To have balance, we need the Holy Spirit. Love is the fruit of the Spirit, the natural
outcome of living in the Spirit. And
love is the true balance. Some will say
that compassion or self-sacrifice is an extreme, but in reality they are
extremes because our society has become so imbalanced toward judgment or
hatred, that these reactions are there to create balance in the world. The true center is love. The true balance is care for all, no matter
what they’ve done to you. And the Spirit
is in the world to direct us to that true balance. To help us rejoice in others, no matter what they’ve
done to us. To help us have self-control
so we do not hurt others. To help us
have mercy so that others may reach their true balance.
If we do not have the Spirit, we will tend to drift. This
doesn’t mean that we won’t pursue love, but we will find it difficult, almost
impossible, to have love as our center.
If we are in the Spirit, living in the Spirit, we have the power to
release, the energy to delve into love.
Outside of the Spirit, we are pursuing love on our own, and we
inevitably create laws that we demand everyone follow. This is a warped love. True love has the power to be flexible, to
see the world through other’s eyes. And
that only comes through the power of the Spirit.
So how do we obtain the Spirit? How do we obtain this power of loving that so
eludes us?
Asking for the Spirit
If we desire the Spirit, we must ask for the Spirit. “Ask and you shall receive… How much more will the Father give the Spirit
to those who ask?” The Spirit comes by
asking, and the Father freely gives. The
Father always wants to give what we truly need, and He knows that we need the
Spirit more than anything else. The
Spirit makes us who the Father wants us to be, and so the Spirit is the one
gift the Father gives freely, if we would but ask. But we need to ask. Because if we think that we can live
independently, without the Father’s help, the Father will allow us to live that
way. It isn’t what He wants, but he will
let us do that. But if we ask for the
Father’s help, then He will gladly give it, He will gladly give us the Spirit.
The Kingdom of God
We are living in the wrong nation if we want to live in the
Spirit. Our nation doesn’t work by love,
it works by pursuing greed and anger. In
living in this nation, we might have experiences of the Spirit, but they will
be short-lived, temporary highlights of our life. The only way to live in the Spirit is to
immigrate to a different nation, a nation that is empowered only by the
Spirit. This nation is called the Kingdom
of God, and Jesus is the King. To be a
part of this nation, one does not need to be a Christian necessarily. Rather, one must be committed to Jesus as the
King. To immigrate to Jesus’ nation is
to receive the Spirit as a gift, daily.
Those who only live as Christians do not experience this, and often they
do not recognize the Spirit when he comes.
But those who love Jesus recognize the Spirit and seek to live in the
Spirit, even as Jesus did. They know
that the Spirit isn’t miracles (although he sometimes uses miracles), isn’t
doctrine (although he encourages faith and trust), isn’t correct practice
(although he guides to right action), but love. And those who dwell in the kingdom encourage
others to the Holy Spirit of love as well.
Listening to Jesus
Jesus lived life in the Spirit to the full. If we want to see what a life in the Spirit
looks like, we need to experience Jesus’ life.
Jesus is the model. Jesus is also
the one who explains. He lets us know
how to pursue the Spirit and how to be empowered to love. But most important of all, Jesus lets us know
what love looks like. There are many
things that claim to be “love”. There
are many people who claim to be lovers.
But the Father’s love is the love of Jesus. Jesus came to show us love, to define love
through his words and his deeds. The
more we listen to Jesus, the more we observe him, the better we understand what
love is, and the easier we find it is to reject the cheap substitutes.
Turning Away
In order to live in the Spirit, it is not enough for us to
pursue love, we must be rid of the things that keep us away from love. The Spirit will lead us to what these things
are. In fact, the Spirit speaks to us
all the time about avoiding the things that squeeze love out of our hearts,
that limits our mercy and compassion and sacrifice. If we keep the things that destroy our love,
then the Spirit cannot do the work that he wants to do in us. Be rid of those things, those actions, those
pursuits that limit the Spirit of love.
Trusting the Spirit
More than likely, the Spirit has already been speaking to us. Perhaps we can remember the last thing the
Spirit told you. Perhaps the Spirit is
pleading with us to be rid of something.
Perhaps the Spirit is compelling us to make a step that is difficult to
make. Perhaps the Spirit is encouraging us
to do something we just haven’t gotten around to. Whatever it is, listen to the Spirit, do
it. Often the Spirit will withdraw until
we show that we are ready to walk with him.
Living with the Spirit is like any other intimate relationship, it is a
companionship of trust. If we show that
we trust the Spirit, then the Spirit will open up more to us. If we do not trust the Spirit, then we limit
our relationship with the Spirit. But if
we listen to the Spirit, then we can pursue our relationship with love.
Practice Your Joy in the Father
Each of us has something that helps us experience joy in the
Father. For some, it is experiencing the
Father’s creation, for others it is participating with the Father in growing
His creation. For some, it is embedding
oneself in music, for others it is reading God’s word. For some it is the ecstasy of grateful
prayer, for others it is the hard work of interceding. For some, joy is found with the poor, for
others, joy is found in dancing. There
are many, many ways to experience the joy of the Father, and each of us have different
ways to do that. To be enlivened in the
Spirit is often found through joyful express of being with the Father. Be aware of pursuits that take us away from
love. If our expression limits our
capacity to love, then we do not have the full joy the Father wants us to
have. But if our expression is a part of
love, is a partner with love, then the Spirit fills us to the full and
overflowing to all around us.
Silence
As in any relationship, we must take time to listen. If we
are constantly busy, constantly distracted, constantly talking, then we cannot
hear the Spirit. If we do not hear, we
cannot experience the voice of the Spirit.
If we do not pause, we will never experience the peace of the Spirit out
of which flows love. The Spirit wants us
to do acts of love, but the Spirit also pleads with us to stop all acts and
just rest in him. After working hard in
the Spirit, to rest in the Spirit is like experiencing beauty in our soul. It is awe-inspiring, powerful, and deep. It is not always easy to find time for
this. If you have small children or
constant daily distractions, we may not have an opportunity for this
silence. But if you can, pursue it. This deep peace isn’t to be our lives, but it
is meant for a respite, an enlivening so we can continue to pursue the life of
love in the Spirit.
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