As I am approaching the half-way mark of my semester, my bloggings will start to include an increasing amount of reflection posts from this side of the half. I have noticed three huge themes God has used in my walk with him this semester: wisdom, the holy spirit, and the poor.
Although those are in the order of significance, my posts will not be. I'm starting off by expanding on what God has taught me about the Holy Spirit, which will lead into a series of posts about the "greater gifts" of the holy spirit (as mentioned in last Friday's post,) and then I will present a series of posts featuring Spiritual Gifts, and what these look like in our every day lives.
As I said, for now I would like to share with you what God has taught me in regards to the Holy Spirit. Throughout this journey, he lead me to several different passages that teach us more about the Holy Spirit, and who he is. The book I just reviewed, Dream Language, also pointed me to the dig further into specific scriptures that dealt with the Holy Spirit.
First, a little introduction of "The H.S." If you have studied the Bible at all, you know that our sin eternally separated us from fellowship or communion with God, but because of his infinite love for us, he sent his Son to come live with us, teaching us and instructing us in the ways of God, then ultimately giving his life up for us, thus restoring our connection and relationship with the God of all creation.
It was for this reason, that Jesus' disciples worried about how they would communicate with God when Jesus arose back into heaven (John 16.) Of course, as always happens when we are worried, Jesus assured the disciples that this communication method had already been worked out and blessed far beyond our understanding. "But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." (John 16:7)
Therefore, the Holy Spirit's language is even greater for us, that the words coming from Jesus' physical mouth. Not only that, but it is only through the Holy Spirit that we can reread the words of Jesus' physical mouth and fully understand them. How great is our God to bless us above our own imaginations!
The Spirit gives us access to a secret language between our spirit and God's. In 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 we are told that the language that comes from walking with Christ is quite different from the language of the world. The Bible says it is "a message of wisdom among the mature...a secret wisdom that God destined for our glory before time began." How cool is that?
The idea of a "secret language" between our hearts and God's makes me think of my elementary school days when Pig Latin and Ong language were cool. My friends and I would speak these silly dialects all day long, laughing and enjoying the fact that no one else knew what we were saying. It was our own secret language.
Until of course, everyone else discovered it...
The thing about the Holy Spirit is that it is closed to those who are not believers. Verse eight says, "None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Did you get that, none of the rulers. That means the rich and famous people we look up too on earth--they don't understand this secret language because they are still living in the world, not turning away from it and walking with Christ.
A life given fully to God is a hard and painful one, but the blessing of the Holy Spirit is one reward for choosing this difficult journey.
Verses 10-12 really taught me something insightful. Only the Spirit knows both the depths of our heart, as well as the depths of God's. How beautiful. The Word of God says it is only through the help of the Holy Spirit that we are able to heal and understand the depths of our souls, and with that, we are able to hear God's spirit too. His spirit. The depths of his heart that are so rarely searched out. This is where the Spirit soars and longs to take us.
Those without the Spirit do not understand the Spirit. Verse 14 says, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned." How much the unbeliever misses.
I promise you readers, if you had a taste of the heart and Spirit of God--you would never in a million years turn it down again. In fact, you would spend the rest of your life trying to fill that craving with a new taste of his oh-so-filling Spirit. Think about that for a minute...
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