Sermon Illustrations on the Holy Spirit
Background
The Background Position
It is nothing short of remarkable that the Spirit clearly embraces and in no respect resents the fact that he has, eternally, what might be called “the background position” in the Trinity. It would be one thing for someone to accept and embrace a background position for a certain period of time knowing that eventually he would be brought out into the spotlight and given more central focus and attention. But here we see something far more amazing, something nearly unbelievable when considered from our perspective as fallen human beings. The Holy Spirit embraces eternally the backstage position in relation to the Father and the Son.
The Holy Ghost?
Why is the Holy Spirit sometimes called the Holy Ghost? When the early translators of the Bible into English use the word “ghost,” it didn’t just mean as it does today, spooky things that haunt old houses. it meant what we now mean by the word “spirit”. In Old English, the word for “spirit” is “ghast.” The equivalent word in German “geist” still has the broader sense as the word “Zeitgeist-spirit of the times-shows.
Who in the World is the Holy Spirit?, Tim Chester & Christopher de la Hoyde, The Good Book Company.
The Holy Spirit Births Faith
Hannah was one of my wife’s work colleagues. She used to love spending time with our congregation, but she found the gospel message just plain weird. We did some Bible studies with her over the summer and she kept looking at us in astonishment. We would read about Jesus walking on water, rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven. “You really believe all this?” she would ask. Later she told us what we believed sounded crazy. Yet she kept telling herself, “they seem like sensible people who are able to hold down jobs.
Then one day a member of our community challenged her, “don’t wait until all your questions have been answered, ”she said. Just ask yourself whether you can trust Jesus. Hannah went home and she describes how she was sitting on the floor in her front room when suddenly she knew it was all true. In that moment she became a Christian. What happened as she sat on her living room floor? The Holy Spirit came on her. There was no shining light or audible voice but the Holy Spirit came to give her faith in Jesus. This is what Jesus meant when in John chapter 3 verse 3 he says ”I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Then in verse 6 he explains, “flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. In other words, the spirit gives us spiritual life. It’s like being born again into a new life. The theological word for this new birth is regeneration or rebirth. Without regeneration we just can’t see God’s Kingdom.
Who in the World is the Holy Spirit?, Tim Chester & Christopher de la Hoyde, The Good Book Company.
The Holy Spirit or the Reverb?
A friend once told me about a Christian singer he knew who rented a recording studio. After an extensive setup and sound check, she began performing her first song. The sound technician thought it sounded great. But about halfway through the first verse, she stopped abruptly, threw up her hands, and said, “It s no use. Turn it off! He’s not here.”
“Him” she said, “the Holy Spirit. His presence—it’s missing.” She called a few friends into the studio, and they commenced to laying their hands on various pieces of equipment, praying for God’s presence and dabbing the equipment with oil.
After a few minutes, she began singing again. About thirty seconds in, she again said: “Stop! He’s not here. Let’s pray again.” Another fifteen-minute session of walking about the room: anointing, shouting, muttering incantations. Again she started … and again she stopped.
And again in came the prayer posse. By this time, the sound tech was getting annoyed. His equipment was getting greasy. As she began recording for the fourth time, he noticed that the reverb on her monitor was turned off, so he reached down and turned it up, at which point she put her hands in the air and began to say, “Hallelujah, there he is! He is here!” “The sound tech simply did not have the heart to say to her, “Uh … no ma’am. That was the reverb.”
J.D. Greear, Jesus, Continued, Why the Spirit Inside You is Better than Jesus Beside You, Zondervan.
Is it in You?
This may be a corny illustration, but I think about the Gatorade commercial where they ask, “Is it in you?” It shows athletes literally sweating Gatorade out of their pores. The point is that since Gatorade is inside of them, it naturally pours out. This resonates with what Scripture teaches. God promises an internal change that takes place in those who believe, and then godly actions pour out of us as a result. That makes us ask: if the actions aren’t naturally pouring out … is God in you?
The Middle Voice
One old definition [of the middle voice]… is that the middle is used when a subject is affected by the action of the verb; when the verb somehow transforms, reshapes the subject… It is the middle voice that captures the strange ways activity and passivity dance together in the religious life; it is the voice that tells you that I am changed when I do these things and that there is something about me that allows these happenings to happen; and yet it is the voice that insists that there is another agent at work, another agent always vivifying the action, even when unnamed
Lauren F. Winner, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis (HarperOne, 2013).
The Middle Voice
One old definition [of the middle voice]… is that the middle is used when a subject is affected by the action of the verb; when the verb somehow transforms, reshapes the subject… It is the middle voice that captures the strange ways activity and passivity dance together in the religious life; it is the voice that tells you that I am changed when I do these things and that there is something about me that allows these happenings to happen; and yet it is the voice that insists that there is another agent at work, another agent always vivifying the action, even when unnamed
Lauren F. Winner, Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis (HarperOne, 2013).
The Safest Place on Earth and the Spirit
The Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway bills itself as “the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply,” storing 1,214,827 seed samples from every nation on Earth. The seeds are stored at -18°C (about 0°F) in a concrete bunker deep underground. Because of its location in the far north, it stays cold outside all year, and because of the permafrost, even if the power goes down, the seeds will stay cold. The location was picked because of its remoteness, lack of tectonic activity, and altitude (which means that it is not threatened by even a dramatic sea level rise). It is quite possibly the safest place on Earth for the collection.
The seeds are safe as they can be, in case a manmade or natural disaster wipes out a food crop, it can be started over again from the samples in the Vault.
Our sealing in the Holy Spirit makes safer still.
Summary by William Rowley, source, Max Lucado, Help Is Here: Finding Fresh Strength and Purpose in the Power of the Holy Spirit (Thomas Nelson, 2022).
The Spirit & Temptation
In their excellent book Invitation to a Journey, M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton discuss the poignant insight that it is the Spirit that leads Jesus into the Wildnerness. What does this mean, from a Biblical, theological perspective?:
Isn’t it interesting that the Spirit, the source of Jesus’ empowerment, is also focal in the temptation that follows: “The Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted” (Mt 4:1)? We tend to think of temptation as something totally alien to us, something from outside that intrudes into our lives.
We learn from Jesus’ experience, however, that the most critical temptations attach themselves to the call and empowerment of God that defines the meaning, value and purpose of our existence. It was so for Jesus. His first temptation went to the heart of who he was, and it is the temptation our culture has succumbed to.
“If you are the Son of God, speak, that these stones may become bread” (Mt 4:3). Do you see the nature of this temptation? The temptation is for Jesus to use his empowerment by the Spirit to do something that will authenticate God’s call. More significantly, it is a temptation to reverse the roles of being and doing, the temptation our culture has succumbed to. We tend to evaluate our own meaning, value and purpose, as well as those of others, not by the quality of our being but by what we do and how effectively we do it.
Taken from: Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton. Copyright (c) 2016 by M. Robert Mulholland and Ruth Haley Barton. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
Where is the Spirit?
My hunch is that most of you … have basic knowledge about the Holy Spirit; but when it comes to experiencing the Spirit in your life, it’s a different story. Take a moment and ask yourself this question: When was the last time I undeniably saw the Spirit at work in or around me?
If you are having trouble recounting a time when the Spirit was at work in or around you, perhaps that is because you have been ignoring the Spirit. Perhaps it is because you have a lot of head knowledge about the Spirit, but not much of a relationship with Him. My prayer is this book will draw you into deeper communion with the Spirit and greater experience of His power and presence in your life.
Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, David C. Cook.
Writing Like Shakespeare, Living Like Jesus
In describing whether it is possible for us to live like Jesus, pastor John Stott shares an illustration from William Temple:
It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like his. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like his.
Taken from The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling by John R. W. Stott Copyright (c) 2010 by John R. W. Stott. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
The Wild Goose
The Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit that has always intrigued me. They called Him An Geadh-Glas, or “the Wild Goose.” I love the imagery and implications. The name hints at the mysterious nature of the Holy Spirit. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed.
An element of danger and an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious at first earshot, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to pursue the Spirit’s leading through life than Wild Goose chase. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something that institutionalized Christianity has missed out on. And I wonder if we have clipped the wings of the Wild Goose and settled for something less—much less—than what God originally intended for us.
Mark Batterson, Wild Goose Chase, The Crown Publishing Group.
Your First Assignment: Do Nothing
I’ve always thought that Jesus gave a very odd first step to completing the Great Commission, basically telling them, “Do nothing until the Holy Spirit comes upon you” (Luke 24:49, my paraphrase). With millions of people waiting to hear the gospel, he instructed the only ones who knew anything about it to sit and wait until he had sent them something mysterious from above. That meant they were not to write books. They were not to go out to try to make converts. They were not co plan. They were to do nothing.
Why? Until he came, they couldn’t really do anything of value to the mission. Jesus had promised that he would build his church, and the mission. He could accomplish more in one moment through his Spirit than they could accomplish in 10,000 Iifetimes on their own.
J.D. Grear, Jesus, Continued: Why the Spirit Inside You is Better than Jesus Beside You, Zondervan.
Stories
All Flame
There’s a story told in The Sayings of the Desert Fathers…Abba Lot said to Abba Joseph, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?”
In answer to Lot’s question, Joseph “stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven.” As he did so, “his fingers became like ten lamps of fire,” and he said to Lot, “If you will, you can become all flame.”
Andrew Arndt, All Flame: Entering into the Life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, NavPress, 2020.
The Benefits of Fire
The devastating power of wildfires has never been more apparent as their intensity, size, and frequency has increased dramatically over the last few years in the United States (and elsewhere), causing incredible harm to property, human life, and the environment.
However, wildfires are not themselves altogether destructive. They have long played an important role in the life of American forests, both when naturally occurring and when used by indigenous peoples for forest management. Forest fires benefit the ecosystem by reducing dead vegetation (reducing the intensity of wildfires), creating habitat for plants and animals, killing off diseases and harmful insects, and stimulating new growth. In fact, a policy of fire suppression in the 20th century is partially responsible for the intensity of some recent fires.
The fire of the Holy Spirit is sometimes painful as the parts of us that are opposed to God rebel. But what the fire of the Holy Spirit leaves behind is beneficial for us — we are sanctified — the bad in us is progressively cleared out and new growth in the Spirit is enabled.
William Rowley
A Brazilian Intercessor
Max Lucado tells the story of an intercession he experienced in Brazil in 1983. The transition was difficult enough with culture shock, but it was not helped by the fact that their possessions were held up in customs.
No matter how many times Lucado went to the customs office, the officer refused to release their possessions, giving explanations which he couldn’t fully understand, given his limited Portugese.
One day, their neighbor Quenho, learning of their plight, offered to help: he was a lawyer.
All it took was Quenho going with Lucado to the customs office. Before long, the officer and Quenho were laughing, and Quenho introduced Lucado as his neighbor. Money may have changed hands. Whatever was said, the Lucados’ possessions were finally released!
Lucado concludes:
Quenho had everything I did not. He understood the culture. He knew the language. He could interpret the law. He perceived the problem. He knew how to persuade the Customs official. And, fortunately for us, he chose to speak on our behalf. He was our advocate.
For Dummies
Mark Batterson met John Kilcullen at a writers conference where they shared their stories. Kilcullen’s massively popular “For Dummies” series of books began with a single comment: “Do you have any simple books on Microsoft DOS—something like DOS for dummies?” [1] Today there are more than sixteen hundred “Dummies” books in 31 languages. A single idea, especially one from the Holy Spirit, can transform your life and those of countless others.
- Mark Batterson, All In: You are one decision away from a totally different life, Zondervan, 2013.
William Rowley
Experiencing the Inner Radiance of a Fellow Believer
Have you ever met someone and known instantly, or at least guessed, that they were a fellow believer? When I was in college, I lived abroad for a year in Germany. We always had Fridays off so that we could travel around Europe on the Eurail pass. One weekend we were in the popular backpacker city of Interlaken, Switzerland, and having just checked in to our hostel, happened to meet some fellow college students/travelers from Wisconsin. There was a woman in the group with whom we began a conversation. It became clear to me that there was something special about her.
Not her looks or her intellect, but rather, something like an inner radiance. But what was fascinating was, after returning to our room, I was chatting with one of the friends who had also met the young woman and somehow, this woman came up in our conversation, and we both had the same impression. There was something about her, she was our age, a peer, who made us feel a sense of comfort in her presence. Somehow later we discovered she was, as we suspected, a faithful Christian. Looking back, I would say it was the Holy Spirit emanating from her, showing us an inner light that was so impressionable I remember it to this day, some twenty years later.
Stuart Strachan Jr.
The Holy Spirit Births Faith
Hannah was one of my wife’s work colleagues. She used to love spending time with our congregation, but she found the gospel message just plain weird. We did some Bible studies with her over the summer and she kept looking at us in astonishment. We would read about Jesus walking on water, rising from the dead, and ascending into heaven. “You really believe all this?” she would ask. Later she told us what we believed sounded crazy. Yet she kept telling herself, “they seem like sensible people who are able to hold down jobs.
Then one day a member of our community challenged her, “don’t wait until all your questions have been answered, ”she said. Just ask yourself whether you can trust Jesus. Hannah went home and she describes how she was sitting on the floor in her front room when suddenly she knew it was all true. In that moment she became a Christian. What happened as she sat on her living room floor? The Holy Spirit came on her. There was no shining light or audible voice but the Holy Spirit came to give her faith in Jesus. This is what Jesus meant when in John chapter 3 verse 3 he says ”I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
Then in verse 6 he explains, “flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit. In other words, the spirit gives us spiritual life. It’s like being born again into a new life. The theological word for this new birth is regeneration or rebirth. Without regeneration we just can’t see God’s Kingdom.
Who in the World is the Holy Spirit?, Tim Chester & Christopher de la Hoyde, The Good Book Company.
The Holy Spirit or the Reverb?
A friend once told me about a Christian singer he knew who rented a recording studio. After an extensive setup and sound check, she began performing her first song. The sound technician thought it sounded great. But about halfway through the first verse, she stopped abruptly, threw up her hands, and said, “It s no use. Turn it off! He’s not here.”
“Him” she said, “the Holy Spirit. His presence—it’s missing.” She called a few friends into the studio, and they commenced to laying their hands on various pieces of equipment, praying for God’s presence and dabbing the equipment with oil.
After a few minutes, she began singing again. About thirty seconds in, she again said: “Stop! He’s not here. Let’s pray again.” Another fifteen-minute session of walking about the room: anointing, shouting, muttering incantations. Again she started … and again she stopped.
And again in came the prayer posse. By this time, the sound tech was getting annoyed. His equipment was getting greasy. As she began recording for the fourth time, he noticed that the reverb on her monitor was turned off, so he reached down and turned it up, at which point she put her hands in the air and began to say, “Hallelujah, there he is! He is here!” “The sound tech simply did not have the heart to say to her, “Uh … no ma’am. That was the reverb.”
J.D. Greear, Jesus, Continued, Why the Spirit Inside You is Better than Jesus Beside You, Zondervan.
Learning to Catch Bonefish
For many years my hobby has been bonefishing. It is essentially a sport. You don’t normally eat bonefish—they are too bony. The Latin name is Albula vulpes—white fox. The bonefish is a wily fish—very hard to catch—that swims in tropical waters of the world, as in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. They are normally caught in shallow water—knee deep (twelve to fifteen inches) is perfect.
Bonefishing combines hunting and fishing; you look for them and hopefully spot them before you cast to them. I have introduced dozens of friends to bonefishing, most recently my friend the late John Paul Jackson. I began reading about bonefishing in 1964.
For some reason I was immediately fascinated. I was cautioned, however—don’t try it without a guide to help you find them. You need a guide for two reasons: to pole (punting) the boat and to help you find them. I went to a fishing camp in Jewfish Creek in Key Largo. I said to the manager, “I want to go bonefishing. Will you rent me a boat?” He replied, “Do you have a guide?” “No,” I said. “Sir, are you a bonefisherman?” “I will be after today.” “Have you ever been bonefishing before?” “No sir.” “Let me explain: nobody—no one—ever goes bonefishing for the first time without a guide.”
I was sure I did not need a guide. For one thing, I did not want to pay the fee (not cheap), and I did not want to admit I needed a guide. I simply said to the manager, “Will you rent me a boat?” “Certainly.” “Would you show me on a map where to go?” “Certainly. Head out Barnes Sound for about twenty minutes, come to the cut that leads to Largo Sound. Bonefish are on the other side of Largo Sound. Good luck.” I came back some eight hours later. “How many did you catch?” the manager asked. “There weren’t any,” I replied. Someone overhearing the conversation said, “I saw you in Largo Sound. There were fish all around you.” Almost humiliated at my failure, I left and vowed never to do that again.
However, I read a few more articles in fishing magazines and knew what I had done wrong. I returned to the same fishing camp and went to the same spot—looking everywhere for bonefish. I saw none. Everybody seemed to catch them but me. Months later, swallowing my pride, I yielded to the idea of a guide. He said, “Meet me at Mayo’s Fishing Camp in Largo Sound.” I thought to myself, “This guide doesn’t know what he is doing. There are no fish there.” We met at eight o’clock on June 1, 1965. I will never forget it.
He headed us in his boat directly to the same spot where I had looked in vain for months and months. Within minutes he whispered, “Look carefully, eleven o’clock, eighty feet. Huge bonefish. Eight to ten pounds.” “Where?” I asked. “Too late, he’s gone.” But minutes later, the guide calmly said, “Twelve o’clock. Moving to one, now two o’clock.” “Oh,” I moaned. “So that’s a bonefish.” The fish—by dozens—had been in the same area the whole time.
They had been under my nose but I could not see them. Before the day was over, I hooked five bonefish. I could not do it without the guide, however. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit that He would “guide” us into all truth (John 16:13).
The work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal what is there. Right there in the Word. Under our nose. Paul said that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are “foolishness” to him.
A Life Re-Defined by The Spirit of God
In his excellent book on worship, The Dangerous Act of Worship, pastor and president of Fuller Seminary Mark Labberton shares a story of the transformation of one of his former congregants:
Ben was a very successful man. His professional life flourished. His family life was challenging, as a parent of several teenagers. For him, Christian faith was a distant and disconnected reality. But he began to have conversations about it with his wife and later with me.
One Sunday I was surprised but pleased to see him in the worship service. As he approached me at the door afterward, his eyes began to fill with tears. He explained that while visiting Washington, D.C, for a professional conference, he had gone to visit the National Cathedral. He slipped into an empty side chapel and sat down for some quiet time and reflection. There, unexpected and unsought, God’s Spirit simply came upon him. Ben became a new person. The awe and wonder of grace and truth beyond his own mind, his own questions, his own needs, simply met him and changed him. It was as though his life was utterly redefined, and it has been ever since.
Taken from The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton. Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Labberton. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com
Rescue from the Dark
Max Lucado likens the coming of the Spirit to a dramatic rescue. Recall the twelve boys trapped in the Tham Luang cave in Thailand in 2018 for eighteen days? Imagine how they felt when the first rescue diver emerged from the waters and told the boys, “I’m just the first. Others are coming.” Lucado continues:
Can you imagine how they felt when they heard those words? If so, you can imagine how the Spirit wants you to feel as he says, “What you cannot say, I will say. Do not despair. Your prayers are being heard in heaven.”
Summary by William Rowley, source, Max Lucado, Help Is Here: Finding Fresh Strength and Purpose in the Power of the Holy Spirit (Thomas Nelson, 2022).
A Sign of Consolation
Many years ago a great Arctic explorer started on an expedition to the North Pole. After two long years in the lonely northland, he wrote a short message, tied it under the wing of a carrier pigeon, and prepared to turn it loose to make the two thousand-mile journey to Norway. The explorer gazed around him at the desolation. Not a creature to be seen.
There was nothing but ice, snow, and never-ending bitter cold. He held the trembling little bird in his hand for a moment and then released her into the icy atmosphere. The bird circled three times, and then started her southward flight for multiplied hundreds of miles over ice and frozen ocean wastes until at last she dropped into the lap of the explorer’s wife. By the arrival of the bird, his wife knew that all was well with her husband in the dark night of the arctic North. Likewise the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly Dove, proved to the disciples that Christ had entered the heavenly sanctuary.
Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power In Your Life , Thomas Nelson.
You Never Know Who’s Listening
Lee Strobel tells an amazing story about the power of the Holy Spirit to act apart from our own knowledge.
Well, one average and routine day I was packing up my briefcase and getting ready to leave the newspaper when I felt a gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit. I sensed God wanted me to go into the business office and invite my friend, who was an atheist, to come to Easter services at my church.
Things did not go as he hoped. His friend shut him down — turning down every overture he made to talk about church, the resurrection, etc. Strobel left him with a stammered open invitation to talk more about it and beat a retreat.
The fact that the Holy Spirit’s nudging had led him to an apparently futile conversation bothered him — as far as Strobel knows, the man remains an atheist to this day.
Years later, while he was a pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, the twist in the story was revealed:
After I spoke one Sunday morning, a middle-aged man came up, shook my hand, and said, “I just want to thank you for the spiritual influence you’ve had in my life.”
“That’s very nice,” I said, “but who are you?”
The man told him his story. After losing his job, his friend, who ran the newspaper offered him the job of doing some tiling at the newspaper to earn some money:
So one day, not long before Easter, I was on my hands and knees behind a desk in the business office of the newspaper, fixing some tiles, when you walked into the room. I don’t think you even saw me. You started talking about God and Jesus and Easter and the church to some guy, and he wasn’t interested at all. But I was crouching there listening, and my heart was beating fast, and I started thinking, ‘I need God! I need to go to church!’
“As soon as you left, I called my wife and said, ‘We’re going to church this Easter.’ She said, ‘You’re kidding!’ I said, ‘No, we are.’ We ended up coming to this church that Easter, and my wife, my teenage son, and I all came to faith in Christ. I just wanted to thank you.”
Strobel was, in his own words, “dumbstruck.” But this is just the way of the Holy Spirit, operating in omniscience behind the scenes. When we follow his lead, amazing things happen.
William Rowley, summarizing and quoting from Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg, The Unexpected Adventure (Zondervan, 2009).
Studies
The Holy Ghost?
Why is the Holy Spirit sometimes called the Holy Ghost? When the early translators of the Bible into English use the word “ghost,” it didn’t just mean as it does today, spooky things that haunt old houses. it meant what we now mean by the word “spirit”. In Old English, the word for “spirit” is “ghast.” The equivalent word in German “geist” still has the broader sense as the word “Zeitgeist-spirit of the times-shows.
Who in the World is the Holy Spirit?, Tim Chester & Christopher de la Hoyde, The Good Book Company.
Analogies
A Brazilian Intercessor
Max Lucado tells the story of an intercession he experienced in Brazil in 1983. The transition was difficult enough with culture shock, but it was not helped by the fact that their possessions were held up in customs.
No matter how many times Lucado went to the customs office, the officer refused to release their possessions, giving explanations which he couldn’t fully understand, given his limited Portugese.
One day, their neighbor Quenho, learning of their plight, offered to help: he was a lawyer.
All it took was Quenho going with Lucado to the customs office. Before long, the officer and Quenho were laughing, and Quenho introduced Lucado as his neighbor. Money may have changed hands. Whatever was said, the Lucados’ possessions were finally released!
Lucado concludes:
Quenho had everything I did not. He understood the culture. He knew the language. He could interpret the law. He perceived the problem. He knew how to persuade the Customs official. And, fortunately for us, he chose to speak on our behalf. He was our advocate.
Keeping Time with the Spirit
Keeping time with the Spirit is less a regimental march—left, right, left, right! ad infinitum—and more like a subtle dance, a responsive feel for what comes next. Lionel Salter offers a parallel in his description of a conductor’s role in an orchestra. “The conductor has to judge the proper tempo of the work, and indicate it clearly to the orchestra by movements of his baton.” But this is not just a mechanical process. What the music requires of the orchestra changes over the course of a symphony. If tempo were just a mechanical factor of timekeeping, “it would be sufficient to play the orchestra a couple of ticks from a metronome, or, as sometimes in dance bands, say ‘One—two,’ to set the right tempo for the whole piece.” But of course that’s not what happens with an orchestra, because playing the symphony well requires different timing across the course of the work. “One of the beauties of music,” Salter remarks, “lies in its subtle variations of pace—the urging on, the yielding, the big broadening.” The conductor is helping the entire orchestra to become attuned to these subtleties.
James K. A. Smith, How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now (Brazos Press, 2022).
Learning to Catch Bonefish
For many years my hobby has been bonefishing. It is essentially a sport. You don’t normally eat bonefish—they are too bony. The Latin name is Albula vulpes—white fox. The bonefish is a wily fish—very hard to catch—that swims in tropical waters of the world, as in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. They are normally caught in shallow water—knee deep (twelve to fifteen inches) is perfect.
Bonefishing combines hunting and fishing; you look for them and hopefully spot them before you cast to them. I have introduced dozens of friends to bonefishing, most recently my friend the late John Paul Jackson. I began reading about bonefishing in 1964.
For some reason I was immediately fascinated. I was cautioned, however—don’t try it without a guide to help you find them. You need a guide for two reasons: to pole (punting) the boat and to help you find them. I went to a fishing camp in Jewfish Creek in Key Largo. I said to the manager, “I want to go bonefishing. Will you rent me a boat?” He replied, “Do you have a guide?” “No,” I said. “Sir, are you a bonefisherman?” “I will be after today.” “Have you ever been bonefishing before?” “No sir.” “Let me explain: nobody—no one—ever goes bonefishing for the first time without a guide.”
I was sure I did not need a guide. For one thing, I did not want to pay the fee (not cheap), and I did not want to admit I needed a guide. I simply said to the manager, “Will you rent me a boat?” “Certainly.” “Would you show me on a map where to go?” “Certainly. Head out Barnes Sound for about twenty minutes, come to the cut that leads to Largo Sound. Bonefish are on the other side of Largo Sound. Good luck.” I came back some eight hours later. “How many did you catch?” the manager asked. “There weren’t any,” I replied. Someone overhearing the conversation said, “I saw you in Largo Sound. There were fish all around you.” Almost humiliated at my failure, I left and vowed never to do that again.
However, I read a few more articles in fishing magazines and knew what I had done wrong. I returned to the same fishing camp and went to the same spot—looking everywhere for bonefish. I saw none. Everybody seemed to catch them but me. Months later, swallowing my pride, I yielded to the idea of a guide. He said, “Meet me at Mayo’s Fishing Camp in Largo Sound.” I thought to myself, “This guide doesn’t know what he is doing. There are no fish there.” We met at eight o’clock on June 1, 1965. I will never forget it.
He headed us in his boat directly to the same spot where I had looked in vain for months and months. Within minutes he whispered, “Look carefully, eleven o’clock, eighty feet. Huge bonefish. Eight to ten pounds.” “Where?” I asked. “Too late, he’s gone.” But minutes later, the guide calmly said, “Twelve o’clock. Moving to one, now two o’clock.” “Oh,” I moaned. “So that’s a bonefish.” The fish—by dozens—had been in the same area the whole time.
They had been under my nose but I could not see them. Before the day was over, I hooked five bonefish. I could not do it without the guide, however. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit that He would “guide” us into all truth (John 16:13).
The work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal what is there. Right there in the Word. Under our nose. Paul said that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are “foolishness” to him.
Sealed With the Spirit
Seal. You know the verb. You twist a jar lid to seal the pickles. You lick an envelope to seal the letter. You notarize the contract to seal the deal. Sealing declares ownership and secures contents. Sealing is the act that says, “This is mine, and this is protected.” When you accepted Christ, God sealed you with the Spirit. He cocooned you, assuring your safekeeping. Satan might woo you, discourage you, and, for a time, influence you. But he cannot have you. Christ “has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30 NLT).
A Sign of Consolation
Many years ago a great Arctic explorer started on an expedition to the North Pole. After two long years in the lonely northland, he wrote a short message, tied it under the wing of a carrier pigeon, and prepared to turn it loose to make the two thousand-mile journey to Norway. The explorer gazed around him at the desolation. Not a creature to be seen.
There was nothing but ice, snow, and never-ending bitter cold. He held the trembling little bird in his hand for a moment and then released her into the icy atmosphere. The bird circled three times, and then started her southward flight for multiplied hundreds of miles over ice and frozen ocean wastes until at last she dropped into the lap of the explorer’s wife. By the arrival of the bird, his wife knew that all was well with her husband in the dark night of the arctic North. Likewise the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly Dove, proved to the disciples that Christ had entered the heavenly sanctuary.
Billy Graham, The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power In Your Life , Thomas Nelson.
The Wild Goose
The Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit that has always intrigued me. They called Him An Geadh-Glas, or “the Wild Goose.” I love the imagery and implications. The name hints at the mysterious nature of the Holy Spirit. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed.
An element of danger and an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious at first earshot, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to pursue the Spirit’s leading through life than Wild Goose chase. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something that institutionalized Christianity has missed out on. And I wonder if we have clipped the wings of the Wild Goose and settled for something less—much less—than what God originally intended for us.
Mark Batterson, Wild Goose Chase, The Crown Publishing Group.
Humor
The Holy Spirit or the Reverb?
A friend once told me about a Christian singer he knew who rented a recording studio. After an extensive setup and sound check, she began performing her first song. The sound technician thought it sounded great. But about halfway through the first verse, she stopped abruptly, threw up her hands, and said, “It s no use. Turn it off! He’s not here.”
“Him” she said, “the Holy Spirit. His presence—it’s missing.” She called a few friends into the studio, and they commenced to laying their hands on various pieces of equipment, praying for God’s presence and dabbing the equipment with oil.
After a few minutes, she began singing again. About thirty seconds in, she again said: “Stop! He’s not here. Let’s pray again.” Another fifteen-minute session of walking about the room: anointing, shouting, muttering incantations. Again she started … and again she stopped.
And again in came the prayer posse. By this time, the sound tech was getting annoyed. His equipment was getting greasy. As she began recording for the fourth time, he noticed that the reverb on her monitor was turned off, so he reached down and turned it up, at which point she put her hands in the air and began to say, “Hallelujah, there he is! He is here!” “The sound tech simply did not have the heart to say to her, “Uh … no ma’am. That was the reverb.”
J.D. Greear, Jesus, Continued, Why the Spirit Inside You is Better than Jesus Beside You, Zondervan.
Why Space is Dark
Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson taught me why space is dark. Why does our sun not light up space? The answer is fairly simple: light needs something to reflect off of. Sunlight from our sun and other stars float through space, but without anything to reflect off, there is only darkness. This is how we get moonlight. The moon is just a rock in space. It does not have any light of its own. But because it reflects the sun’s light, the moon offers us a bit more light to guide us in the evening.
When John the Baptist pointed to Christ, he said something similar, his role was pointing to the light. In some ways, this is also an apt analogy for those of us who follow Jesus. We are not the source of the light, but hopefully, we point to the light of Christ with our words and actions. But there is one glaring difference between moonlight and Christians. Christians don’t merely reflect light, they are the light through the power of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is at work within us, we become a dwelling place for God’s own Spirit. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians that you are a “temple of the Holy Spirit, who is at work within you.” (1 Cor. 6:19)
Rev. Mia Levetan, Adapted & Expanded by Stuart Strachan Jr.
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