February 23, 2011
Power Source
Apparently the battery on my cell phone is dying because it refuses to hold a charge. A new one is on order and should arrive in the mail this week, but in the meantime the phone itself isn’t much use unless it’s connected to the charger. I can imagine the Spirit thinking something similar about some of us. Though the Sunday service helps refresh us for the week ahead, if we had to stay in the building being plugged into continual worship, we wouldn’t be of much use. Study in the Word allows me to go out into the world fully charged and with a renewed mind. “…Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Ro 12:2b NIV)
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Gail;
-----Our spirits being joined by the Holy Spirit are definitely plugged into the power source continuously. But that is only one slice of our bread. Left to what human nature has become, we perceive things through the other slice of bread - our bodies’ physical senses. The more we are mentally and emotionally engaged with the physical world through only our senses, the less we perceive the power of the Spirit and the less we engage that power into our lives. Worshipping with our brothers and sisters certainly assists the power available to our spiritual side cross over into our physical lives. But that crossover happens mostly through effects in the mind and emotions; it is much less often supernatural.
-----Think about what the worship experience is to us. First, it is a mental decision to forgo time spent elsewhere. Then it is a mental decision to spend that time paying attention to the Lord with the ones you love. These decisions themselves are mentally transforming. The attention given is to the Word and ideas stirred up from the Word into songs, teachings, and sermons. This is even more mentally transforming. And the transformation continues as we make responsive decisions about our personal ideas, attitudes, and behaviors. This tops even the transformation from just hearing. All of this transformation develops connection into the mental and emotional meatloaf between our two slices of bread for that power of the Spirit to flow through.
-----Personally, I believe the greatest transformation occurs on the streets of life when the transformation of the worship service and your personal Bible study are physically put into practice by dealing with the joys and sorrows of living our lives amongst people. There is one kind of knowledge coming from having heard or read something. But the knowledge coming from actually having done it is exceptionally different because of the reflexive qualities of experience. That blows open channels into our meatloaf for the Spirit’s power to flow from the spiritual slice of our sandwich through to the physical slice.
-----In short, I believe the connection to our power source is in the heart and mind. Doing Bible study, worship, and obedience transforms us mentally and develops more and more connection to the Holy Spirit joined with ours.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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