Posts Tagged “The Holy Spirit”

There are those day when you are so frustrated with the circumstances you find yourself in that something deep within you says, “there must be more than this”. It may be a job that you find no purpose or joy in. It may be the routine of daily life that just feels so ordinary. It may be the pain of feeling isolated and alone. We just have a sense that things are not as they should be and there must be more. There is. As Jim has been teaching on the Holy Spirit and His role it has become clear that the Holy Spirit is interested in doing new things, fresh things, thing that seem impossible. There is a great worship song by Tim Hughes that describes how we should pray in the midst of this kind of frustration. Its called Consuming Fire.

Verse 1:
There must be more than this
oh breath of God come breath within
There must be more than this
Spirit of God we wait for you
Fill us anew we pray
Fill us anew we pray

Chorus:
Consuming Fire
Fan into flame
a passion for your name
Spirit of God
fall in this place
Lord have ur way
Lord have ur way
with us

Verse 2:
Come like a rushing wind
Fill us with power from on high
Now set the captives free
leave us abandoned to your praise
Lord let your glory fall
Lord let your glory fall

Often in church world God the Holy Spirit is either ignored altogether as the mysterious member of the Trinity or overemphasized at the expense of God the Father, or God the Son. However Jesus told his disciples that when He ascended to be with the Father the Holy Spirit would come and they would receive power from Him (Acts 1:7-8). In other words God, the Holy Spirit is the giver of our spiritual gifts. Not only is He the giver, but he is the one who empowers us to leverage them. In talking about our 4th value of Gifted service we looked at 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. The following verse 1 Corinthians 12:7 tells us that the gifts we have been given have been given to us for the “common good” which takes us back to value 3 “authentic community” or “real life together”. In other words you and I are not given gifts, abilities, talents or resources to keep to ourselves. The primary reason we are given them is for the benefit of those we are sharing our lives with. The Holy Spirit empowers and equips followers of Jesus with specific gifts to be used in the life of the church. Not using our gifts is not only a tremendous waste, but a tremendous insult to the giver.