So do you ever feel like you're heading somewhere you're unsure of, that you're in a place that's uncomfortable or scary, that you've just come out of a time of sadness or worry, that you know that difficult times may be ahead.... and how often do we try to blame it on someone or something; a situation, an environment, a person, something evil, something good gone wrong... it's a place I have often found myself in during those seasons in life. It's a place I have often found my friends or family in during those seasons in their life and it makes you think about the reasons for those seasons...
At a recent Sunday meeting Alan shared with us some interesting and encouraging thoughts. I found they really spoke to me, not necessarily because I'm in one of those seasons at the moment but also because it will prepare me with encouragement for when those certain situations may occur in the future in my life but also for other people.
We were looking at Mark 1: 7-13- Jesus' baptism and the sending of the Spirit upon Jesus; the Holy Spirit seals Jesus in love. We were looking at the roles of the Holy Spirit within this world; within our lives by looking at the Holy Spirit in Jesus' life. As the Spirit came upon Jesus, God the Father's love covered him. The Holy Spirit communicates the Father's love to us. We can be constant in God's love for us. When we feel low and rubbish remember he loves us as much as he does when we feel elated and on top of the world.
After Jesus' baptism he was driven into the wilderness where he was tempted and tested. But, he wasn't driven into the wilderness by Satan; he was driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit; he was driven into a place of hardship and of temptation, by the Spirit. This goes against all predisposed ideas of what we think when we are in those seasons and in those situations in life. We so often blame the situation on the devil- and yes in some cases the devil does attack us in those ways because we live in an imperfect world and our bodies and lives are imperfect, and sometimes we run away from God's direction and run into the wilderness ourselves. But also we need to look at what happened in Jesus' life. He was driven not walked into the wilderness, he was driven to the wilderness and allowed to be in a position of hardship and temptation because the Spirit drove him there. So we may be asking ourselves why would/does this happen? Well this is a very good question and one that challenged me.
One way of looking at it is by looking at the next part of Jesus' life. When he came out of the wilderness he went on to complete his first missional talk - the Sermon on the Mount. Ok so what does this mean? Well we learnt that within the wilderness of our life, in those situations, of those seasons something amazing, yet may be subtle is happening! We may be being driven to the limits, to the extremes, to the boundaries of physical pain/hurt, led into uncertainty, and quite often we feel stripped of all reliance and hope within ourselves and upon ourselves to get through that situation or season. We may even become so broken or confused without any understanding YET where it's uncomfortable that's where The Comforter can comfort us. The Holy Spirit (The Comforter) steps in and allows us to place our reliance on him completely. This may sound trivial but the impact is massively changing! If it's the uncertainty of the path our life is taking, if it's the sudden fear of an illness, whether it's the place of massive temptation that you are struggling to over come the Holy Spirit is there, he is the person that will be the only dependable element within that situation. And within this he increases our reliance on him and shows himself to us in different ways. Within those wilderness seasons the Holy Spirit loves to turn them into gardens of Eden, so let's hang on in there long enough by clinging onto the promise of the Spirit to comfort us and communicate the Father's love to us.
Another role of the Holy Spirit is to send us out empowered by himself. Let's not resist the leading of the Spirit into the wilderness, and I'm talking about when we're being lead into those wildernesses which are maybe a place of uncertainty. Let's go to the wilderness in obedience and rather then praying for God to get us out, let's pray to be got through. Within the wilderness God is moulding and shaping us and realigning us with Himself, our reliance increases upon Him and He is equipping us to get through the situation he has called us into as well as equipping us for the task he is secondarily calling us into as we return from the wilderness. We may not know what that secondary calling is but we can be excited for what God is directing us into because He is sovereign and He is God!
These are just some of my reflections from Alan Frow's (Southlands Church) talk at our church. Other's may have drawn different personal meaning for themselves but these were the areas that really spoke into my life and situations as I stand today.
Why not check out the talk at http://www.thehousenewcastle.org/SermonsMedia/AllSeries/TheGospelofMark.
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