Top up or open up? Examining the orientation of our spirituality

Pastor Hans Voortman

There has been a growing hunger expressed within the Christian community of late for 'more, more, more of God'. This is wonderful to see. I sense that the dissatisfaction with where we're at, and the hunger for all that God has for us, is a necessary precursor to revival. God it seems is wooing His church back to himself. However, I have a concern. It relates to the way we're going about satisfying this hunger. Terminology such as 'pressing through in God', 'come and be refreshed', and 'receive a fresh impartation into your life' all suggest an orientation whereby 'more of God' comes from 'outside-in'. By this I mean that some seem to think that God's anointing is imparted externally, through being in the right spot at the right time! I've observed people running to this meeting or that because there's a perceived anointing there. 'Soaker' meetings have become common. Certain ministry is declared as having a 'special flow'. It's perceived as the place where it's happening, and so you'd best get there!

Now my inference could be misunderstood, so let me clarify this. God does use special ministries in specific ways and at particular times to 'break open' the spiritual atmosphere over people's lives. We've probably all been at meetings where we've felt this tangible sense of God being there - special times of impartation where God in His sovereignty has met with His people. Undoubtedly God has been marvellously doing much of this of late. My concern is more for the lack of balancing emphasis on God's abiding presence in the believer. I hear little being preached or taught concerning the indwelling Holy Spirit. Not much is understood of the internal or 'inside-out' orientation to our spirituality. Let me explain more fully what I mean.

The Indwelling Spirit of God

In Mark 15:38 we read of a most significant aspect to the Passion scene, and one that is so often overlooked: 'The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.' With that act, God's presence left the Holy of Holies, and that which was veiled from the people, and only entered into annually by the High Priest, now became available to all. God's presence left the Temple and came to dwell in the hearts of all believers, thereby fulfilling Jesus' declaration about the Spirit, 'he lives with you and will be in you' (John 14:17). The apostle Paul described it as a 'treasure hidden in jars of clay, to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us' (2 Cor. 4:7), and as 'Christ in you, the hope of glory' (Col. 1:27).

Calvary brought a radical re-orientation to the issues of His presence. No longer was God external. No longer did He have to come to, to be met, or gone to, to meet. Rather He now chose to dwell! Christ in all His fullness came to live inside the believer through the presence of His Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost celebrated this amazing fusion of God's Spirit with humankind. 'Power from on high' now came and dwelt within people. The cleavage in fellowship of man with God that the Fall had instigated, was now nullified. The Holy Spirit alive and active in each believer had come to 'guide . into all truth' (Jn. 16:13). He promised to never leave them or forsake them. The believer, through the indwelling Christ, had been made complete. As Paul declared, 'For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority' (Col. 2:9-10). A new covenant was created. A communion was now to be celebrated.

We do wrong to think in terms of spatial concerns, for 'God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth' (John 4:24). By this I mean, the Holy Spirit does not so much live physically in the believer as He does dwell spiritually with the believer. Not each of us with a bit of the Spirit, but in His omniscient self, all of Christ, with every believer, all at once and all of the time! Hence we are 'complete' in Christ (Col. 2:10) and we have the complete Christ (Col. 2:9) residing in our hearts. Because He does not reside in the spatial sense, a heart transplant can't remove Him! Yet nonetheless the best way for us to explain or understand His communion with us is that He 'indwells us' (Rom. 8:9-10). Inside our hearts we have a treasure - Christ within. Consider these verses: ' In Him we live and move and have our being' (Acts 17:28); 'To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me' (Col. 1:29); 'for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose' (Phil. 2:13); 'As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you' (1 John 4:27).

The Orientation of our Spirituality

There are two orientations we can live in - one is 'outside-in' living, the other is 'inside-out' living. The spirit of this world specialises in the first, the Kingdom of God in the latter. In the world we manipulate and coerce so as to bring into our lives from 'outside' the things we need. It's all about 'doing' - things we can 'do' to satisfy our needs. God's Kingdom in contrast declares, ' it's been done !' There's nothing you need do. God's sheer grace has endowed us with Christ within and now we 'can do everything through him who gives us strength' (Php. 4:13). A power source from within now exists that allows Christians to be so complete and so satisfied that we can give out to others rather than need to take in from them. We have been given the 'riches of his glory' (Rom. 9:23). Let me state it again: 'Christ in you , the hope of glory' (Col. 1:27).

The 'outside-in' orientation of our world creates in humankind a frenetic grasping for more. Never satisfying this insatiable desire, we plunge into a headlong pursuit of the 'stuff' of this world, by which we hope from this outside source to satisfy our inside needs. For the Christian though, there is an unlimited supply within. From inside, a full 'inheritance' (Col. 1:12) as sons and daughters of God gives us 'all things' in Christ (Rom. 8:32). We have a supply that never runs dry - a spring of living water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).

Top Up or Open Up!

So let me get back to the central concern expressed earlier. My observation is that a rather subtle Christian asceticism has crept into our thinking. By this I mean a self effort in our pursuit of God; that by getting where the 'anointing' is flowing, we can tap into God. The notion appears one of 'topping up' rather than 'opening up'. Like pulling into a bowser, when our reserves are low, we look for external input from a meeting or speaker - the sense is to drink deep! But if all I've highlighted earlier is true - that all we need has already been given us in Christ - then surely the challenge is not to top up as at a petrol bowser, but rather to open up, more like a geyser erupting. As an artesian well bubbles forth from an unlimited underground supply, so the Holy Spirit within us allows us to tap into the unfathomable resources that are our inheritance in God. So we carry with us continually the presence of God. As we learn to 'open up', we allow the influence of Christ to permeate through our whole being. The more we do this the more we allow His sanctifying power to transform us. As such, our concern should not be how much of the Holy Spirit do we have, but how much of us does the Holy Spirit have?

It's always the easier option to get someone else to 'top us up'. We've somehow allowed the 'outside-in' orientation of our world to linger on. The need for an 'external top up' drives many Christians on a feverish chase to be where it's happening. Tough times and barren places are therefore never endured or understood. Church loyalty often wavers when the 'anointing' isn't there any more. Yet for the Christian who lives in the 'opening up' sense, Christ is always there. The anointing has never left (1 John 2:20,27). The tough times are endured through the abiding sense of God within us, and in Him never leaving or forsaking us (Heb. 13:5). Our emotions may tell us things are dry, but we've learnt to 'live by the spirit' (Gal. 5:16) and to 'fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen' (2 Cor. 4:18).

Living by the Spirit Within

The challenge of this Spirit-filled living is to be led by the Spirit; to 'keep in step with the Spirit' (Gal. 5:25); to continually strip back the layers of self so that we can open up more and more and release the glory of Christ from within us. Paul put it this way: 'For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you' (2 Cor. 4:11-12).

Please understand me. There is a place for God in His benevolence and sovereignty coming and 'topping us up'. In our impoverished state, God sometimes just loves, and in fact, needs, to bless us as a product of His grace. Yet normal Christian living is to tap into the enormous riches we were endued with when the Holy Spirit came to live in us. So how do we 'keep in step' with the Spirit? Let me in closing highlight some of the ways we can open up more to all that is Christ within us. This is not just a 'froth and bubble' super-imposing of the Holy Spirit on our lives through some external source such as an evangelist's faith. This is disciplined, committed spirituality that flows out of an ever-growing intimacy between the believer and the ever present Holy Spirit in one's life. These are no 'outside-in' short cuts, but 'inside-out' spiritual disciplines that will develop mature sons and daughters of God.

1. Maintain a deep desire for God.

A hunger for more of God that is not determined by your mood, but by your decided commitment to love God. (Ps. 42:1,7)

2. Rest and Lean.

Learn to spend time lingering with God in aloneness and stillness. (Heb. 4:3,11)

3. Recognise and respond to God's voice.

Tune to the spontaneous and gentle 'still, small voice'. Soften rather than harden your heart to God. (Heb. 3:7,15; 4:7)

4. Speak in Tongues.

This is your spirit's language. Not to verbalise your love to God in this way often, is to starve yourself of the Holy Spirit's capacity to intercede for and strengthen your life. (1 Cor. 14:4,14; John 16:14)

5. Soak in His Word.

Live with and find God's 'Rhema' or living word for your life. (1 Pet. 1:23; Heb. 4:12)

6. Live in Purity.

Integrity of heart is paramount to maintaining God's river flowing out of your life. Compromise causes His Spirit to be quenched in your life. (Phil 4:7; Prov. 4:23; Eph. 5:15)

7. Get involved in human need.

In giving you receive. Faith without deeds is lifeless (James 2:26). We give and serve not to get right with God, but because we are right with God!

Conclusion

When the Holy of Holies was torn open by the impact of the crucifixion, a power was released and became available into every believer's life. Potentially we're awesome in our capacity, for we are 'complete in Christ'. As we not only bask in those special moments when God sovereignly 'tops us up', but also learn to 'open up' to the now ever-present Christ within us, we become vehicles through which God can release His great Spirit of revival. The issue then is not to receive an 'anointing' but to 'release' the anointing. What a potency would be released each Sunday if we came to church with that sense of 'opening up' to all that Christ within us represents. What channels for the river of God we would then be! In our cry for 'more of God', we should not just settle for a top up, but open ourselves up to the volcanic eruption that the well of living water within us represents. For one last time let me restate it: 'Christ in you , the hope of glory' (Col. 1:27).

'The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less.' (The Message, 2 Cor. 5:5)