Living Spirit Filled Lives - Week 4 of 4

Last week we talked about the fact that Paul is fully cognisant of the Spirit, and the Spirit’s role in his life.  The Holy Spirit is the key in his ministry, and keeps him fully connected in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  I was very honest at the beginning of these series to say that I am not good at this Holy Spirit stuff, but the more I have read and studied, the more I am convinced that we cannot operate fully in the ministry of the Gospel, of Jesus without living Spirit-filled lives.  I know fine well that the Spirit has been far more faithful to me than I have been to him.  Every fork in my path, every choice made, every closed door and opened portal has been the Spirit working in my life.  I’m not arrogant enough to think I stand here today in my own strength.  The Holy Spirit is in the centre, but I live skirting round the edges rather than embracing him.

Joyce Meyer talks about having trickles of the Spirit rather than being flooded.  She says ‘As the Holy Spirit floods your life, the Holy Spirit wants to move in and permeate every room.  He wants to live in every room of your heart.  Before he can do that, you must be willing to move out.’

Whatever image you use, or however you understand what it means to live Spirit-filled lives, I think that phrase – Before he/she can do that, you must be willing to move out’ is worth holding onto.  I think this is where Paul is going with the Church in Rome.  The reading we looked at begins by contrasting two types of life –
• Life dominated by sinful human nature
• Life dominated by the Spirit of God
And if I was to ask you which life you had we all know the answer is life dominated by the Spirit of God.  But if I asked which is it in reality could we truly answer life dominated by the Spirit of God?

I am not judging you – not in the slightest, because the Lord calls me out as well.  I believe that what happened to me last year was God challenging me regarding my priorities.  Paul is blunt and in other lists quite explicit as to what he means.  Jesus said we could not serve two masters – we can’t serve God and money.  We must choose.  This world is constantly vying for our attention – whether it crushes our spirits by telling us we are too fat or too skinny, poor or rich, stupid blonde, too old to contribute, too young to understand, job stealing immigrant and more….or building us up to sit on false pedestals of idolatry because we are top of our grade, our career, feeding our arrogance, singing our praise…if the world gives us our affirmation, our sense of identity or purpose, our home – we are lost.  Paul says we are on the road to death without the gift of eternity.

But to live a life dominated by the Spirit of God is to be constantly changing to become more and more like Christ himself.  We will all die, but when we are in Christ, death here is a step on the pathway of life.  Paul never feared death because he knew that Jesus was faithful and nothing in this world could take Christ or his promises away from him.  That is what it means to live a life dominated by the Spirit of God.  Nothing is to be feared because as Jesus said we should not fear those who can kill the body because they can’t kill the soul.  Peter in his first sermon tells the people that they need to repent, to be born again and receive the Holy Spirit.  

God meets us where we are, not where we think we should be.  This isn’t a question of how much faith we have but whether we are willing to choose Him.  Paul uses the image of adoption in this passage, and it is a powerful image for the Romans.  It was a tough process. If you are adopted, have adopted or have gone through the adoption process you will know it is not easy.  It is a minefield and it is a long process, but finally when those adoption papers are signed and all is legal, it is a time of rejoicing and permanent.

We enter the family of God, even though we did nothing to deserve it.  And in Roman culture, a son never came of age.  They were always under their father, their absolute possession and under his absolute control.  So when you were adopted in the Roman culture, and to an extent in ours the following happened.
• You lost all rights to the old family, and gained all rights in the new family.
• You were an equal heir to the estate, regardless of how many sons were born after you.
• Your old life was wiped out including debts.  You were seen as a new person with a new life.
• In the eyes of the law you were absolutely the son of the father, regardless of blood so no marrying your sister even if not blood related!

There were 7 witnesses should anyone question the veracity of the adoption, such as sharing the estate after the father died.  Paul says that the Holy Spirit is our witness to the adoption.  So to live in a Spirit-filled life is to accept that we are adopted into the family of God – we are children of God.

We were held by our sinful nature but God brought us into his possession.  Our old life has no more rights over us, our debts are wiped and our past is cancelled.  We have a new life and we are heirs like Christ.  If Christ suffers, we suffer, and when Christ receives glory, so do we.

In your baptism by water, and by the Spirit, you are absolutely a child of the Father.  And through the process of sanctification in the Spirit we are being transformed more and more into the likeness of God.  The world doesn’t have to shape you or dictate the terms upon how you live your life.  No matter how insignificant you think your daily work is, or how much money is in your bank, or how many followers you have on social media – all you need is to live a Spirit-filled life.  Everything else is window dressing…or as some put it we are to live in this world, but not of this world.

Thank you for joining us in this series.  New material coming soon.