Monday: Nothing Is Ours Until It Gets Within
WEEK 3
MONDAY
NOTHING IS OURS UNTIL IT GETS WITHIN
Ephesians 3:14-19
We now turn to the Holy Spirit, who is the applied edge of redemption—redemption where it counts, namely, down in the midst of me—within me.
Our need is greatest in the inner dynamic. We believe in all these things—God, Jesus, the kingdom of God—but they all lie like an empty, inoperative dream, above actuality, with no feet on the ground and no power to walk. As a Christian movement we have stopped short of the one thing that would make all God’s preparation and promises into performances in and through us. That one thing is the Holy Spirit. We have tied God’s hands just when God was at the point of dumping everything into our laps. We have stopped short of receiving the Holy Spirit and therefore of everything. For it is in and through the Holy Spirit that God gives us everything now. Luke tells us that Jesus “had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles” (Acts 1:2 RSV). He was from that time on commanding and working through the Holy Spirit. If we don’t receive the Spirit, we are cutting ourselves off from Christ and God. Their dealings are now from within. It was external; now it is internal—a religion of the Spirit. If you do not receive the Spirit, you automatically shut yourself off from all God promised and Jesus procured for us. That is one reason Jesus emphasized something that has seemed odd to some. He said all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the “finger of God” casting out the evil spirits within us, and then filling us with presence and power. But if we reject God’s outstretched hand by refusal to cooperate or by positive blasphemies as God offers us grace, then God can give us nothing. We have tied the process of redemption in knots, just where it would be operative.
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is seldom committed, and hence the danger from it is infinitesimal. But the silent neglect of the Holy Spirit within our churches is infinitely more devastating, for it leaves a devastating barrenness—forms without force, liturgy without life, maneuvers without mastery.
O Lord, forgive us that we have stopped the fountain just when it was about to flow. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: If sin is missing the mark, it is also stopping short of the mark. I shall not stop short.