Will the Holy Spirit be in heaven?

Another thing of great interest may be mentioned here. It is noteworthy that the Saviour did things after His resurrection by the Holy Spirit. We learn this from Acts 1:2. It suggests that we too shall still have the Spirit dwelling in us in our resurrection state, and that we shall do things by His power. He will be in us the power for worship and holy service in heaven. As a well-known hymn puts it: "By the Spirit, all pervading, Hosts unnumbered round the Lamb, Crowned with light and joy unfading, Hail Him as the great I am."

Thus we clearly see man's new place. In heaven, as the risen and the exalted Man, He was received up into glory, out of sight, gone into the Father's house; we in Christ there. On earth, as His witnesses, we go forth in the unseen power of the Holy Ghost, as associated with the refused One; Christ in us here. Man's new place is thus defined both in heaven and on earth. There is also a further thing in the fact that, after His resurrection, it was through the Holy Ghost that He wrought and spoke (for it is safe to conclude that if He spake by the Holy Ghost as Acts 1:2, so He wrought by Him as John 21) As pointed out by another, we may surely infer from this that the Holy Ghost will be the unhindered power of our service and our worship, of our communion and our enjoyment, in the glory itself. Oh! how suggestive is it to our souls of the unlimited potentialities of the blessedness in store for the saints!

When we get into glory there will be no longer hope for eternal blessedness with Christ, but the full position of our present hope. In the glory, the Spirit will always be permeating all, as the energy and medium of everything.

It is quite clear to me from John 14:16 that we shall have the Spirit as now given us, to all Eternity. Given as the seal of redemption, He is never taken from us. Acts 2:33 remarkably confirms it, because even in the glory, the Lord Jesus receives the Spirit for us according to John 14 - 16. Now, like the unseen working of steam, He is propelling us along, against adverse wind and current; then, He will only be the power of our enjoyment of everything of the divine nature and the glory of Christ. All this power is circumscribed and limited now by the conditions of our presence in the body.

When the present day of grace comes to an end, and those who are Christ's are translated to be with Himself, the Holy Spirit, though no longer resident on earth in the same way as now, will continue to work for the bringing to pass of the divine purposes. But on what different lines will He work then!

In the foregoing chapters the work of the Holy Spirit as indwelling individual believers has been chiefly considered. We may recall how that two outstanding facts characterize Christianity as set forth in Scripture. The one is the 'ad interim' position of the risen Man Christ Jesus, the Son of God, at the right hand of God; the other is the 'ad interim' sojourn of the Holy Ghost on earth during the period of Christ's rejection here and session yonder. When Christ moves downward to fetch us who believe upon Him, the Holy Spirit whose present mission will have been accomplished, will move upwards with those whom He has led to Christ; and thenceforward His activities will take another form.

But manifestly, when the Church goes on high, there will be no longer any kindred state. The Spirit of God will quicken souls, as He did before He was sent down from heaven and formed the Church. That is, there will be the same elementary and eternal work of the Holy Spirit as long as there are souls here below, and a God to know vitally. Besides, the Holy Spirit, working appropriately, will throw them upon the future. This is not wonderful; because it is simply the order then before God. Thus the contrast is plain. The heavenly saints just before will have been taken out of the world: here are these souls which are being prepared for the millennial earth. It is a strictly transitional period; but the form of the Spirit's action and testimony is to direct hearts to the future that is about to be revealed. The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Thus it is not the opening out of the fulness of redemption. It is not the power which gives the soul the consciousness of drawing "within the veil," where there is "an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast." Nothing of our peace and joy appears: saints have this now in Jesus. But the emphatic form intimates that the Holy Ghost will direct them to look to Him for the future. They will have to wait. Other souls must also suffer like them. (Rev. 6:11) Accordingly we find some such words as these, "How long, O Lord?" They look for One who is to come; and nothing but the mighty power of God can give them to believe this.

Then ensues a vast change; and (whatever may be judged) redeemed ones — no longer on the earth — are glorified in heaven; and the Lord is seen above as a Lamb that had been slain (a rejected Christ) in the presence of God and on His throne. There, again, is seen once more the Spirit, but still as seven Spirits, symbolized by seven lamps or torches of fire (still judicial); as also in the next chapter there is power and activity in the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth — not any longer a question of preaching the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The Church is not in view any more than the gospel, but a mission into all the earth, where He is a Spirit, not of grace, but of government, dealing actively with the earth universally. The churches, too, are no longer heard of; they are here not even objects of testimony for the Spirit of God. Hence forth God is occupied with other and earthly plans, the heavenly joint-heirs being seen on high with Christ. The Spirit of God, then, acts in view of all the earth.

The intercession of the Holy Ghost shall not fail: it shall receive an answer from heaven every day, and finally, full and complete in the glory. The multitude of God's sons, for whom the Spirit intercedes, shall stand at last within the Father's house beyond the reach of need and harm for ever. In that eternal triumph of God the glory of the work of redemption, wrought out by Christ amid the hours of agony on the cross, will be fully displayed; and the work of the Spirit within the saints, making good within them every thought of God about them, will be completed, so that, fashioned after the glorious image of God's Son, they shall find their joy in the Father's presence who is the source of all.

The intercession of the Holy Ghost shall not fail: it shall receive an answer from heaven every day, and finally, full and complete in the glory. The multitude of God's sons, for whom the Spirit intercedes, shall stand at last within the Father's house beyond the reach of need and harm for ever. In that eternal triumph of God the glory of the work of redemption, wrought out by Christ amid the hours of agony on the cross, will be fully displayed; and the work of the Spirit within the saints, making good within them every thought of God about them, will be completed, so that, fashioned after the glorious image of God's Son, they shall find their joy in the Father's presence who is the source of all.