Can't Muster It Up

 This week Ernesto is teaching on discipleship, and the different areas of our lives that we will see transformation and renewal in as we learn to live in the Spirit and give to others what the Spirit has given to us. The first session, Ernesto addressed what a Spirit-filled life looks like, and the importance of living that way. The qualities of the Spirit are evident in the lives of those who live Spirit-filled lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. We can't muster up all of these things without the annointing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in His Word that unless someone is born again and made new in Christ, he or she cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit because the Spirit does not dwell within him or her...  There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-appointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it." Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to--to God's kingdom." John 3:1 (The Message translation)  We cannot bear something if we don't have it in us to bear. An apple tree cannot bear cherries. We cannot see with eyes of the Kingdom of God, if we are not within His kingdom--if we do not have His Spirit dwelling within us, and if we are not living a Spirit-filled life, outpouring the gifts He gives us. Ephesians 2:1 says 'It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company wih Jesus, our Messiah.' (The Message) We are ALL disciples of something. We are all followers in one form or another. We have in us the desire to be a part of something, be counted, be involved, be seen. But we look to the wrong things, the world, the status-quo of our own cultures, the current state or norm of life. The word says that we are inately lost, broken, rebellious, and unable to find and make peace on our own. We are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. Sin is the fruit a sinner bears. That is why, when someone is reborn 'from heaven' as the message translation puts it, when someone is a new creation in Christ, when the Holy Spirit is involved in someone's everday life, the fruit of that is not sin, but rather love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. The more involved the Spirit is in every day life, the more these things grow.
Living a spirit filled life doesn't mean perfection. There's still that instinct to rebel, to sin, to do what feels right, or what looks right. It's always easier to do what appeals to the senses. But when someone is following the Holy Spirit every day, the desires of his or her heart are gradually changed and transformed into something pure, something true.
As I write this, I think of people who don't believe the same things I do who might be reading all this, thinking 'why the heck would I want to follow the Spirit of some God who 'they say' is loving and who supposedly cares about me? That's creepy... I want to be my own person, I want to follow my own dreams, I don't want to just be told what to do all the time, I don't want to be "holy" or "pure" or strive to live up to someone else's standard..' I can see why someone may think that. But God, rich in mercy, and with an incredible LOVE took our death, our emptiness, our lacking of purpose, our boredom, our sadness, our endless fight against life, and He embraced us. He has given us something BEYOND good. His spirit, which is a part of himself, he allows us to connect with relationally, filling the void in our hearts, that we may hear His words, and follow His heart and LIVE IN HIS LOVE...and being with Him in this life is the best thing there is. And you know, God wants us to be ourselves. He has given us gifts, talents, abilities, strengths, BEAUTY, that He wants very much to evoke and bring out in us. He does not want us to be bland, visionless, uninspired clones.


He does not make cookie cutter christians.