Tuesday: From Above, Not from the Subconscious
WEEK 24
TUESDAY
FROM ABOVE, NOT FROM THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9
We must pause another day on the source of our adequacy. It is from above, not from us. “Suddenly a sound from heaven. . . . They were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2-4). Note “from heaven . . . all filled.” It was not an uprush from the subconscious but a downrush from heaven. The uprush would have been from the corrupted depths, but this was a downrush from the cleansing heights. It left them, not little gods glorying in their discovered might, but good people glorying in amazing grace.
This put everyone on the same level. If the source is within, only the gifted, extraordinary person is the source of extraordinary gifts. The ordinary are left out. But at the foot of the cross, the ground is level. Here anyone can receive; the highest is open to the lowliest.
Peter puts it thus, “This Jesus . . . received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit. He poured out this Spirit, and you are seeing and hearing the results of his having done so” (2:32-33). We get the Holy Spirit from Jesus, but he received the Spirit as a gift; therefore, freely receiving, he freely gives. This means that we too, freely receiving, freely give. Like produces like.
And further note: “this Spirit . . . you are seeing and hearing the results.” The “seeing and hearing” points it. It issues as present, operative fact: it is “this.” Those who point you within are usually dealing with the verbal; this was dealing with the vital. The word of adequacy had become flesh in the person and the group. Those who point you within point to a philosophy; this points you to a fact. And the fact was turning the world upside down. The philosophy of discovering everything within you does not turn the world upside down; it only turns words inside out.
Peter said to Simon, “You believed you could buy God’s gift with money” (8:20)! The modern equivalent is, “You thought you could obtain the gift of God with manipulation—of yourself.” Again: “If God gave them the same gift he gave us . . . could I stand in God’s way?” (11:17). The “same gift”—that canceled our superiorities. The latchstring was out to all!
O Lord, how can I thank you enough for your grace so freely and fully bestowed upon us in Jesus? It sends us to the fountain to drink and to our knees in gratitude. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Since this is all of grace, I can take grace and live by grace. I shall.