By My Spirit Says The Lord
There is a story in Judges 19 where the men of Benjamin storm a house bent on violating a Levite that is staying overnight. This Levite throws his concubine out the door at them like a possession and they rape her repeatedly until she dies. As a result, this Levite cuts up her body and sends it out to all the tribes of Israel, declaring war on the Benjaminites.
Because the Bejaminites are such great warriors, it takes several battles and many lost lives before they can overtake them. They finally do and strip them down to a small group before feeling sorry for them and allowing them to steal brides for themselves after slaughtering the tribe of Jabesh-Gilead for not going to war and giving them the virgin women.
This is such a heart-rending story of people totally lost in sin. What a mess. What started as a group that came into the Promised Land by faith and became great warriors under the guidance of the Lord led to them using their gifts to use and destroy others for their own pleasure. Not only this but the people who come to the rescue don’t seem to really know what they are doing either.
Commentary notes that it is a harsh reminder of humanity’s capacity for evil and underscores the urgent need for some sort of spiritual compass that would lead and guide their lives.1
This follows just after a story of the Danites who steal a Levite man and his household idol and make him their priest. The household idol was made from money that the owner of the house had initially stole from his mother and then confessed to it.
Commentary notes that the Danites exemplified the lack of God’s guidance in their lives, as they relied on their own understanding instead of divine direction. This is labeled moral relativism, as people follow what they think, their own moral judgments, rather than being led by God. 2
As we know, Judges ends with “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in His own eyes.” (Judges 21:25). This is the essence of moral relativism. People are not led by divine guidance but they are led by their own perceptions of right and wrong. Truth becomes relative rather than a divine compass that directs our path.
What they needed was empowerment to live out the Covenant with divine guidance. Outside of this guidance, they became totally lost over and over again. The people do what they think is right, and they lose sight of their own perceptions and are left groping in the darkness.
Even with Divine Guidance, we see people getting lost. When Jesus came to earth, the twelve disciples were fighting among themselves about who was the greatest. We have Judas stealing funds and betraying Jesus for 30 silver coins. The influence of the world overtook them in many different places. Even seeing someone get raised from the dead did not cause them to live a holy and sanctified life that was free from sin.
This gets to the point that our human nature is one of sin. By our nature, we are unable to walk out the gospel without getting lost and off track. We become proud, stubborn, rebellious, confused, hurtful, selfish, and unkind to others. If we say that we are without sin, we are deceiving ourselves.
This also gets to the importance of why Jesus did not come and stay to guide us Himself. He was crucified and died, risen again so that we might have life. Here is that life: Christ in you, the hope of glory!
He says in John 16:7, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, The Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
Here, the Lord is clear that His purpose lies in His leaving, not in staying because when He dies, His very own Spirit can be sent out to us. The purpose is not just so that we are risen from the dead when we die. It is also that we can be in Christ and walk this out in the world.
He sat in heaven watching us living out the Covenant in moral relativism and totally lost. He didn’t forsake us or give up on us and being a lost or hopeless cause. He thought, if they could live in Me and have My Spirit in them, they would experience the power needed to live by divine enablement rather than moral relativism.
In John 16:13-14 He says, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: For He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it into you.”
The Holy Spirit living in us, given to us as a gift when we receive Christ, helps us to live out the gospel in holiness, with the fruits and gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an added feature or a second-thought gift. The Holy Spirit is the whole purpose of Christianity.
Paul labored hard for the church to live by the Spirit and not follow any longer the works of the law. In 1 Corinthians 3:1, he confronts the church, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ?”
Here Paul had an expectation that the church was not meeting. It was to live by the Spirit. The church was divided and fighting over leaders. They were positioning themselves in the church by whom they followed and laboring to be the greatest. They were acting as if they still lived out of the world and not out of the Spirit. They were ordering themselves by the world and using worldly measures. Paul asks this church, “Are you not acting like mere humans?” (1 Corinthians 3:3)
Whoa! This challenged them with this question: Are you still mere human when you are born again? What?! True! We are no longer mere humans when we receive Christ. We are eternal beings housed in a body for a time while receiving the Holy Spirit’s guidance. We are being trained for the supernatural realm.
In these verses, Paul is calling them to do more. He is calling them to live by the Spirit in the transformative power that elevates us beyond our human limitations. He wants the church to live by divine guidance. Our objective as Christians is to live by the Spirit, following divine guidance. It is in living out of this divine guidance that we glorify Christ and are living for Christ.
So here are a few thoughts on this: First, it is totally possible to come into the Kingdom and not understand that you have been born into a different Kingdom. It is totally possible to be a carnal Christian who lives by the world’s standards. Second, to live by the Spirit, one must understand this and make room for it. They have to choose to follow the divine guidance they are provided.
I had a dream a few nights ago and saw fish being puled up out of the water in nets on fishing boats. There was an abundance of fish being caught in the nets and pulled up, like in the story when Jesus had the disciples drop their nets on the other side of the boat. The fishing boats could hardly contain the number of fish.
I saw all these wonderful fish and heard the Holy Spirit ask me as I woke up: “What is the condition of the fish?” I looked at them and thought to myself, they look like pretty good fish. They are in the nets and seem healthy.
While we both rejoiced about so many good fish in the nets, I felt His heart was grieved about them. As I kept asking Him about it, I came to the verse in Luke 18:8 where the widow cried out to the unjust judge, and he avenged her. In this verse, the Lord asks, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?”
My take on this is that God wants more than fish in the boat. He wants more than us counting the number of people who come into the Kingdom. He is looking for His people to come into their identity in the body of Christ. He wants His people to be led by divine guidance. This requires making room for the Holy Spirit.
So how do we make more room for the Holy Spirit in our lives and ministries? Paul speaks of the church body as “Ministers of the New Covenant” in 2 Corinthians 2-6 and highlights key aspects:
Bending to the Spirit’s leading versus moral relativism. Our competence as ministers comes from God, “not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor. 3:6).
Contemplating the Lord’s glory, being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, coming from the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).
In weakness but sincerity, renouncing shameful ways and doing everything in the sight of God, we live in the light and let the light of God’s glory be put on display through us (2 Cor. 4:2-4)
In humility, as we have this treasure in jars of clay, give our lives over in surrender as we are persecuted and pressed, allowing death to old self to be worked in us and bringing forth new life by the power of the Spirit (2 Cor. 4:7-12)
In faith, believing and speaking forth the truth of the gospel of Christ
Not denying His power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead (2 Cor. 4:13).
In thanksgiving, living in His grace that is reaching more and more people. Thankful even in trouble, overflowing with praise for the glory of God. (2 Cor. 4:15-17)
With our eyes fixed on what is unseen and eternal over what is seen and from the world. (2 Cor. 4:18)
In anticipation of what is to come, longing for our heavenly dwelling where our mortal bodies are swallowed up by life. Living for our eternal home that we are specifically fashioned for by God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit of what is to come (2 Cor. 5:4-6)
Making it our goal to please the Lord in all that we do, knowing that ultimately, He is the one that we answer to. We no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died and was raised again. (2 Cor. 5:9-15).
As co-laborers. Living as a new creation of the Spirit with the ministry of being Christ’s ambassadors, as though God is making His appeal through us. (2 Cor. 5:16-6:1)
At some point, Paul tells us to imitate him as He imitates Christ as servants of God, enduring hardships while walking in purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God, with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, through both glory and dishonor, good report and bad, genuine Christians and impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown, poor while making many rich, having nothing but possessing everything (2 Cor. 6:3-10).
What Paul is painting for us is what it looks like to walk in the Spirit and live by the Spirit. Our lives no longer lived for ourselves and no longer lived by the law, we invite the Spirit into everything. We make room for Him and do not grieve Him by continuing to live by the flesh.
Given that our whole walk as born-again Christians is to be in partnership with the Spirit and centered around the Spirit, it is not surprising that there is so much pressure to limit the Holy Spirit. People feel weird about being “led by the Spirit” or “gifts of the Spirit.” Yet, according to Paul, that is the whole point of Christianity.
While some people make mistakes in trying to be led by the Spirit, and you end up with a little bit of a mix, the answer is not to cut out the Spirit from everything. If we do, we come back to living out our Christianity in moral relativism under the law, which we have no power to sustain. We end up misguided. It is only by the Spirit that we are transformed, have eternal life, cry “Abba Father,” and walk out our faith.
Lord Jesus, forgive us where we try to push out the very Spirit that You died to send to us and give us life. Help us to genuinely live in You and with You in a way that is guided by Your Holy Spirit.
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