Corporate Fast Encouragement- DAY TWO
The Plan, The Promise and The Gift
I love gifts, especially thoughtful gifts, and when it’s a surprise, well that’s just the best! I love when you get a thoughtful gift just right and it’s exactly what the person has been wanting, thinking, and pining for. I received a gift like this few years ago when a couple friends, who don’t normally golf, asked if I would take them to the driving range and give them few “pointers”. I should have known there was something fishy going on, but a trip to the driving range peaked my interests and not my curiosity, keeping my eyes veiled to the hidden plan. When we finally finished up at the driving range my friends were more than ready to go and they assured me that my golf lessons were the best they’d ever had. We pulled up to the house, I grabbed my clubs from the truck, and I walked to the backyard to put them away in the garage. As I came around the corner at the rear of the house I was halted by the resounding howl of “SURPRISE!” from a deck filled with thirty of my closest friends. I’m not easily surprised, but I was truly shocked, surprised to tears in fact. I stood there frozen as the happy birthday song rang on, my friend’s faces filled with delight seeing the awe and the tears in my eyes. But there was none more delighted than the author of this moment, none more pleased and even relieved to see the plan executed to perfection. I can still see the look on my wife’s face, standing in the midst of the crowd—it was a teary look of joyful pride at the thing she made happen for the one she loved. As if the surprise of my friend’s presence wasn’t enough, she gave me one of the most expensive gifts I’ve ever received. A gift which everyone on that deck contributed to, a brand new TaylorMade Stealth driver (an expensive golf club for those wondering).
Even tho I experienced the suddenly of this surprise moment, my wife had been planning and preparing for weeks. The only thing I knew was that Katie said she was going to do “something” for my birthday. I had no idea what it would look like but I know her, I know she knows me, and I know she loves me, and that was enough to take her at her word.
Read: Ezekiel 36:25-27 & Joel 2:28
These prophecies from Ezekiel and Joel were God giving us His word that He was going to do “something”. The truth is that God was preparing to do something far beyond what Israel could have asked or imagined. What’s even more astonishing is that the Father, Son and Spirit dreamt up this plan and put it in motion at the foundation of the world! You see there’s two parts to this stunning surprise gift that God prepared. First, that God was going to come to us, clothe himself in our sinful flesh, become human, and restore all that was lost in Adam.. vs 25 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” This is the good news, that God came and did what we could not, which is heal our broken condition and set us free from satan, sin, and death! But that’s not all, THERE IS MORE!
“And I will put my Spirit within you”! God, the Father of all, creator and designer of the cosmos and the human cell, has prepared a gift for YOU. And there’s no one in the universe more delighted, with a teary look of joyful pride in His eyes, to give you the gift of Himself! Not only have you been pulled up out of Adam’s fall, but you have been pulled up into transcendent divine life in union with Christ BY the gift of the Holy Spirit. The mystery that was “hidden from all ages” as Paul writes, is the remarkable plan for union with God by the Holy Spirit!. The Holy Spirit in you is God’s plan and promise realized! Now that sounds like a gift worth opening!
Today, as you pray, ask the Holy Spirit these three questions.
Holy Spirit, have you been poured out on all flesh as the scriptures say?
Holy Spirit, am I a “temple of the Holy Spirit” as Paul writes?
Holy Spirit what do you want to reveal to me today about Jesus?