In the first chapter of second Timothy, Paul reminds Tim to fan into flame the gift of God, which was somehow
imparted to him through the laying on of Paul’s hands (v.6)... What that spiritual
gift was, I don’t exactly know, but the implication is that our passion
for the Lord can either diminish or develop depending on whether or not (and
depending on how effectively or not), we let this mysterious wind - fan into our
lives.
So what is this wind? What is this fire?
Well, we'll get into that in a bit, but first let's
talk about the basic definition of what a fire is.
So for starters, for a fire to exist you essentially
need 3 things combined in the right mixture for it to happen. Namely, you need:
heat, fuel, and oxygen. When these 3 things come together in the appropriate
way, this "event" of fire, occurs.
Ok, now, the way I see it, is that just like fire, the 3 things we similarly need to
have in our lives for us to engage in the Lord's service are as follows: we need to have
love for the Lord and love for our neighbor (Mark 12:30-31)... (which would kind
of be like the heat); we need to have people to interact with and share the gospel to
(Romans 10:14)... (which would kind of be like the fuel); and we need the power of
the Holy Spirit working in and through us to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8)...
(which would kind of be like the oxygen).
And it's this last one - the power of the Holy Spirit
working in and through us, that I especially want to expound on right
now.
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| A camp that I helped out at a month ago in which the theme was 'And You Shall Receive Power' |
Because see, that's what Paul tells Timothy he wants
him to do - to fan into flame the gift of God.
In John 21:22 we read that when Jesus appeared to his
disciples after he rose from the dead - the verse says that he "breathed
on them and said 'receive the Holy Spirit.'
...Remember that to create a fire you need all 3 of the
aforementioned elements present in the equation so that all of a sudden the act of combustion takes place...
Well, up until this time in the New Testament, the
disciples did not have the Holy Spirit. They did not have this one crucial
element in the equation of creating gospel fire so that it would explode within them; and so here now, we see these disciples of Christ all huddled
together and scared out of their wits in an upper room somewhere in the middle
of Jerusalem... they're all huddled together worried about what might happen to them, and all of a sudden Jesus just
walks in [and that - without even going through the door, mind you (v. 19)], breathes on them, and BAM! instantly this amazing gospel equation is completed, and BADABOOM!, the disciples
start having this amazing Holy Ghost power working through them, and BIMBAZZLEWAMBOOGLE! their story (or our story) is dramatically changed forever [and yes, that took me a while to come up with all the right onomatopoeia to describe those instances, but I think I finally got it (just in case
you were wondering)].
What's interesting though, is that in this passage
when Jesus imparts the Holy Spirit to his disciples - he does so in the same way that I start a fire myself - he does so by breathing
on these guys (and I think that there were probably a few girls there too), and in the same way, whenever I start a fire, what I do is that
I get down real low on my hands and knees and get as close to a few dimly lit
embers as possible; I place some small, nice, dry tinder in the
vicinity of some kindling, and I just baaaaarely start to blow man... I just blow and blow. I just blow nice and steady for a while, until all of a sudden boom! the
tinder lights up, spreads to the kindling, and suddenly the whole thing bursts aflame!On a larger scale, this was essentially Jesus' master plan of evangelism. He came into this world (Phil. 2:7), he metaphorically got down on his knees in the sense that he humbled himself (v.8), he got real close to 12 men (Luke 6:12-16) and a few women (Luke 8:2-3), and he slowly and steadily started speaking truth into their lives (John 8:31-32).
A couple years later, he breathes on them to receive the Holy Spirit, and then a few days after that, "a sound like the blowing of a violent wind" came from heaven and filled the whole house where about 120 of them were staying (Acts 1:15)... Here we see that Jesus' small initial breath now turns into a violent wind! The Holy Spirit takes power! and the oxygen necessary for a fire to go wild envelops this relatively small group of ragtag followers of Jesus... Before you know it, people from all over the world are starting to hear the gospel spoken in their own language (Acts 2:5-11), Peter gets up and preaches (Peter! the same one that denied Christ just a few days earlier (v. 14)), and about 3,000 people are added to the church that very day (v. 41).Awesome.
...Now jump about 34 years later to the time when Paul wrote his second letter to his most beloved disciple Timothy, and we get this interesting charge for him to "fan into flame the gift of God" (1:6)...
How exactly do we fan into flame the gift of God?
Well first of all, I think that we can start by constantly praying with other believers, because if we look back to the account of what happened on the day of Pentecost, what we see is that right before the Holy Spirit came down on them, this is precisely what the disciples and the women with them were doing (Acts 1:14)... They were praying.
Secondly, if we understand that what was behind Timothy's gift of God was the very working of the Holy Spirit (the pure oxygen as it were, that rouses the flame of the gospel), then we too should effectively fill ourselves up with this Holy Spirit.
How do we do that?
Well, Ephesians 5 gives us a whole bunch of clues as to how to go about it, and among the definite positive, and proactive things we can do to really let the Holy Spirit take control of us, we can:
- love one another just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us
- be thankful
- do what is good, righteous, and true
- expose the deeds of darkness
- live wisely, making the most of every opportunity
- speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; and sing and make music in our hearts to God.
- not getting into sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed
- not being obscene or talking foolishly and joking coarsely
- not having partnerships with disobedient people
- and not being foolish, getting drunk, or getting into debauchery
I also think that reading and studying the Bible is a pretty important part of being filled with the Spirit because just as 2 Tim. 3:16 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
...There again, we get that word 'breathed'. Scripture is God breathed, it was written by the prophets as they were "carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21)... Jesus breathed on the disciples to give them the Holy Spirit... We receive the Holy Spirit when we put our faith in Christ (Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:3)... And I think we can also become more "filled by the Holy Spirit" when we read and meditate on the very Scripture that God himself breathed into.
Why?...because the very next verse implies that. It says "so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (v. 17).
Who equips the servant of God other than the Holy Spirit himself?
...At the beginning of this entry I was talking about the concept of "fanning into the flame of the gospel." I suggested that for this to happen, there needs to be an appropriate mix of 3 things: 1. a love for God and people, 2. people with whom we can share the gospel to, and 3. the power of the Holy Spirit working through us to reach these people. Clearly the power and presence of the Holy Spirit is something that is received, not earned (Acts 1:8; 2:38; 10:45), but apparently we can "fan into flame the gift of God" (2 Tim. 1:6), and we can also "be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18).Interestingly enough, it's that very "filling of the Holy Spirit" (that extra dose of life-giving oxygen) that serves as the crucial conductor to augment the heat of our love in bringing about the flame in the fuel of all the men and women in the whole world so that many of them may come to know Christ.
...Starting fires like this is exactly what we are called to do, and letting the Scripture teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness along the way, is precisely how we can be thoroughly equipped to better engage in this type of service.
...To be better engaged in this type of service by more fiercely "fanning into flame the gift of God."
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This blog post is dedicated to the Velandia family with whom I've started a few fires, and with whom I'm also trying to start a new church (which, in a way, is kind of like starting a fire).
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| Camping with the Velandias in Villa de Leyva |
Pictures Cited:
