Are you open to the Spirit?
I heard this question a while back presented in a book I was reading. It gave me pause. I’ve studied the Spirit for years in my personal study and even in academic study. I was challenged by a speaker nearly 15 years ago now to be open to studying the Spirit because our tradition has typically been opposed to the work of the Spirit in our lives. I took the challenge and opened myself to the study of the Spirit. I began to notice that the Spirit is everywhere in scripture, from the first page to the last.
When you pay attention to the life of Jesus, he doesn’t do any miraculous works till after he receives the Holy Spirit in his baptism. The Gospels, in their own ways, show that Jesus didn’t do anything on his own, but through the Father or through the power of the Spirit. Luke is very explicit about the work of the Spirit in Jesus’ life and then in the life of the church in his second volume of work called Acts. When Jesus submits to death on the cross, he does so without the power to raise himself from the dead. His submission to death is a submission to the Father who raises him from the dead through the Spirit. Paul, in Romans 8, reminds the church that they are to live in the realm of the Spirit because the Spirit gives live. This same Spirit that lives within us is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! This Spirit living in us is what gives us true life (Romans 8:11)!!
Are you open to the Spirit?
I’ve had moments in my life where I’ve seriously sought the Spirit’s presence and guidance in my life. Those moments have been less often than I’d like to admit. Growing up hearing that the Spirit’s work stopped with the death of the Apostles because we now have the Bible has made it hard to be open to the Spirit. There’s nothing in the Bible that gives any credit to that teaching. It is a teaching that comes from the desire to be in control. We created a new Trinity: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Scriptures.
The philosophical foundations of many Western Churches are based in Rationalism of the Second Great Awakening. If we cannot explain it rationally it cannot be trusted. In this mindset, we closed the windows to the Spirit. With the emergence of Pentecostalism and Charismatic movements, we boarded up those windows and resisted any conversation around the Spirit’s work in our lives.
In this series on the Holy Spirit, I want to take the boards off the windows and open them up to allow the fresh breeze of the Spirit to enter the house. I’ve found it helpful to put up some screens to filter out some of the flies and bugs we are worried about blowing in. Most studies I have heard on the Spirit have focused on the Spiritual Gifts and miraculous works that come with the Spirit. There is a time and place for those conversations, but I believe those are best left for another time.
What we will focus on in this series is what it means to be led by the Spirit. We will look at the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament, in the life of Jesus, in the life of the early church, and what it should look like in our lives today in our personal life and in our communal life together.
To prepare for this Sunday, read John 14-16 and pay attention to how Jesus talks about the Spirit and the Spirit’s role in our lives. Jesus says that it is better for him to leave so that the Holy Spirit will come and guide us. Jesus has a higher view of the Spirit than his church does. This should give us pause.
Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost was that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all people in Baptism. This is the promised gift that comes with our Baptism (Acts 2:38). For those who have put on Christ in baptism, the Holy Spirit, God in Spirit, dwells in you.
Are you open to the Spirit?