This week we are continuing on our worship series being in relationship with the Triune God…. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Part of this series is about helping us grow closer in our relationship with all sides or faces of God and seeing how God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit work together.
Our focus this week is being in relationship with God the Holy Spirit.
Having a relationship with God the Holy Spirit is an important and essential part of being a Christian…
Unfortunately though in some circles the Holy Spirit is seen as something or someone to be weary of and even avoid
In other circles the Holy Spirit has become the only focus, where Jesus and the Father are almost forgotten.
Near the end of his time on earth Jesus not only encouraged us to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, he highlighted that it is essential that we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, otherwise our lives as Christians would not be complete and we would be unable to continue the mission and ministry God is calling us to live out.
I invite you to reflect on the following quotes from Jesus and how important it is for you and me to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit
From Luke chapter 12 verses 10 to 12
Jesus says: ”And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
From John chapter 14 verse 26
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you
From Acts chapter 1 verses 4 to 5
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. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
And from Acts chapter 2 we know that it is the Holy Spirit that creates the church, giving power and gifts to people so they can be the people of God.
Jesus was very clear for you and me that to know God, for God’s mission to be fulfilled and lived out by humans, that includes me and you, who follow God, we need to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
We need to rely on the Holy Spirit.
This means we need to live in a relationship with the Holy Spirit
So how is your relationship with the Holy Spirit?
And what does having a relationship with the Holy Spirit mean for us today?
How does having a relationship with the Holy Spirit look?
One of the ancient statements of faith of the church,
the Nicene Creed
that we state regularly says
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the prophets.
Take a breath for a moment….
Breathe deeply in….then exhale
Breath is the sign of life…
If you are breathing you have life
and that life is something the Holy Spirit gives to us…
But there is more
When we plough through the New Testament
we see that God not only gives us this human life to everybody who breathes
He also gives us a new life…a spiritual life…but unfortunately not everyone is willing to receive this from God
This new life is a life that helps us take on what is important from God’s perspective
It helps us know very clearly we are loved and forgiven by God
and this new life helps us live in ways that are more consistent with God’s ways
As Jesus says in John chapter 3 verse 5 to 6
“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
Also consider the following verses
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5 says
Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come
John chapter 3 verse 8 says
Only God’s Spirit gives new life. The Spirit is like the wind that blows wherever it wants to. You can hear the wind, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going.
Galatians chapter 5 verse 25 says
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
But our challenge is that there are many spirits speaking to us….
For instance
We have our own spirit…is not purely against God because God has been speaking to us but by nature and when we neglect God’s voice our spirit is often self protecting, selfish and individualistic and often neglects God’s bigger plan for us and those around us
We also have the spirit of the age which often looks for what is popular, current thinking and trendy….
We have the spirit of our friends and family
We have the spirit of business
and many other spirits
Infact sometimes our lives can become like a busy hotel…with so many opinions all talking at once…
So whose spirit are you listening to?
And as a church, God’s people, we have to also ask that question…whose spirit are we listening to?
For many years Fred had been part of his church
it was the church where he was baptised
where he first received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But until recently Fred had not thought much about his relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
If someone asked him what does it mean to be a Christian….Fred felt all he could say was that he was saved and had life with God after he dies because he has faith in Jesus.
His Christian life meant coming to church on Sunday and that was about it,
He would come to church but the message of Christianity had little relevance to the rest of his life.
When he was at work he would listen to and agree with his work mates
When he was at the dinner table he would listen to and agree with his family
When he was at the football club he would listen to and agree with his mates at the football club
In fact how he spoke and acted would depend on who he was with and in most cases this meant allowing their spirit to influence him, even if it was in conflict with his own spirit, God’s spirit or his wife’s spirit.
However a few years ago Fred had felt uneasy and stirred up
Things weren’t right
He was conflicted with him giving equal time to all the different spirits that were speaking into his life.
At the same time his wife dragged him along to a midweek bible study….
It was here that he began to realise of the importance of God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, being the guiding and directing spirit in his life….
For Fred this meant dedicating a bit more intentional time with God.
As he said “if I am going to have a relationship with someone….i need to spend time with them.”
He did this a number of ways….
including reading the bible using the SOAP approach to reflecting on God’s Word….
which is the weekly reading approach we have on page 6 of the bulletin
This involves
Reading Scripture
Observing closely what it is saying
Applying that passage of scripture to his life
and getting in a discussion with God through prayer
Over time Fred noticed some changes….
He had more hope…..
Hope not because his life’s circumstances had changed, but hope because the Holy Spirit was helping him see and understand life differently
As Romans chapter 15 verse 13 says
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.
Because he was listening more to God and His Spirit, Fred was seeing life more from God’s perspective and not his own…which resulted in hope
But not only this Fred had this continual growing desire to live in ways that are more consistent with God’s ways in every situation he faced…..
One area of the New Testament that affects him greatly is Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 to 25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Every day he would ask a couple of major questions in relation to this text:
Are all the fruits of the spirit evident in my life today?
He then thanks God for working in His life for those fruits which are.
Then Fred prays for God’s help for those which aren’t.
This often led to spending more time with God in worship, study, prayer and discussions with other Christians.
When we live in relationship with God and his spirit…we are affected.
Christian Schwarz highlights in his book the 3 colours of Spirituality those Christians who have a strong relationship with the Holy Spirit
are more open to letting go of worldly things, especially those things that draw us away from a relationship with God
they are more open to being sacrificial in our lives
they are more open to seeing how God uses the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism to affect us
they are more open to God’s mystery and allowing the unexplained things of God to be part of our life
they are more open to responding to God’s love and presence by publicly praising God and showing our passion for God, just like David and the Israelites did when they celebrated with all their might before God, with songs and with harps, lyres, timbrels, cymbals and trumpets, as we hear in 1 Chronicles 13:5-8
As you live, may your relationship with the Holy Spirit grow
May God’s Spirit affect how you see life, who you are and what you do
may you rely on the power of the Holy Spirit so that you bring God’s Good News to every person you meet.
and most importantly may God's Spirit point you to Jesus so you can live with God for eternity
Amen
