The Spirit:
The Lord the giver of life.
As we lit our second Advent candle this morning.
Can anyone tell me what the second candle represents?
Think of the prophets and stay with our theme of the Holy Spirit. – Invite God to stir
us this morning and restore our hope.
The OT prophets, spoke the Word of God, blown along by the Holy Spirit. They were
inspired by the Spirit and used by God to bring revelation from heaven.
I wonder what you think of when you hear the word prophesy?
They brought.
• Words of explanation – Godʼs understanding of what was going on in the
world.
• Words of warning
• Words of judgement (for rebellion & breaking the covenant)
• Vision for the future.
• Words of hope and restoration.
They prepared the way of the Lord, for the future.
To understand the prophets, we need to understand the difference between
describing and proclaiming.
To describe, is what a journalist or Historian does.
They tell stories, they recount events, they describe what has happened – they pass
on information.
Prophets donʼt speak in that way.
They Proclaim the Word of God. – in a way that expects the very words they say –
not just to predict the future, but to shape it.
In Genesis 1 – the word is desolate and empty. – The Hebrew word is ʻTohuBohuʼ –
(you donʼt need to know that, I just like saying it!)
And God spoke.
He spoke & the world was created.
When God speaks – things happen! – Things are created.
The future is changed.
The words spoken, arenʼt just sound waves. But they actually become a reality.
This is what Prophesy is all about. – Its about hearing Godʼs Word from heaven &
speaking it out – to bring change.
Ezekiel 37. – Amazing passage.
Describes a vision the Spirit gave him, of a valley of dry bones.
Itʼs a vision of hopelessness.
A dry, valley of death.
A great deal of prayer – starts from that place of hopelessness.
That place of dryness, emptiness.
That place where we feel surrounded by death.
These bones are just the remnants of good things in the past – now lost.
Itʼs a horrible scene.
And its interesting to me that the Holy Spirit leads him there.
Just as in the gospels – the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness.
There are times in our lives, when the Holy Spirit wants us to open our eyes and see
the desolation around us.
There are other times, when he doesnʼt. – We can become absorbed by the mess of
the world. We can become preoccupied with the news and in our day and age, we
can find out bad news from around the world at all times of day or night if we want to.
& I donʼt know about you, but I can find it gets me down.
One question I often ask myself when seeing the news – is do I need to watch this? –
If God stirring me to pray, or am I just getting knocked down for the sake of it?
There are times when the Holy Spirit does open our eyes to see the valley of dry
bones around us.
Right now, there is a great deal of hopelessness financially in our nation. There is
pessimism in every direction, fear, worry, shrinking back.
Alongside that, itʼs a time of year, when its easy to feel hopeless. – Winter arrives, its
suddenly cold! (church boiler)
How we respond to Hopelessnesss – hugely depends on what we believe.
A few years ago, when preaching on hope, I decided to look through a dictionary of
quotations at all the quotations on the theme of hope.
I noted down those that were insightful, witty, poetic, intriguing. And then I noticed
something. – Nearly all of the quotations I had noted had one thing in common.
They were hopeless. – they mocked and laughed at hope.
something empty and foolish.
They saw hope as
All except one collection of quotations.
And they were the ones taken from the Bible.
In the Bible – Hope isnʼt an empty, foolish, way of escaping bad stuff.
Or a naïve wishing for a better future, which wiser people will tell us can never come.
It is certainty. – It is trusting in a good and powerful God. – For a better future.
In Ezekiel 37 – He is faced with a situation of total hopelessness.
& God asks him ʻSon of man, can these bones live?ʼ
Iʼve always been struck by that question. – God asking us – can these bones live?
Working on the truth that God never asks a question, because he wants information.
– we need to see that God is starting a conversation, trying to help Ezekiel.
You alone know.
I think thatʼs a good response. – Straight back at you Lord. – Iʼm not the one with all
knowledge, Iʼm not the one who can raise from death. – You are.
Whatʼs going on here is that God is including Ezekiel in the process.
He loves to work in partnership with us. He has placed us on this planet as stewards
of creation, and he wants to work with us. To see it restored.
Prophesy to these bones – speak to them.
There it is – the instruction to speak.
The instruction to speak words – that will bring life – because they are words from
God Himself.
This short exchange – is hugely significant as a model for prayer.
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The Holy Spirit opens Ezekielʼs eyes to see reality, a situation which needs
change.
He then asks Ezekiel a question – to stir him into action.
Ezekiel responds – recognising that God is Lord or all, and in charge and has
the true perspective and the power in every situaion.
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God gives Ezekiel the words to proclaim.
Words which will bring life, words from God – for Ezekiel to speak into the
situation.
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Ezekiel then speaks those out & change happens.
This conversation is a really profound one for us, when we think about prayer.
When we pray, the reason we pray – is because we want to see things change.
What we see here is that prayer is a partnership with God.
• We ask him for the words.
• He gives them to us.
• We speak them out
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The Holy Spirit moves & brings the change we long for.
Let me give you an example.
Menʼs prayer meeting. – weekly.
Menʼs weekend. – declarations.
Jobs and promotions. – surprise and wrestled.
Then 7 in the next 2 months. (out of the blue) – including someone significant role,
widespread influence – replacing someone forced to resign because of corruption
and deceit.
One of the reasons, Iʼve been encouraging us to believe that we can hear God
speak. Is because it changes our prayer life. – When we learn to hear words from
God.
We can proclaim them in our prayers & thatʼs how we exercise faith.
Letʼs look at the words God gives Ezekiel to prophesy.
I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you
and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and
you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.ʼ”
“I will make breath enter you – and you will come to life.”
The breath of God. – also translated the wind in the OT, is His life giving Spirit.
It canʼt be seen, canʼt be handled or bottled or stored up in a cupboard somewhere. –
But the key truth about breath is that without it there is no life.
In Genesis 2 – in the second account of creation, God takes Adam and Eve, forms
them from dust and then breathes life into them.
This is the start of all hope. – That God will breath life into empty things.
Sometimes when we teach on the Holy Spirit, we think only of the wonderful
experiences we have of him.
Shaking, or feeling electricity through our bodies.
Falling to the ground, knocked over by Godʼs power.
Praying in tongues or being able to prophesy.
Healings and miracles.
These are all wonderful things. – Tangible, real experiences which can change us
forever. – Things which we canʼt do naturally, but refresh us because when we
experience them. – they remind us that God is real.
But they are only part of what the Bible tells us about the Holy Spirit.
The creed describes him as ʻthe Lord, the giver of life.ʼ
I love that description. – Like the breath. The giver of life.
In the middle of winter in a recession. – I think a few of us know that we need the
giver of life.
When we wake up and its cold and frosty and still dark outside. The leaves have
fallen off most of the trees & we only have a few hours of daylight.
I need God to give me life. – Thatʼs what I ask the Holy Spirit for.
Itʼs a simple prayer – one we will sing later.
Breathe on me breath of God.
its not just about receiving new life, for ourselves.
What we see here about the Holy Spirit, is that we can pray for the breath of God to
enter empty and hopeless situations.
He is the God who fills us up, with new life.
This is why the quotes from the wisdom of this world.
– Were empty, hollow.
But the truth about the Hope God gives – is that it is full. Filled with his breath.
When the writers of the Bible tried to explain the extraordinary experience of
encountering the Holy Spirit. The phrase they use most often is ʻbeing filled with the
Holy Spiritʼ.
The Lord, the giver of life. – Fills us up.
If you boil down what a church does together to simplify it all, it comes down to two
things.
We build things.
We ask God to fill them.
We build services – that means setting the time, someone reading, someone serving
coffee, someone leading the worship, someone preaching. – All of that is the part we
play.
WE build an event – where we meet together for a purpose.
But its empty, unless we ask God to come and fill it with His Holy Spirit.
Over Christmas, we have a whole series of events coming up. Services, carol
concerts, school visits, events at the Life Centre. Weʼve built a structure for us to
connect with our community at this special festival and give opportunities to tell the
story of Heaven invading earth.
But all of these will be empty, unless we ask God to fill them.
This is why weʼre having a day of prayer this Thursday. A day set aside at the
beginning of the Christmas season, to pray together. & to ask God to fill all that we
do this month – with His Holy Spirit. – The Lord, the giver of Life.
You can come for one of the prayer times when weʼll gather through the day. Or for
our large gathering all together in the evening.
Or just pop in on your own, or with a friend during the daytime and spend some time
praying together.
You wonʼt be pressurised into anything, you can come and join in, or sit quietly and
pray in silence.
We can pray anywhere at any time. But thereʼs something special about giving
ourselves a focus and an opportunity to do so.
All of it will be in the Guywood Centre. – And I really encourage you to take some
time on Thursday to come and pray and ask God to fill all that we do together – with
his Life giving Spirit.
And finally – one more aspect of what God fills us with.
he fills us with Hope, - which comes from new life.
Without hope, anything we build, all ministry we do, all projects, courses, buildings
we have. – become empty.
Hope is what we offer the world. The promise of a better future.
It lifts our heads, helps us to look up & beyond & see the bigger story that we are part
of.
In our gospel reading – we saw Zechariah also lifting his eyes up in hope, to see the
bigger story.
In his old age, Zechariah has a new burst of hope.
The child he and Elizabeth longed for is promised and God once again miraculously
brings a baby to a barren couple who had given up hope.
Zechariahʼs song of praise – is a wonderful poem of hope.
[read extracts]
He looks back at the promises of old, the words God had promised by the Prophets.
– And sees that now they are being fulfilled.
There are some here today and God wants to remind you of promises He made to
you many years ago.
There will be some of us who heard God promise things long, long ago for your lives,
or your childrenʼs lives. – To hope is to recall those promises and in faith pray again.
Speaking them out as true.
As well as looking back to the promises from the prophets of old.
Zechariah sees that thereʼs even more beyond. – His son John, will prepare the way
for the Messiah.
He would go before Jesus – to prepare the way for him.
Just as Ezekiel was used by God, to proclaim Godʼs words of life & see the breath of
God enter those dry bones and bring them to life.
John was used by God, to proclaim a message to Israel of the need for change. The
need for people to turn back to God. To speak out the truth of salvation and the
forgiveness of sins.
So as we finish, letsʼ be alert to the key things that God is saying to us today.
1. That we realise that we are preparing the way of the Lord, through our
prayers. – When we speak out words from God, words of life and words of
prayer for what we long for. – We are preparing the way for Jesus return.
2. He is the God of Hope. – If you are in a situation of hopelessness today, a
situation where it all looks desolate and empty. – Turn your ears to heaven and ask
God what He wants you to pray and proclaim into being. When we hear words of
hope from heaven, theyʼre different from wishful thinking. They have substance and
as we speak them out. – they become a reality.
Letʼs pray