Tuesday Bible Study Topic

[HKHaugan]

The Holy Spirit and You (Tuesday Bible Study)

 “I just had to do it.  I had to say something.  I just couldn’t let that slip by.”  I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t at least had that feeling if not that actual experience.  Think of the feeling you had when you first saw the mountains, met a unique person, had an inner compulsion to do something special.  You go to a concert.  The music moves you.  You’re enthralled and tell others about it.  You meet that special person that brings all kinds of desires to your mind.  You pursue him or her and build a relationship.  You see a baby in play and there’s something that touches you inside.  We could go on, but the point is all of those experiences are happening invisibly within.  They are your spirit stirring your heart’s response and your mind’s conclusions.  It is your spirit that motivates your response and what you do with what your experience.  Everyone is built this way.  This is who and what we are.  We are spiritual persons before anything else (Gen.1:26-27, 2:7).  But sin has separated our spirit from God’s Spirit.  As a result, our spirit is self-centered, self-indulgent, self-protecting and self-directed.  It needs a spiritual renovation (Mk.7:20-23).

 The whole process of life with all its choices and decisions is an invisible spiritual reality.  We are images of a spiritual God who reflect Him.  Whether or not you accept believing in God, it’s impossible to escape that reality.  Who do we allow to be our guide through this maze of choice and decision, relationships, purpose and meaning?  Can they be trusted to offer you a perfect relationship that never disappoints?  Are they examples you would live and die for on a daily basis?  And then guarantee you life after you die?

 Now shift to what Jesus did with that same process (Jn.10:10).  Think of what Jesus did with His life (Jn.4:34).  What made Him different than us (Jn.10:30)?  What drove Him from one place and person to another (Jn.3:16-17)?  What was so unique about Him that He would sacrifice everything to face the injustice of conspiracies, a collusive trial, a fear-enveloped political leadership and a final execution into a lonely death (John 17:25-26)? 

 Inside Jesus was the Holy Spirit, the unseen power of God lived clearly and plainly.  Jesus was living a spiritual calling, to obey His Father’s will.  His physical life reflected the exact spiritual reaction of God in every moment He was physically present on this earth.  His life was a spiritual life, a personal life lived in the Spirit and a relational life motivated by the Spirit.  He was a spiritual, personal and relational deliverer from the spiritual disease of sin that felled Adam and Eve. 

 Ever since, humanity has been in chaos, conflict and cultural conditioning.  Anxiety within and intimidation from without.  But the aloneness every human being feels is what Jesus took on Himself when He was sent by His Father to save us from ourselves, deliver us from sin’s oppression and fear.  His life was a life in the Spirit, revealing the nature of God to be grace, faith, love and hope.  His responses were perfect in every detail as only God in the flesh could do.  Every moment of His life was a Spirit-motivated moment that started from being spiritually conceived and physically born.  His death was a physical death, but He was physically raised by the Holy Spirit and His spiritual reality as God the Son was revealed in that moment. 

 It is that same Holy Spirit who enables us to have a spiritual birth, a return to what we were created to be, a spiritual child of God.  Anyone who believes in Jesus is a new creation (2Cor.5:17), forgiven, and ready to let the Holy Spirit guide them from one moment to the next.  The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of faith who takes our faith ability and gives it life.  The Holy Spirit will be the subject of our Tuesday Bible study.

 What do we do with this new life we’ve been given?  We open ourselves to it, let the Holy Spirit develop it, nurture it, feed it and share it.  It is a life different from out past.  No longer driven by the lonely meaningless quest for identity and security, it runs on faith.  That faith is a trek through the unknown that comes at us in every next moment.  The former life met each moment with anxiety.  The new life is a faith life and we meet it looking forward to what the Lord is going to show is in it.  Anxiety was due to our aloneness.  Living by faith in Jesus means we are spiritually aware and meet each moment relationally with Him leading the way.

 If you would for a moment, picture Jesus here in our world preparing His disciples for His death.  We might hear Him saying in our everyday language to His disciples, “Look you guys, we’ve had three full years together.  You’ve called me Master, Messiah, Lord and God.  That’s all true. Well, everything I’ve been and done has been by faith in my Father, trusting His will and Word in the Holy Spirit. I’ve done all this for you and all people for all time.  Right now, I want you to get this.  Regardless of my death on the Cross, I’m going to rise above it.  I’m headed home.  Very soon after I leave, my Father will send the Holy Spirit to keep you up to date with me personally all the time.  He’s the reason I’m going away so that what I have been to you up to this point will happen in you when He comes to each of you personally.  He’ll be your new life we’ll share together (Jn.14:26).”