Demonstrating God’s Spirit (2)

 

1 Corinthians 2:10-16

 

A man receives a free ticket to the Super Bowl. When he arrives to the stadium he finds out his seat is too far away from the field.

 

At halftime, he realizes that there is an empty seat on row 10. He quickly runs down there, decides to take the chance, and sits there. Next to him, there was a gentleman. He asks him, “Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?”

“No,” was the reply.

“How in the world can this seat be empty in this row? How come no one used this seat?”

The man replies: “Actually this seat belongs to me. I planned to come with my wife, but unfortunately, she passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven’t been together since we got married in 1967.”

“That is sad. But couldn’t you find someone to come with you.”

“No,” the man replies, “they are all in her funeral.”

 

What do you want to call this man: wise or foolish?

 

Paul is talking about wisdom that is given by the Spirit of the Lord; a wisdom above all wisdoms, a wisdom that is not defined by men; a wisdom that demonstrates God’s power.

 

What is this demonstration of the Spirit’s power?

I don’t know what exactly happened there, but by reading 1st  Corinthians, I can see that lives were transformed,

sick people were healed spiritually and physically,

people who were afraid were now boldly expressing their faith in Jesus.

Most likely, some started using the gift of prophecy or other gifts and the fruits of the Spirit were put in practice.

We read in Acts 4 when the disciples prayed and when the Spirit of God came upon them the place was shaken. These are some demonstrations of the Holy Spirit.

 

I know a young man who came to our worship services in Beirut. He was a shy  yet intelligent young man who he did not show any leadership qualities. One thing was very clear. He accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior. He was filled with the Holy Spirit during his life in the church. This shy person was on fire for the Lord. He is not a trained preacher, but now through him, his family came to Jesus. Now he is one of the Bible study leaders; he is bold in speaking and demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ. This is SIGN OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

 

Last Monday night we were discussing Acts 4. Peter and John were just being instruments of God by allowing the Spirit of the Lord to work through them. Of course, there was physical healing and demonstrations of the power of the Spirit. We were asking ourselves if we had the same signs of the Holy Spirit in our church today. Do we have the demonstration of the Spirit within us?

 

There are churches who stress physical healing a lot; we don’t do that. This does not mean we do not believe in God’s healing of our weak bodies. We do, and we pray for it. We have experienced physical healing in us. Yet, there are times when praying people were not physically healed. We don’t understand why some are healed and some are not. Let us not lose our focus and move on. Satan enjoys putting seeds of doubt in us. However, we pray that healing will be more than physical, that we would have spiritual healing, and spiritual revival. Jesus promised that whatever we ask in his name, we will receive. Therefore, today we do have the presence of the Spirit. We need to ask his presence more. We need to be united in asking His presence.

 

In order to understand the demonstration of the Spirit, let us move on to verses 6-16. In this section, Paul continues his case with explaining the role of the Spirit in giving God’s wisdom.

 

Paul is inviting us to go deeper in Christian life, towards maturity. Last Sunday we were talking that division within us indicates immaturity. In Chapter 3, he says we are infants in Christ. “I gave you milk not solid food. You are not ready for it. How long we can come to church and just drink milk? How long you want to stay ‘babies in faith’?”

There is problem when one doesn’t mature in faith, and stays in diapers for a long time.

 

 

Maturity comes from God and not from us,

but to those who are receptive,

to those who accept Jesus Christ as personal savior,

to those who believe that they need to be born from ABOVE, from the SPIRIT, to those who are ready to take time to read His word,

to those who want to take time to study His Word and apply in their life,

to those who listen, obey and allow the Spirit to change things in their lives.

 

Therefore, for those who love God the Spirit reveals God’s “mind” to us. God reveals his wisdom to those who abide in Him.

“In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (11-12)

 

Unfortunately, people reject God because they do not have the Spirit of the Lord.

“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (14)

 

What does it mean to have the Spirit of the Lord in us to reveal to us the “mind of Christ.”?

-         this means we should judge ethical matters biblically

-         this means we should understand the Truth of our Lord Jesus Christ

-         this means we can move on from infant faith to maturity.

-         this means we are not always right. We need to be in touch with Jesus always.

-         this means we should not be arrogant Christians.

-         this means we should be bold in our Christian faith

 

You can extend your list. One can ask how can we have the Holy Spirit?

We read in Luke 11:10-13

“For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.                                                                                                                          "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

 

Ask,

learn from Paul.

He came to Corinth with nothing.

He came with one thing to preach Jesus Christ with his words and deeds.

Do not look for big signs of  the Holy Spirit. Start by praying sincerely to God, ask for faith, ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is there. He promised. Just open yourself to Him. It changed my life. It changes everyday. It can change yours too.

 

Amen