Spirit: the domain and dominion of spirit - Chambers, Oswald

Chapter XVIII –  Spirit: the domain and dominion of spirit
                             Mundane Universe

Spirit as physical force

1. World of matter (psalm 104:30; 33:6; 2 peter 3:5)

2. World of nature (genesis 1:2; job 26:13)

3. World of self ( john 6:63; James 2:26; Ezekiel 1:20; revelation 11:11)

The student will find that we claim that the bible gives the working explanation of all things. We found in the last chapter that the fundamental characteristics of the godhead are will, love and light; that god is the only being who can will pure will, and that when we receive the holy spirit he energises our spirits so that we are able to do the will of god. The present day is the dispensation of the holy spirit. We are familiar with the phrase, but do we understand sufficiently who the holy spirit is? The holy spirit is identical with god the father and with god the son; and being a person, he must exercise an influence. The more pronounced a person, the more powerful is his influence; but we have to recognise that nowadays the majority of people do not know the holy ghost as a person, they know him only as an influence.

Spirit as physical force

By the mundane universe is meant the terrestrial world in which we live, the earth and rocks and trees, and the people we come in contact with. When we dealt with the physical world, we found that every- thing leads us back to the bible revelation, viz. , that at the back of all is spirit force, not matter and mate- rial things, but spirit. What is this tremendous force? The bible reveals that the force behind everything is the great spirit of god. A great change has come over what is called material science, and scientists are coming back to the bible point of view, viz. , that at the back of everything is spirit; that the material world holds itself in existence by spirit. In the early days when men tried to explain the material world, they said that it was made up of atoms; then they found that those atoms could be split up, and the split-up elements were called molecules; then they found that the molecules could be split up, and that the split-up molecules were made of electrons; then they discovered that the electron itself is like a solar system.17 these facts are significant because they point out the absurdity of the cry that the bible and modern science do not agree; how could they? If the bible agreed with modern science, in about fifty years both would be out of date. All scientific findings have at one time been modern. Science is simply mans attempt to explain what he knows. An important aside do not belittle the bible and say that it has only to do with mans salvation. The bible is a universe of revelation facts which explains the world in which we live, and it is simply giving a sop to satan18 to say, as some modern teachers do, that the bible does not pretend to tell us how the world came into existence. The bible claims to be the only exposition of how the world came into being and how it keeps going, and the only book which tells us how we may understand the world.

1. The world of matter

By the word of the lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. (psalm 33:6; see also psalm 104:30; 2 peter 3:5)

These passages simply express what is revealed all through the bible, viz. , that god created the world out of nothing. The bible does not say god emanated the world. The exponents of the clever modern idea of emanation say that god evolved the world out of himself. The bible says that god created the world by the breath of his mouth. Meditate for a moment on the word creation, and see what a supernatural word it is. No philosopher ever thought of it, no expounder of natural history ever imagined such a word. We can understand evolution and emanation, but we simply do not know what creation means. There is only one being who knows, and that is god himself, and the bible says that god created the heaven and the earth.

What is the world of matter? For instance, i am looking at a book, i see it is bound in a red cover, it is flexible, and has black marks on it. I can account by my senses for the redness and the blackness and

The flexibility, but the one thing i cannot describe is what it is that awakens those sensations. I see a clock, and i should probably describe it in the same way as you would that it is hard and smooth, and brown and white; i can hear a sound, and see its face, and so on; all of which can be described as the result of my sensations, but what is it makes me have those sensations? The way we see things depends on our nerves, but what the thing is in itself that makes us see things in a particular way we do not know; that is, we do not know what matter is. The bible says the world of matter was created by god; the way we interpret it will depend on what spirit we have.

2. The world of nature

The world of nature (genesis 1:2; job 26:13)i. E. , the order in which material things appear to me. I explain the world outside me by thinking; then if i can explain the world outside me by my mind, there must have been a mind that made it. That is logical, simple and clear; consequently atheism is what the bible calls it, the belief of a fool. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no god (psalm 53:1). An atheist is one who says, i can explain by my mind to a certain extent what things are like outside, but there is not a mind behind that created them.

In the beginning god created things out of nothing; matter did not exist before god created it. It was god who created it, out of nothing; not out of himself. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters (genesis 1:2). This verse refers to the reconstruction of things out of chaos. As we pointed out in dealing with the subject of man, in all probability there was a former order of things, which was ruined by disobedience, thereby producing the chaos out of which god reconstructed the order of things which we know, and which we so differently interpret.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him (colossi ans 1:16). We hear it said that if god created everything that was created, then he is responsible for the presence of sin. The bible reveals all through that god has taken the responsibility for sin. What is the proof that he has? Calvary! God created everything that was created; god created the being who became Satan and he created the being who became the sin- ner. But sin is not a creation; sin is the outcome of a wrong relationship set up between two of gods creations. From the very beginning god holds himself responsible for the possibility of sin (cf. Revelation 13:8). Nowhere does the bible say that god holds man responsible for having the disposition of sin; but what god does hold man responsible for is refusing to let him deliver him from that heredity the moment he sees and understands that that is what Jesus christ came to do. John 3:19 is the final word on condemnation, and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

We have seen that god is responsible for the established order of nature; but there are conflicting views about the world of nature. If you read the book of job carefully you will find there that the world of nature is a wild contradiction; you cannot explain it satisfactorily at all. If you start out and say that god is good, you will come across some facts which seem to prove he is not good. How is it that we come to different conclusions about the world: one man sees everything as bad as bad can be, while another man sees everything as good as good can be? It all depends on the spirit within a man. There may be as many accounts of the world of nature as there are human beings. That is why the world of nature seems such a contradiction. The spirit within a man accounts for the way he interprets what he sees outside; and if i have not the spirit of god, i shall never interpret the world outside as god interprets it; i shall continually have to shut my eyes and deny certain facts. I shall do what the christian scientist does, deny that facts are facts.

Along this line we see the limitations of trying to dispute with a man who says there is no god, you cannot disprove it to him; but get him to receive the holy spirit and his logic will alter immediately. That is pauls argument in 1 Corinthians 2that the spirit of man understands the things of a man, but that the spirit of man cannot understand the things of god. If i have not the spirit of god, i shall never interpret the world of nature in the way god does; the bible will be to me simply an oriental tradition, a cun- ningly devised fable. If i am to understand the bible, i must have the spirit of god.

As Christians, we recognise that we must have the spirit of god for practical living, but do we realise the need of the spirit of god for thinking? Christian workers use dangerous weapons against what they take to be the enemies of Christianity (but in reality against our lord himself ) simply because they are not renewed in the spirit of their mind; they wont think on gods line; they refuse to make their minds work. We have no business to be ignorant about the way god created the world, or to be unable to discern the arm of the lord behind things. When the holy spirit has transformed our practical life, he begins to stir up our minds, and the point is, will we bring our minds into harmony with the new way of living? Jesus Christ laid down a remarkable principle for practical living and for practical thinking, that is, he taught his disciples how to think by correspondences. I am the true vine. Is the natural vine false? No, the natural vine is the shadow of the real. My father giveth you the true bread from heaven. Is the bread we eat false? No, it is the shadow of the real bread. I am the door, and so on. If we have the spirit of god within, we shall be able to interpret in the light of god what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears and understand with our minds. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the lord shall be unto thee an ever- lasting light (Isaiah 60:19). May this not mean that the ordinary days and nights bring before us facts which we cannot explain, but that when we receive the spirit of god we get a line of explanation? For instance, we cannot explain life, yet it is a very commonplace fact that we are alive. We cannot explain love; we cannot explain death; we cannot explain sin; yet these are all everyday facts. The world of nature is a confusion; there is nothing clear about it; it is a confusing, wild chaos. Immediately we receive the spirit of god, he energises our spirits not only for practical living but for practical thinking, and we begin to see the arm of the lord, i. E. , to see gods order in and through all the chaos. I thank thee, o father, lord of heaven and earth. Because thou hast . . . Revealed [these things] unto babes (Matthew 11:25). Our lord thanked his father that he was the only medium the father had for revealing himself; and the invitation come unto me is given to disciples, not to sinners. Watch your own mind if you have been born again of the spirit of god, and you will understand the condition of mind Jesus christ is alluding to all ye that labour and are heavy laden; trying to think out what cannot be thought out, and Jesus christs message to all such is, come unto me, . . . And i will give you rest. I am the way. If my spirit is imparted to you, you will begin to see things as i do. Marvel not that i said unto thee, ye must be born again, i. E. , born again for practical thinking as well as for practical living. It is a strange thing the indiscriminate way we are taught to think as pagans and live as Christians. So much of our thinking explanations are pagan; men who are being trained to teach others are taught to think as pagans, and the consequence is what we are seeing. We have to bring our thinking into line with the living spirit of god, to take laborious trouble to think, to meditate on these things, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Never allow your mind to run off on wild speculations, that is where danger begins, i want to find out this and that. The sin of eve begins whenever the mind is allowed to run off at a tangent on speculations. Come unto me, says Jesus. I am the way, not only the way to be saved and sanctified and to live as a christian, but the way to think as a christian. Neither knoweth any man the father, save the son, and he to whom so- ever the son will reveal him, and Jesus will reveal the father to anyone who will come to him. 3. The world of self it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that i speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. ( john 6:63; see also James 2:26; ezekiel 1:20; revelation 11:11) can Jesus christ speak to me to-day? Certainly he can, through the holy spirit; but if i take the words of Jesus without his spirit, they are of no avail to me. I can conjure with them, i can do all kinds of things with them, but they are not spirit and life. When the holy spirit is in me, he will bring to my remembrance what jesus has said and make his words live. The spirit within me enables me to assimilate the words of Jesus.

The holy spirit exercises a remark- able power in that he will frequently take a text out of its bible context and put it into the context of our life. We have all had the experience of a verse coming to us right out of its bible setting and becoming alive in the setting of our own life, and that word becomes a precious, secret possession. See that you keep it a secret possession, dont cast ye your pearls before swinethose are the strong words of our lord. To use an ingenious symbol we read that when Jesus was led away to be crucified, they were come unto a place called golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, and that is where Jesus Christ is always cru- cified; that is where he is put to shame to-day, viz. , in the heads of men who wont bring their thinking into line with the spirit of god. If men are inspired by the holy spirit, their words are built on the word of god. Paul urges us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; and the way we are renewed is not by impulses or impressions, but by being gripped by the word of god. The habit of getting a word from god is right; dont give up till you get one. Never go on an impression, that will pass, there is nothing in it; there is nothing lasting until a word becomes living, when it does it is the holy spirit bringing back to your remembrance some word of Jesus christ.

In this way we are able to discern the arm of the l ord , and the world of self becomes what Jesus christ wants it to be, but if we are ruled by a spirit other than the spirit of god, e. G. , the spirit of my right to myself, we shall explain the world of self according to that spirit. We shall never explain things as Jesus christ explains them, we will begin to patronise him; or if we do not dare to patronise Jesus christ, we will patronise the apostle paul. Anything to appear up to date, because the spirit that is in man, no matter how cultured and moral and religious, or how favourable it may appear to men, if it is not indwelt by the spirit of god, must be scattering away from Jesus christ. He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Whither so ever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels (Ezekiel 1:20). This is a picture of the ultimate working of everything in harmony with god by his spirit. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went by them: and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them (Ezekiel 10:16). The cherubim are an old testament figure of the mystical body of Christ. Moses was told to make two cherubim: and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat (exodus 25:1822); and yet god had said, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth (exodus 20:4). The cherubim are not like anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath, but like something which is now being made, viz. , the mystical body of Christ. This is prefigured in genesis; when adam and eve were driven out of the garden of eden there was placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life (genesis 3:24). The cherubim are the guardians into the holiest of all, and when the mystical body of Christ is complete, all the machinery of this earth will be moved and directed by the spirit of god. To be saved and sanctified means to be possessed by the spirit, not only for living, but for thinking. If we will bring our thinking into captivity to the holy spirit, we form what is termed nous. Nous is a greek word meaning responsible intelligence. Whenever we get to this point of responsible intelligence, we have come to a sure line of thinking. Until the nous is formed in natural life and in spiritual life, we get at things by intuition, by impulse, but there is no responsible intelligence.

The writer to the Hebrews refers to this, by this time you ought to be teachers, but you want spooned meat 19 again: by this time you ought to be robust and mature, no longer either children or fools, but men and women able to distinguish between right and wrong, between good and bad, with a thoroughly informed, responsible intelligence (see Hebrews 5:1214). How many of us have allowed the spirit of god to bring us there and enabled us to think along Jesus Christs line? Or do we have to say when these subjects are referred to, oh, i leave those things for other people? We have no business to talk like that, we ought to be at our best for god. We have not only to be good lovers of god, but good thinkers, and it is only along this line that we can try the spirits whether they are of god. How are we going to test the teaching that is abroad to-day? A man or a woman may have a real christian experience, but if their minds are not informed and disciplined, their intelligence becomes a hotbed for heresy. Our thinking would be revolutionised if we would bring our imagination into line with the bible context, viz. , the heart of god. The bible not only explains god, it explains the world in which we live, it explains not only things that are right, but things that are wrong. If we start out with the idea that everything is going well and all is bright and happy and then there is an earthquake, or someone is killed by lightning, or there are tremendous floods, or a shocking murder, or worse crime, the idea with which we started out will be flatly contradicted by the world outside, that is, by the facts we see and know.

The bible and the outside world agree, but both the bible and the outside world are an absolute puzzle to us until we receive the spirit of god. When we receive the spirit of god, we are lifted into a totally new realm, and if we will bring our minds into harmony with what the spirit of god reveals, begin to discipline ourselves and bring every thought into captivity, we shall not only begin to discern gods order in the bible, but our eyes will be opened and the secrets of the world will be understood and grasped. When we read the records of history we shall begin to discover the way in which god has been at work; and we shall discover when we look at our own lives, not a number of haphazard chances, but some preconceived idea of god which we did not know being worked out. We shall begin to find to our amazement that our lives are answers to the prayers of the holy ghost, and that at the back of everything is the mind of god. But we have the mind of Christ, says Paul. To have the mind of Christ means a great deal more than having the spirit of Christ. To have the mind of christ means to think as Jesus thought, and he always thought from one centre, viz. , god. For i have not spoken of myself; but the father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what i should say, and what i should speak ( john 12:49). Where did our lord get his words from? From the spirit that was in him. The tongue in our lord Jesus Christ got to its right place because he never spoke from the spirit of his right to himself; and our tongue and our brain will only be in the right place when we learn to obey the spirit of god in thinking. Thank god we are given a Line of explanation for everything under heaven. When we receive the holy spirit and obey him, we find that Jesus christ does satisfy the last aching abyss of our minds as well as our hearts. The one word ringing out over our mental life is obey! Obey! Those of you who know what obedience means in the moral realm, bring it into the intellectual realm. Are you bring- ing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ? Are you continually being renewed in the spirit of your mind? Is your thinking in absolute harmony with Jesus christs thinking?

The day we live in is a day of wild imaginations everywhere, unchecked imaginations in music, in literature, and, worst of all, in the interpretation of scripture. People are going off on wild speculations, they get hold of one line and run clean off at a tan- gent and try to explain everything on that line, then they go off on another line: none of it is in accordance with the spirit of god. There is no royal road for bringing our brains into harmony with the spirit god has put in our hearts; we do not get there all at once, but only by steady discipline.