The Holy Spirit Bishop of the Church

It is the office work of the Holy Spirit to preside over the entire work of God on earth. —John 10:3 Jesus was our Bishop, while on earth, but now He has sent the Holy Ghost, Amen, to take His place, not men. —John 14:16; 15:26; 16:7-14. Praise His holy name!

The Holy Ghost is to infuse with divine power, and to invest with heavenly authority. No religious assembly is legal without His presence and His transaction. We should recognize Him as the Teacher of teachers.

The reason why there are so many of God's people without divine power today without experimental salvation, wrought out in their hearts by the Blood, by the power of the blessed Holy Spirit, is because they have not accepted Him as their Teacher, as their Leader, as their Comforter. Jesus said in His precious Word that if He went away He would send us another Comforter. The need of men and women today in their lives, is a Comforter, Praise our God! We have received this blessed Comforter, and it is heaven in our souls. We can sing with all our hearts:

"What matter where on earth we dwell,
On mountain top, or in the dell,
In cottage or a mansion fair,
Where Jesus is, 'tis heaven there."

Bless His holy name! May God help every one of His Blood bought children to receive this blessed Comforter. Glory to His name! Hallelujah! Hosannah to His omnipotent name! Oh, He is reigning in my soul! Hallelujah! I just feel like the song which says:

"Oh, spread the tidings round
Wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts
And human woes abound,
Let every Christian tongue
Proclaim the joyful sound,
The Comforter has come!

Many people today think we need new churches, (that is to say church buildings,) stone structures, brick structures, modern improvements, new choirs, trained singers right from the conservatories, paying from seven to fifteen hundred dollars a year for singing, fine pews, fine chandeliers, everything that could attract the human heart to win souls to the meeting house is used in this twentieth century. We find that they have reached the climax, but all of that has failed to bring divine power and salvation to precious souls. Sinners have gone to the meeting house, heard a nice, fine, eloquent oration on Jesus, or on some particular church, or on some noted man. The people have been made glad to go because they have seen great wealth, they have seen people in the very latest styles, in different costumes, and loaded down with jewelry, decorated from head to foot with diamonds, gold and silver. The music in the church has been sweet, and it is found that a good many of the church people seem to be full of love, but there has always been a lack of power. We wonder why sinners are not being converted, and why it is that the church is always making improvements, and failing to do the work that Christ called her to do. It is because men have taken the place of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The church had the right idea that we need bishops and elders, but they must be given authority by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and their qualifications for these offices must be the enduement of the power of the Holy Ghost. Jesus, after choosing His disciples, said, in John 15:16 "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father, in my name, He may give it you." Praise our God! The Lord Jesus ordained His disciples with His own blessed hands, before going back to glory, but He put the credentials in their hearts on the day of Pentecost, when they were baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. Hallelujah! This was the authority that made them His witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth, for without the blessed Holy Spirit, in all of His fullness, we are not able to witness unto the uttermost parts of the earth. We must be coworkers with Him, partakers of the Holy Ghost. Then, when He is in us, in all of His fullness, He will manifest Himself. Signs and miracles will follow. This is the office work of the Holy Spirit in the churches. Amen.

I pray God that all Christ's people and ministers everywhere will please stop by the headquarters, the Jerusalem before God, for their credentials. Then they are entitled to receive credentials from the visible church. But the main credential is to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Instead of new preachers from the theological schools and academies, the same old preachers, baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, the same old deacons, the same old plain church buildings will do. When the Holy Ghost comes in He will cleanse out dead forms and ceremonies, and will give life and power to His ministers and preachers, in the same old church buildings. But without the Holy Ghost they are simply tombstones.

We must always recognize that a meeting house is simply a place, where Christ's people gather to worship, and not the church. The church is planted in our hearts, through the Blood of Jesus Christ, for Christ said in Matthew 16:16, "Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." We see, if these meeting houses and such buildings were really churches of Christ, the storms, cyclones, and fire could not harm them; but we see them blown down by storms and burned down. But, through the precious Blood of Christ, this church that He plants in our souls will stand throughout eternity.

The first thing in every assembly is to see that He, the Holy Ghost, is installed as the chairman. The reason why we have so many dried up missions and churches today, is because they have not the Holy Ghost as the chairman. They have some man in His place. Man is all right in his place, that is when he is filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, for it is not man that does the work, but the Holy Ghost from the glory land, sent by Jesus to work through this tabernacle of clay. Wherever you find the Holy Ghost as the chairman in any assembly, you will find a fruitful assembly, you will find children being born unto God.

Just as it takes a father and a mother to bring forth children of this natural life, so it takes the Word and the Spirit to bring forth children of the spiritual birth. There must be a father and there must be a mother. God chooses human instruments to preach the Word unto the people, and the Holy Ghost gives birth to everyone who receives the Word of Christ, which means the new birth. Praise our God. Where a Holy Ghost man preaches the Word of God, the Lord will bring forth sons and daughters unto his administration.

Jesus Christ is the archbishop of these assemblies, and He must be recognized. Also we must recognize the Holy Spirit in all of His office work. He takes the members into the church, which is the body of Christ. Through repentance to God, and faith in Jesus, they become the members of the church of Christ. And they remain members as long as they live free from sin. When they commence sinning, the Holy Ghost, the chairman and bishop, the presiding elder, turns them out, and they know when they are turned out of this church. They don't have to go and ask their pastor or their preacher, for they feel within their own soul that the glory has left them—the joy, the peace, the rest and comfort. Then when they feel the lack in their souls, if they will confess their sins, God, the Holy Ghost, will accept them back into the church.

Oh, thank God for this holy way. I am so glad that sham battles are over. Men and women must live straight, holy, pure lives, free from sin, or else they have no part with Christ Jesus. When men and women are filled with the Holy Ghost, everywhere they go, living waters will flow. The Lord promised that out of our innermost being living rivers of water should flow. This is the Holy Ghost. Amen! The mighty Pison, the Gihon, the Hiddekel, the Euphrates of our soul will flow, representing the rivers of salvation. Amen!