It was to be very different afterwards. There is an immense change when
our Lord speaks of what should take place after His departure. It is no
longer “with,” but “in.” He would be not merely present in their
company, but abiding in their souls.
In this promise, there are three things requiring our careful notice.
(1) The promise applies not to a company, to a society, to a Church, or
to any body of men, but _to each individual_. The Holy Spirit will not
be merely in the midst of a congregation, but a sacred guest in each
soul. You see this very clearly in the history of the Day of Pentecost.
{40} The Holy Spirit came on the company, on the Church, for He filled
all the house where they were sitting. But besides that there was a
separate personal gift to each person present, for “it sat upon each of
them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”
(2) The sacred gift is no longer localized or specially enjoyed in one
place. So long as the Lord Jesus was amongst them where He was, there
was the Gift. But now, wherever the believer is, there is the Gift. See
the unspeakable blessedness of this sacred promise. The gift of the
Spirit is not confined to this place or that. It is the inestimable
privilege of each individual believer wherever he is, and in whatever
position it may please God to cast his lot. You may be cut off from the
means of grace in which you have delighted, but wherever you are, you are
not cut off from the Spirit of Truth, from the indwelling of the Holy
Ghost, for He is not limited to time, or place, or circumstance, and
wherever you go at the Lord’s command, there you will carry His presence
with you.
(3) He dwells _within_ the soul.
There is this great difference between His presence and that of the most
faithful and loving of friends. The friend can only judge by the
outside; the anxious look, the tear in the eye, or the words of sorrow.
But the Spirit of Truth is within, and He takes note of the inner secrets
of the soul. He does not wait for any external evidence of what is
passing. The hidden springs of thought are all open to His eye: the
secret pain that is never breathed to any one; the hidden hope that
smoulders in the heart; the subtle temptation that is beginning to grow
up unperceived, and the yearning of soul after a higher life,—all these
things are open to Him, and He, dwelling within and knowing all that is
passing within, can check, can guide, can heal, can help, can supply any
possible need “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” {41a}
There is no telling, then, the unspeakable blessing of the Pentecostal
gift, and we can perfectly understand why it was that our Lord said “It
is expedient for you that I go away.”
But do we all desire it? “Of course we do,” say some. But it is not at
all a matter of course. There was no room for Christ in the inn at
Bethlehem, and there is no room for the Spirit of Truth in many hearts.
If He dwells within your soul He will humble you and make you to “abhor
yourself and repent in dust and ashes.” {41b} Do you desire that? If He
dwells within you, He will wean you from the world and teach you to live
as one looking for the Kingdom. Do you desire that? If He dwells within
you He will teach you to give up your own will. Do you desire that? Do
you desire really to be led by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit to become
a humble, gentle, and submissive child of God? I fear there are many
who, when the whole subject is considered, are not prepared to give Him
an unreserved welcome, and would be tempted to close the door of their
hearts against His entrance. If the door is opened by them at all, it is
only set ajar, and not thrown wide open that the King of Glory may enter
in, in the fulness of His power, and turn out everything that is at
variance with His will.
But I believe there are many who would hold nothing back and who long
above all things that the Spirit of Truth may take full possession of
their souls. Their difficulty is not that they do not wish it, but that
they can scarcely believe it possible that He should ever dwell in such a
heart as theirs. They find so much sin there that they can scarcely
imagine it possible that the Holy Comforter should not be driven from
them by all that He sees within. No doubt there is quite sufficient to
drive Him grieved and displeased from His resting-place, and if it were
not for the everlasting covenant of God, and the precious blood of
Christ, I can perfectly understand the impossibility of His making such a
heart His dwelling-place. But the atoning blood alters the whole case.
The blood of Christ breaks down every barrier. It is a new and living
way {42} by which not only may you enter boldly into the presence of God,
but through which the Spirit of God may enter your heart and take full
possession of it as His own abiding-place.
If you are longing to be filled with the Spirit, you must look straight
to that cross of Christ. You must remember the fulness of the pardon.
You must trust to that Atonement as breaking down even the barrier raised
by your own dark corruption, and, pleading that precious blood, must open
every avenue of your soul to the Spirit of Truth, that He may enter in
and there reign supreme.