Study 58: "How to be filled with the Holy Spirit" (16/12/16)
We spent no time on the book questions on this topic and instead focused on John 7:37-39 as well as some of the concepts in the introduction in our study guide.
Jesus 'stood up' (Jewish rabbis customarily sat to teach) and 'cried out'. This draws attention to the importance of his teaching.
I noted that the Greek punctuation in v.37-38 can also be "If anyone thirst, let him come to me. And (let him) drink, whoever believes in me. As the Scripture has said...". This variant reading is found in the ESV as well as the NIV and makes Christ rather than the one who comes to Him the subject of the Scriptural reference. John 4:10-14 suggests that both readings are possible and true. Although there is no single OT verse that speaks of rivers of living water flowing out of hearts, there are numerous references (Zec 14:9, Is 55:1 Is 12:3 , Ez 47) to living water in the OT. Jesus then must be speaking of the entirety of what the OT teaches about the Spirit's coming. Joshua helpfully said that water is always the symbol of life. In an agrarian culture this is always rare and precious. The Holy Spirit is the Life-giver.
We had a brief excursus on the role of the Spirit in the OT and noted that He empowered craftsmen and leaders, but was not given to indwell all, although Joel prophesied that this would be so. We now live in the days of that prophecy, and find not only a duty to be filled with the Spirit, but also a special privilege that is given to us after Jesus' death and resurrection (v.39)
We spoke also about how in modern-day Singapore we have never really felt hunger or thirst - hunger enough to eat human flesh or rubbish, or placentas! (cf. Dt 28:56-57). How we lack this sense of dire need for God! We need to come to Him even though we may not always 'feel' that we wish to do so, and although we may need to guard against pride and regret our hard-heartedness, it is still better to keep seeking Him in times when we feel far away, than to give up and to wait until we feel we are close to Him again. The Bible tells us to "seek the Lord' (Is 55:6), "with all your heart" (Jer 29:13), and to "ask...seek... and... knock" (Mt 7:7-11).
I asked in response to the study author's comment "God can only fill clean vessels". We noted that part of the work of the Spirit is to 'purify' us. Hence, how can we be clean unless He first comes in us? I thought that the picture of justification (when we pray, "Lord please cleanse me from all my sin"in a one-off way) and sanctification (a lifelong process when we surrender specific sins to the Lord) is helpful. My thought is that we must confess and repent of ALL known sin. And this idea, together with the idea of total surrender to God, is prominent in the Wesleyan covenant renewal service that we often have during our watchnight services.
Finally, I said that the old picture of having faith before facts and before feelings was not really biblical. I.e. we should be feeling it when we are filled with the Spirit. It seems like a 'cop out' - an excuse for failure - to me when we ask and nothing happens. In the first place, It is hard to see how someone filled with the Spirit cannot know it in his or her own life. In the second place, Scripture continually commands us to feel rightly - to 'rejoice' or 'mourn' or to show 'gladness'. In fact, the great commandment is a command to love God with everything inside us, both in thought, word and deed.
So instead of the questions in the study book (which perhaps we can go through in a future SG accountability sesssion), my own questions are:
1. Do we really, really, hunger and thirst for God?
2. Have we confessed and repented of all our known sins before Him?
3. Are we feeling the fullness of His Spirit in our lives?
Jesus 'stood up' (Jewish rabbis customarily sat to teach) and 'cried out'. This draws attention to the importance of his teaching.
I noted that the Greek punctuation in v.37-38 can also be "If anyone thirst, let him come to me. And (let him) drink, whoever believes in me. As the Scripture has said...". This variant reading is found in the ESV as well as the NIV and makes Christ rather than the one who comes to Him the subject of the Scriptural reference. John 4:10-14 suggests that both readings are possible and true. Although there is no single OT verse that speaks of rivers of living water flowing out of hearts, there are numerous references (Zec 14:9, Is 55:1 Is 12:3 , Ez 47) to living water in the OT. Jesus then must be speaking of the entirety of what the OT teaches about the Spirit's coming. Joshua helpfully said that water is always the symbol of life. In an agrarian culture this is always rare and precious. The Holy Spirit is the Life-giver.
We had a brief excursus on the role of the Spirit in the OT and noted that He empowered craftsmen and leaders, but was not given to indwell all, although Joel prophesied that this would be so. We now live in the days of that prophecy, and find not only a duty to be filled with the Spirit, but also a special privilege that is given to us after Jesus' death and resurrection (v.39)
We spoke also about how in modern-day Singapore we have never really felt hunger or thirst - hunger enough to eat human flesh or rubbish, or placentas! (cf. Dt 28:56-57). How we lack this sense of dire need for God! We need to come to Him even though we may not always 'feel' that we wish to do so, and although we may need to guard against pride and regret our hard-heartedness, it is still better to keep seeking Him in times when we feel far away, than to give up and to wait until we feel we are close to Him again. The Bible tells us to "seek the Lord' (Is 55:6), "with all your heart" (Jer 29:13), and to "ask...seek... and... knock" (Mt 7:7-11).
I asked in response to the study author's comment "God can only fill clean vessels". We noted that part of the work of the Spirit is to 'purify' us. Hence, how can we be clean unless He first comes in us? I thought that the picture of justification (when we pray, "Lord please cleanse me from all my sin"in a one-off way) and sanctification (a lifelong process when we surrender specific sins to the Lord) is helpful. My thought is that we must confess and repent of ALL known sin. And this idea, together with the idea of total surrender to God, is prominent in the Wesleyan covenant renewal service that we often have during our watchnight services.
Finally, I said that the old picture of having faith before facts and before feelings was not really biblical. I.e. we should be feeling it when we are filled with the Spirit. It seems like a 'cop out' - an excuse for failure - to me when we ask and nothing happens. In the first place, It is hard to see how someone filled with the Spirit cannot know it in his or her own life. In the second place, Scripture continually commands us to feel rightly - to 'rejoice' or 'mourn' or to show 'gladness'. In fact, the great commandment is a command to love God with everything inside us, both in thought, word and deed.
So instead of the questions in the study book (which perhaps we can go through in a future SG accountability sesssion), my own questions are:
1. Do we really, really, hunger and thirst for God?
2. Have we confessed and repented of all our known sins before Him?
3. Are we feeling the fullness of His Spirit in our lives?
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