Jesus Gave Us His Spirit
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” – Romans 8:11
This is one of the most incredible verses in the entire Bible.
It reminds me of the story in Ezekiel 37 where God takes the prophet and raises up an entire battlefield graveyard back to life – an incredible visual to such an overlooked verse.
The reality is that all of the Bible has been leading up this moment.
Humanity experienced God’s Spirit coming upon people in the Old Testament, but it had never become available as a widespread experience.
Until now.
When the promised Holy Spirit first entered into the disciples, Peter quotes Joel 2:28 saying:
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”
And the disciples proceeded to teach that God’s Spirit has become available to anyone who repents and confesses Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
What This Means For Us
Unfortunately, I think most of us (myself included) live below God’s intended goal for the Christian life.
We limit Christianity to Sunday services, Bible reading, prayer, even doing good things for others.
But look at how Jesus described the Christian life:
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” – John 7:37-39
In other places, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will be guiding, teaching, empowering, comforting and transforming our hearts into His likeness.
But so often, we get caught up in the busyness of life and the standard ‘to-do list’ of “Christian living”.
So, let us refocus these to-do lists, because they aren’t bad in of themselves. Think of them like you would a standard date night with a significant other. Having the structure and realizing the importance of quality time is good, however, you could easily check of the list of to-dos for them and not really draw any closer to each other.
It’s the same with God.
- Read your Bible… so that you may know Him more and hear Him more clearly…
- Pray to Him… so that you may pour out your heart to Him and learn to trust Him more…
- Serve others… so that you may be used by Him and get to participate with Him in what He is doing.
Do all of the good things we ought to do,
But do them with the intentionality of being in relationship with God.
Do them as an outflow of living water that He has created in you.
May you not simply live a life with Jesus crammed into as many spots as you can put Him…
But may you live a live guided, filled, empowered with the Holy Spirit in your heart.