A. T. Jones
GOD chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4).
But “all we like sheep have gone astray.” “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.”
But when we were thus enemies and alienated in our minds by wicked works, when we had altogether missed that for which God chose us, He reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death, to present us holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight” (Col. 1:21, 22).
It is His, not ours, to present us thus. It cost “all the fulness of God” to do this; and only He who could pay that price could have the power, and obtain the right, to do it. And for any one but Him to undertake to “present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight,” is to attempt the impossible.
No, no! none but He can do it. But bless the Lord, He has the power, and has purchased the right by paying the fulness of the price. The Lord has laid “help upon one that is mighty;” and He “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”
He can do it.
He will do it for you, if only you will let Him.
Let him.
The number seven is used in the Bible to represent fulness, completeness.
The expression, “the seven spirits of God,” therefore, that is used several times in the Bible, signifies the fulness, the completeness, of the Spirit of God.
In other words, it represents the full and complete manifestation of the Holy Spirit in all His characteristics,—in all phases of the diversities of His operations.
What, then, are these seven characteristics of the Spirit of God? If we can know how the Spirit was manifested in Christ, we shall know what are these characteristics; for He was filled with all the fulness of God.
Can we know this of Christ?—Read this: “And the Spirit of the Lord 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 the Lord.” (Isa. 11:2).
There are just seven: count them:—
1. The Spirit of the Lord; that is, the spirit of mercy, and grace, and long-suffering, and abundance of goodness and truth, and forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; for that is the Lord. (Ex. 34:5-7).
2. The spirit of “wisdom.”
3. The spirit of “understanding.”
4. The spirit of “counsel.”
5. The spirit of “might.”
6. The spirit of “knowledge.”
7. The spirit of “the fear of the Lord.”
The gift of the Holy Spirit, therefore, is the bestowal of the disposition and character of the Lord; it is the bestowal of wisdom, of understanding, or counsel, of might, of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, upon all who receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And as with Jesus, it will make the receiver “of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.”
In the manifestation of the fulness of the Spirit in the church, He divides to every man severally as He will; for “to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit,” etc. (1 Cor. 12:8).
“Ask, and it will be given to you.” “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, May 17, 1898
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