“O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”—Micah 2:7.
There may be some who think they can convert the world by philosophy; that they can renew the heart by eloquence; or that, by some witchcraft of ceremonies, they can regenerate the soul; but we depend wholly and simply and alone on the Spirit of God. He alone worketh all our works in us; and in going forth to our holy service we take with us no strength, and we rely upon no power, except that of the Spirit of the Most High. When Asher’s foot was dipped in oil, no wonder he left a foot-mark wherever he went; but if his foot had not first been anointed, there would have been small trace of him; and unless we have the unction of the Holy One, and are endued with power from on high, in vain shall we seek to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, or to proclaim the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
We need the Holy Spirit to prepare us for our work. He first gives the desire to go forth to the field of service, and only he can equip us for the fight. “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.” Let us seek, then, to be charged with the Holy Ghost; to receive to the full the divine influence, and go to our labor thus amply prepared. There is no preparation for the work of God like being with God. Go up into the solitude with Christ, and then, when he calls you, you will be fit to go forth for him, and tell what you have seen with him in the Holy Mount.
When we get at the work our need remains; we long to see the people saved; but in order to that, they must be born again, and this we cannot accomplish ourselves. Change a stone into flesh! Try that at home with a piece of stone on your table, before you attempt it with the hard hearts of men. Create a soul between the ribs of death! Try that in a charnel-house before you pretend to create within a sinner, dead in sin, the spiritual life. Of regeneration we may say, “This is the finger of God.” If our religion be not supernatural, it is a delusion. If the Holy Ghost be not with you, you are like Jannes and Jambres, attempting to work a miracle without Jehovah’s aid; and you will be baffled, and detected for an impostor. You will fail, like the seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, who tried to cast out devils: the devils do not know you; they would know Jesus; they would know the Holy Spirit; but at your idle efforts they mockingly laugh. Only those people who never do any spiritual work talk about what they can accomplish. When you get into the sacred service, you find how great your weakness is; you feel out of your depth when you come to deal with souls, and you must have the Holy Spirit or fail.
We must not conclude that because so many good people give their time to God’s work, that necessarily the work is done. No, there is nothing done unless the Holy Ghost does it. We never personally go a step towards heaven, and we never lead another one inch on the way, apart from the Holy Ghost. We must have the Holy Spirit, and if we have him not, all our machinery will stand still; or if it goes on, it will produce no effect whatever. I heard of a Christian man whose mill-wheel was noticed to be in motion on a certain Sunday. The people going to worship greatly wondered thereat; but one who went by set their minds at rest by pointing out that the wheel was only turning idly round, because the water, by accident, was allowed to flow over it. But the man said, “It is very like our minister and his sermons. There is no work being done, but the wheel goes round, clickety click, clickety click, though it is not grinding anything.” Therein it also greatly resembles many an organization for spiritual service: the water is passing over it, glittering as it flows; but the outside motion does not join on to any human need, nor produce any practical result, and nothing comes of the click and hum.
“Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove,
With all thy quickening powers.”
or else all our service for the Lord is in vain.
I. The text asks this question, “Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?” As we try and dwell upon it a little while, we remark, first, that THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS NOT STRAITENED BY THE COMMANDS OF MEN; for in a previous verse we find that the people said to their prophets, “Prophesy ye not.” When men spoke in the name of God, these people had grown so besotted, through their evil doings, that they bade them hold their tongues. They did not want to hear any more about God; they had given him up; and they wished to have no more to do whit him. What was said by the prophets was unpleasant. It provoked unhappy memories; it made them think of things that they would rather forget; so they said to the prophets, “Prophesy ye not.” “Here comes in the question of the text. These men speak under the impulse of the Spirit of God. What think you? Is the Spirit of the Lord to be straitened, shut up, put down, silenced, by the commands of men? They thought so; they thought that they had only to say to these men of God, “Be quiet. If you speak again, we will put you in prison, or we will banish you, or we will cut off your heads.” By those means they thought to stifle the voice of the Spirit of God, and make him dumb in their midst. The question comes, “Have you done it? Can you do it? Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
