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The Holy Spirit: Affirmation – VOTD.08.21.18

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you” Jeremiah 31:3.

“In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.” Hosea 2:16

Words are important to most of us. And when people speak kind, loving words to us, the sentiments behind those words  mean a lot. It even hurts when kind-sounding words are clearly spoken only to manipulate us–but clear words of affirmation grip most people’s hearts. God knows this. In fact, we are made in His image so we can revel in the idea that God is that way, too.

The Lord directs us to look in His face and to enjoy His favor. That is what it means to seek His face (Ps 27:8). There is no Hebrew word for ‘presence’ (i.e., the “presence” of God), only the word ‘face’. That is what it means to have his face “shine upon us” (Num 6:25). It’s His presence and His favor.

God communicates all this to us through His Spirit, alluring us (Hos 2:14), speaking tenderly to us…making our “Valley of Achor (trouble) into a doorway of hope” (v.15), admitting us to new and greater mercies. The door may appear shut, things may seem distressing — but the Holy Spirit brings the key, and will open the door, and introduce us to deliverance at the best moment.

The Spirit takes us into the closest possible union with God, and indulges us with the purest views of His love. He goes on to say, “It shall be, says the Lord, that you shall call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali” (v.16). (more…)

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The Holy Spirit Reveals Jesus – VOTD.08.20.18

It is through him that we live and function and have our identity. Acts 17:8

I was saying last time that I’m excited that theologians who have dedicated their lives to opposing groups who are embracing the Holy Spirit are publicly saying, maybe we’ve been a little bit wrong. Unless you lose your life you won’t find it but if you lose your life for His sake you will you’ll find his life (Lk 9:24) …and that’s life and life more abundant. This life that we have in Jesus … “as He is so are we in this world”.

And I’m looking forward to the day when those precious believers coming out of their cessationist backgrounds—people who the power of God has broken the chains of unbelief—that those set-free believers actually overtake the zeal and passion of the ones who have for decades and decades enjoyed the reputation of walking in the Spirit but who have grown a little dull and have lost their fire even while they sit week after week in historically ‘Spirit-filled’ churches. 

But you know what? We who are already into the Holy Spirit don’t have to wait for this…we don’t have to wait for our historically cessationist brothers and sisters to lead the way or the historically ‘Spirit-filled’ churches to rediscover what they have allowed to wane. We can recover right now all that’s been lost and reignite the fire of the Holy Spirit in our own lives. (more…)

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The Holy Spirit: The Alarm Clock – VOTD.08.14.18

It is time for us to wake up! For our full salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Romans 13:11
Jesus said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3

I wrote last week about the raw, organic, non-GMO gospel… This diet move that’s happening in the natural world mirrors a spiritual hunger that many Christians are longing for today when they look at the Bible, their local churches…everything. They want to read the Bible with raw, real organic lenses that aren’t processed or filtered with a man-made assumptions and theologies. They just want to see it like it is—they want to experience God in the unprocessed and authentic. 

[Feel free to skip this paragraph: Cessationism believes that the Holy Spirit stopped (ceased) working in the life of believers in power in the 300’s AD and therefore there are no spiritual gifts like healing and no miracles today. Google it if you want a deeper explanation.]

In preparation for this study, I see denominational leaders and respected professors at historically cessationist seminaries toying with the idea, “What if…? What if we can have the Holy Spirit’s power and keep our doctrine that denies the power of the Spirit working in modern times? How can we experience the power and peace and joy of the Holy Spirit and still maintain our historic doctrine?” Undoubtedly, that’s a big step for them.

But their students and parishioners aren’t being so cautious: They’re discarding the cessationist dogmata and reading the Bible for themselves and realizing that the promises of the Holy Spirit’s power residing inside of us can no longer be ignored by theologies that strain to keep the power of the Spirit at bay. (more…)

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The Holy Spirit: The Reminder – VOTD.08.13.18

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. James 1:23,24

Today’s verse seems like an odd comparison. If we listen to the Word and don’t live out the message we hear, we become like the person who looks in the mirror and then forgets what they look like. If we look at the Word…if we gaze upon Jesus and all He is…and forget what we saw, it’s as unnatural as forgetting what we look like… if we’re not doing all the things Jesus did there’s a problem.

2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that “we with unveiled faces behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into his same image… This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” When we look in a mirror what do we see? We see what we look like. And Paul is telling us here Who our mirror is to be. It is to be Jesus. John puts it this way: “as He is so are we in this world” (l Jn 4:17).

Getting back to today’s verse, keep in mind that James doesn’t say, “Hey, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Or “You pathetic person.” Or “Be condemned!” Or “Try harder.” He gets down to the real problem: We’ve been given Jesus’ divine nature (2 Pet 1:14). So when we look in the mirror (spiritually speaking) we should be seeing Jesus. And to forget what we look like becomes the root of our problem in conquering sin. (more…)

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