Yesterday my daughter showed me how she progressed with her guitar lessons, and sang a song while playing the guitar - a song which they sing in church during Holy Communion. During the song she suddenly started to cry and asked me - can you not feel the presence of the Holy Spirit - which I could not at that stage. I just told her to let go and let God have His way, but then she did what all of us do - suppress the spirit and composed herself.
It reminded me of my own early experience with the Holy Spirit.
Shortly after my own conversion a few friends met with us every week for prayer in our house. One of them knew something of the Holy Spirit and of the Blood of Jesus Christ. So he often spoke of the Blood of Jesus Christ, and every time he did this, I broke out into an uncontrollable laughter - for no apparent reason.
I was taught that laughter in the church was taboo and even mistook it as a type of contempt for God to laugh so openly when the Blood of Christ is mentioned. Unnecessary to say that it was the Holy Spirit that was taking over my whole being, but I was too uninitiated to know it at that stage.
So my immediate reaction when this happened (many times) was to suppress the laughter with all the effort I could muster - and in coming months I was able to overcome this totally. Oh my - what a loss this caused in my spiritual life - if only I could salvage some of that abundant joy.
This brings me to the point.
We are composed of three dimensions - Flesh governed by the intellect, Soul governed by emotion and Spirit governed by God. Of this, the intellect is the strongest, then the emotion and then the spirit in that order.
If we thus want to get into contact with God, we have to break down the intellectual and emotional barriers that exist between God and us - and that is what is meant by scripture's requirement that we deny ourselves.
Many of the spiritual ills that have beset us in these days, is a result of our resistance to the Holy Spirit or our desire to remain in the intellectual and emotional realms.
To quote the scriptures for the sake of completeness - here are they :
Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Act 7:51 Ye stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
1Th 5:19 Quench not the Spirit.
We sometimes hear a fellow Christian say : I do not understand this - that is a dead give-away of the intellect.
We sometimes hear a fellow Christian say : I do not feel saved or I feel down today - that is a dead give-away of the emotion.
We sometimes hear a fellow Christian say : Have thine own way Lord, have thine own way - that is a dead give-away for the spirit.
Even Christ himself went through all these phases when he gave himself on the cross.
The intellect :
Mat 26:53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The emotion :
Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
The spirit :
Luke 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
I think I can explain it even better by way of this beautiful song we often sing (should sing)
Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Only to lie at His feet,
A broken and emptied vessel,
For the Master’s use made meet.
Emptied that He might fill me
As forth to His service I go;
Broken, that so unhindered,
His life through me might show.
Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Only as led by His hand;
A messenger at His gateway,
Only waiting for His command;
Only an instrument ready
His praises to sound at His will,
Willing should He not require me,
In silence to wait on Him still.
Oh, to be nothing, nothing,
Painful the humbling may be,
Yet low in the dust I’d lay me
That the world might my Savior see.
Rather be nothing, nothing,
To Him let our voices be raised,
He is the Fountain of blessing,
He only is meet to be praised.
Georgina M. Taylor 1869
Empty vessels makes the most noise : Psalm 100:1 A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
I can feel the Holy Spirit's presence while I am writing this - I hope you can too ... it starts as goose bumps from your head down your spine, but these days it is more tears than laughter.
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