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A while back I heard a news program about a group of Las Vegas prostitutes who found salvation through Jesus and went into ministry helping other hookers to do the same. When asked why she felt called into that ministry, one of women said something to the effect of: “I escaped a burning building but others were still trapped. I had to go back and help them out.”
Have you ever been trapped in darkness? I have. It’s a terrible feeling — lost, lonely, condemned, sad, hopeless. And then when I met Jesus, the opposite feelings — found, loved, free, full of joy and hope.
Did you know that the enemy can take us back to those feelings of being trapped in darkness? He can’t take our salvation of course, but he can deceive us. And it’s happening everywhere — we’re just going to church to feel better about ourselves. Because inside we’re as lost as ever before, or at least it feels that way. It’s time to be real with each other and ourselves.
Church isn’t a stage rehearsal for heaven.
Lord let your sleeping giant rise / Catch the demons by surprise / Holy nation sanctified / Let this be our battlecry ~ Casting Crowns, “Until the Whole World Hears”
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10-11
You know how you can feel change coming spiritually, before it actually arrives? I wrote about this several weeks ago in my post Family and Career. Here is what I said “Like the cool breeze coming through my window — so different from the summer heat – I know my season is changing. May God direct my steps.” And then in my last post Whether to Weather I talked about how “like the wind, the Holy Spirit is a free agent. It can be a hurricane or a gentle breeze… I don’t know about you, but that’s a bit scary to me. A bit dangerous.”
Last week the gentle breeze in my life had a nip to it. Something was about to change. I had no idea what — and generally thought that it would be a positive thing. But let me tell you that right now, that in this week it does not feel positive and I’m doing everything I can do to remain pliable as dust in God’s wind as He molds me into His image.
Scary and dangerous — not in a fun adventurous way as I have experienced from God before, but in a deeply vulnerable and threatening way, rife with temptation and obstacles. I do not know where the Spirit is taking me right now, but I do know this: God is at work. He is everywhere on and in this, and like Larry Who said in a comment to last week’s post: “the Spirit just shows up and takes over.”
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8
I like to have a fair amount of control over my environment, don’t you? We use our air conditioners in the summer, and the heater in the winter. We wear sunscreen, sunglasses, coats, mittens and rain jackets — depending on the forecast. Because our relative affluence allows us to control our exposure to weather, we often forget how it can affect us.
But weather holds tremendous power. The wind is especially powerful — depending on its speed, it can fly a kite, disturb a picnic, bring in a thunderstorm, or flatten an entire town. It can howl in the night, or gently rustle the leaves on a fall day. For all of our advances, we cannot control it. And I find it oddly inspiring that Jesus uses wind to describe the spiritually born-again.
Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is a free agent. It can be a hurricane or a gentle breeze. And even more than that — I’m supposed to be “led” by the Spirit! By something I can’t direct, that may choose to soothe or upheave depending on God’s plan.
I don’t know about you, but that’s a bit scary to me. A bit dangerous. Part of me wants to hide in my church pew as a good, church-going mother. “I’m doing my part down here, God. I take the kids to church, I pray for people around me. I help others every now and then. I said a swear word the other day but that was only after a large board fell on my foot. I’m sorry about that, but it really hurt! You see, just being human takes quite a bit of my energy. How am I supposed to make room for the unpredictable, uncontrollable wind of the Spirit?”
And no sooner do those thoughts enter my mind that another one rushes in: Choose Jesus or choose self — there is no in-between.
I must literally become dust in the wind, going wherever the Spirit leads. Otherwise what’s the point?
