CCIPH - Messages

Many of you know that we are finishing today a series that we have had all month on the subject of grace. Tom Powell sensed some time ago that we were in need of some in-depth teaching to really grasp the matter of God’s grace in our lives. Today we conclude the series by talking about walking in the Spirit, versus walking in the flesh.

Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

I think that we cannot have a full understanding of grace without knowing the Holy Spirit. After all, in Him we live and move and have our being. We are to walk in the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we have no grace, no communion with God, no comfort, and no counsel. Without the Holy Spirit, all we have is dead religion, and we walk in the flesh; or perhaps we listen to other spirits in the world who are all-too-eager to speak to us, spirits of self-achievement and of bitterness, spirits of envy and pride, spirits of vengeance and self-will.

Let’s play What if for a minute: If the Lord were to remove His Holy Spirit from the church, I wonder how long it would be before anyone noticed? This is totally hypothetical, because we have the promise that God would not do so, but if the Spirit were removed, what would be different?

John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever

I’d like to think that it would go like this for me: In my planning, I would be very distressed; the song list would not be coming together, I’d feel out of sorts, abandoned and empty; that I’d have no idea how to proceed. I could create a song list that “works,” in that the keys, the themes and the tempos all work together, but something wasn’t right about it. Then, I’d like to think that I would arrive for practice with the worship team, and say, “I don’t know what’s wrong; I have heard nothing from the Lord. I need your help.” I’d like to think that they would get on their knees and pray, desperate to know what was wrong; and finding no solution, that we would all come before the congregation empty, and have no music. I’d like to imagine that you in turn would be out of sorts, hopeless and powerless and surprised that we just hadn’t “gotten through” with our prayers and their other acts of worship. We need the Holy Spirit to worship acceptably.

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

What I fear, though, is that all would go on as usual in most of our churches. The songs would be chosen based on how they fit the theme and how well they flowed together musically. The musicians would rehearse and learn their music just like normal. The congregation would experience the same thing they always experience—a fine, well-organized service with a good teaching from the Bible, and comfortable routines. Sunday morning and all’s well. Worship planning, worship leading, and worship in the flesh.

If a “secret rapture” of the saints were to occur at midnight on a Saturday, how full would our churches be the next morning?

Of course, my hypothetical illustration so far only pertains to our worship assemblies. But it should apply to all of life.

What a terrible, condemning thought, that we would not even notice if the Spirit were missing! Or that we have a hard time in this hypothetical example even imagining what we, in fact, rely on the Spirit to do! May we repent of doing in the flesh what should only be done in the Spirit. So, let’s explore what it means and doesn’t mean to walk in the Spirit, rather than walking in the flesh.

Last week, Dave and Tom challenged us to consider that it is, in fact, possible to overcome besetting sins that have been in the very center of who you have been your entire life. It can be done by the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. For today, Tom has written this about walking in the Spirit:

“The Christian has two ways that he can live out his life. I think it is common for us to go back and forth between the two. One is Christ’s yoke and the other is our bitter route. Probably some live out most of their time in the flesh. Can we live out the rest of our lives in the spirit? “Can” “we” live out the rest of “our” lives in the “spirit/Spirit”?

There are two ways to live life, and if we want to please God, we can try either path. The first, and most common, is OUTSIDE IN. By controlling the outer shell of our lives we think that we can control our behavior. Eventually, we hope that by controlling our outward behavior, it will soak into our spirits. We know this method well: it’s how we were raised, right? We started with laws and fences and outward controls. That’s how God started with humans, too. He gave us the Law. But no one can ever really control himself or herself so well on the outside that it ever really soaks in deep enough to please God and take us to perfection. A religious spirit tells us that it is possible to be good enough, and we often fall into a legalistic pattern of trying to please God in the flesh, but the Bible tells us over and over that it simply can’t be done. A Religious Spirit cannot please God. While an outward focus can create some pockets of morality, and virtually every religion in the world follows an outside in focus, it will do you no good eternally.

The second way of living is INSIDE OUT, and it is the way that is taught over and over in the New Testament. When the Holy Spirit lives inside me, and I simply listen to his voice and obey him, he leads me into right doctrine, right living, and right attitudes. I let go of trying to change my outward behavior—if I could just quit that addictive habit, or I am going to start “acting” (notice that word) nicer to people, or I’m going to be more disciplined in some area of my life. Instead, I relax, I listen, I join in on the Sabbath rest, I say yes to Jesus, and I live in peace.

Looking at someone on the outside, you can’t immediately tell whether they are living outside in or inside out lives. Either way, they might say “No” to that second cookie, or read their Bibles and spend two hours in prayer. Sometimes, we can’t even tell ourselves whether it was the Holy Spirit or our sense of guilt and compulsion that made us do or not do something. But over the long haul, outside in living yields certain fruits, and none of them are good. And over the long haul, inside out living yields a beautiful harvest of traits, and all of them are good.

You might say there are two extremes that people fall into when they talk about walking in the Spirit. On the one hand, the Holy Spirit is seen as an almost mechanistic, or purely theoretical, non-experiential being. He secretly regenerates us when we are baptized, and He indwells us, but we cannot feel Him or know Him, except for reading and knowing our Bibles. This is the tradition in which I grew up. It is a reactionary position, trying to avoid the abuses of the charismaniacs.

You might call it the charisphobic position. When you read your Bible, you have the Holy Spirit. Period. A variation of that camp is the mechanistic liturgical camp. The Holy Spirit is the symbol of anointing oil, or a candle, or the Eucharist, or the recited prayer. It is based on the doctrine of objective efficacy, which says that whether or not I have faith, if the right act is done and the right words are said, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit was present and doing His work. A charisphobic position seems to be safe, because it protects us from abuses of the charismaniacs, but it is ungodly, fleshly and unspiritual. Charisphobics have what Paul described as a form of godliness, but such people deny its power. There may as well not be a Holy Spirit in the daily life of a charisphobic.

1 Timothy 3:1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

On the other side of the spectrum are the charismaniacs. These people have a very subjective, pietistic, and experiential view of things of the Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is the moment of true regeneration for them, and it may or may not have anything to do with water baptism. The Spirit works through continued revelation, giving the same signs and wonders and wishing to communicate as much today as He did 2000 years ago. Daily He leads in a mysterious, to some, nearly audible voice.

Charismaniacs see it as a satanic attack when their car won’t start. They wake up in the morning and say, “Jesus, do you want me to go to work today, or not?” They listen so much for God’s voice that they are of no earthly good. I had a friend who said he heard audibly from God. One of the things God told him is to sell his car in order to buy a sound system, and to rent a car. After two weeks, he couldn’t afford to return the car, because he didn’t have enough money, so he kept it and prayed for God to supply what He had promised. I remember him doing a concert, and God told him to hold it outdoors. So by faith he obeyed, in spite of the weather report, and all that equipment he had bought got rained on. Do you think that was God’s voice he was hearing?

In my own life, I grew up in the charisphobic tradition, and then my pendulum swung the other way to become something of a charismaniac myself. Having discovered that God still wants to communicate with us today, I tried to obey the Bible and constantly walk in the Spirit, doing nothing in the flesh. I heard testimonies from people that they were on their way home and heard a prompting to turn left at a particular street and walk up to a house and give the stranger who lived there a large amount of money, and that person had just been praying for God to supply a genuine need in that exact amount. I wanted to be open to moments like that. There was a time when I was on my way home, and I felt led to pick up a hitchhiker. I took that person home and shared Jesus with him on the way. And though my grandmother had made dinner for us and she had to wait almost an hour with cold and dried out hamburger patties, I excitedly told her about my experience. The next day, I’m driving home and asking, “Which way do I turn at this intersection, Lord? Left, right, straight? I’m waiting on you to tell me. Are you saying left? No, right? Save gas and follow the normal path?”

My epiphany came one morning when I was listening for the Spirit’s voice after showering. I stood in front of the antiperspirants, a spray kind and a stick kind, asking the Lord which one I should use today. The spray, you know, destroys the ozone layer. So maybe use the stick. But if I never use the spray, it will rust and the fluorocarbons will be released anyway. So maybe I should go ahead and finish this can first. What are you saying, Lord? One under each arm? Suddenly the light dawned: God was not in the business of dictating to me what kind of antiperspirant to use. If he were speaking to me, he would say, “Just put something on so you don’t stink and get out there and do my work!” I was using the Holy Spirit as an excuse for being indecisive, which I have a tendency to be, if you didn’t notice. I think I’m indecisive, anyway. Maybe not so much as some people. Well, in some areas I do okay, but often I am more comfortable having circumstance, or the Voice of God Himself tell me what to do, rather than make a decision that could be wrong.

I am convinced that the Spirit works today in some mysterious, indefinable, but experiential way today, but finding a balance has been a challenge for me.

When we live spiritually, we live in constant communication with God’s Spirit, and we are guided by Him, in step with Him, led by Him, and walking in Him. So, the Spirit uses Scripture,[1] but is not limited to Bible study. If we are saturated with Scripture, we have given our spirits a vocabulary with which God can speak to us, and a measure by which to test the spirits. But He also prompts,[2] checks,[3] empowers[4] and speaks to our spirits.

When we live in the flesh, we hear from ourselves, that is, from our flesh, from our bodies, our minds, our wills, our emotions, and yield the fruit of the fleshly life. When our lives are “fleshly,” our lifestyle is marked by striving, frustration, burnout, self-promotion, selfish ambition, shallowness, anxiety about money, and a need to control.[5] We are marked by the fruit described in Galatians 5:13-21, which includes a legalistic spirit, divisiveness, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, as well as more obvious sins of immorality.

On the other hand, when our lives are in step with the Spirit, our lives are marked by everyday miracles of Divine providence. We have overwhelming peace and contentment, freshness, a desire to promote the life and ministry of others, humility, depth, trust in God’s adequate provision, and letting go and letting God do His thing.[6] The fruit of our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.[7]

Which list best describes you? If you are walking in the Spirit, you may even be mistaken for a drunkard at times, because you are no longer concerned about protecting your carefully-honed dignity.[8] Somehow, being filled with the Spirit is a joyous experience of wild abandonment, not just an intellectual exercise or theoretical game!

The central point of both of these passages is this: We cannot be good enough to please God. We don’t have it in us. And there are plenty of ways that we can try to do enough good things, keep enough laws, and outwardly control our behavior through our bodies, our wills, our emotions, or our intellects. But all of them will fail.

On the other hand, when we give up and say yes to the Lord and receive the Holy Spirit into our lives, then we are not “good enough” because of our work. We simply receive grace. And yet when we have the Holy Spirit living in us, guiding as captain of our ship, we find, surprisingly, that we are becoming good!

Let me try an earthly illustration. As a young man, I met this girl named Ellen and thought she was everything I ever wanted in my life. So I bought and read a book called How to Win and Keep a Woman. It said that four times a year I must buy her flowers. Once a week I must take her out on a date. I should call her at least once a day to touch base, and the book provided a rotating list of what to say to make her think that she was important to me. There was a chapter on techniques for romancing her, formulas for determining if she was happy enough, and what to do about it if she wasn’t, and advice on manners and listening techniques. I studied all those things—over one hundred ideas in all—and to this day I strive to follow the advice of the book How to Win and Keep a Woman. Of course, I don’t keep most of those things most days, and I constantly feel guilty because I’m not doing enough. But I try.

You may have guessed that there is no such book, How to Win and Keep a Woman. If I do any of the things that I do, it is so much better if those actions arise out of a heart of love rather than a list of do’s. There is no romance in following a list of rules. But there is joy in loving a woman to death. I am guided by love, not rules, and the actions arise from the relationship. So it is with the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is guiding the church and each of its members. He makes His will known through checking our movement,[9] giving visions and dreams, interpretations, words of revelation or instruction or prophecy or tongues.[10] Sometimes, the leaders sense what seems good to the Holy Spirit and to them, and they make a decision accordingly.[11]

He also works wonders in our midst, at least on occasion. Jesus left the wilderness in the “power” of the Spirit.[12] The Spirit interprets our prayers according to the Father’s will.[13] The power of the Lord Jesus is (or at least can be, depending on how you read it) among us when we gather.[14]

Jesus said that his disciples need not worry in advance about what to say when they are brought before the authorities, for it would be given to them at the right time just what to say.[15] That advice may or may not be for us today (God is not necessarily dishonored by planning in advance!), but we can see His words fulfilled when Stephen stood before the council in Acts 6:15.

What does the Spirit say? When we are discerning spirits, we can know from Scripture that the Holy Spirit says certain things: Jesus is Lord. Jesus has come in the flesh. Baptized followers of Jesus are God’s children.

Slide 23

1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

1 John 4:2
This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,

Romans 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

MARKS OF THE SPIRIT

How do I know whether the Holy Spirit is leading me? Are there any marks by which I know whether it is just "me" living my life in the flesh, or it is "God" living His life through me? Yes, there are some clear indicators.

In the prayer room, one of the areas is filled with symbols of the Holy Spirit. Fruit, Scripture written on cards, a comfortable seat, a comforter, and five pillows with these words or symbols: Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. That is fruit that comes into my life when it is guided by the Holy Spirit.

There are different spirits that can influence my life. If I am listening to and following the leading of the wrong ones, my life becomes marked by doubt or presumption, by discouragement and despair, by selfishness and anger, by moodiness and depression, and by criticalness and argumentation. I might maintain a public image, but my inner life becomes less and less . . . what's the word? Holy.

There are many spirits. All but one of them is a false spirit, and many of them can disguise themselves as angels of light. So we must always be discerning.

[1] Compare Ephesians 5:18 with Colossians 3:15.

[2] See Acts 8:26-29.

[3] See Acts 16:6,7.

[4] See 1 Corinthians 5:4.

[5] This list comes to me from the teaching of John G. Elliott.

[6] Again, this is John Elliott’s list, and is in contrast to the previous one.

[7] Galatians 5:22-23.

[8] On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were ridiculed after receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit by calling them drunk on new wine (how appropriate was the terminology!) (Acts 2:13) Later, Paul says not to be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)

[9] See Acts 16:6,7.

[10] See 1 Corinthians 14:26.

[11] See Acts 15:13.

[12] See Luke 4:14.

[13] See Romans 8:26, 27.

[14] See 1 Corinthians 5:4.

[15] Matthew 10:19-20; Luke 21:13-15.

[16] 1 Thessalonians 5:19.