"If Anyone Has an Ear, Let Him Hear" # 2

"He That Hath An Ear, Let Him Hear"

Seven times in Revelation, chapters two and three, and one time in Revelation 13:9, and seven times in the Gospels, the Lord directs, "He that hath an ear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mk. 4:23; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35). Fifteen times the Lord Jesus Christ speaks these words, and each time He is drawing our attention to truths which are of the deepest importance to the Church. And this is because each time the Lord speaks these words, a momentous, climactic time is taking place in God's Full Purpose: - one part of God's Full Purpose is being fulfilled and consummated In The Christ, and simultaneously, the next part is being brought forth into reality by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is important to realize when Christ first speaks the words in the Gospels, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," at that time two of the Greatest Portions of God's Plan are imminent - the Cross and the Resurrection are about to become a completed reality. And let us not forget this, that at the same time and seasons that God is fulfilling each portion of His Purpose In Christ, satan is doing his evil all in his futile attempt to stop it. Consequently, we must take heed to the word of our Resurrected Lord, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches ... for the strategic, epochal season is imminent."

The Lord chose the Apostle John to write these inspired words, and in Revelation 1:10 we find him writing: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, 'Write in a book what you see [implies the spiritual eye], and send it to the seven churches ..."  And in the Spirit, in the realm of the Spirit where God is working all things after the counsel of His Own Will, this Book would continuously be sent by the Spirit to every church in every age.

John's words give us the key to hearing what the Spirit saith unto the churches, for John said: "I was in the Spirit ... and I heard." And we must be "in the Spirit' if we are to hear "what the Spirit saith." Therefore, brethren, it becomes vital that we understand this phrase, "In the Spirit."

In Ephesians 2:19-22, the Holy Spirit tells of the all encompassing realm that is "in the Spirit."

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in Whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord: in Whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

Beloved, at the exact instant that each one of us is saved, we are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, "Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone" (Eph. 2:20). For the Lord God hath said: "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a Precious Cornerstone, A Sure Foundation: he who believes in it [in Him] will not be disturbed" (Isaiah 28:16). Christ is both our Sure Foundation (1 Cor. 3:11) and our Precious Cornerstone - and In Him we, the redeemed, find our Beginning, our Source, our Development, our Consummation and our Fullness. And "In Him all the building [all the redeemed] is being fitly-framed together" (Eph. 2:21). In Him the whole structure is continuously being joined [bound, welded) together harmoniously; and this building which is being made up of all the redeemed continues to rise and grow and increase into and unto a holy temple in the Lord, into and unto a holy inner sanctuary in the Lord. This building rises, grows, and increases in the Lord Jesus Christ Who Is The Sure Foundation and the Cornerstone, Who Is the Bond and the Substance, Who Is the Growth and the Completeness and the Sanctity of this holy temple in the Lord: a holy temple not made of dead stones and mortar, but made of "living stones" into a living sanctuary in which "Christ is ALL, and IN ALL." And, beloved, there is more to this wondrous and everlasting purpose of God, for in the Lord and in fellowship with one another- [we are] also being built up [into this structure] with the rest of the redeemed to form a fixed abode of God "in the Spirit" (Eph.2:22).

Beloved, the last three words of this surpassing statement about the eternal fullness of God's plan in Christ are the words, "In the Spirit" (Eph. 2:22); and this takes us right back to the words which our Lord speaks to the churches, "Let Him that hath an ear, hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." And since John was "in the Spirit" (Revelations 1:9-10) when the Lord gave him this message for the churches, it stands to reason that we need to be "in the Spirit" if we are going to grasp fully what the Lord mans by His Words. Hence, it is essential that we comprehend more fully what it means to be "in the Spirit."

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 3 - "In the Spirit")