The Absence of the Holy Spirit

In a day when the Holy Spirit has withdrawn in a large measure from the churches and congregations of our land it would be foolish of us to be blind to the awful desolation and barrenness which is now so evident in religious circles as a result of this withdrawal of the Spirit’s saving and sanctifying influences. In other days the power of the Holy Spirit was manifest in the conversion of many souls under the preaching of the Word and in the building up of the true people of God in the faith of the Gospel. How few comparatively today are brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. How few among believers attain eminency in the life of faith. The cause is traceable to this one thing — the absence of the Holy Spirit in a large measure from the Church of God in the World. How beautiful did parts of our land — and of other lands — become in other days when the Lord breathed upon them by His Spirit. Now, when the Spirit of the Lord has withdrawn, these same parts have become veritable wildernesses. Nothing can more seriously affect the Church of God in the world than the Spirit’s withdrawal from her midst. Against this fearful calamity warning was given to the Church. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30. “Quench not the Spirit.” 1 Thess. 5:19. These are injunctions of God’s Word which are lightly set aside at our peril.

The causes of the Spirit’s withdrawing of His gracious influences amongst us as a people ought to be a matter of deep concern to us if we have any real interest in the spiritual well-being of our land and of our own souls. Why is it that at present the Lord is to a great extent a stranger amongst us?

The first cause we would mention is our failure fully to recognise and acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person. We may be ready to admit the divinity of the Father and of the Son, and yet lose sight of the glorious truth that the Holy Spirit is God. The Shorter Catechism leaves us in no doubt of this cardinal doctrine of the faith — the doctrine of the Trinity of Persons in the one Godhead. “There are three persons in the Godhead—the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” Shorter Catechism, Quest. 6. Unless we recognise the transcendent glory of the Holy Spirit as eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son, we rob Him of His glory. And if we do not honour Him as God, have we any ground of complaint if He withdraws from us?

The second cause we would mention is our lack of concern for His effectual working in our midst or in our own souls. Too often we show so little concern for the effectual working of God’s grace in our souls that we are little different from those who said: “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost” — only that our ignorance is wilful. Were we weighed down under a realisation of the truth — that “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” — and of the alone agency of the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration and sanctification, we would be of another mind. But if this is the dreadful state of mind we are in — that we do not care whether or not the Holy Spirit is in our midst — is it any wonder then if the Holy Spirit withdraws from us?

The third cause we would mention is our sin and backsliding. How quickly is the Holy Spirit grieved away through the sins and backslidings of the people of God. If carnality and worldly-mindedness are given a place instead of spirituality and heavenly-mindedness, then it is not long before the Holy Spirit withdraws His gracious influences upon the soul. How contrary is the love of sin to those tendencies produced by the Holy Spirit in the soul. Of the Spirit it is written that “when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” If we despise His offices as the Convincer of sin, Regenerator and Sanctifier, can we then complain if He withdraws from us?

Having looked at some of the causes which bring about the withdrawal of the Spirit’s working in the Church and in the individual soul, let us go on to consider how He may be constrained to return. As we do so let us remember that it is easier to grieve the Holy Spirit away than to obtain His return.

The first step is to acknowledge our offence in ever grieving Him away. We have reason to smite upon our own breasts for our part in causing His withdrawal. Let us recognise the awfulness of our offence as committed against a divine Person. Let us not minimise our sin and guilt, but be deeply conscious of it and readily acknowledge it. With what awe upon our spirits and holy fear and trembling we ought to come into God’s presence to confess our fault and to seek the return of His Holy Spirit amongst us. How deeply conscious David was of his sin when he entreated the Lord so earnestly — “Cast me not away from Thy presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.” Psalm 51:11. May we as earnestly entreat Him, and this we are encouraged to do by His own Word — “if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”

The second step is to recognise the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit’s power if any saving or sanctifying work is to be accomplished in any soul. What barrenness there is wherever His power is denied whether it be in a Church or congregation, or in an individual soul, a community or a nation. Where the Holy Spirit is absent there death reigns. His is a life-giving power. He alone can bring from the grave of spiritual death to spiritual life. What a resurrection this is! He alone can visit a congregation, a Church, an individual, a community or a nation with His awakening and reviving influences and bring about such a radical transformation that what was once a desolate wilderness becomes as the garden of the Lord.

In keeping in view the absolute need of the work of God’s Spirit, we are not to be satisfied with anything but genuine manifestations of the Spirit’s power. We are to remember that there are counterfeit revivals and Pentecosts. These do not bear the stamp of the Holy Spirit upon them but that of Satan as an angel of light seeking to delude souls for eternity. The Pentecostal manifestations so common today in speaking with tongues, etc., have all the signs of a counterfeit work. The true work of the Spirit of God reaches the affections and will through the understanding. It is by the inshining of Divine light into the soul that light is given to the darkened understanding. “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6. So, too, the Holy Spirit operates along with the word of God. It is the truth of God’s word which is sealed with divine power on the souls and consciences of poor sinners. Therefore all purely emotional and mystical experiences are not to be regarded as the work of the Spirit but as counterfeit.

The third step is to give that place to the Holy Spirit which is His as the Third Person of the glorious Trinity. This will mean that we acknowledge that all the attributes of deity are His. It will mean that we will not be blind to the fact that He is sovereign in His working. Men think that they can compel the Holy Spirit to do their bidding. God, the Holy Spirit, is as much in their hands, they think, as God, the Son, is supposed to be in the hands of the priest in the sacrifice of the mass. How dishonouring is all this to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To dishonour one Person of the Trinity is to dishonour all, as the Saviour said: “He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.” John 6:23. We are to bow before a Triune God, giving honour and glory to Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The fourth step is to realise that it is for the sake of Christ that the Holy Spirit comes. In the Covenant of redemption the Spirit’s work is to apply the redemption purchased by Christ to the souls of sinners. In this He is the Spirit of Christ and delights in regenerating, quickening and enlivening souls and in taking of the things of Christ and revealing them unto sinners. Our plea must therefore be that God, for the sake of Christ, would send His Holy Spirit into our hearts to quicken and revive us and to lead us unto the things of God. He who was the Spirit of inspiration in the prophets and Apostles is the One who can open the understanding of sinners to the truth and open the Scriptures to the understanding. What light flows in then! What a glorious view is obtained of Christ the alone Saviour of sinners as the crucified and now risen and exalted Redeemer! — for it is the peculiar delight of the Holy Spirit to make Christ known. The Saviour Himself declared of the Comforter: “He will not speak of himself . . . He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16:13, 14. Will we not, then, breathe this prayer: “Come, Holy Spirit.”