The Gift Of The Holy Spirit

Essential for understanding the other gifts of God...

This is part 4 of Chapter 6 of Friends With God: The Gifts Of God.

In this chapter we are exploring the blessings that God gives to those who delight in his way of life. As explained in the previous post, one of the first gifts God gave to man was to set aside (as holy) one day a week for rest from work, called the Sabbath. This day God determined to be holy, as it is the time God set apart for focusing on the spiritual work of developing in mankind the very mind of the great creator God.

To develop in us our love for God and for our neighbour is why God gave us the Sabbath Day:

Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 22:37-40)

The Necessity Of The Holy Spirit

In order to keep holy the Sabbath Day in the way of love, requires us to make specific interpretations of practical applications of the law, because, while the Law of God is clear, its observance should always be tempered with mercy and wisdom.

As discussed in previous posts, we need to have the Spirit of God to actually be able to understand and interpret the intent and meaning of any of God’s laws. (Rom 8:7-9) And such determinations need to be made from our personal perspective, rather than being something that we can determine for all people, in all circumstances, for all time.

The Spirit of God guides us in understanding his truth:

But as it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things,
yes, the deep things of God.
For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man within him?
So also no one knows the things of God except (by) the Spirit of God. (1Cor 2:9-11)

When we have Spiritual things to determine, we need to use God’s Spirit to guide us. How do we use the Spirit of God?
God has given us his Spirit to join with our spirit to convert us so we can understand his way of life and live it:

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ... (Rom 8:15-17)

When God’s Spirit joins with our spirit then we become the children of God and join with Christ in being heirs of the Kingdom of God.

What an incredible honour to be given the Spirit of God! But how does this work? How can it be that God’s Spirit joins with our Spirit so we become Children of God?

Jesus explained this to Nicodemus:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Truly, Truly, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Truly, Truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind blows where it will, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot not tell where it comes, and where it goes: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:3-9)

We are begotten by the Holy Spirit now, and will be born again to be a spirit being that moves like the wind at the time when Jesus Christ returns, then our conversion to being one with God will be complete. (1Cor 15:50-54)

The word “wind” and “Spirit” are the same Greek words, but the translators used the context to differentiate the meaning. Yet the analogy of Spirit to wind is very valuable: for like when one wind mixes with another wind then they become one wind, as we are to be one with the Spirit of God the Father and Jesus Christ:

And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me,
and I in You, that they also may be one in Us,
so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
And I have given them the glory which You have given Me,
that they may be one, even as We are one,
I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; …
(John 17:20-23)

Yet we must listen to the Spirit, for it is God’s Spirit that teaches us his truth:

But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God, so that we might know the things that are freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1Cor 2:12-13)

We can’t know anything spiritual unless we have God’s Spirit to teach us.

Paul continued to tell the Corinthians that prior to our calling by God we didn’t understand anything about him:

• But the natural man (he who does not have the Spirit of God) does not receive (understand) the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (we need the Spirit to understand God’s thoughts)

• But he who is spiritual (who has God’s Spirit) judges all things, (we are able to discern truth by God’s Spirit) yet he himself is (not able to be correctly) judged by no one. (it is God who judges us)

• For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1Cor 2:14-16)

By having the Spirit of God, we have the very mind of Christ guiding and teaching us, which then enables us to be one with God the Father, as discussed in John 17:20-23, quoted above.

We Are Not Under The Law

God is not interested in having automatons, like machines, who will obey his law regardless of circumstances, but God wants us to judge and consider the purpose behind the law- which is to foster within us genuine sincere love for mankind.

Foundational to the Law of God is mercy, and it must be included in the implementation of all his laws. To understand mercy is critical in appreciating how the mind of God works, and understanding the relationship that he expects us to have with him, and our fellow man.

Friendship with God, and with other people, is not a mere relationship of unthinking obedience, but is rather one of dynamic interaction, involving plenty of mercy and compassion. God is making us in his image, as his Sons, so we can be be one with him. (John 15:15)

We have the Spirit of God mixed with our Spirit so we may develop in us the very mind of God, and we should not just obey him out of habit or compunction, but out of love for him and our fellow man.

We also shouldn’t obey out of fear or obligation:

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, … He who fears has not been perfected in love. (1John 4:18)

As the law is established on love, justice, mercy and faith, God expects us to read his word carefully, in order to implement it with respect for him and others. (Matt 23:23, Luke 11:42)

If we have some difficulty in understanding a particular part of the law, then, as his friends and children, we have the privilege to be able to ask God in prayer to guide us through his Spirit. In the process of asking God, and being guided by him, we will develop our relationship and friendship with him.

We need to walk according to the Spirit of the Law, not the strict letter. In this sense we are not under the law, we are above it, as we understand its purpose and meaning:

I say, then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another; ...
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. …
But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
But those belonging to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Gal 5:16-25)

If God’s laws were strictly black and white, i.e. “do this or die”, then no actual relationship with God would be necessary, required, or possible.
However, if that were the case, then God’s laws (like human laws) would need to be a collection of massive volumes in order to take into consideration every possible scenario. And, even then (again like our human laws) there would still need to be judgements made in order to accommodate unusual circumstances.

God’s law is Spiritual as it is based on love, mercy, faith and justice, which are characteristics of God’s personality, which the Spirit of God helps to develop in us.

To implement God’s law, we therefore need to develop the very mind of God, with his Godly righteous character, to enable us to learn to think like God in order to make wise judgements, relevant to the particular circumstances and situations.

This is what it means to have the law in our hearts:

• This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; (Heb 10:16)

God understands that such character and wisdom will come only by our asking him to guide us throughout our entire lives, and in the process, we will develop a deep and meaningful relationship with God as our Father:

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another,
God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. … God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this is love perfected within us, … (1John 4:12-17)

He wants to develop in us his very mind, so that we will literally be one with him. (John 17:20-26, 1Cor 2:14-16) To this end he gave us His day of rest, every seven days, so we can have the time to develop our minds to be like his mind.

Working On The Sabbath

As the law of God is spiritual, the Sabbath, being a day off work to rest, is also spiritual in its purpose and intent.

While God provided a most succinct summation of his Law in the Ten Commandments, the requirement to love God is only mentioned in passing at the end of the second command: and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments. However, there is nothing in the Ten Commandments that requires us to show love and mercy to others, or about faith and justice either.

It’s not until the Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy that the requirement to love God and neighbour are stated, which Jesus quoted from as being the foundation of the Law. (Deut 6:5, 10:12, 30:6, Lev 19:18, Matt 22:36-40)

These two commandments are where the law emanates from. Scripture provides us with many examples of people who both succeeded, and failed, to live by God’s Law, (Eph 2:20) including the gold standard example of Jesus’ life, to demonstrate the practical implementation of the law. (1John 2:3-6)

He then gave us his Holy Spirit to understand the practical application of the law in our daily lives.

Our job as Christians, is to ask God to guide us to be able to bring all these teachings and examples together, so that we may be able to understand the implementation of the law in our particular circumstances today.

One of the best ways of seeing the application of the law is regarding how scripture tells us to keep the Sabbath holy. As we have seen in the previous posts, Jesus said that what the Priest did, in ‘working’ in order to perform the sacrifices on the Sabbath, actually did profane the Sabbath. (Matt 12:5) But they were also NOT counted guilty, because of mercy.

What Is Permissible On The Sabbath?

The Law of God requires that the priests not only undertake animal sacrifices, which took a considerable amount of physical work, but were also required to rest. This is an obvious conflict in the law. Jesus addressed this conflict by saying that, because of mercy, the priests are counted as being blameless.

• Note, however, the very careful way Jesus presents this issue. He does not say that the work done by the Priests is “permissible”; for it is not- as it actually profanes the Sabbath. What he says is, that the Priests were counted guiltless, because of mercy.

Similarly, the work of feeding animals by loosening them from their pens and taking them to water, also profanes the Sabbath, but again, due to mercy, those who do this are counted guiltless. (Luke 13:15)

It appears that the Pharisees agreed that this kind of work is guiltless on the Sabbath, yet no corresponding statement is recorded in the Old Testament. They therefore understood the intent or spirit of the law.

The Pharisees also appeared to agree that saving an animal’s life, or helping animals when in danger was also able to be counted as guiltless, yet again the Old Covenant is silent on this point too. (Luke 14:5)

Jesus is very careful not to say something like “the Priest killing a sacrifice on the Sabbath is permissible”, for it was not, as it actually profaned the Sabbath. If we use this sort of phrasing then we miss the entire point of the law, for the law requires judgement in mercy, love, justice, and faith.

To say something is “permissible in the Law” is to imply that it is written in the law. However, the point Jesus was making is that mercy, love, justice, and faith are foundational to the law- the law comes from them, they are not tacked onto the law, yet they are not highlighted in the Ten Commandments.

Lawful To Do Good On The Sabbath

Jesus used these examples to support the fact that on the Sabbath Day there is some work that is able to be forgiven, and some that is not. Then he summarized it by saying: Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. (Matt 12:12)

When he said this, he was making a judgement on the general application of mercy to the letter of the law. If, however, we take his statement of ‘doing good’ as being a ‘new law’ telling us what is ‘permissible’, then we could say “we can earn money, or buy food, or work in any way we want, as long as we see that it is doing good”. So, if your normal work is “doing good” then we can just continue doing it on the Sabbath? Obviously not, for we should all being doing good in our normal work anyway- as we certainly don’t expect our jobs to be doing harm, or evil, six days a week!?

What we determine as being something that is ‘doing good’ on the Sabbath is a judgement we need to make in each situation we find ourselves. When there is a clear contradiction in the letter of the law, then we need to go back to the foundation of the law- justice, mercy, faith and love.

The “ox in a ditch situation” is really about matters of life and death, not merely getting caught out with insufficient preparation of something that isn’t really important- like the disaster of not having ice cream for desert!

We have to be careful not to be careless, and then blame the ox for our leading it into a ditch!

Healing On The Sabbath

In another setting, just after saying that he is Lord, even of the Sabbath, Jesus explained another application of mercy on the Sabbath:

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath,
so that they might accuse him. (Mark 3:1-2)

Now you may ask “accuse him of what?” They wanted to accuse him of “breaking” the Sabbath (according to their definition) by doing the “work” of healing on the Sabbath. However, Jesus showed them that healing is not forbidden:

And he said to the man with the withered hand, "Come here." And he said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?" But they were silent. (they did not want to answer one way or the other)
And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him,
how to destroy him.” (Mark 3:3-6)

Not much mercy shown here by the Pharisees!

What ‘work’ did Christ do to heal this man? He spoke to him, and he was healed. But the Pharisees were so blinded by their hardness of heart, that they wanted to destroy Christ for simply saying Stretch out your hand!

The Pharisees may have thought they were being strict in their interpretation of the law, but what they were doing was actually undermining the intent of the law, by ignoring mercy, justice and faith. As we have seen in Chapter 2, the fact that their heart was hardened was their own choice, and it seems that that is what grieved Jesus.

Because of their positions and authority, the Pharisees had the power to enforce their ridiculous notions of what constituted work. In the process they made the Sabbath a burden rather than a blessing, demonstrating a clear distinction between themselves and Jesus.

The Pharisees had many rules, which made the Sabbath difficult to keep. This day of rest, given by God for all mankind, was perverted into a burden and a curse, rather than a blessing and a joy. Because of this, the way of God was evil spoken of by those who saw the example of how the Pharisees kept the Law of God, and enforced it on others. (2Peter 2:1-3) They greatly blasphemed the name of God by their traditions.

The Sabbath, a day of rest, was meant to be a blessing for us:

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
(Mark 2:27-28)

The Sabbath was never intended to be a burden to be enforced by authoritarian religious leaders. The Pharisees, by putting their own restrictions on people, so that they could not even pick a few ears of wheat if they were hungry, or be healed of terrible illnesses, had reversed God’s purpose of the Sabbath: they had made the Sabbath more important than our needs, yet it was made for us. In the process, they had made their doctrines more important than God’s Word:

"This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matt 15:8-9)

In the next post in this series we will see what keeping the Sabbath has to do with forgiveness of sin.