Weekly Pursuit – Week 4 of November

Nov 23, 2015 by

Verse:

John 20:22 “And when He had said this, He breathed into them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Excerpts:

After the Lord Jesus entered into resurrection, He came to His disciples. According to John 20:22, “He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word for “Spirit,” pneuma, also means “breath.” This indicates that the Lord Jesus was telling the disciples to receive the holy breath. The Gospel of John begins with the Word and goes on to speak of the Lamb and the vine. Finally, in John 20:22 we see that the very One who is the Word, God, the Lamb, and the vine is also the breath for us to receive. On the one hand, He breathed out; on the other hand, the disciples breathed in.

We should not analyze the breath, but receive it by breathing it into us. Unfortunately, many of today’s Christians know only to reason and consider; they do not have any experience of breathing the holy breath. A. B. Simpson was one who knew the experience of breathing in of Christ. The opening lines of one of his hymns read: “O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me, Teach me how to breathe Thee in” (Hymns, #255). (Life-study of Philippians, msg. 34)

To be a Christian is not merely difficult—it is impossible. Only the processed and consummated Triune God living in us as the all-inclusive Spirit can be a Christian. What the New Testament requires of us is too high. The kind of holiness required, for example, is something that we cannot produce. We praise the Lord that it is not we who need to fulfill the New Testament requirements but the Spirit in us who fulfills them. Instead of doing things in ourselves, we should simply enjoy His living and His working. Only the Spirit can be a Christian, and only the Spirit can be an overcomer. Remember, the Spirit is our God, our Father, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Shepherd, and our life and life supply. The Spirit is everything to us to live the Christian life. (Life-study of Job, msg. 19)

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