Seven Evidences of the Holy Spirit's Fullness

Seven Evidences of the Holy Spirit's Fullness By Paris Reidhead* Pencil and your Bible, or a pen and your Bible. Seven evidences, you know how many points there are, and I'll probably be timed by watchful people that know that at 8:15 we want to go into the College and Career Group, so we are not going to be able to linger as long as we ought on anyone of the seven. I have rather been reluctant in the past to use numbers such as this in the title of a message, lest someone should say, O my, seven points, that's too many, and stay away.

But I felt in this case it should be observed that this is the perfect number, that God is desirous of realizing that He has not left us in darkness, and therefore you have the subject before you. Now I said a pencil, because there are some messages that can be outlined simply by indicating the verses. This is one such. Years ago when I first came into the Christian & Missionary Alliance if I remember correctly, it was in December of 1953, Dr. Alfred C. Snead, for over 30 years Foreign Secretary of the Alliance, asked me to go to dinner with him at the Times Newspaper Restaurant on the 11th floor, and was one of the first occasions that I had been there.

We were discussing together the things of the Lord relating what God had done for us in His kindness, and providence, and blessing, and he said, "O Brother Reidhead, have you ever seen the seven evidences of the Holy Spirit's fullness or the proofs of His coming?" I said, "No." And he said, "Well, open your testament or Bible, and encircle these verses." And I did, and I have been so grateful that I did not trust my memory, because if I had I am certain that I would have forgotten.

Therefore, since I have very little more confidence in your memory than I have in mine, I want you to indicate them, and I, want you in the years to come possibly find occasion when they are valuable. It is so easy for us to forget that our Lord Jesus had so much to say concerning all of the Christian life. It behooves us to always listen to the Lord, and let Him speak. And thus tonight as we view carefully and in progress that which our Lord had to say concerning this tremendously important subject...

You see in a sense we would be justified in saying that the genius of God's new thing to which we referred this morning is this. In the old dispensation God dwelt in a Tabernacle, beautiful, and a type and picture of all of God's grace. But between the wings of the cherubim was too far for the people in their conflict and in their pressure, in their need. And so He said, I am going to do a new thing, and in My new thing I won't dwell in a house made with hands, I won't dwell in a tent or tabernacle.

In My new thing I am going to dwell in your hearts. And this could be called the genius of the New Testament; this could be called the genius of God's new thing, that God is going to tabernacle in men. You are My temples, you are My tabernacle, you are My dwelling place. And what our Lord has to say, therefore, on the subject of the Holy Spirit the One whom He is to send to come, is the distinctive difference between the old and the new. Now there has only been one salvation.

Let us remember that. Old Testament sinners, smitten, convicted, brought to a sense of guilt, were saved through faith in Christ. Now do not forget that. They looked forward to the One who was to come, being pictured by type, by offerings, by the garments, by the tabernacle itself. They looked forward to the One who was to come, just as we look back to the One who has come. Their faith was in the coming One; our faith is in the One who has come. Salvation has always been by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ, the One in picture, in type, in prophecy, in object lesson; the other in historical fact and demonstration.

One Gospel. But, we must remember one other thing. In the Old Testament, individuals had the Spirit of God come upon them. And it is interesting to note that all the gifts of the Spirit, but possibly one exception, are seen and demonstrated and revealed in the Old Testament. That is why we have an Old Testament, because men knew God, and the Spirit of God came upon them. That is why we had a Tabernacle. Slaves that were good at making bricks, even without straw, were not particularly craftsmen when it came to the fine twine linen, and the silver work, and the gold work.

And so it says, The Spirit of God came upon them and gave them skills for these crafts. It is true, therefore, that in the Old Testament people were filled with the Spirit and anointed with the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit. But the genius of the New is that everyone in the Body of Christ was to be born of God by a supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost, and was to experience as their constant portion the privilege of being filled with the Spirit. There was to be a Spirit-filled Church, and our Lord had much to say concerning the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, if you will put a #1 after verse 20, John 14 and verse 20, just left of the number put #l. But we won't stop there. You might like to check verses 15 through 20. But just draw a little line through them, or indicate that they are joined to it. But I want the #1 after verse 20 in order that you can see the focus point here. If ye love me, (and I read from verse 15) keep my commandments. Now let us understand that this in foundational, this is basic. This has reference to, and I can it extend again to the entire time, ...This has reference to repentance because previous to that dealing with that dealing of God with your heart, the only commandment that you kept were the whims of your own mind, and fancy.

If you love Me, demonstrate it by a new respect for His Word, for His will, for His way, a new submission to His person, a binding up of our whole hearts in receiving, embracing faith and so we find that here is the foundation established in this first test, and therefore He is qualifying all that He has to say hereafter by this; that you have come to love Him, the purpose of your heart is to please Him, His law has become the delight of your heart. Notice now, with this qualification, with this foundation, He then proceeds, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, (and here is the introduction of this word, not a name but a descriptive word.) ...

And the word in the Greek is parakletos, and it means literately one who is to go along side to help. So He tells us much in this word that He has chosen. Comforter generally is associated with someone who removes grief, and stands with us in the hour of trial. And this we need. But the word parakletos is far fuller than the word comfort would be. It has reference to assisting us at any point in our pilgrimage that we need assistance. He is going alongside to help at ever point that we need help.

He is going to be thus constantly joined to us in such a way as to affect in us the aid and the assistance that we will be needing. It would stand to those who heard Him use the word for all that would be necessary in every aspect of their whole life and ministry. He is going to go alongside to help. But it is not simply to be an invasion, not just an encounter, or an experience. He thus declares He will abide with you forever; as long as there is a church, every member of the church has this as his birthright.

As longs as there is a church, He is to be the One who is to go alongside the church corporately and individually to strengthen and to help. But we notice something else in verse 17, "Even the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth" as "against the spirits of darkness, the rulers of the darkness of this age." (John 14:17; Eph. 6:12) Always associated with the truth, always bound up with the truth, the Author the Communicator of the Truth, the give of the Word in such a way as to cause that Word to become to us God speaking His own thought and mind, and will and intent to our hearts.

Holy men of old spoke as they were moved of the Holy Ghost. This is the means by which we have received the Word of God, the Spirit of Truth. He will always identify Himself with that word. His operations will always be in accord with that word. He will be limited and He will be guided by the Word which He Himself has given. For as God has spoken, so God works within the limits of that Word which He has given to us as the revelation of His Own mind and will, and intent for Himself and for ourselves.

But notice something further. The world will not be able to receive this One who is the Spirit of Truth, because the world is governed by its bondage to time and sense. If they could see the Holy Spirit, if they could feel the Holy Spirit, if they could taste the Holy Spirit, if somehow He could become sensible to them or to their senses, then they might receive Him, but because the world cannot receive Him, seeing the world does not see Him, and does not know Him, this makes perfectly clear to us, certain to us, that the Spirit of Truth whom the Lord is going to send, the Parakletos, will not be received by the world because they are creatures of time and sense and restricted to time and sense.

But to the believers, these that have fallen upon the Rock, and have been broken in the fall, these that have received Him as Lord and as Savior, ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. These to whom He speaks directly saying, that all your encounters now with Me have been made real by the Holy Spirit. You remember our Lord Jesus said of Himself when the reply came, "Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God," He said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but My Father which is in Heaven, He hath revealed it unto you." (Matt. 16:16,17) It was the work of the Spirit of God to make known to these disciples that Jesus Christ is God.

It is His work. And you know the Holy Spirit, because you know Christ, and it is on this foundation. In verse 18, He identifies Himself with the Holy Spirit, making it perfectly clear that where the Parakletos, the Spirit of Truth is, the Lord Jesus is. And it is the Lord Jesus, therefore, made real by the Holy Spirit. For He now is saying, "I will not leave you

Parakletosless, Comfortless. I will come to you." (John 14:18) This is extremely important. For it is the Spirit of God that makes real the presence of God, the presence of the Son. Now we could go off here again into that which merits our entire time, but bear in mind what we have said. Perhaps this will refresh your mind. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not always manifest Father; Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not always manifest as Son; for God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God is not always manifest as Holy Spirit; for God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Where God is manifest as Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are. Where God is manifest as Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit are. Where God is manifest as Holy Spirit, the Son and the Father are. Now you did not understand that, did you? But do not worry, just believe it; it is true. And our Lord Jesus said, "I will not leave you Comfortless, I will not leave you without a Parakletos, and I will come to you."

The presence of the Holy Spirit makes real the Presence of Christ. Yet is the Holy Spirit; Christ in His Own essential Deity as Son is at the right hand of the Father. But it is nonetheless Christ in you in His Triunity. I will come to you. He is with them, and He proceeds to say, Yet a little while and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me. Because I live, ye shall live also. Now the evidence of the coming of the Holy Spirit. "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." (John 14:20) The first evidence of the Holy Spirit's fullness, (if you wish) or His coming, (if you wish, use it as you will) is you will know that Christ is in the Father.

You will realize in a new way that as He has said, "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30) "He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father," that Jesus Christ is God. (John 14:9) There will be a new sense of the Triunity of God, the glory of God in Jesus Christ. I am in My Father. A new revelation to your heart of the fact that God in His fullness and triunity is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God. Then He said, You will know that you are in Me. There will be by His Spirit's ministry to your heart a certainty that you are in Christ.

Not of course to be added to, taken from the fact that they know they are His, that their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. There is added to that another dimension of experiential knowledge. You shall know in that experiential sense, that certain subjective sense, that interior life as Thomas Upham described it, that you are in Me. There will be a certainty that will pass the necessity of proof, of argument, of debate, or of challenge. The Presence of the Holy Spirit, Himself God, will be self-certified.

You will know that He is in the Father. You will know that you are in Him. And you will know that He is in you. And the first evidence of the fullness of the Spirit, of the coming of the Spirit, is the self-certifying work of the Spirit of God. He certifies Himself. He makes perfectly clear to your heart, because He is God, and you know. You know because you know you know. You cannot pass this. This is a wonderful revelation concerning the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.

But since we are dealing particularly with the evidence of the Holy Spirit's fullness or His coming in fullness, this you have to see, that you will know that Christ is in the Father, that you are in Him, and that He is in you. Now will you turn to verse 26. And put a #2 right after 26. "But the Comforter." (John 14:26) Again we deal with this wonderful word, Parakletos, the One who goes alongside to help. You might like to right that. If you do not have it in your margin, write it down at the bottom of the page, so that you realize that this is the extended meaning of the word.

Comforter means One who goes along side to help. This will add a new dimension of reality to the occurrence of this word. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name,..." (John 14:26) (we come now to His second evidence) He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. The ministry of the Holy Ghost is going to be to give insight and illumination into the words of Christ. It is extremely important that we see that His ministry is a Christ centered ministry, exalting the Lord Jesus, magnifying Him, bringing His Word and His teachings to remembrance, and adding word to word, and teaching to teaching, from Genesis through Revelation, to the whole Word, enabling you to understand what Christ has said.

For Christ our Lord has spoken through Moses, as well as through John the revelator. This is the work of the Spirit of God. This is what you can expect the Holy Ghost to do in your heart, and in your life. This is His ministry. He shall teach you. He will be the teacher, opening your heart to the Word, and opening the Word to your heart, and enabling you to remember that which has been stated in the Word, and studied by you in the hour of your need, in the hour of test. So it will be insight, application, and then the work of quickening the Word to your heart in the moment of test, lest you should find it necessary to have to go through all the Scripture verses you have memorized to try and find one that is appropriate. And how many times it has been that in the hour of test, the hour of need, the hour of

pressure, the Spirit of God has quickened the Word to your heart, leaped, living Word, and this is the work of the Spirit of God, always Christ centered, always Word centered. The Spirit of Truth, and He is going to magnify the Word of the Lord Jesus; for He is called the Logos, He is called the Word, the expression of the mind and will, and nature and character of the Father. And thus all that the Spirit of God is going to do is going to be... not all in the sense of restricted to this, but in its focus, in its emphasis, to underline, to amplify, to explain and to apply, the words of Christ.

So we see two things, first He is going to reveal the Son is in the Father and give to your heart that certainty that Jesus Christ is God; then He is going to reveal to your heart that you are in Christ; and then He is going to make clear and real to you that Christ is in you. Isn't that wonderful. Then we find that He is furthermore going to take the words of Christ, the teachings of Christ, truth of Christ, bring them to your remembrance, and give your insight and understanding in them.

Will you turn to Chapter 15, and verse 26. Again our Lord uses this little formula, "But when the Comforter is come," having to do with the evidence of the Holy Spirit's coming. (John 15:26) "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me, and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning." (John 15:26,27) Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples as He departed from them, "After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye shall receive power and ye shall be witnesses unto me." (Acts 1:8) Our Lord had previously stated the same thing in this hour of His leaving, these last words in His will and testament to His disciples and the church, When the Parakletos is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth...

This proceedeth gives to you the idea of constant flow, that eternally proceeding from the Father, the Father and Son eternally breathing forth the Spirit, God in Omnipresence. And He is the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father. He shall testify of Me. To whom? You. He shall testify of the Lord Jesus Christ to you, He shall speak to you of Christ. He shall show you Christ in Genesis, and He will reveal the Lord Jesus Christ in Exodus, and He will show you the Lord Jesus on the pages of Numbers and Deuteronomy.

And every time you open the Book, you are going to see the picture of your wonderful Lord, for the Spirit of God is going to testify of Him. He is going to speak of how wonderful the Lord Jesus is, He is going to exalt the Son, He is going to magnify the Son, and so as you read through the Word, and as your heart is carried along to the Word, and you see that the Old Testament is a picture gallery of the wonderful portrait of our Lord Jesus, you are going to be just over whelmed with what you see there.

And every place you open the Word, you are going to see it. I wish everyone of you. Oh, I wish that somehow we could do it. If I could I would, could get this lovely set of books by Dr. Simpson1, Christ in the Bible. Oh, how sweet, how sweet it is. I have told you for my admiration for my mentor, my friend, and father in a sense in the Lord, Dr. W. B. Riley, He published a set of 44 volumes on the Bible and he called it the Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist. He was an expositor and evangelist.

But you know it is the difference... How can I describe it? What is the... It is the difference between reading an oration and meeting a Person, Dr. Simpson has written Christ in the Bible. He just picks it up and there is the Lord Jesus. Turn the page, and there is the Lord Jesus. Look, there is the Lord Jesus. And every place the Book opens, the Spirit of God through Dr. Simpson is testifying of Christ. Why there is the Lord Jesus, there is the Lord Jesus. You see, there is another picture of Him.

Christ in the Bible. Oh your heart is enriched. You ought to go without lunch for a few weeks and buy it. You know, something anyway. Get that set if you can, because just to feed your own heart, just to meditate, and to nourish your spirit. All right, this is what He does; He testifies of Christ. First month I was here I went to a Businessmen's Luncheon, and the one who was in charge just had American Bible Society, or New York Bible Society Bibles, and he said, We'll turn to page 480 and we will read on the right hand side about the middle of the page, # 7, and he started to read, so that anyone that was there that did not know where Numbers was would not have to be embarrassed, whatever it was.

And then he began to tell us about Christ. And I went up to him. I said, You, know, Mr. Woekee somewhere along the line you have been drinking from the same spring that A. B. Simpson drank from. And he looked at me and smiled and he said, I grew up in the Tabernacle. Yes, he said. My mother, and my uncle, her sister, our family grew up under the ministry of Dr. Simpson. He said, All my early youth, I grew 1 Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919) founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance

up in the atmosphere of seeing Christ in the Bible. You know, I think this is what is meant here. He shall testify of Me. This is what the Holy Spirit loves to do, He loves to speak of Christ, the loveliness of Christ, the grace of Christ, the power of Christ, the wisdom of Christ, the glory of Christ. Well because He testifies to your heart of Christ, you have something to testify concerning Christ. And you shall bear witness of Me, because you have seen Him, the Lord Jesus that is, not Simpson.

You have seen Him. You have seen the Lord. You have seen Him on every page. You have been nourished by what you have seen. You have been encouraged by it. You have been strengthened by it. And because you have seen the Lord, you have something to say concerning Christ; because you see, you shall bear witness of Me. Now He does not say, You are going to bear witness of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is going to enable you to bear witness of Christ; always the focus is on the Lord Jesus. #4.

Will you go to verse 8, Chapter 16 and verse 8. "And when He is come,..." Here is the formula. Check verses 7 through 11. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Parakletos will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." (John 16:8-11) It is thus set forth that the work of the Spirit of God, when He comes, is to convict of sin.

This conviction is going to be twofold. It is going to be in your heart first. For you will discover that after you have known the fullness of the Spirit as the state of your heart, that He makes you far more sensitive that the strictest preaching you have ever known before. He makes you sensitive to areas that would have previously escaped your notice, as lenient as we mostly would like to be with ourselves. He is going to give you, not a legalistic censoriousness, nor a sense in which you are feeling your own pulse all the time to find out if you are spiritually up to par, not this introspection, no.

But He is concerned that the channel be open and wherever He sees any kind of a crustation fastening itself to the wall of the channel that could plug and block the flow, any barnacle if you wish that is going to interfere with what He wants to do, He is going to point that out before it gets fastened. He is going to put His finger, Now that attitude, that attitude. No. Can't have that. And these actions. Can't have that. And this. No. Do not believe that being filled with the Spirit is going to immunize you to the... you have reached such a state of shall we say, spiritual maturity, that you are no longer going to be censored.

Oh, to the contrary, you are going to have loving censor. But oh, I am so glad that God is easy to live with. I am glad that God is not a celestial lint picker. I am not being irreverent. But God is far more easy to live with than many of your friends are, and perhaps you are to your friends. He is not trying to find fault with you, my dear. That is not what He is trying to do. This work of conviction is not to destroy the distinctive aspects of your personality, and sort of put you into a mold and press you down until you are shaped in someone else's image, not unless the other one is the Lord Jesus.

No, He is not trying to make trouble for you. He is trying to make joy and blessing, and freedom for you. And so whenever He finds a little thread going around your feet which joined to other threads could become a shackle, He points it out to you so that you can cut it right then. You know I did this once years ago with a little boy in Daily Vacation Bible School. I took a thread and put one around him, and I said, Break it, Son. It was broken. I put two; he broke it. And when I put four, he broke it.

But then I went around and around, and around, and then I said, Break it. And he couldn't break it. Impossible, because the threads had multiplied. This is the work of the Spirit of God, to get you free as our Lord said to Lazareth. Loose him, let him go. It is the work of the Spirit of God, to show you the patches of adhesive tape that they used in wrapping you in grave clothes still cling so that they can take them off and you can be free of them. So the Spirit of God is going to work in your heart.

The Spirit of Conviction. But there is something else. He is going to work through you into the lives of others, to convict them of sin. This was one of the things that troubled me most when first I came to know in some measure the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and I said, Lord, why is it that there are not more being brought to a sense of conviction. I went to the literature that I had, and the speakers and teachers that I knew. And the one thing that I had been seeking more diligently than any other since 1953 on New Year's Eve when God first brought this to my conscious attention has been how to use the Word of God so as to allow the Spirit of God to

work conviction in the hearts of sinning saints on the one hand and sinners without a Savior on the other. And I assure you that the literature is extremely scarce, and it is a field in which I continue to engage my heart constantly. I would say virtually day and night. How to use the Word of God so as to cooperate with the Holy Ghost in bringing conviction of sin. Well, I believe that this is the work of the Spirit of God, and everyone that is ever brought savingly to Christ is brought so because the Holy Ghost has convicted them of sin.

This is His work. And to some degree this will be the evidence of His coming, your heart convinced of those areas that must be dealt with. How difficult it is at times when, after you have gone on in blissful ignorance of something, the Spirit of God says, No, not that. I think of Reese Howells, for instance, who in his experience of God's grace in his life was brought to that place where God said to him, You must take your hat off. And in Wales this was a sign of shame. And so Reese Howells had to go down the streets in the Welsh village, hatless, and looked upon as a person to be held in contempt by those whom previously whose favor he had enjoyed.

This is the work of the Spirit of God in his heart. Convicting him that in point. So it will be with you that the Spirit of God may put His finger here, or there, always for blessing. This is His work, to convict, you, the world, yes. Then the 5th evidence. Verse 13. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." (John 16:13) This is the ministry of the Spirit of God, to lead you into truth, and to give to you a hunger for the Word, to give to you a diligent desire to know the Word, to make you a student of the Word, a disciplined student.

Paul had to write to those of his day, saying, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed." (II Tim. 2:15) He had to write again, saying, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. He had to write again and say, Give attendance to reading, give attendance to doctrine. It was necessary to stir up their minds. For they could become enamored with other things, and interested in other things, and neglect the Word, just as you can. But when you neglect the Word, you grieve the Spirit, for the ministry of the Spirit of God when He is come is to guide you, direct you, and to lead you into all truth, as that truth applies to your life.

How easy it is for one to acquire something of a Messianic complex, and find that the Word is just a trifle too stringent, and to invent some clever, tricky little way to escape from the Word by saying, Well that's to so and so, or this means that, and in one way or another just to escape from the clear Word of God. But you know if the Spirit of God has taught you, you are going to sense that and discern that. You have an unction from the Holy One, and when someone starts to wrest the Scripture, and twist it, the Spirit of God is going to confirm that.

Have you ever picked up literature and started to read it? And after a little while you said, I do not know what is wrong with it, but it does not smell good. Have you ever had that happen? This does not... I do not like that... I don't... Somebody comes to the door and they try to sell you a book, and it sounds pretty good. I don't know what it is, but there is something about that... What is this? This is the Spirit of God guiding you to see and discern that which is error, for He is the Spirit of Truth and will guide you into truth, lead you into truth, so that by your acquaintance with the truth, you will be able to detect the counterfeit.

Then He shall not speak of Himself. This does not mean that He will not speak of Himself, because even here by the Lord Jesus He is speaking of Himself. He will not speak from Himself, and in a sense He shall not speak to the end of exalting Himself, for the purpose of His coming is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. There will not therefore be a preoccupation with the Holy Spirit. But there will be an occupation with Christ, because this is the work of the Spirit of God, to testify of Christ and to reveal Christ, and to glorify Christ.

He shall testify of Me. Then #6. It is the latter part of verse 13: When He is come, He will show you things to come. He will show you things to come. This is done through the Word. This is done through such portions as Thessalonians where some were saying the resurrection was past already, and overthrowing the faith of a few unstable souls. And He said, No, do not think that for a moment. For it will be on this wise. "The dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together and we shall see Him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord in the air." (I The. 4:16,17) He has told us about the coming of the Lord. He has told us many things concerning the future, so that we need not

be in darkness or in error. He has given to us the Book of Revelation which is the testimony of the ultimate triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ over all the powers of darkness, even though Satan will seemingly have succeeded by his attempt to exterminate the church. Just about the last time, he stands on the grave of the last martyr, and says, I have done it, I have done it, I have done it. I have exterminated the church. Then the Lord is going to say. No you have not. There is a lot here, and a lot there, and he said, Look there.

And the heavens will open and the New Jerusalem will come down as a Bride adorned for her husband, and Satan will find that all he has been is dispatch agent for those that have been... for God who has been building a habitation for God through the Spirit over there. It is wonderful to realize that He has told us things to come, that we need not be in darkness. And therefore, as we read the Word, and study the Word, we see the grand view. Now no man knows the day or the hour, no man knows the times or the seasons.

These are hidden in the Father's heart, and the Father's hand. But the Spirit of God is going to speak to God concerning a ministry and concerning all that is of import through the church. He is going to guide you as an individual in terms of your own life issues. This is the implication of what you have here. He shall show you things to come in the sense of enabling young people to know the course for their life. What an issue every young person faces. What shall I do with my life?

I love Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of my life. What am I going to choose when I go to school. I'll never forget when graduating as we did in Minnesota from the 8th grade and going into the 9th grade. I was behind in terms of program of the Junior High School. And I sat there, and oh how I wanted to take woodshop. I wanted to take it so bad I could taste it. And I looked at this little thing that said, Woodshop. Oh, I just wanted woodshop so badly. And then it said, Latin. And I didn't want Latin at all.

And I bowed my head there in the Assembly Hall, and I said, Lord, I want to take Woodshop so bad, I want to cut a new piece of wood just once, and I want to learn how to do it. And it says Latin. What shall I take, woodshop or Latin. And the Lord said, Latin. But it was hard. I do not know. I think I was born a generation too late or too soon. My son got straight A's for two years in Latin. I didn't. I got straight C's, for the good marks. Hard. I didn't work at it very hard, but I took Latin.

When the time came to go to College, it wouldn't have helped me if I had had woodshop, but they said, You've had Latin? I said, Not a Word. I let them. I see you have had Latin. That is all. If they had asked to parse one, I couldn't have done it. Amo, Amas, Amat, that is the extent of all I remember, from two years of Latin. Oversimplified. I am so glad the Spirit of God guides young people in issues, directs them, leads them in the little turns, because He knows the things to come, and He will show you.

And as many as are led by the Spirit they are the sons of God. Oh, how glad you should be that this One who is going to come is going to just take you in hand and lead you down that maze of life, in every turn, in every corner, and over every twist, and He is just going to take you right through. He is going to take you right through. Isn't that wonderful? He will show you things to come has reference to the future, it has reference to your life. How often when a church has faced a decision, He has shown them.

Remember when they were ministering to the Lord in Antioch, O God how are we going to serve You, how are we going to fulfil Your purpose? How are You going to accomplish Your good aims and ends through us? And the Spirit of God said, Separate unto Me Saul and Barnabas, and send them. And it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and to us, and we sent them. He will show you things to come. Isn't that wonderful? This is what He is going to do, what He is going to do. Now let us see the last.

Verse 14, just touch it in passing. He shall glorify Me. Who is He going to glorify? The Lord Jesus Christ. When is He going to glorify Him? When He comes. How is He going to glorify Him? By the fruit of the Spirit, and the life of the believer, Herein is My Father glorified that you bear much fruit, by strengthening the believer in the hour of conflict and temptation, the whole focus of all the ministry of the Spirit of God is to glorify Christ. Remember our Lord's prayer in John 17 the 3rd verse.

"Glorify Thou Me with the glory I had with Thee before the world was." Our Lord Jesus says, when He is come He is going to glorify Me. Everything the Spirit of God is going to do when He comes is to glorify Me, exalt Me, magnify Me, set Me forth. This will be His ministry. In your heart, in your life, by your conduct, by reproducting My life in you, and the fruit of My presence in your life. By all that you are empowered to say, all that you are empowered to be, the whole focus is to glorify Me.

For He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you, applying the truth unto your heart and to your life. Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this marvelous? This is what the Holy Ghost does when He comes. This is His ministry. This is what the Lord Jesus said about Him. This is what He is going to do.

But do you notice the whole focus is the glory of Christ. I had conversation with a person who said that they were in a prayer meeting, and the presence of God was really quite wonderfully manifest. And after the meeting was over some gentleman spoke to this person and said, Wasn't it wonderful? And the party said, Isn't He wonderful? And there is all the difference in the world between those two. The moment that you get your eyes on less than Him to some degree you have missed the ministry of the Spirit, and grieved the Spirit, for it is, Isn't He wonderful?

It is an exalting of Christ, glorifying of Christ. And all the gifts and all the ministries, and all the graces, and all the blessings, and everything God the Holy Ghost does when He comes is to glorify Christ, all of His ministry, all of His work, all of His gifts, all of His graces, all of His manifestations, in the church and through the Church are to glorify Christ. He shall glorify Me. This is what we have in the Word of God concerning the Holy Spirit when He comes. And as I left that dinner time with Dr.

Snead, my heart was a thousand fold richer because I had seen from the Word of God 7 evidences of the fullness of the Spirit, what He does when He comes. He shall glorify Me. Shall we bow our hearts together in prayer. Isn't He wonderful? "My wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, by angels and seraphs in Heaven adored. I bow at Thy shrine, my Savior Divine, my wonderful, wonderful Lord.2" Everything the Spirit of God does, our Father, in the hearts and lives of those to whom He comes, is to show forth the wondrous beauty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How glad we are that this is the ministry of the Holy Ghost. How glad we are that this is what Thou hast said the Parakletos will do, in our homes, and in our work, and in our families, in all the needs and the pressures, privileges, glorify Christ. And this I believe, Lord, is the reason why so many long for the fullness of Thy Son, the fullness of Thy Spirit. They want to glorify Christ. And this is right, Father. We hear again Thy Word, Be filled with the Spirit. The normal Christian life is filled with all Thy fullness.

Grant, our Father, that there shall come to our hearts such a realization that the Christian life is Christ's life lived in us by the Spirit of God that we will just remove the barriers and hindrances, and just allow Him to live out in us His Own life, unhindered, unimpeded. Should there be come here who do not know Him, might they just open their hearts and invite Him in. Should there be those among us that are Christians, with unconfessed, unforgiven sin, show them the folly of keeping any block to Thy ministry.

Meet us. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, you can be filled with the Spirit; you ought to be filled with the Spirit. Great good results when you are walking in the Spirit's fullness. You are going to be responsible for all the ill that comes from not being filled with the Spirit. Be ye being filled with the Spirit. Now you see why, for it glorifies Christ in all His ministry. Could you just now say, "Fill me now, fill me now Jesus come and fill me now. Fill me with Thy Holy Spirit, come O come and fill me now.3" Let that be your prayer.

Our Father we thank and praise Thee that Thou hast ministered to us tonight of Thy Word. We pray that we may hold it in our hearts and treasure it, and meditate upon it, it may become precious beyond compare to us. And O God gather to Thyself here a company of men and women who know the fullness of Christ, fullness of Thy Spirit, whose purpose and passion above all else is that which is the purpose and passion of the Holy Spirit Himself, to glorify Christ; this makes a church a church.

O God cause us by Thy gracious ministry to become that kind of church and people for the glory of Thy Son. Amen. Let us stand together for the Benediction. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, love of God the Father, and the Communion and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with us each now and until we gather at the feet of our risen Lord. Amen. * Reference such as: Delivered at The Gospel Tabernacle Church, New York City on Sunday Evening, March 17, 1963 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1963 2 "My Wonderful Lord" By Haldor Lillenas, 1938. 3 "Hover O'er Me, Holy Spirit" By Elwood H. Stokes, 1879; Music by John Sweney, 1879.