From the Father to Me to You

Right at the beginning of seven of Paul's letters is an identical phrase. Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon all begin with:

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

That was Paul signing his name or placing his personal seal on his letter.

Grace and peace are often abstract to us. We understand their meaning and can talk about them. Our recognition of the role of God's grace in our salvation is fundamental to our orthodoxy. And we value peace highly. On the whole we appreciate that its only through the Lord's hand that we can have peace in a moment of time or in our lives generally. However, when we think of love or joy, grace or peace, though we might understand the concepts, often we find it hard to get a real hold on these things. They are ideas to us and they inform our worldview. We believe in them and about them, but usually they mean little to us.

How do I know? Because I am like you. When I read those books of the Bible I usually skip verses one and two to get to the important stuff content that counts. But what if we've been missing the most important point? Perhaps grace and peace are important. Vitally important. After all, if they weren't, why would Paul use the same phrase to open seven of his letters?

We are quite comfortable with toast and jam. Imagine if Paul had said,

"Toast to you and jam from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now that would have been easier. A heavenly meal. We can get our teeth into that! He could have referred to coffee and cake, or rubies and diamonds, or a holiday and an ocean cruise. It doesn't matter what we substitute in place of grace and peace, we always end up with a fresh but consistant idea of what Paul is saying. "Here", says Paul. "Here is a hevenly gift in two parts. It's from the Father and I am passing it on to you." And every letter begins the same way. Seven times he passes on a spiritual blessing to us from the Father.

Sin is a spiritual thing and so is grace. Paul in his letter to the Romans talks about an abounding measure of sin, and a superabounding measure of grace. Grace is a spiritual detergent that converges on the rubbish heap of sin in our life, like a great tsunami. It is so much greater than the sin that it erradicates it completely.

Grace is a spiritual force, and it goes far beyond a word in a creed or statement of faith. If Paul is passing on grace from the Father, I want some. In fact, I don't want a little. I want it in full measure. Thank you, Paul.

Love, peace and joy are three of the fruits of the Spirit which Paul wrote of in his letter to the Galatians. Peace is a fruit. Oh, of course. That must mean that as the Spirit works in my life, his efforts bear fruit and I experience peace, love joy and the other things. Fruit must refer to some kind of outcome.

Or maybe when he says fruit, he just means fruit. The Spirit has a wonderful, colourful bowl of spiritual fruit. Well, we know what to do with fruit, don't we. We pick it up and eat it. I have to admit that I have always thought that when God gives us peace it means that he gives us an absence of war, or a quiet time in our life, free from clamour and stress. He adjusts our circumstances so that peace will result. What if he just gives us peace, just as someone would give us an apple? Maybe that is why the Bible describes it as peace that passes understanding. If it came as a result of a change in circumstances, then we would understand it. If we could hold out our hand and take it, bite deeply and taste its sweetness amisdst complete havoc and turmoil, then that would be one of the greatest gifts of all.

With all that in mind I have something to say to you my friend. I have a blessing for you...

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Spiritual Plumbing Problem

Sometimes we get stuck. Distressed, dissatisfied and disappointed in our faith, we try and try and then … nothing. We can’t break through. We don’t give up in minutes or hours or days. We lose heart over months and years. The conversations go round and round in our head, “Is the problem ... me? It sure looks that way. Maybe it’s my faith. Maybe I have been sold a bill of goods. This is sure not what I was promised.” We look for the answer, and it’s confusing because the questions that we want answers to are loaded with shame, blame and emotion. We don’t want to blame God, but it’s clear that all is not well. Who knows what is wrong, but our faith just does not seem to be working.

Often, when we are stuck there are no simple answers. We pray and pray, but to no avail. It's heartbreaking at times. We pray for release from some hidden shame in our life. Maybe it's an anger issue, an addiction, some sort of lostness in life, and we feel like God hears. But the problem remains. Why doesn't He seem to release us from this? Is it because he can't or because he doesn't want to?

What we have is a plumbing problem. The Holy Spirit resides in our spirit. Our spirits are healthy and whole because of his presence. We can worship and we can pray. We feel his presence in our lives. However, our souls - our mind, heart, emotions, desires, will, habits, personality - are damaged and sick, maybe even lifeless. What is the cause of this disconnect?

Consider a pipe, a conduit, that runs between our spirit and our soul. A pipe can be blocked. Likewise it is possible that something can form a clog which prevents the flow of living water that is meant to reach our souls and bring life and transformation and health to who we are. This is the case when our flesh has dominion in our lives. It clogs the flow of the life-giving Spirit of God.

I have a dear friend who used to manage a hotel not far away from where I live. One day a family came to stay as guests in his hotel. Shortly after they arrived, the main plumbing pipe on their floor became blocked. No water could drain away. It affected a whole floor of the hotel. It became evident that this was no small problem and soon a plumber was called. My friend showed me pictures of the incredible extent that the plumber had to go to, to locate the blockage and clear it. Hallway floors and walls were jackhammered away. Tiles were removed. There was rubble everywhere.

Exposing the problem can get extreme for us as well.  That blockage between our soul and spirit needs to be brought into the light of day before it can be dealt with. And because it's a spiritual problem, we need something spiritual with which to operate on it.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

The word of God is one of the spiritual weapons we have at our disposal. It cuts deep, right at the division between our soul and our spirit, to where the blockage lies. When God's word has done it's work, the blockage is exposed and it can finally be dealt with. And it needs to be dealt with. Exposure is not enough on its own. We need that blockage firstly brought to light and then destroyed. Then our thoughts and the intentions of our heart, in our soul can be judged or rectified. When we are able to penetrate deep enough and get to the root of the problem that is blocking our soul transformation, then those intended changes can take place.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

When we use spiritual weapons, we can both expose and destroy these strongholds that clog up the stream of living water that should be flowing into our souls. Why do we get stuck? Could it be because we are trying to sort out spiritual stagnation or “stuckness” using physical means? Do we really believe that resolutions, accountability, reasoning, sedatives or stimulants, nice words or a multitude of other approaches, can bring freedom to the flow of spiritual health to our souls? They bring, at best, transient relief or transient success. At worst, they leave us in guilt and failure. In fact, these only add to the works of the flesh. They are physical, but the blockage is spiritual, and only with our spiritual weapons can we both expose and destroy those things that are holding back what the Spirit wants to do within us.

In Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8 we learn that fundamental to the New Covenant is the Holy Spirit. He will write his law on our hearts. Our heart is the seat of our emotions. When he is done, he will paint heaven on our hearts. We will long for his will to be done in our lives and the lives of others. We will adore him, and want to live for him. Our hearts will be full and overflowing. Our emotions join with our mind and will to make up our heart. When the Spirit is done, he will have captivated our emotions, transformed our mind, bent our will to his, and written his law on our hearts.

Let's look at an example. The Holy Spirit dwells within our spirit. As he does so, he testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. He gives us a spirit of adoption and this spirit of adoption eventually is the means whereby we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “ Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:14-16)

But as we read elsewhere it is apparent that this spirit of sonship must reach our hearts in order for us to have this response. When our hearts are touched, we have an emotional response. We love the Father and cry out his name.

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son [spirit of adoption or sonship] into our hearts, crying, “ Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)

I always thought that Christ lived in my heart. He lived there, and he wrote His law there simply by dwelling in my heart. Now I understand that he dwells in my spirit, and from there writes his law on my heart. That is a process that requires a clear channel. We all want that to happen. But are we willing to turn to spiritual solutions to clear the way for the life-giving Spirit to do his work?

Finishing the Job

The journey to maturity comes to us in stages. We take delight in the promise that “He who began a good work in us, will finish that work”. We want to continue to grow. We want to go deeper and have a richer experience of the Father’s love. We want to be fruitful, and innately we sense that fruit comes from deep communion with the Lord.

Jesus taught that fruitfulness comes by degrees. That's not how we usually understand the parable of the four soils. But consider: we start out a bit like hard ground which no seed can penetrate. Later we are shallow, and God’s will for us springs up as a response in us but then quickly withers because of lack of depth of soil. We move on in our journey, and finally there is a good depth of soil, but it is riddled with thorns. When these are removed, fruitfulness comes. Why? Because the heavenly seeds, blessings that fall from the Father’s hands into our life can flourish unhindered.

Three enemies stand in the way of our fruitfulness. That’s right. That traditional trinity of evil despise the thought of us bringing forth anything good.

• The Evil One, who crushes us under his feet, and snatches away every good seed.
• The Flesh, or Self, which makes us shallow and unreceptive to the implanted Word.
• The World and its cares, which squeeze the heavenly life out of us.

Jesus overcame the Evil One, and we were saved from his clutches. His work in bringing us to salvation was like a plough breaking our soil’s hard crust. At that point, hope of a harvest stirs within us. Next, the Holy Spirit begins to war against the Flesh in us, throwing out the heavy rocks that lie just under the surface in our lives. As he prevails, our lives become fertile, because the soil has gained full depth. At last, the heavenly seeds spring up, but now the issue is that the soil is still impure. Thorns can flourish now. The Father and his house are at odds with the World and its cares. One by one, he uproots our love for the World.

When people come to faith in Christ, we often describe what has happened in terms of fruit and a harvest. That is true to a degree, but individual fruitfulness lies a little way down the road. One enemy after another must give way, before a harvest can spring up within us.The Holy Spirit and the Father need to do their work. Not only are people needed as “planters.” We need “waterers” as well.

Let’s recalibrate our expectations. Paul laboured to present everyone complete in Christ. In our own lives and the lives of others, we should be focussed on more than our friends being delivered from the kingdom of darkness.  Let’s share his goal and together seek maturity and fruitfulness in our own lives and the lives of others. The Lord will finish the work. That’s his promise to us all. But we have a part to play.