A New Thing - By Jim Tharp, 2002

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

The God of Israel had a long history as a God of power. The God of the Exodus from Egyptian bondage was determined to be the God of the Exodus from Babylonian bondage to His people Israel. But the human factor had to be reckoned with. The people of Israel must prepare for their deliverance from captivity. A part of their preparation was to let go of the old in order to have faith for the new.

So today, the God of Pentecostal revival is determined to be the God of Last-days revival. But the human factor is still a part of the equation, so that even our Sovereign God cannot give revival until His people have met His conditions. While His great loving heart yearns for the salvation of the lost billions of earth, that same loving heart must be grieving deeply over the deadness and disobedience and bondage of His Church. But let us not mistake His purpose – He will build His Church; He will produce a Bride for His Son; He will yet prepare His people for the revival that will cover the earth with His glory as the water covers the seas and reap an evangelistic harvest unparalleled in the history of His Church.

How will He do this? By drawing His people back to His ordained age-long plan of intercessory prayer. For as His people pray, they will be delivered from the bondage of the world and the flesh and an anointing will be released upon them for the spiritual harvest that is more than ripe. Oh, let us allow the Holy Spirit to align our hearts with God’s purpose at this very hour to do a new thing and break us out of our carnality, our unbelief, our paralysis, our spiritual pride, our division, our irrelevance, our indifference!

Forgetting The Old

Our churches across America and Canada are filled with members fattened on biblical truth but starved for life and power in the Spirit. So many can cite the time and place of being born again but they

Aglow with the Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2008

Let your love be sincere - a real thing; hate what is evil (loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from all wickedness), but hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection - as members of one family - giving precedence and showing honor to one another. Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of God's people - sharing in the necessities of the saints - pursuing the practice of hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you - who are cruel in their attitude toward you; bless and do not curse them. Share others' joy, rejoicing with those who rejoice; and share others' grief, weeping with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty (snobbish, high-minded, exclusive), but readily adjust yourself to people and things, and give yourselves to humble tasks. Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own conceits. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble - aiming to be above reproach - in the sight of everyone. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

(Romans 12:9-18, The Amplified New Testament)

I believe the most continual emblem for the Holy Spirit throughout both Old and New Testaments has been that of fire. Moses' initial personal experience with God began with his interest in the burning bush. Throughout the wilderness pilgrimage the children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire. Jesus told His disciples, "I have come to bring fire on the earth" (Luke 12:49). Jesus burned with the fire of the Holy Spirit in His praying, preaching, teaching and working of miracles. After His death and resurrection, and just before His ascension, He cited John's prophecy that Jesus would "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11), urging His apostles and believers to return to the city of Jerusalem to pray and "wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4-5). As Luke would record it, Jesus said to them, "but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:48-49).

The Pentecostal outpouring marked a profound historical moment - the beginning of the Age of the Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the establishment of the New Covenant. Authors W. T. Purkiser and William Greathouse agree that Pentecost "proclaimed the Church as the Body of Christ and the perpetuation of His incarnation in the world" (Exploring Christian Holiness, Vol. I, pp. 116-117).

We must not ignore the historic signs that accompanied the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit: wind, fire and tongues. The violent blowing of the wind represented the breath of the Holy Spirit as the very life of God poured into the 120 believers. The Church was not stillborn! The tongues of fire that first filled the room and then separated and came to rest on each of them signified the purifying power, the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in personal relationship with each believer. The miracle of these tongues was both in the speaking of all the languages of the Mediterranean world by men and women who had not learned those languages and in the hearing of the thousands of pilgrims who were hearing the praises of God in their own mother tongues. The Pentecostal languages are not to be confused with the gift of tongues mentioned in I Corinthians 14. Pentecostal tongues carried their own interpretation by the Spirit; the "un-known tongues" of I Corinthians must be interpreted to save worshiping believers from confusion and distraction.

Dr. Robert E. Coleman notes, "The Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit marked the beginning of this new era of ministry. It was the culminating step of the descent of the divine into the human. Jesus as an external Presence now became the enthroned Sovereign in the allegiance of His people. His Word became like fire within them, and with hearts burning with the love of God, they went on their way with gladness and singleness of desire, praising their Lord."

But I must remind us that we have been warned by the apostle Paul, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (I Thes. 5:19). The Spirit within us can be grieved, quenched, disobeyed and ignored until He is forced by our free agency to slip into an inoperable mode, awaiting our repentance and hunger for His stirring Presence.

But the smoldering flames can be rekindled. Suffering alone in Rome's Mamertine prison, the apostle Paul had more to think about than his own personal needs and approaching execution. He longed to see the face of his spiritual son Timothy, who was in charge of the church at Ephesus. The Spirit stirred in Paul a deep concern for this one upon whom the apostle had lavished his prayers and envisioned as his successor in the coming years. Paul discerned that the fire was burning low in the younger man's heart. So Paul puts it straight to Timothy in a letter, "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control" (II Tim. 1:5-7). If it could happen to Timothy, it can happen to you and to me. Just as Paul directed Timothy, so we too are called to brush off the ashes of our traditions and routines and acknowledge coldness of heart. In brokenness and humility we must ask the Lord to pull together the dying embers and fan them into red-hot flames. It is surely His desire to make his servants "flames of fire" (Heb. 1:7).

Resisting the Slumbering Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2008

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (Rev. 3:l-6).

Many churches, as well as individual Christians, are afflicted with the Sardis Syndrome today. They have a reputation of being alive, but their inner life and strength do not match their claims to know the Lord. Their talk is full of Scriptures, but their walk is weak and wobbly.

The church in Sardis is called to repentance. It is called to an awakening. Awake (v. 2) is a command. God is calling the Sardis church to revival. A minority is walking in the Spirit of holiness - they have not soiled their garments - they have not compromised with the world, nor have they succumbed to the gravity of the flesh. They have resisted the temptation to join the majority to succumb to spiritual drowsiness, which leads to slumber. 

A Bipolar Spirituality - by Jim Tharp, 2010

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (Rom. 8:5-6).

Most good dictionaries will define bipolar as “a condition of one having or being marked by two diametrically opposed natures or views.” In our Scripture today, we have two forces bidding for the affections of the Christian believer. It is urgent that we understand what the apostle Paul meant by the things of the flesh and life in the Spirit.

It is my understanding that by Paul’s use of the flesh he means our entire human personality under the control of our fallen nature including our mind and spirit as well as our body. I take this from John Wesley, who did not restrict his definition of the flesh to merely bodily or fleshly appetites, but to the corruption of human nature as it spreads through all the powers of the soul as well as to the members of the body.

While the apostle is faithful to warn us against a mindset on the things of the flesh, his real purpose in this classic passage on New Testament spirituality is to show us God’s plan of spiritual power for a new life in Jesus Christ. He called it Life according to the Spirit in contrast to life according to the flesh.

After yielding my heart and life to Jesus Christ in early July, 1946, I had struggled enough with the urges of my fallen nature so that with my mother’s counsel on Paul’s meaning of Life in the Spirit in Romans 8, four months later I went alone into the forest near our home and settled in my heart to know the New Testament experience for the believer promised both by John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ: the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11: Acts 1:5,8).

The Pinnacle of Prayer - by Jim Tharp, 2010

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... (Eph. 3:20 TLB).

It would be hard to find a New Testament passage that would exceed the glorious promise found here. However, verse 20 should not be considered apart from its context (1:14-21), in which the apostle’s purpose is to address the believer’s knowledge of both the love of God and the power of God involved in the experience of prayer as we ascend to the very summit of prayer captured in verse 20.

Actually, our incentives to prayer and our convictions for prayer are grounded in our realization of both the love of God and the power of God. God’s love determines His willingness to hear and answer prayer; His power determines His ability to hear and answer prayer. If God were simply a God of love, but not a God of power, He would be willing but not able; if He were a God of power, but not a God of love, He would be able but not willing. But glory be to His Name! We have a willing God of unlimited ability, and this truth should become the greatest assurance and highest incentive to those of us who pray!

Paul prays for his readers to be rooted and grounded in love and have power to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that they might be filled with all the fulness of God. The apostle treats the love of God as a cube, having breadth, length, depth and height. In the Bible, the cube is presented as a symbol of perfect form. Every side of a cube is a perfect square, and is seen as such from any and every angle The “Holy of holies,” in both the Tabernacle and the Temple, representing the dwelling place of God -- was a perfect cube. By divine specification, Moses and Solomon were to make the “Holy of holies” ten cubits long, ten cubits broad and ten cubits high. We find in the book of Revelation that the New Jerusalem, of which the “Holy of holies” was the type, let down out of heaven and measured equally in length, breadth and height -- still the perfection of symmetry.

 As Paul leads us to consider the love of God, he first calls attention to its breadth.

It is broad enough to take us all in! He does not love Jews only, but His love is extended to the Gentiles including every nation, tongue and tribe. It is extended to the whole world.

The love of God is also long. He says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” This means that back in the eons of eternity before the earth was formed and before we were born, our Gracious, Sovereign God planned our salvation by sending His Son Jesus to planet earth to suffer and die in full payment for all the sins of all of us. And in love He sends the Holy Spirit to convict and cleanse us from sin and to guide and empower us for the Christian life. His love for us never had a beginning and it will never have an ending.

Hosting the Holy Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2010

And you were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance of those who are God’s possession--to the praise of his glory. (Eph. 1:13, NIV).

Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. (II Cor. 5:5, NASB).

And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. (John 14:16-17, RSV).

You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred--and you, remember, are the temple. (I Cor. 3:16-17, THE MESSAGE).

Jesus spent much time preparing His disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit into their hearts and lives. He sought to make sure they understood the importance of having Him to keep them on track spiritually and fully within divine purposes for their lives and ministries. Jesus knew that if His disciples failed to understand the importance of their relationship with the Holy Spirit, His global vision for the Gospel would never get off the ground.

The disciples were at first grief-stricken on learning of the physical departure of their Lord. But they listened carefully as He explained the difference it would make for Him to depart in the flesh in order to return to them again in the Spirit. God in the Old Testament had been a presence with believers; God in the New Testament would be a presence in believers.

When Jesus told His disciples that the Father would send the Holy Spirit “in my name” (John 14:26), He meant in my character. The Holy Spirit would be to them another Convicter, another Comforter, another Counselor, just as Jesus had been. The Holy Spirit would not be given to replace Christ, but rather to reveal Christ. In fact, one hour after being filled with the Spirit at His Pentecostal outpouring, the disciples knew Christ much more perfectly than they had before. Christ had been with them; His Spirit was now in them. For the Holy Spirit is truly the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9) and the Spirit of Christ (I Pet. 1:11).

 

Jesus promised, I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth …. It is by the Holy Spirit that we learn about our Heavenly Father and our Redeeming Christ. The Spirit internalizes truth about God and about ourselves. He helps us form our spiritual convictions, our worldview and our philosophy of life.

As the believer’s Indwelling Guest, the Holy Spirit is our Illuminator and Counselor making truth clear, intelligible and intensely real. As the Author of the Scriptures, He will interpret His Word for the obedient follower of Jesus. He will fit all of the truth into the framework of our lives, knowing just when to hold some of the truth back from us for a time and then knowing just when we are ready to understand, receive and obey it.

Our Lord and His apostles made it very clear that our success in knowing the truth, growing in grace and representing our Lord in power depends on how we relate to our Indwelling Guest. How sensitive, attentive and obedient are we to our Guest who has been sent to us from the Father and the Son? What kind of hosts are we?

Hearts Aflame - By Jim Tharp - 2001

I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! (Luke 12:49)

We are indebted to Luke the physician for recording the declared basic purposes of our Lord Jesus for coming to planet earth: to seek and to save the lost (19:10); and to set the earth aflame (12:49). Perhaps we should say that in these two verses we have the motive (to seek and save the lost) and the manner (to set hearts aflame) for His coming. Immediately following His declaration of setting hearts on fire, Jesus said, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! (12:50).