Where The Spirit is, There is Peace
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,
“Abba,Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are
God’s children. Romans 8:15-16
In the movie, Little Big Man,
Chief Dan George portrays a character that Dustin Hoffman calls
"grandfather". One day he decides "it's a good day to die", and finds
himself a location on a hillside where he will die. He lies down on the
ground and waits.
And he waits.
But he does not die.
When it becomes obvious he is not going to die his response is "the
magic does not always work".
It was a funny scene, but I wonder how many of us have at times dug
ourselves a trench and lay down in it, expecting God to come and bury
us.
Maybe we have given in to despair and given up on hope.
Maybe we have given in to a sense of guilt and shame and given up on
forgiveness.
Maybe we have given in to loss and given up on the future.
Maybe we have given in to fear and given up on salvation.
But we believe also that God has given up on us.
And so we dig ourselves a grave and lie down waiting for the heavenly
bulldozer to cover us over.
But God doesn't.
God usually sends people around to invite us back into life.
Sometimes we shoo them away.
Sometimes we just turn our face to the wall and wait for them to go
away.
But God still does not bury us under judgement.
Because God never gives up on His children.
In Romans chapter eight, Paul says we have been adopted into God's
family.
In Paul's day, Roman adoption was a very serious matter.
First, a child was always under the patria
potestas--a phrase meaning the absolute sovereignty of the
father.
A Roman citizen was under Roman law, but part of Roman authority
granted the biological father absolute authority over his children.
Absolute authority for the entire life span of the father. The child
never "came of age" in that sense.
To be adopted was to pass from one absolute sovereignty to another and
was a complicated and very serious process which required seven
witnesses to ensure that it could endure legally. Once a person was
adopted by another father, it was as if the old person's life died with
adoption. All debts were considered cancelled and everything legally
under the former life was totally wiped out. And no matter if there
were biological children, the adopted child had total legal equality
and rights of inheritance.
Paul is saying that when we enter God's family by spiritual adoption,
everything of the former life is absolutely cancelled and we are under
a totally new absolute authority. And we do not need seven human
witenesses to keep it legal. We have the only witeness we need, the
Holy Spirit who is God's witness to our new status as His.
The witness to the fact we are God's, is that the Holy Spirit in us
brings us the sense of belonging to God and gives us the freedom to
even call God, Abba, the
intimate familiar name in a Roman family.
It is an internal compass; that no matter what happens, something in us
points us back toward God's love.
Paul reminds us that we were not given a spirit of fear that to
tyrranize our lives.
Instead we have the Holy Spirit who brings us the confident assurance
that we are under the total control now of God, that the past, as far
as God is concerned, might as well never have happened.
Where the Spirit of God is, there is peace.
It does not mean there is no upset, because he goes on immediately to
say provided we suffer with him.
The peace of God, obviously, does not mean tranquility.
The medieval Christian writer Thomas a Kempis writes:
Jesus has many who love his kingdom in
heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but
few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his
fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer
for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to
the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire his miracles, but
few follow him in the humiliation of the cross.1
Paul himself lived a life that included being beaten, imprisoned,
stoned and left for dead as well as shipwrecked.
That may be a bit more dramatic than our lives, however.
But what he is saying is not that we will never know fear, but that
when fear comes it does not have to dominate us. We do not have to plan
our lives from fear. We remind ourselves again and again that we belong
to God. The Spirit within us reminds us that we are His. We can plan
our lives to do and to be what we think is right and best knowing that
no matter what comes, we belong to God. No matter what happens we are
still in God's hand and with that we can be at peace.
Chiropractor Perry Hefty and his wife,
Arlys, wanted to be in what they considered "ministry" for many years.
One day when Perry was crying out to God about this deep desire, he
heard God speak: "Begin with what you have."
So instead of getting the $2.5 million he would have needed to start a
healthcare ministry and retreat center for missionaries, pastors, and
other full-time Christian workers, Perry started doing what he could:
giving free chiropractic services to Christian workers who were in
financial and physical need. That was in 1994. Since that time, Perry's
office has given away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
services—about a third of his business—to help restore physical, and
often spiritual, health.
"Many of the missionaries and Christian workers who came to the office
were deeply discouraged," says Perry. "But they felt they needed to put
on a bright and happy face so they could raise ministry support. So we
dedicated ourselves and our facility to being used by the Lord to heal
and restore his people." Perry and Arlys prayed for people in the
office, encouraged them, and counseled them, often building
relationships that continued long after treatment ended.
When Perry constructed a new office building in 1999, he and a prayer
team prayed over the land, the building project, and the business and
ministry that would take place there. Even after they moved into the
building, Perry says he often stayed late to anoint the doorways with
oil and pray for the people who would come in the next day.
"Patients noticed the difference. They would often comment, 'Wow, it
just feels so peaceful here,'" Perry says.2
Where the Spirit is, there is peace. You see that works in many ways on
many levels.
When we live in the Spirit, there is peace and we can weather our
storms.
But it can also mean that when we live in the Spirit, we can bring the
peace of God into lives needing peace.
You can begin where you are, with what you have.
I like praying about places--physical places.
When invited, I like praying for the peace of a home.
I frequently pray for peace in our church building and property.
You can too.
You see at Pentecost, God sent His Holy Spirit to live in you if you
follow Jesus as Lord.
That Spirit is there inside you like a compass pointing you back to God
whereever you are.
The same Spirit is what reminds you that you are a child of God--that
sense that believers have of God's presence around them.
And when you live in the Spirit, you bring God's peace with you.
Pray for others often.
Bless them.
Pray for the places where you work and live. Ask for God's peace to
invade those places.
Where the Spirit is, there is peace.
Where is the Spirit?
In you and in me reminding us whose we are and giving us the confidence
and hope that the Spirit in us is greater than any desrtuctive force in
the world.
Be a blessing and be at peace.
Preached May 27, 2007
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian
Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
2. "Prayer at Work:
Chiropractor," Pray! (July/August, 2006)
Online Resources Consulted
http://www.preachingtoday.com/
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