Jason's Blog

We see the phrase “filled with the Spirit” once in Paul’s letters (Ephesians 5:18) and repeatedly in Luke & Acts.  What does this actually mean?

• “Choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3).
• “Stephen full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).
• “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52).
• “Jesus full of joy through the Holy Spirit said, ‘I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children (Luke 10:21).

1. To be filled with the Spirit is to be someone who is empowered of God
2. To be filled with the Spirit is to be a person of ministry and service.
3. Those who are filled with the Spirit usually have wisdom, courage, and joy.

The Reality

The world that we live in contains plenty of negative emotions and dispositions can can fill us:

• Jealousy (Acts 5:17, 13:45)
• Bitterness (Acts 8:23)
• Deceit (Acts 13:10)

The story of Ananias and Sapphira is a living reminder that Satan can fill our hearts and lead us to lie against the Holy Spirit even to our own deaths (Acts 5:3).

In Us

1.  When the Spirit of God is at work in us – we experience a ‘lightness’ about us.  This is a joy in being delivered from darker things.

2.  We also have a deep sense courage.  Peter and John’s courageous actions in the temple and under a thumb of persecution revealed Jesus to the Sanhedrin.  They could well recognize that these men were “unschooled and ordinary.”  But they could recall Jesus:

He had healed the hurting in the synagogue on the Sabbath – a timely act of kindness (Luke 13:10-17).  They in turn healed a cripple at the hour of prayer at the temple.  They stood with resolve proclaiming Jesus when it was uncomfortable and dangerous to do so.  This was only possible because the Spirit was with them (Acts 4:8-13).

When they were released, the congregation began to pray.  They asked for boldness.  They asked for God’s hand to be with them.  The answer from heaven was swift.  They were filled with the Spirit and they spoke with boldness (Acts 4:31).

Lord,

Enable us to do the work that is needed.  Help us to be receptive to your Spirit.  Open our ears.  Fill our hearts.  Give us courage.

Daniel was everything that a five year old can be—courageous, timid, confident, and shy. But most of all—trusting. Daniel’s mom had left him with her sister Milicia on a fateful day in 1957.

The family lived in war torn Croatia. Seeing soldiers with machine guns was an everyday occurance. Daniel was out in the street playing in a red toy wagon with these nineteen year olds. The boys were pulling the wagon in the street near his home, when the unthinkable happened. They pulled the wagon through a gate and little Daniel’s head was forced between two posts. He was dead in seconds.

Where was Milicia? She was supposed to be watching, but something had happened. She was distracted and now Daniel was dead.

Daniel’s mother faced all the anger, sorrow, and pain that goes with losing a child. But through it all, she never blamed Milicia. As Mirslov Volf tells this story, he always looked at his Aunt Milicia as his guardian angel. Mirslov’s mother never blamed her sister and never passed that blame on. This allowed her son to grow up free from anger, free from labeling and hurting Milicia.

I believe one key power tool that can help you with your anger in all its forms is the spiritual discipline of extending mercy. It is the wellspring of forgiveness and the source of love. If we are merciful, we can be slow in anger, free from rage, coercion, and depression. Our life will be full of peace.

How are you doing with developing the spiritual discipline of mercy?  Is mercy vibrant in your life?  If so, you’ll have a few scars to show for it.

Let me share two quotations that you might find helpful.  Joshua Grave’s The Feast (Leafwood, 2009) has a fine chapter on Suffering:

A deep spirituality molded in the image of Jesus takes root when we realize that God manages to use suffering to transform darkness, disillusionment, suffering, pain, and ugliness into everlasting beauty. . . The Apostle Paul proclaimed, ‘I want to know Christ  and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings,’ because he understood that suffering is a means by which God changes the world from its insistence on violence, revenge, corruption and domination” (p. 94).

Do you believe that God can take our brokenness and transform it into glory?  That is what He does through the cross. If you believe in the power of suffering, then you might be able to pray this prayer:

Let my trust be in Your mercy, not in myself. Let my hope be in Your love, not in health, or strength, or ability or human resources.

If I trust You, everything else will become, for me, strength, health, and support. Everything will bring me to heaven. If I do not trust You, everything will be my destruction. [Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. p 29-30].

“No, you shouldn’t!!!”  That’s the dominant message that I heard for years.

However, I have found that keeping a Lenten season can be valuable.  I would not hold this opinion over anyone, but I find that celebrating Lent– in one form or another– has helped me.

Before you become overly critical, ask yourself these 2 questions:

1) How many of the Consumerist Holidays do I celebrate and why?

It’s holidays include  New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, the 4th of July, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, (and perhaps Christmas).

2) What exactly is Lent?

A Definition:  Lent is a forty day period of preparation leading up to Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus.   The number of days seems to have been drawn from biblical sources.  For example, Jesus and Elijah were in the desert 40 days (1 Kings 19:8, Luke4:2).  Moses was on Mount Sinai 40 days (Exo. 24:18).

Historical Notes:

• It’s an old practice.   We find a mention of  40 day Lent in Canon 5 of the Ecumenical Council of Nicea (318 AD).  At this point, the practice is  as an established church tradition.  Irenaeus (a second century figure) mentions a short term (2 day) Lenten-type fast before the celebration of Easter.
• Daniel Sahas notes that the word Lent itself is drawn from an Anglo-Saxon term lencten, meaning Spring (Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (Garland, 1990): 533.

How can I practice Lent?

There are many creative ways to celebrate Lent.  John Marks Hicks has given ten suggestions at his blog.  It is a period of time for self-examination and self-denial.  Should you choose to give up food or some activity– the purpose should be to create a space where you can be close to God.

So be creative and seek after the Lord as fully as you are able.

How do we allow God to work in the deeper places of our lives?  There are two basic strategies that I know about:

1.  The FACTS – FAITH – FEELING Sequence.

This method roots change in accepting and believing new ideas.  We start thinking new thoughts and we become new persons.  Doug Pagitt has captured this model really well on page 24 of A Christianity Worth Believing (Jossey Bass, 2008).

Notice that facts pull the train and that feelings and circumstances follow behind.

• Is this really how life change happens?

• Do we get new facts, put them in the driver seat, and start moving down the tracks?

It seems ideal, but my experience is that few people really live this way.  I know very few people who can think their way into a better way of feeling or doing.  Personally, I have found this method to be tiring to my body and my spirit.

2. The Life Practice Approach

This model suggests that we turn our will to God as we gradually allow God’s teaching to reshape our actions, thoughts, and social context.

Our soul is like a sailboat that blows the exact direction that the wind takes it.  Rather than choosing to be blown about by personal impulses, circumstances, or the opinions of others.  Our life begins to change as we commit to responding to God’s Word.  However, we harness the wind through using specific life practices.  Just as there are reliable ways to navigate a boat, there are reliable life practices that set us in motion.

It is not facts that change our lives, and the life practices don’t really change it either. We change as we surrender to the leading of God’s word and bring our lives into harmony with it through concrete practices.

Jesus is the one who teaches us how to actually pull all of this together.  If you want to read more about His life practices, I would suggest the Sermon on the Mount.

On my website, you can find out more about three major types of life practices (inward, upward, and outward) on the Pages tab at the left .