Resurrection 7a Gift for the Resurrection People

[HKHaugan]

Resurrection 7a A Late Gift

Have you opened all your Christmas gifts? In the flurry of last minute wrapping I forgot one of my gifts for Mary. I discovered it a week or so later when someone riding in the back saw it stuffed under the front seat. It was one of those 'kick-yourself' moments. Sometimes I think we are like that about the gifts God has given us. We stuff them away and forget about them.

For me, part of the Lenten exercise is to return to the basic truths we hold as believers in Jesus. The belief itself is a gift. Remember Peter saying he believed Jesus was the Son of the living God (Mt.16:16)? Jesus replied that was revealed to Peter by the Father. But Peter forgot that moment. Later, when Jesus told how He would die, Peter said that wouldn't happen. So Jesus rebuked him and even called him Satan. His ideas had become man's and not God's. Then too, Peter denies Jesus three times just before the crucifixion. He like the other disciples needed something more than an external experience. They needed an internal realization. Jesus would die on the Cross, but what then? He was raised from the dead to enter the hearts of believers and become that inner reality dismissing all the world's fallen identities and principles. The Holy Spirit made all this possible. He is the reality of Jesus at work. He is the gift. It seems to me we tend to forget the gift of the Holy Spirit.

To sum up, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. The book of Acts could well have been entitled Acts, The Work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is how we know Jesus and through Jesus, our Father in Heaven, and then who we are.
The Holy Spirit is the One who makes the Word of God come alive in us.
He is the 'In-Spiriter', Inspirer.
He is also the One who comes at the moments of choice and decision to nudge us, the Holy Nudger. He is a teacher and the One who reminds, the Holy Reminder (Jn.16:26) of the Word Jesus spoke.
Then He is the power of trust for our heart (Jn.14:1).
The Holy Spirit is the promised gift prophesied (Ezek.39:29, Joel 2:28-32).
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit who raised Jesus and us from the dead (Rom.8:11, Col.3:1).
The Holy Spirit is the One who brings, births and binds us to and in Jesus (Jn.3:16).
It is the Holy Spirit who restores the image and likeness of God in us by making us children of God (Jn.1:12).
He awakens our mind to believe like Jesus (Jn.14:11), builds trust in our heart to trust like Jesus (Jn.14:2) and stimulates our faith to act like Jesus (Mt.15:28).
He reverses us from being self-centered to Jesus centered (Jn.14:26).
He gives us a new family, spiritual brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ with spiritual gifts to minister to one another in the Body and make disciples outside the Body (Rom.12, 1Cor.12, Eph.4).
He gives us a new identity, power and mission in the world: disciples who witness to Jesus to make disciples (Acts 2:8) and who by faith, reconcile their world to Him (2Cor.5:18-20).
He is the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, wisdom, sound mind, truth, what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and praiseworthy (Gal.5:22-23, Php.4:8).
And forget not the power of the armor of God to stand in the world's ominous evil face (Eph.6:10-18).

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Col.3:1-4).”