By T. Austin-Sparks
We are considering the deeper and fuller meaning of what came in on the day of Pentecost, the nature and order of an entirely new day in this world's history, that nature and order being essentially spiritual. A new order and character introduced by the advent of the Holy Spirit to constitute everything immediately spiritual, not indirectly and ultimately, but immediately spiritual.
One of the primal features of this new day is this (take careful note of it because it is the key and the basis of everything): the voice of the Spirit is to be taken account of rather than what is going on in the religious world around. It is that which cleaves things asunder, puts things into two different realms in this book of "The Acts." With this new age we see on the one hand in the religious world that which claims authority with power, position, and influence, which has established itself and taken possession, but which is shown to be something which is not according to the Spirit of God. On the other hand, over against that, we see what is brought out into such clear, manifest relief, that to hear and to take account of the voice of the Spirit of God may be, and very often is, another thing altogether.
You recall Stephen's defense. You know that he comprehends the whole of this history. He starts with Abraham: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham" (Acts 7:2). That is the beginning of this religious history, and he traces right through stage by stage until he arrives at the murder of the Lord Jesus; and he sums it up in one great declaration, sweeping away the whole ground of that established thing on the earth and saying, as comprehending it all: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:51). Something spiritual, a taking note of the voice of the Spirit of God, is something very different indeed from an established religious order on this earth, and very often runs directly counter to it.
That is a strong statement, but it is said in order that we may immediately get to the very heart of what it is the Lord is seeking in this present age: a people of a spiritual life who are governed by the Spirit of God, who take account of what the Spirit says and are obedient and conform thereunto. It is a spiritual people God is after in this age, not religious people.
Paul has built a very great spiritual structure upon this very principle. A large part of his letter to the Romans and the whole of his letter to the Galatians is occupied with the sole object of pointing out that traditional religion is one thing and life in the Spirit is another; that religion as here on this earth in all its forms may be one thing, while what is of the Spirit of God may be altogether another thing. That is what Paul set out to make clear, and he built this tremendous edifice upon this fact. If you read Galatians carefully in the light of that, you will see that that is what he is after, to divide between this religious thing and this other, which is of the Spirit.
The challenge of the new age, the new day and its meaning, was first presented to the seed of Abraham, and the nature of the challenge was that they should become a spiritual seed of Abraham as something more than a natural seed. The significance of the day of Pentecost is just that. Now by the coming of the Spirit a transition is to be made, a change is to take place. The natural seed of Abraham should become a spiritual seed of Abraham.
There is no doubt that the hand of God was upon Balaam, although he was not a very willing and joyous prophet under the hand of God. The Spirit of God made Balaam say about Israel as he looked from the top of the mountain: "It is a people that dwelleth alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Num. 23:9). There is surely a spiritual principle there, that this spiritual seed of Abraham which has been brought in with the Day of Pentecost is a people distinguished from all other people. I believe that if we are living in the radiance of Divine life, there will be something of it betrayed by our faces. At any rate, the world will know something if we are really living in touch with the Lord, and there will be a language which only the spiritual can enjoy and understand. There will be those spiritual counterparts of the seed of Abraham, a people different from all the rest.
