This tale of a soul bound by the love of money and hardened by a refusal to speak truth touches the very heart of our ministry. How it must grieve the Holy Spirit of God when a man who has studied theology, who knows the letter of the truth, sells himself to gain, and then, when confronted with the suffering his silence may have caused, shuts his ear like the adder that will not hear the voice of the charmer. You have entreated prayer, and rightly so, for nothing but the almighty power of the Holy Spirit can break such a heart as this.
Consider that judgments, even the most terrible of them, do not in themselves produce a satisfactory repentance in the minds of men. The terrors of the Lord, the fear of exposure, the prick of a wounded conscience, these may produce a carnal repentance, a repentance after a fashion, but it is not that holy, heavenly sort which is worked in the renewed heart by the Holy Spirit. The man who cowers under the lash only until the pain subsides has not repented; he has only wearied of the smart. True repentance, the gift of the Spirit, gives God glory; it weeps not merely for the consequences but for the sin itself, and it flies to Christ alone. Without the Spirit, this man may confess his fault as Judas did, and go away into black despair, but he will never turn to the living God.
Pray then, but pray in the Holy Spirit. The carnal mind knows nothing of this. Real prayer is burned as with hot iron into a man’s soul, and it comes forth like coals of juniper which have a most vehement heat. Such prayer none but the Holy Spirit can give. He is willing to help you to pray; He will tell you how to pray. Cry mightily to God that the Spirit would quicken this man, for without the Spirit there is no life. You have seen the flashing lights and felt the shocks, but the deadlier danger is that soul dead in trespasses and sins, insulated against every warning by the thick covering of covetousness. The Holy Spirit alone can pierce that covering. He alone can convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
But remember, the Spirit is holy. He is grieved by unholiness, by unbelief, by the persistent love of filthy lucre. This agent’s confession that he is interested in whatever brings him money, what is this but a grieving of the Spirit of truth? The little narrow heart of man the Holy Spirit has made His palace, though it be but a cottage; but when that heart is stuffed with gain and deceit, the Dove of peace finds no rest for the sole of His foot. May the Lord grant that this man not grieve the Spirit further by hardening his neck. Instead, pray that the Holy Spirit would purify his heart and mind, take away the stony heart, and give him a heart of flesh that admits the truth, not as a forced admission before men, but as an open confession before God who sees in secret.
Above all, pray that the Spirit would glorify Christ to him. The Holy Spirit deals with the things of Christ. O my brother, the Spirit will leave you if you go gadding about after money and ease! But if the Spirit reveals to that man the priceless worth of Jesus, he will count all else but dung that he may win Christ. The Spirit says, “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” How urgent is that call! Pray that this very day, before he can silence conscience again, the Holy Spirit would speak with that irresistible, still small voice, and that he would hear and live.
Rest assured, none of us can tell how the Spirit works. He bloweth where He listeth. But this we know: He will work through the prayers of the saints when those prayers are in His power. Let your soul be at peace concerning your own sufferings; commit them to Him who judgeth righteously. But for that wanderer, keep the throne of grace besieged. Trust not in the means alone, not in your messages nor in reports, but look to the Holy Spirit. For until the Spirit comes, there is no life, no force, no power. He is the seal of God, the earnest of the inheritance. Cry to God that this man may receive the Holy Spirit, for if he has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if the Spirit enters, he will know it, even as a man knows an electric shock, but with a knowledge that brings life and love and the beauty of holiness. To this end may the Lord hear and answer your unceasing intercessions.