Jesus Glorified - the Spirit Given

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 5 - Supernatural Life in Christ

Reading: Heb. 2.

(5) A Supernatural People Constituted on a Divine Level

Isaiah 61:1 speaks of the anointed Prophet: "The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound".

Isaiah 11:1-2 speaks of the anointed King: "And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah".

That means that the anointing is God joined with Him. Jehovah is, so to speak, linked with this One, this glorified Jesus. This means that the deepest and truest things about Him are supernatural.

This same Spirit is the Spirit which fills the church. The same anointing that rests upon Jesus glorified rests upon His Body. Thus the deepest and truest things about Christ's members are supernatural. That is comprehensive. We seek to break that up that we may understand this better.

The Lord is seeking to bring us to recognise afresh the greatness of that which is made possible, so that we shall move in and take hold of God concerning it.

The Miracle of the New Birth

John 3 shows us that the commencement of the life of child of God is a supernatural thing. New birth is a miracle that only God can perform. There is something there a long way above the highest achievement of which man is capable. God is bound up with that life by reason of its being a child of His.

The Miracle of Satisfaction

John 4 shows us the next step. With the woman at the well it is a question of satisfaction for the whole life. The Lord Jesus speaks of an indwelling life, an indwelling Spirit, which is the end of all dissatisfaction and the beginning of a rest which ends all labours for satisfaction. The Spirit dwelling within brings a divine and supernatural satisfaction that can never be reached in the realm of nature.

Alongside of the water we turn to the bread. The disciples came back and asked Him to eat, and He said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of". The Lord wants us on the level which is higher than the highest level of this life, this world of nature.

The Miracle of Sustenance

John 6, the chapter is taken up by the Lord Jesus Himself, and points on to the miracle of a life, a church with all its members fully sustained in relation to heaven, in a world and on an earth where there is no heavenly resource at all. This church is a heavenly thing, and can only be kept going by heavenly things. It must have heavenly food. In starvation conditions down here, Jesus by the Holy Spirit becomes the daily sustenance, and it is a miracle. The Holy Spirit has come to perform that miracle every day.

The Miracle of Stewardship

John 7, here we are called to be ministers in the House of God, to serve the Lord. There is demand laid upon us. There are others all around who are needy, those who cry, "Give us water for we perish!" And the Lord has put us in a position of responsibility. It is impossible for us to meet the need in our own strength, and anything we could do would be as nothing in comparison with the need; yet it is possible when the church is filled with the Holy Spirit: "Out from him shall flow rivers of living water". That is ministry out from the House of God. It is the miracle of ministering Life in abundance in this world of spiritual death. It is possible first of all because Jesus is glorified, and being glorified, He has sent the Holy Spirit to make the church a vessel through which these rivers may go out to meet the need. We should accept nothing less than that. It is our calling.

The Miracle of Resurrection

John 11, here is the consummation of the spiritual life of the child of God. The consummation is not the tomb, not grave clothes, not tears and funerals; it is resurrection.

Let us see the real meaning of the Holy Spirit coming to put the members of Christ upon the higher plain of God's ability; to bring to the place where all the limitation and defeat of our human ability, capability, capacity, no longer hinders us from anything that God desires.

The Spirit of Wisdom

Isaiah 11:2 says "The spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him". Wisdom is the power of comprehending the secret things of God. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither indeed can he know them... they are spiritually discerned". This wisdom carries beyond every human handicap and limitation of nature, and brings to the place where we are given capacity by the Holy Spirit for comprehending the secret things of God; therefore a supernatural knowledge is for the church to know the Lord, to know the things that are in the heart of the Lord.

The Spirit of Understanding

Understanding is practical wisdom. It is that sagacity and ability to discern the right thing to do and the right word to speak in any given or particular situation or time. The Lord Jesus had that understanding by the anointing. The anointing brings us into that.

The Spirit of Counsel and Might

That means a clear purpose and strength to carry it out.

The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord

It is very necessary that knowledge and the fear of the Lord should go together. The fear of the Lord is that humility, subjection, obedience, and regard for the Lord, honouring of the Lord, which governs the use of our knowledge.

"His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears". The fear of the Lord is the glorifying of God, bringing God into His place of honour and glory, and keeping Him always there. It is not using knowledge to bring ourselves into prominence, or to bring other people under.

We sum all this up thus: The Lord's people are called to be, in the deepest and truest things of their life, a supernatural people not bound by their human limitation. The anointing of the Spirit is given to lift on to a divine plain, so that the Lord's people are here as an expression of what is true of God. It is a miracle, it is supernatural; it is that which brings into view Jesus glorified - the Spirit given.