What Is Your Image Of The Power And Person Of God In His Church?
Good Morning Friends,
Here the day after Pentecost we undoubtedly have thoughts and feelings but words do not seem to do justice to the topic of the Holy Spirit. There are so many facets to the images of doves and Arks and Feast days and baptism and wind and dancing flames all wrapped into the idea of a Church being birthed in us. The whole thing gets confusing. Describing our relationship with God the Father, the Body of the church, Jesus and the Spirit that binds us together is difficult at best. For the frozen chosen I think the common experience of the Holy Spirit is of the spirit of grace conceived at our baptism and birthed as our fruits mature and we witness to our faith. But people experience the Holy Spirit in a variety of ways and how you experience the Spirit might be and should be in some ways different than how I do. We understand more about the power of the Spirit than the person of the Spirit. The hope though is that however we experience this person of the Holy Spirit, that this gift of love, this miracle might produce in us something that builds up the body, the church. For it is though grace not judgment, transformation not information, joy not fears that we experience in community this universal love. What Is Your Image Of The Power And Person Of God In His Church?
Scripture: Those whom [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
Romans 8:29 (NRSV)
Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, . . . and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:1-14 (NRSV)
and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Romans 5:5 (NRSV)
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Mark 1: 4-8 (NRSV)
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
Galatians. 5:22–23 (NRSV)
Message: What is your image of the power of God in His Church? Is it winning souls, changing lives and impacting the communities in which we live? On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came so that the Church could be Jesus’ presence in his absence. When the disciples could no longer follow an earthly Jesus, Jesus sent them and us something to bind us together in Christian love. He sent us the Holy Spirit so we would have the advantage and ability collectively witness. You see, there is a miracle that lies within each of us that empowers, equips and enables us to receive the power of life…love. In love, we have the power for living, the power to witness, the power to pray and even the power to perform miracles. What it amounts to, when in unity with other lovers, is the power to be like Jesus in this world. The Holy Spirit gives us capacity individually but more importantly collectively. Indeed, we are to know and to rely on the love God has for us individually but collectively as well. We are to witness by and through the power of the Holy Spirit in which we move, live and have our very being. Friends, we need to live in the power of the Spirit here on earth until we get to our heavenly home that Jesus has prepared for us. We need to rejoice because Jesus has interceded for us to protect, sanctify and bring unity to us all through love for His Body of believers.
Pray that when we move we move with God. Pray we have the courage to follow the leaning of the Holy Spirit. Pray we thank God for the companions along the way. Pray we move in unity of Spirit. Pray the called-out assembly in this place lives to emulate Him. Pray we learn to love creatively with faith in the power of God to do great things in and through us. Pray we have the power to live for Jesus. Pray we individually and collectively are in the unity of God’s love. Pray we have the power to believe and the power to have faith. Pray we realize the personality of the Holy Spirit is for a purpose. Pray we conform to Christ-likeness. Pray we receive the gift of the Father through the Son. Pray we share what we have received in Christian love. Pray that the streams of Holy History converge into one, transforming every area of human experience and washing over and transforming culture in the power, revelation, and rebirth of His presence with us. Pray we remember those who have loved. Pray the Holy Spirit makes our lives alive and rooted in and moving in this power of creation, cleansing us and the world, obliterating guilt, anointing sounds and making us into radiant and creditable lovers that waken and reawaken all that is.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 