Nicodemus was a prominent Jewish leader who came to Jesus under cover of darkness. He wanted to find out more about this new rabbi who had come to town. Jesus was proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand, but no one can see it until he or she is born from on high.
“Tell me more,” Nicodemus said. Jesus explained, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
That phrase “Spirit gives birth to spirit” can have revolutionary meaning today for traditional Christians from mainline churches.
An appropriate translation of the key verb is “the Holy Spirit influences human spirit.” Human spirit is one of the words the Bible uses for “soul” or “heart” or “inner being.” A modern equivalent is “motivation.” The Spirit can and will change the motivations of those who are open to him.
The annual New Year’s resolutions many make show that most people want to change something about how they live. They know the behaviors they want, but their key problem is motivation. I’ve read that the only eight percent fulfill their resolution. A biblical understanding of the Holy Spirit would hold out the hope that the Spirit can really change their personal motivation for better follow-through. The Spirit works his changes best in the context of believers who share God’s word and are in a fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
What’s revolutionary is to recognize that the supernatural can intervene in the natural. John Calvin taught that we can no longer expect miracles to happen. They were needed in Bible times but don’t happen anymore. Few educated Protestants in our modern era are willing to recognize the miraculous. I like the definition of a miracle as an extraordinary event for which there is no natural explanation. After years of searching, I have come to believe that indeed miracles do happen in our times. More on that later in Do Supernatural Miracles Really Happen?
Once you change your worldview to recognize that the supernatural God can intervene in natural life, you can appreciate the significance of Jesus’ claim that the Holy Spirit actually changes the motivations of real live people today. Paul tells us that the product of the Spirit’s work is the fruit described in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Who would not want more of such fruit? Who would not want to live with more love, joy, or peace? In discussions I’ve led, the first choice for most is patience.
What are those Spirit-influenced characteristics? Usually, they have been regarded as virtues. They are then preached as behaviors we are each to pursue in our Christian living. I think they are better described as feelings or affections. Out of changed affections and motivations come virtuous behaviors. The motivations are more important than how these express themselves in specific behaviors in daily living.
The core of the biblical Gospel is that we can claim life everlasting through the salvation won by Christ’s death and resurrection. Consider how belief in the Spirit’s intervention into our human spirit really amounts to additional Good News for living in this world. We are not on our own to become the person God wants us to be. His Spirit helps us. Jesus said he will not leave us orphans (John 14: 18).
The Kingdom of God Jesus preached will be fulfilled in the next life for believers because of what Jesus did. It is initiated in this life because of what the Spirit does.
What a wonderful double Gospel. Actually, recovering the Spirit’s present work amounts to recovering the original but now forgotten Gospel.
For a discussion of the dominant world view today and the new worldview emerging among well-educated Christians today, see my 2014 book Your Encounters with the Holy Spirit: Name and Share Them—Seek More.
Holy Spirit motivation implies God in Christ is always moving, always reaching out, touching hearts and changing lives for His namesake, wherever meek souls receive Him still. What just happened? Where did that spark of inspiration come from? God in Christ is speaking to us through the Living Word. THANKS FOR YOUR INSIGHTS.
Absolutely. Christ is present through his Spirit today. God’s word is alive because the Spirit applies it to hearers individually.
Thanks for your encouragement.
What original but now forgotten gospel were you referring to? I am trying to learn more. Thank you
The forgotten Gospel is that Jesus came so that we may have an abundant life, now not just in eternity. Paul defines that abundance in terms of the fruit of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, etc.. These are not just virtues to aim for but are all inner qualities the Spirit produces. That perspective on abundance now did not make it into the Lutheran Church I grew up and was educated in. We were on our own to live godly virtuous lives now. Jesus did not leave us orphans to live our daily lives by our own power. He sent the Spirit to give the Spirit’s special gifts, especially the gifts of his fruit.
Once the Christian church was institutionalized in the fourth century the idea of spontaneity was pushed to the side and replaced with the controlling church. The Reformation rediscovered the basic Gospel of justification by grace through faith. But the Reformers did not re-discover living now by the grace-gifts of the Spirit. Young Luther had an appreciation for the gifts of the Spirit. But then institutional battles pushed that insight aside.
The institutionalized Church goes back to Christ (see Matthew 18 for procedure) and St. Paul- the prophet is in control of his spirit (1 Cor.14:32), and let him who thinks he is a prophet acknowledge that what I say is a command of the Lord (1 Cor.14:37) a very episcopal way to handle the issue! Furthermore, the fruit of the Spirit are discussed as temporal manifestations in Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, leading figures in the very century in which you claim the sense of an abundant life was lost/suppressed! I do not deny that you grew up in a church that did not call your attention to these matters, but that does not mean that others shared your experience. I do not deny that this doctrine/insight feels new to you, but that does not mean that you are the first since the 4th Century to discover the Abundant life. It is not your claim about the Spirit per se I am objecting to, but the assertion (a judgment) concerning other Christians in past centuries, and some, I suspect in the current century.
I am sorry if I left the impression that for a millennium and half-Christian churches did not know the Holy Spirit. I am writing for mainline pastors and churches who are products of the Reformation–Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Reformed. Except for Lutherans and Anglicans, the others buy into Calvinist assumptions, especially Calvin’s assertion that the supernatural no longer intervenes in the natural (what we call miracles). That does not leave much room for the Spirit wind that is not predictable. This Calvinist metaphysics is deeply embedded in the Lutheranism of America.
Please don’t work with the assumption that institutions are bad. Some formal structure needs to emerge if a movement is to last beyond the first generation. My point is that the more formalized a church body gets, the less room there is for the spontaneity of the Spirit. The Lutheranism I grew up in did not expect much spontaneity, and had little use for the Spirit beyond the confession of the Third Article. My point is that to survive we need to do our ministries with greater consciousness of the Spirit at work in unpredictable ways among us.
Dave
I really love the blog, Dave. Keep up the good work of shedding light on topics of the Spirit!
Thanks. I appreciate this encouragement.
As always, David, your article details the realistic aspect, for us in today’s world, of the Holy Spirit. Oh, how wonderful if the people of the world would realize the possibility of the Holy Spirit in their everyday lives if only they would open their hearts, souls and minds to the probings of the Holy Spirit. You describe that miracles, still, happen today. Thank you for stating that. We forget that we are the ones who have to allow them to happen in our lives and then follow the probing of the Holy Spirit to, indeed, gain a life that demonstrates the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
As always, thanks for your reaction. I think “encouragement” is the keyword. Spirit-sightings give us hope and encouragement that the Spirit is alive and active in our lives today.
Well written – clear and understandable for all levels of faith.
Thanks. Glad to see you are reading this.
“Original, but now forgotten Gospel”? I appreciate the aspect of the Spirit’s work you discuss, but this conclusion overstates the case. The Gospel has never been forgotten by the Church and the Church has existed since Pentecost (and before).
The forgotten Gospel is that Jesus came so that we may have an abundant life, now not just in eternity. Paul defines that abundance in terms of the fruit of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, etc.. These are not just virtues to aim for but are all inner qualities the Spirit produces. That perspective on abundance now did not make it into the Lutheran Church I grew up and was educated in. Jesus did not leave us orphans to live our daily lives by our own power. He sent the Spirit to give the Spirit’s special gifts, especially the gifts of his fruit.
Once the Christian church got institutionalized in the fourth century that the idea of spontaneity was pushed to the side and replaced with the controlling church. The Reformation rediscovered the basic Gospel of justification by grace through faith. But the Reformers did not re-discover living now by the grace-gifts of the Spirit. Young Luther had an appreciation for the gifts of the Spirit. But then institutional battles pushed that insight aside.
Thank you for this devotion and scriptural reference to our Comforter, Advocate, Paraclete who daily leads us to all truth and helps us. I am reminded not to lean on my understanding but trust where he leads and orders my steps. Amen.
I appreciate your appreciation. I am trying to increase awareness of the Spirit today, something especially important for mainline churches…
The definition of a miracle (an extraordinary event for which there is no natural explanation) divides experience into miracles and non-miracles. Maybe subjectively so, but still a distinct division. I like the idea of a spectrum of experience beginning with humdrum-everyday, to statistically-outlying, to spectacularly-unnatural. This credits God’s involvement in every moment of our lives. And it pushes off the idea of God, in a Greek god way, only occasionally intervening, for better or worse, in our lives.
Scientists searched for proof of the existence of the neutrino, which passes through matter almost all the time. A miracle is a ping in the setup of creation that some recognize as proof of His presence.
Likewise motivation is not a on/off switch that only flips once or a few times in our lives, but may be a continuous dial that gets revved up to eleven as the Holy Spirit directs.
All this points to the complexity of God’s Plan for humanity and each of us.
Praying for my next infusion of motivation and looking forward to your blog on “Do Supernatural Miracles Really Happen?”
Yes, looking for God in our lives today is not simple. We confess that God the Father provides and protects us daily. I am looking for evidence of God the Spirit active today. He can be seen in special empowerment he gives believers–new insights, a sense of calling to a ministry, increased levels of the Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace etc. When I see or hear about such God-the-Spirit moments I am encouraged that God is still active around us. This is especially encouraging in a time of decline. The generality “by the power of the Spirit” is true. But it takes more meaning with a current example. For instance, I am much encouraged by the rapid growth of Christianity in Ethiopia. The Spirit is still alive and active. I hope to encourage others by finding and sharing such “God moments.”