Kingdomnomics

          

                 Experiencing  The Kingdom Power

If you can understand and apply to your life the following sentence, then you’ll be

among the wisest and best informed of Christians.

All of our spiritual power comes from the Holy Spirit.

Simple enough, right? And yet somehow, after two thousand years of Christianity, a great many believers do not understand this. As a matter of fact, they don’t even grasp who the Holy Spirit is! That’s like having no idea you have a heart pumping blood through your system, or that your house is wired with electricity. The matter of your power in the Spirit of God has incredible implications for every day of your life.

The Holy Spirit is Christ living within us. He offers us guidance and just the right words when we face various crises. He comforts us. He strengthens us. He administers the special gifts given to us for ministry. It is through him that we live as new creations in Christ. On the day you began to believe in Jesus, his Spirit took residence within you.

And he began the great work that will continue until either you die or Christ returns to

earth—the power of transforming you into the living image of Christ.

And how does he do this? Over the years, I’ve developed an understanding of the process by which we are changed. I think of it this way: We soak, we sow, and the Spirit flows.

First comes soaking our hearts and minds in the Word of God. There’s no substitute for this, no shortcut. We need to immerse ourselves in the Word of God until

as much of it as possible is engraved on our hearts.

I hear some people say that they struggle to read and understand the Bible. There are a number of guides and study Bibles to help us do that, but what’s important is that we must read the Bible itself—not just a good book, but the Good Book. The Holy Spirit within us reveals its truth. He interprets and he applies the message of God to our thoughts and our issues.

If you’ve ever struggled to stick with Bible study, hang in there. Ask God to bring the

words to life for you, as he has done for thousands of years. One of my all-time favourite verses is from the psalmist: “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer” (Psalm 45:1). The composer of this verse had dipped his mind into the lovely depths of Scripture. Note that he “recited” his verses before the king. This means he had committed them to memory.

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All of our spiritual power comes from the Holy Spirit.

I can’t count the many times my life has been blessed because of a verse I hid in my heart on some earlier occasion. Every verse you memorize gives the Spirit a ready tool to use just when you need it. Soon, he can do some major work on your insides!

The heart is stirred when we look deeply into Scripture and meditate on it. So much

power is contained in these heaven-sent lines. Nothing expresses the great issues and principles of life the way the Word of God does.

The psalmist’s heart is stirred as he soaks it in the Word. We’ve used the sponge as a word picture for this, with its absorbency, filling up with living water.

And then, as we read or recite our verses, we sow them to the Spirit, and he begins to flow through our being, so that we feel the power and presence of God. I’ve enjoyed this dynamic experience countless times. We come to the Word of God anxious, and he gives us peace. We come with anger about someone, and he gives us love and patience. We come dry, and he fills us to bursting with the refreshment of his goodness. It’s a daily reality check with a sweet fragrance.

This is one of the primary ways that kingdom attitudes begin to grow within us. Crisis by crisis, worry by worry, relationship by relationship, the Spirit of God, speaking to us through his Word and his personal guidance, transforms us into the people he has always intended for us to be.

A genuine “spiritual chemical reaction” takes place when we soak our hearts and minds in the Scriptures, and let the Spirit flow freely through us. Life, health, power, and hope surge through us like medicine from heaven itself. This is one reason that so many studies show that people who pray are physically and emotionally healthier than those who do not. The life-giving power of God flows through those who pray and who recite their verses to the King.

So we soak, we sow—reciting our verses, and the Spirit flows. Soon, we’ll need to repeat this process. The sponge (heart and mind) can be filled over and over, and we can’t let it become dry and brittle. It’s a repeat process. However, the more we do it, the more we find that our attitudes are changing in a remarkable way. It works the same as with any form of nutrition: You must eat daily, but eating the right foods begins to bring you a residual health. You are stronger and healthier.

                          The Mixmaster Concept

I often explain the soak, sow, and flow process with the illustration of a Mixmaster and three steps in using it.

First, I drop the ingredients into the bowl to soak. I compare this to memorizing the living and powerful Word of God. It will work in the heart of the believer if he receives and trusts it as divine. It is sitting in your heart and mind, waiting for something to happen.

Second, the Mixmaster stirs the ingredients. I compare that to sowing to the Spirit. As we recite our verses, the Spirit stirs the Word, mixing himself with it, causing our hearts to be stirred with a noble theme as we focus our thoughts and eyes on Jesus Christ, the fountain of life.

Finally, the mixture is ready to be poured out. The Spirit flows, imparting his life into our mortal body. Now we can go into our day with Christ, the power of God “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20, NIV84).

Our worldview and our value system take on a whole new perspective. We become

ambassadors for Christ, constantly engaged in calling people to be reconciled to him. My wife can see the difference in me when I emerge from a time of soaking. I can see the difference in her as she does it. There is a stronger contentment, a peace about the worries of the day, a confidence in the direction we’re

heading. And I find that I want to keep memorizing God’s Word, so that it is a living,

working presence in my heart, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

Most of all, I gain a renewed sense of connection to the things that God cares about. I

sow my verses to him, and I reap what I sow; he imparts truth and conviction and peace. I also fend off temptation and bad decisions more effectively. My life is radically different because of what happens when I soak in the Word, sow to the Spirit, and let the Spirit flow.

Paul captures what this is all about when he writes, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Flowback from the Spirit

One of the simplest truths known to humanity is that we reap what we sow. Flowback

from the Spirit is the phrase I use to describe what I reap when I sow to the Spirit by

reciting God’s Word. It is manifest in many different ways: the secrets that God imparts to us; “light bulb” moments when we suddenly and clearly see something God has been trying to tell us; specific areas of guidance; and simple gifts of encouragement, strength, and power just when we need them.

We’re recalling and meditating upon the Word of God, affirming its truth, and in doing

so, we’re “putting on Christ” (see Galatians 3:27), setting the Spirit free to have his way with us. I’ve made specific kingdom investments and other life decisions that I knew were the result of flowback from the Spirit.

Perhaps my most vivid example of flowback in my life was when I was in a serious

On the day you began to believe in Jesus, his Spirit took residence within

you.

automobile accident. It was amazing enough that I even survived it. I totaled my jeep, fractured my sternum, broke my tibia, and lacerated my forehead with many tiny bits of glass.

In short order, I was in the intensive care unit of the hospital, and I was discovering what physical pain was all about. The doctors were concerned about possible fluid

buildup around the heart, due to my chest injury. It hurt almost beyond endurance if I coughed—which I kept needing to do—or even moved. The doctors couldn’t give

me anything for my pain other than simple acetaminophen, because my heart had to be monitored.

When they changed the sheets on the bed, they had to lift me by a small crane because I lacked the power to move myself. Yet with all that pain, it was for the best that I wasn’t “dosed up” with some strong medication. I was alert enough to recite my verses to God.

All my years of study brought Scripture passages to mind, the most prominent one being, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

There’s so much power in these words. I knew the eyes of God were upon me, and I felt his strength even in my terrible pain. But I concentrated on making sure my heart was fully committed to him in that awful moment. I sowed to the Spirit, and “my heart [was] stirred with a noble theme” (Psalm 45:1). No, the physical suffering did not go away, but the Spirit imparted contentment, peace, and (I believe) health to my physical body.

Being spared pain is fine; triumphing over pain is far more exciting, far more of an

investment toward wisdom and strength in the Lord. That’s what he was doing for me. He loved me enough to let me grow through that trial, and he was there with me every second.

A nurse smiled at me and said, “Someone must have really been watching over you

during that accident.”

One of the doctors said, “We’ve studied the accident report, and wonder how you did not die and managed to come through it without real damage to your heart. With auto accidents, most fractured sternums are vertical. The heart is punctured, and death is instantaneous. Yours was a lateral fracture. Tell me,” said the doctor with a grin, “exactly what did you do to deserve surviving an accident like this one?”

“Nothing,” I said. “I fully deserved to die on that dark road. But I was saved by the grace of God.” And I prevailed through the worst of it by flowback from the Spirit,

experiencing his incredible presence and encouragement and healing power fixing my thoughts on his Word.

In a book with so much discussion of giving, we explore a lot of truths that have to do

The process by which we are changed: We soak, we sow, and the Spirit flows.

with how we behave and the importance of obedience to God. But there are many gifts of sheer grace, many rewards that come just because God wants to bless us.

Yes, we want to fulfill the Great Commission. We want to go all over the world to serve him. But there are also aspects of all this that are, simply stated, wonderful moments of a loving Father saying, Look what I have for you. I want to show you great things that so few others have seen. You are my child, and I love you.

In those moments, he’s not a boss. He’s Abba, Father —a daddy.

Call on his name, and you’ll understand.

                                Turning on the Power

All of the principles discussed in this book are wonderful and supernatural ... and they’re not our work. They come through the power of God, dispensed by the Holy Spirit.

Otherwise, we might as well be flashlights without batteries. Nothing could be more

frustrating than finding a flashlight when the power goes off in your home—only to

discover you have no working batteries.

That is an image of your life apart from the process of soaking, sowing, and flowing that comes through the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t matter how much you want to be a “good Christian,” or how many times you attend church, how much money you contribute, or how many good deeds you do—you will be as empty a vessel as the battery-less flashlight apart from the living Word of God flowing through you and empowering you by the Holy Spirit.

God wants each of us to shine in a dark world. He has told us we’re the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

What a tragedy when the light of the world has no batteries! With a power source, that flashlight can light the way through a dark tunnel; without that source, it’s a useless piece of plastic. And let’s remember who owns the flashlight, and who decides where to point it. Our heavenly Father, the same one who placed his Spirit within us, will shine us in the right directions.

If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, you need not do anything special to invite the Holy Spirit into your life—he is there, just as sure as your heart was pumping blood through your body long before you learned about it in school. As you experience his presence, you can learn to co-operate with him, through reading the Word of God and asking him to illuminate it for you; by asking him to give you the right words during important conversations; and by relying on him to show you how to serve God as you go about the day. In time, you’ll be more and more aware of the Spirit and how he works in your life. When you stumble, you’ll

You will be as empty as the battery-­less flashlight apart from the living

Word of God flowing through you and empowering you by the Holy Spirit.

feel his very gentle whisper of admonishment; when you are worried, you’ll feel his word of encouragement; and when you’re mourning, you’ll feel his comfort. The Holy Spirit is more than just a power source; he is a friend in every need.