Mysterious Ways: God's Holy Spirit in Us

Bono of U2 Wrote “Mysterious Ways” about how women are a mystery to men. But I’m here to solve the mystery so we can move on to something else. Not long after they released this song, someone wrote “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” Which helped men begin to solve the mystery with Tips like this:
3. A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
2. Women have more imagination than men do. They need it to tell us how wonderful we are.
1. Women have their faults. Men have only two. Everything they say. Everything they do.
MYSTERY SOLVED!
Some people have theorized that “Mysterious Ways” is about the mystery of the Holy Spirit. That may be a stretch, but if you’re a big U2 Fan – you can check out all the interpretations on the Blogosphere! (if you know what that means) There is great mystery to how God works in us and through us. We compel people to believe in Christ and then tell them that Christ is in them. How can that be? How does that work?

We all love a good mystery. Whether it’s an Agatha Cristy novel, or a really good movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Some of you may be big fans of Law and Order, or Numbers, or other mystery shows where you don’t know the answer to the end. One of my wife’s new favorite shows is Mystery Diagnosis, where people who have had symptoms for over 10 years, who have seen every doctor in the book, finally get a correct diagnosis. And there are some weird diseases on that show.

And for us, it is just a weird of a concept to think about the Holy Spirit living in us. That we can somehow Embody the living God!

We also talk about how as believers our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. That God’s Holy Spirit lives inside each of us. How is it possible that God could live inside of me? And why would he want to? Here we are with bodies that are wasting away, and the infinite, all powerful God of the universe chooses to live inside of this? Come On?

Here is a look into the Scriptures: Perhaps we can solve this mystery of what it means to have Christ in Me and in you, and the Holy Spirit in me and in you.

There are many reasons why we find it hard to grasp this concept. For some of us here . . .
It’s a really new concept. You’ve heard of putting your faith in Christ, But having him dwell inside you?
It’s just not your reality. You’ve never experienced a deep change inside.
It’s not your experience. You are looking for a different experience, perhaps for you It’s a faith issue. You just find it too hard to believe.

Some people get the impression that when we talk about God’s Holy Spirit living in us that something wacky like this will happen. That he will somehow force us to do something we don’t want to do. Nothing could be farther from the truth. And we’ll be talking more about that very thing later in the message.

Colossians 1:25-27 says that it is “Christ in Us the Hope of Glory”

Here’s what this means. That with Christ living in me, and in you: This reality gives us HOPE that God’s glory can shine through us! That Christ in us brings Glory to God. The Next two verses in Colossians 1 give us this answer: Colossians 1:28-29 say that “His Energy, Powerfully works in me, To present everyone perfect in Christ.”

Think about this: Jesus was sinless. He always said “Yes” to God, and in everything he did, God received glory. And God’s Glory was revealed to the world. He never said “No” to God. He always did what the Father told him to do. And he always said “NO” to the flesh. If there were things he wanted and desired, or was tempted to feed his flesh, he said “NO”. And because of that God received Glory, and his glory was shown to the world.

So we read, The mystery has been revealed, it is “Christ IN us, the hope of Glory.”

Now that we have believed in Christ, and Have received him into us, we have the one in us who always said “Yes” to God, and “No” to the flesh. And he is living in us! In and of ourselves, we do not give glory to God, or show his Glory to the world. But now we have the one who does living inside us. And we unlock the mystery of how we can bring glory to God and show his Glory to the world.

The reason the church exists is that God wants this power that is at work in each believer, to be at work in each of you! Where does that power come from? His Holy Spirit inside of us. Which is another mystery.

READ JOHN 14:15-17 & 26 Jesus said that he would send the Holy Spirit to be in us. And he will teach us all things. This unstoppable force that has always been and will always be, will reside in you!

Acts Chapter 2 talks about the power of the Holy Spirit started this unstoppable force called the Church on the Day of Pentecost. It was a powerful moment! It was the fulfilling of God’s promise through the Old Testament prophets and the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that The Holy Spirit was coming to Stay, and would fill all believers with that same power, so that they could shine with God’s glory!

So how does that work?

Back in August of 2003 there was a huge blackout in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and all the way to the East Coast. It just so happened at the time that time that we were living in Detroit. Many of you have probably experienced a power outage due to a storm or a blown transformer, but this was ¼ of the United States! Of course we didn’t know how vast it was, only that all our power was down.

The first thing you do when it’s dark and the power is down is you go looking for a flashlight. And as Murphy’s law would have it, when there’s a blackout, and you find your flashlight, one of two things happen – either the batteries are dead, or there are no batteries. In my case, there were no batteries in the flashlight. Frustrating. Next you go to candles. Then dog was all freaked out by candles, but it was all we had to light the house.

And we were a little freaked out. We were in Detroit! No Power, No Batteries. For three days the stores were closed because they didn’t have power either. So we couldn’t even buy batteries. We had this flashlight that was completely useless to us.

So as I was thinking about this mystery of Christ IN us, and this mystery of the Holy Spirit dwelling in each of us believers, I got to thinking how this was a lot like a flashlight.
The Flashlight was created to shine a light and provide light in darkness. That’s it’s purpose.

But most of the time when you buy a flashlight in the store, it doesn’t have batteries in it. And if you try to use it without batteries it will not accomplish it’s purpose at all.

So, humor me here, I’m going to use this crude and probably flawed illustration of this Flashlight to illustrate “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” But I hope it will help you understand how this works.

So what do you do? You get Batteries. Now this is like “Christ IN us”. When we do what we’ve been talking about here at K2 for so long, Believe, and put our faith in Christ, He Comes in us. He is the power source to help us bring Glory to God.

This Jesus who always gives glory to God, always said yes to God, always said no to the flesh now lives inside us. But that’s not all. Let’s look at what the Bible says in Ephesians 3, Here Paul again says, this is the reason why we do all that we do “Strengthened with power, filled with power, filled with the fullness of God!” (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Remember before the day of Pentecost, Jesus said, in ACTS 1:7 “And You will receive Power”

You see, the batteries are the Power Source, but they are not the Power. The power is the invisible force inside the battery. It is the electricity that makes the light shine.

But here’s the deal. The Power is not released, until you flip the switch. And once you flip the switch in you flashlight, what happens? The light shines.

Those of you who “believe”, who have put your faith in Christ, those who have recently said, I want to overcome that which is destroying me, and live my life for Christ. The Promise of God is for today, that the Same Holy Spirit that was poured out on the day of Pentecost is the same Holy Spirit that dwells inside every believer. The POWER that started the unstoppable force that is the church, is the same unstoppable force that is inside of you. If you have put your faith in Jesus . . . then the Holy Spirit Dwells in you. Your Body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

But here’s the deal. The Holy Spirit is not going to do anything in you that you don’t allow him to do. Instead, Just like those batteries that are filled with power, dwell inside the flashlight, waiting for someone to flip the switch so that the energy can be released, to allow the light to shine . .

For me it was a Friday night youth service in New York Mills, MN. I finally flipped the switch.

So it is with you and the Holy Spirit. He is waiting for you to consciously flip the switch. He is waiting for you to say, “I’m Ready now,” Release your power in me. And let your power flow through me, so that I can give Glory to God.

Give me your power so that I can live a holy life that pleases God
Give me your power so that I can make the right choices
Give me your power so that I am willing to do whatever you ask me to do
Give me the power so that I can be your voice to a world that needs to hear about your love
Give me your power so that I can die to myself and live unto Christ
Give me your power so that I will go wherever you ask me to go.
Give me the power to know God in a way I have never known him before
Give me the power to bring healing and hope and truth and grace to a world in desperate need

Give me the power to say “Yes” to God, and “No” to sin so that in all things I may be like Jesus and Glorify my Father in Heaven.

If you are ready to flip that switch, just whisper to the Holy Spirit in you and say, “I’m ready now to let your unstoppable glory shine through me”

For some of you long-time believers, you may feel that your batteries are dead, and that it’s been a long time since you have really experienced his power working in you. Now is the time to whisper to the Holy Spirit within you and say, “I’m ready again to let your unstoppable glory shine through me”

For some of you may not have the slightest clue what I’ve written. But you may be tired of the way your life is going right now. I want to tell you that there is new life in Christ. And the very first step is easy, just believe that he is God’s Son, and believe that he died and rose again so that you can be given new life. And for you, all you need to do is whisper to God, “I believe”.
I heard someone on the Radio just this week say, “The Bible is the best self-help book on the planet.” And I couldn’t have disagreed more. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we could have new life and help our selves! It’s our selves that got us into the trouble we were in the first place. The Bible clearly states that the it is He (Christ) that helps us get new life. And it is the Power of the Holy Spirit that works in us to make us new.

You can make a conscious choice, and we flip the switch and instead of doing life our way, we allowed the power of the Holy Spirit to do things his way! Do you know what would happen? His Glory would be revealed everywhere you go!

It may still be a mystery, but the truth is, you can live in his Power!