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“Stir into flame the Spirit you
have received ... a Spirit of love"
(2 Tim 1:6,7)
Goals:
- To lead people to see Baptism in the Holy Spirit as
an ongoing experience.
- To reveal the obstacles to further surrendering to
the Spirit.
Framing Image: In Uganda
a group of young people acted out the message of seeking more of the
Spirit.
- One youngster held a large pitcher of water, representing
the Spirit, ready to fill the containers of anyone who asked for more.
- One young girl came carrying a small thimble and
crying, “Fill me, Lord!” Her container was so small she
could only receive a few drops.
- A young man with a slightly larger container, filled
with many things cried, “Fill me, Lord!” His container could
receive nothing more because it was already filled.
- Still another young person came with a really large
container. It looked very hopeful as he cried, “Fill me, Lord!”
However, as the water was poured into his container it ran out the
bottom because the container had holes!
- Finally, a group of youngsters came forward with
a large, empty container. It was able to be filled to capacity with
the water representing the Spirit. Rejoicing they took the water,
and gave it to everyone gathered so that it could be filled again
and again!
Key point:
Being Baptized in the Holy Spirit is an ongoing experience of Pentecost.
It is a release of the Holy Spirit such that we experience all that
God promised us as our inheritance. It is an ongoing experience in which
there is always more that we can receive.
A. Desire – More of the promises
for Personal Renewal.
1. We can lose the fire of the Spirit
if we lose our expectancy.
“Didn’t I tell you if
you only believed you would see the glory of God”? (Jn.11:45).
Jesus was calling Martha and Mary to expectant faith
a. Expectant faith is not new efforts.
It is new desire.
- Growing in expectant faith is growing in desire. The
more we desire, the more we ask for. The more we ask for the more
we receive.
b. Do we continue to expect more of the
Spirit?
- We were renewed in the Spirit because we were led
to expect more of the power of the Spirit. We need to keep that expectancy.
- Like the prophet in Ezekiel 47 we are being invited
to go deeper and deeper into the stream of the Spirit.
2. We can lose the fire of the Spirit
if we limit our expectancy.
“Be filled with the Spirit”
(Eph.4: 18). The verb is an active participle indicating an ongoing
filling.
a. We need to desire a deepening of the
basic promise of the Spirit for personal renewal.
- There is always more of the Holy Spirit to receive
in the promises: “All will know me”(Jere. 31). “All
will know the mysteries of God (1Cor.2: 9).
b. Do we expect the fullness of the promises
of the Holy Spirit?
- There is always more to yield to the Holy Spirit in
the promises: “All will say; “ I am the Lord”
(Is 44), “It is only in the Holy Spirit that we can say…“
Jesus is Lord” (1Cor.2:9), and “Abba Father” (Gal.4:).
B. Detachment- Be emptied of the obstacles
to growth
1. Experiencing the ongoing release of the Spirit
means ongoing repentance and ongoing surrender to Jesus as Lord of our
lives
When the crowd saw the Spirit alive in the
apostles at Pentecost they asked, “ What do we have to do to receive
this Holy Spirit?” Peter said, “Repent, accept Jesus as
Lord and you will receive the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37).
a. We can’t separate receiving more
through ongoing expectant faith from being emptied again and again in
ongoing repentance.
- Walking in the Spirit does not mean that we will
never fall again. Such false expectation after finding new life in
the Spirit can lead to discouragement.
b. It is repentance, not remorse, which
God asks for.
- Sin is falling short of the mark. Repentance is refocusing
and turning towards the Lord. It is what St. Peter did and it leads
to new life in the Spirit and holiness.
- Remorse is seeing our sin and turning in on our selves.
That is what Judas did and it leads to death
c. Ongoing repentance leads to holiness.
- When we live in an attitude of ongoing repentance the time between
our sin and our repentance grows shorter and shorter until it fights
the temptation and aborts the sin.
The Lord can only fill the
empty. Are we expecting God to fill a container that is already filled?
2. We need to be
emptied again in ongoing surrender to Jesus as Lord of our lives.
In the parable of the seed Jesus reminds
us that the seed, even after it is received into the ground with joy,
can be choked by the “worries, the riches, the pleasures of
life.”(Mk.4: 19). We need to be emptied again of all the burdens,
fears, and anxieties we can take on.
a. Worries
- We can take on all the old worries again, worries
for our family, worries for our finances.
- We can take on new worries, worries about our spiritual
lives, worries for our prayer groups until we have more worries now
than we had before
- We need to remember what we heard in the beginning
of our life in the Spirit, “Unless the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain who build it” (Ps.37)
b. Riches
We can seek after all the old riches again
in material goods.
- We can seek the new riches of spiritual gifts and
spiritual experiences in such a way that we lose sight of the Giver
of all good gifts.
c. Pleasures
- We can long for all the old pleasures again and new
pleasures.
- We can look for the pleasure of acceptance so that
we stifle the new life in the Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit
because it is unpopular to look too Charismatic!
Are we stifling the fire of the Spirit
by beginning to take control of our lives again?
C. Dependence-Surrender anew to the release of
the Holy Spirit.
1. Trust releases
the power of God to act in us.
“Blessed is she who believed that
the promises made to her would be fulfilled”(Luke. 1:45).
a. Expectant faith is trusting faith.
- The expectant faith that released the fire of the
Spirit to act in Mary was more than believing faith, it was trusting
faith.
b. Trust moves beyond believing in our
heads that God is faithful to His promises.
- It means abandonment of our lives to God with confidence
in His faithfulness. Trapeze artists must trust that their partners
are going to catch them when they let go, swinging in the air to their
outstretched hands.
2. To grow in the
Spirit we need to grow in this kind of radical trust in the faithfulness
of God to His promises.
In Acts 26, when Paul was asked, “Why
are you on trial?” he could have said, ‘ I raised the dead,
I healed the sick, I survived shipwreck, and I broke down prison walls’.
He said simply, “I am on trial because of my trust in the promises
of God” (Acts 26:6).
- Paul knew that the source of all the power in his
life and ministry came from his dependence on God’s power.
- To grow in the Spirit we need to grow in this kind
of radical trust in the faithfulness of God to His promises.
Are we offering God a container filled
with holes, weakened because we have begun to rely on our power again?
3. The enemy of the
deeper dependence that is key to growth in the Spirit is fear.
The Lord understood that we would fear surrender.
He assured us, “What Father would give his son a snake for a
fish? How much more will our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask?” (Lk.11: 13).
Fear paralyzes and closes us to the more
God has for us.
- Fear of God, of what He might ask
of us, is a lack of confidence that He can satisfy all our desires.
"Delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your
heart.”(Ps. 37)
- Fear of ourselves, of our inadequacy is often a false humility,
a need to remember that everything is gift.
Are we stifling the fire of the Spirit
by beginning to rely on ourselves again?
Questions for discussion
- In what ways do you recognize that you limit the outpouring
of the Spirit in your life?
- What obstacles do you need to overcome to receive
more of the Spirit?
- Can we allow him to stretch us, to empty us, to heal
us to receive more of the Spirit?
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