Week 39 Sunday
Week 39 Sunday
The Way Is the Way of Power
Ephesians 3:14-21
We have been considering the way to use the raw materials of human life, good, bad, or indifferent, that may come to us.
You say, that sounds good, too good to be true. Where are we to get the power to do that? We must now consider the Way as the way of power. Jesus said, “I am the way” (the acting), “the truth” (the thinking), and “the life” (the resources to fulfill the thinking and the acting) (John 14:6). Without the Way as the way of resources, then it is all a recommendation instead of a realization, something presented but not possible.
“Am I using all my talents?” asked a servant of God, greatly used. The reply came from God, “Yes, and very much more; you are using my resources.” That was the secret. He was going beyond his resources and was living on God’s resources. I wrote in my notebook, “Am I living on reserves or on resources? Am I careful of my human reserves, because I have nothing beyond them to live by? Or have I learned to tap divine resources and live by them?”
If the Way is the way of good precepts but not the way of power, then it fails us at the point of need. For it is at the point of power that we break down. But the power is all here. “All who touched him recovered” (Mark 6:56 Moffatt). It wasn’t a question of the power inherent in Jesus. It was all there. It was a question of touching him by an appropriating faith. All who touch him now by an appropriating faith recover—recover from whatever ails them.
But many of us are like the Chinese gentleman in Penang who, sitting in his new Ford car, had servants push him up and down the street. When asked if there wasn’t any power in the machine, he replied, “Yes, but I’m afraid to turn it on.” We are afraid to turn on the power; it’s here unused. That power is nothing less than the power of the Holy Spirit. The Way is the way of the Holy Spirit. A Holy Spirit-less Christianity is different from Christianity. It is a devitalized Christianity; it is less than, and therefore other than, Christianity. It is subchristian. The Way is the way of power, power to live the things it teaches.
O Christ, I know that your distinctive baptism is the baptism with the Holy Spirit and power. I need inner reinforcement. Then give me this power that will change the whole level of life for me. In your name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “The Spirit makes alive” (2 Cor. 3:6 Moffatt).
Week 39 Monday
Concerning the Holy Spirit
John 14:15-17; 15:26-27
The Way is the way of power. There are three facts about God:
(1) God for us, (2) God with us, (3) God in us. God for us—the divine Intention, the Lord; God with us—the divine Invasion, the Son; God in us—the divine Indwelling, the Holy Spirit. The divine Intention becomes the divine Invasion, and the divine Invasion becomes the divine Indwelling. It is not enough to have redemptive Intention and redemptive Invasion. They are both outside of us, therefore inadequate, for our need is within us. There must be Indwelling.
What happened in history in the Incarnation must move straight on inside of us in experience in the Indwelling, must do it or fail. The historical must become the experimental. Otherwise, the Christian faith is a counsel of perfection, making impossible demands on human nature. But if the divine Indwelling is a fact, then everything is possible. I have quoted a sign on the walls of a Bible class, “I can do little; we can do anything.” It was intended to mean the human we. But the same thing can be said of the divine-human we. God apart from us can do little. We apart from God can do little. Together we can do anything.
The Holy Spirit means the human-divine togetherness. In the Incarnation, God came part way; in the Indwelling God comes the full way, comes into the citadel of our spirits. And God comes, not as a transient visitor, but “to abide with you forever” (John 14:16 KJV). A minister suggested that “the Holy Spirit comes and goes as we need him.” That cuts at the root of the Indwelling, and the Indwelling is the focal point of redemption. Without Indwelling, redemption doesn’t get at us where it counts. With the Indwelling, redemption touches the vital spot.
So the distinctive baptism of Jesus was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He never baptized with water; he saved himself to give the “one baptism”—the baptism of the Spirit. In that “one baptism,” his redemptive work is potentially complete. In the baptism with water, we surrender our sins; in the baptism of the Spirit, we surrender ourselves. One is negative, the other is positive; for in the surrender of ourselves we put ourselves at the disposal of the Spirit; our interests and our capacities merge. Togetherness sets in.
O Christ, I want to be baptized with your Spirit. I am not content with any gap between us. I want to be indwelt. I want the Spirit to move into the very citadel of my spirit. There I would be one, and only one. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is open freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17 Moffatt).
Week 39 Tuesday
The Holy Spirit Brings Unity
John 16:7-15
The Way is the way of the Indwelling. God’s laws are written within us, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21 KJV). This is without our consent. But the Indwelling is with our consent. In the Indwelling our personality is preserved, purified, permeated, and perfected. We find a sevenfold statement of the Christian faith in the opening verses of Acts (Moffatt). The Christian faith is
Jesus’ life—“Jesus began by doing” (1:1); Jesus’ teaching—“Jesus began by . . . teaching” (1:1); Jesus’ death—“After his sufferings” (1:3); Jesus’ resurrection—“He had shown them that he was alive” (1:3); Jesus’ coming within them in the Holy Spirit—“Issuing his orders by the Holy Spirit” (1:2); The kingdom of God as the total program—“The affairs of God’s Realm” (1:3); Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of power—“He was taken up to heaven” (1:2).
Here was a movement founded on Jesus’ life, teaching, death, resurrection, coming by the Holy Spirit, program of the kingdom for individual and collective redemption, a movement whose Author is at the right hand of power and has “all authority.”
This movement operated by bringing a sevenfold unity into life. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, these unities were realized (Moffatt):
Unity with God—“They were all filled with the holy Spirit” (2:4); Unity within the self—“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit; the Spirit enabled them to express themselves” (2:4); Unity within the immediate group—“Peter stood up along with the eleven” (2:14); Unity with all believers—“The believers all kept together” (2:44); Unity with other races—“We hear these men talking of the triumphs of God in our own languages” (2:11); Unity in material things—“They shared all they had with one another” (2:45); Unity with all people in an all-inclusive love, including enemies—“For the promise is meant . . . for anyone whom the Lord our God may call to himself” (2:39).
When surrendered to and responsive to the Holy Spirit, we are at one with God, with ourselves, with our immediate group, with all believers, with all races, with material things, and with all people, including enemies, in an all-inclusive love. This is “the unity of the Spirit.”
O living Spirit, I come to you for this living unity. I’m tired of being out of harmony. I would be made whole, and I would be made one. For I would know unity with you and with all others. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Lead the life of the Spirit; then you will never satisfy the passions of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16 Moffatt).
Week 39 Wednesday
“It Is All Empty Inside”
Acts 1:8; 2:17-18, 33
The Holy Spirit is the center of our virtues. Our virtues are rooted in self-interest or Spirit-interest. One makes them pagan; the other makes them Christian.
Paul says, “I prove myself at all points a true minister of God . . . innocence, insight, patience, kindness, the holy Spirit, unaffected love, true words, the power of God” (2 Cor. 6:4-7 Moffatt). There are virtues on each side of the Holy Spirit, the central spring of all virtues. The Spirit is the spring and center of our goodness. The last is the “power of God.” The power of God is behind all virtues that spring from the Holy Spirit. For all virtues not rooted in the Holy Spirit end in self-righteousness. Rooted in the Holy Spirit, they end in self-effacing dedication.
In our faith, in our unity, and in our virtues, the Holy Spirit is central. But the Holy Spirit is not central in our present-day Christianity. The emphasis upon the Holy Spirit has been pushed from the mainstream of Christianity into the cults. There the teaching has been thrown out of balance, often identified with rampant emotionalism. That spoils it, and has spoiled Pentecost for many. And yet the almost entire absence of emphasis on the Spirit has impoverished the main stream of Christianity. It often degenerates into a humanistic striving to be good.
A leading psychologist said, “That church of today is like an autumn leaf, dry and dead, but retaining its form and structure.” Too sweeping, of course, but with just enough truth in it to make it sting. If this is true of the church, then it is even truer of psychology, especially when it is secular. The secular psychologist goes on the assumption that all that is needed is to have yourself analyzed; all else will follow. The outstanding psychology is psychoanalysis, not psychosynthesis. Some of the most disrupted people in the world are the analyzed. They are picked to pieces but not put together again.
But the Christians can’t complain if people turn to cults and secular science when they themselves have lost, or have failed to realize, the central fact of their faith—the Holy Spirit. A minister stood up, put his hand over his heart, and said, “It is all empty inside.”
O Spirit Divine, how dare I be empty within when all around me cries out for a way—the Way. With you, I am able for anything. Without you, I am doomed to sterility. So I open my heart. Come in. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am “filled by him who fills the universe entirely” (Eph. 1:23 Moffatt).
Week 39 Thursday
He Began—They Began
Romans 15:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:10; 1 Thessalonians 1:3
What is the part of the human in all this? The Holy Spirit does not mean the end of self-effort. It is the beginning of self-effort.
The opening verse of Acts says that “Jesus began” (1:1), but the next chapter says that “they . . . began” (2:4). All that Jesus began issued in all that “they” began. The coming of the Holy Spirit was an awakening stimulus, an imparting of an astonishing energy. Francis of Assisi speaks of “the holy energy that floods in through surrender to God.”*
It is said that “the harvest of the Spirit” includes “love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23 Moffatt). Now note that it begins with “love” and ends in “self-control.” The genesis of Christian virtues is not duty but love. We practice these virtues, not because duty compels us, but because love impels us. But that love issues in ‘“self-control.” Spirit-control ends in self-control. The self-control is not the control that sits on a lid but a control through surrender of the self to the Holy Spirit. Then the lesser desires are caught up into higher desires, and we do the highest because we love the highest.
John the Baptist’s first recorded word is, “You brood of vipers” (Luke 3:7 Moffatt); and Jesus’ first recorded word is, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me . . . to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18 Moffatt). One begins with a suppression, the other with an expression; one with a brood of vipers, the other with a brooding Spirit. One was the gospel of a demand, the other the gospel of an offer; one talked of “the coming wrath” and the other of “the coming kingdom.” John’s baptism was with water, to get rid of; Jesus’ baptism was with the Spirit, to get possession of. One movement died; the other lives on—forever. John irritated; Jesus inspired.
A minister said a penetrating thing in one of our Ashrams, “When I preach something ahead of what I am, I only irritate people; but when I preach what I have experienced, I inspire people.” Our Christian faith can be an irritation or an inspiration.
O Holy Spirit, I want goodness to be within me, not as an irritation to myself and others, but as an overflowing inspiration. Help me to have the contagion of the Spirit, make my virtues vital. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “Do not vex God’s holy Spirit by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30 Moffatt).
*No published source was found for this quotation.
Week 39 Friday
Trying to Keep Up
Romans 5:17; 14:17-19
I sat alongside of Lake Massaweepie, in the Adirondacks, writing this book. Each morning a wild duck came by, foraging near the shore with her brood. One duck seemed to be weaker than the rest and spent most of his time just keeping up. He had no time to feed. Many of us spend most of our time keeping up with our tasks. We have no time to feed our inner spirits. We lack a plus, a margin of power that lets us meet our tasks with something left over.
Someone asked a dog trainer how he managed to do it. “It’s simple,” he replied, “for all you have to do is to know just a little more than the dogs.” It’s true of any job. You must know a little more than your job, be a little ahead of the procession, experience a little more than the group to whom you minister. It is that margin that counts. It is the more that decides every issue. A great teacher said to a group of teachers, “Don’t teach too close to the margin of your knowledge.” When there are reserves, they can be thrown into any situation.
Pentecost gives us that plus, that margin of power that makes us “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37). They conquer with enough left over for an extra task. Paul speaks of those “having a form of godliness, but denying the power,” and he exhorts, “from such turn away” (2 Tim. 3:5 KJV). But the exhortation was unnecessary. We do, naturally and normally, turn away from those who have the form without the power. Our churches are often empty because the preacher is empty. Where the preacher is filled, the pews fill. Then deep speaks to deep. One preacher was floundering in his message and getting nowhere when someone came up and offered him a throat lozenge, but the man said rather pathetically, “That won’t do any good, not for the thing that’s troubling me.” He was empty, and he knew it. Someone described some of us ministers as being “4-F above the shoulders.” There is enough truth in that to make it sting, but the deeper sting is that many of us are 4-F below the shoulders—our hearts are empty, In that case, we are unfit for kingdom service. That which is to reach the heart must come from the heart. If the heart is empty, then deep does not speak to deep. Shallowness speaks to shallowness.
O Christ of the full heart, make me full, full to running over. Make my heart a spillway, sharing my surplus with others in need. For I walk amid need, and I cannot walk amid it empty. Help me. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: In the light of the world’s emptiness, I have no right to be empty when God offers me the fullness of the Spirit.
Week 39 Saturday
A Holy Spirit-less Christianity
Acts 19:1-7
A Holy Spirit-less Christianity lacks contagion. It hasn’t that plus that carries over from a contained faith to a contagious faith. Our Christianity can be contained—contained within us as a comfort, a refuge, a belief, a hope, an inspiration. Good, but not good enough. Nothing is ours that isn’t shared; nothing is ours that cannot be carried over and duplicated in other lives. Nothing really lives that isn’t life giving. For the end of life is the procreation of life.
Someone has asked, “Are you a refrigerator or an incubator? Some freeze life; others fructify it. Some throw a warm sympathetic glow around persons and situations that brings forth new life, new hopes, and new aspirations. These people are spiritually creative.
Two preachers were being analyzed by two laypeople. They came to this conclusion, “When one stands up to preach, he preaches eloquently, but he is alone. When the other stands up, there isn’t the eloquence, but the effect is astonishingly different. The reason is, now there are two.” Her abilities had been taken hold of by Another and heightened. Her words had within them the Word. Here was the grain of wheat that had fallen into the ground and had died, died to itself as self-sufficient. And now it brought forth “rich fruit.” The other preacher had not died, and so he worked by himself—alone. One was a person in the hands of God. The other was in his own hands, or rather on his own hands, a problem to himself.
But oars alone can ne’er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of heav’n must swell the sail
Or all the toil is lost.*
A Quaker said, “A man truly touched of God can influence the countryside for ten miles around.” The five loaves and two fishes were insufficient for the five thousand while in the hands of the owner, but turned over to Christ—in his hands—they were sufficient, plus something left over. And that is all there is to it. Life in our hands is life on our hands—a problem. Life in the hands of Jesus is no longer a problem—it is a possibility.
O Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Take away the coldness by breathing within me your warmth. Make me a spiritual incubator. May I warm the cold, inspire the wavering, and make fruitful the barren. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “I am alive as he is alive by the power of God” (2 Cor. 13:4 Moffatt).
*“Human Frailty,” A Collection of Hymns and Liturgy for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches, to Which Are Added Prayers for Families and Individuals (New York: Ludwig, 1848), 396.