Within Our Power

A central message of God's scripture is that mankind, when operating on our own power, is weak and ineffective. This weakness creates a need for God; for His power, strength, mercy and grace. It is only when we realize our weakness and inabilities that we may come into an understanding of our needfulness for God and it is only then that He will manifest His power, strength, mercy and grace in our lives. This is in some part a result of his placing in us the indwelling Holy Spirit.

In my experience, The Holy Spirit is really busy in me. The Spirit cleans the house of my heart, fills the empty spaces, creates love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. It encourages and exhorts me to acts that reflect the fruits of the spirit. It calls me to acts and behaviors that reflect, honor and glorify God the Father. It binds me ever tighter to the model presented me in Christ Jesus. It convicts me of every weakness, every sin and every iniquity. The Spirit never takes a vacation or leaves me alone. Busy, effective, efficient, patient, persistent...

Yet in as much as we are powerless unto righteousness on our own yet there are some things within our power. My reading today addresses some of these responsibilities that come with the power that has been granted us.

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 (NIV)

¹⁹ Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; ²⁰ do not treat prophecies with contempt. ²¹ Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²² Avoid every kind of evil.

V19 calls us to be careful and intentional not to put out the Spirit's fire. I believe there are two aspects to this admonition. The first is with respect to ourselves and the second is with respect to others. As for ourselves, we can quench the Spirit (put out the fire) by ignoring it. Our relationship with God is a matter of our will and if we will to make the Spirit within us quiet, God grants us that power to our own detriment. Further, we can quench the Spirit by dousing it with the firehose of sinfulness. If we enter into a sin, ignore the convicting pleadings of The Spirit and instead pour in more and more sinfulness, the Spirit will be quenched.

With respect to quenching the spirit in others, we can do this by berating them, minimizing them, ignoring them and otherwise acting as if somehow the Spirit within us is better than the Spirit within them. As a practical example, consider a child either chronologically or spiritually. Once saved, the Spirit indwells them and speaks to them just as it does you or me. If that child of God opens their mouth to share what scripture has spoken to them, depending upon our reaction we can either fan the flames of the Spirit or we can quench the Spirit. If there is error or immaturity in what they say, we can either offer correction from the source of correction (Scripture) in a kind, loving and nurturing way or we can 'beat them down' with statements of how wrong they are, that they don't know what they are talking about, that "you're just a child." I realize that I am simplifying for the sake of the length of this post and I pray that you understand what I mean by this example.

Which leads me to V20; "do not treat prophecies with contempt." Again, two-fold meanings to me. First is 'prophecies' as in what the Bible has 'predicted.' Second is 'prophecies' as in 'the right application of God's word to any given circumstance.' Consider that if, using the first sense, we ignore the FACT that the day is coming and therefore we will not ready ourselves for His return. That would prove to be an egregious error on our part with eternal consequences. Now, in the latter sense, if our brother or sister turns to us and shares from God's Word how scripture applies to something in our life (2 TIM 3:16-17) and we ignore it, we make another egregious error that has not only eternal consequences but immediate ramifications as well.

This of course goes hand in glove with V21 "Test everything. Hold on to the good." To me, this is the very application of the second sense of 'prophecies.' Our testing methodology is not something we design ourselves. It is scripture, it is God's spoken word amplified by the pleadings and groanings of The Holy Spirit. If we have a question about a situation or an action or a philosophy or theology or ideology, or ANYTHING, we are to test it through The Word. That which survives the fiery test of God's Word is something to which we should tightly cling or hold on to. Everything else is to be swept away. As a practical example, consider the concept that you can achieve salvation through good works. Run that through the Bible and you will see that is a false teaching and should be summarily discarded. Compare that to the concept that salvation is given freely through the atoning blood of Jesus and you will discover it is true. That is something which should never escape your grasp.

And lastly, V22, "Avoid every kind of evil." This is within our power by way of the Spirit. The spirit gives us the discernment to identify evil, the power to resist it, the fortitude to avoid it yet leaves us the choice whether or not to toy with it, taste it, embrace it or wallow in it. It is within our power, by God's enabling, to avoid evil. It seems like such an obvious choice yet we so often fail in this regard. Consider this idea.... you have an opportunity to manipulate your tax return (within the law) to your favor. The Spirit says "that's not right, legality notwithstanding. (V19)" The Bible says 'render unto Caesar what is Caesar's' and 'yield to your earthly authorities. (V20)' You choose not to search the scripture for guidance nor do you pray. (V21) Ultimately you manipulate your taxes, having a twinge of guilt but no remorse. You've just started a dance with the devil by your choice. It may be an imperfect analogy but I trust that The Spirit within you will right now give you the example that speaks truth and power into your life.

I've got to run now, the sun is up, the fields are white with snow and my earthly obligations which God has entrusted to me are calling.

Shalom,
Carl