Tag Archive: Holy Spirit

Where are the desperate prayers?

March 19, 2021 0 Comments

The fridge is empty and a friend has arrived at midnight. He’s hungry. You know your neighbour had loads of pizza delivered so you go and knock on the door thinking surely he has leftovers. So with shameless audacity you go, knock, and knock, and knock, till he awakens, and then you ask. He gives you a box of pizza — so he can go back to sleep.

Jesus told this story first. Luke 11:5-10.

Jesus is describing something we don’t really believe to be true. We don’t really believe our spiritual cupboards are empty, barren, and lacking. Every time our friends arrive in their night asking for help we offer them something from our north american affluence, rather than from the zone of our poverty. We would rather not admit our barren spiritual cupboards. We would rather deny the spiritual dependency of our hearts because we don’t like to admit our emptiness. Somehow we have turned a reality of the spiritual life, depleted spiritual cupboards, into something shameful, something to be denied.

Jesus doesn’t treat reality that way. Nor does He treat us that way.

One disciple was willing to confess their spiritual poverty (Luke 11:1) so he asked, “Lord teach us to pray.” Jesus doesn’t just teach the “Lord’s Prayer; He is offering us a pathway to regular renewal. Jesus reveals that our Heavenly Father delights to give the good gift of the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (See Luke 11:11-13)

Every now and then we may throw up a quick “Oh Lord fill me with your Spirit.” But where are the desperate prayers? Desperate prayers are founded in a desperate realization: “I have neighbours asking for real help and my spiritual cupboard is empty. The daily bread has been eaten. It’s the middle of their night and Lord we need help! Come Lord fill us with your Spirit!”

Many neighbours, many friends, are in a long night of longing, having been ransacked by the world and the evil one. Dear Church they are not sure they can still come to you for help.

Are you persisting and longing in prayer before the Father who loves you and is willing to fill you?
In the asking we are positioned to receive.
In the seeking we are positioned to find.
In the knocking we are positioned to be welcomed.

Praise be to God. He is our good Father! Jesus says He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

“‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…” Ephesians 5:14-18

Prayer

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Factions — a work of the flesh

July 13, 2019 0 Comments

The works of the flesh are obvious… factions… I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19, 20, 21 NIV

Here’s what I’ve been asking myself.

Are you often keyed up about who is more right, more holy, and a more legitimate group to be a part of rather than being keyed up about what is right, holy, and a legitimate fruitful response to knowing Jesus and His Word? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you divide the world up into “them” verses “us?” If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you often find yourself drawn to and attached to public figures and leaders as a part of your identity and security in life?  If yes, that factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you automatically criticize and demonize people and their activities who are not on your side, without suspending judgment until you have truly heard and understand them? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you automatically assume that your group is always right and a perfect expression of what is on God’s mind? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Does your social media account echo with the sounds of self-righteous outrage and condemnation for one political party over another? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Do you quickly write off a person as unworthy of love and consideration because of their identification with one group or party? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

Have you stopped respecting some people, because they don’t fit in your party’s vision of life together? If yes, that’s factionalism.
It’s a work of the flesh.

The Apostle Paul identified “factions” as a work of the flesh. It’s not how followers of Jesus are to live. Instead we are to live responsive and free, not bound up in a faction. The freedom of the Spirit comes from a full-on celebration of Jesus and His love! Then in response to Him and as a forgiven person alive to Him and dead to the flesh we are keyed up about being fruitful in our relationships in the world and in the church rather than on being in the most powerful group.

Those who continue to depend on and promote “factions” will not inherit the kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul keeps warning us as does the Spirit of God. Factionalism has nothing to do with the Father’s heart or the Kingdom of Jesus.

The prophetic and priestly work of Jesus the King in our lives really depends on us being free. Free to offend all parties in our association with Jesus and with His Kingdom.  Without this freedom you and I will not actually enter into the command of Christ to care for the perpetuators of all kinds of fleshy and damaging acts. The fear of antagonizing “our side” will keep us from empathy and even forgiveness of our enemies. We will easily become puppets of power and trumpets of half-truths and lies. And then before you know it, we will abandon the Gospel for the pleasure of having power.

Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.

So this is complicated:

Now what are we to make of the common and God-given need to organize?

What are we to do in the Spirit in order to keep the creative and redemptive work of God in relation to powers and principalities?

How can we speak truth to power and organize people without falling into factionalism?

Change, Society

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Keep Asking

November 15, 2018 0 Comments

“Be filled with the Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18

Jesus makes it clear that our Heavenly Father knows how to give good gifts. So, He teaches his disciples to pray persistently. He wants us to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. Then Jesus shows His followers that their Heavenly Father is more extravagant, glorious, and rich in His giving than they can imagine.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you re evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:8-13

Do see how extravagant God is? “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

That’s generous! God will give to us the His Spirit who has been present when God is creating:
In the beginning. Genesis 1:1-3
In the incarnation of Jesus. Luke 1:35
In the baptism of Jesus. Matthew 3:16
In the extraordinary life and ministry of Jesus. Acts 10:36-38
In the birth of the Church. Acts 2
In the ministry of each local congregation. Ephesians 2:22

Paul urges his readers in Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit. Get filled with the Spirit. Keep on being filled with the Spirit. Paul has in mind the creating work of God. Where there is darkness, chaos, and formlessness in our lives and in the world the Spirit of God is present for a God-shaping struggle.  And into this darkness God can speak, “Let there be light.” 

Jesus promised that His very life, ministry, death on the cross, and resurrection is to make the in-dwelling gift of the Spirit possible. His words of comfort to the Disciples gathered in the upper room the night before His crucifixion made no sense and they seemed to have felt only confusion and grief. He says to them, 

“Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go I will send Him to you.” John 16:6-7

Later they understood Jesus. The way of the cross, the passion of Jesus, had opened the way of the Spirit for the creation of a new humanity. Peter would say in his exhortations to the people of Jerusalem gathered at Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Having received “the gift” we can ask for this gift to occupy our hearts, mind, soul, and strength over and over. Be filled with the Spirit. Having received Jesus as Lord, having received the forgiveness of the Heavenly Father, having received your adoption as children of God, are you open again, today for the filling of His Spirit?

Are you asking? To be filled with Holy Spirit.
Are you seeking? To be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Are you knocking? To be filled with the Holy Spirit.

In Scot McKnight’s recent book, Open to the Spirit, he suggests a prayer of openness toward our Heavenly Father:

Lord, I am open to the Holy Spirit.
Come to me, dwell in me, speak to me
so that I may become more like Christ.
Lord, give me the courage to be open.
Lord, I am open to the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit.
Amen.

You have been created and born again in Christ Jesus for a dynamic living relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The whole movement and struggle of history is for people to be in this communion with God. So ask, seek, and knock.

If you are not sure that the narrative of Scripture is for our communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit consider this vision and exhortation from the Apostle Paul to the Galatian church:

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Galatians 3:13-14

“…we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his son, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:3-7)

This is God’s intention for you: communion with Him, not isolation from Him. 

So by humble and sincere faith in the name and promise of Jesus Christ our Lord — ask again, “Fill me with your Holy Spirit.”




Discipleship, Prayer

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The Danger of Despair or What We May Feel After We Give

June 22, 2018 0 Comments

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-25 (NIV)

 

Have you ever felt as if your giving was accomplishing nothing, except making less of you? Here’s a contemplation for you from Miroslav Volf and The Porter’s Gate Worship Project.


Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, 118-119.

We are good trees who bear good fruit, wrote the apostle Paul, because “we live by the Spirit”, whose fruit our gift giving is.

 

The Spirit counters our indolence as givers by molding our character to conform to Christ’s and employing our talents for others’ benefit. The Spirit also gives us hope. Often we experience a sense of futility in giving. We give, and recipients seem none the better off for it. Unscrupulous people insert themselves between our gifts and the recipient’s benefits, and gifts seem to disappear together with their intended benefits. Or recipients seem to receive gifts like a black hole sucks in light. Giving doesn’t make sense, not so much because we lose by giving but because the world doesn’t gain much. We give, but it seems to us that we aren’t mending the world.

 

What is the relationship between our gifts and others’ benefits? We tend to think of it in terms of cause and effect. The gift is the cause: the benefit is the effect. As causes produce effects, giving should produce benefits. Often that’s not what happens, so we despair of giving.

 

But in fact, our gifts and others’ benefits are not related as causes and effects. They are related as the cross and the resurrection. Christ gave his life on the cross — and it seems as though he died in vain. His disciples quickly deserted him, his cause was as dead as he was, and even his God seemed to have abandoned him. But then he was resurrected from the dead by the power of the Spirit. He was seated at the right hand of God and raised in the community of believers, his social body alive and growing on earth. Did Christ’s “gift of death” cause his own resurrection and its benefits for the world? It didn’t. The Spirit did. So it is with every true gift of our own, however small or large.

 

Like Christ’s healings or feeding of multitudes, often our gifts offer immediate help. We give, and the hungry are fed, the sorrowful comforted, and loved ones delighted. We are like a tree, laden with fruit that only waits to be picked. At other times, we give, and the gift seems less like a ripe fruit than like a seed planted in the ground. For a while, nothing happens. Dark earth covered with cold winter holds the seed captive. Then spring comes, and we see new life sprouting, maybe even growing beyond our wildest imagination.

 

Sometimes it seems as if a fate worse than lying in the dark earth befalls our gifts. It is almost as if some evil bird takes away the seed we planted before it can sprout and bear fruit. We labor in vain. We give — and it seems that no one benefits. Yet we can still hope. The Spirit who makes a tree heavy with fruit and who gives life to the seed that has died will ultimately claim every good gift that the evil one has snatched away. Just as the Spirit resurrected the crucified one and made his sacrifice bear abundant fruit, so the Spirit will raise us in the spring of everlasting life to see the harvest of our own giving. Our giving is borne by the wings of the Spirits’ hope.

7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:7-10 (NIV)

 

Listen & Watch: We Labour Unto Glory, Porter’s Gate Worship Project

 

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRuPZCXShg4

 

Change, Discipleship, Giving, Leadership, Quotes, Work

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