Devotions this week based on the Message: “Whose Church Is It?”
It’s happened to me. I’ve helped others with the same issue. It’s probably happened to you.
You get out the saw horses (or whatever project you’re working on). You place your boards on them. You measure where you need to cut. You pick up your circular saw and line it up…pull the trigger…and…nothing but a “click”!
“Nuts. I forgot to plug it in.”
We all have tried to use a tool, appliance or computer and found it did nothing and realized we didn’t have it plugged into a power source.
You can have all the parts to do a project, but without power, the project moves nowhere.
So it is in the Church.
We have the love of the Father. We have the completed saving work of Jesus. Why doesn’t the church explode with growth and new souls entering faith in Jesus?
The love of the Father and the saving work of Jesus have no effect on the hearts of people without the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
All the efforts of people to find God, reach out to him, do good and avoid evil end up empty except their heart is changed by the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus in his discussion with Nicodemus said it this way: John 3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
Only the Spirit of God can bring life to a spiritually dead soul. Only with the POWER of the Spirit can we believe in Jesus and live for him. Consider these truths from the God’s Word:
1 Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:4 (remember Peter’s denial…here’s 50 days later…) 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
The power of God’s Spirit is what works through the Word of God to lead each of us to believe, to live and to die in the Lord. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that brings spiritual life to spiritually dead souls. It is the power of the Spirit that gathers together people who believe in Jesus to be the Church and gives gifts to these individuals for works of service. 1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
Martin Luther in the 1500s captured the work of the Holy Spirit this way:
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
The power of the Spirit leads us to trust the saving work of Jesus so we might live in and live out the love of the Father in our lives and in the lives of others.
Plug into the Spirit…and see what he empowers you to do and be!
Apply: Set aside daily time to be in the Word of God…this is the way you plug into the power of the Spirit of God. Also, take some time to memorize Luther’s’ explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles Creed (the last quotation above).
Prayer: Spirit of God, come with your power to strengthen my faith and enable me to live a life of faith today. Amen.