Forgive me, I may have wrote about this before, but I think it is something worth revisiting, if only to help clear my mind and pour my heart out.
I am a fairly forgiving guy. I'v had my fair share of back stabs, heart aches, disappointments, lost friendships, etc. Some have take time, others have been fairly quick, but I have forgiven everyone. Not simply the forgiveness in word only, but actual forgiveness; the type where you treat the person as if they never harmed you in the first place. I can do this for every single person who has ever done wrong to me.
Except for one guy. I think we all have this person in our life. It is that one person who gets underneath your skin, no matter what he or she does. He may open his mouth, and it sound like nails scratching on the chalk board to you. She may walk by you, and you get that terrible knot inside. Or perhaps his name is simply mentioned, and you feel the uncontrollable rage to blot him from all of existence for all of eternity. Needless to say, this person has become quite a problem for me. I really hate even being in the same room as them. If I didn't have such restraint, I'd punch them in the face just for showing their face around me!!!
Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a bit. However, I said that to make a point. This point is that this person is very hard for me to see favorable, and even forgive them for how they've screwed up my life. This person is ME.
I don't intend for this to be a pity post. Trust me; I don't like wallowing in sorrow. However, I did find myself in that a bit tonight, and it highlighted something that I've known to be true for a while. I simply cannot let go of my past mistakes. This is a big problem for me. I claim to be a Christ follower. As a Christ follower, I proclaim quite boldly that Jesus took upon himself all the my sins and my failures, and drank the wrath of the Father, in my place. This is basic Christianity 101. Yet, I have such trouble with this fundamental.
How can Christ forgive me, if I can't forgive myself? Further, how can I even begin to think I can be used by Him in the future, if I can't let go of the past, here in the present? See, I have knowledge this mindset is very wrong. Knowledge of a situation is different from changing said situation, though.
How do I forgive myself for not being able to keep my family together? How do I forgive wasting two years of my life, resulting in the loss of many dears things to me? How do I forgive the inaction that led to me becoming stagnant? How do I forgive myself for allowing my ex to think I wasn't worth the time and effort anymore? How do I move on from these pains that I have caused myself? How do I right my wrongs? What does it take to erase these memories?
I have so many things to let go, but I simply cannot, and I don't know why. Only a fool would hold on to his chains when he's been released from prison. Yet, I know I embrace these chains of my past, when I should be embracing the cross. The cross is where all this oppression was put to death once and for all, for those in Christ Jesus. And here I am, chains around my legs, grasping all I can, to hold on the Cross of Christ. Either these chains will break, or my strength will run dry and I will lose my grip. Either way, this stretching must stop soon.
This is what I ask: PRAYER. I know it may sound cliche. Yet, prayers have saved me before, and I know they will serve the same purpose now. I need prayers, not for self confidence or anything. Be that far from my mind, so I may focus on Christ and boast in Him. No, instead, pray that God would crush the enemy who whispers condemnation and regret into my ear. Pray that I am given comfort by the Spirit. Pray that He would always let me remember what the truth of the sacrifice means to me, a humbled sinner. Let it remind me that I don't have to keep strapping these chains back on my legs, for Christ holds the key to freedom.
I don't want to keep this fight up anymore.
I want to let go of the pain and hurt that I have caused myself.
I want to let the memories bring joy and not sorrow.
I want to forgive myself, and move on to enjoy the bountiful blessings the Lord has given me.
Blessings,
Thomas
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Transforming Wind
I know, I know. It has been 2 or 3 weeks since I last posted here. I am awful about keeping things going.
This pretty well describes me lately:
Anyways, on to the blog post!!!
Today, I am going to post another installment on the Holy Spirit. I previously covered the Holy Spirit as the source of Comfort for the Christian. I hope to give an insight on what it means to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Specifically, I am going to look specifically at the Apostle Peter.
We know from scripture that Peter was a Jewish man born, with he name of Simon, in the town of Bethsaida, Galilee. Peter and his brother, Andrew, made a living by being fishermen, which was evidently profitable because he owned his own boat. He lived, for a time, with his mother in law in Capernum, meaning that he was married(his wife was said to have been martyred, when he was away in Rome), and likely had children at some point. In all reality, Peter seemed like your 'average joe' type of guy. Blue collar worker, wife and kids, and all that.
After Peter becomes an Apostle, he sort of has this mixed record. For example, he was very willing to say that Jesus was Christ(Matthew 16:13-18), to which Christ commended him saying that his faith was the rock which the church would be built on, and not even the gates of Hell could prevail against it. This is a very awesome positive check mark for Peter. On the other hand, we have other accounts where he didn't have the faith to continue walking on water(Matt 14:28-31), was called Satan by Christ, when he said Christ wouldn't have to suffer(Matt 16:23), and most famously was known to deny Christ three times.
Here is one account of his denial story:
And:
Essentially, Peter knew how to talk the talk, but fell very short while walking the walking. From this same chapter in Matthew, and recounted in the other Gospels, all the apostles, including Peter, were seen as cowards as they ran from the area when Christ was arrested, beat, and crucified. John says they were even hiding behind a locked door(John 20:19).
Even when there was a report of Christ's body being missing from the tomb, Peter ran over to the tomb, saw the empty tomb and linen, and this is what scripture says:
Okay. SO let me get this straight. Peter was with Jesus for three years, having watched him work all these miracles, predicting things to come true, and all this. He then says that he will be crucified, and then will rise on the third day. Peter had to have heard this many times from Christ. It wasn't like he was hiding it form anyone. YET, Peter has seen his master and friend crucified (as he said), and then three days later Peter see this empty tomb. And instead of jumping around for joy, and looking for the risen Christ, he simply "went away, wondering to himself what had happened" This is the character of pre-transformed Peter
Yet, two marvelous things happened to forever change not only Peter, but the other apostles, and eventually all of us. First, he came face to face with the resurrected Christ. Luke and John detail how Jesus appeared to them and they were both filled with fear (Luke 24:37,38) and then filled with joy(John 20:20), so much that they could hardly believe it(Luke 24:41). Even at one point, Peter was so excited to see Jesus that he jumped out of his boat while fishing when the apostles saw him on shore.(John 21:7-14)
However, this wasn't ultimately what set him on fire to be a bold witness. Don't take my word for it. Here is what scripture says that Jesus said before his death:
And then Jesus says this as well, after his resurrection:
Luke further records this conversation in Acts 1:4-8
Jesus seemed to be very clear in these passages, saying they will be the bold witnesses ONLY after they are filled with the spirit. Notice that the didn't go out and start proclaiming even after having seen Christ alive, on three different occasions.
After saying all of this, Jesus ascended into heaven. At this point, Peter starts to fill his role as the leader of the apostles, by speaking to all the disciples on choosing a replacement for Judas, who had committed suicide after betraying Christ. Yet, they are still waiting around for that spark. And that spark finally came in the form of a wind from heaven filling the room, and setting them on fire. They began to speak in other languages, declaring the wonderful works of God! The people are half amazed, half amused. Some thing they were all drunk. With this, Peter steps fully into his role as chief apostle. He begins to speak very boldly to those mocking them. Later on, he begins to speak before the Sanhedrin, who had condemned Jesus and called for his death, and directly defied their orders to stop speaking about Christ( Acts 4:7-22, 5:18-22). Peter was critical in the decision to reach out to Gentiles, as well as going on a mission to Lydia, Joppa, and Caesarea. After this point not too much is known about Peter, unless one considers extra biblical accounts, which say he went to Rome and was crucified for Christ by Nero's orders.
So, Peter went from an average joe, who talked big things but failed to show up with action, and even being a coward who ran away from his best friend and master, to being one who became a leader who spoke boldly of Jesus Christ to all people, even into his own martyrdom. This is quite a change for anyone person, and this change was only made possible by the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Here is one more proof of this:
In the time that Jesus was arrested, it was recorded that Peter actually drew his sword to attack one of the captors and struck his ear off. Jesus condemned this action, saying that living by violence would lead to violence. From scripture, we know that the some of the marks of the Spirit are peace, meekness, and love. Here is what Peter later said in his first Epistle:
Peter is writing that we should obey all authority, as Christ did! What did Christ do? He was beat, mocked, and killed, yet he never once struck out at those doing these things, instead praying for them! Peter went from pulling a sword ready to kill, to one who said believers should endure suffering for the sake of Christ(In acts, it said John and himself even rejoiced for being considered worthy enough to suffer for Christ.
This is a change that only the Holy Spirit is capable of bringing.
Now, I know what you are thinking "Thomas, Peter was special. He was chosen by Jesus to do all these things. Do you believe that you or I can be anything like that?!" Be like Peter? No. Peter was Peter. He had a certain role to fill, and He did it. You and I have our roles to fill. Maybe we will do things greater than Peter, or less than Peter. I actually even hate saying it like that, as if it is some sort of competition. It is not. We all work for the same kingdom, slaves to the same King. The Spirit transforms every believer to fit the role they will playing for this kingdom. So to ask whether or not we are going to be a Peter, or Paul, or John, or whoever is silly.
I am Thomas(not the apostle!) and the Spirit has transformed me so much from my old man into a new man. I drank. I partied here and there. I lied. I doubted the existence of God. I lived to make myself the best. I desired so much to be known by everyone, to be loved and desired, to have fame and power. Yet Christ saved me from the sins I was committing, and gave the Spirit to change me into one who wants only to make Him famous and adored. This Spirit convicts me of sin when I do it. It leads me away from temptations to avoid sin. It even gives me wisdom to help those who are sinning. I love this Holy Spirit so very much. It has changed me from an unstable, stumbling man who swayed with the wind, to one who is more firmly rooted. And though I am changed a lot now, I know that as I grow more mature, this Spirit will lead me to be more and more like Christ. That is the goal of the Spirit. It praises the Son, and gives the believer reminders about what the Son did. But most importantly, it changes the believer to look more and more like Jesus every day.
So it comes to this: as a believer you can be as I was, as Peter was, as many people currently are. You can say all the right things, yet fail to show true belief when it matters. You can say all you want that you will love Christ forever, yet continuing in the love of your sin in those secret times. You can do that. OR, you can let your life be completely overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit of God. I pray that any who believes this, no matter how mature they are, will take upon the challenge of being immersed in the Spirit more than they currently are. And with that challenge, I leave with this picture as the final thought:
This pretty well describes me lately:
Anyways, on to the blog post!!!
Today, I am going to post another installment on the Holy Spirit. I previously covered the Holy Spirit as the source of Comfort for the Christian. I hope to give an insight on what it means to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. Specifically, I am going to look specifically at the Apostle Peter.
We know from scripture that Peter was a Jewish man born, with he name of Simon, in the town of Bethsaida, Galilee. Peter and his brother, Andrew, made a living by being fishermen, which was evidently profitable because he owned his own boat. He lived, for a time, with his mother in law in Capernum, meaning that he was married(his wife was said to have been martyred, when he was away in Rome), and likely had children at some point. In all reality, Peter seemed like your 'average joe' type of guy. Blue collar worker, wife and kids, and all that.
After Peter becomes an Apostle, he sort of has this mixed record. For example, he was very willing to say that Jesus was Christ(Matthew 16:13-18), to which Christ commended him saying that his faith was the rock which the church would be built on, and not even the gates of Hell could prevail against it. This is a very awesome positive check mark for Peter. On the other hand, we have other accounts where he didn't have the faith to continue walking on water(Matt 14:28-31), was called Satan by Christ, when he said Christ wouldn't have to suffer(Matt 16:23), and most famously was known to deny Christ three times.
Here is one account of his denial story:
Matthew 26: 33 Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
34 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”
35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.
And:
Matthew 26: 69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.
70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”
74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed.
75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Essentially, Peter knew how to talk the talk, but fell very short while walking the walking. From this same chapter in Matthew, and recounted in the other Gospels, all the apostles, including Peter, were seen as cowards as they ran from the area when Christ was arrested, beat, and crucified. John says they were even hiding behind a locked door(John 20:19).
Even when there was a report of Christ's body being missing from the tomb, Peter ran over to the tomb, saw the empty tomb and linen, and this is what scripture says:
Luke 24:12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
Okay. SO let me get this straight. Peter was with Jesus for three years, having watched him work all these miracles, predicting things to come true, and all this. He then says that he will be crucified, and then will rise on the third day. Peter had to have heard this many times from Christ. It wasn't like he was hiding it form anyone. YET, Peter has seen his master and friend crucified (as he said), and then three days later Peter see this empty tomb. And instead of jumping around for joy, and looking for the risen Christ, he simply "went away, wondering to himself what had happened" This is the character of pre-transformed Peter
Yet, two marvelous things happened to forever change not only Peter, but the other apostles, and eventually all of us. First, he came face to face with the resurrected Christ. Luke and John detail how Jesus appeared to them and they were both filled with fear (Luke 24:37,38) and then filled with joy(John 20:20), so much that they could hardly believe it(Luke 24:41). Even at one point, Peter was so excited to see Jesus that he jumped out of his boat while fishing when the apostles saw him on shore.(John 21:7-14)
However, this wasn't ultimately what set him on fire to be a bold witness. Don't take my word for it. Here is what scripture says that Jesus said before his death:
John 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you
And then Jesus says this as well, after his resurrection:
Luke 24: 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Luke further records this conversation in Acts 1:4-8
1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.
5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
8 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.
Jesus seemed to be very clear in these passages, saying they will be the bold witnesses ONLY after they are filled with the spirit. Notice that the didn't go out and start proclaiming even after having seen Christ alive, on three different occasions.
After saying all of this, Jesus ascended into heaven. At this point, Peter starts to fill his role as the leader of the apostles, by speaking to all the disciples on choosing a replacement for Judas, who had committed suicide after betraying Christ. Yet, they are still waiting around for that spark. And that spark finally came in the form of a wind from heaven filling the room, and setting them on fire. They began to speak in other languages, declaring the wonderful works of God! The people are half amazed, half amused. Some thing they were all drunk. With this, Peter steps fully into his role as chief apostle. He begins to speak very boldly to those mocking them. Later on, he begins to speak before the Sanhedrin, who had condemned Jesus and called for his death, and directly defied their orders to stop speaking about Christ( Acts 4:7-22, 5:18-22). Peter was critical in the decision to reach out to Gentiles, as well as going on a mission to Lydia, Joppa, and Caesarea. After this point not too much is known about Peter, unless one considers extra biblical accounts, which say he went to Rome and was crucified for Christ by Nero's orders.
So, Peter went from an average joe, who talked big things but failed to show up with action, and even being a coward who ran away from his best friend and master, to being one who became a leader who spoke boldly of Jesus Christ to all people, even into his own martyrdom. This is quite a change for anyone person, and this change was only made possible by the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Here is one more proof of this:
In the time that Jesus was arrested, it was recorded that Peter actually drew his sword to attack one of the captors and struck his ear off. Jesus condemned this action, saying that living by violence would lead to violence. From scripture, we know that the some of the marks of the Spirit are peace, meekness, and love. Here is what Peter later said in his first Epistle:
1 Peter 2: 11Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority,
14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.
16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.
17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.
19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God.
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22 “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Peter is writing that we should obey all authority, as Christ did! What did Christ do? He was beat, mocked, and killed, yet he never once struck out at those doing these things, instead praying for them! Peter went from pulling a sword ready to kill, to one who said believers should endure suffering for the sake of Christ(In acts, it said John and himself even rejoiced for being considered worthy enough to suffer for Christ.
This is a change that only the Holy Spirit is capable of bringing.
Now, I know what you are thinking "Thomas, Peter was special. He was chosen by Jesus to do all these things. Do you believe that you or I can be anything like that?!" Be like Peter? No. Peter was Peter. He had a certain role to fill, and He did it. You and I have our roles to fill. Maybe we will do things greater than Peter, or less than Peter. I actually even hate saying it like that, as if it is some sort of competition. It is not. We all work for the same kingdom, slaves to the same King. The Spirit transforms every believer to fit the role they will playing for this kingdom. So to ask whether or not we are going to be a Peter, or Paul, or John, or whoever is silly.
I am Thomas(not the apostle!) and the Spirit has transformed me so much from my old man into a new man. I drank. I partied here and there. I lied. I doubted the existence of God. I lived to make myself the best. I desired so much to be known by everyone, to be loved and desired, to have fame and power. Yet Christ saved me from the sins I was committing, and gave the Spirit to change me into one who wants only to make Him famous and adored. This Spirit convicts me of sin when I do it. It leads me away from temptations to avoid sin. It even gives me wisdom to help those who are sinning. I love this Holy Spirit so very much. It has changed me from an unstable, stumbling man who swayed with the wind, to one who is more firmly rooted. And though I am changed a lot now, I know that as I grow more mature, this Spirit will lead me to be more and more like Christ. That is the goal of the Spirit. It praises the Son, and gives the believer reminders about what the Son did. But most importantly, it changes the believer to look more and more like Jesus every day.
So it comes to this: as a believer you can be as I was, as Peter was, as many people currently are. You can say all the right things, yet fail to show true belief when it matters. You can say all you want that you will love Christ forever, yet continuing in the love of your sin in those secret times. You can do that. OR, you can let your life be completely overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit of God. I pray that any who believes this, no matter how mature they are, will take upon the challenge of being immersed in the Spirit more than they currently are. And with that challenge, I leave with this picture as the final thought:
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Wind of Comfort
Not exactly my best post ever but....here it goes:
I celebrated a special anniversary recently (March 3rd, to be exact). It was the anniversary of when I became a Christian. To be short, I will simply say that my path to Christ was full of confusion, wishy-washiness, and so on. The day it happened, I was out by myself, trying to find some sort of clue from God to see what I needed to do with my life. There was one problem; I kept trying to find things which sounded appealing to my own ears. However, God had another plan in mind. There was a light breeze (I was inside, mind you) that kept blowing the pages of my Bible over to a passage in the book of James(4:7-10). After reading this and having it on my heart, I was in a group worship time, and I felt the same breeze hit the back on my neck, and I felt like I had a hand on my shoulder, and I dropped to my knees, submitting my life to Christ and becoming a Christian. Fast forward a year and a month, and I was stepping into a cold lake, in the middle of the night submitting to God in being baptized. As I came out of the lake, I remember a wind coming and causing the bonfire on shore to shoot up (it did this every time a person was baptized that night, in fact). Since that time, there have been uncountable amounts of time where I’ve been in prayer, worship, meditation, fasting, reading of scripture, etc, and this same familiar, comforting wind has descended upon me.
So what is this wind? This post will be discussing the Spirit as Comforter.
As I mentioned in my introduction to this series, one of the words used for the Holy Spirit in Greek is Pneuma(πνεύμα). It literally means breath. As a friend of mine pointed out to me, when God gave life to man in Genesis, He breathed it into his nostrils. This, I believe, is to be interpreted as showing intimacy between the created and Creator. This is, after all, why man was created. God made everything for His glory, but made man to also be intimately in love with Him. This is, in fact, the ultimate form of worship. With this in mind, we need to realize and remember that God is one who is intimately connected with that which He loves most: us.
This is one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit, as outlined in the Gospel of John. For example:
John portrays Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit as one who helps, comforts, and advocates for the believer. So what does this mean for you and me? I mentioned in the opening how I felt a calm breeze in many of the important events of my life. For me, this is the comfort. Some days I am really stressed about life, and I pray or cry out to God, and suddenly a wind hits my face, and then I feel the pouring of the Spirit flow over my head, down my body. It brings complete peace and calmness. It gives me hope and strength. It whispers into my heart that everything is fine, for Jesus is still alive, sitting on His throne, and because of this I have the hope of Life. When I am lonely, the Spirit comforts my heart, and helps me through the pain. When I am scared, I am given strength. When I have questions, I am helped by being given answers. When I doubt, I am given faith. The Spirit is a guaranteed promise to me, by my Savior. He even went as far as to say that it would be MORE beneficial for HIM to leave and send the Spirit.
I think this is often over looked, and we tragically fall in the traps of the world.
Why?
We don’t realize the potential of what the Spirit is offering us. How can we enjoy a deeper, fuller relationship with God, if we don’t realize that He is offering it? Furthermore, it is BECAUSE He offers the Spirit to comfort us, that we can honestly say that what we have is more than religion, but is rather a deep and intimate connection with God! After all, if I were married and didn’t comfort my wife when she was sick, hurt, depressed, upset, scared, etc… how long would our marriage last? Not very long at all. In fact, it’d be hard to even see me getting married if I didn’t promote comfort towards my significant other. In the same manner, we say God is love, right? We always talk about how He loves us, and wants a relationship with us, and all that. So why don’t we live it and believe it? I think it grieves the Spirit when we face the troubles of life, and He is there waiting to comfort us, and instead we seek refuge in things of this world, people, or whatever it may be.
So my advice is this, and I think it is sound advice; use the gift that you are given. You don’t need drugs or alcohol, sex or sin at all. You don’t need to live in fear or doubt or depression. You don’t have to deal with things on your own, or even go through a 12 step self help group. All you need to do is pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort you. He is waiting this very moment to pour the love and mercy of God over your body, mind, and soul.
Blessings.
I celebrated a special anniversary recently (March 3rd, to be exact). It was the anniversary of when I became a Christian. To be short, I will simply say that my path to Christ was full of confusion, wishy-washiness, and so on. The day it happened, I was out by myself, trying to find some sort of clue from God to see what I needed to do with my life. There was one problem; I kept trying to find things which sounded appealing to my own ears. However, God had another plan in mind. There was a light breeze (I was inside, mind you) that kept blowing the pages of my Bible over to a passage in the book of James(4:7-10). After reading this and having it on my heart, I was in a group worship time, and I felt the same breeze hit the back on my neck, and I felt like I had a hand on my shoulder, and I dropped to my knees, submitting my life to Christ and becoming a Christian. Fast forward a year and a month, and I was stepping into a cold lake, in the middle of the night submitting to God in being baptized. As I came out of the lake, I remember a wind coming and causing the bonfire on shore to shoot up (it did this every time a person was baptized that night, in fact). Since that time, there have been uncountable amounts of time where I’ve been in prayer, worship, meditation, fasting, reading of scripture, etc, and this same familiar, comforting wind has descended upon me.
So what is this wind? This post will be discussing the Spirit as Comforter.
As I mentioned in my introduction to this series, one of the words used for the Holy Spirit in Greek is Pneuma(πνεύμα). It literally means breath. As a friend of mine pointed out to me, when God gave life to man in Genesis, He breathed it into his nostrils. This, I believe, is to be interpreted as showing intimacy between the created and Creator. This is, after all, why man was created. God made everything for His glory, but made man to also be intimately in love with Him. This is, in fact, the ultimate form of worship. With this in mind, we need to realize and remember that God is one who is intimately connected with that which He loves most: us.
This is one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit, as outlined in the Gospel of John. For example:
John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper(or advocate/comforter), to be with you forever,”
John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
John 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
John portrays Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit as one who helps, comforts, and advocates for the believer. So what does this mean for you and me? I mentioned in the opening how I felt a calm breeze in many of the important events of my life. For me, this is the comfort. Some days I am really stressed about life, and I pray or cry out to God, and suddenly a wind hits my face, and then I feel the pouring of the Spirit flow over my head, down my body. It brings complete peace and calmness. It gives me hope and strength. It whispers into my heart that everything is fine, for Jesus is still alive, sitting on His throne, and because of this I have the hope of Life. When I am lonely, the Spirit comforts my heart, and helps me through the pain. When I am scared, I am given strength. When I have questions, I am helped by being given answers. When I doubt, I am given faith. The Spirit is a guaranteed promise to me, by my Savior. He even went as far as to say that it would be MORE beneficial for HIM to leave and send the Spirit.
I think this is often over looked, and we tragically fall in the traps of the world.
Why?
We don’t realize the potential of what the Spirit is offering us. How can we enjoy a deeper, fuller relationship with God, if we don’t realize that He is offering it? Furthermore, it is BECAUSE He offers the Spirit to comfort us, that we can honestly say that what we have is more than religion, but is rather a deep and intimate connection with God! After all, if I were married and didn’t comfort my wife when she was sick, hurt, depressed, upset, scared, etc… how long would our marriage last? Not very long at all. In fact, it’d be hard to even see me getting married if I didn’t promote comfort towards my significant other. In the same manner, we say God is love, right? We always talk about how He loves us, and wants a relationship with us, and all that. So why don’t we live it and believe it? I think it grieves the Spirit when we face the troubles of life, and He is there waiting to comfort us, and instead we seek refuge in things of this world, people, or whatever it may be.
So my advice is this, and I think it is sound advice; use the gift that you are given. You don’t need drugs or alcohol, sex or sin at all. You don’t need to live in fear or doubt or depression. You don’t have to deal with things on your own, or even go through a 12 step self help group. All you need to do is pray for the Holy Spirit to comfort you. He is waiting this very moment to pour the love and mercy of God over your body, mind, and soul.
Blessings.
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