Inviting Alighting

 

Jesus had a clear time that the Holy Spirit came upon Him.   He descended on him in the bodily form of a dove when he was being baptized by John (Luke 3:21-22).   This is the One that John promised the people was coming and would baptize them not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and fire (Luke 3:16).  

 

Jesus showed humility in stepping down from heaven and becoming human(see Philippians 2:6-8), born into a poor family and then asking John to baptize Him before starting ministry.  Francis Frangipane notes that being led through the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and our ability to hear His voice, is in direct correlation to our humility.   It was the humility of Jesus that made Him fully receptive for the Sprit to alight on Him and guide Him.  [1]

 

Jesus, full of the Spirit by being baptized was then led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days (Luke 4:1).  This was a time for Him of complete and utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit.  He even counted on the Spirit for His sustenance.  Through His dependence during this time, it says that He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee and began teaching in the synagogues. 

 

Notice the power came with the dependence.  Jesus was not immediately filled with power as the Spirit came upon Him.  He was filled with the Spirit and led by the Spirit, but His empowerment by the Spirit came after His testing through this forty-day wilderness period.  This testing ground in utter dependence was the place he was filled with power. 

 

We often despise the wilderness times that make us feel weak and in need, but these are the very places that God empowers us.   We shift from our own strength to the Holy Spirit’s strength.  It is only in dependence upon the Spirit that we can be empowered by Him.   Dependence is the key to empowerment.  

 

Luke and the other writers of the gospels, made a clear point to represent the ministry of Jesus as empowered, anointed and dependent upon the Holy Spirit.   As we follow Jesus, this is the model we are to follow.  It is one of dependence, empowerment and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we walk in dependence and humility with Him rather than being led by our natural tendencies.

 

We often can fall into leading by our natural abilities but these lack the empowering presence of the Lord and lead to pride.  J. Oswald Sanders, in his book Spiritual Leadership lists out characteristics of natural leadership compared to those with dependence upon the Spirit[2]:

 

 

The Natural leader is usually commanding and demanding.  They, in independence, are looking to accomplish their ambitions for their purposes where the Spiritual leader is coming from a place of submission and dependence.   Guillermo Maldonado writes, “The law of the kingdom of darkness is domination and control over people.  The law of the Kingdom of God is submission freely offered to Him.” [3]

 

Sanders notes that mastering self is a key component of spiritual leadership.  This is the wilderness place of temptation to use our own ways and learning to grow in dependence upon the Holy Spirit [4].  If we get stuck in the wilderness and never grow past our temptations toward using our own strength, we will wander around and around these same territories repeatedly and lack His power in that area of our lives.

 

Sanders writes, “As we become ‘empty’ of self and dependent on God, the Holy Spirit will use us”  [4]. It is in the process of picking up our cross and following the Lord that we become more like Him, leading us first on a journey of descent and dependence before we make the ascent to greater influence and authority.

Key components to death to self, involve humility, learning and being willing to change, as well as self-restraint.  Jesus demonstrated all of these as He was tested in the wilderness. He held to the Word of God and refused to be pulled into fleshly thinking.  Rather, He put it to death with the Word.   There are many areas that can be a temptation and pull us into the flesh as a spiritual leader, including the following[5]:

Appetite              Ambition             Self-Seeking       Recognition and Approval              Offense
Opposition          Criticism               Pessimism           Complain and Grumble                Intolerant
Inflexible             Insensitive          Blame                   Sensitive to Criticism                    Make Excuses
Defensive           Status Quo          Unforgiving        Reactionary in Adversity                 Un-enthusiastic
Status or $           Demanding         Prideful                 Looks Down on Others                 Compromising

Weak                    Refuse Failure   Hold to Old         Cover Your Butt                              Never Receive

As Jesus came out of His testing period emptied of self and began His ministry, He was read the scroll in the synagogue on the Sabbath day.   He came to Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

With reading this, He announced that “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21).   He was making it clear that He was being empowered by the Spirit with the Holy Spirit’s anointing to perform the work He was called to.   In this work, it was this incredible work of justice for the poor. 

 

In A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, they point out this relation of power, justice and might spoken of in Micah 3:8, “But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin.”  [6]

 

Here, the Holy Spirit filling him was giving Him power that was of justice and might.   The purpose of this power was to right what is wrong.  We know from later in Micah, the Lord tells him what the Lord expects from him: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

 

In A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, Martin Clay goes on to note the clear intertextual connection between Jeremah 7 and Zechariah 7:7-14, in the warnings to the people to dispense true justice, showing compassion and kindness, while not oppressing or exploiting the widow, orphan, stranger or poor.  And in treating each other, not to even imagine evil in one’s hearts against another.  [7]

 

In both cases, these prophets were confronting this false religion of spiritual practices that lacked justice and care for their neighbor.  In James 1:27, James summarizes it as true religion before  God is: “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

 

All that to say that the place of being led by the Spirit, we will have a heart of justice towards others.  We will care for our neighbor and want to make a difference in their lives.  We will want to see the poor have freedom.  Not only will we share His heart for this, for how can two walk together unless they agree? (Amos 3:3), but we will be empowered for justice when we grow in humility and dependence.  Being more like Jesus is caring for the poor in ways that bring justice.

 

Sanders, in Spiritual Leadership, quotes the classic Serious Call by William Law in looking more like Jesus as a leader in this way:

Let every day be a day of humility; condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow-creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowliest of offices of the lowest of mankind.” [8]

This is a challenge to anyone seeking to follow the Lord, but it is a great picture of what Paul spoke of in Philippians 2:3-8, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

William Law challenged believers, like as in the book of James, with the question, what good was their faith or religion if it was not practiced? To say one is a Christian and still live according to the old ways only shows that your faith is ingenuine.   If one is genuinely following Him, they will have the fear of the Lord and a desire to live a devout life that does not grieve Him.

 

I think the deeper question on this is where is your destination?  Where are you planning to go?  Our destination sets our course.   It is important we know where we are heading.  If it is to become like Christ and follow Him, with our primary goal to glorify Him, we will.   

 

Nicky Gumble, the leader of Alpha, challenges us to, “Dare to be different by being like Him.  Don’t follow what the world tells you is desirable, but follow God by becoming more Christ-like”  [9]. To some, that will be to them the fragrance of death.  It will bother them.  But to others, it will breathe life into them.  God’s Spirit through us, the wind of God, the ruach, has force and power to shift and change a situation and the atmosphere around us, bringing forth refreshing, establishing, and encouraging.

 

 

 

1.  Frangipane, Francis.  Blessed Are the Meek, Part 2.  October 11, 2024.

2,4-5,8. Sanders, J. Oswald.  Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer.  Moody Press, Chicago, Il. 1994. Whiteaker House, New Kensington, PA.  2013.

3.  Maldonado, Guillermo.  The Kingdom of Power:  How to Demonstrate it Here and Now.

6-7. Burk, Trevor and Warrington, Keith (Ed).  A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit.  Cascade Books, Eugene, Or.  2014. 

9. Gumbel, Nicky, The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel, Classic Version, Devotional, Day 286.