So many people wish that they could say they’re living their lives by walking in the Spirit. But that’s not really how their life works at all. In fact God often seems a million miles away. Well, there’s a reason for that – it comes down, as it turns out, to a question of priorities.

Deciding What’s Important

Today we are kicking off a new series that’s called ‘Walking in the Spirit’. Now that’s a phrase that might get some mixed reactions. Many Christians will have heard it and it speaks of walking along the path of life in the Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit – with the Spirit guiding us, encouraging us, comforting us. But equally, many who fall into that group, who call themselves Christians – as much as they have heard that phrase, ‘Walking in the Spirit’, they really haven’t experienced it in their own lives.

It’s like, “Well, other people may well walk in the Spirit and maybe it’s for Mr or Mrs Super-Christian over there but it seems that it’s never going to happen for me”. And to those who perhaps haven’t yet given their lives over to Jesus, it may all sound a little bit weird – ‘Walking in the Spirit’. Really?

So, over the next few weeks on the programme, I’m hoping that you and I will be able to spend some time together just unpacking this idea of ‘Walking in the Spirit’, because as I am discovering, day by day in my life, it’s a fantastic way to live life. And life is something we live, breath-by-breath, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour. Not just on some super-spiritual plane, not kind of riding around on cloud nine with the angels, but down here on the dusty roads of this earth; along the highways and the byways of life; over hill and dale.

And the thing that people often find difficult is living out their relationship with God in the reality of their lives. It’s not easy sometimes. This idea of walking in the Spirit might sound wonderful, but how do you actually live your life, day by day, immersed in the Spirit of God – guided by Him, knowing His healing touch and His love in the middle of conflict and strife and busyness and all the stuff we go through in life.

I guess it’s that very thing I would like to explore with you over the coming weeks. Interesting, just over the last few weeks in my life, things have been so incredibly busy and so what’s been happening in my walk with the Lord is that, well, my quiet times with Him, instead of being unhurried in the still of the morning, as they usually are, I just haven’t had those times. My times of prayer have been short and fragmented – often because I’m up early, getting ready to speak at a Men’s Breakfast or whatever.

And whilst it’s been a season of just a few weeks, here’s what I find. It’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness of doing life, doing things for God, doing this, doing that, and what happens is you lose sight of the God who loves you; the Spirit of God who dwells in you. And I get all caught up in busyness. Do you find that too? My hunch is, most of us do.

The sad thing is when that way of life becomes a lifestyle. The sad thing is when people who love Jesus and believe in Him allow themselves to get so busy that they find their time with God is somehow squeezed out of their schedule. And before you know it, God seems like He is a million miles away. Of course, He’s not really, but our fellowship with Him has been interrupted; our relationship with Him becomes fragmented and that’s why it feels as though God is a million miles away.

Now the knock on effect of that on our lives, is that we start imagining that all the doing we have to do, all the striving to achieve that we are involved in, that that is the most important thing in life. So we peddle harder and harder and we start to feel exhausted – spiritually, emotionally, physically … And this is a great time for the devil to start attacking us; it is a great time for us to start worrying about things and getting depressed about things. It’s like this downward spiral and many, many a person who loves Jesus is living their life that way – down somewhere in that dark, deep hole.

So the other morning as I finally arrived back home, I went back to my usual pattern of spending time with the Lord, in the still of the morning when everyone else is still in bed. So many issues were playing on my mind, so many pressures, so many things to pray about, so many things to distract me in my quiet time. And I opened my Bible to pick up where I had left off last time and I found myself in Philippians chapter 3 and as is so often the case, I found the salve to soothe a battered soul.

It’s the Apostle Paul writing about this very issue, about where we put our confidence; about deciding what’s really important in life. He writes a stern warning about putting our confidence in who we are and what we do – making the point that if anyone has the right to be confident in themselves, he does – a Jew, one of God’s chosen people of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised according to the law, a Pharisee – one of the strictest of all the sects in Judaism in the first century – Paul has every right to be full of himself and to be busy, busy, busy in doing stuff for God, but have a listen to what he says. Philippians chapter 3, beginning at verse 7:

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I might gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.

In other words, the thing that was really important to the Apostle Paul wasn’t who he was and all the things he could do. No, the most important thing of all was the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. Next to that, everything else was rubbish for him, in order that he would find Jesus and be found in Him and to know His power amidst the sufferings of life.

Friend, walking in the Spirit, as we are going to be seeing over the coming weeks, is an awesome way to live our lives. Truly, it is! But it begins with a decision. It begins by deciding, “What’s the most important thing? All the busyness and the stuff I’m involved in, all that I am and all that I want to be OR knowing Jesus?” I mean, knowing Him first hand; being found in Him, knowing His power?

Because truly, if we are all wrapped up in who we are and what we do in the busyness of our lives, then as close as God might be; as effective as the sacrifice of Jesus is to save us from eternal punishment; as much as we may yearn to be close to Him, our eyes will be dull, our ears will be deaf, our heart will be closed to His presence because we have taken Him and put Him on a shelf in our lives and just left Him there.

Walking in the Spirit begins with getting our priorities right. It begins with setting aside some quiet, unhurried time with our Lord each day to rest in Him, to hear from Him, to worship Him.

The Light Along the Path

Sometimes I just wish that life made more sense. We all have 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 and dream for that but it seems there is always someone or something to get in the road. And then we are left wondering, “Okay, what’s next? How do I go forward?”

What I love about God is that He is a realist. I used to imagine that if I became a Christian and if I gave my life over to this Jesus and if I lived my life for Him, then things would become oh so clear and the way forward would become straight and easy. Well, many things have become much clearer – sure they have – but the path 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 take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

And as we spend some time today and over the coming 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, but in a way that brings the truth of God to life, amidst the reality of your life and mine.

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

Discovering God at work in me and around me and through the circumstances that I wouldn’t have chosen, that is an awesome thing! It is in that place that we discover the faithfulness, the kindness, 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 and the love of God often at a great cost to ourselves. And there is a particular verse, in fact three verses of Scripture that speak 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.

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 the joy and the peace of God, but the Bible? “Nah, no thanks – stuffy old book. Not for me – no, no, no!”

But listen carefully to what the Psalmist says. He is saying that the reason that God’s Word is sweeter than honey to him, because, through this Word, God has given him understand; God has given him wisdom to choose the right way, rather than every other false way. And so God’s Word is, in fact, 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 the one thing. And so often in life the things that go wrong aren’t anyone’s fault but our own. So often we are living in the consequences of our mistakes because we made some bad choices – can I be so bold as to say some ‘wrong’ choices? And those wrong choices have consequences – simple cause and effect. You smoke; you are going to die young. You eat the wrong foods; they will make you sick and tired. You commit adultery and it’s going to tear your family apart. Clear, simple, plain, obvious – cause and effect.

But God has given us something: He has 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, stuff still happens! But as you may have heard me say before on this programme, as I look at my own life, I can honestly say that ninety percent of the pain was caused by me. My hunch is, if you are 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 gate is narrow and the road is hard, we need God’s help to stay on the path that He has chosen for our lives. And listen … listen again to how the Psalmist put is:

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 are walking along and it’s dark and the road is narrow and treacherous, then what we need right then and there, is a lamp for our feet. Enough light to know where to take the next 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 would be to do the wrong thing, God’s Word is lamp for 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 as I survey the path ahead and wonder, “God, where is this leading me? Where is 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, at 176 verses, is the longest of all the Psalms – is all about praising God and thanking Him for His Word.

It’s not that God is loading some heavy pack on our back and making us carry around a bunch of rules – it’s that God’s Word is God’s wisdom for our lives. It shines a lamp down to our feet; it casts a light forward along the path to make our lives all that God wanted them to be. When we begin to walk in God’s Word, here’s the thing: we are beginning to walk in God’s Spirit.

Desiring God’s Ways

There’s something about yielding our lives to God that is such an important first step to walking in the Spirit. ‘Yielding’ – now that’s a word that many people don’t like! We are not taught to ‘yield’ so much as we are taught to win. It’s great that kids play competitive sport – and adults – but competitive sport, at the end of the day, is about winning and ‘yielding’ seems to be the complete opposite – 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.

Now, I would like to spend the time we have left together today, just kind of unpacking this idea of ‘yielding’, because in it lays the secret of walking in the Spirit. In this notion of yielding lies the secret of laying hold of the 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 concept completely upside down. Yielding in order to win? Let’s have a look – Psalm 25, beginning at verse 1:

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult 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 words were written by King David and if you know anything of David’s life, you will know that even though he eventually became King of Israel, he went through some really tough times. His predecessor, King Saul, tried to kill him, 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 is speaking here out of one of those times of trial and through it all, David has figured out that God is his salvation; that 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 has learned in his own terrible experience that God is faithful and 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 up. Beginning at 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.

I know it may sound a little odd here but what David is doing is, he is yielding to God. Not because God is twisting his arm but because he has discovered the faithfulness and the goodness and the loving kindness of God. He has discovered that, come what may, God’s way actually works – which incidentally, is why the ministry that I am part of in producing these radio programmes, is called ‘Christianityworks’, because it actually does.

And so because David has 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 into Your truth. Teach me, because You, O God, are the God of my salvation and for You I will wait all day long.”

And ‘yielding’ is only yielding when it’s done as David did, willingly – at least, in God’s eyes. Yielding to God isn’t about grumbling or complaining. He wants us – because of what He has done through Jesus on that cross – to lay down our lives at His feet; to crucify our selfishness; to nail it to the cross; to die to self and live to Him. Romans chapter 6, beginning at verse 3:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him in 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 newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, 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 to Christ to be what God always intended for us to be.

Now, I’m not saying for one moment here, that we need to work our way into God’s favour. Anyone who has ever tried to scrub themselves clean before coming to God, as I did, will know the absolute futility of that. The only One who can make us clean is God Himself, through Jesus. And the only One who can bring our new life to life in us is God, as He pours His Holy Spirit upon 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 our pride. The 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 absolutely for certain, God will oppose us every 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 and teach me,” we see this essential first step to walking in the Spirit; to experiencing the new life that Jesus wants us to have.

And that … that essential first step, friend, is to yield to God. Not just in some things but in everything – all that we are, everything that we have, all our hopes, all our dreams for the future – laying everything at His feet and saying, ‘Lord, all of this You have given me but more than that, You gave me Jesus, Your Son, so now I lay everything down, I worship You with all that I am and all that I have. And now, dear God, show me Your ways.’

When we come to God this way, yielding all, opening our hearts to His Spirit and His Word, then we have stepped into that place where His Spirit would lead us:

For it is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me.

The Spirit of God Himself dwelling in me, in you, in anyone who would thus yield their life to Christ.

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 when they yield, the Spirit will go to work in them and there will be a price to pay. There is always a price to pay to cut out the cancer of sin. The question is simply this: will you yield, will I yield?

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!

Refiner’s Fire

Hey, it’s great to be with you again on the programme today. Last week, if you were able to join me, you may recall that we are talking about walking in the Spirit and the importance of yielding 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. “Ah, no, I don’t have time for that. I’ve got a busy life.” They run their own race, doing this and doing that and then they wonder, “So, where’s God in all 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 is on the line for You – there is nothing that I am going to hold back from You,’ that He truly goes to work in our lives. Anything less than that is pride and we know that “He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James chapter 4, verse 6.

And today on the programme we are 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 will be able to join me in our time together today, 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 First Century 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 and back to God – and to be baptised. Interesting message for God to send ahead of the entrance of 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 peoples’ lives. And this is what John the Baptist specifically had to say about Jesus because many people were already asking him, “Are you the one? Are you the promised Messiah?”

And just before Jesus came to John to be baptised, this is what John said about Jesus. If you have a Bible, grab it, open it at Matthew chapter 3, beginning at verse 11:

John 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 Holy Spirit and 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 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 it in this way: that in clearing out the threshing floor, what Jesus would do is take those who are good and righteous, they were like the grain and they would be gathered up into the granary, but those who weren’t would be cast into the fire.

And I think a lot of people understand this passage that way. Until one of my lecturers at Bible College challenged and asked me, “What is the context here, Berni? What is John talking about?” and I answered him, “Well, baptism. He is saying that Jesus will baptise us with Holy Spirit and with fire.”

Now, I will talk about this baptism of the Holy Spirit, which causes so much controversy and division in the church, later today. But right now, back to the context: so the fire that Jesus is going to wield will be part of my baptism of the Holy Spirit, from Him. So when He goes on to talk about what that fire will do, He is talking about what it will do in my life and in your life if we so allow Him to baptise us with Holy Spirit and with fire.

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

I would 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 of fire, His intention is to clean us out; to make us pure and holy. After all, there is 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 you and me 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, there’s recovery, there’s rehabilitation and perhaps even some treatment like chemotherapy or radiotherapy. But whilst there is a cost, the whole point of course, is to bring healing to the person by cutting out the cancer.

And the same is true of the Holy Spirit when He gets His winnowing fork out in our lives and starts to sift through the rubbish, the disease, the sickness, the sin that has accumulated in us over a life time. And 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 people; to humble myself; to hold my tongue. And you know what, at times that really hurt and it still does sometimes. Am I a better person because I yielded to God’s Word and God’s Spirit in allowing Him to work in me? Absolutely!! Was it worth it? Without a doubt!! And I am glad that He took the time to do this in me? For sure!

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 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 into a lost and a hurting world – He needs to rake the muck out of us. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

As I said, later we are 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. 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 is 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. Let me 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 been robbing you of life all this time; He means to shine His glory out through you, a clean, pure, holy vessel. You know, through the likes of me and you.

Drenched in the Spirit

One of the things that I have been learning as I journeyed through my life with Jesus at my side is that I 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. There are 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 I.T. 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 what I am doing right now with you – well, on my own, I can do nothing.

Oh, I can probably entertain you; I can engage you with a whole bunch of other things, but the one thing I can’t do is to effect a change in your heart that will impact you eternally. It turns out, that’s because only God can do that. How do I know that? Because it’s exactly what Jesus said. 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 good 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 bear fruit is the sap of the plant. In this analogy of Jesus, that is the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that make 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 different denominations of the church. It seems that everyone has a … well, a different perspective. But as we saw earlier, 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,” said John, “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 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 what ‘baptism’ really means – the Greek word is baptidso – is 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 into some dye to change its colour – it had been baptidso’d.

So, to be ‘baptised’ or ‘baptidso’d’ in the Holy Spirit, means to be dunked and drenched and changed in 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 on? Seriously, as though we can put God in a box like this and telling Him He has to do it this way or that way or at some later time! Can I tell you something? My Bible – don’t know about yours – but my Bible actually contains an historical record of both! 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 you see, in Ephesus, a bit later it happened quite 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 there is a Holy Spirit. Then he said to them, “Into what then were you baptised?” They answered into John’s baptism. Paul said, “John baptised with a baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in the one who was 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 prophesied. Altogether, there were about twelve of them.

See, it seems to me the point isn’t when or how. God is going to do what God is 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 or when. Whilst every believer may well 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 life completely to God and given the Holy Spirit sway in every part of their lives. Not every believer is drenched in the Spirit of God. Plenty, in fact, walk more in the flesh, in their own worldly desires, than they do in the Spirit. Again, that’s something that God’s Word makes clear – Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 5:

For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, 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 fully to Christ? Have we invited Him to have complete sway in every corner of who we are – every nook and 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. That is holding something back from God. That is 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 some cling wrap over that part of their lives. You go down to be baptidso’d in the Spirit and you come out and not all of you has been change.

I decided a long time ago – after being caught up as though in limbo by this futile, senseless argument about when and how we are baptised in the Holy Spirit – to give that whole thing a miss. ‘When’ and ‘how’ is simply not the point. The point is, that I am completely drenched in the Spirit, that every part of me, every … every bit of sin and stubbornness within me, is open to the Spirit of Christ because I hold nothing back from Him.

And that way … that way, when Jesus comes into my life with His winnowing fork to get rid of the chaff, to burn that in an unquenchable fire, He has free reign and free access to do so. Because what I want to do with my life is to walk in the Spirit, to be guided in all things by Christ Himself, 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 are going to talk a lot more about next week, but for the moment, let me ask you, 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?

Closer to the Flame

I would like to spend just a few minutes with you as our time together draws to a close today, to hopefully speak God’s truth into your heart about this baptism of the Holy Spirit. Next week of course, we are going to speak more about the Holy Spirit being poured out into the lives of every man or woman or child who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

But as I see the dissent and the wrangling and the ill-will across different parts of the church over the work of the Holy Spirit and how He manifests Himself in the lives of individuals and churches today, I truly want to weep. The conservative evangelicals on the one hand and the Charismatics and the Pentecostals on the other. Can’t tell you how many sermons I have sat through over the years where a so called conservative or evangelical derides the Charismatics and the Pentecostals – virtually calling them heretics for believing, for instance, that they should speak in tongues, the language of angels, as the Apostle Paul calls it.

And granted, to a traditional Western mindset, this ‘speaking in tongues’ thing, well, it doesn’t make sense. But at the same time, this is what the Bible has to say about it. The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians about this very thing. First Corinthians chapter 14, beginning at verse 4:

 Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church. Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Did you get that? “Those who speak in a tongue build themselves up.” And Paul would like us all to speak in tongues. So if that’s what the Bible says, what are we doing knocking people?

And on the other side of the coin, I have heard Charismatics, those who believe in the spiritual gifts bestowed on believers through the Spirit, say that unless you speak in tongues then you are not really saved. Well, the Apostle Paul again, asking a series of rhetorical questions to make the point, says that that is just not true. First Corinthians chapter 12, verse 27:

“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed you in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all of you apostles? Are all of you prophets? Are all of you teachers? Do all of you work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do you all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” (The answer to all of those questions obviously, well, duh, no!) “Then strive for greater gift. And I will show you a more excellent way.”

Do you see the point? This nonsense; this petty wrangling and stupidity over something that is so important – being filled with the Holy Spirit and yielding our lives fully to Him and walking in the Spirit and seeing the power of the Spirit of Christ transform our lives and flow through our lives into a lost and hurting world – here’s the conclusion I have come to.

My God is a HUGE God and the church, well, there are well over twenty thousand denominations in the world – as unbelievable as that may sound. There is a rich diversity in the church – different cultures, different perspectives and because God understands that and accommodates that, He shows Himself differently to different people and to different groups.

Have I seen the odd bit of emotionalism and manipulation around spiritual gifts? Yep, of course I have. And when I see that, I either speak against it or I walk away from it. But equally on the other side of the fence, I have seen a hardness of heart. I have seen people completely closed to the surprising work of the Spirit and devoid of any real passion and enthusiasm for God. I have seen that too – it’s the same thing – I will either speak against it or I will walk away from it.

Friend, the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Godhead. He is God who comes to dwell in us and my God and your God, well, sometimes God does surprising things. As we saw earlier, the Holy Spirit comes according to the sovereign will of God and manifests Himself is different churches, in different groups, in different people, in different ways.

The point isn’t how! Who am I to tell God how He should do things? The point isn’t when! Who are you and I to tell God that He should drench someone with the Spirit the moment they believe or He should drench people with the Spirit sometime later? Every believer receives the Holy Spirit and at some point, if we open our hearts to God, He will drench us.

The point is that you and I are drenched; that we are drowned; that we are changed; that we come up filled to overflowing, dripping with the Spirit of God, because that’s the plan Jesus has for us. That’s the plan that Jesus promised to us. That is the plan that Jesus has to change this world by taking the gifts and the abilities and the motivations He has put in my heart and in your heart and empowering those through His Spirit and shining the glory of God into this world.

That is God’s plan!

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that I don’t have the strength, or the power in my own right to live the life that God wants me to. Have you noticed that too? We try … and we fail. What we need, is power. Power from high. Fortunately that’s exactly what Jesus has in mind.

Power from on High

Great to be with you again this week and today we’re continuing in this series of messages called Walking In The Spirit. You know, I often think about this – it’s kind of strange to me how God sets things up. He Himself is Spirit: we can’t actually see Him or touch Him or hear Him here in the physical dimension where you and I live.

Now of course at one time in history He stepped into the physical dimension when Jesus came and dwelt among us but that was two thousand years ago. And whilst we can read about who Jesus is, and what He has to say, and what He does, we can’t experience God in the physical dimension in the same way as those people did way back then.

So now we have something of a dilemma. God lives in a dimension that is spiritual and you and I, we live in a dimension that’s physical. How do we communicate with God? How do we know not just about Him but how do we know Him? Well fortunately that’s something that God thought about, and to do that He sent us His Holy Spirit, one of the three person of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

See, this problem happened the moment Jesus was set to depart from this world, the physical God departing leaving what? Well fortunately leaving behind the Holy Spirit. And this is the promise Jesus made to His Disciples, the ones who were to become the Apostles who would spread His good news throughout the known world. John chapter 14 beginning at verse 15. He said:

If you love me you’ll keep my commandments and I’ll ask the Father and He will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him but you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.

So Jesus promised to send His Holy Spirit to those who believed in Him with their lives and in fact in those final days and hours before He was crucified it’s something that He promised again and again. That through the Spirit of God the Father and the Son would come to make their home in us.

Now you and I, we have a body, we have a soul, our mind, our will, our emotions and deep down we have a spirit and it’s at this level that the Holy Spirit connects with us. So after Jesus was risen again and just before He ascends into heaven and leaves His disciples behind He gives them this instruction, Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 4.

He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father. This, he said, is what you have heard from me. For John baptised you with water but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Now the disciples, as it turned out, thought that was fine but that wasn’t the most important thing on their minds. You see, Jesus was the Messiah, and to a Jew in the first century that meant something like a warrior king, like David of old, to boot out the Romans from occupying the land and to restore the king of Israel. The Disciples, despite three and a half years with Jesus, were more interested in what was going to happen in the physical dimension of their lives rather than the spiritual dimension.

Have a listen to the exchange between them and Jesus, between the physical concerns of the disciples and the spiritual priorities of Jesus. Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 6:

 So when they’d come together they asked him, ‘Lord is this the time when you will restore the kingdom of Israel?’ And he replied, ‘it’s not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’ When he said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Do you see that? See they were interested in perhaps the most important thing from their perspective. So when is God finally going to restore the kingdom of Israel? And Jesus brushes them off because He didn’t come to restore the kingdom of Israel, He came to usher in the Kingdom of God and that’s spiritual not physical. Again have a listen to what Jesus had said earlier on this subject. Luke chapter 17 beginning at verse 20: 

Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisee’s when the Kingdom of God was coming and he answered, ‘The Kingdom of God isn’t coming with things that can be seen nor will they say, ‘Look here it is’ or ‘There it is’. For in fact the Kingdom of God is among you.

No Jesus, in the very last thing that He said to them before He left them and ascended into heaven, He wasn’t so much interested in the physical dimension, His priority for them, these men who would go on to found the Church, His real concern is that they should have spiritual power from God in them. Acts chapter 1 verse 8:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Why is that? Why is this Jesus’ greatest concern? Because He knew that without the power of God, without the witness and communication and encouragement and guidance of the Holy Spirit these men simply wouldn’t be able to do the things that they were called to do. You read the Book of Acts of the Apostles (which in my view should really be called The Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles) and what you see is that these men came across horrendous opposition.

They were called on to do mighty things and many of those things were miraculous. They went way beyond the ability of eleven men and Jesus knew that if these men had power from on high, if they were filled with the Spirit of God they could do whatever God needed them to do and then some.

And friend, that’s how it is with us. We think sometimes it’s all up to me, my gifts, my abilities, my hard work – and hey, I’m not knocking any of that – but even as I sit here and share these things of God with you I know, I mean I know beyond any shadow of any doubt, that I couldn’t do what I’m doing if it weren’t for the power of the Holy Spirit.

See part of walking in the Spirit is being filled to over-flowing with the Holy Spirit so that we have the power to do what God has called us to do. The power to resist the evil one, the power to overcome temptation, the power to love those who abuse us, the power to die to self, the power to take up our cross every day and follow Jesus. Friend, those things take power. They take power that is way beyond any of us and it’s for that reason that God sent His Spirit to dwell in us.

Now after the break we’re going to see how the Spirit of God, even before He came upon these men in power, guided them in the physical dimension. That’s the exciting thing. The spiritual and the physical dimensions aren’t two separate things, as the Holy Spirit dwells in us He gives us the guidance and the power that we need to operate for Gods glory right here in this physical world in which you and I live. See that’s the exciting bit.

Practical Guidance from Above

Now, it’s kind of fine to talk about walking in the Spirit, it’s fine to talk about having power, and a little later we’re going to see how the Spirit was poured out, but what about the rubber hits the road stuff? What about the next step, the next decision you and I have to make? How does the Holy Spirit guide us? How can we know what the Holy Spirit wants us to do? How can we seek Him out and discover God’s good and perfect will for us?

Well that’s what we’re going to look at right now. We saw earlier how Jesus ordered the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and to wait for the power that God would pour out upon them. At that point He ascended into heaven. So there they were over the coming days waiting in Jerusalem and it occurred to them that they were now down to eleven disciples as a result of the exit of Judas Iscariot and they had to do something about that.

So here’s how it unfolds, if you have a Bible grab it, we’re going to read from Acts chapter 1 beginning at verse 15:

In those days Peter stood up amongst the believers together with a crowd numbered about one hundred and twenty people and he said, ‘friends the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share of the ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness and falling head long he burst open in the middle of all his bowels gushed out. This became know to all the residents of Jerusalem so that the field was called, in their language, Akeldama which means field of blood.

For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘let his homestead become desolate and let there be no one to live in it and let another take his position of overseer’. So one of the men who had accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out of among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.

So they proposed two, Joseph called Barsabbas who was also known as Justus and Matthias. Then they prayed and said, ‘Lord you know everyone’s heart, show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry an apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go his own way’. And they cast lots for them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was added to the eleven apostles.

Can I tell you something? This is a passage of Scripture that I have struggled with for a long time because me, I’ve always been taught if I want to know Gods will, well the place to discover that is in God’s Word, the Bible. And that’s true, I mean that’s what they did, they went back to the Psalm and read that they had to replace Judas.

But many is the time when I’ve been facing a particular challenge or dilemma and surprise, surprise in the very next chapter of whatever Book of the Bible I happen to be reading at the time, in the very next bit something leaps out at me and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and I just know what God wants me to do. I’m sure if you believe in Jesus and you’re someone who listens to Him through His Word that that’s something that’s happened to you on more than one occasion because God speaks to us first and foremost through His Word.

And right here, smack bang in the middle of His Word the eleven Apostles – the guys who’ve spent three and a half years at the Jesus school of discipleship, the best theological seminary anyone will ever go to – these guys to make a decision cast lots! How did they do that? Well we don’t know, maybe they flipped a coin, heads Joseph wins, tails Matthias wins and hey presto it came up tails so Matthias becomes Apostle number twelve.

Now friend doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd? I mean, why didn’t they go to the Scriptures to decide between the two? No, they flipped a coin to make one of the most important decisions in the history of the Church. A coin? Give me a break! Why didn’t they take a vote amongst the hundred and twenty or so Jesus followers who were in that room at the time? That’s probably what most Churches would do today. No, no. They cast lots. Well doesn’t that just take the cake!

What’s God trying to say to you and me through this? Because all Scripture is inspired by God, it’s used for teaching, for proof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that’s what 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 says. Well here’s what this Scripture has done for me. It’s opened my mind to the creativity of the Holy Spirit in speaking to me and guiding me and making His will known in my life.

I remember being convicted of sin one day when I was watching a family movie. God spoke so powerfully to me through what one character was doing. It’s like God held a mirror up to my face and said, ‘Berni, that’s you’. And over the years I’ve discovered that the Spirit nudges us and guides us and encourages us and convicts us in so many different ways.

I am doing what I’m doing right now, sharing the love of Christ with many people across the globe, because one man came up to me at a conference and spoke some words to me. And without any shadow of a doubt I know that I know that I know that God was speaking to me through this humble gentle man. Is the Bible my absolute authority for truth? Absolutely. Do I need to discern experiences and things people say to me and impressions I have from this or from that? For sure.

“Test all things” the Bible says. But friend, as we journey along our path, walking in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is with us every moment of every day, He is with us and if we’ll open our hearts and our minds and our eyes and our ears to Him He will speak to us. Am I suggesting we discern Gods will by flipping a coin? Probably not. But hey, it’s in the Bible so the last thing I’m going to do is tell God what’s appropriate and what’s not.

The Spirit Poured Out

Okay, God’s guidance doesn’t always happen the way we expect. And speaking of the unexpected, right now I’d like to spend some time sharing with you the story of when, as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit was first poured out on the believers. Again can I say in our experience, especially can I say for those who like me have something like a conventionally spiritually narrow western mind set, this is pretty way out there too? So join me as we have a listen to what God is up to on the day of Pentecost. If you have a Bible grab it, we’re going to read from Acts chapter 2 beginning at verse 1:

Now when the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly from heaven became a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability.

Now there were devout Jews there from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem and at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each one of them heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished they asked, “are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in our own native language?” 

Parthians, Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes, Cretens and Arabs in our own language we hear them speaking about Gods deeds of power.

All were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, “what does this mean?” but others sneered and said, “they’re filled with new wine” but Peter standing with the eleven raised his voice and addressed them. “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let it be known to you and listen to what I say. Indeed these men aren’t drunk as you suppose, it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning.

No this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. In the last days it will be, God declares, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves both men and women in those days I shall pour out my spirit and they’ll prophecy and I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and smoky mist, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the Lords great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Now this is quite an event. I mean I’ve had a few really powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit but never anything quite like this. A powerful sound like a rushing wind and then these flames of fire resting on everyone and all of them, all of them speaking in foreign languages and all the different nationalities there could understand the good news of Jesus in their own language.

And of course the first thing, the very first thing that happens when God does something powerful and unusual like this is that everyone else has to poke fun and to criticise what’s going on. They must be drunk. Well sorry buddy I know they perhaps looked a little intoxicated but they were all Galileans speaking in different languages. Being drunk certainly doesn’t explain that, I mean it doesn’t right?

So what do we do with this? Well the Apostle Peter gets up to explain what’s going on. He explains to the Jews assembled, ‘hey this is exactly what God promises in the Old Testament.’ That all of these powerful things would happen and in fact if you were to read on you discover that after he finished speaking many of the people there gave their lives to Christ. Many of the very same people who only weeks before were crying out to Pontius Pilate ‘crucify Him’.

See there’s a clash here between the conventional, what normally happens in the physical dimension and the spiritual, the super natural. And it was a surprise to everyone. I mean if you’ve been around the Church for any length of time you’ll know that there are some who say, ‘Okay, what happened there back there two thousand years ago on the day of Pentecost, it was absolutely a one off. It was the first time God poured His Spirit out, fair enough He did something powerful’. And then there are some others of so called charismatic and Pentecostal persuasions who claim that God is still doing mighty powerful things like this today. What do you make of it?

Well God’s Word is clear. If we don’t have the Spirit of Christ then we don’t belong to Him, Romans chapter 8, verse 9 and yet at the same time there are plenty of people who have the Spirit but where the Spirit hasn’t been unleashed in power in their lives. See these Apostles are uneducated bumpkins; most of them went on to do the most amazing things for Christ. They had so much opposition, they preached the Gospel, so many people came to Jesus through them and in fact the Church around the globe, a few billion people, are Christ-followers today because of the start that the Church got from these Disciples.

And most of them, they ended up dying for Him in the end because the power was unleashed in their lives by the Holy Spirit on that day. They did what they did, they could only do what they do because they were filled to overflowing with the Spirit and the presence and the power of God.

Jesus promised to baptise us in the Holy Spirit. He did. And the wonderful thing is that this baptism, this drenching in the Spirit happens in different ways in different people’s lives. God knows we’re different. God knows that you and I are totally different people. God is going to touch you and fill you with His Spirit in a way that He knows will work for you and that way maybe totally different to the way that God deals with me.

You know something, I don’t have a problem with that. I mean God’s God. God gets to decide what He does, how He does it, when He does it and I am not going to sit there and point fingers at other people and say, ‘Well God did it differently over there, they must be wrong’. It’s not how God does it, that’s not the important thing. The important thing is that in fact we are filled with the Spirit.

The important thing is that the power of God is unleashed in our lives so that we can live a life that brings glory to Him: a life that bears fruit, a life that has an eternal impact in the lives of other people. Don’t you reckon that’s the most important thing? It’s what God’s Word says and God’s heart is to see His power and His might unleashed in you and unleashed in me as His Spirit drenches us and utterly transforms us and unleashes the power of God through us in a lost and hurting world.

Each person who believes in Jesus has a battle going on inside. Between the desires of the flesh, and the work of the Holy Spirit. Each one. Sometimes we feel as though it’s a battle we’re losing, even though we’ve already won. How can we actually live out that victory? How can we walk in in the Spirit?

The Flesh and the Spirit

One of the most encouraging things God has ever said to me in His Word, the Bible, the most powerful thing I think, is that He is not surprised or perturbed or put off His purposes for me, one little bit, because of my sin. I mean, He doesn’t like it; He doesn’t want it to be the norm in my life but it is no surprise to Him. How do I know that? Well, simple. The Apostle Paul writes that very thing in the Book of Romans, beginning at Romans chapter 7, verse 22. Paul says of himself:

Look, I delight in the law of God in my innermost self but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who is going to rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.

And this is from a man who wrote almost half the books in the New Testament – Paul the Apostle. And you know what Paul was going through is exactly the same thing that you and I go through. There’s a war going on between our flesh (the original Greek word for ‘flesh’ is ‘carne’, from which we get ‘carnal’ – right?) and the work of the Spirit in us.

And that battle can get us so down – it seems some days as though we are never going to win the battle – but Jesus has already won. “Who is going to save this wretch from this body of sin and death?” asks Paul, “Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ our Lord.” And that’s the fantastic news I want to share with you today. Are you ready for it?

One of the things I don’t hear much chatter about in Christian circles is this reality of the battle that is raging within us between the flesh and the spirit. And when I finally go to be with the Lord, I want to find Paul and thank him for being so direct and honest and real about this reality in his life. He tells us here in Romans chapter 7, that he knows the right things to do – I mean he even wants to do them – he just can’t seem to do them. That’s the problem. Not that he doesn’t know, not that he doesn’t want to, but that he just can’t.

And our mate Paul wasn’t some woos. He was no airy fairy weakling. Paul was tough as nails when he had to be. He was driven, he was focused, he was an achiever, he poured out his life for the Gospel and even he had this very same problem.

Can I go on record and say I had this very same problem happening in me? And I know, I know absolutely, that you had the same thing going on in you. That’s why church is never perfect because it’s full of people like you and me – people who are growing and improving and changing but people who are, never the less, a lot like Paul.

And his answer to everything is the grace and the power of Jesus Christ. I am going to share with you now what he goes on to say about how to win this battle that rages between the flesh and the spirit because the answer has everything to do with the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Are you ready to settle down and join me for this wonderful passage? Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 1. He comes straight of the back of this problem that he is talking about and says, look:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from this law of sin and death. Because God has done what the law, weakened by our flesh, simply could not do: by sending Jesus, his Son in the likeness of our sinful flesh to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk, not according to the flesh any more but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those of us who live according to the Spirit, we set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh, frankly, is death, but to set our minds on the Spirit, that is life and peace. It is for this reason that the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh simply cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ in them, does not belong to God. But if Christ is in you, though the body might be dead because of our sin, the Spirit is life because of God’s righteousness.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit that dwells in you. So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to our flesh, to live according to the desires of our flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you will put to death the deeds of the body and you will live.

I love this! Because what it is saying is: look, boys and girls, I don’t care how bad things are, God’s not going to condemn you if you put your trust in Jesus. “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Your slate has been wiped clean and that is your starting point of your relationship with God.

But now we have to deal with this battle that everybody has between the desires of the flesh and the work of the Holy Spirit in you. And the way we do that is by sorting out what we really want. Do you really want to follow the nasty desires of your humanity – greed, anger, sexual immorality, hatred, selfishness? Is that what you really want for your life? And if it is, then set your mind on that and that’s what you are going to get! If that is what you set your heart on, friend, it’s going to kill you.

But if you set your mind and your heart and your desires and your focus and your attention on the Holy Spirit, that’s going to bring you life. Your body may well be dead in sin, but set your heart and your desires on Christ and you will have life. Seems to me that whatever we set our hearts on; whatever we turn over and over in our minds, it’s what we end up living. Set your heart and your mind on the Spirit of God and you will end up walking in the Spirit.

Elsewhere in writing to his friends at Philippi, Paul puts it this way, really powerful. Philippians chapter 4, beginning at verse 8. He says, look:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just and pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, then think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you.

You see, our thoughts are where our actions come from. And that’s something effectively, that you and I already know. I am in the process at the moment of shedding a few kilos of weight and often times I would just love not to go out for a walk after work and miss out on that calorie burning exercise. And often times I think, “Gee, look at that piece of cake. That would be nice for morning tea.” Do you know what keeps me on track? I keep thinking about what it will be like when I reach my target weight.

God has already given His Holy Spirit to each person who has put their trust in Jesus. We already have the Spirit of God – we have the power. What God is calling us to do here is to turn that over and over in our minds; to keep focused on that; to keep thinking about how wonderful it will be when we finally overcome our anger or overcome our selfishness or whatever it is that’s plaguing our lives. If there is anything commendable or excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things and the result of that is that we will end up doing the things that we have learned and received and heard from God.

Thinking comes before walking. And so when it comes to walking in the Spirit and seeing the power and the blessings of that walk flow out into our lives, all we need to do is to set our hearts and minds and desires on the Holy Spirit and discover that by doing that we engage His power – the power to do the things that, in our own strength, we simply could never do.

It’s good news, hey?

Children of God

One of the greatest blessings in my life was my parents. Now, no one’s parents are perfect and I know there are a small percentage of them who are absolutely horrendous. But what I got from my parents as I grew up in the Dymet family, in the small but comfortable home just south of Sydney in Australia, was safety and security and nurture. And I try to imagine sometimes what it would be like to be a child growing up in fear – afraid of being beaten, afraid of being abused, afraid because they are completely alone.

Sadly many, many children grow up like that. Their parents have died or they live in poverty, completely alone. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in fear as a child – at a time when you are weak and vulnerable and defenceless. There is something precious about belonging to a family. We are made to need that sense of belonging and frankly, we are not made to live in fear.

Over these last few weeks we have been chatting about walking in the Spirit; living our lives and journey in the presence and the comfort and the guidance and the nurture and the blessing of God Himself because His Spirit dwells in us. God Himself dwelling in us! And today we are going to finish off by looking at the powerful sense of family and belonging that comes through walking in the Spirit.

Earlier we were chatting about how to walk in the Spirit – laying hold of the Spirit, rather than the desires of our flesh in our day to day walk. And it comes down to this one simple thing, according to God’s Word:

… those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit 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. It is for this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; does not submit to God’s law – indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It’s about where we set our minds and what we desire in our hearts. It’s a powerful thing! Because when we set our hearts and minds on God; on the Holy Spirit, it’s like putting a car into gear and letting out the clutch. By faith we are engaging the power of the Spirit! And there are two other things that the Apostle Paul has to say about walking in the Spirit. The first … the first of those has to do with family, belonging to God’s family. If you have got a Bible, open it. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 14. He says:

For all who are led by the Spirit are children of God. See, you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry out, “Abba! Father!”, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are in fact, children of God and if children, then we are heirs, we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – since we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

See, the Spirit of God in us witnesses the truth to us, that we have been adopted into God’s family. When we give the Holy Spirit full sway in our hearts, through Him we know that we know that we know that we know that we are children of God – precious in His sight. And here is the thing about being a child: what happens whether we live with our natural parents or whether we have been adopted into a family, is that we take on many of the traits and the mannerism of our parents.

You may have heard me tell this story before but I remember the first time I saw myself interviewed on television – I was completely gob-smacked at how much I was like my father. The mannerisms, the way I spoke … it just completely blew me away. How could this be? Well, because he’s my dad and some of the things I had inherited genetically from him and others, without ever realising, I had learned by mimicking him over the years. I was an absolute revelation to me.

As we come to the realisation that God is our Father; that you and I are His children, I have to tell you, exactly the same thing happens. We start looking like Him and sounding like Him and thinking like Him and loving like Him and sacrificing like Him – right? And that’s what is meant to happen. Being a child of God takes the fear away from our lives – the fear of being alone, the fear of not belonging – because when we are adopted back into God’s family (which is actually where we were always meant to be in the first place) we know the blessedness of having God as our Father. And when we cry out to Him, “Father”, “Abba”, “Dad”, right then and there the Holy Spirit tells us that we are His kids.

But secondly, children aren’t just children. Children are heirs and in this case, we are co-heirs with Christ when we put our faith in Him. In other words, walking in the Spirit gives us the certainty that we have a destiny … an eternal destiny. Let’s go on and read the second part, beginning at Romans chapter 8, verse 17. Paul goes on to write. He says, look:

… if we are children of God, then we are heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ – since we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits in eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation has been subjected to this futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning like…..like in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Holy Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for this adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.

So, Paul is saying, look, indeed there is going to be suffering – Jesus suffered, we certainly will but because the Holy Spirit is in us every moment of every day, we know that we have a destiny … an eternal destiny. As we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need fear no evil, because God is with us and He is witnessing to us that we have a future – not just here on this earth, but a future with Him for all eternity.

One day this world as we know it will cease to exist. One day you and I will no longer be alive on this planet and when either of those two eventualities takes place – whichever one happens to come first, we will spend the rest of eternity with God if we have placed our faith in Jesus today. We will be there with Jesus, so the suffering we are travelling through just doesn’t compare to the glory of our eternity with God. Anyone who walks in the Spirit as the days and the weeks and the years pass by, knows that more and more in their hearts because the Spirit of God speaks it to us in a way that it becomes a part of us.

Friend, walking in the Spirit is about experiencing the presence and the power and the promises of God. Let me say that again – walking in the Spirit is about experiencing the presence and the power and the promises of God. And that happens when we yield our lives to Jesus and set our hearts and our minds and our hopes and our dreams and our passions and our desires on the things of God; the things of the Spirit, rather than on the things of this world. And a huge part of that is setting our hearts on the destiny we have because of Jesus.

And all of a sudden – and many of you figured this out way, way before I ever did – then all of a sudden we get the things of this world into perspective – the pleasures and the pains, the triumphs and the trials. We walk through each and every experience with power and peace, focused on the end-game; focused on the reality that we are saved in Jesus Christ; we are here to do His work; we are here to sacrifice our lives for Him. And one day we will be there with Him for all eternity, to worship Him and to rejoice with Him in His glory. Friend, that is God’s plan – nothing more, nothing less – for those who choose to walk in the Spirit. Hey, that’s quite a plan, isn’t it?

Glory, Glory, Glory!!

So let me ask you – this fantastic stuff we have been talking about, not just today but over the last few weeks on the programme – is it just all too much to believe? Do you look around sometimes and think, “Yea, well, maybe for that preacher on the radio, maybe that stuff is happing in that guy’s life, but mine … holy good night!” If you are thinking that right now, you wouldn’t be alone and from time to time, to tell you the honest truth, that’s how I feel too.

You see, things happen in your life and you think to yourself, “Is God really in this place?” Well, seems the Holy Spirit knew exactly what you and I would be thinking when He had Paul pen Roman chapter 8. Have a listen with me. Just let the wonder of God’s Word melt into your heart. Listen as though He had Paul write this for you, because you know what, He actually did. Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 18. Paul says, look:

… the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. … For in hope we were saved. And hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what they can see? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

So the Spirit helps us in our weakness; because we do not know how to pray as we should, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, and for those who are called according to his purpose … What then should we say about these things? If God is for us, who can possibly be against us? … Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … I am convinced that neither death, or life, or angels, or rulers, anything in the present, anything in the future, no power, no height, no depth; nothing else in all creation, will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What is God saying? He is telling it just the way it is. There will be suffering and pain and all that stuff, but right here in the middle of this, the Holy Spirit is interceding for us; right here in the middle of this mess, God Himself is working things out together for good; working things out for His glory. And this Apostle Paul who went through all of the things he lists here – all of them: hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword – has experienced the presence of God, the very Spirit of God, right there with him in the middle of all that stuff.

And as a result, because of that experience, he is convinced absolutely nothing: not death, nor life, not angels, nor rulers, things in the present, things to come, powers, height, depth … nothing in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. Halleluiah!!

Friend, this is what it means to be filled to overflowing in the wondrous Spirit of God. It’s what it means to be baptised in the Spirit, drenched in the Spirit, drowned and changed and transformed in the Spirit. To live life, all of life, all of the ups and downs – two steps forward, three steps back – in the certain knowledge God is here in this place with us. God’s Spirit is at work in us, changing us, cleaning us, pruning us, growing us. Halleluiah!!

Friend, it takes power to live as Christ. It takes power to forgive as Christ forgave those who crucified Him. “Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing,” as they gambled over the very clothes on His back. And it takes that very same power – the power of the cross; the power that raised Jesus from the dead – that same power that is alive and effective in you and me as we yield our lives to Jesus, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus promised.

Isn’t that what you want for your life? Well, in Christ it’s yours!