THE HOLY SPIRIT COMMUNICATING GOD’S WORK TO US
There is another matter related to faith in God’s Word. How can God’s work become ours? The key is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has come. The Holy Spirit is the keeper of God’s Word. The Word of God is living because the Holy Spirit is keeping watch over it. God has placed all His works in His Word. The Holy Spirit is keeping watch over it on the side. Whenever man receives God’s Word by faith, the Holy Spirit comes and applies all of God’s works to him. Here we see how complete the work of the Triune God is. It is God who has loved us and who has purposed the work of redemption. It is the Son who has accomplished the work of redemption. It is God who has placed the work of the Son in the Word, and it is God who communicates to us through the Holy Spirit all the works of the Son contained in the Word. The greatest problem of man, and his most foolish thought as well, is to be confused about the condition for the Holy Spirit’s work. Man thinks that if he repents God will work, or if he is baptized God will work, or if he confesses his sins or does good works, God will work. But there is not such a thing. The Bible tells us clearly that only the Holy Spirit can communicate the Lord’s work to us. The characteristic of the Holy Spirit’s work is fellowship. After the Lord Jesus accomplished all the work, the Holy Spirit came and communicated this work to us. If there were only the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus without the fellowshipping work of the Holy Spirit, it would still be useless to us. Without the Father, man cannot be saved. Without the Son, man cannot be saved. Likewise, without the Holy Spirit, man cannot be saved. Although there is the work of the Father and the Son, there is still the need of the Holy Spirit to communicate these works to us and to cause the objective matters to become subjective.
The question is now what we should do in order for the Holy Spirit to work on us. The Bible shows us clearly that there is only one condition for the Holy Spirit to work— faith. Do we receive the Holy Spirit by the works of the law or by faith? It is by faith. This is what Paul told us in the book of Galatians. When we believe in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will apply this word to us. That is why I said that the Holy Spirit is the keeper of God’s Word.
If there is anyone here tonight who is not yet saved, I hope that you will open your heart to receive God’s testimony. You do not have to worry about who the Lord Jesus is. You do not have to worry about who God is. What relates to you directly is the Word of God. If you have a proper relationship with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit will communicate to you all the works of God and the Lord Jesus. If you open your heart and call on Him and invoke Him, like the publican who prayed for God to be merciful to him, or more accurately translated, to be propitiated to him, you will be justified. Once you open your heart to call on Him, the Holy Spirit will communicate God’s work to you. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Tonight I am only speaking about the initial things of salvation. Actually, all the works of the Holy Spirit follow this principle. Whenever you come to God to receive His Word, the Holy Spirit will make this Word come alive. It may seem that what you receive are dead things, but when the Holy Spirit comes, He will make them alive in you. Do not try to accomplish anything yourself. Do not think that the Holy Spirit is ignorant of your faith in God’s Word. No, as soon as you believe, He comes in immediately to work. There is nothing that He does not know. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in redemption. The Triune God has accomplished all the work of salvation for us in order that we may be saved.
(Gospel of God, The (2 volume set), Chapter 14, by Watchman Nee)
