Holy Spirit

Theology of the Holy Spirit – VOTD.07.16.18

Then, taking a deep breath, [Jesus] blew on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  John 20:22

When we look at a topic like the Holy Spirit there are at least four ways to look at it: academic, historical, spiritual, and practical. All are theological, and most people only look at the Holy Spirit one or two of these ways, which accounts for why the topic of the Holy Spirit can get so clouded. 

So today I want to consider HOW we look at the Spirit…

Academic theology (including systematic, biblical, exegetical, and lexical) explores the “What?” questions. It’s based on logic, philosophical questions and cognitive understanding. If we were to look at water from this viewpoint, we’d see a combination of hydrogen and oxygen, and consider the qualities of water (liquid, solid, gas), its erosive nature, etc. Of course, Academic theology begins looking at the Spirit from the texts of the Bible, and quickly breaks down those texts in an orderly and logical way, reaching conclusions based on that orderly scholarship.

Historical theology explores the development of doctrine over time. It asks the “When?” questions. It uncovers and presents the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in evangelical tradition or other traditions and how it has evolved from the time of the Bible writes and church fathers to arrive at the state it is today. Using our water analogy, we’d see the historical: what did people used to think about water, how has that changed? Where is the latest thinking leading? Of course, historical theology begins with the texts of the Bible and quickly moves on to how those texts were interpreted in the early church, the church of the Middle Ages, the reformation, various renewal and revivals since then. (more…)

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The Holy Spirit: When? – VOTD.07.23.18

When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit…” John 20:22
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit… Acts 2:4
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke to them… Acts 4:8

At a recent wedding I was talking to a young woman who expressed serious spiritual confusion based on what she found herself experiencing vs. the theology (or lack of it) that she had grown up in church with. In a nutshell, she was experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit in her life, but her church experience had never prepared her for God acting this way.

That’s ok. God specializes in breaking out of the boxes we have Him in. But how is it that so many people like this young women…people who grew up in local churches with youth programs, sound teaching, etc… meet the work of the Holy Spirit and have no idea?

That question is answered by the ‘When?’ question. How has what has been learned over time affect what we currently think (positively and negatively)? How does failure to learn affect us when we face spiritual realities we’ve never considered? (more…)

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Holy Knowing the Holy Spirit – VOTD.07.10.18

Because we are united to Christ, we have direct access to the Father through the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2:18

Have you ever finally met someone you had only emailed with in the past? Face to face we learn volumes about people whom we’ve never met in person. We discover things about their personality that changes our relationship completely.

We became sensitive to them as we experience what pleases them, what grieves them. We get to know them beyond what we’ve read. We even interpret what we’ve previously read in a different light because now we “know” them.

The Holy Spirit, wants each of us to know Him like that.

What makes someone a person? It’s what comes out of them. Emotions. Will. Intellect. Feelings. Opinions. These are just a few of the things that give us a personality. The Holy Spirit is a person. And just like you and me, He can feel, perceive, and respond. He gets hurt. He gets pleased. He speaks, and He has His own will.

The Spirit is one who brings into being within each of us direct access to the Father. He implements all that God has for us in our lives. God has many things for us… blessings, perfect gifts, abundant life, new nature, abilities, etc.… But it’s the Holy Spirit that adorns us with them and applies them to us.

This doesn’t eclipse the Father and the Son. But we can’t be in touch with the Father and the Son without the Holy Spirit. That’s the lesson of today’s verse. It is also the point of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 2:10-14 which we’ll end with:  (more…)

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The communion of the Holy Spirit – VOTD.07.09.18

The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  2 Corinthians 13:14

Last time I provided two high-level steps to pursue if we want to meet with the Holy Spirit personally: 1. Ask the Holy Spirit to meet with us and reveal Himself to us in personal ways. 2. Ask people we know who seem to walk closer with the Spirit than we do to pray for us to receive more of the Spirit’s tangible presence in our lives.

Simple, right? Well, it’s amazing how many Christians are afraid to do that. Why? Because we don’t have an accurate concept of the Holy Spirit’s personality. So when we think of the Spirit it’s all kinds of weird… maybe even creepy… emotions. We know that this is God we’re talking about, but many of us have heard about Christians that are into the Holy Spirit that don’t fit our model of Christian decorum.

If that describes you, then let me admit that there are excesses out there. True. But that’s no reason to live in spiritual poverty just so you won’t be linked with the excesses that sometimes associated with spiritual wealth.

It’s kind of like some poor person saying, “I don’t want to be wealthy… have you seen the headlines in the grocery store checkout mags? Those wealthy people are wacko!” If that’s how you feel, let me tell you that there are plenty of wealthy people who aren’t wacko—you just never read about them in the grocery store checkout.

The same applies to what today’s verse calls, “the communion of the Holy Spirit,” which Paul prays over the Corinthian believers. If we knew the Holy Spirit as a person, this wouldn’t be a problem. You *hear* about people doing odd things in meetings where the Spirit is moving. (more…)

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Holy Spirit is Amazing – VOTD.07.03.18

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, so that we might experience the things that are freely lavished upon us by God. 1 Corinthians 2:12

Many years ago a group I was with got caught out in the woods on a moonless night without flashlights. It was pitch dark, so we held hands to try to not run into anything. The problem was, none of us could see where we were going so though we were together we kept stumbling into briars, prickers, trees, and so forth.

That memory comes back to me when I think about much of my early ‘training’ about the Holy Spirit. It’s not that my teaching about all God has for us was out of sync with all the other teachers I knew, it was just that none of us had enough “light” to be of any use to ourselves, much less anyone else. And even today, many Christians are in the same situation. Plenty of company, but collectively no further enlightened than my friends and I when we were walking in the dark.

Let’s start with the basics. The Holy Spirit is with us from the moment we invite Jesus into our lives and become born again. Problem is, a lot of Christians stop right there. Yes they’re headed for heaven someday, but meanwhile, they miss out on all that could be theirs through the deeper experience of the Holy Spirit (“things that are freely lavished upon us”).

Then there are Christians who testify to a second impartance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Many Christians attest to that experience and stop right there. But again, they miss out on all that could be theirs through the deeper experience of the Holy Spirit. (more…)

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Understanding – VOTD.02.26.18

Do you understand what you are reading? Acts 8:30

I was chatting with some very Bible-literate friends and they were marveling that so much of what the Bible is clear on is missed by so many people who avidly read the Bible. How can people miss what’s right in front of their eyes? I was explaining, from my background in cognition, how our brains pick up on an idea and then filter all new data through the filter of what we already know (or assume) and that makes us likely to read right over things that don’t square with the filter of what we already think.

It works like this: An idea is planted in our heads that we buy into. Then other ideas come along that don’t support or challenge our original idea. If we actually stop to consider these new ideas, we may find they create dissonance with our closely held belief. So, since our minds don’t like dissonance very much, rather than put up with the dissonance, we will either get angry at the person or book that presents the new idea, or more often, ignore it, without even realizing we’re doing it.

The evidence of this problem is everywhere. It’s the reason mystery-fiction writers can snooker us right up to the very end despite planting clues blatantly before our eyes. It’s the reason that political and religious zealots can completely miss the evidences that don’t support their mantra. It’s so pervasive in Bible teaching that I often pray that God would lead me beyond my own assumptions and understanding when I come to read or teach the Word. In fact, He has often answered that prayer and stretched my understanding. (more…)

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Hope, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit – VOTD.02.13.18

… so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

I want to tie up some loose ends today: The Holy Spirit is the one that produces His holiness in us as we walk in dependence on Him (Gal. 5:16-23; 1 Cor. 6:11). The Spirit opens our minds so that we can understand the truths of God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:9-13). These are some of our first baby steps in the Spirit.

The Spirit confirms our adoption as children of God and helps us as we struggle to pray (Rom. 8:15-17, 26). The Spirit strengthens us with power in the inner being so that Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit seals every believer so that we are kept for the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30).

So it’s not surprising that as time goes by, we find that the Holy Spirit is the power who produces in us His fruit, like Peace and Joy as we trust in Him, so that we abound in Hope.

This requires a shifting in how we think – how you and I perceive reality. We’re either going to limit our thinking to the natural, living in that place of limitation, or we’re going to open ourselves to the Spirit and enter into a Joy and a Peace that culminates in a life-attitude of Hope. (more…)

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Hope, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit – VOTD.01.30.18

Now may God, the inspiration and fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope! Romans 15:13

Today’s verse is what Paul prays for every believer to experience. When we read a verse like this, it can either fill us with excitement over what we have and the possibilities of where we can go from here, or it can be a bit daunting. “Does that verse even come close to describing me? Does my life is filled with all joy and peace in believing? Do I abound in hope?”

To varying degrees we all fall short of experiencing the uncontainable joy and perfect peace and life-radiating hope that Paul prays for each of us. But considering the dullness of many Christians’ faith-experience, it makes sense to seriously seek God to fill us with all joy and peace, so that we will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So in a sense today’s verse is one of the most practical passages in the Bible for us all as we navigate life in a world where we are promised trouble (Jn 14:33). Firstly, if we face discouragement and disappointment, the place to go is God. He’s the source or supplier of hope. In fact, He is also the focus of our hope. Paul describes Him in 15:33 and 16:20 as “the God of peace.” He gives peace to His people. If we lack hope or peace or joy, the first place we should look for it in God, who is the source of all three.

Secondly, while the foundation for this abundant is hope found in Jesus, the structure of hope that is built on that foundation is being filled with all joy and peace. And Paul doesn’t pray that we will have a little bit of joy and peace trickling into our lives now and then. He piles up these superlatives to show us that God’s method of building on the foundation of hope is to fill us with all joy and peace so that we will abound in hope. (more…)

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I Told You So – VOTD.01.29.18

I TOLD YOU all of this so that the peace which is in me will be in you and will give you great confidence to rest in me. For in this unbelieving world you will experience trouble and sorrows, but you must be courageous, for I have conquered the world!” John 16:33

Jesus has taken away the power this world has to defeat us and has conquered it for us. The peace He promises is resting in his victory rather than being anxious about all that is happening around us.

In context, Jesus has been talking about two things: The sending of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and the persecution His true followers should expect from the religious institution under whose domineering practices they lived. The two are connected:

Jesus is preparing His followers for a radical shift in their reality. They are about to move from the domination of human leadership which was both tyrannically self-serving and devoid of God (no matter how much they talk about Him), to an intimate relationship with Himself, enabled by the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. These two realities would be at war over their allegiance and their souls.

You see, Jesus had already told them this on several occasions, but in John 8 He makes it clear that His Father was God, and their ‘father’ was the devil. Not surprisingly, these two weren’t going to coexist very well. (more…)

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The Heart – VOTD.06.26.17

Out of your heart come evil thoughts, murder, unfaithfulness, offensive deeds, stealing, telling lies, and insulting others. These are what make you unclean. Matthew 15:20

Out of the heart… One of the reasons that Christians have so much difficulty being content is that we focus on behavior management instead of heart surrender. And since we fail to get our behavior where we want it to be, we feel defeated, rather than contented.

We think if we can just get our behavior in line with the Bible, we’ll be holy. But holiness is a matter of the heart and if we want our behavior to exemplify Christ, our hearts must exemplify Christ first and foremost. How often we focus on terms like “integrity” (acting out certain behaviors) and good deeds, instead of purity of heart.

Yet the Holy Spirit has placed the desire in each believer to live a holy life… one that glorifies God and displays His love. Our desire to be content will never be really fulfilled without becoming more like the men and women God wants for us to be. (more…)

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