on 2 November 2022
Dear all at IPC,
I recently spent a stressful 20 minutes trying to plug my phone into it’s charger when it was on 2%. No matter how I positioned the wire, bending it this way and that way, wiggling the cable about in all different directions, it wouldn’t start charging. I remembered someone told me that if you got a paperclip you could clean out the charging point as fluff gets caught in there. I nervously did that, which didn’t work. It got more and more stressful as the phone got down to one percent. If I couldn’t get it to charge and then if the phone died, with no way to charge it, that would be it. The end of life as I knew it. How would people be able to get hold of me? With no phone, I’d be cut off from the outside world. I was getting rather frantic as I tried to fix the problem, but it was all to no avail. I was praying ‘Lord make this phone charge’ but nothing, no lightening sign was visible.
It was then that I checked whether I’d put the plug in right to the wall and realised it was only half pushed in. As soon as I pressed the plug in, hey presto the phone charged with ease. It was embarrassingly so simple, so obvious. Ridiculously obvious and ridiculously simple and yet I’d overlooked it.
It struck me that in the Christian life I can often be like my mini adventure with my phone. I can be desperate to fix things, achieve things, think through various options of how to do something. There can be frantic activity but to no avail. There can even be a desperation about my efforts and a feeling that all is futile.
The problem though is that without God’s Holy Spirit we can do nothing. I know there’s an enormous danger in comparing the Holy Spirit to electricity. The Holy Spirit is not a force, He is a a person. He comforts and convicts, he intercedes and guides, he teaches and directs, he is our helper (John 14:15, 26). The Spirit gives life (2Corinthians 3:6). He is the life giving dove.
Of course wonderfully the Holy Spirit indwells every believer, he is always with us. The illustration I’ve used with electricity falls down because we are never without the power of the Holy Spirit as his children, but there is the sense where we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, to keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25), to not grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30). Stephen warns his hearers do not resist the Holy Spirit (Acts 6:51). Paul likewise commands the Thessalonians not to quench the Spirit (1Thes 5:19)
So we need to consciously live dependently upon God, minute by minute, moment by moment. It means recognising the truth that Jesus taught us that without him we can do nothing. It’s a daily seeking of the empowering of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13) in putting sin to death, in faithfulness at home and work, in witness to others. There is no other way to live the Christian life.
The Holy Spirit directs us to Christ, honours Christ, will empower us to live for Christ. He is the one who inspired God’s Word (2 Peter 1:21), it is Spirit breathed and he is the one that enables us to understand it. He is the Spirit of Truth. We must ask for his help that we may enabled us to understand God’s word. The Spirit never leads us in anything that is against God’s word.
The Holy Spirit helps us to pray, he intercedes for us and he guides our prayers (Romans 8:26-27). The power that we need to live the Christian life is found in the life giving Spirit of God. There is no other way to live the Christian life.
Wednesday 2 November 2022
“Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless. As an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted.” CH Spurgeon
In our own lives and in our church life together, we need to recognise where the power is. Your Minister and Friend,
Paul