Ready for a Space Trip?

[HKHaugan]

Epi.25 Ready for a Space Trip?

For a moment think about Cape Canaveral when a manned space vehicle is launched into space. There is an incredible amount of planning involved. There is a full time staff employed. Scientists, military, maintenance, security as well as all the materials and equipment the operation requires. It is a massive undertaking. We were on a cruise ship headed south just out from the Cape the night of a manned vehicle lift off. The night was clear and the air was cool. It was nothing less than awesome. The roar, the light from the soaring vehicle, the supporting shouts from the passengers on board. Its rising, exploding, boiling, bright light seemed as though it was telling the whole universe “Get ready. We’re on our way.” It was opening the night sky. There was an enormous sense of being a part of something really big. Hold on to that picture for a bit.

We’ve said a great deal about the Body of Christ and the spiritual gifts that energize it. That is still not enough when it comes to actually getting the Body to operate. We need to zero in on the Holy Spirit and what He does to make the Body of Christ work. While Jesus is the exact image of God, the Holy Spirit is the life in Jesus. He is the Lord of life and that life is what works the Body of Christ as well as our body. He energizes both the spiritual and physical dimensions of existence. What does that energy look like? It is best explained when we look at Galatians 5:22-23 where Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness and self-control.

What is important to see here is parallel to our respiratory system. Just as the physical body needs to breathe so the same is true of the spiritual body. Paul’s Galatian letter teaches that the fruit is what makes up the spiritual atmosphere in which we disciples live. Like the physical atmosphere with its oxygen, nitrogen and other elements, the spiritual atmosphere is the fruit of the Spirit. The first mentioned part of that fruit is love. Love is the oxygen we breathe that allows the gifts to function. If you look at the three major passages about spiritual gifts, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, you’ll find that the first two are followed by the strong call to love. In the third, Ephesians, the passage on gifts is preceded by the need to love in preparation to use one’s gifts. So gifts are the lungs that process the Spirit’s work of love in us.

1Corinthains 13 is the classic teaching on love. Actually it’s more than a teaching. It’s an experience. Used many times in marriage ceremonies, it goes way beyond the romantic notions through which onlookers may be viewing the occasions. Paul’s call to know the nature of real love (Greek agape), God’s love, takes us into its spiritual depth. If you survey the length of Paul’s first letter to Corinth, it is an intellectual masterpiece like Romans in its practical application of what a relationship with the Lord Jesus means and how it works. In one sense it is as though he were building a new spaceship and getting people in shape to man it. But then he decides the task is finished. He presses the button, ignites the fuel and it is launched into space.

That’s what Chapter 13 does.

It is the structure of the Body of Christ launched into the world’s negative atmosphere with the fuel of God’s love that never runs out. Everything up to this chapter was constructed on the launch pad. Now it’s time for the ignition. For both the ship and each member of the crew it’s time for action; faith to reach out and love. That’s where the heart learns its place in the Body and steps out in faith.

Again, the fuel that will move the whole project and each member of the crew, is God’s agape love. It’s a never exhausting fuel and is moving even when no one else is, simply because of this: God is love. Love fuels the Body of Christ. Love invigorates the Body of Christ. Love reaches out to those along the way and invites them to board the ship, be part of the crew and then, in turn, reach out to those like themselves along the way. God’s nature drives it all.

‘Along the way’ is living through the world we are conscious of every day. The biblical view of the world is the toxic invisible structures and powers that motivate the people in it. It comes down to each individual and what they personally choose to believe in. For each there are only two choices and voices, self or God. Self without God is motivated by sin and makes its own religion. Belief in God is not religion. It’s a personal relationship in which individuals who believe in Jesus are forgiven through His Cross and filled with His Spirit. It’s the revelation of a brand new understanding of space; the unseen experience of time, distance, universal existence and personal spiritual reality in it all.

There are four realms of space, three temporary and one permanent. There is our inner space; our individual hearts, minds and spirits. There is our earthly space; the physical environment in which we live with its evil spirits, its conflicts, its unbelief and their prince, the devil. There is our Holy Spirit space; the Body of Christ and its impact on a godless world. There is our eternal space; the ultimate God and coming into His Kingdom that precedes and succeeds created space; the kingdom of Heaven; the taste of which begins in the Body of Christ.

While the “Christ-ship” is on its way through world space, the gifts are the way for each crew member to minister to the other in spiritual space. They sustain each other from one need to the next. As the crew is strengthened by the Spirit through His spiritual gifts, it also strengthens their witness and becomes part of their personal testimony shared along the way in world space. The ultimate space is God’s Heaven and, way distant in the darkness, is the individual aloneness of hell. Ultimate reality is spiritual. Ultimate reality is God and His kingdom of heaven. Ultimate reality has been revealed in Jesus Christ. Ultimate reality is given to us freely through belief, trust and faith in Jesus as Savior from sin and Lord of all existence.

Like a meteorite, this spaceship, whose head is the Lord Jesus, has invaded and is passing through the world from Heaven and on its way back. The gates of hell cannot block it or hold it back nor deter its mission. There’s only one chance to get on board. Every believer in it is breathing in real eternal spiritual atmosphere. Each believer is a disciple given the Way, with the Truth and in the Life as revealed in Jesus. He has room for everyone to board. He is the One to be shared, worshiped and served. As disciples we reach out and touch someone’s heart. Offer them freedom from the toxic atmosphere in the world’s space. Invite them on board to breath the pure air of the Spirit. Everyone has from physical birth to physical death the opportunity to accept the invitation given us. Jesus is there offering everyone the eternal atmosphere in which we breathe in the Spirit of love. He is taking us to the Heaven beyond the heavens. 

It's time to tell the world around us "We're on our way!"