January 29 - Pains like labor

 

Ok, the last couple of days we have been talking about the supernatural vs. the Spiritual. 

 

Today I want to share with you why this is so important to me! Hopefully you will have the chance to process some of this and possibly even begin to view things a little differently as well. So again, I always love feedback! Feel free to text me at 630-995-1253, or always, you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, or email at Michaelgrove1@icloud.com. I have this all in today’s show description as well. 

 

But today, I want to start by reading Acts 1:1-10 and Romans 8. 

 

So please, follow along with me if you can. In the end, I will take my time explaining some of it’s meaning and why it is so important to the conversant. 

 

Acts 1:1-10

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 

 

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

 

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by HIs own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

 

 

Ok, Let’s talk about his one for a minute first, then we will jump into Romans 8 some. 

 

So Luke is writing this. He had written his first book  - the gospel of Luke - by interviewing people and finding out all that Jesus had done while he was here on this earth. When we jump into Acts 1, we are in this spot where Luke knows some of what happened leading up this, but is now in the middle of the Acts of the apostles unfolding. It is likely that he has a first hand experience with these events. We know this because Paul mentions Luke in several of his writings. So he was there with Paul as some of this unfolded. 

 

But listen to what happened. 

 

The people were there with Jesus, and he was about to leave them. 

 

But before he left, he gave them a command. That was to say in Jerusalem. 

 

Now for the Jewish followers, they were still waiting for the restoration of power to be given to the Jewish people. So they asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

 

Now this is an interesting question, because Jesus had just told them what he was going to do. He said, “do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John Baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” So they knew he was going to baptize them with the Holy Spirit. And the first question out of their mouth equates to this - Lord, are you doing this for our own sake? Will we be restored to power? 

 

And Jesus answers them with this - 

 

“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

 

Now, if you didn’t know this, He just formed concentric circles around the ares they were to witness in. You have their central understanding of their home - Jerusalem. Then you have Judea and Sameria - these they knew, but were not necessarily welcomed in. In fact, if you go back through the gospels, you find that they were almost stoned to death, and even had a murder attempt on Jesus in these lands. And then the final piece extends out past these lands to the end of the earth. 

 

What is Jesus telling them about the Holy Spirit here? 

 

They will receive power, and it will take them into all of these lands to see the gospel preached. What is the gospel? The good news. The hope that Jesus is making all thing new for those who would turn their hearts to him. 

 

So they asked if he would restore power to them, and Jesus basically said - not really. I will send you to restore all people from here to the ends of the earth. 

 

Get this - The reason the Holy Spirit was given, was so that Jesus’s followers would go into the rest of the world and see people restored by the gospel message! And, this wasn’t a power that was going to be granted for special occasions during special events. . NO! This was a power that they were going to receive in their lives as the Holy Spirit filled each of them. Again, this wasn’t supernatural - this was the spiritual once again invading the natural realm to bring both together again. Which is what Jesus prayed for by the way. But in order to hear that one, you will have to listen tomorrow. . . . 

 

Ok, but let’s jump now into Romans 8. This is one of my favorite text about the Holy Spirit. 

 

We read the first part of Romans 8 the other day. So we won’t read it again. But if you forgot about it, this is Paul’s address that the Spirit brings us life as children of God. It was more proof that the spiritual is intertwined with our natural lives. 

 

Let’s start in vs. 18

 

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into freedom and glory of the children of God. 

 

Let’s stop here for a second. 

 

Paul is saying that the suffering they have gone through because of the gospel, is nothing compared to what God will do in their bodies as he restores all things. Get this, he isn’t thinking through carnal eyes here, he is understanding that God will restore all things in the future. And this restoration, is a physical one, not just a spiritual one. Catch that! He isn’t just believing one day he will be in heaven and all things will be ok. No, one day heaven will come down to earth and restore all things. In that moment, humanity will be made pure and brought into the full gory of God. In the mean time, there is a process that is taking place. 

 

Then he explains the result of sin from the garden of Eden. He says that creation was subject to frustration, not by its own choices but by the will of the one who subjected it. .  Remember, the earth was subject to the curse of man. God said the earth would produce thorns. It was going to be stubborn towards mankind trying to cause it to thrive. This wasn’t God’s prescriptive curse on the earth. This was a result of man’s sin. Not because God wanted it this way, but because by sinning, man brought darkness into the world. And this darkness does only what it knows how to do - consume all signs of life. 

 

So the physical earth is subject to the spiritual curse that took place when sin entered creation. Again, spiritual and physical intertwined. But let’s keep reading

 

Vs 22

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 

 

So stop there for a minute. The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 

 

The imagery here is great! 

 

What do you think of in this text. The groaning as in the pains of childbirth - There is pain. There is a tense amount of suffering. . But it all has hope that something new is about to happen. There is a rebirth of new life that will make all the pain forgotten and in the past. And the earth itself is crying out for this. 

 

Here is what I think. The earthquakes, natural fires, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, floods and tsunamis, any sort of natural disaster - These things are the earths way of crying out! They are screaming for restoration! The cry of the earth is - fix me!!!! I didn’t want to be this way, it’s not my fault, now make it right!!!! PLEASE!

 

Get this, the so called Natural Disasters - they are really Spiritual cries of the earth begging for restoration! Get the power behind this! The earth is crying out to be made whole again! But it doesn’t stop there. Keep reading in vs. 26

 

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 

 

Catch this! This is powerful. 

 

In the same way the earth is crying out for restoration, the spirit fills us with the words and groaning that would make us desire the same restoration for everything around us! This is the power of the Holy Spirit. That we would have a deep desperation to see the people of the earth restored and made whole. But not just a deep desire. . . . A desperation! One that cries out with hurricane force and explodes with volcanic power, trembles with earthquake magnitude that we would see the lost restored in relationship with the Lord as the broken and desperate also find health and wholeness - through the ability to thrive! 

 

This is what happens when the Spiritual collides with the natural world. The reaction is a desperate motion that would do whatever it takes to redeem all things back to God. 

 

And listen to how Paul concludes this section. . 

 

Vs. 28

 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

 

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died-more than that, who raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 

 

“For your sake we face death all day long; 

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 

 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 

FEW!!!!

 

That’s a power section!

 

And it all hinges on the understanding that the Spiritual is actively at work in the natural through and in you and me! The Holy Spirit was given to bring the powerful work of the Holy Spirit into your daily life, that you might be an agent of restoration to the world around you. And when you do that, Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Not only that, you bring the love of God to those around you! This all happens because the Spirit fills you and works through you to see - not supernatural things take place, but spiritual things. Spiritual things that are beyond the grasp of demon. Spiritual things that the whole physical earth and creation s in alignment with as it groans and screams out for restoration! Spiritual things that keep us and hold us in the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord! 

 

And for that reason, the spiritual is more powerful and more consistent than anything supernatural. It’s not random acts that denote spontaneous manifestations of the LORD. It’s continual outpourings of the Spiritual realm that give us the power to be more than Conquerors. 

 

So please. . . 

 

Stop looking for supernatural! 

 

It’s a waste of time! And quite frankly, so miniscule. 

 

No, believe God’s power to do the spiritual. And the spiritual is constantly at work to restore all things no matter what the cost!