Holy Spirit: Power to change the world

Hi well, we're back from a week camping it up in the sunshine at New Wine! I thought it might be good to post some notes from the 2 seminars I did on "The Holy Spirit: Power to change the world". My aim for these talks was to challenge people (me included) to live life the way God would have us live. To have a greater understanding of God's mission and how we get involved in God’s revolution of love? Many of us feel powerless to do anything about the pain and suffering we see around us. I would argue that God has given us His Holy Spirit to empower us to bring God’s rule and reign to a broken world. I think it's essential that we understand and explore the power that God has given his people: the church.

Chapter 1: The promise of the presence

The Bible says a lot about promises. God makes a lot of promises and keeps all of them. The Bible is all about the presence of God. God dwelling with his people. Creator God being with humanity that he created in his own image. The people of Israel understood themselves to be the people of the presence, the people among whom the eternal God had chosen to dwell on earth. Presence is such a deep and rich word. As I’ve spent time in the presence of my wife, Vicki, I’ve got to know her. There’s intimacy in the prolonged presence of another. We have freaky moments when we realise we share mannerisms, expressions or say the same thing at the same time.

When you lose someone, it’s their presence that you miss the most. The message of the Bible is all about the presence of God. The relationship between Humans and God. When the presence of God is missing people notice. God chose a people to be present with. And he made promises to them.

We start with the beginning, with creation and the spirit of God hovering over the waters. The picture here is of a bird brooding over the watery abyss. At the beginning of planet Earth, at the foundation of creation is the Spirit of God. His presence. The Ruach, the breath of life. The Holy Spirit. God breathes or blows over the waters. The breath is life and it is life-making. This breath becomes words. We read that God spoke, "let there be light … " We then read that God breathed life into the first humans. God breathed into man the breath of life. Without God’s spirit there is no life. Without God’s spirit there is nothing. Life is empty.

Man is different from the rest of creation. In humans something of heaven and something of earth are brought together to make a new being. A being dependent on something else for life: dependent on God. We read that the first humans shared the presence of God in the garden. That God was present with them. They felt no shame, there is peace, there is wholeness. There is shalom : a mystical union between God and humans.

And then something happens. These people choose to believe a lie about God and choose to do their own thing. Sin enters the world. People are banished from the garden in which they used to enjoy the presence of God. They go into exile: Away from his presence. In Gen 6 we read that humans are detached from God. God saw the wickedness of humans, only evil all the time. When we move away from the source of life, away from the presence of God it changes us on the inside, evil is allowed to flourish. You and I know that from our own experience, when we are far from God, our thoughts and actions change.

I wonder, how present is God in your life at the moment?
I wonder, does He feel close or far away?