The Gift Of Presence

Summary: The gift of the Spirit’s presence both in human history and our own individual life, has made, and continues to make, a difference that cannot be ignored.  Receiving this blessed gift for the first time or again should be our first priority!

Scripture focus: John 3:1-12; Luke 11:5-13

Date: Sunday, 6 June 2010 (St John’s Sutherland, 7pm)

Who is the Holy Spirit & Where Has She Been All This Time?

Two Sundays ago marked the day of Pentecost on the Christian liturgical calendar.  Pentecost is a celebration based on the advent and ascension of Jesus, an event which resulted in the dawning of a new age in the revelation of God, culminating in the gift of the Holy Spirit.  How fantastic it would have been a participant in that great event, as were the first disciples of Jesus.  How inspiring it would have been to witness their transformation, starting at Pentecost, from simple fishermen and scorned tax collectors to those who established the Church of Christ with power, wisdom and conviction.

That same transformation and victorious living should be as evident today as it was for those first Christians.  Instead, I have perceived in this church a certain degree of weariness and hurt endured over the past couple of years.  This seems to have resulted in a general lethargy and perhaps even a degree of apathy.  I don’t bring this up to be critical, but, given previous crises, I’m not surprised at what I perceive.  I would like to contribute, however, towards the solution.

If it is true that the Holy Spirit is God’s power in us for the purposes of salvation, witness and holiness, I recently proposed to the 7pm Sunday Team that a sermon series exploring the presence of the Holy Spirit in and with the first Christians might go a long way towards healing some of the hurts that some of us might be experiencing, as well as rekindle some of the passion and enthusiasm for the vision that God has lain before us, for our church’s mission and ministry in this neighbourhood.

Tonight, I would like to help you appreciate just how revolutionary the presence of the Holy Spirit was for the first followers of Jesus.  To do this, we must first understand what, or who, the Holy Spirit is; how she has, or has not, operated in human history; and, finally, whether or not we actually need the Holy Spirit to be made present and available to us.

What, or Who, is the Holy Spirit?

In the beginning God created. (Genesis 1:1a)

From the opening words of the Bible¹ we discover that before everything else, before all of creation, God existed.  In all of his fullness, God was.  Even then, God was everywhere present (i.e. omnipresent), all-knowing (i.e. omniscient) and all powerful (i.e. omnipotence); yet, God was not a singular entity — at least, not in the way that we would understand it — because in the very act of creating was revealed something altogether unexpected about God’s nature: that with God, but not separate from God, was the Holy Spirit:²

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (Genesis 1:2b)

As one commentary suggested, “the word ‘hovering’ suggests a bird tenderly protecting her helpless children in the nest”.³ That’s a beautiful and feminine image that we will come back to and discuss in a few moments.  Needless to say, the Spirit of God was there at the beginning and without the Spirit nothing would have been created.  It is the Spirit of God that both is and provides the Breath of Life from God (Gen 2:7).

Unfortunately it is such talk as the Spirit being like “breath” that predisposes us to think of the Spirit of God as being nothing more than a force of influence from God.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  The Spirit of God is so much more than merely a nebulous force to be controlled; rather, the Spirit of God is a person and deserves to be treated as such.

The fact is that all the distinctive characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible, including knowledge, emotion and even will.⁴ For instance, the Spirit does not merely teach us the truth, but knows the truth herself (1 Cor 2:10-11).  The Spirit is not a power for us to use towards accomplishing our will, but a person who makes decisions and uses us according to her will (1 Cor 12:11).  The Spirit thinks, feels and purposes with a mind (Rom 8:27), which is similar to but distinct from our carnal minds in its purity (Rom 8:7).  Hers is a mind which loves us unconditionally (Rom 15:30); yet, we should be careful in our dealings with the Spirit that we not cause her grief (Eph 4:30).⁵

I imagine by now some of you are wondering why I refer to the Holy Spirit as a “she”?  To be completely honest, that is simply a matter of personal preference.  While there is some support for such a preference, in the end, God is well and truly inclusive of and beyond gender (Gen 1:27), and we will naturally accede to the social conventions of language.

It is worth noting, though, that the Hebrew word for “Spirit” (i.e. “rûach”) is a feminine noun and, because of this, some “early Christian communities in the Middle East consistently spoke of the Spirit as the motherly, regenerative breath and power of God within creation [...] their point was not that God was a female deity but that it is appropriate to refer to God’s mystery, love, and power in male and female terms”.⁶ Add to this the fact that some apocryphal Christian writings and early Church Fathers referred to the Spirit in feminine terms is not a point easily ignored.⁷

Does all this mean that the Holy Spirit is a female?  Of course it doesn’t,⁸ neither does the gender of the Spirit really matter at all.  What matters is that the Spirit of God reveals the person and power of God through symbols and interventions that are entirely appropriate and helpful to us, whether individually or as a group.  If the specific gender was really important, then what should we make of Jesus’ motherly instincts when he said,”Jerusalem … how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Mt 23:37)?  No one doubts that Jesus was a guy, do they?

Interestingly, questions of gender identity are only important if we actually accept that the Holy Spirit is a person rather than a force.  Let me add to my argument that many acts only a person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit.  Many positions are appointed to the Holy Spirit that can only be filled by person.  Finally, the Bible speaks of humans referring to the Holy Spirit in ways that presume her personhood.

To treat the Holy Spirit as anything other than a person is to seek after that mysterious and mighty power of God such that one might control that power for his or her own ends.  On the contrary, as one commentary put it,

What a holy joy must come into our hearts when we grasp the thought that there is a Divine Person, One who never [makes mistakes], who is willing to take possession of us and impart to us such gifts as He sees best and to use us according to His wise and loving will. (R. A. Torrey, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, pg 11)

Let us not grieve the Spirit of God (Eph 4:30; cf. Ac 12:20-25) by treating her with anything less than the respect with which she is due.  The results of such disrespect could actually be quite spiritually catastrophic because, as it turns out, the Spirit was not as readily available to believers during Old Testament and Inter-testamental times as during the present era initiated by the day of Pentecost.

The Spirit Present, Or Not, in Human History

I have already described for you the role of the Spirit of God in the initial act of creation; but, I can now add that the Spirit continues to sustain creation (Isa 40:7; Ps 104:29-30), even to the point of working to restrain the effects of sin.⁹ Further to this, the Spirit’s role is and always has been to facilitate the revelation of God.

Generally, there is the light of conscience given to every person, a sense of right and wrong, a sense of God’s presence and power (Jn 1:9; Rom 1:19-20).  Specially, though, through the judges and priests, prophets and kings, the Spirit of God enabled the accomplishment of specific tasks — such as the appointment of David as the king of ancient Israel — as well as the proclamation of specific truths about God to the people through the prophets.¹⁰ The examples are almost too numerous to mention, but the point is that we should not make the mistake of thinking that the Spirit of God was not present during Old Testament times.

However, there is no question that the Spirit’s presence was entirely rare indeed.  By the time of the Exile and the closing of the era of the prophets, it was a common belief that the Spirit of God was no longer present on the earth nor available to people.  This belief might be due to such statements as this from Isaiah: “Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.  So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them” (Isa 63:10).¹¹

An example of this belief is told in a legend involving Hillel, a learned Jewish leader and teacher (ca. 60 bc–20 ad).  During a meeting between Hillel and some other wise men a voice from heaven was heard and said, “Among those here present is one who would have deserved the Holy Spirit to rest upon him, if his time had been worthy of it.”  The wise men all allegedly looked at Hillel.¹²

The point is that, until the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was known of but not experienced directly by people generally.  It may even be the case that, leading up to the time of Jesus, the Spirit was not accessible at all.  Take the exemplary story of Esther, in which the Spirit of God does not show up at all, nor is really referenced at all by the main characters, who undoubtedly were trying to do the right thing by their faith and by their God.

Consider also the example of Samson, whose great strength was a result of the Spirit’s special endowment.  However, Samson’s carelessness resulted in the Spirit leaving him.  Nevertheless, Samson repented and offered the sacrifice of himself for the glory of God, and the Spirit returned to him for one final victory (Jgs 16:15-20, 28-30).

The expectation of experiencing the Holy Spirit was very different before Pentecost.  In fact, John the Baptist was the last of the great prophets to be filled with the Holy Spirit after the pattern of the old covenant, being the previous mode of relating with God.¹³ With the day of Pentecost, Jesus established something entirely new, a blessed gift about which all who had previously gone before could only have dreamed (Heb 11:39-40).

Why Do We Need the Spirit?

Getting back to the story of Esther, I don’t doubt that she and Mordecai did the right thing; however, they made that choice without the benefit of the Spirit’s intervention (Es 4:14).  The same is true of the disciples of Jesus when, in the upper room prior to Pentecost, they decided for themselves to replace Judas the traitor: “Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles” (Ac 1:12-26).  Based on his reading of Scripture, Peter believed that their number should equal twelve and the other disciples agreed.  They sought to glorify God, but the Spirit was not really involved in that decision.

I’m not trying to suggest that was a bad thing because Jesus himself made clear, “no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again [...] no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5).  Until Pentecost, the disciples followed the Ten Commandments, but otherwise just guessed at the will of God for them because they weren’t yet “born again by the Spirit”.  Likewise, until we have that experience, we are but groping about in a seeming darkness spiritually.

With the day of Pentecost, a new day had dawned — the Kingdom of God was now fully present and accessible.  Yet, that kingdom would only be perceived by and available to those in which the Holy Spirit dwelled: “The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:8).

With the day of Pentecost, a new day had dawned: “God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people.”¹⁴ With Pentecost, the Spirit was now made available to men and to women, to young and to old, to Jew and to Gentile —in other words, to everyone.  How then would this hitherto elusive Spirit be received?  Not through any magical incantations or price paid, I assure you.

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13)

It almost seems too simple doesn’t it?  When one asks, one receives (Lk 11:9-10).  The Spirit of God will only be given as a gift, a gift undeserved, a gift of grace.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!

Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?

Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?

For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever!  Amen. (Romans 11:33–36)

The Spirit is given to the faithful followers of Jesus as a gift, and we need that Spirit in order to both perceive and to participate in the Kingdom of God.  That Spirit creates and sustains; reveals and restrains; calls and equips.  In other words, the presence of the Spirit is the gift of Life!  And we need that Life in order to live free, abundant and eternally.

Conclusion

“In the last days”, God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.

I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:17–21; Joel 2:28-32)

It may be the case that you don’t feel that you have the blessing of the Holy Spirit in your life or that she is missing from our church.  The way to address this problem is to be sure that you have actually asked for the Spirit to be in your life.  This, of course, presumes that you have first confessed Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead (Rom 10:9).  Unfortunately, it is the case that the gift of the Spirit is available only to those who are saved.

If you have, in fact, been saved by faith, then know with confidence that the Spirit is already and most definitely in you fully.  Nothing has been withheld.  Unfortunately, many believers don’t, in fact, believe that God can and does want to bless us in this way.  They pay no attention to the promise of Jesus: “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you “ (Jn 16:7).  They miss the life of victory because they don’t actually live by the Spirit, that is within them.  The same can be said of churches.

Friends, the Spirit is available to us; we need only ask.  However, recognising the Spirit’s presence and relying on the Spirit may take some time and training because we have yet to learn how to recognise the Spirit’s guidance and power in us.  That is why we will next turn to the experience of the first Christians for illumination and inspiration regarding the blessed gift of the Holy Spirit.

For now, let us end this beginning by reaffirming our desire and request for the Spirit of God to be in our life.  Let us pray the following prayer entitled, “Mighty River, Mighty Fire” , written by Charles Devanesan (1994), and let’s pray it together in unison:

O Spirit of God, mighty river,
flow over me, in me, through me.

O Spirit of God, cleanse me,
purify the channels of my life.

O Spirit of God, bear me along
with your flood of life-giving service.

O Spirit of God, mighty river,
bear me down to the ocean,
the ocean of thy love.

O Spirit of God, mighty fire,
glow in me, burn in me,
until your radiance fills my soul.

O Spirit of God, mighty fire,
may your light illuminate my mind.

O Spirit of God, mighty fire,
may your heat consume my will
until I burn for you.
May the flames of your love
ever blaze upon the altar of my heart.

O Spirit of God, mighty river,
flow over me, in me, through me. (Charles Devanesan)

Endnotes

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