Well, here we go with the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes. To begin with, I always like to remind myself that I’m not coming to gain knowledge for trivia sake. While there might be some interesting facts, that’s not the goal. (It probably was mine for a long time.)
I’m also not here to find tips for living. I think a lot of people treat bible reading like a self-help book, and I’ve been there before. But that’s not really the best goal, either.
The best goal when reading the scripture- well, when doing anything in life- is to “know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.”
Whenever I open the bible, I try to come with this prayer: “Lord, let me know you.” Because the scripture is meant to reveal the God who made us, the Son He sent to save us, and to stir up the Spirit that lives in us when we are born again. So let’s start with that prayer on our lips.
Lord, I come to this passage because I want to know you. Show me yourself through my reading and study. Show me Truth, and make me more like you as I read. I want to love you more because I know you more.
These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.
“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
Yikes, how depressing, right? If you’re opening your bible for your morning shot of courage, this isn’t it.
But what if it is morning, and you do need courage?
I’d like to start this study by saying that whenever you open the scripture, you’re opening up a letter that was written at a certain point in history, from a specific person, to specific other people. And sometimes when you read, you’re jumping into the middle of the story. Sometimes you’re picking up at the book of a the prophet calling a rebellious people to repentance, or a historian recording the sale of property, or a love poem describing a beautiful woman. It can be hard to find your daily shot of encouragement from a random place in your through-the-year Bible reading plan.
So what are the solutions? You could only read the happy parts. The glad psalms, the exciting gospels, the practical epistles.
You could just assume that wherever you’re reading is meant for you right then. Repent with the Israelites, rejoice with the psalms, etc.
What do you usually do when the passage you read is uncomfortable or doesn’t apply to you?
I think for myself I often would feel at the mercy of whatever I was reading. If I was reading something about repentance, I would assume that I was meant to be reading it, and I would repent. That sort of thing.
But now I do it a little differently. Because I know I have the living Spirit inside of me, I can go to the Scripture with the Lord and ask Him about it. It’s not me and the Bible, adrift and alone, It’s me and the Lord reading the Scriptures together. He is the Source of all wisdom and understanding. He is the one who illuminates and teaches.
In fact, He is the true Teacher.
I would venture to say that one of the biggest problems that Solomon had was having wisdom without the Spirit. He had such widespread understanding and knowledge, but it didn’t bring him life and hope.
But you don’t have to have that problem. You can read these scriptures and have all of those things, if you have the Spirit inside of you.
Because guess what. The scriptures are POWERFUL. They reveal our God, they inform our understanding of who He is and they build our faith- they are vital.
But it’s the Spirit that is our shot of encouragement. It’s the Spirit that gives us life every day.
We can’t just come to the Scriptures alone and think that we will get everything we need- if we do, we are like Solomon, who had wisdom and wisdom and wisdom- and really got no good out of it.
So let’s review for just a minute- how do you get the Spirit? Here’s a real quick biblical recap:
Jesus promised his disciples that when he went away that the Father would send the Holy Spirit in his name. He called the Spirit “the Helper,” and also said that through the Spirit we would “receive power.” John 14:26, Acts 1:8
In the beginning of the book of Acts, you can read about how after Jesus died and rose again, He told them ”“Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
They did wait in Jerusalem- and in Acts chapter two, the testimony of the day of Pentecost is told- where the Holy Spirit first falls on the church. Before this, the Spirit came to different people in the Old Testament for specific times and tasks, but this time, all the believers received it- and showed signs and power that they were filled with the Spirit of God.
The book of Acts is full of the stories of the early church doing all the things the Spirit inspired and empowered them to do. They were evangelising, healing people, building community, feeding the poor, preaching the gospel, prophesying, all through the power of the Holy Spirit.
There are many verses in the Bible that refer to the Holy Spirit, but I’m going to give you a quick summary of what I believe, and I think it is backed by these scriptures:
The Holy Spirit is the empowering, intimate person of God that comes to live with us personally. He is sent to live with us like the smoke that filled the tabernacle. He is meant to fill us but also to flow out of us like living waters. He is the Truth, the Power, the Love of God that is inside of us to teach us, empower us, comfort us, and also to do the work of transforming us to look more and more like our Father God.
I believe that if you have surrendered yourself to the Lord Jesus, if you believe on the Lord and have been washed in his blood, you have been given the deposit of the Spirit in your inner most place. He has given you HIS Spirit instead of your dead spirit- that died when you first sinned, which you did because you inherited sin from Adam and Eve.
But the Lord in his mercy gave you the opportunity to be forgiven, to receive mercy and cleansing, and to be born again into his family- to be a child of God, and to have access to HIS presence ALL the time, deep inside of you, flowing out through you.
This is why Jesus first said “I am the light of the world,” and then He said “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 5:14)
He was saying that we have the Spirit of God living inside of us, shining out of us.
It’s not just for us, it’s for the world around us.
We are his temple, and His spirit lives inside of us. It’s a marvelous, strange thing.
I also believe that there is a vital aspect of being filled with his Spirit- and it is surrender.
It is not enough to have the gift of the Spirit. We have to actually do something with it. When Jesus talks about putting your light “under a basket” I think he’s talking about this concept of “quenching the Spirit.” We can do this when we ignore it. You see, the Spirit wants to flow- like water or light- bubbling up through us and out of us to bring goodness and life and truth everywhere for us and everyone, but the Lord gives us this strange gift of free will. That even when we have the Spirit of the Living God inside of us, we can choose whether to let it come out, or to stuff it down and deny it.
Sometimes, people are so willing to let it come out that they can be used for miraculous, wonderful things. Things like forgiving the impossible. Things like healing or prophecy.
Sometimes the sensation and awareness of the Spirit of the Eternal One bubbling up inside of you can overwhelm you. People have odd physical reactions sometimes because it can be very overwhelming.
There’s a lot more that I can say, and there are lots of opinions and fears and hopes around this. It’s a wonderful thing, this Spirit of God, and it’s controversial, of course, because so much of this conversation goes against the pride of modern man that says we are too smart for any of this old fashioned spirituality stuff.
But I would like to say- if hope is what you need, if truth is what you long for, if courage and life and love are to flow out of you- than don’t be wise in your own eyes, and look at the world with a dull intellectual hopelessness- like Solomon.
Submit to the Lord, and ask for the Spirit. That will be your shot of encouragement for the rest of your life, and it will illuminate every Scripture and bring you into the full Wisdom and understanding of all time.
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