Christians, write. Spread God-Sparks like Luke did when he wrote the book of Acts and like John did when He wrote the book of Revelation. My favorite Philosopher to have dinner with is Jesus Christ. John quotes Jesus as saying: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)
God wants Christians to write from an eternal perspective, so that they can publish and proclaim the good news of the invisible, inner government (kingdom) of God. (Matthew 6:33) If you are a Christian, write!
Write about how Jesus has touched your heart and supernaturally transformed you from within. (2 Chronicles 5:17) Write how Christ lives in you throughout each day and fills you with radiant glimpses of His glory. (Colossians 1:27) Write how the risen Jesus empowers you with His presence and power. (Acts 1:8)
Write how Christ gives you the inner vision and insight to see the unseen (2 Corinthians 4;17) and to set your affections on things above, not on things on earth. (Colossians 3:2) Write how the Holy Spirit overflows from within you with His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) What you have heard and experienced in the secret place of your soul, write and publish and proclaim from social media and blog platforms — even in books. Christian, write. (Matthew 10:27)
Write like these lovers of God: Moses, David, Solomon, the Old Testament prophets, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter, Jude, the Church Fathers, the Desert Fathers, the writers in the Philokalia, Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic mystics, Richard Lull, Martin Luther, John Calvin and other Reformers, Meno Simons and other Anabaptists, George Fox and other Quakers, the Puritans, John Wesley and other Methodists, Catherine Booth and other Salvationists, CS Lewis, Watchman Nee, and so many others. Christian, write!
Write about how: Christians desperately need the Holy Spirit’s inner spark to set us ablaze with unceasing passion to consistently obey and daily follow the risen Jesus. The moving of God the Holy Spirit inside of a person’s heart isn’t an emotion. It’s not a subjective experience to be wary of or to avoid. It’s ultimate reality! It’s the presence and power of the Creator of the universe living and working inside a human being.
Write about how: The best engineered, most powerful internal combustion engine in the world won’t work without a spark. The best educated, most knowledgeable Christian in the world won’t be able to radically change people’s lives without the Holy Spirit’s spark! The Holy Spirit’s spark is the essential ingredient.
Write about how: Jesus told His followers to wait for the Spirit’s spark. (Acts 1:8) Paul told Timothy to stir up that inner spark (2 Timothy 1:6) so that it doesn’t die down and fade away. Paul told the Christians in Rome: “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” Paul also said: “Quench not the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
Write about how: The lack of the ability to accurately distinguish between the fire of the Spirit and human emotions has caused Western Christians to tend to shut them both down. We put much more trust in our own intellect and rationality (or the intellect and rationality of Christians who appear smarter than us) than in the inner stirring of God the Spirit.
Write about how: We read and analyze the Bible as a textbook for the mind. However, God inspired His written word to be a love letter designed to stir up the Spirit’s flames within us.
Read the Bible with an open, humble, hungry heart. Let its words reach and move deep inside of you. Let the Bible bring you both tears of broken repentance before God and the tender tears of His inner touch. To hold back God produced tears is to disobey God’s command not to quench the Spirit.
Let the Bible release the Spirit’s spark in your innermost being and produce “joy unspeakable and full of joy” (1 Peter 1:8) Let God’s words flood your soul with “rivers of living water.” (John 7:38-39)
So why aren’t churches and Christians more effective at bringing people into radical, self-denying obedience to the risen Jesus? Christ said: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them.” The Father draws people by means of the Spirit.
No sermon. No Christian conference. No revival meeting. No religious broadcast. No personal evangelism attempt. Nothing can draw people to the living Jesus except God. The lack of radical, totally committed, obedient discipleship clearly shows that we have allowed our fear of religious emotionalism and our love for intellectual Bible analysis to dry us up and shut down the power of Spirit’s heart-spark.
When Christians put more trust in understanding God with their brain than they do in experiencing Jesus with their heart and throughout their daily life, Christianity becomes almost powerless. Then Christians shift their trust from the living Christ to church attendance, sermon-hearing, and even politics. How we need to repent!
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 