Surfing the Spirit

Scripture: Genesis 1.1-5; Acts 19.1-7; Mark 1.4-11

The summer I spent on the Outer Banks of North Carolina was the summer I learned how to windsurf. Windsurfing is a water sport, using you and a board like surfers use, and attached to that board, a sail, like you might find on a boat. The sail has a long handle that you hold on to. The really good windsurfers also strap themselves into a harness that they sit down in and lean back to maximize the wind for increased speed.

But it’s pretty much the same for everyone – the board and sail, you, and the wind. It also requires balance, patience, understanding. But once you get the hang of it, it can be really exciting. It can also be really frustrating and boring. You know when it’s frustrating? When there is no wind.

Jesus says that those born of the Spirit of God are like the wind, you don’t know where they’ve come from or where they are going. And I think He meant that in a good way! Spirit, pneuma, of course means wind. The presence of God in this world is like the wind. He is an invisible Spirit. And so, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood person of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is a person, not an “it.” The Spirit is not just the warm fuzzy feelings we get when we’re spiritual. He is not the personal massage therapist for our souls. He does not conform to our personal agendas or opinions. Although we would like Him to.

The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is the mystery of the Universe – Jesus Christ alive in us!

Paul asks the question of the Ephesians, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

Spirit, whaa? We never heard of such a thing. The Ephesians ignorance is probably best explained by the spontaneous and unorganized nature of the early church witness. The only “governing board” was the twelve apostles in Jerusalem. They were responsible for everything - maintaining the church under intense persecution, caring for people’s needs, and taking the gospel into Judean and beyond. There were increasingly more believers and more people teaching and witnessing in Christ’s name. Some teachers were more equipped than others. Some things, important stuff, got neglected by some. Apollos and Paul were contemporaries who brought didn’t strengths and gifts. It could be that Apollos witnessed to the Ephesians about Jesus, but never taught them about the Holy Spirit, maybe because Apollos was a little lacking there as well.

The Holy Spirit is, however, not an optional belief or doctrine for any Christian. Scripture makes it clear that if you are in Christ you have the Holy Spirit. (No one can say, “Jesus is Lord!” without the Holy Spirit in them) But the Holy Spirit is not only the mark of a believer, the Holy Spirit is the power in a believer to live the life to which God calls them.
In Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings the small hobbit named Frodo Baggins amazes his companions with his wisdom and toughness and courage. His mentor and friend, Gandalf, says to him, “There is more about you than meets the eye Frodo Baggins.”

There is more about us than meets the eye. This is what I mean. Listen – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Stop. Have you ever tried to wrap your mind around that one? The beginning. Nothing but God. Then creation – worlds, stars, galaxies, earth, heaven. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

I love that image. The Holy Spirit, He is about to do some creating. He is rubbing His hands together. His speech is about to give birth to what His mind has conceived.

This same power that was there at the very beginning is the power that lives in you and me!

I am convinced that this power, for many of us, remains a largely untapped power. I think this is so because of sin and because of ignorance or immaturity.

Let use another surfing metaphor. The medium is not water or wind this time, but rather ISP’s, gigabytes, and URL’s. I’m, of course, talking about surfing the Internet. I know someone who has had a computer at their home for several years. Not too long ago they complained that the computer had completely shut down. Boom. Lights out. Called it a life. Dead.

Now I knew this person had a dial-up Internet connection and regularly surfed the net, so I asked them if they had run an anti-spyware program at all – no, they didn’t. I asked them if there anti-virus program was up to date. They never got around to getting one. The autopsy on their computer was, “death due to bugs. The cause – neglect.”

I am convinced that many of us neglect our relationship with God this way. We don’t feed and nurture our spirits with prayer and the Word. We allow sin to hang around and multiply. And once sin gets a grip it becomes harder for us to hear the voice and sense the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever wondered why you don’t have the passion and fervor in your faith you once had? It feels like you’re windsurfing and there’s no wind. Your out there, stuck, just drifting and waiting. What is required is balance, patience, and a dependence on God. What is required is a return to the fundamentals of prayer, study, service and the sacraments.

A Life lived with passion and purpose doesn’t depend on innate talents or a great job or ideal circumstance. A Life of passion and purpose starts with God and ends with God.
Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great says, “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.”

Maybe you need to choose holiness over sin today. Maybe you need to choose spiritual discipline over winging it. Maybe you need to simply enjoy being in the presence of the Holy Spirit today.