Advent 10 The Wisdom, the Work and the Way of the Spirit

[HKHaugan]

One of our vacations a few years ago found us driving from North Carolina across the border into a remote part of Tennessee. As we moved toward the border we saw an increase in hillsides that had been stripped of timber. Crossing into Tennessee it became worse. It must have once been strip-mined. We arrived in a small town with buildings that looked beaten down and people actually looking as beaten as the buildings. We drove slowly down the main street, which curved to the right. I even hit a curb as we went, something I just never do. A feeling of oppression came over us and we remarked on it. In fact I had the sense we should get away from there as quickly as possible. I don’t know why. Stopping there was definitely not an option even though we were hungry and it was lunchtime. I took the nearest left, got on a major highway and the feeling left. It was spiritual. It was oppressive. It was real. I believe there were two forces at work, the evil one and the Holy Spirit directing us not to stop. This is not the only time but one of many. I have had experiences like that from my teen years.

If there is anything we must really be aware of it is the fact that we are first spiritual people. God is Spirit (Jn.4:24). Jesus the Son dwells in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Part of us being an image of God is our spirit. It is the Spirit that touches our minds, hearts and spirits.

Paul reflects on this reality, “But God has shown it to us through his Spirit. The Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. Who can know the thoughts of another person? Only a person's own spirit can know them. In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows God's thoughts. We have not received the spirit of the world. We have received the Spirit who is from God. The Spirit helps us understand what God has freely given us. That is what we speak about. We don't use words taught to us by people. We use words taught to us by the Holy Spirit. We use the words of the Spirit to teach the truths of the Spirit. Some people don't have the Holy Spirit. They don't accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. Things like that are foolish to them. They can't understand them. In fact, such things can't be understood without the Spirit's help. Everyone who has the Spirit can judge all things. But no one can judge those who have the Spirit. It is written, "Who can ever know what is in the Lord's mind? Can anyone ever teach him(Isaiah40:13)?” But we have the mind of Christ (1Cor.2:10-16).”

In these days of Advent we are preparing for the return of Jesus as well as celebrating the coming of God the Son in human form some two thousand years ago. The question is do we take seriously that we are first spiritual people who were designed, created and given biological life to experience the Spirit of God? We were shaped for a relationship with Jesus, God the Son, to receive His spiritual mind, His heart and His Spirit. Do we realize we are called to prioritize everything in a spiritual context?

In His Sermon on the Mount, this incredible discourse on spiritual reality in Matt.5-7, Jesus beckons us to open ourselves spiritually---ask, seek and knock, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened (Mt.7:7-8).”

Here's my suggestion to get into the Spirit and the Spirit into you. Tomorrow open the Word to the Gospel of John, Chapters 1-3. Divide them as follows:

Before or after breakfast pray then read Chapter 1 to see the Spirit restoring and reshaping humanity in Jesus. Ponder that for a few minutes.

Before or after lunch pray then read Chapter 2 to see the Spirit working in Jesus in you as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Consider how He can use us spiritually.

Before or after dinner pray then read Chapter 3 to see the Spirit personally helping us to see others spiritually and be ready to offer them our personal testimony of rebirth “…whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (Jn.3:7)."

We who believe are spiritually reborn to think, trust and believe spiritually. That’s where it all begins. Now we’ll be spiritually prepared to worship with expectation on Christmas Eve as Jesus calls us to leave our old secular time for a new kind of time. As He said, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (Jn.4:23-24).”