Pray for the Spirit

Last time we learned that, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the followers of Christ first step was to be always praising and blessing God.

Apparently, from Scripture, they only took one other step! Luke continues his story in Acts 1 where Jesus explains more fully that the "promise of the Father" is the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5,8). Then, after Jesus' ascension, Luke states that "All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer"(Acts 1:14). The rest of the chapter is an example of how they prayed for a practical ministry problem, and God led to its resolution.

Prayer and praise are the only things we know, for sure, that Christ's followers were doing as "they were all together in one place" (Acts 2:1) on the day of Pentecost.

But what does prayer have to do with my assertion that Christian Contentment is the first step to receiving the Holy Spirit fully?

Jeremiah Burroughs believes that Christian Contentment "is opposed to murmuring and repining at the hand of God, as the discontented Israelites often did. If we cannot bear this either in our children or servants, much less can God bear it in us." Then after exclaiming, "What evil God sees in the vexing and fretting of my heart, and murmuring and repining of my spirit!" he goes on to detail "The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit":

The sixth evil in a murmuring spirit is, by murmuring you undo your prayers, for it is exceedingly contrary to the prayer that you make to God. When you come to pray to God, you acknowledge his sovereignty over you, you come there to profess yourselves to be at God's disposal. What do you pray for, unless you acknowledge that you are at his disposal? Unless you will stand, as it were, at his disposal never come to petition him. If you will come to petition him and yet will be your own carver you go contrary to your prayers, to come as if you would beg your bread at your Father's gates every day, and yet you must do what you list: this is the undoing of the prayers of a Christian.

The Father answered the disciple's prayer for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost because they were submitted to Him. Their contentment-based prayer and praise led them into full dependence on that great effective structure that brings spiritual life to Christ's church.

Do you see how contentment fits with the quote that started this section?

He who loves Christ the most will do the greatest amount of good. There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, by putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline, without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour, and day by day. He longs to reveal His grace. If His people will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human channels. If men in humble life were encouraged to do all the good they could do, if restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress their zeal, there would be a hundred workers for Christ where now there is one. - The Desire of Ages pp 250,251

My question is; What structures do we have at Toronto that help us "learn to be content", content in prayer, content in praise? Only if we let God teach us those first steps, God can answer our prayers and the Holy Spirit's power will light up Toronto church and our neighborhood.

Better than Heaven

The foolish virgins were not foolish because they were waiting, they were foolish because they were content with "enough already" and didn't take the steps they could while they were waiting.

Are you waiting for more of the Holy Spirit? The wise girls took steps to "learn" how to be "more content". They knew that in Christ's kingdom, the person who has the most gets even more Luke 8:18. We'll join them in stepping onto the bridge to more of the Spirit.

Let's look at the steps that disciples took up to Pentecost, the prototype of being filled with the Spirit.

Please read Luke 24:45-53.

To sum up Jesus says, "Your job is proclaim Me all over the world (including Toronto), but before you start you need to change your clothes. Be clothed with power (and the Holy Spirit)."

Then He was carried to heaven. They were carried away too, with joy and praise.

So what steps did they take while waiting to be filled with the Holy Spirit: Continually praising God. Thats it (at least here in Luke, they did do something else, but we'll look at that next week). The formula is simple; if you want the power of the Spirit, praise God.

Does contentment have anything to do with praising God?

Jeremiah Burroughs says, "a contented heart is always praising and blessing God."
Let's put it in context:

What is Heaven, but the rest and quiet of a man's spirit; that is the special thing that makes the life of Heaven, there is rest and joy, and satisfaction in God. So it is in a contented spirit: there is rest and joy and satisfaction in God. In Heaven there is singing praises to God; a contented heart is always praising and blessing God. You have Heaven while you are on earth when you have a contented spirit; yea, in some regards it is better than Heaven.

How is that, you will say? There is a kind of honor that God has in it, and an excellence that he does not have in Heaven, and it is this:

In Heaven there is no overcoming of temptations. They are not put to any trials by afflictions. In Heaven they have exercise of grace, but they have nothing but encouragement to it, and indeed the grace of those who are there is perfect, and in that they excel us. But there is nothing to cross their grace, they have no trials at all to tempt them to do contrary; whereas for a man or woman to be in the midst of afflictions, temptations and troubles, and yet to have grace exercised, and to be satisfied in God and Christ and in the Word and promises in the midst of all they suffer: this may seem to be an honor that God receives from us, that he does not have from the angels and saints in Heaven.

Is it so much for one who is in Heaven, who has nothing but good from God, has nothing to try him, no temptations; is it so much for such a one to be praising and blessing God, as for the poor soul who is in the midst of trials and temptations and afflictions and troubles? For this soul to go on praying, and blessing, and serving God, I say, is an excellence that you do not find in Heaven, and God will not have this kind of glory from you in Heaven.

If we want more of the Holy Spirit, if we want to stand firmly on God's Effective Structures, we must praise God. By being content in Christ, we are always praising and blessing God, better than we will in heaven.

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Enough Already!

How do we cross the bridge from self-sufficiency to dependence on God's Holy Spirit? How do we put "self aside (and make) room for the working of the Holy Spirit"?

The next few posts will look at the first steps onto the bridges we need to cross to continue our journey to church health, which in our case means, a church with Effective Structures.

These first steps are decisions we make individually, as well as a church. These decisions determine whether we stay in our rickety, ineffectiveness structures or travel on the effective, mighty structures set up by God Himself.

The first decision connects us to the Holy Spirit.

A contented heart is what allows the Holy Spirit to be effective in our lives. Contentment is, I believe, that connection.

Over the summer holiday, I read the old Puritan Classic, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, the writer, Jeremiah Burroughs says "Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition."

Our initial decision to find contentment ONLY in God, in every condition, is just the beginning; we will learn to be more and more content. Even the Apostle Paul, wasn't naturally content; he had to learn to be content (Philippians 4:11-13), and Christ through His Spirit, will teach us the same lesson. 

Contentment in God, prepares us for even more blessings and more of the Spirit. As self-sufficiency is pushed aside, the Spirit works more strongly in our lives. Burroughs calls contentment "a compound of grace" because almost all the fruit of the Spirit are "compounded in it".

Still, the first lesson, and maybe the hardest, is to decide to start being content just where we are right now. We need to realise that, if we have asked for the Holy Spirit, then we already "have" as much of the Spirit as God can safely give us.

So how much of the Spirit and of Jesus do we have? The Hebrews are told in 13:5,6, "...be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear;
what can man do to me?”

What a reason to be content. We indeed have "enough already!"

Photo source: Ian Waldie/Getty Images