The Father's Love: The Gift of Holy Spirit

As I have been on this journey to know and experience the Father's Love, Holy Spirit has been leading me to see where Father gives.  This simple little word "give" is very powerful when the God of the universe decides to "give", all of humanity needs to wake up to see what does He give.  Last week I talked about the Father giving His firstborn and unique Son in Jesus to us as a gift for all eternity.  I was overwhelmed as I read what who the Father "gives" through Jesus request in John 14:16-18, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  The Father, asked of by Jesus, has given us an amazing gift of His Presence in the Holy Spirit.  At first glance, we may not understand why this is a big deal, but as we understand that throughout the Old Testament the Holy Spirit only came on people for a season, an event, a time, but would never remain forever.  In the Old Testament we have a people and a culture of God's visitation through the Holy Spirit but there are never a people, even Israel, that had His Presence forever.  If the disciples could have really understood Jesus' words and request of the Father, they would have rejoiced as He later says they should be doing even though He is leaving to return to the Father.  Recalling the father's of the faith, men like Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Gideon, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and David they would quickly see the power of having the Holy Spirit come upon a human being.  God worked through each one of these men to accomplish His purpose on the earth that changed the course of human history and advanced His Kingdom.  Now Jesus is making a bold and even outrageous request of the Father, for the Holy Spirit to be given to a people as a gift forever.  The Presence of God in the Holy Spirit upon the man Moses saw the most powerful kingdom of earth, Egypt, bow it's knee and release over 1 million prisoners (nation of Israel).  The Holy Spirit dwelling in a people forever could shake the earth, even transforming it's people, nations, systems, and government.  I was beginning to realize that in my heart I had not valued or honored Holy Spirit for who He is and the importance He has in the Kingdom of God.  Repentance is happening in my heart as I realize the love of the Father to send the important and beloved Holy Spirit.  I was then struck with the verse that has changed my whole view of Christianity, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  Jesus was saying that every human being without the indwelling Holy Spirit is a spiritual orphan but Jesus coming back to dwell in us (Holy Spirit being the Spirit of Christ) transforms us into being sons and daughters of God.  I now understand why Holy Spirit is called the spirit of adoption in Romans 8:15 because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to take the life and work of Jesus and manifest it in our lives producing adopted sons and daughters of God.  No Holy Spirit, no sonship.  He is critical in the plan and wisdom of God to get His family back (you and I).  Holy Spirit is always at work in us, speaking to us, guiding us, revealing Jesus to us, empowering us, and bringing us into the truth.  Yet I believe it is our ignorance and dishonoring of Him that frustrates the will of God to transform us into Christ-likeness.  Joaquin Evans said, "The key to more of the Presence is to be thankful for what you have."  So I realize that since my value for the Presence of God in the Holy Spirit has not be on par with God's view, then I have missed a lot more of His Presence that could be manifest in my life.  I want to be so aware of His Presence, His voice, His nudgings, His touch, and His work through me that I have a higher honor for Him so that I may carry and manifest more of His Presence.  Throughout the Old Testament, the men who manifested the Presence of God walked in favor, performed miracles, prophesied, led God's people, and saw victory over their enemies.  We are given the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit forever, will receive this gift, be thankful for the gift, and receive more of the gift.  I am blessed to be in a church that values the manifest Presence of God in the Holy Spirit, yet in revelation I feel I am playing catch up.  I have heard of meetings in Toronto during the Outpouring of the Spirit in 1994, where people who were non-believers would walk in and be knocked down by the manifest Presence of God in the Holy Spirit.  I believe God is yearning for a people who can carry the manifest Presence in ever increasing power and love, so that His Son Jesus is manifest here on earth.  I believe we are being invited by Heaven to see what God sees through the Holy Spirit opening our spiritual eyes because Jesus as a Son only did what He saw the Father doing and only said what He heard the Father say.

Receiving more of His Spirit,
Bret

Father gave us His Son

As a believer we have heard many times that Jesus was given for the forgiveness of our sins but I was struck through revelation by the Holy Spirit that Jesus was given to us for all eternity.  In Isaiah 9:6 God's Word says, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this."  The Holy Spirit highlighted the phrase "...a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us....", Holy Spirit seemed to blow up the idea that Jesus, the Son of God, was given to us for all eternity.  Somewhere I knew this but then again I didn't really know it.  Jesus was given to us for all eternity, to intercede for us (Romans 8:34), to be human in a resurrected body, to be our counselor, our advocate, and our High Priest, and our salvation.  Somehow I believed that Jesus gave His life and then it was like the Father took Him back and then we were on our own again.  The lies we believe are crazy when they are spoken or written out, brought into the light.  John 3:16 has become a favorite passage, though being the most quoted for evangelism, because it reveals profoundly what kind of Father God truly is.  He is a Father that gives to us the most precious and valued person, His Son because of His great love for us.  Father has not given us a gift that ends, no the gift of His Son is for all eternity with immutable vastness.  

As we boarded a pontoon boat with about 20 other people, we were all nervously excited.  What would we see?  What would the ocean be like today?  Tourists even from different countries with their unique accents and speaking a different language, all came together for the same purpose.  We were in search of the 80,000-120,000 pound giants they call "humpback whales".  As we maneuvered our way through the harbor with sailboats and fishing boats moored, the open ocean beckoned us onward.  As we cleared the mouth of the harbor, passing the rock jetty on our right we began to see the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.  The glistening green of the Pacific, against the blue sky and the brown grass hills of a Central California coast in the midst of drought.  Shortly after playing with a school of very fast dolphins, a member of our little band of searchers called "there she blows" signaling the discovery of a humpback whale on the not too distant horizon.  As the boat maneuvered through the 1-2 foot swells, we got closer to these 80,000 pound plus giants.  Even as we chased them to see them surface and then dive for up to 200 feet for several minutes, only to resurface at another location, I was struck by how small they really were in the vastness of the ocean.  Holy Spirit began to connect the vastness of the ocean, with the vastness of His love.  It has been said that while the ocean covers 70% our planet, that we have explored less than 5%.  I began to wonder about what percentage of God's love and who God is has been explored, His vastness is so much more immense than the ocean.  In Ephesians chapter 3, the love of God "in Christ" is given dimensions that include height, depth, breadth, width, and length.  Yet the Spirit was indulging me in the analogy, as Jesus often used earthly things to point to the substance of things in Heaven.  Scripture tells us that this world is but a shadow of things to come, with the things to come having more substance, being even more real, and being of even more importance.

Christianity is not simply a way out of Hell but a way into an eternal relationship with the amazing and infinite God, we stand on the shore of the most vast ocean that ever existed.  The shore of the ocean of who God is, we have been given an invitation to go on the greatest journey ever offered.  Will you say yes to the journey of a lifetime, that is full of perils, risks, and failures yet offers the greatest reward of all eternity.  To know the invisible God.

To a Fellow Explorer,
Bret