Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Spirit of God

Wednesday, September 6, 2017
“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.  “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven.  Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.  Matthew 12:30-32(NLT)
And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.  The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.  John 16:8-9(NLT)     
These two passages say a number of important things, not only to the church, but to all people.  If there is such a thing at all as sin, being forgiven is of such importance anyone in his right mind would move heaven and earth to discover how to be forgiven! 
Blasphemy is sin against the Holy Spirit of God (rejection of what the Spirit says is sin and what the Spirit says is holy).  Among the list of what that includes is, chiefly, when people reject what Jesus did, dying our death penalty, so that our sins can be forgiven.  Matthew, the tax collector-turned evangelist, says that Jesus said a person who rejects Jesus the Son is rejected by the Father in this world and the next.  Sobering thought!
Another important message about the Holy Spirit’s ministry in John’s Gospel is that the chief purpose of the Spirit moving and working among humans is to reprove, or convict us of all which separates us from God...namely, our sins; and chiefly…our unbelief!
If you mention the Holy Spirit in a church crowd you can get mixed reaction.  There are those who don’t want you to mention the Spirit…ever!  Among those leaning to the charismatic (gift-centered) side, when you talk about the Spirit there will be a knowing smile of all that knowledge about how the spiritual gifts work; they just can’t get enough about all the gifts being operational in their own life and in the life of their church.  And then, In true 21st century-style human combativeness there are plenty of people on the other side of that fence who will gladly defend against all that loving-the-gift-better-than-the-giver stuff!  There is, after all, nothing we love better than fighting over who God loves most!
What’s ironic is that arrogant, combative, brother-separating-from-brother attitude is exactly the issue to which the Spirt came to speak conviction into our hearts.  After all, was it not a brother who first picked up a stone and separated himself from his brother permanently?  When Jesus ascended back to the Father in Heaven, and the Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, it was so that we could have our blinded eyes opened to how much God truly does love us; it was so we would understand that God’s invitation to come close to Him is in spite of our weakness, not because of any goodness or strength we possess.  God’s love is for anyone who will lay down that nonsense of human independence and recognize our need in Christ, and our need to love and trust each other.

For You Today

You will have an opportunity today to go in one of two directions.  One direction will be to resist the Holy Spirit, and that will include such things as anger, pride, jealousy, envy, lust, or one of a thousand other ways to separate you from God’s love. 
The other direction is to listen to the ways His Spirit leads you into righteousness, how He teaches you to give control of all you do, say, and even think, to the Spirit who wants to stay closer to you than that arthritis you live with.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!


[1] Title Image: By Ziko-C (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

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