Filled with the Spirit // Walking in the Spirit, Part 3

Christianityworks Official Podcast

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that I don’t have the strength, or the power in my own right to live the life that God wants me to. Have you noticed that too? We try … and we fail. What we need, is power. Power from high. Fortunately that’s exactly what Jesus has in mind.

POWER FROM ON HIGH

Great to be with you again this week and today we’re continuing in this series of messages called Walking In The Spirit. You know, I often think about this – it’s kind of strange to me how God sets things up. He Himself is Spirit: we can’t actually see Him or touch Him or hear Him here in the physical dimension where you and I live.

Now of course at one time in history He stepped into the physical dimension when Jesus came and dwelt among us but that was two thousand years ago. And whilst we can read about who Jesus is, and what He has to say, and what He does, we can’t experience God in the physical dimension in the same way as those people did way back then.

So now we have something of a dilemma. God lives in a dimension that is spiritual and you and I, we live in a dimension that’s physical. How do we communicate with God? How do we know not just about Him but how do we know Him? Well fortunately that’s something that God thought about, and to do that He sent us His Holy Spirit, one of the three person of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

See, this problem happened the moment Jesus was set to depart from this world, the physical God departing leaving what? Well fortunately leaving behind the Holy Spirit. And this is the promise Jesus made to His Disciples, the ones who were to become the Apostles who would spread His good news throughout the known world. John chapter 14 beginning at verse 15. He said:

If you love me you’ll keep my commandments and I’ll ask the Father and He will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him but you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.

So Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to those who believed in Him with their lives and in fact in those final days and hours before He was crucified it’s something that He promised again and again. That through the Spirit of God the Father and the Son would come to make their home in us.

Now you and I, we have a body, we have a soul, our mind, our will, our emotions and deep down we have a spirit and it’s at this level that the Holy Spirit connects with us. So after Jesus was risen again and just before He ascends into heaven and leaves His disciples behind He gives them this instruction, Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 4.

He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. This, he said, is what you have heard from me. For John baptised you with water but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Now the disciples, as it turned out, thought that was fine but that wasn’t the most important thing on their minds. You see, Jesus was the Messiah, and to a Jew in the first century that meant something like a warrior king, like David of old, to boot out the Romans from occupying the land and to restore the king of Israel. The Disciples, despite three and a half years with Jesus, were more interested in what was going to happen in the physical dimension of their lives rather than the spiritual dimension.

Have a listen to the exchange between them and Jesus, between the physical concerns of the disciples and the spiritual priorities of Jesus. Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 6:

So when they’d come together they asked him, ‘Lord is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?’ And he replied, ‘it’s not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’ When he said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Do you see that? See they were interested in perhaps the most important thing from their perspective. So when is God finally going to restore the kingdom of Israel? And Jesus brushes them off because He didn’t come to restore the kingdom of Israel, He came to usher in the Kingdom of God and that’s spiritual not physical. Again have a listen to what Jesus had said earlier on this subject. Luke chapter 17 beginning at verse 20:

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisee’s when the Kingdom of God was coming and he answered, ‘The Kingdom of God isn’t coming with things that can be seen nor will they say, ‘Look here it is’ or ‘There it is’. For in fact the Kingdom of God is among you.

No Jesus, in the very last thing that He said to them before He left them and ascended into heaven, He wasn’t so much interested in the physical dimension, His priority for them, these men who would go on to found the Church, His real concern is that they should have spiritual power from God in them. Acts chapter 1 verse 8:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Why is that? Why is this Jesus’ greatest concern? Because He knew that without the power of God, without the witness and communication and encouragement and guidance of the Holy Spirit these men simply wouldn’t be able to do the things that they were called to do. You read the Book of Acts of the Apostles (which in my view should really be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles) and what you see is that these men came across horrendous opposition.

They were called on to do mighty things and many of those things were miraculous. They went way beyond the ability of eleven men and Jesus knew that if these men had power from on high, if they were filled with the Spirit of God they could do whatever God needed them to do and then some.

And friend, that’s how it is with us. We think sometimes it’s all up to me, my gifts, my abilities, my hard work – and hey, I’m not knocking any of that – but even as I sit here and share these things of God with you I know, I mean I know beyond any shadow of any doubt, that I couldn’t do what I’m doing if it weren’t for the power of the Holy Spirit.

See part of walking in the Spirit is being filled to over-flowing with the Holy Spirit so that we have the power to do what God has called us to do. The power to resist the evil one, the power to overcome temptation, the power to love those who abuse us, the power to die to self, the power to take up our cross every day and follow Jesus. Friend, those things take power. They take power that is way beyond any of us and it’s for that reason that God sent His Spirit to dwell in us.

Now after the break we’re going to see how the Spirit of God, even before He came upon these men in power, guided them in the physical dimension. That’s the exciting thing. The spiritual and the physical dimensions aren’t two separate things, as the Holy Spirit dwells in us He gives us the guidance and the power that we need to operate for Gods glory right here in this physical world in which you and I live. See that’s the exciting bit.

PRACTICAL GUIDANCE FROM ABOVE

Now, it’s kind of fine to talk about walking in the Spirit, it’s fine to talk about having power, and a little later we’re going to see how the Spirit was poured out, but what about the rubber hits the road stuff? What about the next step, the next decision you and I have to make? How does the Holy Spirit guide us? How can we know what the Holy Spirit wants us to do? How can we seek Him out and discover God’s good and perfect will for us?

Well that’s what we’re going to look at right now. We saw earlier how Jesus ordered the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and to wait for the power that God would pour out upon them. At that point He ascended into heaven. So there they were over the coming days waiting in Jerusalem and it occurred to them that they were now down to eleven disciples as a result of the exit of Judas Iscariot and they had to do something about that.

So here’s how it unfolds, if you have a Bible grab it, we’re going to read from Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 15:

In those days Peter stood up amongst the believers together with a crowd numbered about one hundred and twenty people and he said, ‘friends the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share of the ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness and falling head long he burst open in the middle of all his bowels gushed out. This became know to all the residents of Jerusalem so that the field was called, in their language, Akeldama which means field of blood.

For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘let his homestead become desolate and let there be no one to live in it and let another take his position of overseer’. So one of the men who had accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out of among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.

So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas who was also known as Justus and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, ‘Lord you know everyone’s heart, show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry an apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go his own way’. And they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Can I tell you something? This is a passage of Scripture that I have struggled with for a long time because me, I’ve always been taught if I want to know Gods will, well the place to discover that is in God’s Word, the Bible. And that’s true, I mean that’s what they did, they went back to the Psalm and read that they had to replace Judas.

But many is the time when I’ve been facing a particular challenge or dilemma and surprise, surprise in the very next chapter of whatever Book of the Bible I happen to be reading at the time, in the very next bit something leaps out at me and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and I just know what God wants me to do. I’m sure if you believe in Jesus and you’re someone who listens to Him through His Word that that’s something that’s happened to you on more than one occasion because God speaks to us first and foremost through His Word.

And right here, smack bang in the middle of His Word the eleven Apostles – the guys who’ve spent three and a half years at the Jesus school of discipleship, the best theological seminary anyone will ever go to – these guys to make a decision cast lots! How did they do that? Well we don’t know, maybe they flipped a coin, heads Joseph wins, tails Matthias wins and hey presto it came up tails so Matthias becomes Apostle number twelve.

Now friend doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd? I mean, why didn’t they go to the Scriptures to decide between the two? No, they flipped a coin to make one of the most important decisions in the history of the Church. A coin? Give me a break! Why didn’t they take a vote amongst the hundred and twenty or so Jesus followers who were in that room at the time? That’s probably what most Churches would do today. No, no. They cast lots. Well doesn’t that just take the cake!

What’s God trying to say to you and me through this? Because all Scripture is inspired by God, it’s used for teaching, for proof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that’s what 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 says. Well here’s what this Scripture has done for me. It’s opened my mind to the creativity of the Holy Spirit in speaking to me and guiding me and making His will known in my life.

I remember being convicted of sin one day when I was watching a family movie. God spoke so powerfully to me through what one character was doing. It’s like God held a mirror up to my face and said, ‘Berni, that’s you’. And over the years I’ve discovered that the Spirit nudges us and guides us and encourages us and convicts us in so many different ways.

I am doing what I’m doing right now, sharing the love of Christ with many people across the globe, because one man came up to me at a conference and spoke some words to me. And without any shadow of a doubt I know that I know that I know that God was speaking to me through this humble gentle man. Is the Bible my absolute authority for truth? Absolutely. Do I need to discern experiences and things people say to me and impressions I have from this or from that? For sure.

“Test all things” the Bible says. But friend, as we journey along our path, walking in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is with us every moment of every day, He is with us and if we’ll open our hearts and our minds and our eyes and our ears to Him He will speak to us. Am I suggesting we discern Gods will by flipping a coin? Probably not. But hey, it’s in the Bible so the last thing I’m going to do is tell God what’s appropriate and what’s not.

THE SPIRIT POURED OUT

Okay, God’s guidance doesn’t always happen the way we expect. And speaking of the unexpected, right now I’d like to spend some time sharing with you the story of when, as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the believers. Again can I say in our experience, especially can I say for those who like me have something like a conventionally spiritually narrow western mind set, this is pretty way out there too? So join me as we have a listen to what God is up to on the day of Pentecost. If you have a Bible grab it, we’re going to read from Acts chapter 2 beginning at verse 1:

Now when the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly from heaven became a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability.

Now there were devout Jews there from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem and at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each one of them heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished they asked, “are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in our own native language?”

Parthians, Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes, Cretens and Arabs in our own language we hear them speaking about Gods deeds of power.

All were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, “what does this mean?” but others sneered and said, “they’re filled with new wine” but Peter standing with the eleven raised his voice and addressed them. “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let it be known to you and listen to what I say. Indeed these men aren’t drunk as you suppose, it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning.

No this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. In the last days it will be, God declares, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves both men and women in those days I shall pour out my spirit and they’ll prophecy and I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and smoky mist, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the Lords great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Now this is quite an event. I mean I’ve had a few really powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit but never anything quite like this. A powerful sound like a rushing wind and then these flames of fire resting on everyone and all of them, all of them speaking in foreign languages and all the different nationalities there could understand the good news of Jesus in their own language.

And of course the first thing, the very first thing that happens when God does something powerful and unusual like this is that everyone else has to poke fun and to criticise what’s going on. They must be drunk. Well sorry buddy I know they perhaps looked a little intoxicated but they were all Galileans speaking in different languages. Being drunk certainly doesn’t explain that, I mean it doesn’t right?

So what do we do with this? Well the Apostle Peter gets up to explain what’s going on. He explains to the Jews assembled, ‘hey this is exactly what God promises in the Old Testament.’ That all of these powerful things would happen and in fact if you were to read on you discover that after he finished speaking many of the people there gave their lives to Christ. Many of the very same people who only weeks before were crying out to Pontius Pilate ‘crucify Him’.

See there’s a clash here between the conventional, what normally happens in the physical dimension and the spiritual, the super natural. And it was a surprise to everyone. I mean if you’ve been around the Church for any length of time you’ll know that there are some who say, ‘Okay, what happened there back there two thousand years ago on the day of Pentecost, it was absolutely a one off. It was the first time God poured His Spirit out, fair enough He did something powerful’. And then there are some others of so called charismatic and Pentecostal persuasions who claim that God is still doing mighty powerful things like this today. What do you make of it?

Well God’s Word is clear. If we don’t have the Spirit of Christ then we don’t belong to Him, Romans chapter 8, verse 9 and yet at the same time there are plenty of people who have the Spirit but where the Spirit hasn’t been unleashed in power in their lives. See these Apostles are uneducated bumpkins; most of them went on to do the most amazing things for Christ. They had so much opposition, they preached the Gospel, so many people came to Jesus through them and in fact the Church around the globe, a few billion people, are Christ-followers today because of the start that the Church got from these Disciples.

And most of them, they ended up dying for Him in the end because the power was unleashed in their lives by the Holy Spirit on that day. They did what they did, they could only do what they do because they were filled to overflowing with the Spirit and the presence and the power of God.

Jesus promised to baptise us in the Holy Spirit. He did. And the wonderful thing is that this baptism, this drenching in the Spirit happens in different ways in different people’s lives. God knows we’re different. God knows that you and I are totally different people. God is going to touch you and fill you with His Spirit in a way that He knows will work for you and that way maybe totally different to the way that God deals with me.

You know something, I don’t have a problem with that. I mean God’s God. God gets to decide what He does, how He does it, when He does it and I am not going to sit there and point fingers at other people and say, ‘Well God did it differently over there, they must be wrong’. It’s not how God does it, that’s not the important thing. The important thing is that in fact we are filled with the Spirit.

The important thing is that the power of God is unleashed in our lives so that we can live a life that brings glory to Him: a life that bears fruit, a life that has an eternal impact in the lives of other people. Don’t you reckon that’s the most important thing? It’s what God’s Word says and God’s heart is to see His power and His might unleashed in you and unleashed in me as His Spirit drenches us and utterly transforms us and unleashes the power of God through us in a lost and hurting world.