In the Spirit

From 1st Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. 1st Corinthians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. In the apostolic community, the early believers of apostolic times, they commonly used the expression, in the Spirit. Pray at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.

If we live in the Spirit, let's also walk in the Spirit. Having begun in the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, says John. Now the significance of this expression is often missed these days.

We seem to have the idea that God pours out the Spirit on us, and we are filled and quickened, and from that point on we're in the Spirit, no matter what. But that's not how it works. Now it's certainly true that that first wonderful outpouring of God's Spirit upon us, and perhaps undoubtedly other subsequent outpourings that God may be pleased to give us, these are up to God to give.

You know, we can't make them happen. We can't will the Spirit to come to us. God sends the Spirit to us.

All we can do is ask, or seek, plead with Him for the anointing that we need to get the job done that lies in front of us, that God sent us to do. But we can't make it happen. God has to make it happen, and He always does.

When God looks into our hearts and sees that we're in earnest, that we really mean business, invariably, without exception, He sends the Spirit. But once the Spirit has come to us, see, once we've tasted the heavenly gift, been made partakers of the divine nature, had a glimpse of the world to come in its power, then whether we are in the Spirit or out of the Spirit is not up to God, it's up to us. See, the initial outpouring of the Spirit and those subsequent outpourings of the Spirit, God gives.

They're up to God, but whether after the Spirit has come, you know, we're in the Spirit or out of the Spirit, that belongs to our province. That's up to us. So when the Apostle exhorts us to walk in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, he implies by saying this that it's also possible to do these things out of the Spirit.

See, when the Apostle John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, he implies by this that he could have been out of the Spirit on the Lord's day. But what does it mean to be in the Spirit? Some people seem to think that it means that you're in a kind of semi-trance with a beautiful sleepy smile on your face, you know. Look at her, isn't she heavenly? She's in the Spirit.

See how her eyes are shut, you know, and she looks so happy and her face is just cocked slightly to the side. You know, and other people seem to think that to be in the Spirit means that you're plugged in, your mind is just plugged right into some heavenly teletype, and those messages keep banging out all the time, and all you do is tear them off and give them to people all the time. You're in the Spirit, you know, you're getting prophecies.

And other people have the idea that to be in the Spirit means that you are at least whispering in tongues. Now look, you may, by being in the Spirit, you may be, see, smiling, you may have your eyes shut, you may be prophesying, you may be speaking in tongues, you may be dreaming dreams and seeing visions. All those things, it may be indeed true.

But it's also true that you may be in the Spirit of God and yet be at that moment doing none of those things. To be in the Spirit means that my spirit is no longer wrapped up in the Spirit of this world, no longer wrapped up in itself, but rather that my spirit is now somehow in God. God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

Our Lord was a good example of this. During His life of flesh and blood, He was in the Spirit all the time. You know, we read this morning, John read to us about His baptism, the Spirit came on Him, and one thing about our Lord is that, you know, from that point on, and it was up to Him, you know, He did that, He stayed in the Spirit.

And what does this mean? See, while He's washing Himself, while He's singing, eating, sleeping, drinking, talking to the children, all the time, nevertheless, He's enveloped in unseen glory. And the consciousness at the root bottom of all His consciousness is His Father. See, the fact that this humble man, humblest of all men, is constantly God-conscious, God-present, God-loving, was not something which was done for Him.

This was something that Jesus did with an act of His own will. He willed Himself into God's will, the Father's will, hour by hour, moment by moment. He willed Himself out of Himself into the Father.

I do nothing of myself. Every word that I speak is given to me by the Father. Every deed that I perform is something that the Father has shown me to do.

Now notice carefully, too, where this leads Him. Being in the Spirit does not lead Jesus to some kind of dramatic success, you know, power and glory and riches and fame. No, no.

Being in the Spirit for Jesus leads Him down to the most lowly and forgotten and forsaken people on earth. And finally it leads Him to a cross. He pours Himself out, see.

Also notice that being in the Spirit for Jesus never was spooky. You know, the disciples are never gathered around Jesus while His comatose body waits for His Spirit to come back. But He was always present where the cries of men were, and He was there with all His faculty, and He was there with power to heal.

Now what we need to learn is that just as surely as the Spirit of God was with Jesus and that Jesus was in His Father's Spirit constantly, we can live that way, too. Jesus died on the cross to make it possible for us in this life to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, think in the Spirit. For most of us, at least, it's not a matter of waiting for the Spirit to come.

The Spirit has already come. Nothing stands between us and the life of living, walking, praying, thinking in the Spirit, but our own apathy, unbelief, pride, and self-centeredness. To be in the Spirit means, first of all, it means willed faith.

See, with an act of will, I put the weight of my life no longer on the things that I can touch and see, no longer on the things that my reason tells me are safe, but now I put the weight of my life on those things that Jesus has spoken to me, the words that Jesus has spoken to me. Jesus speaks a word to me, and in speaking that word, He also gives the Spirit to me to make it possible for me to grab hold of it. But the grabbing hold of the word is up to me.

That's something I have to do with an act of my will. The Spirit may reveal to you that there's a specific sin that you can be delivered from if you will repent of it right now. Or that if you'll come down off your high horse and confess that thing and cry out to God for mercy, He'll give you a new start right now.

See, but you then have to exercise your will. You know, you have to put the weight of your life on that thing. You have to live accordingly.

You have to go out and do that. Or it's possible that the Spirit is making clear to certain ones among us that if you will only make a certain break in your routine, you'll have tremendous new life in your whole way of living. Everything will be renewed, refreshed.

See, but then you'll find that your routine is extremely important to you. In this particular break in your routine, you're just scared to death to do. And you will not do it until you exercise faith.

You'll have to trust God. See, and that God won't do for you. You have to do that.

The Holy Spirit opens the door, but you have to walk through it. Secondly, to walk in the Spirit means a discipline of constant prayer. Pray at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To this end, keep alert with all perseverance, he says in Ephesians. See, notice that Paul does not say, oh, it's easy. There's nothing to it, brothers and sisters.

All you do is lie down on that bed of roses and the aroma just carries you right up before the throne of God. You don't have to move a muscle. That's not what he says.

He says you have to put in some effort. To that end, you know, keep alert with all perseverance. And our Lord says the same thing.

Stay awake. That's what he means when he says watch and pray. So that I have to take my mind and I have to bend it constantly out of the easy rut of this world and constantly I have to immerse my mind in the rushing stream of God's Spirit.

I have to will to be not conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of my mind so that I can pray. I have to pray without ceasing. I have to pray without fainting and I have to do that.

And I do that not up on a hill in some St. Little retreat center, but I have to do it right down in the middle of the monotonous drudgery of life. Stopping at red lights, changing flats, making beds, changing diapers, washing dishes, writing letters, all those things. And all the while I'm doing these ordinary things that all of us are about.

I keep submitting my mind to the Father. I keep offering a prayer, you know, from my inmost heart to the Living God until worship of God, prayers to God, praise of God become normal to me, become my nature. Then all we have to do is make a start.

All we have to do is begin and then the Spirit of God helps us. We don't know how to pray as we ought, says Paul. But the Spirit helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

What a difference it's going to make in our lives and in our corporate life as a flock when we in fact have learned to pray at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. Third, to walk in the Spirit means practice unity. I say practice unity rather than dream unity, rather than good intentions and sighs, we must really get together.

But rather things done. You know, wrongs righted, walls torn down. You know, there's an awful lot of talk about unity and so very little done.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. King James says, endeavoring to maintain the unity of the Spirit, keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's effort involved in that.

You know, how in the world can we be walking in the Spirit and at the same time, you know, holding sour attitudes toward brothers who are not in our particular religious fraternity, sowing seeds of dissension among sisters who are not in our particular little circle. Isn't it strange how we can be spending 50% of our time talking about life in the Spirit and the other 50% of our time raising up walls, dividing ourselves from other brothers and sisters. How can this be? Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body, one spirit, only one.

Finally, to walk in the Spirit means practical obedience. I believe that if we exercise faith and discipline ourselves truly into a life of prayer and then honestly and earnestly practice unity with brothers and sisters, we will find ourselves with eyes open to see God's will as we've never seen it before. God will make his will known to us.

We will know then who to visit and who to have home for dinner and how far to go with that erring brother and who to help and how to solve that problem at work and how to take care of that trouble at home. So that the crown of the life of walking in the Spirit becomes not some spectacular accomplishment, but rather as it was for our Lord, the life of simple, down-to-earth, day-in-and-day-out obedience in the things that God has called us to do. That's what it means to walk in the Spirit.

Practical obedience, right where God has put us, day after day after day. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows or woman, that shall he also reap.

He who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. And when you sow, it's very insignificant. It's not dramatic like reaping.

But he who sows to the Spirit, you know, day-in-and-day-out obedience, things that we do, shall from the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not grow weary in well-doing that follows right after that. And that's not always included.

Well-doing is walking in the Spirit. For in due season we shall reap if we faint not. See now, we can talk about the day we were reborn and let's forever praise God for it.

And we can talk about the day that the Messiah returns, which will be soon, no doubt. But the important issue for us is where we stand with God right now. The God who sent his Son to atone for our sins also sent his Spirit to bring us into the fullness of the Son's life.

So that at this moment and throughout the remainder of this day and all the days until the Messiah comes, we are either in the Spirit or out of the Spirit. To be in the Spirit is life and peace. To be out of the Spirit is death.

Where we are at any given moment, including this one, is up to us. Let's pray. We ask Father that if there's any area where this is not clear, where we don't know how to apply it, where it doesn't make sense, that that you'd add what needs to be added and remove whatever needs to be removed.

But Lord God, we're just asking that you'll help us all to see where we stand with you right now and to honestly confess whether we're in or out. And Lord God, where we're in the flesh and not in the Spirit, help us before we leave this place to get back where we should be. Grant that none of us may leave here without once more tasting your life, or perhaps in some cases, Lord God, tasting it for the first time.

Lord God, we cry out for this and whatever the price, whatever the disruptions this may cost us, or the pain, grant it to us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.