Ruachology Part 2
Merry Christmas! Well I'm here typing on Christmas Morn. What better place to be and wonderful thing to do! Since this is a blog, and I am writing, I will just put down my thoughts and try to stay along the subject line of Ruachology.
I have been thinking that I will write about the Spirit of God's working in our lives. When I read my Theology books there is more a line of thought around the overall understanding of the Holy Spirit, and not so much about His working in our lives. Though I have to say that with the advent of the Pentecostal, and subsequent Charismatic movements there has been more writing about the Holy Spirit and His working. It seems to me that the bulk of this writing has been centered in the gifts of the Spirit and not so much about the Spirit Himself. Which is good! We desperately need to understand the working of the Spirit through the gifts. But I believe that we also need to understand the Spirit also.
I remember a few years ago going to a teacher training in Dallas for the Understanding Dreams and Visions course.
John Paul was teaching the course, and I remember him saying something that stuck in my spirit. Its interesting to me the things that people say, that you remember, and the Spirit uses in our lives. I wonder sometimes if any one else remembers with the same intensity the things that hit our hearts in the moment. At the beginning of the training course John Paul said that he feared that his teaching,(the 201), had become a mantra for interpreting dreams, and that was not his intention in writing the course. His intentions was to help others to know God better and since dreams and visions were a way of God, he wrote this course to teach a way of God. and therefore give a better understanding of God Himself.
John Paul's comment really struck me because I realized that I had taken the course to learn to interpret dreams not to learn more about God.
I wonder sometimes if this approach to all things Scriptural is not part of our lack of understanding God and His ways. It seems to me that we have such a clinical approach to our Bible studies and we miss the personality of God. Moses was very concerned to better understand God. Exodus 33:12-13 reads, 'Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
Can you hear the heart of Moses in reading that statement?
I also want to know this God that I serve. I want to know His ways so I can do those things that please Him and not do the things that don't please Him. I want to better understand His personality and His character. I WANT TO KNOW WHO HE IS!!
So... how does that happen.
Moses asked for the presence of the Lord to be with him. It seems to me that Moses was asking, 'come and sit with me, stand with me, walk with me, be with me wherever I go, so we can talk, so I can get to know you. Help me to follow your directions, I want to turn left when you know I should turn left'. Moses was asking God for such a personal relationship with Him that Moses knew, KNEW, that God was with him always. We have that. When we believe in the finished work of Jesus, and receive Him as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence within us. Ephesians 1:13-14: "When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption..."
2 Corinthians 1:21-22: "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." You see, God is with us, the Holy Spirit of God is in us, He will 'never leave nor forsake us.' Now that He is always with us, just like Moses asked God to be in Exodus 33, we can truly get to know Him! Stay tuned for more to come.
