Experiencing God

Last Sunday in Sydney I held forth the three things Peter said to the multitudes on the Day of Pentecost when they asked, "What shall we do?"  He said repent, be baptized (in water), and receive the promise of the Father.  It was the last exhortation that was particularly heavy upon my heart.  Jesus promised the baptism with the Holy Spirit to His disciples in Acts 1:8:  "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."  When the Holy Spirit "came upon" the believers in Jerusalem, this marked the first time the Holy Spirit was poured out in such fashion apart from Christ.  As it is written in John 3:34:  "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure."  When the disciples on Pentecost received this gift of the Holy Spirit, it was accompanied by tongues and the gift of teaching.  Later in the New Testament we see many other manifestations of the Spirit operated through God's people by His grace.

When Jesus was baptized in water, that moment held special significance for John the Baptist.  He speaks in John 1:32-33 "...I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. [33] I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit."  I believe in these days Christians who seek this baptism are many but those who receive it are few.  God has said that we will find Him, if we seek Him with our whole hearts.  When our hearts are divided with love of this world we oppose God's inner work.  Many refuse to come apart from the world and be separate, unwilling to be sanctified for God's use alone.  Idols have infiltrated the temple of the Holy Spirit and defiled it, and many refuse to part with their secret sins.

Another reason many do not receive was revealed to me after I preached last week.  God said quietly to my heart, "Many do not receive because they seek an experience instead of seeking Me."  Isn't this often the case?  People everywhere are always seeking after experiences:  a wonderful meal or a long holiday, a spendy night out on the town, catching a favorite sport in person or on a huge TV.  It's all about the experience, the latest and the greatest.  First movies were silent black and white, then color, then talking pictures with song and dance, then Betamax, VHS, Laserdisc, MPEG-1, DVD, and now Blu-ray with surround sound, IMAX, and even IMAX in 3-D!  Entertainment is all about the quality of the experience!  God does not exist to entertain people or wow their senses.  He is not interested in people looking for Him to "one-up" their previous experience.  He is seeking true followers who worship Him in Spirit and in truth, not thrill seekers who are just as happy to watch a movie as to worship God.

Paul is a great example of a seeker who rejected all worldly gain for the pursuit of Christ.  Philip. 3:8-11 says, "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; [10] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, [11] if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."  Everything Paul desired was to be found in God:  "that I may gain Christ and be found in Him," "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection," "the fellowship of His sufferings," "being conformed to His death," that he might "attain to the resurrection from the dead."  A walk following Christ is full of experiences.  But it was not the experiences Paul looked to:  it was Jesus!

May we learn from Paul's example and seek Christ for Himself, for He is worthy.  It is not for us to dictate how God will use us, or what manifestation of the Spirit we deem acceptable and convenient.  As it is stated in Psalm 115:1, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory, because of Your mercy, because of Your truth."  It is not because of jaw-dropping experiences we have, but because of the worthy character and nature of God we worship Him and seek to have His Holy Spirit poured out upon us.  Then He will receive all the glory.  It no longer is about my experiences, but experiencing God Himself.