Sligo22: Are you thirsty?
Ali Calvin leads Christ Church, Kilkeel. She has a heart for seeing people come alive in their faith and relationship with Jesus through the power of the Word and the Spirit. She is passionate about teaching people to hear God for themselves. Ali is leading our Bible Teaching at #Sligo22. Here’s a summary of her first session (NB: notes taken during Week A).
It is great to be back live in Sligo. I have been coming to this conference since 2007. Every year, it feels like coming home. Even though we have had a three year gap, it feels so right to be here together. Last night we were singing, “This is what living feels like, this is what heaven sounds like…” It is a little bit of heaven on earth when we come together.
As I was praying, the one phrase that came to me was that thought of Jesus arriving at the well in John chapter 4 . Tired as He was, Jesus sat down and asked for a drink of water. Many have come here tired from the journey and God’s invitation is to sit by the well and to ask for a drink. Let’s ask Him as we come to His word, to give us a drink from the deep, deep well of His abundance.
He wants to refresh us, equip us and re-empower us to live for Him.
There are some things that are very important to us at New Wine and one of those is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When I started to discover this after 20 years as a Christian, I asked why it was important. Someone pointed out, “God is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we are not forgetting about the Father and the Son. Today I want to take a look at the Holy Spirit in Scripture. So often He is ignored or forgotten or there is sense of fear.
Nicky Gumbel quotes a limerick:
There was a young man who said, 'Run!
The end of the world has begun!
It's that old Holy Ghost
I'm frightened of most
I can manage the Father and Son!'.
Genesis 1 – the Spirit of God is hovering over the world and God speaks, “Let there be Light.” Into the darkness, came the life through the Word and the Spirit. That is how God works. Always in Holy Scripture, God works through Word and Spirit. God created this beautiful world and when He had finished, He created human beings in His image: male and female and breathed His life into them. The word for spirit and breath are the same “ruach”.
Do you need some of that life breath this morning?
When sin entered the world, Adam and Eve were banished from close fellowship with God but that didn’t change God’s heart. He wanted to be with His people. So He gave instructions to build a tabernacle to be placed in the centre of the people. It was always God’s heart to dwell in the centre of His people.
Throughout the OT we often see that God puts His spirit on people for certain tasks and at certain times.
Bezalel was anointed with the Holy Spirit for creativity: Exodus 35 Maybe we need a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit to do what we are commanded to do?
In Judges 6, God comes to Gideon, the smallest and weakest person. The Gideon who was afraid, who was hiding, suddenly had confidence to take on the Midianite armies. He was filled with a new courage. He blows the trumpet and calls the people for war. The Spirit of God is given for courage and victory over the enemy. He leads the people to freedom.
Samson was not very wise but nevertheless filled with the Spirit of God that gave him supernatural strength (see Judges 16). What chains do we need to break today with the help of the Spirit of God? There is no chain, no rope, no biding that cannot be broken when we have the Spirit of God.
Even if you didn’t get to Sligo this year. Wherever you are, the Holy Spirit is near and He wants to minister to you too. In Numbers we read how God’s Spirit came on the 70 elders in Israel but two stayed behind… and the Spirit came on them too.
Joshua was indignant but Moses said, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them all”. This reflects the cry of God. Sidenote: There were 70 elders and two who were there but got filled with the Spirit. Interesting that Jesus sent out 72 disciples!
1 Samuel 10:5 – 8 - The prophets were speaking out God’s Word. There is something about being about being around the people of God. The Spirit of God will come on you too and you will be changed.
That what the Holy Spirit could do even in the Old Testament. But there is something dissatisfying about the OT because the Spirit of God only comes on certain people, for certain task and at certain times. Increasingly there is a longing for a day when the Holy Spirit will be available to all God’s people.
Jeremiah 31:33- 34 - What an awesome promise – one day everybody will be able to know God without distinction or hierarchy.
I was taking a walk with my six year old nephew. He asked, “How could God who is so big ever live in my heart?” before I could say anything, he said, “Maybe God takes his heart and puts it in me.” Out of the mouths of babes! God puts His Spirit within us.
There was a long period between the OT and the NT. In the NT the work of the Holy Spirit begins to bubble up again. There is a talk of John the Baptist, then Mary conceives by the Holy Spirit. There is a new sense of God on the move and new songs are being birthed.
John the Baptist when He is talking about Jesus says, “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Jesus Himself talked about the Holy Spirit. John 7:37 – 39 “If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink.” – is anyone thirsty today? Jesus has come to fulfil the promises of the OT. If we believe Him, streams of living water will flow from within us.
Acts 1 – Wait for the gift my father has promised.
If I ask you, why did Jesus die? Children may answer Jesus died for my sins. Really? I bought a new to me car a few weeks ago. Can you imagine going to buy a car and it is a bit dirty and inside there is loads of rubbish. Nevertheless you buy the car because of its potential. Can you imagine cleaning out the rubbish but then gathering the pile of rubbish and saying “Look at the rubbish, I bought you…” The car is what is important, not the rubbish. Jesus didn’t die for our sins… He died for us! He died to take away our sins. He takes away the rubbish of sin so that He can put His Holy Spirit in us.
At Pentecost, the disciples were waiting for what the Father had promised all along. As they waited the Holy Spirit came upon them in power. They were given the anointing and equipping to talk about Jesus because that is what the Holy Spirit wants. Empowered by the Spirit, the disciples point people to Jesus and we see a mighty transformation. Peter repeats the words of the prophet Joel… I will pour out my spirit on all people… men and women, young and old.
I love what God wants to do in our hearts. His whole desire is to live at the very heart of His people. He wants to live in your heart… to put His heart in your heart through the Holy Spirit. It is His will that every one of you will hear Him. We are called to be a prophetic people. A people who hear what is on God’s heart. A people who will live how He calls us to live. Guided by the Holy Spirit.
How do we respond? It is God’s desire that we should be filled with His Spirit. To live in the power of His spirit. I resisted the Holy Spirit for a long time. Of course we receive the Holy Spirit when we come to Christ. But I didn’t know what it meant to live the full Christian life by being filled with the Spirit. I was religious. I read my bible. I said my prayers. Somebody asked me, “Have you received the Holy Spirit?” She told me, “There is more.”
Think about a sponge that has become dry… it is hard. If you put it into the water, then the sponge is in the water but the water is in the sponge. It becomes soft. And when it is squeezed the water flows out of it.
We cannot receive the Holy Spirit without first allowing Jesus to cleanse us. Today can be a new day, a new start. But Lord don’t stop there. Fill me with your Spirit that I might live for you.