From the Very Beginning, His Love Overshadows Us

 

From the very beginning, we see the Holy Spirit dwelling with the Father and Jesus.   He hovered over the face of the earth and as the Father spoke, the Holy Spirit brought forth humanity and fruitfulness.  He turned the lights on for us, created food, work to do and filled the oceans with teaming diversity at the word of the Father.   They were all One and continue to be One. But each seems to play different roles, making room for each other and they bring forth their divine purposes. 

 

Clark Pinnock, in Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit notes, “The Spirit, however, presents a unique challenge to speech.  How does one render that reality that is wind, fire, breath, life—tangible, invisible yet powerful, inexpressibly yet intimate, powerful yet gentle, reliable yet unpredictable, personal yet impersonal, transcendent yet Immanent?... Most essentially Spirit is transcendent and divine, not mere flesh; it is the energy of life itself and is present in nature and in history.  Most wonderfully, the Spirit is God’s face turned toward us and God’s presence abiding with us, the agency by which God reaches out and draws near, the power the creates and heals.” [1]

 

We see the Spirit in action through the story of creation.  We also see Him manifesting Himself as a Dove and alighting on Jesus.  A dove, like when Noah let the dove go twice and the second time he came back with a freshly picked olive branch.   He has always been with us and among us.   He seems to manifest Himself physically at times in nature and other times, rests on people as power flows through them.  We see this with Mary, as the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and she became pregnant with Jesus.   We also see this in Moses and the prophets of old, where the Holy Spirit seemed to rest on certain people and they manifested the Kingdom of God.

 

As the Holy Spirit alighted on Jesus as a dove, it affirms about Jesus, that He is the shoot “that will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.” (Isaiah 11:1).  As it goes on to say, in Isaiah 11:2, “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.” 

 

Jesus later, coming up out of the wilderness and starting ministry, recognizes about Himself that the  Holy Spirit is upon Him and empowering Him for the work of Ministry.  He says in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” 

 

We also see the Spirit empowering the church throughout history.   When Moses led the Israelites out of the wilderness, the Holy Spirit was clearly with them, guiding them as a cloud by day and fire by night.  The Spirit rested upon Moses and he was guided to take the Spirit that was upon him and put it on the 70 chosen elders.  When he did this, they were given divine wisdom for leading the people. 

 

In A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, the authors write that prophesying was the external sign that signified the work of the Spirit being placed upon them, as this gift came upon these seventy.  Moses then tells Joshua, who was concerned for his distinction of Spirit in leadership, that he wished all the Lord’s people were prophets and the Lord would put his Spirit on all of them (Num. 11:29).   [2]

 

It also notes about prophets that one of the distinctives was their prophetic inspiration with the Spirit.   They both communicated words and messages that were inspired by the Holy Spirit but their words were also filled with the wind of God, or life-breath.    

 

In other words, they were not just messengers from God that reached in to hear what He had to say and spoke it forth.  Like with Jeremiah, their words were empowered as they partnered with the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s purposes in the earth.  Their words spoke truth with power.   And in a few occasions (both old and new testament), you see someone dropping dead as the prophet spoke as a result of this power.

 

This is important to note as the Old Testament picture of the 70 is the shadow of the New Testament church.  As God endows them with power on high, He is not only giving them inspired words and guiding them in truth, but empowering them to accomplish His purposes on the earth. 

 

We see His heart for this as He sends His disciples out to the world for the first time and then later in the great commission.   He instructs the Apostles in Matthew 10:8, “As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demon s. Freely you have received; freely give. Do not carry any gold or silver or copper in your belts.…”

 

Then we see, after He was crucified, that Jesus calls the church that was being formed to gather together in unity and pray until the Holy Spirit comes upon them. This is the Sprit He promised in John 16:13 would guide them into all truth and speak to them what is to come, glorifying Jesus.  This is also the Spirit who would empower the church.   In Luke 24:49 Jesus tells them, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

 

We know from the story of Pentecost that the Spirit came like a mighty rushing wind.  He rested upon the believers, and they began to manifest the power of the Kingdom.   They also had tongues of fire dancing on their head signifying the promise from John that the “baptism” that Jesus brought was not of water but that of fire, burning away the chaff.  

 

Jesus established the Church and the Spirit of God came to light the flame and empower the church to share Christ with others in ways that were supernatural and filled with the Holy Spirit.  The church, with the power of the Spirit among them, became Spirit-filled believers.

 

Isaiah 32:15-16 prophesies, until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high. Then the desert will be an orchard, and the orchard will seem like a forest. Then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the fertile field.”

 

This speaks of everything flourish everywhere the Spirit fills. In A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, they suggest that as Jesus was a human person that was fully alive and active in both realms, manifesting the Spirit’s rich wisdom and works, they note that this suggests, “the work of the Spirit in redemption is not to produce religious cranks, but to open up our humanity and to enable us to become what God always and by creation intended us to be: His fully human image-bearers.” [3]

 

The religious cranks part is a little humorous because it is also so true.   Rather than being led by the Spirit of God, it is easy to fall into being led by our rational mind according the world and begin to follow principals and practices.  

 

In any practice or principal, as good as it starts out, it often involves self-effort that leads to pride.  As we become prideful and self-righteous, we move out of alignment with the Spirit.  He cannot dwell with us as we are rigid, hard and inflexible.   In this state, we often are secretly envious of others, jealous, suspicious, and finger pointing.   Rather getting the log out of our own eye, we stick our finger right into the pupil of our neighbor’s eye.  

 

We start caring more about everyone around us carrying standards of our morality than loving people into the truth.   Even our attempts to help others around us is unfruitful and sometimes even hurtful as we judge others lower than ourselves.  

 

Jesus asks the religious people in Matthew 15:3, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” And Paul warns the Christians in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive to hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of the world rather than Christ.”

 

It is so easy to follow the process over time and miss the purpose.   We see this with the Israelites when they were uprooted to Babylon.  They had begun to put their faith in the land they were given and being God’s special people, so much so that they forgot a relationship with God altogether.   They were no longer listening, and their heart’s had become hard.   

 

To get them back, God literally uprooted them.  They were sent off to Babylon.  Mark Batterman, in Do It for a Day, speaks of breaking old habits and making new ones often involving making a shift to patterns of habits.  It gives us a reset.  It feels like this is what God was doing with the Israelites.  In shifting them out of their habits of tradition, they began to develop a relationship with God again and genuinely follow Him.

 

The story of Daniel picks up with these four faithful and Spirit led Israelites that were indoctrinated into the Babylon cultures and beliefs.   But as they chose faithfulness to the Lord and trust in this new culture, God gave them favor.   Instead of them becoming indoctrinated, they literally shifted an entire culture to the Lord.   As the King and others saw Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego in the fire with a fourth man, they turned people to believe.  Because of it, the king sent out a decree that the Lord is God and all should worship Him. 

 

All that to say, if there is a huge disruption in your life or something big and unsettling, perhaps it is just the shift you need.  I may be shifting you out of your comfortable position to get you into position to make a difference.  We often want to make a difference while sitting in our usual comfortable spot.  But most change happens when we are placed off-center.  It is when we are most agile and listening.   It is the place where traditions do not hold up, but faith does.   God’s purposes prevails when our plans are sifted (Proverbs 19:21). 

 

The important part of this is not to get further out of line with the Holy Spirit by grumbling, complaining, becoming bitter, looking for escapes, blowing up at someone, pointing fingers and fault finding, gossiping, looking for revenge, or indulging.   To follow the Holy Spirit, we need to be agile and open.  We need to stay kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving, and standing in the truth and God will meet us there.  He will strengthen and sustain us.

We see this with Gideon. While afraid, he pushed back on the traditions of the community that were against their God.  Then, when God called him to battle, he let the Lord trim back his army from 20,000 to 300 so that he would not rely on His own sufficiency but Gods.  They went into battle totally by faith, breaking jars and blowing trumpets, watching the Lord completely take down the 120,000 men that they went against.  It was not by their might, but their agility in following and trusting the Lord that they took the land.  

 

Blessed are those who do not shrink back from death. Like Daniel in the lion’s den or Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego, and Joseph in prison, we need to say whatever happens, we will trust and serve the Lord.   It is in this place that the Kingdom bursts forth.   Like them, we all have much to give, to share and to contribute wherever we find ourselves.

 

Lord Jesus, lead us into more agility in following you.  Help us to put away dead tradition and embrace your ways.  Let us walk with you hand-in-hand no matter what we face.  Keep our hearts close to you and fulfill Your purposes for us.  

1. Pinnock, Clark. Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. Downers Grove, Il. 1996.

2-3. Burk, Trevor and Warrington, Keith (Editors).  A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit.  Teachings by multiple authors.  Cascade Books, Eugene, Or.  2014.