Sometimes the road that we call ‘life’ can be difficult – rocky, steep, narrow … uncertain. What we really need is someone to shine a lamp down at our feet so that we can see where to take the next step. What we really need, is someone to shine a light up ahead so that we can see where it’s heading. Turns out, that we can have both of those – 24 x 7.

Sometimes I just wish that life made more sense. I mean we have our hopes and dreams but often things get in the road of those. We plan a career but often it doesn’t turn out the way we planned. We hope for this, we dream for that but it seems there’s always someone or something to get in the road. Now I’m not saying that life is always a disaster, hopefully it’s not, but there are twists and turns on the path of life that we would never have chosen for ourselves. Things that surprise us, divert us, hurt us sometimes.

We have this nice simple plan and yet we typically find ourselves on a path that doesn’t make much sense. That isn’t what we expected. My hunch is that what I’m saying resonates with you. Each one of us from time to time finds ourselves in a place that just doesn’t make sense. As we look back the path that we’ve travelled is anything but a straight line. It’s kind of this higgledy piggledy thing that winds its way through the landscape and then when we turn to look forward so often the way forward isn’t that clear either.

And as much as I’m one of those personality types that focuses on outcomes and drives hard and crashes through to make things happen, time and time again I find myself in a place where the way ahead simply isn’t clear. The way I’d planned to go forward is blocked and then I’m left wondering, ‘Okay what’s next? How do I go forward?’

What I love about God is that He’s a realist. I used to imagine that if I became a Christian, if I gave my life over to this Jesus, if I started living my life for Him then things would become oh so clear and the way forward would become straight and easy. Well, okay many things have become clearer, sure they have but the path ahead is anything but easy and you know what? It’s exactly what Jesus promised would happen. Matthew chapter 7 beginning at verse 13:

Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who’ll take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are very few that find it.

As I said, God’s a realist. And as we spend some time today and over the coming days and weeks looking at what it means to walk in the spirit, to walk in an intimate relationship with God. And I want to do that not in some theoretical way, not in some way that suggests that we all get to live on some super spiritual plain for the rest of our lives but in a way that brings the truth of God to life in the realities of your life and mine.

As I’ve walked with Jesus now going on for a couple of decades the greatest joy for me is discovering the grace and mercy of God, the joy and the peace that His presence brings as I live my imperfect life out here on this earth. As I deal with conflict, as I deal with misunderstandings, as I deal with the things that happen that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself.

Discovering God at work in me and around me and through the circumstances I wouldn’t have chosen – it’s an awesome thing. It’s in that place that we discover the faithfulness and the kindness and the mercy and the power of God. It’s in that place that the Spirit of God helps us to live out the truth, the wisdom, the love of God – often at great cost to ourselves. And there’s a particular verse, in fact three verses of Scripture that speaks so deeply into this reality for me. Have a listen, Psalm 119 beginning at verse 103:

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

See, God speaks through His Word, we call it the Bible. And sometimes what people want to do is they want to experience the power of the Spirit of God in their lives, we want to see powerful miracles and mountains moved and we want to experience joy and peace from God but the Bible, well, ah, no thanks. Stuffy old book! No, no, no not for me! But listen carefully to what the psalmist says.

He’s saying the reason God’s Word is sweeter than honey to him is because through God’s Word God has given him understanding and wisdom. God’s given him wisdom to choose the right way rather than every other false way and so God’s Word is a lamp to his feet and a light to his path. Now the Bible was written by people but inspired by the Holy Spirit so we can’t separate God’s Word and God’s Spirit, they are one.

So often in life the things that go wrong aren’t someone else’s fault but our own. So often we’re living in the consequences of our mistakes because we made some bad choices. Can I be as bold to say we made some wrong choices? And those wrong choices have consequences, simple cause and effect. You smoke you’re going to die young; you eat the wrong foods they’re going to make you sick and tired; you commit adultery it’s going to tear your family apart. Clear, simple, plain, obvious – cause and effect.

But God’s given us His Word so that we can eat it like sweet honey, so that we can gain wisdom and insight, so that we can start making good choices, right choices. Is that going to take all the pain out of life? No, no! Stuff still happens. But as you may have heard me say before on this program, as I look at my own life I can honestly say that 90% of the pain I’ve experienced was caused by me. My hunch is if you’re going to be honest with yourself that’s probably true in your life too.

And here God has given us His Word to guide us on our path and since the path is narrow and the road is hard we need God’s help to stay on the path that He’s chosen for our lives. Listen! Listen again to how the psalmist puts it. Psalm 119, verse 105:

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Two things: a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. When we’re walking along and it’s dark and the road is narrow and treacherous what we need right then and there is a lamp for our feet, enough light to know where to step. That’s what God’s Word is. These days when I find myself say, in a situation of conflict, when the easiest thing in the world to do would be the wrong thing, God’s Word is a lamp to my feet. His Spirit brings His Word to my recollection and I might hear Him whisper, “Turn the other cheek”. That’s the lamp to my feet bit, He shows me which step to take next when things get tight.

But His Word is also a light to my path. As I look up and survey the path ahead and wonder, “God where’s this leading me? Where’s life headed? Where do you want me to go?” Then His Word is a light to my path. I am doing what I am doing now because God spoke His call on my life, into my heart through His Word. And friend this whole psalm, Psalm 119 which incidentally at 176 verses is by way the longest of all the Psalms, is all about praising God and thanking Him for what? For His Word!

It’s not that Gods loading some heavy pack on our backs and making us carry around a bunch of rules. It’s that God’s Word is God’s wisdom in our lives. That’s why the psalmist says ‘God it’s like sweet honey and it shines a lamp down at our feet and it casts a light forward along the path to make our lives all that God wanted them to be.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I gain understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

When we begin to walk in God’s Word here’s the thing, we’re actually walking in the Spirit of God.

Funny thing with God. On the one hand, we want Him to help us through the difficult patches. But on the other, when things are going well, so often we want to go it alone. And then we wonder why we fall flat on our faces. But when with all that we are, we desire God’s ways – well, that’s a whole new ball game.

Over the last few days we’ve been talking about, well I pitched the name of this series of messages as ‘Walking In The Spirit’, but so far it seems we’ve been talking about walking in the Word and maybe that’s not exactly where you thought this series of messages would kick off, perhaps I didn’t even think about that either but there’s something about yielding our lives to God that is such an important first step to ‘Walking in the Spirit’.

Yielding. Now there’s a word that people don’t use that much anymore. We don’t like it. We’re not taught to yield so much as we’re taught to win. Its great that kids play competitive sport and adults but competitive sport at the end of the day is about winning and yielding … yielding it seems to be the complete opposite of that. It seems to be the same as losing.

If I yield to you in something I have to give up my desire to have my way, to win if you will, in order that you can have your way and you can win. And so yielding to God for many people is not a particularly attractive idea. Who wants to lose? Why wouldn’t I want to win? And so today I’d like to spend our short time together just kind of unpacking this idea of ‘yielding’ because in it lays the secret to ‘Walking in the Spirit’.

In this notion of yielding lies the secret of laying hold of the abundant, indeed in His own words, the super abundant life that Jesus said He came to give us. Funny thing, when we discover God’s wisdom, God’s truth so often it turns our worldly ideas completely upside down – yielding in order to win. Let’s take a look.

There’s a good friend of mine, a guy by the name of Bob Beasley. Now Bob heads up the International Ministry Division of the Bible League of Canada and I was listening the other day to his podcast, ‘Words from the Heart’. And his words leapt out of his heart into mine because he was quoting Psalm 25. Have a listen to these beautiful words. Psalm 25 beginning at verse 1:

To you O Lord I lift up my soul. O my God in you I trust. Don’t let me be put to shame, don’t let my enemies exalt over me, do not let those who wait for you be put to shame. Let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your ways O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all day long.

Now those are the words written by King David and if you know anything of David’s life you’ll know that even though eventually he became king of Israel he went through some really tough times. His predecessor, King Saul, tried to kill him. That the nations around Israel came against him when he was king and tried to annihilate him. Even his own son plotted against him.

So he’s speaking here out of one of those times of trial and through it all David’s figured out that God is the God of salvation, God is trustworthy. When all these enemies of David’s come against him David puts his trust in the Lord our God and God never forsakes him. And because he’s learned in his own terrible experience that God is faithful and God is trustworthy because God has always been there for him he now makes what would seem to be a strange request of God. Have another listen and see if you can pick it. Verse 4:

Make me to know your ways O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all day long.

Now I know it may sound a little odd here but what David is actually doing is he’s yielding to God. Not because he feels compelled to, not because God’s forcing him or twisting his arm but because he’s discovered the faithfulness and goodness and loving kindness of God. He’s discovered that come what may God’s way actually works.

And so because David’s experienced the faithfulness of God he is now yielding to God and pleading with Him, God show me your ways, God teach me your ways, Lord lead me in your truth, teach me because you are God and the God of my salvation and for you I would wait all day long.

And here’s the thing with yielding, yielding is only yielding if it’s done willingly, at least in God’s eyes. He doesn’t want us grumbling or complaining, He wants us because of what He’s done for us through Jesus Christ on that cross. He wants us to lay down our lives for Him, to crucify our selfishness, to nail it to the cross, to die to self and live for Him. Galatians chapter 2, verses 19 and 20:

I have been crucified with Christ for it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Dead to our old selfish ways, alive to the goodness and the faithfulness and the loving kindness of God. And again, Romans chapter 6, verse 3:

Do you not know that all of us who’ve been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death therefore we’ve been buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with him into a death like this we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

The whole emphasis here is on dying to the old self and rising again with Christ to be what God always intended for us to be. Now please, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying for one moment that we need to work our way into God’s favour. Anyone who’s ever tried to scrub themselves clean before coming to God, as I did, will know the absolute futility of that. Scrub as hard and as long as you like and we still won’t be clean enough and pure enough to come before God. So that’s not what I am saying.

The only one who can make us clean is God Himself through the blood of Christ and the only one who can bring our new life to liveliness is God as He pours His Holy Spirit into us. But the thing that stops us from experiencing the power of the Spirit of God, His love, His guidance, His wisdom is our stiff opposition and pride – this idea that I don’t need to listen to God because I know what I’m doing. And when we have that attitude there’s one thing for certain God will always oppose us. Every time. 100% of the time. For He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James chapter 4, verse 6).

And here in David’s plea to God, “Show me your ways, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth, teach me”. We see this essential first step to walking in the spirit, to experience the new life that Jesus wants us to have. And that essential first step is yielding to God, not in some things but in everything. Everything, in all we are, everything we have, laying everything at His feet and saying, “Lord you’ve given it to me, I give it back to you. I worship you with all that I am and now dear God show me your ways.”

When we come to God in this way, yielding or opening our hearts to His Spirit and His Word then we have stepped into a place where His Spirit would lead us. For it’s no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me. The Spirit of God Himself dwelling in me, dwelling in you and in anyone who would thus yield their lives to God.

So many people desire with all their hearts to walk in the spirit and yet are unwilling to yield to the Spirit. For they know that when they do the Spirit will go to work in them and there will be a price to pay, there always is to cut out the cancer of sin. The question is simply this, will you yield anyway?

One of the things that we’re promised about Jesus is that when we let Him into our lives – he’ll sort the good from the bad – the wheat from the chaff in each one of us – and then burn the chaff with an unquenchable fire. At first that sounds a bit confronting.   And yet when Jesus gets to work cleaning out the muck we have on the inside – talk about setting the captives free!

Great to be with you again on the program today. Yesterday, if you were able to join me, you may recall that we were talking about walking in the spirit and the importance of yielding our lives to God. Lots of people who believe in Jesus want to see the power of God at work in their lives. They want to walk in the spirit relying on God’s wisdom and guidance but at the same time they shun God’s Word, the Bible. I don’t have time for that in my busy life, they run their own race doing this, doing that and then they wonder, “So um, where’s God in all of this?”

And friend, it’s only when we yield our lives to God and let Him into every part of our lives that we start to experience the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s only when we say to God, “You know Lord, everything’s on the line for you, there’s nothing that I’m going to hold back from you”, that He truly goes to work in our lives.

Anything less than that is pride and we know He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James chapter 4, verse 6). And today on the program we’re going to see what the Holy Spirit gets up to in our lives when we give Him free reign. It’s truly powerful stuff so I hope you’re able to join me, just the next few minutes to discover the power that’s available to you through the Spirit of the living God.

When Jesus was about to begin His public ministry in the 1st century in Israel John the Baptist went ahead of Him to herald Jesus’ arrival. John’s central message was for people to confess their sins, to repent, that is, to turn away from their sins back to God and to be baptised. Interesting message for God to send out ahead of the entrance of Jesus, His Son. It was about turning away from selfishness and sin and turning back to God and being ready, being ready to accept Jesus into people’s lives.

And this is what John the Baptist specifically had to say about Jesus because many people were already asking John, “Are you the one? Are you the Messiah?” And just before Jesus came to John to be baptised this is what John the Baptist said about Jesus, Matthew chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. He said:

I baptise you with water for repentance but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and he will gather his wheat into the granary but the chaff he will burn with an unquenchable fire.

Now this is a powerful description indeed of what Jesus is about in our lives and I used to read this and understand this in this way. That in clearing out the threshing floor those who were good and righteous were like the grain that would be gathered in the granary but those who weren’t will be cast into the fire. I think a lot of people will understand it that way until one of my lecturers at Bible College challenged me and asked me, “What’s the context here? What’s John talking about?” I answered him, “Well baptism, he’s saying that Jesus will baptise each one of us with the Holy Spirit and with fire”.

Now we’re going to talk about this baptism with the Holy Spirit which causes so much controversy and division in the Church tomorrow on the program but right now back to the context. So the fire that Jesus is going to wield will be part of my baptism from Him. So when he goes on to talk about what that fire will do he’s talking about what it will do in my life and in your life if we so allow Him to baptise us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

What will happen when we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, by yielding our lives to Him, by allowing Him to baptise us with the Holy Spirit and with fire is that this fire of the Spirit will burn in us and Jesus will get inside us as He indeed promises to do and He’ll sort out what’s in our hearts, in our thoughts, our desires, our attitudes, our intentions with a winnowing fork in His hand and He’ll clear the threshing floor of our hearts. The good He will keep, the chaff, the sin He will burn with unquenchable fire with which He baptises us.

I encourage you to read this passage again for yourself, Matthew chapter 3, verses 11 and 12 and just see how with this baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire His intention is to clean us out to make us pure and holy. After all there’s a reason that the Holy Spirit is called the ‘Holy’ Spirit. And what He does when He comes to dwell in us, just as Jesus promised one of the things He does is to begin the life-long work of making us holy and friend there is always a cost to that.

If someone has a cancer that needs to be cut out there is an incision to be made, there are stitches that go in, there is time in hospital as recovery and rehabilitation and perhaps even chemotherapy and radiotherapy but whilst there’s a cost the whole point of course is to bring healing to the person by removing the cancer and the same is true of the Holy Spirit.

When He gets the winnowing fork out in our lives and starts to shift through the rubbish, the disease, the sickness, the sin that’s accumulated in us over a life time, do you know what I’ve experienced when the Holy Spirit starts doing that in me? There is almost always pain involved. Giving up anger as I had to do involves such pain. I had to learn not to vent my anger on other people, to actually learn to humble myself, to hold my tongue. Boy that hurts sometimes. It still does but I am a better person because I yielded to God’s Word and God’s Spirit in allowing Him to work that out in me.

Was it worth it? Without a doubt! Am I glad He took the time to do this for me? Absolutely! So when we yield our lives to Jesus what He does by His Spirit is, He starts to burn the chaff, the sin in our lives with an unquenchable fire. The first thing He starts with is me and you.

We all want to see some power and some miracles and feel His presence and joy and peace and all that stuff and of course as we walk in the spirit those things do come but in order for us to grow, to be all that God made us to be, to shine the light of His glory and His love into this lost and hurting world He needs to rake the muck out of us.

Does that make sense? That’s why He comes and baptises us with the Holy Spirit and with fire and He gets in there with His fork to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

As I said, tomorrow we’re going to talk about this baptism of the Spirit. Without any denominational baggage, (I’m not interested in that, can I tell you) I just want to know what God’s Word has to say on the subject because God promises through John the Baptist that He would baptise us with the Holy Spirit and fire. But right now I think the point that God is leading us to is this, He wants free reign in our lives. He wants to be invited in to deal with the sin in our lives, the stuff that’s robbing us of the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.

So let me encourage you to read again the thing that John the Baptist said about Jesus, Matthew chapter 3, verses 11 and 12. I encourage you to open your heart and your soul to the power of the Spirit of God, give Him full sway in every part of your life. Hold nothing, absolutely nothing back from Him, for He means to clean you from the inside out. He means to set you free from the sin that’s been robbing you of life all this time. He means to shine His glory out through you, a clean, pure, perfect, holy vessel. Yep, through the likes of me and you.

One of the things God talks about in His Word is baptising us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Wow – hasn’t that caused some controversies across the church? But let’s forget the denominational baggage for a moment. Question is, if God wants to drench us in His Spirit, well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

One of the things that I’ve been learning as I journey through my life with Jesus at my side is that I just can’t achieve much on my own. Now let me explain that. People do clever, brilliant, powerful and effective things apparently without the help of God all the time. Plenty of brilliant musicians, gifted leaders, effective counsellors and so on who don’t believe in Jesus, and before I came to faith in Christ almost two decades ago now I was able to do plenty of pretty good things.

I was part of building an international IT consulting firm, I can make a piano sing as it were but when I came to faith in Jesus, what I discovered was that when it comes to doing things of eternal significance like the thing that I’m doing right now with you, on my own I can do nothing. I could probably entertain you, I can probably engage you and a whole bunch of other things but the one thing I cannot do is effect a change in your heart that will impact you eternally.

It turns out that that’s something that only God can do. How do I know that? Because Jesus told us, John chapter 15, verse 5. He said:

I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing.

So in order for you and for me to bear fruit – fruit that really truly makes a powerful difference in the lives of others – we need to be connected, grafted into Jesus who is the vine. And when you think about it the thing that flows from the vine to the branches to allow the branch to thrive and to grow and to bear fruit is the sap of the plant. In this analogy of Jesus that’s the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that makes me really sad is, that the Holy Spirit and how He works in our lives is the source of so much conflict and disagreement between the different denominations of the Church. It seems that everyone has, well, a different perspective. But as we saw yesterday on the program John the Baptist said something interesting about the Holy Spirit and what Jesus would do through the Spirit in our lives. Matthew chapter 3, verses 11 and 12:

I baptise you with water for repentance but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

He said that Jesus would baptise us with the Holy Spirit and as it turns out with fire. Well that’s something of a mixed metaphor because that baptism really means the Greek word ‘baptidso’, to be drowned and drenched and changed in something. For instance if a ship sank and went under it had been baptidso’d. If a piece of cloth was put in some dye and changed it’s colour it had been baptidso’d. So to be baptised in the Holy Spirit means to be dunked and drenched and changed by the Holy Spirit.

Imagine that piece of fabric coming out of the liquid dye. It’s dripping, completely saturated and on top of that it’s a brand new colour. That’s the picture, that’s what it means to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Now much of the controversy in the Church surrounds the question of timing. When does this happen? Does it happen to every believer? The moment they believe or is it something that happens later?

Seriously, as though we can put God in a box like this and tell Him He either has to do it this way, at this point of coming to faith or at some later time. Can I tell you something? My Bible, I don’t know about yours, but my Bible actually contains an historical record of both instances. For instance Cornelius and his family when Peter the Apostle preaches the good news to them for the very first time, Acts chapter 10, verse 44:

While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.

Right when they first believed. But in Ephesus you know what, it happened totally differently. Acts chapter 19 beginning at verse 1:

While Apollos was in Corinth Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, ‘did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ Then he said, ‘into what then were you baptised?’ They answered, ‘into John’s baptism’. Paul said, ‘John baptised with the baptism of repentance telling the people to believe in the one who is to come after him, that is in Jesus.’

On hearing this they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesised. All together there were about twelve of them.

Seems to me that the point isn’t when or how, God’s going to do what God’s going to do and I for one am not about to put Him in a box and tell Him how He has to do things. Whilst every believer may have the Holy Spirit in them and again God’s Word makes it clear that unless we do we don’t belong to Christ (Romans chapter 8, verse 9) not every believer is drenched in the Spirit.

Not every believer has yielded their lives completely to God and given the Holy Spirit sway in every part of their lives. Not every believer is drenched in the Spirit. Plenty in fact walk more in the flesh, in their own worldly desires than they do in the Spirit. Again that’s something God’s Word makes absolutely clear. Romans chapter 8, verse 5:

For those who live according to the flesh will set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit they’ll set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

So my friend the question for each one of us is simply this, have we yielded our lives to Christ? Have we invited Him to have complete sway in every corner of who we are? Every nook, every cranny or are we holding something back? I know people for instance who say they love God and they do, absolutely, and yet they choose to live together, man and woman, without being married.

See that’s holding something back. That’s doing something God says don’t do. That’s not honouring to God. And people who deliberately hold something back can’t be fully drenched in the power of the Spirit because it’s like wrapping cling wrap over part of our lives. You go down to be baptidso’d in the Spirit and you come out and not all of you can be changed.

I decided a long time ago after being caught as though in limbo by this futile senseless argument about how and when we’re baptised in the Holy Spirit to give the whole thing a miss. When and how is completely not the point. The point is that I can be drenched in the Spirit that every part of me, every bit of sin and stubbornness within me is opened to the Spirit of Christ, that I hold nothing back and that way, that way when Jesus comes into my life with His winnowing fork to get rid of the chaff, to burn that sin, that horrible stuff, that useless chaff in the unquenchable fire He has free reign and free access to do so.

Because what I want to do with my life, I really want to walk in the Spirit, to be guided in all things by Christ, to have the power of God, to travel the roads He calls me to travel and to go through the trials He calls me to go through.

Now walking in the Spirit is something we’re going to talk a whole lot more about next week but for the moment let me ask you this, have you been drenched in the Spirit of God? Have you yielded your life completely and utterly to Christ so that He can get about sorting out the wheat from the chaff? Because Jesus wants to baptise each one of us with the Spirit and with fire.