The Guided Life
Guided by the Spirit
Father. That is fairly easy to visualize. Son. Someone we can relate to. But Spirit? How does one visualize or wrap our minds around this? What does it mean to say we are guided by the Spirit when it is difficult to fully grasp what Spirit is?
In His well known conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus did little to clarify exactly how we might go about visualizing the Spirit, but instead encouraged us to notice the Spirit at work. Sometimes we may feel more like Nicodemus, looking for answers in the way we have been accustomed to look, only to come to the realization that perhaps we need to learn to look differently, to notice the things that otherwise might not be quite so obvious, perhaps those places where the Spirit is at work.
Jesus seems to suggest that the Spirit is often at work quietly and invisibly, in such as way as we can see the results afterwards, but, like the wind, are not always entirely easy to pin down. It is something that happens as we live in responsiveness to what moves in and around us as we see Jesus lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. It is by looking and beholding and responding that the movement of the Spirit becomes the most apparent.
This week Pastor Genevieve explores with us a bit of what it means to live in responsiveness to the Spirit, and to allow that Spirit to guide us. If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here. Or if you wish, you can access the livestream version by clicking here.
John 3
(NIV)
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”