On the surface there is no difference between a sail on a boat and a large sheet of canvas. A canvas sheet, folded and lying on the stern of a masted boat, is useless and worthless.
However, that same canvas, mounted to a mast and fixed to a boom (a simple wooden pole) can propel a yacht or ship to the ends of the earth. When mounted to the mast and fixed to the boom an invisible force fills it. The once limp canvas swells up like a balloon and is transformed to an elegant shape that can propel a yacht or a mighty ship to the ends of the earth when yielded and directed by the wind.
Filled with wind it is now something completely new - a sail. It is no longer a mere piece of canvas - something has been added, an invisible yet powerful force -WIND. It has been transformed from a flaccid cloth to a powerful sail.
This is exactly what happens to humans when we are fastened to the wooden mast of the Cross, fixed to the boom of the word of God and filled with the Holy Spirit. Like the drooping canvas we are limp and lifeless until the Holy Wind/Spirit comes and fills us. Then we are no longer merely human - we are humans to whom an invisible (but totally real) element has been added - the Holy Spirit. We are new creations who express the power of the Wind that fills us.
"If anyone is in Christ He is a new creation." (2 Corinthians 5.17) The new creation (born again) man is a composite of man + Holy Spirit. The human being without the Spirit of God is limp and spiritually powerless but with the Spirit of God within Him, he has become something new. Being filled with the Life of the Holy Spirit totally changes his nature and empowers him for his journey. Through all the storms and waves of his journey the wind-filled sail will drive him on towards his destination.
The old creation man is a human without the Holy Spirit. The New creation man is one who has received, and continues to receive, the Holy Spirit as the power which energizes him. No one is complete until he has received the Holy Spirit “And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." "It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no help." (Romans 8.9)
Just as the individual believer is lifeless and powerless without the wind of the Holy Spirit, the church (however orthodox its doctrine) is a dead rag without the daily infilling and operation of the Holy Spirit.
Hitch yourself to the Cross; anchor yourself to the Word of God, open yourself to the Spirit/Wind of God and let Him propel you through life’s journey!
Comments
Miriam Beattie
Dear Paul and Nuala,
Thank you for these inspiring words, full of truth and so appropriate for the challenging days we are living in today. May we be all that you have written about here and well prepared to do all that He has called us to do in the time left before the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
Friday, August 19, 2022
John Gates
Hi Paul & Nuala, the importance for every person who calls themselves Christian of receiving the Holy Spirit, or seeking until they do is off the utmost importance.
We were never meant to be religious Christians but to be Disciples, who are doers of The Word.
No one can be doers without the empowerment, and the fire!
KEEP SEEKING FOLKS!
Paul wasn't saying that all couldn't be empowered and baptised in the Holy Ghost, because everyone can; he knew that not all would. But all can!
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Thank you for these inspiring words, full of truth and so appropriate for the challenging days we are living in today. May we be all that you have written about here and well prepared to do all that He has called us to do in the time left before the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Friday, August 19, 2022
We were never meant to be religious Christians but to be Disciples, who are doers of The Word.
No one can be doers without the empowerment, and the fire!
KEEP SEEKING FOLKS!
Paul wasn't saying that all couldn't be empowered and baptised in the Holy Ghost, because everyone can; he knew that not all would. But all can! Saturday, September 3, 2022