Resurrection 15 How's Your Air Conditioner Working?

[HKHaugan]

Resurrection 15 How's Your Air Conditioner Working?

Our air conditioning went out and we're getting prices for a new system. It ain't cheap folks! But, like all these kinds of situations, there is a spiritual parallel and I believe the more we think spiritually about our experience day by day, the more the Lord can use us while we are on the way.

Just what does an air conditioner do? An air conditioner keeps us cool, circulates, filters and dehumidifies the air, reduces the possibility of mildew and mold and makes us more comfortable especially if accompanied by a heat pump for cold weather. We set the thermostat and the temperature and flow are automatically regulated. If we go away for any length of time it maintains the air and temperature to keep out air contaminants. One more thing to note: we take an air conditioner for granted. Once we set the thermostat we forget about it.

Now consider the spiritual parallel. We live in a spiritual atmosphere all the time. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a mighty wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting (Acts 2:2).” Jesus said the same, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (Jn.3:8).” The Old Testament is full of wind sequences that, when read as spiritual occurrences, reveal the Lord's own hand working to prepare the way for His presence in a human body walking the through the hills and valleys of Galilee. In essence, the wind is the Holy Spirit revealed in the mind and heart of Jesus.

When the Holy Spirit is active he cools the heart to let the temperature of its passions come back to the Lord's control. Then when we need to stand, evaluate and act the Holy Spirit turns up the heat. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual air conditioner and, if this isn't stretching it too far, the Lord Jesus is the thermostat who directs how the temperature, the air flow, the humidity balance and the evil spirits and our sin-led attitudes are filtered and balance is restored. The air flow is the gifts and fruit of the Spirit (Rom.12, 1Cor.12, Eph.4, Gal.5:22-23). Without the gift of the Holy Spirit there is no spiritual life in us, only sin, and its bad air eventually rots our lungs with spiritual emphysema and we die.

I am convinced that one of the things the larger Body of Christ will be asked as each of us comes before the Judgment Seat is 'How did you handle the Holy Spirit?' When I say that I mean how did we think about Him, share Him, practice the gifts and fruit of the Spirit, really open ourselves up to Him? As a Resurrection people we need to grasp that just the idea of the Resurrection in itself is the work of the Holy Spirit, the purpose of the Holy Spirit and the place of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is the Holy Spirit that has generated everything we have experienced as God. Our relationship with the Lord Jesus, the way we were led to accept Him, the whole of the process of our sinful lives being snatched from the devil's hold, our constant need of dependence of the Lord and the revelation of our real and Heavenly Father: that's it, the work of the Holy Spirit. We have to be aware that the Holy Spirit is as much God as the Father and the Son. We can't and mustn't neglect or take Him for granted.

A Resurrection people are Holy Spirit people. The Lord Jesus died to give us the Holy Spirit to live personally in a relationship with Him. Remember on the Cross He said, “Father into your hands I commit my Spirit.” He gave up the Spirit and died but was risen by the same Spirit and walked the earth for 40 more days appearing to many and teaching them by the Spirit. “We were all given the One Spirit to drink (1Cor.12:13).” He died not only to save us from sin but to allow His Presence to take root in us. That's what Pentecost was about. When we received Jesus that was our personal Pentecost. It was by the Holy Spirit that we were spiritually born, born again. The Bible is the Holy Spirit manual to breathe Him in. That's how we exercise our spiritual breathing. We study its pages letting our mind absorb its principles, trusting the Lord to work them in us and then putting them into practice day by day.

It seems to me our basic struggle as living beings is to see ourselves as spiritual images of God before we see ourselves as human beings. We are so locked into the physical world, the social world, the political and economic worlds, that to think spiritually has become secondary. Zechariah reminds us, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts (4:6).” According to one Bible commentator there are 6009 references to the Spirit in the King James Version. I'm sure the same is true of all the translations. As Resurrection people we search the Scripture with the spiritual dimension in mind. This is more than analogical or symbolic thinking. This is the real thing. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that enables us to understand all of our experience in the unseen. That's important considering that 100% of everything we do is motivated by what we can't see.

There is no question for us as Jesus' disciples that spiritual reality is what we were designed to live in. What is the condition of our present system? Is our compressor (mind and heart) in good spiritual shape? How about our air handler (spirit)? Is it carrying air to all rooms in balance? Is the thermostat adjusting properly to temperature change, humidity and pressure? You can carry the comparison just so far but I'm sure you get the idea. Being in the Body of Christ we have access to all the spiritual tools as brothers and sisters whose gifts are available and operative. This is true of our system is constantly allowed to be checked by the Spirit.

We are fast approaching the celebration of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. In that week before, many will be remembering the Cross and Jesus' suffering for us. As Resurrection people we see why He told us to take up our cross every day because of the Resurrection. His rising guarantees His presence when we move in faith meeting a world that is desperate for the balance only He can bring. Faith is the cross He has asked us to carry.

I don't know if all of us realize we have been given authority over life and death. We have been given the choice to accept life in Christ, living for Him, and through that life to put to death those things in us, attitudes and self-promoting spirits, that prevent His life being our light (Col.3:5). That's what taking up our cross is all about. A Resurrection people have the power of repentance and forgiveness, love and grace, truth and right to be salt and light in the world.

Again, we are a Resurrection people motivated by the Holy Spirit. Stay focused. Stay spiritually conscious. Is this a great air conditioning system, or what?