The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 28th December 2008 by Robin Hawkins
"The Holy Spirit - The River Of Life"
Reading: Ezekiel 47:1-12
This vision came to Ezekiel at the lowest point of Israel's history. They had lost the land. They were exiles and slaves in Babylon, and had been for decades. The Temple was gone, sacrifice was gone. It seemed as if God had gone and abandoned them as well. In Ch. 37, Ezekiel gets the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones - "Can these bones live?" the Lord asks Ezekiel. "Lord, You alone know." replies Ezekiel. "Prophesy to the bones, Ezekiel," commands the Lord, and he sees the bones come together. Flesh comes on them, and finally the Spirit of God breathes life into them, and they come to life - a mighty army.
Armies are meant for fighting, and God wants to use this army. But for a very different kind of warfare - one that brings life out of death, not for the usual killing. Three chapters later, Ezekiel gets this vision of the new temple of God. It is long and detailed, and finally culminates in ch.47 with its glorious description of the River of God flowing out from this new temple. Most rivers get deeper as they go because they gather water from many tributaries. This river has the one source only, the temple itself, but it still gets deeper the more it flows. It is a River of Life. It is vast. It is deep. It is uncrossable. It gives life to everything it touches.
The lowest part of the earth is a lake found in southern Israel. We call it the Dead Sea. It is 1400ft below sea level, and its depth is almost the same again. It is 10x saltier than the Mediterranean. Nothing can live in it. Nothing can grow in it. It is dead (deceased, extinct, expired....!) But The River of Life in Ezekiel's vision flows into this Dead Sea, and the waters become fresh. Swarms of living creatures start to live in it and beside it. Fruit trees of every kind grow on its banks. They will bear fruit every month, and their leaves will be for the healing of the nations (c/w Rev 22:2).
This is the River of God, and it is a picture of the Holy Spirit; and as we continue to explore the foundational truths that we're building on, we remind ourselves of the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church. We neglect Him at our peril. He is the difference between life and stagnation; being an organism or an organisation; mission or mediocrity, fruitfulness or barrenness. The Holy Spirit is the Agent of God in the world today.
We come to God the Father in the name of Jesus,
but it is the Holy Spirit in us who makes Him real to us.
He is the Revealer of Jesus
the Unveiler of Truth
the Giver of Life
the Guide of our path
the Fruit-grower, the Gift-Giver
He convicts and converts the unrighteous.
The Bible tells us to seek Him, thirst for Him, and long for His presence.
We should desire Him above all things, for He is the source of our life,
the fulfiller of our hearts,
and the ground of our very being.
He will be found by those who look for Him with all their hearts.
He will be given to those who ask, and go on asking.
He will be there for those willing to step out in faith.
He is the glorious Giver of Life, available to all in unlimited measure.
The norm for us is to be aglow with the Spirit, never lacking in zeal.
Now I'm not saying this to make you feel bad, and think I could never be like that. I'm saying it because you can be. It's not so far out of reach. God's not a tease, dangling carrots He's not going to give us. We can live in the good of this.
Jesus promises those who are thirsty, that they will be immersed in this River of Life - remember, that's what Baptism means - Immersion! "Wait in Jerusalem," instructed Jesus to His disciples, "in a few days, you will be immersed in the Holy Spirit." Those early disciples were living in fear and terror of arrest and the torture of crucifixion. Something transformed them into fearless evangelists that the authorities couldn't shut up. That's what happens when we get immersed in the Holy Spirit.
We're not given the Holy Spirit to make us feel good - but to make us feel good about Jesus. The Holy Spirit enables us to tell others what Jesus has done for us. He also works the character of Jesus into us. He brings the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This in itself is a witness to the life-changing power of Jesus. A changed life is a highly effective testimony to Jesus. Of course, all this love, joy, peace, contentment does have an effect on us. Life is better, and much more enjoyable than before.
He brings gifts too. We need to be careful not to neglect these gifts. Never let anybody tell you that 'Love is Paul's "better way"'. so we don't need the gifts today. That is sanctimonious nonsense! Jesus was love personified, yet He needed the gifts to carry out His ministry - and so do we. We need the gift of Faith, the gift of Miracles, Wisdom, Knowledge, Discernment, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, Healing, and Prophecy.
One of the images that Ezekiel gives us is that of the River being ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep, then out-of-our-depth-deep. Is it possible that some of us are content to wade ankle-deep, or knee-deep in the Holy Spirit? - A bit like the old seaside pictures of men with their trousers rolled up, paddling at the water's edge. We want a bit of the Holy Spirit, but we don't want to let Him have full control, so we keep our feet firmly on the bottom! We don't want to get too deep because we don't want to risk being swept away in His current. Yet that is the place we need to get to, a place where we have let go of our independence, and abandoned ourselves to wherever His current will take us. That sounds great to talk about. To put it into practice, we have to overcome our fears of letting go and losing control, our fears of what He might ask us to do, or get us to do. We have to let go of our pride and independence, but we're not supposed to have these things anyway.
We need to start by being thirsty for God. A bit of Blind Bartimaeus' attitude would help "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" Again, this is not difficult. I suggest that to be thirsty for God is the normal state of grace for a Christian. So if you're not feeling too thirsty for God right now, ask Him to make you thirsty. Ask Him if there's anything getting in the way that preventing you being thirsty. But the truth is that God gives Himself to those who really want him. Imagine a father coming home from a trip and bringing a gift for his son...
Secondly, we need to be convinced from Scripture that God wants to immerse us in the Holy Spirit; and that we need to be immersed in the Holy Spirit to be the kind of witnesses that Jesus wants.
As you read those Scriptures that promise the Holy Spirit to those who ask, and go on asking, - and you realise that these Scriptures apply to you, faith will begin to rise in your heart. This is vital because this is how we are immersed in the Holy Spirit. We ask in faith that we'll be immersed in the Holy Spirit when we ask for Him.
How will we know that we have been immersed in the Holy Spirit? - Something will happen. Paul could ask the disciples at Ephesus, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" He expected them to know if they had or not. In the Scriptures, the most common result was that people spoke in Tongues, a language they'd never learned, suddenly started to pour out of them. But there were also outbursts of praise or prophecy. Either way, something will happen. But as a friend of mine said forty years ago - an unbeliever at that - it's not so much what happening outwardly, as what's happening inwardly.
Back in the 1960's and 70's, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit known as the Charismatic Movement, as the rediscovery that we could be immersed in the Holy Spirit and receive his gifts, swept through the established denominations. People were hungry for God. Many churches discovered new life. Many resisted what God was doing. We had to fight verbally for this experience. I never heard of it ever coming to blows! But people were thrown out of churches. My Dad was banned from St Aldates in Oxford for having the temerity to speak in Tongues in a P/Mtg!
I'm telling you this because there's a danger that because we no longer have to fight for this teaching and experience, there's a danger that we'll lose it by neglect. We are unashamedly a charismatic church. We're committed to the work of the Holy Spirit as I've been describing it. Yet familiarity breeds contempt; and we can become so familiar with this teaching that we can think everybody has been baptised in the Holy Spirit, and they may not have been.
In addition to this there is not always the hunger for God that we'll need if we're going to go on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps in some ways, our souls have become satisfied with what we've got, and there isn't the urgency that we once had.
I want to close with a much-used quote of A.W. Tozer. He made the following observations, and they apply keenly into what we've been talking about.
1. "We have now as much (of the Holy Spirit) as we really want..."
2. "We can have as much (of the Holy Spirit) as we insist upon having.."
3. "We'll get nothing unless we ask."
If you're a Believer, but you've never been baptised in the Holy Spirit, let me urge you to make it a priority for this coming year. Come and talk to me about it. Get someone to pray with you. But go for it. Seek the Lord and ask Him to immerse you in the Holy Spirit.
If you've been baptised in the Holy Spirit, but you know you've run dry, you don't need to stay in that place. Ask Him to fill you afresh. Ask Him to renew your hunger for God, and your willingness to step out and receive Him afresh.
Either way, as we stand on the verge of this new year, I know that we are going to need to depend on all the resources of God that we can lay hold of, as we move forward into all He got for us
