Jesus in EVERYTHING? || A Life Led by the Holy Spirit
Does Jesus really need to be in EVERYTHING?
Do professing Believers really need to incorporate Him into EVERY aspect of their lives?
Every choice of entertainment?
Every encounter?
Every conversation?
Every experience?
Every decision?
The answer is a simply Yes. But the question for the professing Believer is this: Do you WANT Him in every fiber of your being?
The Men’s and Women’s Groups at Cascade Church are currently studying the powerful Book of Romans by the Apostle Paul. Every chapter packs a punch pointing to the Gospel of Christ. In fact, one could almost look at Paul’s letter to the Romans as Cliff Notes to the Gospel.
We recently finished up discussing chapter 6 and chapter 7, describing how we are dead to sin but alive in Christ. Jesus made this possible by the price He paid upon the cross as the perfect sacrificial lamb for us. In chapter 7 Paul goes into great detail about a war that wages within us. A war against the law of the mind. A war that battels between our sinful nature and a life led by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have gone back and forth on whether to write about this battle that wages. Why? Because I not only know of its convicting power, I know that if one truly doesn’t desire to live a life led by the Power of the Holy Spirit, it will just make them angry. Angry because we often try to live through our own self justification of our choices.
So, what does a life through the Spirit truly look like? How do we define it?
Romans chapter 8 is one of the many places we can turn.
Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8
One misconception is that living a life led by the Spirit will be automatic and natural once one has decided to follow Christ. That all decisions and choices hence forth will be in accordance with the Spirit or approved by the Holy Spirit. Wouldn’t that be nice?! Wouldn’t it be lovely to no longer battle with our sinful nature once the Spirit lives in us? Wouldn’t it be nice that after 40+ years of knowing Christ, I wouldn’t, still to this day, find myself falling to my knees in repentance because of that war that still wages over the mind? But we know this to not be true. We see even the Apostle Paul battled with this war that wages:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20
A life led by the Spirit must be wanted. It must be desired. It must be a daily dying to oneself and picking up our cross. A life led by the Spirit is not automatic. And if we find that even Paul battled, why would we believe that we have conquered sin?
A.W. Tozer, a pastor and prominent writer in the 20th century spoke a powerful sermon that can be read in a thin little booklet or listened to called, How to Be Filled with The Holy Spirit. This incredibly powerful sermon hits at the heart of what a life looks like to be led by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus in EVERYTHING. There is a moment within his sermon when Tozer brings Believers to a crossroads in asking these powerful and maybe painful questions:
Do you want to be Filled?
Again, before you can be filled with the Spirit you must desire to be filled. Here I meet with a certain amount of puzzlement. Somebody will say, “How is it that you say to us that we must desire to be? Haven’t we called you on the phone? Aren’t we out her tonight to hear the sermon on the Holy Spirit? Isn’t this all a comforting indication to you that we are desirous of being filled with the Holy Spirit?
Not necessarily, and I will explain why. For instance, are you sure that you want to be possessed by a spirit other than your own? Even though that Spirit be the pure Spirit of God? Even though He be the very gentle essence of the gentle Jesus? Even though He be sane and pure and free? Even though He be wisdom personified, wisdom Himself, even though He have a healing, a precious ointment to distill? Even though He be loving as the heart of God? That Spirit, if He ever possess you, will be the Lord of your life!
Do you want Him to be Lord of your Life?
I ask you, Do you want Him to be Lord of your life? That you want His benefits, I know. I take that for granted. But do you want to be possessed by Him? Do you want to hand the keys of your soul over to the Holy Spirit and say, “Lord, from now on I don’t even have a key to my own house. I come and go as Thou tellest me”? Are you willing to give the office of your business establishment, your soul, over to the Lord and say to Jesus, “You sit in this chair and handle these telephones and boss the staff and be Lord of this outfit”? That is what I mean. Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure that you desire it?
Are you sure you want your personality to be taken over by One who will expect obedience to the written and living Word? Are you sure that you want your personality to be take over by the One who will not tolerate self sins? For instance, self-love. You can no more have the Holy Ghost and have self-love than you can have purity and impurity at the same moment in the same place. He will not permit you to indulge self-confidence. Self-love, self-confidence, self-righteousness, self-admiration, self-aggrandizement and self-pity are under the interdiction of God Almighty, and He cannot send His mighty Spirit to possess the heart where these things are.
Again, I ask you if you desire to have your personality taken over by One who stands in sharp opposition to the world’s easy ways. No tolerance of evil, no smiling at crooked jokes, no laughing off things that God hates. The Spirit of God, if He takes over, will bring you into opposition to the world just as Jesus was brought into opposition to it. The world crucified Jesus because they couldn’t stand Him!
There was something in Him that rebuked them and they hated Him for it and finally crucified Him. The world hates the Holy Spirit as bad as they ever hated Jesus, the One from whom He proceeds. Are you sure, brother? You want His help, yes; you want a lot of His benefits, yes; but are you willing to go with Him in His opposition to the easygoing ways of the world? If you are not, you needn’t apply for anything more than you have, because you don’t want Him; you only think you do!
So back to our original question:
Does Jesus need to be in EVERYTHING? In EVERY aspect of our lives? In our personalities? In our going and lying down? In our conversations? In our activities? In our daily chores? In our mundane and in our celebrations?
The answer is a resounding YES! If He is not, can we truly say that He is LORD of every area of our lives?
I will not answer that question for you – because I have already answered the question preceding it.
Is a life led by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit easy? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Why? Because Romans 8:13 says,
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Again Paul says in Colossians 3:5
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…
Death MUST take place so that LIFE in Christ may flourish and reign supreme. We, as professing Believers of Christ, must put to death our flesh and sinful nature in order that we may live a life in accordance with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus knew this would not be easy for us. This is why He reminds us
“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23
This dying to ourselves and taking up our own cross to follow Christ is a dying to being lord of our own lives. Dying daily to what we choose to do and HOW we choose to do it. And while it may be hard, there is GREAT beauty, joy, freedom, life, and so much delight in doing the will of God our Father. It is AWESOME and GOOD! Don’t get me wrong, it is also hard. Hard – but so good!
But don’t be surprised if people, even those who profess to know Christ, reject this. Reject you. Reject your life of following whole heartedly after Christ. They aren’t rejecting you, but the One you are choosing to keep your eyes fixated upon by living a convicted life.
One final time will I ask the question: Does Jesus need to be in EVERYTHING? I will answer the question through Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Additional resources on what it means to be a Disciple of Christ:
· Discipleship – A.W. Tozer
· How to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit – A. W. Tozer
· Follow Me – David Platt
· Multiply – Francis Chan
