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).

"The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus" - by Jim Tharp 2011

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom. 8:2)

The apostle Paul tells us in this great epistle of Romans of three laws that he faced in his life.

First, there is the law of God. Its commandments he found to be holy, just, good. But it had no power to save. It could bring condemnation; it could never bring deliverance from the bondage of sin.

Second, there is the law of sin and death. The law of God is good and holy, but it is outside of us, beyond our ability. The law of sin and death is inside us, and it is in direct contrast to the law of God. The apostle explained the conflict in personal testimony: “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do (Rom. 7:18-19). But here in chapter 8 Paul goes on to tell us of a third law that triumphs over the law that is weak in that it cannot save and the law that is contradictory and hinders the believer’s desire to please God in a life of holiness and power.

The third law Paul calls the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He opens this chapter of celebration in Romans 8 with a victory statement: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (8:1-5).

Most believers are acquainted with the first two of these three laws. They know that the law of God is good--it is holy, ideal and challenging. But its lack of redemptive power, its inability to deliver them from their dilemma (their bondage to sin) only adds to their sense of failure and frustration.

Back in Romans 7:9-24, Paul described the defeat and despair of Christians who have yet to discover the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. They come to the close of each day with a sense of having failed spiritually. As a revivalist, I meet them at the altars or after the services and hear their confessions: “I am dead, dry, defeated; there’s got to be something more to help me rise above my dilemma.” 

The Breath of God - by Jim Tharp, 2001

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22)

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (Acts 2:1-2)

Also He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. (Ezekiel 37:9-10)

In my fifty-four years of Christian ministry, I’ve never seen pastors and lay leaders so frantic in their search for survival within their organizations. They are running to and fro - from seminar to seminar, from university to university, from workshop to workshop, from denomination to denomination, from church to church, from concept to concept - seeking desperately for the secret to success. It is amazing how much many of them are willing to risk in order to keep their churches afloat numerically and financially. Some will do almost anything short of blasphemy to show some gains in budgets and membership. Still most of them sit in silent embarrassment during their annual conferences as a few leaders are called forward to receive recognition for their statistical gains and good works. They go back to their churches to ponder old and new options: send out a resume for a possible change of pastorates, go back to the university for another degree in another field, ask for a sabbatical, consider a different form of ministry, leave the ministry for secular employment, or .... Family members and close friends stand by with aching hearts as they watch their suffering loved one search in vain for an answer to a meaningful ministry. They suffer as well, seeing the sincerity, integrity and strained efforts of their dear one, wondering why God has not rewarded his prayers and labors with a powerful ministry of revival and a great harvest of souls.

And yet the secret is not hidden. Jesus spelled it out repeatedly. In fact, He spent more time revealing this secret to His disciples than He spent on any other subject. He declared the Holy Spirit to be the Breath of God (Ruach Ha Kodesh), apart from which they would labor in vain. But if they prayed, the Church would be birthed; and if they continued in prayer, the Church would be built; and if they prevailed in prayer, the Church would be blessed and the gates of hell could not prevail against it.

But it is not enough to know that Ruach Ha Kodesh is the secret of our spiritual life and ministry success; we must know how to receive, how to inhale, how to keep on being filled. As Jesus "breathed on" the disciples, He said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22, emphasis mine). Billy Graham accurately points out, "It is interesting that the Bible nowhere gives us a neat, concise formula for being filled with the Spirit. I believe that may be because most believers in the first century did not need to be told how to be filled. They knew that the Spirit-filled life was the normal Christian life. It is a sad commentary on the low level of our spiritual lives today that we are so confused about the filling of the Spirit." (The Holy Spirit, Word Pub., 1978, p. 109). I agree with Billy Graham that getting filled with the Spirit is not a matter of following certain regimented stages, but in my five decades of personal and ministry experience, I detect a process that involves three phases leading to a life being lived under the influence of Ruach Ha Kodesh.

Expectancy and Desperation

First, we need to expect to be filled with the Spirit! From the time that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to His disciples, they were filled with anticipation and expectancy. They never considered being filled with the Spirit something to be presumptuous about. They expected to be filled with the Spirit and so they obeyed the Lord and went back into the city and prayed until the Spirit came upon them and filled them. There is nothing automatic or accidental about a Christian being filled with the Spirit today. No one has ever fallen unintentionally into this experience. It is not for the curious or the casual believer, but for the one who wants the fullness of the Holy Spirit more than he or she wants anything else in this life.

Exhaling and Dying

Second, we must prepare to receive the Spirit. 

As Jesus "breathed on" the disciples He gave a command, "Receive the Holy Spirit." His command was an order that meant they were to prepare the way for the Spirit to come. Before they could fully experience the in-breathing of the Holy Spirit, they needed to deeply exhale -- give up the old in order to get ready for the new; empty of the toxic elements in order to take in the pure; die to self in order to live in the Spirit. This is exactly what Paul the apostle is calling for in Ephesians 4:22-24: "throw off your old evil nature - the old you that was a partner in your evil ways - rotten through and through, full of lust and sham. Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature." (The Living Bible).