HS

I have been part of churches where the cross was focused on so heavily that there was no mention of the Spirit. And I have seen some wackiness in the name of the Spirit too. I so don't want to come off as not giving enough do to the work of Christ on the cross. But, can we talk for a moment? While I am fully aware of all of the ramifications, the story did not end there!

Act 1:4-8 And having met with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father which you heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Then, indeed, these coming together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, do You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And you shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

I love this passage! Under pressure, these are the guys that ran off and denied the Lord at the crucifixion. There were barren, full of dread and doubt. Jesus has been hanging out with them for 40 days teaching them about the kingdom. Jesus is going to trust these guys with His Bride. He tells them to wait for the Spirit. Wait...I'm leaving, but you stay here and wait. They obviously didn't get it at first. Not even after 3 years of "in the flesh" teaching, plus 40 days of teaching from the Risen Lord! They were recent spiritual failures still worrying about things that weren't on God's mind. But, Jesus' promise to them stood. They would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them. Then they would begin being the Church.

I can relate. I'm about that dense. I'm a spiritual failure. I worry about a lot of things that are not on God's mind. I've tried to live a good portion of my Christian life without truly relying on God's power. I've read books. Bought on to the latest method. Listened to preachers. Gone to conferences. Listened to tapes and CD's. . . But, I cannot say that I have experienced relying on the Spirit, in any consistent way, the way that Paul talks about in his letters.

Jesus sent something from heaven that radically transformed this rag-tag bunch of uneducated people. Something from heaven gripped them, flooded their lives, and they were changed forever. Isn't it interesting that the disciples were not really transformed by the teaching of Christ, but by experiencing a new dimension of God's Spirit.

How many times have I read a new book, received some enlightenment on a Scripture, been blessed by some teaching, but it never really "stuck." Too many to count. The real times of transformation in my life have come not when I understood what Christ has done for me, but when I experienced what Christ has done for me. God has enlightened my mind, healed my emotions, and reshaped my will when I have placed myself in positions for the Spirit to work in my life and the love of God has been poured out in my heart through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). It isn't an issue of salvation. But how salvation works in my life. And I think Paul's view is that we are being saved through our experience with the Spirit, renewing our minds, wills and emotions.

That's all I have time for now. I'll end with a quote from Jim Cymbala:

While Christ's work on the cross, the shedding of His blood, was the only way to settle the problems of guilt, sin and condemnation, the coming of the Holy Spirit was God's way of changing human beings from the inside out. The Law given to Moses had failed at this very point. It was in itself holy and just, but the problem was the sinful nature within the people. Now the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of believers would conquer the age old dilemma of "I want to be different but I keep doing it anyway." This empowering of the Spirit would be the dynamic source throughout time for all who live for, and labor with Jesus.