Can you prove you are ‘alive’? Scientists agree that all life forms share certain characteristics, and scientists use these characteristics to determine if something is indeed ‘alive’, dead or inanimate. All living entities respire, take in energy, grow, reproduce, adapt or respond to their environment, excrete and move. As humans, most of us do these things without much thought. Most people can put a mirror in front of their nose or mouth or check a pulse and verify that they are, indeed, respiring and therefore ‘alive’. Respiration is an excellent indicator of life. Respiration means vital oxygen is being carried throughout the entire organism enabling nutrients to be metabolized into energy for activity and other bodily functions like the newborn baby’s first cry or a fighter pilot’s ability to execute complex maneuvers under duress.
As Christians though, do we exhibit enough of these characteristics to even be considered spiritually ‘alive’? Do we have a spiritual ‘pulse’ of respiration? Are we growing, maturing and reproducing, using spiritual senses to respond? The church is called the ‘body of Christ’, is the collective church body spiritually alive?
Birth is the outward evidence of the beginning of new life in humans and Christians. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John chapter three, and, though Nicodemus was a scripture scholar, he was truly mystified when Jesus told him that he must be born again of water and spirit.1 This idea was a mystery that Paul spoke about frequently in nearly every letter to the early churches and it still mystifies many church folks today; some prefer to ignore this mystery altogether or content themselves with the false assurance of a sprinkling as an infant or a water baptism at some point in their life. But an intentional turning away from sin with the public profession of faith in water baptism is only part of the experience Jesus said was mandatory for the new birth and entrance into God’s kingdom.
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“Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”
• • • John 3:5 • • •
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The new birth starts with repentance and water baptism, but it is not complete without the infilling of the Holy Spirit.2 Repentance, sweeping out the sin, is a necessary step; but it is useless if the emptiness is not filled with something else. Like the swept clean house Jesus spoke about, the end condition of the repentant but un-Spirit-filled sinner will be worse than the original state.3 It is this spiritual birth and constant renewal that oxygenates the Christian, enabling the nutrients of God’s word to bring growth and maturity4 and produce the fruit of the spirit and gifts for edifying others5. The indwelling Holy Spirit is literally the life-giving ‘breath’ for the born-again Christian6. Without this foundational spiritual birth, the Christian’s new birth will not progress, growth will not occur and the Christian will remain a spiritual infant7.
However, living beings do more than respire. If respiration is happening correctly, the living entity can ingest and properly metabolize nutrients, grow, reproduce and respond to their environment constructively. But these things happen only if respiration is happening first. Without respiration, the living being will eventually wither and die like a person who cannot get enough oxygen or a cut flower in a vase of water.
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“Then Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
• • • John 20:22 • • •
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Believers must be connected to the divine Vine8 if they are to ‘live, move and have our being’ in Jesus, and there is no way to do that without the continual indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Like oxygen, we can do nothing without this connection with Jesus through His Spirit. We are dead without it.9 We cannot even correctly understand and rightly divide (ingest and metabolize) the scriptures, powerfully share the gospel (reproduce), interact with the world (move) or pray as we ought (adapt and respond)10 The indwelling Holy Spirit isn’t optional, it is life or death. Prolonged lack of adequate oxygen causes fatigue, brain damage and organ failure to the human body. The spiritual man also gets fatigued and dull, hardened and non-receptive to spiritual things.11
Each of the seven churches (representing the collective church) of Revelation 2 and 3 are told to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”12 How can the churches hear or and recognize a voice they have not known, acknowledged, sought and embraced? Jesus recognized the human tendency to ignore the uncomfortable or undefinable, and warned against disregarding the Holy Spirit in the strongest possible terms. According to Jesus, dishonoring or speaking wrongly of the Holy Spirit is unforgiveable “in this age or the one to come”, an “eternal sin”.13 Likewise, we are not to quench, extinguish, stifle or grieve the Holy Spirit.14 The Holy Spirit is so integral to the church that the church cannot be defined accurately without the Holy Spirit.
In 2021, let's pray for God's church to live fully, spiritually 'breathing', in the life of the Holy Spirit.15 Pursue the entire new birth experience. We live in truly urgent times and the church needs every bit of what Jesus provided. Do not give up, the Father promised to give His Spirit to those that asked to receive, and He always delivers on His promises.16
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1. John 3:5-10
2. Acts 2:38, Titus 3:5, Acts 8:15-16
3. Matthew 12:43-45, Luke11:24-26
4. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14; John 14:26
5. Galatians 5:22-23; 1 Corinthians 12:8-11
6. John 20:22
7. Hebrews 5:12; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
8. John 15:1-8; Acts 17:28
9. John 6:63; Romans 8:2, 6, 10-11; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 3:6
10. 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, Timothy 2:15; 1 Thessalonians 1:5, 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 13, 4:20, Romans 15:18-19, Acts 8:6; John 16:13, Luke 2:26-27, Acts 8:29, 39, 10:19, 11:12, 13:2, 16:6-7, 21:11; Romans 8:26-27, 1 Corinthians 14:2, Ephesians 6:18,
11. 1 Corinthians 2:14
12. Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22
13. Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29, Luke 12:10
14. 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Ephesians 4:30
15. Luke 11:13
16. Romans 8
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