Author: J.S. Robinson
Much is said these days about the evidence that we have the Holy Ghost. There are many logical deductions given in the Scriptures how we may know we have the love of God. One is, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” 1 John 3 ~
Another reason or logical deduction that we have the Spirit is that we have the FRUITS of the Spirit. See Gal. 5:22, 23.
But none of these are the evidences or witnesses in the supreme court of the soul. The witness that goes current and satisfies the soul when living or dying is the witness of the Holy Ghost. “The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
Were not some of the nine gifts evidences at Pentecost?
No, not one of them. The Holy Ghost Himself was evidence. HE WAS THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE AND NOT THE GIFTS. He was His own evidence of His own presence. Nobody, that day. needed any of the nine gifts to tell them that they were children of God. We say again, The Almighty God was the speaker of the house. To say that any of these little gifts were adding anything to Pentecost would be like lighting a candle and bringing it out to add luster to the sun at noon. God was light. God was revealed. Heaven was let down to earth and set fire to the souls of men, . . . in a valley of dry bones.
The tongues a witness, an evidence then ? No ! No ! They were just given so men could talk to other nations which were represented there. It was never thought of as an evidence. They wanted no evidence. They had no need of evidence. They had no need of any of the nine gifts that day as evidence because they had the tenth gift-the Holy Ghost, the gift of the Father; He spake.
The gift of faith, the gift of healing, the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues -all the nine gifts were given to use when necessary. The tenth gift, the Holy Ghost, was the unmistakable Divine evidence of His own presence.
The Church is the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. If a man gives his wife a dress, a pair of shoes, a coat, or nine gifts to be used, they are not the evidence of her husband’s existence. The wife might burn up her nine gifts; but the evidence remains that she has a husband, as his very presence is with her. The husband himself is the evidence of his existence as her husband. These gifts are evidences that he loves her; but he, himself, is all the witness she needs. She has him. She walks with him. She embraces him. His life is her life. His own presence is her evidence. So it is with the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. He is the evidence. He is mine and I am His. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, ye in me, and I in you.”
The Apostle again says, “Christ liveth IN ME.” Was he not filled with evidence when filled with God, with or without gifts ?
Again he said, “He hath revealed His Son in me.” Here is evidence. (His Spirit, et cetera.) But, is it not written ? “These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents”; etc. Yes; and they have done that, and are doing it now, when and where it is necessary in the will of God. But all these gifts have not been necessary. John Wesley, John Fletcher, and thousands of holy men and women of the ages never spoke in tongues because they were working among people who understood them, and did not need other languages or other dialects. They never raised the dead because they did not need to raise the dead. Thousands of martyrs who sealed their testimony with their blood never had the gift of tongues or power to raise the dead.
I want to say in conclusion: The unintelligible gabble that is becoming so common is not understood by any of the nations around us, nor by the person who speaks it, nor yet by God Himself; as it is no language at all, unless it be a voice from the Pit saying, “Come this way!”
