In the early 1990s I visited a charismatic Baptist Church near my house and heard a song by Geoff Bullock entitled Refresh My Heart. My heart recognised that the words of this song, a prayer to Jesus for the life that He is – is what hearts everywhere are looking for – spirit and life from God.
Refresh my heart, Lord,
Renew my love,
Pour Your Spirit into my soul,
Refresh my heart.
You set me apart, Lord,
To make me new,
By Your Spirit,
Lift me up, Lord,
Refresh my heart.
SPIRIT POINTS TO THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE
Holy Spirit lives to reveal the fullness of Jesus and the One who is Jesus. He lives to reveal the glory of our Father and the glory of each of us as sons and daughters of God. Father is seen for who He is in Jesus. Jesus is seen for who He is in Holy Spirit. We are who we are in Christ and are nurtured in our sonship by Father. In communion with the trinity we live from life unto life.
There is life without limit in this Gospel and limited life in ‘other gospels.’ The Gospel of the Kingdom of Life is the Gospel of Jesus and Paul.
THE MIRROR
There is a mirror and this Mirror is Jesus Christ. Look into His Face to see your own.
Holy Spirit is fully God. Spirit delights in revealing the wonder of the Christ and prompting us to know the Son as He is and the gospel of the Kingdom in spirit and in truth in its fullness. Holy Spirit is the Guardian of Truth, bringing to bear revelation that reveals our freedom to be sons and daughters in Christ. John wrote,
‘But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you’ John 16.13,14 NIV.
MYSTERY
With Christ as our life we receive His Person to become ourselves. The mystery of Godliness is that God by the Spirit become you.
Life in the Spirit is Christ our life - the incarnation in spirit and in truth. How might one explain this. An old covenant worship leader talks about the song. The new covenant worship leader is the song. There is no dualism in the new covenant. You are one with God by the One Spirit.
Life in the Spirit is not the anointing and the gifts as some suppose. Life in the Spirit is OUR NEW COVENANT UNION WITH GOD. This is the incarnation of Jesus in people. It is Jesus manifesting as you and I by the Spirit and the means by which we are one with Father, son and Holy Spirit.
LIFE IN THE SPIRIT DEFINED
It is our union with the trinity achieved by divine enterprise that is both life in the Spirit and our authentic life as vital human beings. In the Spirit we have agency to multiply the life that we have become in oneness with Jesus.
THE TEMPLATE
Here we are sons of God in spirit and in truth. ** Richard Rohr writes that, “If the mystery of the Trinity is the template of all reality, what we have in the Trinitarian God is the perfect balance between union and differentiation, autonomy and mutuality, identity and community.”
Here we are talking about the wholeness shared with us in our shared life in the trinity. This is the effect of our embrace and practice of this realisation: “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” John 14.20 NIV.
There is difference between living in the reality of union with God and living in separation. In separation because we have retained ourselves in the separation of the law (Adam and Moses). Jesus offers us union with God in spirit and in truth – not a grasping for shadows of the real in definitions, positions and proof texts.
Religion is the carton of the wine cask but the wine is the life.
‘God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth’ John 4.24 NIV. This conversation reveals that spirit and truth – union with God – is never found in laws and rites. It is the reality of incarnation: God in us and us in God.
LIBERTY IS WHERE THE SPIRIT IS
Holy Spirit does nothing on His own, is not an independent entity and lives to shine a light on the truth as it is revealed in the person of our Father, of Jesus and the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, not limited truth or partial truth. Holy Spirit does not foster private gospels and misinformation that binds and blinds the humanity of the sons and daughters of God.
Spirit will not rest if we are contained in other gospels that distort the Christ and degrade the sons of God. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, meaning liberty to be sons in fullness, in vigour and wellness – not diseased or crippled by false doctrines and half-truths posing as revelation.
YOU HAVE HIS EYES
C Baxter Kruger writes in the book Patmos, “Jesus has given you his own eyes. Hold no secrets from Jesus, and you will see everything with his eyes.” With Jesus as our life and our eyes every crooked impression, every false christ we have created will dissolve and our self-created veils will be no more. We will see Him more and more as He is.
Holy Spirit coaches us in the Real Jesus, explaining and revealing the truth of His nature. It is Holy Spirit who rids our minds of false christs and directs us back to the authentic Christ so that we have the mind of Christ and are worshiping the same Jesus that is our Father’s son and not some deviant invention.
** We can be notionally sons - yet not sons in spirit and in truth. The latter is both a realisation and a state of being: ‘On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you’ John 14.20 NIV. This is a lived in union with God and the real meaning of life in the Spirit.