“Oh! to be solid gold through and through. If so, you need not mind the trials of today, since they will only prepare you for the glories eternal at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” —Charles Spurgeon, commenting on 1 Peter 1:6-7
“The clearer and more compelling our vision, the more earnest, specific and devoted we will be in taking up the disciplines necessary to realize our vision.” —T.M. Moore
Dan Reiland writes that leaders under sustained pressure may “eventually face a breaking point where caving in no longer looks like a weakness and starts looking like the only option to survive.” He then shares some solid leadership practices to help us stand firm during these pressure-packed situations.
“The sign that the Holy Spirit is in us is that we realize, not that we are full, but that we are empty. There is a sense of absolute need. We come across people who try us, circumstances that are difficult, conditions that are perplexing, and all these things awaken a dumb sense of need, which is a sign that the Holy Spirit is there. If we are ever free from the sense of need, it is not because the Holy Spirit has satisfied us, but because we have been satisfied with as much as we have.” —Oswald Chambers, in If You Will Ask
How cool is this: “Another fascinating clue has been found pointing to Neanderthals belonging to the human population. In a Russian cave, researchers discovered what they believe to be a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal molar tooth with a hole in it. A LiveScience article has dubbed the discovery ‘the oldest evidence of intentional dentistry to date.’” Of course, this human isn’t 60,000 years old, but more like 4000 years old, and shows the intelligence that the Creator endowed in all humans.
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Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow… (James 4:14).
I could modify this wisdom from James to say, “I don’t even know with certainty what will happen today!”
It’s okay to make my daily plans—servants in their master’s household do this—but I must never forget that I am not my own Master. I belong to Another, and He can use me as He knows best.
God does know—perfectly knows—what will happen today and may “interrupt” my plans (of course, it is only an interruption from my selfish perspective) as any moment.
In C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape is an older, more experienced demon, who is giving advice to his young nephew Wormwood about tempting his patient. Screwtape knew that this attitude of thinking, “My time is my own” is an ideal place to focus temptation. He counseled Wormwood—
“Now you will have noticed that nothing throws [your patient] into a passion so easily as to find a tract of time which he reckoned on having at his own disposal unexpectedly taken from him. … You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own’. Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours. Let him feel as a grievous tax that portion of this property which he has to make over to his employers, and as a generous donation that further portion which he allows to religious duties. But what he must never be permitted to doubt is that the total from which these deductions have been made was, in some mysterious sense, his own personal birthright.”
This “Mine!” attitude can be kept in check by starting each day with the reminder that, “This is what I plan to do today, if the Lord wills.” With this in mind at the start of each day, I can view unexpected people or situations that come my way not as interruptions to my day, but as opportunities to glorify my Master. He wants me to steward the 24 hours He gives me each day, and my top priority has to be remembering that these hours are a gift from Him, not hours that are mine to do with as I please.
If I get upset with either the person that “interrupts” me or the situation which “takes up my time,” that is an indication of the “Mine!” attitude that I need to ask the Holy Spirit’s help to correct.
I’ve often joked that after “Mama” and “Dada,” the next word most toddlers learn is, “Mine!” Sothere’s a lot of that attitude that has been ingrained in us from birth. The Holy Spirit knows just how much “Mine!” is in there, and He knows how to help us remove it. Trust Him in that process.
And if you would like to check out some related posts, take a look at…
In Run to wait I use an example from Mr. Carson in the television series Downton Abbey to teach us about the urgent and important matters that we have to juggle each day.
In I checked nothing off my To Do list today I share a real-time example of how God’s “interruptions” were really His opportunities for me to be a blessing to others.
“‘Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth’ [John 17:17]. The great objective of God’s Word is to make us holy. No diligence or success in Bible study will really profit us unless it makes us more humble and holy. In our use of Holy Scripture, this must be our main objective. The reason there is often so much Bible reading with so little real result in a Christlike character is that ‘…salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth’ (2 Thessalonians 2:13) is not truly desired. …
“It is God Himself who alone can make us holy by His Word. The Word, separate from God and His direct operation, cannot accomplish anything in us. The Word is an instrument: God Himself must use it. God is the only holy One. He alone can make holy. The unspeakable value of God’s Word is that it is God’s means of holiness.
“The terrible mistake of many people is that they forget that God alone can use it and make it effective. It is not enough that I have access to the office of a physician. I need for him to prescribe a cure. Without him, my use of his medicines could be fatal. This was true of the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They made their boast in God’s law. They delighted in their study of Scripture and yet remained unsanctified. The Word did not sanctify them, because they did not seek for this in the Word and did not yield to God to do it for them [John 5:39-40]. …
“‘There is none holy as the Lord…’ (1 Samuel 2:2). All holiness is His, and He makes things holy by His holy presence. The tabernacle and temple were not holy in virtue of cleansing, separation, or an indwelling God. His taking possession made them holy. God makes us holy through His Word, bringing Christ and the Holy Spirit into us. The Father can only do this as we wait before Him and in deep dependence and full surrender give ourselves up to Him. When we pray by faith, ‘Sanctify [me] through Thy truth; Thy word is truth,’ our knowledge of God’s Word will truly make us holy.” —Andrew Murray
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Recently, I read two wise authors who spoke the same message to my heart on the same day.
C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity wrote—
“And now we begin to see what it is that the New Testament is always talking about. It talks about Christians ‘being born again’; it talks about them ‘putting on Christ’; about Christ ‘being formed in us’; about our coming to ‘have the mind of Christ.’
“Put right out of your head the idea that these are only fancy ways of saying that Christians are to read what Christ said and try to carry it out—as a man may read what Plato or Marx said and try to carry it out. They mean something much more than that. They mean that a real Person, Christ, here and now, in that very room where you are saying your prayers, is doing things to you. It is not a question of a good man who died two thousand years ago. It is a living Man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as He was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural self in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has. At first, only for moments. Then for longer periods. Finally, if all goes well, turning you permanently into a different sort of thing; into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity.”
And Andrew Murray wrote in The Inner Life—
“It is not the interest or success of my Bible study. It is not the increased insight or understanding I am obtaining that brings health and growth to my spiritual life. Rather, this often leaves me very unspiritual with little of the holiness or humility of Christ Jesus. Something else is necessary in order for spiritual growth to take place.
“Jesus said: ‘…My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me…’ (John 4:34). We must take a small portion of God’s Word, some definite command or duty of the new life, and quietly receive it into our will and our heart. We must yield our whole being to its rule and vow in the power of the Lord Jesus to perform it. Then, we must go and do it—this is eating the Word. We take it into our inmost being until it becomes part of our very life.”
Praying a prayer in which I ask God to forgive me of my sins because I believe what Jesus did for me on the Cross is the first step into a new life.
But, tragically, many people stop there.
They believe praying this prayer was both the means and the end. They think that now they have secured their place in heaven and they can simply resume their daily routine—with the exception of adding in some church attendance during their weekend—until “the end.”
They expect that this end will be a very long way off, and it will come to them peacefully, only after they have lived a full and pain-free life. In short, they love the idea of Jesus as their Savior, but they very much want to remain the lord and master of their own life. So they will express their gratitude to God when things are going as they have planned, and they will sulk and angrily, tearfully implore His help in prayer when their plans have gotten off track.
Jesus cannot be merely our Savior—He must be our Lord and Master as well.
The Holy Spirit wants to transform our lives. The Bible calls this process sanctification, but I like to call it saint-ification. This is the daily and ongoing process to bring increasingly more Christ-likeness to us. This is not a replacing of our personality, but a revealing of our real selves as God intended.
Our lives are to grow, expand, and glow with the presence of Christ in us. We are to become more and more satisfied in God as the Holy Spirit conforms us into the image of Christ. Our eternal abiding in God’s presence is to begin the moment we invite Him into our heart—and then continue uninterrupted even after we take our last breath on earth.
As our lives are transformed, we become living, breathing testimonies to others of the life-changing power of God’s love in us and through us.
Our daily transformation becomes our daily testimony. What joy and fulfillment there is in allowing this to happen!
Knowing Jesus as your Savior is amazing, but don’t miss out on the best part of all: Knowing Jesus as your Lord, allowing the Holy Spirit to transform you, and becoming a living testimony of God’s love!
When Queen Esther went into the king’s throne room, she was unsure if the king’s favor would be extended toward her. But because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross, we can be assured that God’s favor is extended toward us before we even approach His throne.
“Christian, there is a terrible danger to which you stand exposed in your inner chamber of prayer. You are in danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God. … Your Bible study may so interest you that the very Word of God may become a substitute for God Himself. The greatest hindrance to fellowship is anything that keeps the soul occupied instead of leading it to God Himself. … Separation from others, in solitude with God—this is the sure, the only way to live in harmony with people in the power of God’s blessing.” —Andrew Murray
John Stonestreet writes, “In light of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, much ink is being spilled over the document’s significance…[and] one way to understand the Declaration is through the lens of science.”
“If we are slandered and evil spoken of, let us not be quick to reply, or to grow angry. Let us be slow—very slow—to wrath; it will be our wisdom, for no good comes of human wrath.” —Charles Spurgeon
“A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat ‘Do as you would be done by’ till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him.” —C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity
In looking at 1 Corinthians 7:2–5, Tilly Dillehay writes, “Paul does not deal here with sex as procreation—though we know from the whole testimony of Scripture that sex and procreation are blessedly intertwined. Instead, this passage highlights other purposes of sex.” Here are three biblical ways to view marital sexual activity.
J. Warner Wallace notes, “Yes, Matthew emphasizes things Luke doesn’t. John includes moments Mark skips. But that’s exactly what you’d expect if independent witnesses were describing the most significant events in human history. If the Gospel writers had colluded to fabricate a story, the accounts would have matched perfectly—and then I’d be suspicious. But they didn’t.”
T.M. Moore writes, “The power of God’s Kingdom is His Holy Spirit. The Spirit Who brooded over the entire creation. The Spirit Who roams and pervades the world. The Spirit Who inspired the prophets, raised Jesus from the dead, birthed the Church on the first Christian Pentecost, gave words to the apostles, and has given us a new heart and resides within our soul, that Spirit, that Light and Power, is at work within us, that we should be willing and able to do that which leads to the pleasure of God (Philippians 2:12-13).” Check out his post Plug Into the Power.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit brings an empowerment that nothing else can—You will receive POWER to be My witnesses (Acts 1:8).
I remember sitting with a group of leaders who were discussing personnel issues that was slowly becoming nothing more than a gripe session. I shared a story from the Book of Acts about some disagreements between some saints, and then made an application that caused all of these leaders to look at me in wonder. One said, “I had no idea that was in the Bible,” and another added, “I knew that story was there, but I never thought of applying that to this situation.” That wasn’t me, but the Holy Spirit who opened up His Word to that situation.
My friend Greg and I are writing a series of books for the business community called Business by the Book, where we are applying biblical insights to every “box” of a typical corporate flowchart. People who have already reviewed sections of our book are having a similar response: “I had no idea these examples and applications were there!”
We are surrounded by messages right now—messages we cannot hear. There are some persuasive arguments, some angry rants, some happy tunes, and some special sporting events. But we cannot tune into those messages with having a radio receiver set to the precise frequency. The Holy Spirit does the same thing for Christians.
Check out David talking about the speech of Creation in Psalm 19:1-4.
Jesus used Creation too—telling us to look at the birds and flowers (Matthew 6:26, 28) or to consider the farmer sowing seeds (Matthew 13:3-9).
In Romans, Paul tells us that Creation is enough (1:19-20) but that God also gave us His Law (2:12) and a conscience (2:15). When men rejected these things, God sent prophets and then His One and Only Son.
Those without the Holy Spirit are deaf to this speech, unable to understand it nor apply it to their lives, as Jesus goes on to tell His audience in Matthew 13:10-12.
We have already talked about the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth (John 16:7-15), but notice that one of the first things He does is convict us of sin (v. 8). Without this conviction, we are unable to repent of the things which are keeping us spiritual blind and deaf (Ezekiel 12:1-2).
Oswald Chambers noted, “Spiritual insight is in accordance with the development of heart purity.” How true! And that’s exactly what Jesus went on to say in Matthew 13:13-15. Paul echoes this—
But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. (1 Corinthians 2:14 NLT).
One of the prophecies about Jesus included His reliance on the Holy Spirit—not His natural mind—to discern what God was doing and how Jesus would fulfill Scripture (Isaiah 11:1-5).
This Spirit-empowered insight was anticipated by Solomon: If you will turn (repent) and give heed to My reproof, behold, I Wisdom will pour out My Spirit upon you, I will make My words known to you. (Proverbs 1:23 AMPC)
We can then know the sayings of the wise and be able to understand and apply these truths (Proverbs 24:23, 32). See how Peter did this in Acts 10:17, 28.
Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skillful and godly Wisdom, and the man who gets understanding—drawing it forth from God’s Word and life’s experiences.(Proverbs 3:13 AMPC)
The Spirit-baptized Christian is empowered to understand God’s speech through His Word, His Creation, and their life experiences, and then to make Christ-honoring applications of that understanding!
Why would we settle for anything less than this?! So don’t stop at salvation, but press on to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Choose work you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”? I’m not sure that is totally accurate. Work that is meaningful and fulfilling will be draining, hard work. We see Jesus taking time away from His work to be replenished from the activities that drained Him.
Instead, I think we need to find joy in our work. That joy comes from knowing why we are working. If we know the answer to the question, “Why do I do what I do, even if what I do is hard and demanding work” (and we can stay focused on that), then I think there is a joy that makes our duty a delight.
Jesus knew His duty from the very beginning. We see this in the story Luke shares with us about 12-year-old Jesus visiting Jerusalem (Luke 2:41-50). The phrase “I had to be in My Father’s house” (NIV) is rendered “must be” (NLT, KJV), and “I had to be here dealing with the things of My Father” (MSG). And I think the AMPC version is especially telling: Did you not see and know that it is necessary as a duty for Me to be in My Father’s house and occupied about My Father’s business?
Jesus came to Jerusalem every year for the festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits (see Leviticus 23:4-6, 9-14). Now at “twelve years old” He has had His bar mitzvah and is considered a Man in the eyes of the Jewish community. Eighteen years later, we see Jesus still focused on this same duty (Luke 3:23, 9:18-22).
Jesus found delight and fulfillment in doing His duty (Luke 10:21; John 4:31-34).
Jesus calls His followers to this same food that sustained Him (John 4:35-38). He calls this “hard work” that allows us to “be glad together.” Our joy is the joy of Jesus. Notice in Luke 10:21 that His joy was because His followers found joy in doing their duty for Him (Luke 10:1-3, 17).
Don’t look for the wages or your reward here, but do your duty joyfully in expectation of future and eternal rewards (Luke 17:7-10; John 3:27-30).
Let’s go back to 12-year-old Jesus in the temple. He was there during three Old Testament feasts that all pointed to Him and were fulfilled in Him:
Passover (Abib 14)—the day Jesus was crucified
Unleavened Bread (Abib 15-21)—when Jesus was in the grave
Firstfruits (Abib 16)—the day Jesus was resurrected (see James 1:18)
Pentecost (50 days after Firstfruits)
Twenty-one years after this story in Luke 2, in the very same place where Jesus is interacting with these religious leaders, the followers of Jesus would be baptized in the Holy Spirit! He is the One Who makes our duty a delight.
We get a foreshadowing of the joy in the Holy Spirit in Luke 1:41-44 when just a greeting from Mary—who was pregnant with Jesus by the Holy Spirit—causes the baby in Elizabeth’s womb to leap with joy in the Holy Spirit. We, too, live in joy when the Spirit is actively at work in us (John 15:11; Romans 5:3-5). The Spirit reminds us of the rewards for our joyful duty (Matthew 25:34; Luke 12:35-37).
You can stick with your have-to-do duties if you have a get-to-do attitude that comes from the joy the Holy Spirit gives.
Which is why Jesus prays for our joy to be complete, and Paul prays, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
Check out all of the messages in this series about the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. Check out the video content in this post by clicking here.
The first temptation of mankind was to doubt the God was good and that He was trustworthy. That’s why satan tempted Adam and Eve by saying they could become “like God.” Every Christian faces temptation, and one of the biggest is still satan’s same strategy: to try to get us to handle things on our own.
The baptism in the Holy Spirit is to help us realize that we cannot rely on ourselves, but we must rely totally on His power.
David Wilkerson said, “This is an ongoing problem with many Christians. We look to the Holy Spirit as some kind of booster shot to empower or energize our human will. We expect Him to build up our supply of grit and determination, so we can stand up to temptation the next time it comes. We cry, ‘Make me strong, Lord! Give me an iron will, so I can withstand all sin.’ But God knows this would only make our flesh stronger, enabling it to boast.”
Overcoming temptation is not about willpower but Spirit-power. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 12:9.
Being tempted to sin is not a sign that God has abandoned me or that I am living apart from Him. Jesus was perfect and yet we are told He was tempted in every way (Hebrews 4:15). So we can easily determine that temptation is not a sin because Jesus was tempted (Luke 4:3-13). This story is told in all three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 4:1-10; Mark 1:13).
Look at what preceded this temptation: Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-12; Luke 3:21-22, 4:1-2). The Spirit was the One Who led Jesus into the wilderness specifically to face temptation.
Temptation comes the the Latin word meaning “to stretch.” Oswald Chambers noted, “Every temptation of satan is perfectly wise. The wisest, shrewdest, subtlest things are said by satan, and they are accepted by everybody as the acme of human philosophy; but when the Spirit of God is at work in a man, instantly the hollow mockery at the heart of what satan is trying to do, is seen. When we understand the inwardness of the temptation we see how satan’s strategy is turned into confusion by the Spirit of God.”
Temptation is not a sin, but a stretching. It is a call for us to give up our willpower and trust the Spirit’s power.
When Jesus came to earth, He gave up His rightful prerogatives as God. The stretching test here was this: Would He continue to rely on the Spirit’s power or would He try to reclaim the power He surrendered?
It’s the same question for us when we are tempted: Will we take matters into our own hands, or will we leave ourselves in the Spirit’s hands? In one paragraph, James tells us both the blessing of overcoming temptation and where temptations originate—
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him. When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone, but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:12-15)
The Spirit shows us the way to have the mind of Christ in overcoming temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Just before Jesus was tempted, we see the help that is promised to all of us through the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:15-16).
There are some things we will learn about ourselves in a time of temptation that we cannot learn in any other way. Being baptized in the Holy Spirit is about empowerment, but it is really the power to submit—full and unconditional surrender to the only One who can bring me safely through (Hebrews 4:15; 5:7-9; 2:17-18).
As we talked about last week, the Spirit of Truth gives us the mind of Christ (John 16:13, 15; 1 Corinthians 2:16).
We, just like Jesus, can be victorious over these temptations by doing what Jesus did. (1) He was fully submitted to His Heavenly Father, (2) He was sensitive to go where the Holy Spirit led Him, and (3) He uncovered the shrewd and subtle arguments of satan by using the Word of God.
Instead of saying, “I gave in to temptation,” we can say, “I gave in to the Holy Spirit, Who helped me defeat temptation!”
Check out all of the other messages in our series We Are: Pentecostalby clicking here.
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Last week we said that Spirit-baptized Christians should live in the normalcy of extraordinary power! Our normative should be extraordinary because we have the Holy Spirit in us (John 14:16-17). One bad habit that keeps us from extraordinary living is that we frequently seek counsel from flawed sources—like fellow humans—when Jesus intends for the Holy Spirit to give us extraordinary insight (John 16:12-19).
I work with middle schoolers every day. I love them but they can be frustrating at times. They are at the age where you would expect to see some maturing, but sometimes I have to ask them, “How old are you?” I think you can hear this loving frustration in Paul’s tone in 1 Corinthians 3:1-4. He refers to their spiritual immaturity as worldly (3x), calling them mere infants and mere humans (2x).
This immaturity means they are missing out on deeper truths (you were not yet ready for it … still not ready), which reveals itself in their jealousy and quarreling, and factions.
The phrase “mere humans” tells us that there is a lifestyle that is deeper. Which Paul outlines in 2:11-16. When he says some are “without the Spirit” (v. 14), he uses a Greek word that means the animal life which humans have in common with the brutes. That’s why some Bible translate this word “natural man” (NKJV). In other words, people living by reactions without forethought or insight.
This word for “mere Humans” or “natural man” occurs two other times in the New Testament, and it is a very sad picture (James 3:15; Jude 19)!
By contrast, Paul says that those who rely on the Holy Spirit have spiritual discernment (v. 14) to make good judgments (v. 15). Both of these English words are the same Greek word which is probably best translated as Spirit-breathed insight.
Why does the Holy Spirit give us this deeper insight? So that we may have the mind of Christ (2:16). The psalmist echos this longing: I am Your servant; give me understanding (discernment and comprehension), that I may know—discern and be familiar with the character of—Your testimonies (Psalm 119:125 AMPC).
This psalmist knew the power of God’s Word to help us to continue to mature in our walk with our Savior. Especially in the section in Psalm 119:97-104, we read that this Spirit-breathed insight gives us an advantage over our enemies, our teachers, and even our elders.
Solomon picks up this same theme. Notice his “if…then” connections in Proverbs 2:1-6 as he talks about the immense value of the divine insight the Holy Spirit gives us.
Guillermo Maldonado said, “God never intended for us to walk aimlessly, trying to please Him without guidance or direction. Instead, He sent us the Holy Spirit and equipped us with the ability to hear, feel, intuit, and discern His atmosphere.”
Remember what Jesus said in John 16:12-15. In short: the Holy Spirit gives us the mind of Christ. With His mind we have discernment into how to apply the Scripture to our life, which will give us extraordinary insight. With this insight, our lives will be transformed and we will be His witnesses, drawing others to Jesus.
Let’s make this our prayer—
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)
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I’m not sure that any other aspect of the Christian faith generates as much discussion as the role of the Person of the Holy Spirit. Specifically, I would say “nuanced discussion.” By that I mean, people carefully choosing their words to remain biblically accurate but not sound weird. “After all,” they might say, “we don’t want people looking at us strangely because we’re talking about signs, wonders, and speaking in unknown languages. Yet at the same time, we don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit.”
I believe there is a better way to handle this: Let Scripture speak for itself.
Let me share one recent example with you that will address this point. A rather well-known Christian apologist, who happens to be quite skilled in ancient biblical languages, was recently asked in an interview, “Can you explain the gift of speaking in tongues?”
Here are some of the main things he said in reply: “I think there is something going on in the New Testament that is different. … There is a uniqueness to that time period. It’s normative in a way that it is not now” because, he says, we don’t see today what we see in the New Testament, “because the disciples are building the foundation of the Church. … Now we have the books of Scripture where God speaks to us in a different way. … Speaking in tongues, prophesying happen; I just don’t think they’re normative in the way we see them happening in the New Testament.”
There’s a lot to unpack here, but I want to focus on a word he repeated: normative.
The dictionary defines that word: implying, creating, or prescribing a norm or standard; especially an assumed norm regarded as the standard of correctness in behavior, speech, writing, etc.
So I guess we need to ask, “What is normal?”
Let’s begin with this question: What did the pre-Ascension followers of Jesus consider normal?
First, Jesus was with them bodily form, and He regularly explained Scripture to them. Jesus healed people and so did His followers. Jesus told them He was leaving in bodily form, but that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them (John 14:16-17).
The next question is: What did the post-Ascension followers of Jesus consider normal?
There was a joy of anticipating the Holy Spirit’s outpouring (Luke 24:50-53). Jesus was no longer with them bodily, but they still operated in His name and authority. They understood Scripture without Jesus in bodily form explaining it to them. They wrote the books of the New Testament, which are really a commentary on Scripture (the Old Testament) in light of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. They healed people.
Our final question should be: What should we consider normal?
Let’s go back to John 14:16-17 where Jesus promised the arrival of the Counselor. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is empowerment in a wholly different level. At salvation, He is “with” us; at baptism, He is “in” us. Jesus is still not with us in bodily form, but we can still operate in His name, we understand Scripture without Jesus in bodily form explaining it to us, and we can operate in a realm of power that seems extra-ordinary to others!
Listen to a couple of key phrases from Peter’s Pentecost Sunday sermon. He says this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of a promise made by Jesus, and it is proof of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus (Acts 2:33, 38-39).
Nowhere is this implied that this is a one-time empowerment, nor an exclusive empowerment for those living in that time, nor is it exclusively for those called apostles. The saints lived this out as their normal daily life. See just a few examples in Acts 4:20, 30-31; 6:3, 8-10; 8:4-8, 14-17.
“The secret of our strength is the living testimony that Jesus Christ is every moment with us, inspiring, directing and strengthening us. This is what made the disciples so bold in preaching Him as the Crucified One in the midst of His enemies. They never for a moment regretted His bodily absence, for they had Him with them, and in them, in the divine power of the Holy Spirit.” —Andrew Murray
I think we have accepted sub-normal as normative for so long, that we now call that normal. Instead our normal should be a lifestyle, a language, a power that is called extraordinary by others.
Spirit-baptized Christians should live in the normalcy of extraordinary power!
Please check out the other messages we have covered in this series called We Are: Pentecostalby clicking here.
There should be a heavenly aroma and a winsomeness about us as Christians that attracts others to Jesus the Savior and King.
Craig T. Owens 