Iceberg... Right Ahead!

I wonder if you can remember back to a time when you fell in love with someone? You see him or her across the crowded room, and your eyes meet and linger as you both recognise that you have both been drawn together in that glance. You may progress to the occasional ‘hello’ or perhaps strike up a conversation and exchange contact details. 

Soon when you have checked each other out you have enough common ground to start a relationship. You start to get anxious about when you could meet next or how you might be coming across; you want to share as much as you can with each other, as quickly as you can… it’s all a bit touchy, feely, cuddly… you begin to feel that this person may be the one. You spend more time together, you grow to learn that your love for them is more than a feeling, but something you know is truth in your heart. You begin to imagine that life without them has become unthinkable. It’s exciting and everyone around who observes you in the relationship can see that you are both besotted with each other.

We make a commitment, we get married and we grow our relationship that births new life and a new adventure together. We are partners through the emotional roller coaster ride that is life; as we say in the marriage vows, in sickness and in health, through richer and poorer, as long as death us do part. As we get older, we become used to the person’s presence and we can grow a bit colder in our affection; spending less time immediately close to each other… fewer flowers, more TV; pursuing our own interests in forfeit of our shared experiences that we craved when the relationship was young; it can become a bit stale, a bit routine.

 

Just as our relationships with people need to be constantly renewed with affection and commitment, whether it be our spouses, families or friends, our Christian lives need to receive the same kinds of renewal. The Holy Spirit is a promise, a gift from God to us; Jesus referred to him as the ‘helper’ whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance, all that I have said to you. (John 14: 26). 

We are in a relationship with Jesus. When we meet Jesus for the first time and made a commitment to follow him, the Holy Spirit is at work; opening our hearts to hear Jesus’ call on our life. As in the scripture from John 14:26, the Holy Spirit draws alongside us and helps us to recognise our sin, understand our need to repent of sin, and reveal that Jesus is the one who died for our sin so that we can be ‘born-again.’

We are encouraged to be filled with the Holy Spirit because he is a source of renewal and revival. This isn't meant to be just a one-off event but a continuous filling, over and over and over again… So why do we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit?    

 

The Holy Spirit does this by illuminating the darkness within, revealing that we were designed for better and greater things; designed for those things that we feel we cannot grab hold of due to the state we find ourselves. Just as God said ‘Let there be light!’ in the beginning of creation, the Holy Spirit sets his light on our lives to reveal to us the work that God wants to do in us, and the work he wants to do through us.

 

For some people, the experience of meeting Jesus may be a dramatic life changing event or it may be a quieter affair. What is certain, is that when we turn away from all the wrong that has been going on in our lives and start fresh with God, he enters into that new covenant that we make… turning from our selfish behaviour and to live for Christ.

 

I have recently met two guys through our Alpha Course where they have the biggest smile imaginable. Both being alcoholic’s who since meeting Jesus have not touched a drop of drink, but more amazing is that they have also had broken ties with their families restored. One of them in particular has been able to spend time with his daughter without the restrictions that his alcoholism brought on him. When Jesus’ light shines onto our past, we need to recognise there is nothing to condemn us for what has happened. 

The Holy Spirit helps us to believe the false hood of the ‘Woe is me, I cannot be forgiven for that!’ but rather, ‘WOW!’ God is amazing!

 

The apostle Paul is a biblical example of a man whose life was transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Originally a Jewish leader who supported the killing of Christians who were falsely accused of spreading an untruth that Jesus was the Son of God… the Messiah. He witnessed many public executions and held the coats of those that did the killing. Yet in Acts chapter 9: 1-19, we read that while Paul was travelling on a journey to Damascus to hunt for more Christians, he experienced a supernatural encounter with God… God’s light and brilliance stopped Paul in his journey, blinding him and turning his life around.

 

For others like the famous author CS Lewis who wrote the Narnia books, he describes his experience of the Holy Spirit as his heart being strangely warmed… He wrote a book about it which he called, ‘Surprised by Joy.’ However, as much as the Holy Spirit is at work when we commit our lives to Jesus, we need to recognise our need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, often referred to as the Baptism of the Spirit.

 

This is a renewing and renewable gift of God, a little better than the bottomless Coca Cola drink you can order from a UK restaurant! For a small extra charge, you can have your glass refilled when emptied… Similarly, if we are willing to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus, we can receive more of the Holy Spirit as we encounter him… or we can be content to limit our experience of the Holy Spirit and have just one glass of Coca Cola… I hope this analogy works for you.

 

So why is being filled with the Holy Spirit important and why do we need him? In the Old Testament, God spoke directly to people in miraculous ways, such as Moses and the burning bush. The bush was on fire and yet was not consumed by it… and God spoke directly with Moses from it. When Moses received the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, on his return, his face shone with a radiance from speaking with God that frightened the people so much that he felt he needed to cover up!

We know from the Old Testament that God spoke directly to people but did not reveal himself directly to anyone other than Moses because as men, we cannot enter into his presence. He is Holy… and we are sinful. The penalty for our sinful body is death; so anyone who looked on God generally died instantly! In Jesus, God takes the form of a man who we can directly interact with… we can receive forgiveness; we can be born again. We can see in the person of Jesus, the true meaning behind the Bible narrative… the Word of God becoming flesh and blood to draw us to the father.

 

Before we look at how the Holy Spirit was released freely to all people upon Jesus’ ascension into heaven and the first Pentecost event described in Act’s 2, we need to consider the ‘person’ of the Holy Spirit and his relationship to God and Jesus. In Christian theology, we know that we have God who we know as Father, and we have the Son of God who we know as Jesus… Father and Son; but we also have God who is Spirit. These three persons are connected in relationship and together form one God. We call this the Trinity… like a triangle; three equal parts of a whole.

 

When we look at the idea of the Trinity, we can relate to this using a metaphor for the physical properties for water… Water in its liquid form can ‘seep’ everywhere… when we knock over a glass of water it gets into every nook-and-cranny because of its ability to flow over any surface or be absorbed by porous objects and return to sea level… a kind of base level from which all things come. For this analogy we could call the water, God the Father.

 

Water when frozen forms ice. Ice is solid; we can feel it, touch it and eat it! It refreshes us like a cold drink on a summer day and it preserves things we want to keep fresh. In this analogy, as God the Father represents the water and is everywhere (we are 80% water) and forms the basis of what we know, Jesus is the Ice. Just as water becomes ice; Jesus is God who became man; we can still identify the ice as water but is easier to hold.In taking the form of a man Jesus identifies himself with us revealing the father in a way that we could see, hear and touch.  Just as we know that God is all around and we are part of his creation, with Jesus we can see the person of God and have a relationship with him.

 

If you think about the tragic story of the Titanic, the captain is made aware that there has been an iceberg warning, but pride in the ship’s abilities meant they did not slow down or keep a good watch. It is reported that the lookout had not got a good pair of binoculars and due to the stillness of the water, the Iceberg suddenly loomed out of the darkness on that fateful night. Carrying too much speed, a rudder that was too small to steer with, and a lack of time to deal with the emerging disaster, the might ship was crippled and began to take on water.

 

In an effort not to stretch my analogy too thinly, we can use the encounter with the iceberg to consider how we are before we meet Jesus. Some may take the message of Christ and respond immediately to his call on their lives to change course and accept Jesus at his word. Some may enjoy some plain sailing for a while, with a little bit of rough water to make us think carefully about who we are, but as disaster looms and we recognise our weaknesses, we put our hope in the one who can save us.

 

Or we could be like the ship builders, believing that we are invisible; unsinkable even… being a product of man’s finest thinking, of scientific reason and arrogant in our self-belief. When we encounter Christ, we are willing to go down with the ship rather than accept that we may have made some wrong decisions in life. Jesus talks about this in a parable of a sower. Some seed falls on fertile soil, some seed falls on rocky soil, and some seed falls by the wayside:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13: 3-9)

 

In John’s Gospel Chapter 1: 1-5, we get a glimpse of the relationship between Jesus and God. John states that the ‘Word’ already existed with God and he sets out his understanding that Jesus is the Word and that he was part of creation:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.² He existed in the beginning with God.³ God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

So as we are aware that like water God is ever present; able to be in all places at all times, Jesus as the Ice stands as a central figure in time to reveal the word of God to us.

The final part in the analogy therefore is that water when heated, turns to steam. As a gas, the water molecules are energised by the heat so that they can overcome the density of the air we breathe, and float in the atmosphere. The steam represents the Holy Spirit. It is God who energises our lives so that we can know that God is at work in us. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals the truth about God in the bible, but also changes the way we feel about God when we enter into his presence. As we come to know him personally, our experiences and encounters with the Holy Spirit reveal the father’s heart for us and we can see God’s handiwork throughout creation.

As steam gets cold and condenses back to water, we are nourished with the living water that Jesus promised us when he said that all should come to him who thirst for I will give you living water: “But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life." (John 4:14). When we are in relationship with God and ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we are joined together in the unity of the spirit; brothers and sisters in Christ. “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” (Ephesians 4:3)

In Genesis 1, the Holy Spirit hovers over the ‘nothingness’ at the beginning of time and is involved in the creation process. Today, that same spirit waits to birth new things in each of our lives… new ways of living; new ways of thinking; new ways of being. In the creation, God by his Spirit breathes life into our bodies, and it is this same spirit that we ask God for when we ask him to fill us. When we give our lives to Jesus he promises to fill us with his spirit so that we can be born again, no longer living by our standards, but living for God.

The Trinity works together to reveal God to the world: We can see God at work in all of creation and in our lives; Jesus reveals God the father to us through his teaching, his miraculous healing and his sacrifice on the cross. The spirit is the gift of God, given to us to comfort us when we are hurting; counsel us when we need to show wisdom and understanding when faced with difficult situations. The spirit brings us the peace of God which quashes all of our fears and insecurities because it reminds us of who we are as children of the living God. The Holy Spirit reassures us and brings Joy and hope to a broken world.

In our recent church history, the work of the Holy Spirit has been largely ignored. Some felt that the work of the Holy Spirit was for a time when the church first began, but now that we have a fully completed Bible, it was their opinion that the gifting of the Holy Spirit had ceased to be needed. This idea is based around the concept that we can fully understand the purposes of God because they are clearly explained in the Bible. They believed that the Holy Spirit helped us to interpret what is written in the Old and New Testaments, and helped us to select the correct books to go into the Bible as we know it today. So we do not need prophets to tell us more than we already know as we shouldn't be adding to the Bible.

When we hear the term Holy Spirit of Holy Ghost, we are reminded that God is supernatural… and as Hollywood has over dramatized supernatural stories, we get a little nervous around the supernatural. Holywood’s focus is always on the negative evil aspects of the supernatural world, so it is important that we get to grips with the fact that God is supernaturally GOOD.

So what does the Spirit do? Well, He is involved in every aspect of carrying out God’s mission on the earth. We see Him at work through the Old and New Testament in different formats. Sometimes it is in physical provision; sometimes it is in the form of wisdom or in words used to communicate warnings or encouragement; sometimes it is for leadership and direction or it is used for healing our bodies and raising people from the dead. Christians are told that we can do all things that we see God do through Jesus, if we are prepared to ask for it.

I'm not sure about raising people from the dead, but I have seen and heard during my 30 years of being a Christian, of many people being healed of sickness; testimonies of how seemingly impossible obstacles have been overcome; and how lives have been transformed. But the most special purpose of the Holy Spirit for me is when people encounter Jesus for the very first time; the Spirit helps us all to recognise that he loves us and cares deeply for us. He asks us to consider questions such as: Are we willing to give our lives to Jesus, as readily as he was willing to give up his life for us? I pray that you have made that journey into faith, and if not, hope you would be willing to do so now perhaps, or at least sometime soon…

The Holy Spirit is at work in you as you ponder who Jesus is and what you think of him. He illuminates the darkness by shining his light into the corners of our lives, revealing our sin. When we recognise our sinful nature, and ask God for forgiveness, his spirit enters our bodies to confirm in us the transformation and renewal of our hearts and minds. We gain reassurance from the presence of God at work in us at that very moment. 

For some people that experience of God can be quite literally, electrifying. Our sinful bodies are not used to experiencing the Holiness of God, so when we do sense the presence of God in our lives, we all react differently. Some feel a tingling in the hands, while others feel heat; some may start to feel a weight or burden on their body like something that needs to be released; some may even break down in tears or be filled with amazing Joy; some may collapse under his presence and just lay on the floor receiving more of the spirit.

There are some checks and balances though. There are things that the spirit of God will not do; and there are gifting’s that God gives to us to use in our service to one another. The gift of interpretation is particularly important when people have a dream or vision they believe God has given them to share with someone. God equips us with the tools to do the work that he wants us to be involved in.

As someone who teaches design, Bezalel in the Exodus story is one that stands out. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he work’s artistically in metal and bronze to design the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting in the Old Testament. Now this is a creative practical gifting that God still uses today, expressed in many ways through art, music, poetry and our ingenuity.

The people of the Old Testament had an oral tradition… they passed on their stories throughout their generations to guide them and inform them of the best way forward. Often God used charismatic leaders to speak to the people and deliver them from the oppression they often felt.
 

Also, God used these leaders known in the Old Testament as Judges and Prophets to tell the people how he wanted them to live. When we think of the main characters in the Old Testament, Noah, Abraham, Moses; Joseph and his amazing technicolour dream coat who saw visions in dreams and could interpret their meaning; Elijah who called fire from heaven and Isaiah… there are just too many to list here. The Bible talks about these leaders as being Prophetic… They heard the word of God and were commissioned to tell people what God wanted of them.

Prophets are used by God to proclaim God’s truth and speak for him… This was often used to encourage the people of Israel or to warn them about their conduct and the consequences for behaving in that way. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would come to bring the kingdom rule of God again on the earth:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,

For the Lord has anointed me

To bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to comfort the broken hearted

And to proclaim that captives will be released

And prisoners will be freed. (Isaiah 61:61)

There are other types of examples of the work of the Holy Spirit… writing the Bible being one example: 

 ^“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16)

So as they wrote the accounts of the people of God in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, we can be assured of the truth about what they say because the Holy Spirit was at work, inspiring their observations and their thoughts.

In Acts 2 the day of Pentecost describes the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the whole earth, the people were gathered together and received the Holy Spirit. We are told that the disciples and all the people present appeared as though they were drunk, and that each person could hear what they were saying in their own language.

 

Now this particular gift has been a sticking point for the church over the years. Some literally argue that you can only confirm your Baptism in the Spirit if you can ‘speak in tongues’ – meaning a different language to that of your own. There are two ways this gift can be used… What was happening here in Acts 2 is particularly important; we are all commissioned by God to tell others about our faith in Jesus. At this time in Jerusalem, there were many visitors to the city from all over the region. Israel was on a trading route between Europe, Africa and Asia… people of many different languages.

 

The function of the Holy Spirit is to bring restoration both to ourselves and that of the community that we live in. The Holy Spirit is also given to us to equip us to carry out the great commission. So as people received the gift from God of the Holy Spirit, they couldn't contain it and they were able to tell all those around them of what God was doing here… as Peter says, we are not drunk, it is only 9 a.m. in the morning! Jesus gives us his Spirit to so that we can help in building his church.

 

The second for of gifting by speaking in a tongue that is not our own, is often referred to as the beginner’s gift; a more personal gift where we can express our thoughts using a heavenly language. The purpose of this gift is to enable our limited vocabulary and particularly our reserved culture and limited forms of expression; to pray in a language that God uses… we align our speech to our fathers, and allow it to flow out of us. I have prayed for this gift and feel like I can only say a few words which puts me off using it… it is a more private gift, one that isn't often used publicly in church, but one that is encouraged if we cannot find the right words to express how we feel about God and our worship of him: “For if I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don't understand what I am saying.” (1 Corinthians 14:14)

 

There are other supernatural experiences of the Holy Spirit at work; words of knowledge is a gift where God gives you an insight into someone else’s life, particularly if you do not know anything about someone you are praying for. God may give you a thought or a picture that may make no sense to you, but means a lot to the person you are praying for.

The main purpose of the Holy Spirit is for us to show Christ to the world through our thoughts and actions; what we say, and what we do: “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” (Galatians 5:22-25) 

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. (Ephesians 6:18)

 

If we want to make real change in our communities, we need to become more Christ-like. Reflecting the life of Jesus… being a light to draw people to him. We cannot do this alone. Equipped with the Holy Spirit, we can do all things. Jesus says that if we have faith the size of the smallest mustard seed, we can move mountains. Let us together model Jesus, praying for revival in our towns, cities and nations. We don’t need any fancy gimmicks or programmes… we just need us, you and me.

 

John Wimber used to say that faith was spelt R I S K. If we have faith, we can do what Jesus saw the father do: reaching out and changing lives. Let us continue to pray simple prayers: “Lord Help!” “Lord, I need more of your presence in my life.” “More Lord – Increase your presence.” “Less of me Lord; more of you.” “Let your kingdom come, let your power come; Let your will be done; on Earth; here today; Now Lord; come quickly!”

So grab yourself a coffee and find a quiet place free from distractions... sit in a nice comfy chair and perhaps put on some music. Ask the Lord to equip you with the Holy Spirit; ask him about the plans he has for you; plans to prosper you; wait on the Lord; let him guide you; if you are reminded of sin, confess it; use the prayer’s above; see how it goes. If nothing comes initially, ask for the gift of tongues to help you begin your faith journey; and above all enjoy his presence!