GOD POURING OUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
UPON MAN FOR HIS SALVATION
What should we do now that the Holy Spirit has enlightened and we have seen our position? There is one thing we continually neglect in our preaching of the gospel, which the Bible pays attention to all the time. We have to realize that the work of the Lord Jesus for the sinners is indeed precious and crucial. But likewise the work of the Holy Spirit for the sinners is equally precious and crucial. The Bible shows us that not only does the Holy Spirit come to enlighten us and to show us our sins, our lost position, and our unrighteousness before God and men, but this Spirit is also sent from God and is poured forth upon all flesh for the purpose that man everywhere could be saved through His work (Acts 2:17-18, 21).
Some who know a little more than others concerning the truth of the Bible think that it is easy to receive forgiveness and to accept the Lord Jesus as Savior. All he has to do is to kneel down and pray and accept Him from his heart. Perhaps he does not even have to kneel down; he only has to accept in his heart. But many people do not have this knowledge. They may be weak or from inaccessible lands and may not have had the chance to listen to the truth. They may think that it is a very difficult thing to be saved. They may think that they have to pray for a long time, and they have no assurance whether God would listen to their prayers. If I were to ask you today if you are saved, you can answer quickly that you are saved. But such a statement would sound strange to one from an inaccessible land. They would wonder how you could be saved. To them it is a most difficult thing to be saved. They would say that they have prayed for many years and are still not sure if they are saved. They hope to be saved, and they try their best to be saved. But they still do not know if they are saved. It seems as if they are not yet saved. To them, salvation is something very difficult to achieve. But my friends, just as the work of the Lord Jesus is complete, the work of the Holy Spirit in causing us to appropriate the Lord’s work is also complete. The Bible shows us clearly that God sent the Holy Spirit for the purpose that we, the sinners, would receive the Holy Spirit’s work and be saved. The Son of God came for the sake of the whole world. In the same way, the coming of the Holy Spirit is also for all flesh. As long as we are a man in the flesh, we can obtain the Lord’s work for us.
(Gospel of God, The (2 volume set), Chapter 8, by Watchman Nee)
