A Vision of God—the Promise of the Spirit
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Gal 3:14 (NIV)
Yesterday I pondered this verse and thought, what is the promise of the Spirit? Then I thought, the promise is that we would receive the Holy Spirit…the promise of the Spirit, for isn’t that what Jesus promised before He ascended?
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. John 16:12-15 (NIV)
It’s the Holy Spirit who gives Life. I like being alive; I don’t want to just live my life rehearsing what happened in the past or memorizing Scripture; I want to live Life. So God rewarded me with the Holy Spirit; certainly the reward is to all who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Hey, there is nothing more to ask for because there is nothing more to want! The promise of the Spirit—yeah!
Lord, you said, “see, I lay before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, therefore choose Life.” It’s your Life that we want Lord, so be our Life, okay? Okay, so when the Spirit comes what did He come to do?
Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; John 16:7-9 (NIV) (Emphasis mine)
The Holy Spirit is here to reveal God “with us” in Jesus Christ so that we will believe in Him—in other words to reveal Jesus the Christ living in us through the Spirit, by faith. Jesus, the actual vision of God; Yes! Jesus, the revelation of God and of the Life we live now through Him. Jesus is the place we ground ourselves when we are interested in living Life! No longer do we even want to try and imagine what our lives could be like; instead we want to live Life and experience it on His terms. Jesus is not some idea about God; He is the one who keeps us attentive to how God defines Life. Satan likes to get us excited about thinking and acting for God to the point that we detach from relational intimacy and surrender. Anyway, he gets us to substitute our godlike egos for the Holy Spirit and to act “for” God rather than “from” Him and thus earn Satan’s applause. Jesus offers shape, energy and vision to our lives. He is the vision of God. Jesus is an actual person who lived at a datable time in a land that grew flowers, vegetables and weeds; Jesus who traveled cities that had mountains, trees, and wildlife, the likes of which are still on earth today, was a solid personality who drank the water, ate the fish and brought God out into the open where we can see Him. We no longer have to guess what God is like. Jesus, the incarnation of God is the one making God’s word “personal” to us. He comforts, heals, forgives, loves and causes God to come alive within us. By shaking our irrational thinking that we can know God apart from Him, He makes us realize that apart from Jesus, God is just another concept or idea that breaks down as quickly as our egos decide to shape Him into yet another concept or idea. Jesus saves us from wasting our lives on illusions and cheap thrills. He enables us to take God and ourselves seriously so that we know who He is and who we are in Him. He keeps us in God’s love so that we live our lives in our own circles of influence, talking–crying—laughing with friends and family, praying with the grocery store clerk, reading stories to our children, planting flowers, cooking meals, hiring people, training teenagers how to manage their money, touching the sick, lifting a heavy load for our neighbor and surrendering to God right here, right now. Jesus is the one who makes us know for sure that God “IS” and that His reward is the promise of the Spirit.
Lord Jesus, your Life is manifested and made real to us by the Holy Spirit—the one who makes us know that we know Christ IS our Life! And the more real Christ becomes in us as us, the more we see and know that we are like Him! You make us know that the life we used to live and call “life” was no life at all. You open the eyes of our understanding. We get it! Only through Jesus Christ do we know Life as our very own life. Thank you for quickening our mortal eyes, bones and flesh to see it, walk it out, and live it on earth today, right here, right now.
Hi Jaque,
Just checking in…like the blog!
Chris
Dearest Jaque,
I love what you shared here. Finally getting Lesson 5′s questions answered just yesterday, in my shared journal part I put Day 5′s verse, it was Eph. 1:13 sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. On reading this blog, I am reminded of what just happened to me last week. I was accused by a sister in the Lord of playing (lol) Holy Ghost Junior. And of course that was called of me, because the Spirit of Truth was operating in me big time with answers to her questions of where she was in this walk with the Lord. Apparently, she was not ready to hear truth, the Lord said. Incredible story on the God Story Part 1 message you have for this week. Back when you had some of us pray for your battle, I never asked how you were healed or what you did or what did God have you do, I just believed you were going to be healed one way or the other, God is God, He can do what He wants. This too was very touching, so much so, that I need to get it to share with others that are going through some things where there seems to be no light. God bless you Jaque for listening for the timing of when to release words of wisdom and truth.
Love you much, Virginia Ferraro
Jaque, thank you for this! You wrote, “Satan likes to get us excited about thinking and acting for God to the point that we detach from relational intimacy and surrender.”
Wow! This is so true and God has been reminding me lately that keeping my relationship with God as my utmost priority is VITAL or I will not be spiritually wealthy and will have nothing to share with others. It has to be my first priority; fighting for my own relational intimacy with God!
“Jesus is the place we ground ourselves when we are interested in living Life!”
Love this, I want to live LIFE! To live in the flow of Him, to ‘LIVE’ with Him. It’s a verb.
You wrote, “….apart from Jesus, God is just another concept or idea that breaks down as quickly as our egos decide to shape Him into yet another concept or idea. Jesus saves us from wasting our lives on illusions and cheap thrills.”
How true this is of the spirituality we see all around us in the world today where the concept of God is molded to achieve self-realization. But without the cross and Jesus, and the death of self, we have nothing. As you said, “our irrational thinking that we can know God apart from Jesus.” Love how you captured that in one powerful sentence.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for always seeking Him first for yourself.
You are a pioneer.
Love you!