§ Responding to the Spirit’s Call

Faith Challenges: Responding to the Spirit’s Call

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ and Fellow Pilgrims,

Today, I want to call your attention to a problem many of us Christians have. That problem is our tendency to stay at a particular level in our spiritual growth because we feel a certain level of comfort there and because moving to the next level challenges our current level of faith.  The Holy Spirit is always nudging us to move forward but we resist because moving to the next level always entails giving up more of our selves to the Divine that is in us. Yes, the Spirit is calling out to us, but because of our spiritual inertia we are just not listening, thus, we are not responding as we ought.

Sometimes we need to be challenged, intellectually and spiritually, in order to realize our sad state and open our hearts to hear what the Spirit is saying and respond to where He is leading us; and that is what I hope, with the help of the Holy Spirit, this article will accomplish.

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The Holy Spirit was nudging Nicodemus, a Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin, when he came to Jesus at night to attempt to resolve an inner struggle he was having about who Jesus was. He sought Him out secretly, at night, in order to preserve his status and his perceived dignity (cf., John 3:1-10). After all, he had the equivalent status a Cardinal of the Church would have today, and what would people say if he, a teacher of Israel, sought out an unemployed itinerant carpenter without any religious training for answers to his questions.

His first words to Jesus were not just flattery; they truly expressed what was in his heart. When he came before Jesus, he acknowledged that he sensed that Jesus was truly a teacher sent by God, for the miracles He was performing bore witness to the anointing that was on Him.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” (John 3:1-2)

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” (John 3:3)

In the Scripture cited here, Jesus makes it very clear – the only reason Nicodemus came to Him is because the Holy Spirit was already working on him, leading Him to come to Jesus. This leading came because Nicodemus “saw” the manifestation of the “Kingdom of God” in the works of power that Jesus was performing. That is why Jesus “answered” him by telling Him that the only reason that he became aware that the works Jesus was performing were of God was because the Holy Spirit had quickened his human spirit to that awareness. That is, he had been revived or reborn from above so that he could “see” what was being done in the spirit plane of existence. With this revived spirit, a glimmer of supernatural faith was also instilled in Nicodemus.

Nicodemus, however, was still constrained by his intellect, and trying to reconcile Jesus’ metaphorically descriptive words with his humanly oriented thinking, he responded:

“…. How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4)

At this point, Jesus attempts to explain to Nicodemus that the fact that he had been made aware of the divine source of Jesus’ Ministry is an indication that he was being called by the Holy Spirit to enter into discipleship with Jesus.  An affirmative response was being elicited by the Spirit because the Spirit was leading Nicodemus beyond just “knowing’” who Jesus is. He was leading him to  this encounter with Jesus so he would have to make a decision accept Jesus and to follow Him as a disciple.

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit (John 3:5).

Following the Spirit’s leading, Jesus further tells Nicodemus what further actions he must take to activate his faith by indicating to  him that only those whose spirit has been spiritually regenerated or renewed through repentance/conversion (water baptism) and subsequent empowerment through the impartation of the Holy Spirit (baptism in the Spirit) can function as His disciples and share in His ministry (i.e.,  enter  the ministry of the Kingdom).

Knowing the internal struggle Nicodemus was dealing with, Jesus continued to elaborate further to help him through His doubts. He tells Nicodemus that …

What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6-8)

Now, to those of you who claim to be baptized and confirmed Christians and claim to be disciples of Jesus and thus supposedly “born of the Spirit”, I ask of you the following questions: do you “hear the sound of the Spirit”, as Jesus said to Nicodemus? That is, are you sensitive to the leadings and calling of the Holy Spirit in your lives? And, more importantly, are you obedient to the Spirit by following those leadings? And, If not why not? After all, this is the “litmus” test that Jesus says is the confirmation that you are, indeed “born of the Spirit”.

Jesus Offers Living Water

Let me pose to you another scripture from John’s Gospel, taken from Jesus encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the Well (cf., John, chapter 4).

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John: 4:23-24)

And, as before, I ask:  How many of you baptized and confirmed Christians can truthfully say that you KNOW, really Know, that you truly have experienced worship in the Spirit and Truth? And if not, why not?

Do you really understand what worship “in the spirit” entails? Do you even understand that your being is composed of body, soul and spirit”(cf., 1Thess.5:23)?  And that it is in only in your “spirit” that true worship may be offered? And if not, why not?

Have you been made aware that it is in your “spirit”, that you sense the Holy Spirit’s call? And that it is in your “spirit” that you, in faith, first respond to that call? And if not, why not?

The reality, my brothers and sisters, is that there are many professing Christians who cannot answer these “why nots”, and, sadly I once was one of those. And like those I also did not have any answers as to those  “why nots?”.

I, like the rest of you, gave my full intellectual assent to all of the basic doctrines of our Christian faith and basically rested on this intellectual assent as being my “faith” and that, even though I did not sense the explicit leadings of the Spirit, I thought it must be so and I assumed that I was just unaware of His leadings or of true worship because I had given my intellectual assent to the doctrines I had been taught, and, after all faith has to be taken without signs or experience or it is not faith.

First of all, let me address the matter of faith. True FAITH believes God’s word, His promises, and the Spirit’s leadings.  This type of faith is a spiritual gift from God it is not merely an intellectual belief in a doctrine or theology – it involves an inner spiritual knowing that God is faithful to His Word or promises for a specific instance in your life. Nicodemus approached Jesus through this type of faith – NOT a faith based on the doctrines of his religion. This faith was stirred up in him through the Holy Spirit, and that was what he was acting on. Now, His acting on faith brought results – He experienced the Truth about Jesus because he came to Jesus to “ask”. And, through his “asking” Jesus opened a door to experience another level of true spirituality. Because he asked, his doubts had been cleared up and his faith strengthened. Thus, Faith, true faith, brings tangible results or experiences, sometimes in the physical plane, sometimes in the spiritual plane, or both!

Yes, it is true that when you step out in faith you may not experience anything. In fact, true faith cannot be based on what you experience or observe. It must be totally based on trusting God and acting on what He tells you either personally or through his Word, because faith, true faith, comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of God (Rom.10:17). But true faith, must be acted upon, in order to produce results (James 2:17) – sometimes immediate and some times delayed. But you will see results, if it is true faith. These results may be spiritual or they may be physically observable or they may be both!

Secondly, Jesus explained a great truth to Nicodemus. Mainly, that only the Holy Spirit can revive us spiritually (John 3:6) to come to the awareness of who Jesus really is and, only if you act on that initial awareness, in faith, and accept Him as your Savior and Lord can you share the full empowerment of the Spirit, that is, in His ministry here on earth!  Thus, when we yield to the Holy Spirit, it is through the Spirit’s impartation in our spirits that we act on that leading by being baptized (by water) into Christ (Rom.6:3, Gal 3:27) and, it is through the Spirit of Jesus in us that we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. For He is the one who baptizes in the Spirit (John1:33, Matt.3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, Acts 1:5)[1].

Once we understand that true faith is more than just intellectual assent and that it is the Holy Spirit working in us to draw us to Jesus, then we have an answer to one of the “why nots” and then, by the grace of God, we may proceed to another of the “why nots”, namely, even if we have come to a “true faith”, if we do not act on what we believe, our faith will be of no consequence (cf.,James 2:17). For instance, say that, through prayer and the reading of the appropriate scriptures (cf., Acts 2:1-40) you now believe, in faith, that the nine spiritual gifts given at Pentecost (cf.,1Cor.12:1-11) are truly available for today’s believers through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. But, because you are not sure, for whatever reason, that you want them for yourself, you postpone taking any action to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, thus, you and the community, will not be able to benefit from these gifts because you have not activated your faith to receive them even though you are baptized and confirmed and as heirs of Christ have legal access to those gifts.

So, it is brethren, that we cannot just passively take faith for granted, it must be acted on in order to be activated. Our problem is that we have not adequately learned how to activate our faith so that our faith produces fruit.  Sadly enough, much of this is due to our lack of biblical literacy. The New Testament is especially rich in content on the matter of activating faith – however, unless it is explicitly brought out by good teaching materials most of us tend to miss this important information.

Our basic problem is that many of us receive the sacraments of baptism and confirmation mainly out of intellectual assent and cultural obedience rather than as a response to what the Holy Spirit is doing in our spirits and thus hold back our full yielding ourselves to Him

Yes, the sacraments will work around us and though our circumstances but NOT in us and through us unless we will it. For you see, the Holy Spirit respects our individual freedom such that He will not impose Himself on our most intimate self. He needs our fully understood and unequivocal total concurrence in order for Him to truly be our “helper” and our “counselor”. He needs our “YES”; a YES that is given in the clear understanding that we are giving our “self” to Him. Without such an informed unequivocal YES the Holy Spirit is limited in what he can accomplish in us and through us.

Other than that of Our Lord Himself, one of the greatest models we have been given of this yielding to the Holy Spirit is Mother Mary’s acceptance of the Spirit’s call on her, through the Angel Gabriel, to be the Mother of the Son of God.  Luke’s Gospel recounts Mary’s response:

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:34-38)

When presented with this as the model for our “YES” how can we not likewise yield to the Holy Spirit and accept Him and the spiritual gifts He offers so that we can be the instruments of His Love in this world? Why don’t we realize that we quench the Spirit by accepting only that which we can control and use for our own purposes and hold back in giving of ourselves? Why is it so hard then, when the Holy Spirit offers us the opportunity to be baptized in the Spirit, so that the Life and Spirit of Jesus may be manifested in us and through us, for us to sincerely and unequivocally say: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word”? [2].

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I believe it is time to stop playing meaningless mind games with ourselves and let the Holy Spirit help you to confront the truth – that the reason we resist the Holy Spirit Baptism is because our human pride resists yielding our “selves” to the Holy Spirit. So lets get right with God, and, like Nicodemus, seek out Jesus in prayer, and ASK Him to confirm what I have just said, lead you to where you may be baptized in the Spirit, and so release yourself to your full and true sharing in His Ministry, the Ministry of the Kingdom!

May it be so in His Mighty Name we pray! Amen and Amen!

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13)

Your Brother In Christ Jesus …  Bartimaeus

(© B.R.Timeo and Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place, [2008-2011])

Recommended Links

Hearing God’s Voice, and Obeying It

Pentecost and the Promise of the Father

The Empowerment Gifts (Part 1)

The Empowerment Gifts (Part 2)

The Kingdom of God: Our Spiritual Inheritance

Reclaiming Our Legacy In Christ

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[1] Note: for more about water and spirit baptisms see also, [a] Acts 10:34-48, where Peter preaches to Cornelius’ household who are baptized in the Holy Spirit as Peter speaks and then baptized in water to complete the two baptisms, [b] Acts 19:1-6, where Paul baptizes some new converts in the Name of Jesus and then baptizes them in the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.

[2] In a sense, don’t all who come to Christ experience an “annunciation” of sorts when, at our conversion, the Spirit calls for us to receive the Spirit of Messiah into the innermost “womb” of our hearts?