, it was that of caring for these Grecian widows. And yet,
even such duties might interfere with the special calling to give
themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. As on earth, so in
the kingdom of heaven, there is power in the division of labour; and
while some, like the deacons, had specially to care for serving the
tables and ministering the alms of the Church here on earth, others had
to be set free for that steadfast continuance in prayer which would
uninterruptedly secure the downflow of the powers of the heavenly world.
The minister of Christ is set apart to give himself as much to prayer as
to the ministry of the word. In faithful obedience to this law is the
secret of the Church's power and success. As before, so _after
Pentecost_, the apostles were men given up to prayer.
In chapter viii. we have the intimate connection between the Pentecostal
gift and prayer, from another point of view. At Samaria, Philip had
preached with great blessing, and many had believed. But the Holy Ghost
was, as yet, fallen on none of them. The apostles sent down Peter and
John to pray for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. The power
for such prayer was a higher gift than preaching--the work of the men
who had been in closest contact with the Lord in glory, the work that
was essential to the perfection of the life that preaching and baptism,
faith and conversion had only begun. Surely of all the gifts of the
early Church for which we should long there is none more needed than the
gift of prayer--prayer that brings down the Holy Ghost on believers.
This power is given to the men who say: "We will give ourselves to
prayer."
In the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in the house of Cornelius at
Caesarea, we have another testimony to the wondrous interdependence of
the action of prayer and the Spirit, and another proof of what will come
to a man who has given himself to prayer. Peter went up at midday to
pray on the housetop. And what happened? He saw heaven opened, and there
came the vision that revealed to him the cleansing of the Gentiles; with
that came the message of the three men from Cornelius, a man who "prayed
alway," and had heard from an angel, "Thy prayers are come up before
God"; and then the voice of the Spirit was heard saying, "Go with them."
It is Peter praying, to whom the will of God is revealed, to whom
guidance is given as to going to Caesarea, and who is brought into
contact with a praying and prepared company of hearers. No wonder that
in answer to all this prayer a blessing comes beyond all expectation,
and the Holy Ghost is poured out upon the Gentiles. A much-praying
minister will receive an entrance into God's will he would otherwise
know nothing of; will be brought to praying people where he does not
expect them; will receive blessing above all he asks or thinks. The
teaching and the power of the Holy Ghost are alike unalterably linked to
prayer.
Our next reference will show us faith in the power that the Church's
prayer has with its glorified King, as it is found, not only in the
apostles, but in the Christian community. In chapter xii. we have the
story of Peter in prison on the eve of execution. The death of James had
aroused the Church to a sense of real danger, and the thought of losing
Peter too, wakened up all its energies. It betook itself to prayer.
"Prayer was made of the Church without ceasing to God for him." That
prayer availed much; Peter was delivered. When he came to the house of
Mary, he found "many gathered together praying." Stone walls and double
chains, soldiers and keepers, and the iron gate, all gave way before the
power from heaven that prayer brought down to his rescue. The whole
power of the Roman Empire, as represented by Herod, was impotent in
presence of the power the Church of the Holy Spirit wielded in prayer.
They stood in such close and living communication with their Lord in
heaven; they knew so well that the words, "all power is given unto Me,"
and "Lo I am with you alway," were absolutely true; they had such faith
in His promise to hear them whatever they asked--that they prayed in the
assurance that the powers of heaven could work on earth, and would work
at their request and on their behalf. The Pentecostal Church believed in
prayer, and practised it.
Just one more illustration of the place and the blessing of prayer among
men filled with the Holy Spirit. In chapter xiii. we have the names of
five men at Antioch who had given themselves specially to ministering to
the Lord with prayer and fasting. Their giving themselves to prayer was
not in vain: as they ministered to the Lord, the Holy Spirit met them,
and gave them new insight into God's plans. He called them to be
fellow-workers with Himself; there was a work to which He had called
Barnabas and Saul; their part and privilege would be to separate these
men with renewed fasting and prayer, and to let them go, "sent forth of
the Holy Ghost." God in heaven would not send forth His chosen servants
without the co-operation of His Church; men on earth were to have a real
partnership in the work of God. It was prayer that fitted and prepared
them for this; it was to praying men the Holy Ghost gave authority to
do His work and use His name. It was to prayer the Holy Ghost was given.
It is still prayer that is the only secret of true Church extension,
that is guided from heaven to find and send forth God-called and
God-empowered men. To prayer the Holy Spirit will show the men He has
selected; to prayer that sets them apart under His guidance He will give
the honour of knowing that they are men, "sent forth by the Holy Ghost."
It is prayer which is the link between the King on the throne and the
Church at His footstool--the human link that has its divine strength in
the power of the Holy Ghost, who comes in answer to it.
As one looks back upon these chapters in the history of the Pentecostal
Church, how clear the two great truths stand out: where there is much
prayer there will be much of the Spirit; where there is much of the
Spirit there will be ever-increasing prayer. So clear is the living
connection between the two, that when the Spirit is given in answer to
prayer it ever wakens more prayer to prepare for the fuller revelation
and communication of His Divine power and grace. If prayer was thus the
power by which the Primitive Church flourished and triumphed, is it not
the one need of the Church of our days? Let us learn what ought to be
counted axioms in our Church work:--
Heaven is still as full of stores of spiritual blessing as it was then.
God still delights to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Our
life and work are still as dependent on the direct impartation of Divine
power as they were in Pentecostal times. Prayer is still the appointed
means for drawing down these heavenly blessings in power on ourselves
and those around us. God still seeks for men and women who will, with
all their other work of ministering, specially give themselves to
persevering prayer.
And we--you, my reader, and I--may have the privilege of offering
ourselves to God to labour in prayer, and bring down these blessings to
this earth. Shall we not beseech God to make all this truth so living in
us that we may not rest till it has mastered us, and our whole heart be
so filled with it, that the practice of intercession shall be counted by
us our highest privilege, and we find in it the sure and only measure
for blessing on ourselves, on the Church, and on the world?
A PLEA FOR MORE PRAYER