PENTECOST POSTSCRIPT:

COMING TO THE LIVING WORD OF GOD

... some life-giving perspectives

COMING TO THE LIVING WORD OF GOD

As we explored our response to the Holy Spirit in Part III, we spoke about the Holy Spirit’s role in bringing scripture to life with new power.

“The Bible, of course, is a revelation by the Holy Spirit. We need His help to have His words come to life in our own lives, so we need His presence with us (with His faith, hope and love) as we read, discern and apply the written word of God.” 1

We also spoke of going deeper into God’s love and taking Him at His word…

“Even in the spiritual or religious realm, there are many who remain disengaged with their hearts, while learning—very well—the superficial and expected words and behaviors. Our God—Being Love Himself—is a relationship God. Our God is straightforward, trustworthy and honest. He asks for our love—toward Him and towards one another.” 2

We can become more aware of His presence and His availability—particularly as we hear and read about Him in the scriptures and put into prayer and practice what we read and believe.

“Knocking, asking, seeking” can result in a new experience of God’s wisdom, strength, inspiration, guidance, understanding of scripture, encouragement… healing, joy, enabling, miracles …like being immersed in the stream of the Holy Spirit’s power. 3

On the other hand, we can get so, so, so very accustomed to doing things—even, yes, everything—by our own power and strength—that we fail to ask God for the (“easy yoke, light burden”) kind of help that He so gladly wants to give. We create our own low ceiling of understanding (when God says in His word to “ask” for wisdom!) and our own ‘low-finite-ceiling’ of power for living and being and DO-ing… doing for and with and through the Lord’s available power.

It is unfortunate, in my view, that very few actually take Him at His word. It is too easy to focus so much on researching and explaining scripture that we “forget” to follow and obey it. We can “explain it … away”… Then we miss some of the “fruit” that He wants to develop in our lives. As we believe and receive His truth into—not only our minds—but our hearts, we find the Holy Spirit acting in our behalf. He helps apply it—and fulfill it—in our lives. What a blessing!

Additionally, when we fail to “take Him at His word”, we may even miss being an instrument in some of the harvest that the Lord so dearly desires and has planned.

LEARNING AND INTIMACY

It is good to study. It is good to learn as much about God’s word and Bible days as we can. It in no way substitutes for knowing Him, and relating to Him, but it can help our understanding. We just need to guard against settling for merely intellectualizing God. When we do that, it is easy, at the same time, to minimize our daily, intimate relationship with this very real, 3-PersonGod. This makes it easier to fail to believe and trust and (“biblically”) “know” Him, and relate from deep within our spirits and souls to these Divine Persons, Three in One. His love and power enable us to be intimate with Him.

We just need to keep our focus, and our hearts seeking Him—above all. (To do the opposite is to let “idols” and idolatry set in.) We risk losing a great deal of wisdom, applied knowledge and literal ‘presence’ of God Himself if we treat scripture more (and focus on it more) as an ancient document ‘for them in their time and place’ than for us in our time and place.

Our God is eternal (in and for all time), All-mighty (Almighty) and Creative. He is also the Living Word. The Bible tells us that God’s word is “sharper than a two-edged sword”. I believe He is sharp enough to figure out how to speak to us—now—from those words in the Bible, for as long as we need to hear them. He has infused power and meaning into those words. When we add the “water” and the “breath” of the Spirit, they can come to life! Let’s let them!

The last thing we would want to choose is to minimize or nullify the manifestation and experience of all the effects and benefits that the Lord Jesus Christ died to give us. That means we would limit what we would come to receive and know individually, in our personal lives—with all its effects on our ministering to those around us, and on every group, community, and body of believers of which we are a part.

PASSIONATE APPROACH

If we only engage our minds when coming to God’s word, we miss a great deal. As we approach scripture, it helps to come with a seeking heart, eager to hear what our One True God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—have to say to us. It helps to come with a heart open to learning more of Who the Father is and what He desires for His children. It helps to come hungry to hear, and willing to obey. It helps to come with a heart glad to get to know Jesus, and open to encounter the more ephemeral—but very real—Person of the Holy Spirit.

It helps to come as eager as a loved one waiting for a letter from a father or a brother away at war, fighting for our freedom. We hunger for a word from them, whom we personally long to see.

It helps to remember that God our Father, and God the Savior-Son are still working hard in our behalf—to help provide, to heal, to bless and protect from evil as we endeavor to seek, ask, receive, follow and obey. We have the Holy Spirit, Who IS, in a sense, the primary and very real presence of God available to us on this earth. God the Father… “art in heaven”… God the Son now “sits at the Father’s right hand”… “ever interceding” for us. And the Holy Spirit has been given and continues to be accessible as a loving help.

“ALL”

God asks us to love Him… from the Ten Commandments to the New Testament. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment…” [Mt. 22:37,38]

We need to speak to this from two seemingly opposite (but both true) directions—one very serious, one very gentle.

One necessary approach to this verse is to get extremely serious about what it says. Then, when we realize just how far we actually are from that, we need to look at the extremes of God’s grace, mercy and help in regard to helping us obey this command to love “with all… all… all…” The point is strongly made to love God first… above all… before all… with all… remembering that this is the “first” and “greatest” “commandment” (not just a ‘nice idea’ or ‘suggestion’).

“All” is a powerful little word. It means the “whole amount”… “every part”…”entirely consumed” 4… Clear enough… From these extreme words, we could get the impression that such a love is so total that we may think it impossible to measure up to. But God gives help…

“Loving God” can become like some kind of mechanical and rote religious behavior. I Cor 13 puts flesh on “love”, and answers the question beautifully, “What is love?” What we usually do not realize is that this kind of love (described in chapter 13) also applies to loving God Himself… But even in loving Him, He gives us help…

So now we get to the “gentle” part, the other important approach to this “greatest” commandment. We repeat a comment from Part III that applies to our understanding here:

“In natural life and living, we human beings grow and mature. We take more and more steps to do what our parents used to do for us—from feeding us, to carrying us, to making choices for us when we couldn’t talk or have the wisdom or power to decide for ourselves. The same is true in our spiritual life...” 5

One wonderful aspect of God’s loving kindness is that He loves as a good, good Father—something not all of us have experienced on a human level. As a good parent, we would not mind “filling in the gaps” for our children—more for the 5 year old than for the 16 year old, and much more for the 14 month old… We don’t expect the newborn to wash his own diapers, or the 4 year old to pay the mortgage. We gladly and lovingly cover these things. It wouldn’t occur to us to think, “I wish that 7 year old would go out and get a job!”

Likewise, as God’s children (and “Yes”, we still are) we can rest in the fact that He does not expect us to “have arrived” from the beginning. (See footnote below. 6) We come to Him seeking, hungering, thirsting to know and to love Him and others. We come honestly, humbly, sincerely, remembering that God is the always Faithful Father. He doesn’t mind taking that role, in fullness of love and mercy, with each one of us. That’s why He so much desired to send the “Helper”, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is there to work to develop good fruit in us (it’s His job, and His fruit endures) and to enable us to “rest in the Lord”—resting from our own works and, more often than we think of it—resting on His good work that was accomplished on the cross, and is continuously made available by grace from His saving act.

So… let’s begin… or continue… to receive all the help that God wants to give… hungry to hear…willing to obey… eager to receive and get to know God better… trusting that His word is true…

We can affirm our belief outside of our intellectual understanding, in the same way that we expect our children to believe and obey what we tell them, whether they understand completely or not. The Lord will shed light on the wisdom of the scriptures He has given to instruct us—step-by-step as we need it, in any phase of our life … when and as we need to understand. In the meantime, we operate as the child that doesn’t yet need to comprehend molecular science…

Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to gently light up the scriptures with understanding, and enlighten our minds… and, somehow, by grace, lighten our hearts as we hear His words.

Again, we say: Let’s truly seek this third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Let us be willing to let the Divine “wind” blow—the very breath of God— and receive what He has to offer.

FOOTNOTES:

(Please note that any part of a scripture quote in this article that is in bold type has been put in bold print by this author.)

1 THE POWER OF PENTECOST: A three-part series, PART III, THE HOLY SPIRIT SPEAKS: HOW SHALL WE RESPOND?, by Kathy Boh, published June 22, 2017, trinitychurchsupply.com/blog

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Mirriam-Webster online dictionary

5 CONFIRMATION AND BEYOND: LIFE IN AND WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, posted by Kathy Boh on March 2, 2017, trinitychurchsupply.com/blog

6 Paul spoke about this in Philippians, very clearly. " ...Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus has captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and strain ahead for what is to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus."[Phil. 3:12-14, The Jerusalem Bible] 

7 CONFIRMATION AND BEYOND: LIFE IN AND WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, posted by Kathy Boh on March 2, 2017, trinitychurchsupply.com/blog

AFTERWARD

SYMBOLISM, TRADITION AND REALITY

When we speak of Pentecost, some bible scholars have described the event and associated details as “symbolism” and “tradition”. Most other scholars through the ages have taken God’s word (through several New Testament writers) as real, true and actual. I do the same. I believe it is helpful to find patterns and symbols in scripture that enable us to better comprehend the message and even give us some visual pictures to help us understand. But let’s not let that become the main object of comprehension or a substitute for real events and works of God on this earth.

The fact that the number “7” symbolizes “perfection” doesn’t cancel out the fact that there are 7 days in our week. The fact that “water” is a symbol for life does not mean that water is not real. That very real symbol that we call “water” is actually one of the minimal requirements for human (and other living) bodies to survive and live. The fact that it is a religious symbol of “cleansing” does not mean that we do not use it—practically,really—to actually, physically cleanse our bodies, our faces and our dishware. How that is done varies from culture to culture, including the Jewish culture, from which Jesus originated and the Father had chosen and formed as a “people” for His own.

The fact that “wind” and “fire” are both general and religious “symbols” does not negate the reality of their presence at such an important event as Pentecost. We could go on and on with analogies, here. And yes, they can be helpful, vivid word “pictures” that aid in understanding… meant to draw us more closely to the Lord, Himself.

It is easy for us to look at the symbols more than we look at the very real Person(s) of our glorious (generous, humble and patient) Triune God. We too often seek to understand intellectually more than we seek Him to come, to move, to fill us with His holy fire and His unpredictable wind.

Wouldn’t it be better to truly seek this third Person of the Blessed Trinity? Let us be willing to let the wind blow, without looking for a (figurative) “box” to put Him in. We may think we can box up the Divine “wind”, the very breath of God. Of course, we cannot. Nor can we totally contain the fire of the Holy Spirit. We forget that the Lord said, “My thoughts are high above your thoughts; my ways high above your ways.” We seek to box—contain—what we do not fully understand. Who can box up the wind? And to put (any kind of) “fire” in a box would be downright dangerous.

We cannot find a box big enough. So instead, over time, we may actually do the opposite.We may find ourselves putting the Holy Spirit in smaller and smaller boxes… so we can feel like we’re in control. We may work hard to make the box as beautiful as we can— even decorate the box with richly appropriate and fitting symbols. We feel more comfortable with symbols and boxes.

We human beings like to feel comfortable and in control.Then… we realize…then… we wonder…why … the “breath of God/ wind” dies down. We wonder why the Creator of our vast and continually expanding universe cannot be contained in our mental/ verbal/ religious/ figurative boxes… Let’s remember (as mentioned above):

¹⁹ Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit;

³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin).

We fail God’s purposes for this world, for His people, for ourselves and for the harvest when we choose to box God in, or take down the sails and just row our own boat…

Let’s recall, once again:

God is endlessly giving. He cannot help it. He is Love, Itself… Himself. He is so generous, creative and higher in thoughts and ways than we are (Isa. 55:9) that the Holy Spirit cannot be contained, predicted, confined… This is sometimes difficult for organizational, self-directed human beings to grasp, receive and understand... or co-operate with. Unfortunately, we sometimes have trouble letting God be God… and not limiting Him to our near-sighted expectations. 7

Instead, again:

Let’s truly seek this third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Let us be willing to let the Divine “wind” blow—the very breath of God— and receive what He has to offer that we need in so many ways.