I want God to be pleased with my life in Christ, don't you? In 1 Thess 2:12 we read "live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory." Continuing on our series on the Holy Spirit's work
in our lives, let's look at our day-to-day lives, and how the Holy Spirit can lead us, bearing fruit through us to make our lives "worthy of our calling." Since, as Jesus said, the Holy Spirit is living within us (John 14:17), we should be able to hear his voice and obey.
Let's see what we can learn about paying attention to the Holy Spirit, by using prayer as a parallel idea. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul instructs us to "never stop praying." As we've heard recently, the word for "never stop" ("without ceasing," in some translations) is used in Greek literature to describe a hacking cough; not that you're always coughing, but the tickle in your throat is always there. So this command instructs us to "have a heart of prayer" as one translation puts it, rather than to react to life's trials in ways that are less "worthy of our calling."
So, how would we "pay attention to the Holy Spirit without ceasing"? First of all, since we are "in Christ" we should expect God to speak to us and we should ask him for direction. Each of us, according to our own spiritual giftedness and individual makeup, will hear him in a slightly different way, but we will hear the same message because God is not divided. One way to hear him is to soak ourselves in Scripture, as the Holy Spirit speaks through the words of the Bible (Hebrews 3:7-11) not only "in Bible times" but today too. Bible students hear from God as they study the Scripture, and often the Spirit brings a verse to our minds when we need it. Someone with the gift of compassion may hear the Spirit better through the prayers of another person, or through hearing of that person's need. Another may sense the Spirit speaking through the words of a worship song, or in a group discussion, and some may see a picture depicting something they should do, like Paul saw the Macedonian man in a vision in Acts 16:9-10. Specifically taking time to turn off all the distractions and seek God's voice is also very helpful.
There are cautions, of course. God the Holy Spirit will never speak contrary to the Scripture that he himself inspired. He will never tell us to do something for selfish reasons, and he rarely tells us that someone else should be doing something. He expects us to use wisdom as we decide how to obey him, and often we need the discernment of the church he has put us into, to choose the wisest course.
If we want to hear, we need to listen, and listen with the desire to follow what we're told. But we should expect to hear the Holy Spirit more and more as we mature in Christ. There are lots of other resources available if you want to study this topic more, so don't hesitate to ask.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Holy Spirit of Love
I've been writing the last month or so on the Holy Spirit, and how he works to draw us to God and to help us understand the mind of God. Today we're looking at how the Holy Spirit creates God's love in us.
It is the heart of God himself, who has loved us since before the creation (Eph. 1:3-8), that gives us life. God pulls us closer to himself through the Holy Spirit: "For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love" (Rom. 5:5). God's love in us lets us live in confidence, not in fear. Jesus guarantees us, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the Father will take care of us: “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs" (Mat. 6:31-32). John the Apostle said it more flatly in his first epistle: "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love" (1 John 4:18).
When we understand the Father's love more deeply, we will respond to others with that same love: "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God...But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us" (1 John 4:7, 12). It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the love of God (Romans 5:5) and reminds us what our Father wants us to know (John 14:26). So this morning, when I was thinking of writing something sarcastic in this column, it was the Holy Spirit who reminded me that wouldn't be loving, even though it felt like fun at the time.
So the question is, are we properly hearing and following that loving voice of the Holy Spirit? Typically, one of two things gets in the way: distraction, or our own selfish desires being stronger at the moment. I've been writing lately about how we can reduce distractions to listen better, and learn to surrender more. When we do, we will be able to think, speak and act in that God's love, and we will find our relationships work a lot better. How's that working for you?
It is the heart of God himself, who has loved us since before the creation (Eph. 1:3-8), that gives us life. God pulls us closer to himself through the Holy Spirit: "For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love" (Rom. 5:5). God's love in us lets us live in confidence, not in fear. Jesus guarantees us, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the Father will take care of us: “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs" (Mat. 6:31-32). John the Apostle said it more flatly in his first epistle: "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love" (1 John 4:18).
When we understand the Father's love more deeply, we will respond to others with that same love: "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God...But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us" (1 John 4:7, 12). It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the love of God (Romans 5:5) and reminds us what our Father wants us to know (John 14:26). So this morning, when I was thinking of writing something sarcastic in this column, it was the Holy Spirit who reminded me that wouldn't be loving, even though it felt like fun at the time.
So the question is, are we properly hearing and following that loving voice of the Holy Spirit? Typically, one of two things gets in the way: distraction, or our own selfish desires being stronger at the moment. I've been writing lately about how we can reduce distractions to listen better, and learn to surrender more. When we do, we will be able to think, speak and act in that God's love, and we will find our relationships work a lot better. How's that working for you?
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Hearing the Voice of the Holy Spirit
Even though The Lovely Joanne and I live in the same house, sometimes we have trouble communicating. Then she and I have to stop and focus on
listening to each other -- words, non-verbal cues, and the meanings behind the words. It would be easier if she could simply grasp what I mean, rather than...but this is about God, not about me.
God communicates with us through the Holy Spirit (his own mind) living in us as Jesus promised: "the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth" (John 14:17). Jesus told us "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me" (John 15:4). To re-phrase what Jesus said, we do not produce spiritual fruit on our own, but only by being fully connected with Jesus, and allowing him to act in us.
To bear spiritual fruit, we must surrender to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Sounds simple. Hard to do. Sometimes we drive full-speed-ahead through life, playing the theme from "Rocky" at 100 decibels, trying to create 99% of our spiritual success ourselves and only asking God to help with that last 1%. Sometimes we worry ourselves into a corner, afraid that God won't take care of us like he has so many times in the past.
But it is God who is in charge, and God who has the power to create good fruit in us. So the only rational spiritual life is to surrender our choices to him by taking all our decisions and our words to him for approval -- PRIOR approval. We're taught to listen before acting, both with God and humans: "You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires" (James 1:19-21). Rather than just passively waiting for God to tell us something, we can actively work with God by asking for direction, and surrendering to whatever he answers.
What's on your to-do list for today? I think the question should begin one step earlier -- what is on God's list for you? How about taking him a blank sheet of paper, before it gets clogged up with your own list, and getting his priorities? And asking him how to produce that spiritual fruit he wants, in your life? That's the only way I can have a fruitful day. Give it a try for about a year, and let me know how it goes.
listening to each other -- words, non-verbal cues, and the meanings behind the words. It would be easier if she could simply grasp what I mean, rather than...but this is about God, not about me.
God communicates with us through the Holy Spirit (his own mind) living in us as Jesus promised: "the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth" (John 14:17). Jesus told us "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me" (John 15:4). To re-phrase what Jesus said, we do not produce spiritual fruit on our own, but only by being fully connected with Jesus, and allowing him to act in us.
To bear spiritual fruit, we must surrender to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Sounds simple. Hard to do. Sometimes we drive full-speed-ahead through life, playing the theme from "Rocky" at 100 decibels, trying to create 99% of our spiritual success ourselves and only asking God to help with that last 1%. Sometimes we worry ourselves into a corner, afraid that God won't take care of us like he has so many times in the past.
But it is God who is in charge, and God who has the power to create good fruit in us. So the only rational spiritual life is to surrender our choices to him by taking all our decisions and our words to him for approval -- PRIOR approval. We're taught to listen before acting, both with God and humans: "You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires" (James 1:19-21). Rather than just passively waiting for God to tell us something, we can actively work with God by asking for direction, and surrendering to whatever he answers.
What's on your to-do list for today? I think the question should begin one step earlier -- what is on God's list for you? How about taking him a blank sheet of paper, before it gets clogged up with your own list, and getting his priorities? And asking him how to produce that spiritual fruit he wants, in your life? That's the only way I can have a fruitful day. Give it a try for about a year, and let me know how it goes.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
The Mind and Voice of the Holy Spirit
The Lovely Joanne was trying to tell me something this morning, but I was in the other room and had noise coming in the window. Guess what? She didn't get through -- but it wasn't because she didn't do her part!
Lately I've been writing about the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and who teaches us the mind of Jesus Christ because he is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). As we see in scripture, the goal of God from before creation is to draw us into a relationship of mutual love. Despite our continual detours and sins, God has continued to pursue us, even sending the Son to be a human along with us and create the way back to him, and sending the Spirit to draw us toward the Father (even when we don't believe in him yet), creating and deepening that bond of love.
How does the Spirit draw us to God and build the relationship? Jesus said in John 16:8-9, the Spirit "will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me." So the Spirit is "the advance man" so to speak, chipping away at our refusal to believe in God. Once we believe the Spirit's message of our acceptance with the Father, we can gain a stronger bond with God by deliberately living, every day, within the Spirit's influence. Jesus said the Spirit will "guide you into all truth...tell you about the future...bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me." So when we can hear the Spirit, look how much God gives us!
This morning, in order to hear Joanne, I had to go in the other room where she was standing. So how can we hear the mind and voice of the Spirit? By getting more serious about listening. Sometimes, to hear the Spirit, we have to shut off the noise --turning off the TV or the XM satellite radio or the music or the video games, or the cellphone and text messages and Facebook. Sometimes we have to stop the continual march of food and drink into our mouths, because fasting from the physical helps us focus on the spiritual, which is the only real thing anyway. Sometimes we have to change locations, getting away from all the ordinary in order to hear God in a fresh way.
What one thing could you do today, in the routine busyness of your life, to stop and hear the Spirit better? What's stopping you from doing that? Will you make the decision to change it, so you can receive all God has for you?
Lately I've been writing about the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and who teaches us the mind of Jesus Christ because he is the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). As we see in scripture, the goal of God from before creation is to draw us into a relationship of mutual love. Despite our continual detours and sins, God has continued to pursue us, even sending the Son to be a human along with us and create the way back to him, and sending the Spirit to draw us toward the Father (even when we don't believe in him yet), creating and deepening that bond of love.
How does the Spirit draw us to God and build the relationship? Jesus said in John 16:8-9, the Spirit "will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me." So the Spirit is "the advance man" so to speak, chipping away at our refusal to believe in God. Once we believe the Spirit's message of our acceptance with the Father, we can gain a stronger bond with God by deliberately living, every day, within the Spirit's influence. Jesus said the Spirit will "guide you into all truth...tell you about the future...bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me." So when we can hear the Spirit, look how much God gives us!
This morning, in order to hear Joanne, I had to go in the other room where she was standing. So how can we hear the mind and voice of the Spirit? By getting more serious about listening. Sometimes, to hear the Spirit, we have to shut off the noise --turning off the TV or the XM satellite radio or the music or the video games, or the cellphone and text messages and Facebook. Sometimes we have to stop the continual march of food and drink into our mouths, because fasting from the physical helps us focus on the spiritual, which is the only real thing anyway. Sometimes we have to change locations, getting away from all the ordinary in order to hear God in a fresh way.
What one thing could you do today, in the routine busyness of your life, to stop and hear the Spirit better? What's stopping you from doing that? Will you make the decision to change it, so you can receive all God has for you?
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Mind of the Holy Spirit
I've been writing recently about the Holy Spirit, as Jesus told his disciples, living in us (John 14:23) as a new gift from God, part of the New Covenant between God and people initiated by Jesus (see Matthew 26:27-28). God has always wanted a relationship of love and trust with people. He created Adam and Eve, gave them the garden to live in and seems to have spent time with them regularly (Genesis 1-2, and especially 3:8-9). It was our own rebellion and short-sighted selfishness (Genesis 3:1-7), failing to trust God, that broke the relationship. We've had trouble trusting and following God ever since.
God pursued that loving relationship with us (that's the story underlying the whole Old Testament), and re-started the personal contact by coming to us personally. The Son of God, whom we know as Jesus, "became human and made his home among us" (John 1:14). As Jesus came to the end of his earthly ministry, he said that the Holy Spirit would continue God's presence with us: "But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you" (John 16:7). Jesus taught the disciples in person, but it was time to greatly expand his impact by sending out these men, and many others like them, to preach and serve others in the name of Jesus.
How did that work? Through the mind of God in them. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that he trusted in the power of God rather than his own ideas: "My message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God" (verses 4-5). Further on in that chapter, Paul explains that "God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets." And "we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us." And "we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths." And "we have the mind of Christ" which of course is also the Father's mind, since God is one.
So, what is the mind of the Holy Spirit? His driving purpose is to initiate and deepen a personal relationship in each of us with our Creator. Some call that 'evangelism' and 'discipleship' and 'growth' but it's the same thing -- we humans coming to know God and follow him out of love. The Holy Spirit is the initiator and conduit for that relationship, in all of us. How can we hear and follow better? We'll start looking at that next time.
God pursued that loving relationship with us (that's the story underlying the whole Old Testament), and re-started the personal contact by coming to us personally. The Son of God, whom we know as Jesus, "became human and made his home among us" (John 1:14). As Jesus came to the end of his earthly ministry, he said that the Holy Spirit would continue God's presence with us: "But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you" (John 16:7). Jesus taught the disciples in person, but it was time to greatly expand his impact by sending out these men, and many others like them, to preach and serve others in the name of Jesus.
How did that work? Through the mind of God in them. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 that he trusted in the power of God rather than his own ideas: "My message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God" (verses 4-5). Further on in that chapter, Paul explains that "God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets." And "we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us." And "we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths." And "we have the mind of Christ" which of course is also the Father's mind, since God is one.
So, what is the mind of the Holy Spirit? His driving purpose is to initiate and deepen a personal relationship in each of us with our Creator. Some call that 'evangelism' and 'discipleship' and 'growth' but it's the same thing -- we humans coming to know God and follow him out of love. The Holy Spirit is the initiator and conduit for that relationship, in all of us. How can we hear and follow better? We'll start looking at that next time.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The Holy Spirit's Work
Last week I wrote about the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ, whom Jesus said would come to live in his disciples (John 14:23). That was a new thing, because in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit rarely came upon anyone; and sometimes the Spirit left again, like in the case of Saul: "Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear" (1 Sam. 16:14). This may have led to David's plea "don’t take your Holy Spirit from me" later, in Psalm 51:11.
But here's the mind-boggling truth: in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the one God has come to make his home in us, as a natural next step in his love for us -- the love that he showed us in his Son, whom we know as Jesus, coming to live with us, to die for us and be resurrected for us. And when the Spirit of God comes to live in us, being active in our minds, then we have "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16) by which we can understand the things of God. So Peter can tell us to "be of one mind" (1 Peter 3:8) -- not that Christians are in lockstep, but that we all have the mind of God in us.
Having the mind of God in us, then, we are able to perceive the love and intentions of God, not just for us but toward those around us also. (One might ask, how could we have the love of God for someone, unless the mind of God resides in us?) So the challenge is to discern and surrender to the mind of God in us, and the spiritual disciplines are an important tool. You can learn more about applying them on this blog, or by reading from Henry Nouwen, Richard Foster, Dallas Willard and many others. Let's keep exploring that. Are you ready to hear from God?
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Holy Spirit of God
Pentecost is in just a few days (May 27). This celebration, which started out in Israelite life as a harvest festival (Lev. 23:15-21) came to full life in the New Covenant era when the Holy Spirit was given to the assembled disciples: "On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability" (Acts 2:1-4). It was clear that a whole new era was beginning, and the church continues to celebrate the Holy Spirit's person and role on this day.
But the Holy Spirit seems mysterious to us. There are only a couple of dozen references to the spirit of God in the Old Testament, and none of them is very clear as to what's going on. For sure, this spirit comes from God, and when the spirit appears, God's will gets done (see for example 2 Chronicles 24:20). But there's not much more until Jesus talks about the Spirit in John 14-17, and quite a few more descriptive comments in Acts and in the epistles. So today, let's look first at some of what Jesus said.
In John 14:16, Jesus says "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you." The Greek phrase used here is allos paracletos. The word "allos" means “another (in this case, Advocate or Helper) of the same kind.” Jesus had been teaching them, correcting and encouraging them, helping them know the Father, for three years or so. Now he would send another just like himself to the disciples -- which includes you and me, of course.
In John 14:23, Jesus continues "All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them." And in verse 26, "But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." The Holy Spirit's role is to continue teaching, leading, correcting and encouraging us, by bringing the Father and Son to us in a living, ongoing interchange of love as they make a home in our minds and emotions. We gradually learn to "hear the voice of God" and follow.
There's a lot more, but let's remember: the Holy Spirit is "another one just like Jesus" and is "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16). So it's important we learn to recognize and follow his voice. We'll keep looking at that for awhile.
But the Holy Spirit seems mysterious to us. There are only a couple of dozen references to the spirit of God in the Old Testament, and none of them is very clear as to what's going on. For sure, this spirit comes from God, and when the spirit appears, God's will gets done (see for example 2 Chronicles 24:20). But there's not much more until Jesus talks about the Spirit in John 14-17, and quite a few more descriptive comments in Acts and in the epistles. So today, let's look first at some of what Jesus said.
In John 14:16, Jesus says "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you." The Greek phrase used here is allos paracletos. The word "allos" means “another (in this case, Advocate or Helper) of the same kind.” Jesus had been teaching them, correcting and encouraging them, helping them know the Father, for three years or so. Now he would send another just like himself to the disciples -- which includes you and me, of course.
In John 14:23, Jesus continues "All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them." And in verse 26, "But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." The Holy Spirit's role is to continue teaching, leading, correcting and encouraging us, by bringing the Father and Son to us in a living, ongoing interchange of love as they make a home in our minds and emotions. We gradually learn to "hear the voice of God" and follow.
There's a lot more, but let's remember: the Holy Spirit is "another one just like Jesus" and is "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16). So it's important we learn to recognize and follow his voice. We'll keep looking at that for awhile.
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