THE SPIRIT-EMPOWERED LIFE
[8-minute read]
Everyone knows that it is impossible to drive a car without gas or electric power. It would be unthinkable to buy a car only to park it in the garage to keep it from being exposed to bad traffic and harsh weather. We know how futile it is to dream about places we could go, things we could do and people we could meet with the convenience of a car yet we refuse to keep it fueled and keep it on the road to perform in the ways it is designed to.
This may sound bizarre but in the same way, many believers - even those who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit - minimize the importance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. While we know that the Holy Spirit with God the Father and Jesus the Son makes up the Trinity, He is often treated as optional to our spiritual well-being.
Here are THREE simple truths about the Holy Spirit.
Firstly, the Holy Spirit is a person who carries God’s heart: He grieves when we sin, He cries with us in our emotional pain, He quietly cheers us on when we face daunting ordeals. We can break the silence in our relationship with the Holy Spirit by talking to Him audibly just as we would speak with someone present. We don’t need to keep our conversations with the Holy Spirit always silent in our heads (just like texting!) because He is a person who is always present.
Secondly, the Holy Spirit dwells in us the moment we confess Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Just as our brains and physical hearts are vital for our physical existence, the Holy Spirit’s presence is vital to our spiritual well-being and we cannot be indifferent to and ignorant of Him. He is constantly helping us be more like Jesus by giving us a better understanding of the Bible when we read, teaching us how to pray when we don’t know where to start; and nudging us on the right priorities and the necessary risks to take.
Finally, our relationship with the Holy Spirit is so crucial that Jesus promised His disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit before His ascension. "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit is God's divine power and presence in us to carry out the Great Commission - "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Therefore, we should never ever treat the Holy Spirit as if He is redundant.
So if the Holy Spirit is such a good catch, why do people struggle to take Him seriously?
Here’s the tricky part - if we're only planning on making friends and not disciples wherever God sends us to, if we're happy to keep conversations to superficial updates and not connecting with others on a deeper level of spiritual care, if we're satisfied with our lives and not planning on stepping into new experiences with God, and if our family is the world to us, we won't need God’s power to change anything. The truth is that the Holy Spirit will change not only how each of us experience life, but also our thinking, our world view and our conversations.
What does a Spirit-empowered life look like? Here are two suggestions:
A Spirit-empowered Life Is A Spirit-fueled Life
After receiving the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter spoke and responded differently when he was put on the spot. He no longer tried to make a quick exit to detach himself from sticky situations. The Holy Spirit did not change Peter's personality but used his God-given audacity to deliver God-directed messages. He still enjoyed being Peter because he did not morphed into a quieter John or an educated Luke. While he shot off his mouth before, now he spoke from the counsel of the Holy Spirit.
A Spirit-empowered life is an ordinary life that operates in the extraordinary. When Peter grew confident in God’s abilities, he became comfortable with his own limitations: he no longer needed to be the smartest or most capable person in the room. Therefore, his response when approached by a man who was born lame was this, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (Acts 3:6). In other words, he was saying, Hey dude, I am as broke as you are but I know Jesus can do for you what I cannot – get up and walk.
The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law hauled up Peter and John to question them. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, told them straight out that "salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:8-12). Talk about high-octane audacity!
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (Acts 5:13). Indeed, the leaders did not see wrongly: Peter and John were ordinary people. That did not change but what was noteworthy to the leaders was that they had spent time with Jesus.
The question for us is this: does your life consistently demonstrate new evidence of a Spirit-fueled empowerment? Or do people see you as just a church-going Christian, a Bible-reading Christian, or maybe you are such a closeted and silent Christian that they have no clue that you even love Jesus?
A Spirit-empowered Life Is A Spirit-Directed Life
To be sure, the Great Commission is a global mission. Today, it is rare if our work does not involve some degree of internationalization, or is impacted by it. Why do you think you are working for an organization with operations in different countries, or trades across borders? Why do you think you are living in a global city or working in a foreign country? Did God set you up just to look good to your family and friends? No! Whether you like it or not, we are all charged with the Great Commission that we are individually responsible to live out. So if you find yourself moonlighting as a weekend believer, and dodging talks about your relationship with Jesus when someone needs to hear it, you are guilty of a great omission indeed!
All of us need to work at building a posture of submission and surrender to partner with the Holy Spirit so that we may fulfill the Great Commission in our lives through God’s unique plans. We need to encourage and support each other because we are called to transform lives and destinies for Christ together.
Even when we are directed to unlikely places (which is most likely to happen if the Holy Spirit has His way!), we know it is where God is creating a new narrative there through us. After all, Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria were certainly not holiday destinations to the disciples of Jesus Christ because these places were hostile to the gospel.
The Bible has copious examples of the Holy Spirit directing people to specific tasks. Peter was again directed to speak to Cornelius at his home when three men from Cornelius’ household stood at his door saying, “A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.” As a result, everyone in Cornelius’ household became the first Gentile (non-Jew) believers recorded in the Bible (Acts 10). Then, Philip, too, was sent to the desert to minister to an African Eunuch and baptized him on the spot (Acts 8:26-40). Even Ananias, who wasn’t in Jesus’ inner circle of disciples, was instructed by the Holy Spirit to go to Paul’s home to restore his eyesight. At that point in time, Paul was extremely hostile to the disciples of Jesus and was using his power to persecute them. However, by obeying the Spirit of God, Ananias played a pivotal role in the Gospels that we read today! (Acts 9:10-19). Indeed, the Holy Spirit can work with anyone of us.
In case we misperceive that Christ’s power and our salvation make us superior to others, let Paul’s humble admission correct any such error: “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).
What unknown opportunities or risks is God directing you to? When your life is Spirit-directed, nothing happens by coincidence or chance! Sometimes, the Holy Spirit will direct us to speak to someone; other times, He directs us to receive counsel and correction from others. Naturally, many of us prefer to avoid risks and confrontations but we have this assurance from John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.” All of us have to overcome our inner voice when it contradicts the counsel of God.
Certainly, the purpose of the Spirit-empowered life is not to renovate our lives as an end in itself. If anything, following the Holy Spirit will often make us appear like rookies rather than rock stars, and like a fish out of water in unfamiliar settings, but it beats living in hackneyed existence day in and day out.
In closing, let’s all take this advice to heart: “If the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives.” (Galatians 5:25 The Passion Translation).
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 27 May 2023.
