IS YOUR TANK FULL?
There are 2 important events that take place in the bible concerning the
life of a Christian. The first, of course is the death of Christ for our sins and His
resurrection after 3 days in the grave. But many people may not realize what the
second event is. We concentrate so much on Christ’s sacrifice on the cross,
and His triumph over death for our sins, that we may not realize the importance
of this second event. Now I’m not trying to downgrade the importance of the
sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, because without this glorious gift from
God, the second event would never have taken place. Christ died for us so that
we can have eternal life. He was nailed to a cross, and shed his blood for our
sins so that we may have eternal life. When we ask Jesus into our lives, and
ask for forgiveness for our sins, we are born into the body of Christ, becoming
one with our Lord. This is the joy that we have as believers, but without the
second event, the second gift from God, this joy would never do any good. The
second event, or gift, is the coming of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we
would be useless as Christians. It is both the sacrifice at the cross and the
coming of the Holy Spirit that defines our lives as Christians. The Methodist
church recognizes this. The symbol for our churches is the cross and the flame.
You cannot have one without the other. Yet as important as the Spirit is, He is
one of the most misunderstood beings of the trinity. Often we don’t even
associate the spirit as a being, or person like we do with the Father and Jesus.
To many, the work, the person and the ministry of the Holy Spirit are a mystery.
He has been referred to “IT” and the Holy Ghost. The other 2 members of the
trinity are much easier to understand. We have little problem relating to God,
our heavenly father. It is easy to understand the concept of a father since all of
us have had one. He is the person in charge, making the important decisions.
He is the one who cares for his family and provides for them. Jesus is not
difficult to identify with, because He was human. He had a mother and father,
just like we do. He was a flesh and blood person just as we are. And His
sacrifice for us draws us close to Him and gives us a special bond. But what
about the Holy Spirit? For a long time, I envisioned the Holy Spirit, or Holy
Ghost as we used to call him, as some mystical “thing” that I knew little about
and thought that only existed after Christ ascended into heaven. But the Spirit is
God, just as much as Jesus is and the Father is. A.W. Tozer in his book “The
counselor” says this: “Spell this out in capital letters: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A
PERSON, He is not enthusiasm. He is not courage. He is not energy, He is not
the personification of all good qualities, like Jack Frost is the personification of
cold weather. Actually, the Holy spirit is not the personification of
anything........He has individuality. He is one being and not another. He has will
and intelligence, He has hearing, He has knowledge and sympathy and ability
to love and see and think. He can hear, speak, desire, grieve and rejoice. He is
a person.”
The Holy Spirit has always been present. From the beginning of time He
has existed. Both the Hebrew word for Spirit “roo’akh” and the Greek word
“pnyoo-mah” both mean breath. When we read Genesis 1:2-”And the Spirit of
God was hovering over the waters” Genesis 2:6 “....And breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life.” And hundreds of other passages concerning the
breath and Spirit of God. the Spirit of God and the breath of God are one in the
same. The 2 words are interchangeable. The Holy Spirit was a part of creation.
Adam became a living being because of the Holy Spirit. He has been around
forever. But until Christ came and died for us, He did not dwell within people.
We read throughout the old testament about persons who “were suddenly filled
with the Spirit”. In 1 Kings 18:46 we read about Elijah having the power of the
Lord come upon him and out running Ahab and his chariot. And in Judges 15:14
the bibles tells of the Spirit of the Lord coming on Samson in power, and how he
killed 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. The difference between the old
testament people and those who receive the spirit today is that in the old
testament the spirit would come upon people for a short time, give them great
power, wisdom or strength, but would then leave. Now, we have that same
power, that same strength that same Spirit, living in us all the time! Jesus
promised us this. In John 14:16-18 Jesus said “And I will ask the Father, and He
will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know
Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not
leave you as orphans; I will come to you”. Notice Christ’s words here. He says
the Helper will be with you forever. And that He abides with you and will be in
you. The Greek word for abide is men’-o, and literally means to stay in a given
place, state, relation or expectancy, to continue, dwell, endure, be present,
remain, stand, and tarry for. This means that the Spirit lives within us and is
here to stay! It is the Holy Spirit that gives us our power to proclaim the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Look at what happened to the disciples before and after they
received the Holy Spirit. These men had been with Jesus for 3 years. Living
with Him, eating, sleeping, talking, teaching, every hour of every day. Yet when
Christ was crucified, where did you find them? Hiding behind closed doors,
afraid. Even after Jesus rose and appeared to them and hundreds of others,
you didn’t see them running around in the streets, proclaiming the gospel,
unafraid of the Jewish leaders. These were not well educated men. They did not
hold any high offices or places in the synagogue. They were poor, common
ordinary men. They often argued with each other, were easily offended,
impulsive and prejudice. Not the kind of men someone would call to turn the
world upside down. But, when the Holy spirit came upon them, they were filled
with a power like never before. Suddenly, Peter is standing before thousands,
preaching. They start speaking in other languages. They are taken before the
courts and threatened with their lives, yet keep on preaching the good news.
They heal the sick and lame. And the only thing different is the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit. They had spent 3 years living with Christ. They had witnessed His
death and resurrection, but it took the power of the Holy Spirit to transform them
into the great men that we know them as today. We too have that power. All
who believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, have the Holy Spirit living within
them. The same power that the 1st disciples had, we have. Yet, so few of us
know how to tap into that power. It is the Holy spirit that gives us the ability to
witness to the world. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us words to say when our
minds go blank. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us able to carry out Christ’s
command to preach to all the nations and make disciples of every nation. If we
do not know how to use the Spirit, or are hindering His work in us. We cannot
fulfill the commandment we have been given to minister. It is through the Holy
Spirit that we are able to love the unlovable, minister to the unwanted, serve
those who reject us and grow the kingdom of God.
I passed by a small, country church the other day. From a distance I
could see the outline of a single room building, it’s steeple reaching up to
heaven. but as I got closer I could see that it was all boarded up, no longer
being used. As I drove by, I wondered what had happened here that there was
no longer an active body of believers. I considered that perhaps they had grown
so much that they needed a bigger building, or that some sort of calamity had
befallen them. But perhaps it was because they forgot about the Spirit. Perhaps
they forgot how to love and welcome others, maybe they stopped ministering to
people other than themselves. Maybe they forgot how to use the power of the
Holy Spirit.
I brought a flashlight with me today. Think of this flashlight as us as
believers. We are God’s light in this world. Now everything about this flashlight
appears to work correctly. The bulb is good, the switch works correctly,
everything is screwed together the way it’s supposed to be. Yet it doesn’t work.
Why? We’ll because I forgot to put the batteries in. You could have the most
expensive flashlight in the world, with a 3000 watt bulb, but without batteries, it’s
worthless, as a flashlight anyway. I guess you could use it as a hammer, or a
club or an anchor, but that’s not what it was made for. It is the batteries that give
this flashlight the power to shine, to show the way in the dark. It is the batteries
that make the flashlight work the way it was supposed too. And it is the Holy
Spirit that gives us our power. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us work the way
we were meant too. When we use the Spirit we can do all things for Christ. We
need to be filled with the Spirit. With out the Spirit we can do nothing. With Him,
we can turn a world upside down and shine God’s light into a dark world. When
we are filled with the Spirit, we can be Christ in our world. Is your light being
powered by the Holy Spirit so you can shine God’s light in His world?
