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When you begin flowing in the
Spirit, it's a great feeling.
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Flowing In The Spirit
What
Does It Mean to 'Flow in the Spirit?'
R. T. Kendall
What a
thrill it is to "flow in the Spirit."
You
feel that what you are doing is worthwhile; you feel authenticated, you feel
loved; you know you are a part of something very important — the kingdom of
God.
It
happens to me when I am preparing a sermon, witnessing to an unsaved person,
helping my wife clean the house, doing the shopping, or anything else in life
that is either necessary or a blessing to people.
You
feel this when visiting a sick person or resisting temptation; when you walk to
work or do work in the office. It is a 24-hour-a-day possibility.
What
does it mean to "flow in the Spirit?"
It is
moving along with Him, keeping in step with Him, and missing nothing He may
want to do through us.
The joy
of flowing in the Spirit is equal to anything God may ever do for us and in us.
This is
what Peter and John were doing when they were walking toward the temple one
afternoon but were unexpectedly stopped, only to see the healing of a
forty-year old man who had never walked. (See Acts 3:1-10)
There
are two questions that emerge:
· Why were these disciples led at this particular
time to administer healing to this man?
· How did they know this man would suddenly be
healed?
As to
the first question, have you ever wondered why Jesus Himself did not heal this
man? After all, Jesus walked in and out of the temple — right past this beggar —
countless times over the previous three years. Why didn't Jesus heal him?
For all
I know, Jesus wanted to heal the man long before the man received his healing
at the hands of Peter and John.
We
don't know whether this is true, though we only know that Jesus went past him
without healing him. Why not?
Believe it or not, Jesus was not His "own man," He
said so: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he
can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the
Son also does" (John 5:19).
Jesus
took orders from the Father. Everything Jesus said was mirroring or repeating
what the Father granted to be said or done.
Jesus
may well have wanted to heal the man at the Gate Beautiful. Perhaps the Father
said to Him, "I'm saving him for Peter and John." What we do
know is that the man was not healed until this point.
God is
sovereign, and a missing note in teaching and preaching today is this very
aspect about God.
The
sovereignty of God refers mainly to His will and power. God has a will of His
own — independent of His creation — and that will needs to be affirmed and
honored for whatever He does or does not do (See Exodus 33:19).
In
other words, God the Father was behind the decision not to heal this man during
Jesus' days on earth, but equally behind the reason Peter and John were the
chosen instruments to grant healing at this particular time.
And yet
there is to be seen an equally important teaching regarding the Holy Spirit: He
too does only what the Father tells Him to do.
Jesus
and the Holy Spirit in this sense are identical because both the Son and the
Spirit carry out the Father's wishes and nothing more.
All
that Jesus ever did, and all that the Holy Spirit ever does, is sovereignly
orchestrated by the Father in heaven.
Jesus said that the Holy Spirit "will not speak on His
own; He will speak only what He hears" (John 16:13).
This
goes to show that the Holy Spirit, like Jesus, does not act independently but does
only what He hears from the Father.
The
Holy Spirit was sovereignly at work, carrying out the Father's will, when Peter
and John came upon this man at the temple gate. That is the only explanation
for the healing at that moment in time and not before.
But now
to the second question: how did Peter and John know that this
man's time had come and that the Spirit was willing to perform this wonderful
miracle?
Answer:
they had the joy of flowing in the Spirit. It was not Peter and John's idea to
stop and address the lame man; it was the Spirit's idea.
This
man's time of healing had come. They were privileged to be part of the Father's
plan at such a time as this.
Peter
and John were enjoying sweet fellowship with the Spirit and with each other.
They
were keeping in step with the Spirit, and so they did not miss what God was
prepared to do. It gave them real joy to be involved in this miracle.
Flowing
in the Spirit means to honor God's "no" as well as His
"yes."
Paul
and his companions were "kept by the Holy Spirit"
("forbidden," KJV) from preaching the word in the province of Asia (Acts
16:6).
To flow
in the Spirit is to have such an intimate relationship with Him that you
recognize what He wants you to do.
Paul
and his companions walked in the Spirit because they also knew His ways.
God lamented of ancient Israel, "They have not known my
ways" (Hebrews 3:10).
God
wants intimacy with us, and there is no greater joy than to keep in step with
the Spirit.
To flow
in the Spirit is to learn God's ways, style, gentleness, indignation, impulses,
manner of doing things, and His way with people.
In
other words, flowing in the Spirit is doing what pleases the Spirit and what He
prompts you to do.
Prayer
Power for the Week
This
week ask the Lord to teach you how to flow in His Spirit by doing what pleases
Him and what He prompts you to do.
Seek
the intimacy that puts you in step with Him. Stay tuned to His voice and
continue to pray for opportunities to reveal His love and be used by Him in
supernatural ways.
Ask the
Lord for more laborers for His end-time harvest. Pray for those victimized by
terrorism and those suffering for righteousness sake.
Adapted from Pure Joy by R.
T. Kendall, copyright 2015, published by Charisma House. This book
will show you how to receive and keep the pure joy only the Holy Spirit can
bring. Balancing both basic principles in the Word with their practical
applications, R.T. Kendall unlocks the key to maintaining an open, unhindered,
joyful relationship with the Holy Spirit and continually flow in Him. To order
your copy click here.
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