The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8
I used to attend Fairhaven Church in Centerville, Ohio. The lead Pastor at Fairhaven, Dr. David Smith, once preached a sermon on “Pneuma” which is the Greek word for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Translated directly from the Greek, it means, “wind”, “breath of life” or “spirit”.
There were many teachings in this sermon, but the one that particularly stood out to me, that I remember so many years later, was this:
Seldom resist a generous impulse.
When you put most generous impulses up to this filter, they are helpful and good. Because the Holy Spirit moves as wind, through that tiny nudge in our spirits, and sometimes even in that loud tug we can’t ignore, we can feel the impulse, catch it, evaluate it and determine whether it is generous. If the impulse is generous, in most cases, it is an impulse we should seldom resist.
Give the $20 bill to the person begging on the streets. Buy tires for a friend who can’t afford them. Provide food for a family who is hungry. Reach out a helping hand. Give an encouraging word. Respond to the Spirit’s promptings. Yield to the generous impulses.
There was a time in my life that I was afraid of pneuma coming and blowing me right where I did not want to be. I recall a youth pastor who shared that he was once nudged to pray with three high school students he did not know in a public place. It was probably an ice cream shop. Let me pause here for a moment because this terrified me. I was truly afraid of the Holy Ghost and even more afraid he’d lead me to pray with strangers in an uncomfortable place! For a while, I’ll admit, I pulled back. The Holy Spirit seemed too extreme.
Today I know that the Holy Spirit moves in all places and all ways, and often takes us outside of our comfort zones, but I have found He will not push us farther than we are ready to go in our spirits.
If God asked me to pray with strangers today, I hope I wouldn’t hesitate. But God wouldn’t have asked that 10 years ago when my spirit wasn’t ready. Let me also say this: I have a long, long, long infinite way to go in cultivating obedience to the Holy Spirit, and God’s refining work in me will not be complete on this side of heaven.
The Holy Spirit is literally the power of God within us. He is our Counselor and Helper, whom Jesus promised before his death would be given to us as a gift (John 14:15-26). In Jesus, the Holy Spirit has the power to raise from the dead, to heal, to give words of knowledge, and to direct us to people who need our help that we otherwise never would have met, and it is by the Holy Spirit that we can do all things and even greater works than Jesus (John 14:12).
What? That sounds scandalous. Does the Bible really say this? Check out John 14, and you will see these very words in print! By the Holy Spirit and through Christ, all things are possible.
Our entire lives are a process of yielding to the Holy Spirit. I think of the rich man in the New Testament, who asked Jesus what else he lacked to gain eternal life, for he had followed all of the commandments. Jesus answered, sell everything and come and follow me (Matthew 19:16-22). This is the wildest abandon to the Holy Spirit and it’s an uncommon path that most of us will not take. Even so, the Holy Spirit is working in our lives today and actively refining us.
God doesn’t ever force us to choose him. And the truth is, friends, that God doesn’t want our mindless obedience. When he calls us to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, God is calling us to know him with our minds. To think. To work out our faith with fear and trembling.
Here are a few truths about the Holy Spirit we should be mindful of as we learn to respond to pneuma.
-
We should fear God and have a holy reverence for him.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 -
Our bodies are temples to the Holy Spirit and God’s Spirit dwells in us.Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?1 Corinthians 3:16
-
God desires our obedience to the Spirit’s promptings.
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Acts 7:51 -
It is possible to quench the Holy Spirit if we do not yield to his promptings.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30 -
Despite our mistakes, shortfalls and unworthiness, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence through Jesus Christ.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16
To summarize what we know from scripture, we are called to fear God and to obey him and to hold a holy reverence for God and what he asks from us, yet even when we quench the spirit, because of Jesus we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. In our spirits, we can go to the throne room of God and lay down our raw burdens, concerns and fears — we can even argue it out with God (Genesis 32:24-28). God will always win, but he understands sometimes our spirits need to find their own paths into Holy submission.
God doesn’t ever force us to choose him. And the truth is, friends, that God doesn’t want our mindless obedience. When he calls us to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, God is calling us to know him with our MINDS. To think. To work out our faith with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).
God is inviting us to follow him because we sincerely want to. This is the first step of faith. The second step is a longer path that takes an entire lifetime. It is a path of learning to yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and generous impulses. To move when God calls our spirits to action. These are often quick promptings with narrow windows to act. The closer we get to God, the more windows he will show us to love his people and to be his hands and feet. This is awesome and we miss so much because we’re human. But as Christians, we should leap to our feet when God taps us. As Christians and Presence-carriers, we are co-laborers with Christ in the work of the Kingdom and God moves in us through his Holy Spirit, through pneuma, to reach all people with his love.
Verses for study:
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, 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 14:12: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do.
Philippians 2:12: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
Matthew 19:16-22: Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Genesis 32:24-28: So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
0 Comments