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by Dr. Bill BrightExperiencing the Adventure
A medical doctor approached me with great excitement at the conclusion of a Campus Crusade for Christ training conference. He was overflowing with joy and excitement.
“Since I have learned how to be filled with the Holy Spirit and walk in His power, the Christian life has become a great adventure for me!” he exclaimed. “Now, I want everyone to experience this same adventure with Christ.”
Would you like to know how to enjoy what this man and millions of other Christians have experienced? You too can know the adventure of a full, abundant, purposeful and fruitful life in Christ!
If you have been living in spiritual defeat - powerless and fruitless, wondering if there is any validity to the Christian life - there is hope for you! What greater promise could Christ offer to the Christian than the assurance that he can walk daily in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and experience an abundant and fruitful life of purpose and adventure? Here is His promise:
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:12-14).
Certain basic spiritual truths, when understood and experienced by faith, bring revolutionary spiritual benefits. These proven principles can help you to be more consistent in your walk with God and be more effective in your witness for our dear Savior.
It's Simple!
The Christian life, properly understood, is not complex or difficult. As a matter of fact, the Christian life is very simple. It is so simple that we stumble over the very simplicity of it, and yet it is so difficult that no one can live it!
This paradox occurs because the Christian life is a supernatural life. The only One who can help us live this abundant life is the Lord Jesus Christ, who empowers us with His Holy Spirit.
I want to share with you four vital truths which contribute dramatically to an understanding of the great adventure of the Christian life. And I want to show how you can experience an intimate, fruitful, daily walk with Jesus through the power of His Holy Spirit.
Be Sure You are Filled With the Spirit
One of the most important truths of Scripture, which has enriched my life more than any other, is a concept that I call “Spiritual Breathing.” This concept has been shared with millions - with revolutionary results - through Campus Crusade for Christ literature and various training conferences and seminars.
As you walk in the Spirit by faith and practice Spiritual Breathing, you need never again live in spiritual defeat. Spiritual Breathing, like physical breathing, is a process of exhaling the impure and inhaling the pure. This is an exercise in faith that will enable you to experience God’s love and forgiveness and to walk in the Spirit as a way of life. Let me explain.
The moment you invited Christ into your life as Savior and Lord, you experienced a spiritual birth. You became a child of God and you were filled with the Holy Spirit. God forgave your sins - past, present and future - making you righteous, holy and acceptable in His sight because of Christ’s sacrifice for you on the cross. You were given the power to live a holy life and to be a fruitful witness for God.
But the average Christian does not understand the concept of Spiritual Breathing as an exercise of faith and, as a result, lives on a spiritual roller coaster. He goes from one emotional experience to another, living most of his life as a worldly Christian who controls his own life and ends up frustrated and spiritually fruitless.
If this is your experience, Spiritual Breathing will enable you to get off this emotional roller coaster and enjoy the Christian life that the Lord Jesus promised us when He said:
“I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10, NASB).
As an exercise in faith, Spiritual Breathing will make it possible for you to continue to experience God’s love, forgiveness and the power and control of the Holy Spirit moment by moment and as a way of life.
If you sin by committing a deliberate act of disobedience, breathe spiritually. First, exhale by confession. God’s Word promises in 1 John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
In the Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the word “confess” (homologeo) means to “agree with” or to “say along with.” Such agreement involves at least three considerations.
First, you acknowledge that your sins - which should be named to God specifically - are wrong and are therefore grievous to Him.
Second, you acknowledge that God has already forgiven you through Christ’s death on the cross for your sins.
Third, you repent, which means that you change your attitude toward your sin. The power of the Holy Spirit will enable you to change both your attitude and conduct. Instead of doing what your old sinful nature - your flesh - wants to do, you can do what God wants you to do.
Now inhale by appropriating the fullness of God’s Spirit by faith. To be sure you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you need to remember two important words: command and promise. The command is found in Ephesians 5:18:
"Be filled...with the Holy Spirit, and controlled by him" (TLB).
Being filled with the Spirit means to be constantly and continually controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And the promise is found in 1 John 5:14-15:
"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."
On the authority of God’s command, you know that you are praying according to His will when you ask Him to fill you - to control and empower you. Therefore, you can expect Him to fill and empower you on the basis of His command and promise, provided that you genuinely desire to be filled and trust Him to fill you. I encourage you to continue to claim by faith His love, forgiveness and power and continue to have fellowship with Him moment by moment.
Practice Spiritual Breathing
You can cease to be a worldly or carnal Christian and become a Spirit-filled believer by practicing Spiritual Breathing. If you are breathing spiritually - exhaling by confessing your sin and inhaling by appropriating the fullness of the Holy Spirit by faith - you are a Spirit-filled Christian.
You become a worldly Christian when you develop over time an attitude of spiritual hardness. You set your heart against obeying 1 John 1:9, refusing to confess your sins and repent.
You do not become worldly simply by committing one sin or a dozen or even a hundred sins, provided that you sincerely continue to breathe spiritually. You will become worldly only when you develop an attitude of disobedience and refuse to breathe spiritually.
You can know right now that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Through the concept of Spiritual Breathing, you can go through life assured of His fullness. Simply keep short accounts with God; do not let sins accumulate.
His Abundant Life Within You
If you try to live the Christian life by your own fleshly effort, it becomes difficult, and even impossible to live. But when you invite the Lord Jesus to direct your life, when you know the reality of having been crucified with Christ and raised with Him by faith, when you walk in the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit as a way of life, the Lord Jesus simply lives His abundant life within you in all of His resurrection power.
I am not suggesting that the Christian who walks in the fullness of the Spirit will have no difficulties. Poor health, loss of loved ones, financial needs and other such problems are common to all people. However, many of our misfortunes are self-imposed because of our own worldly, selfish actions. The spiritual person is spared from most of these self-imposed hardships. But when problems do come, the spiritual person can face them with a calm, confident attitude because he is aware of God’s resources that are available to help him deal with adversity.
This is not simply a matter of positive thinking. We are instructed to cast our cares upon the Lord Jesus because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). The spiritual person knows the trustworthiness of God from experience. The Lord is our problem-solver and the trials and burdens of this world are no longer too great for us when He is carrying the load.
This was at the heart of the apostle Paul’s moment-by-moment experience:
I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20, TLB).
Let Me Illustrate
I think of this concept in this way. There is a throne, a control center - the intersection of one’s intellect, will, and emotion - in every life. Either self or Christ is on that throne. Let me illustrate.
I like to plan as far in advance as possible, especially for key events. But occasionally I get so busy with the many details of our worldwide ministry that an important item slips through.
With a key conference just a couple of weeks away, I realized we needed a set of printed materials that would be of tremendous benefit to the conferees.
As I shared the urgency with the department director responsible for this need, he responded, “Bill, our schedule is already full. Two weeks just isn’t enough time to produce the materials.”
I became impatient. Couldn’t my associate see that we are in a war for men’s souls, that we must seize opportunities when they arise and not limit our efforts to 8-to-5 workdays? I made my point clear to him.
“But if we had more notice,” he protested. “There just is no way we can squeeze in such a huge job with so little time. There’s the writing, then the design and typesetting, and artwork, then the printing....”
It seemed obvious that he did not share my burden for the upcoming event so I pressed my point. “Look, this is an important international conference,” I said firmly, my voice rising, “and this is no time for ‘business as usual.’ Please find a way to finish this project in time for the conference - even if you have to work around the clock.”
I could tell my colleague was frustrated, but I reasoned, We need those printed materials. Whatever it takes, we need them.
Conviction Sets In
Shortly after our conversation, I sensed the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Yes, even in our well-intended service for the Lord, we can stumble. In the name of godliness, I had offended a dear brother in Christ. I had failed to give him and his staff the benefit of the doubt; I had failed to take into account the tough workload they already were facing each day. Instead of asking him to think through the possibilities with me and helping him rearrange his priorities to accommodate the new task, I had virtually ordered him to get the project done and had shown little appreciation for the many late evenings his team was already devoting to their work. I had reacted impatiently rather than in a spirit of love, understanding and teamwork.
Decision to Make
At this point I had a choice to make. On one hand, I could let it go. After all, doesn’t the head of a large organization have the right to make certain demands when necessary? Didn’t the end (the strategic international conference) justify the means (get the job done no matter what it takes)? And didn’t my associate’s hesitant attitude warrant a stern talking-to about the urgency of the hour?
By all human standards, I probably could have justified letting the incident go. But deep inside I would have been restless and uncomfortable as the Holy Spirit continued to point out the sin to me and God would not have blessed my efforts on His behalf as long as this sin remained unconfessed. On top of that, several of my dear co-workers would have continued to hurt as a result of my callous attitude.
On the other hand, I could deal with the problem by taking scriptural action to clear the slate. The unrest in my conscience was the Holy Spirit cross-examining me as I tried to rationalize my behavior. What I had thought was forceful leadership, He was identifying as the sins of impatience and unjustifiable anger.
I realized that taking scriptural action was the only choice I could make that would please my Lord. I confessed my sin to Him and appropriated His forgiveness.
Then Came the Toughest Part
I drove to the office complex where my associate and his team were located and asked their forgiveness. We cried and laughed and prayed together, sensing a fresh outpouring of God’s love in our midst. Then we talked through our mutual needs and found a way - as teammates - to rearrange priorities and accomplish the task - on time!
That is what the Christian life is all about - just keeping Christ on the throne. We do this when we understand how to walk in the control and power of the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit came for the express purpose of glorifying Christ by enabling the believer to live a holy life and to be a fruitful witness for our dear Savior.
Continue to breathe spiritually, exhaling whenever the Holy Spirit reveals sin that you need to confess and inhaling as you go on walking in the fullness and control of the Spirit by faith.
He's Already With You
Remember that the Holy Spirit already dwells within you if you are a believer. You do not have to ask Him to come into your life; He is already indwelling you. Your body is a temple of God from the moment you became a Christian. So you simply say to Him, “I surrender my life to You, and by faith I claim Your fullness and power.”
Let me caution you not to depend upon feelings. Tied as they are to your ever-changing circumstances, feelings are unreliable in evaluating your relationship with God. The unchanging promises of God’s Word, not your feelings, are your authority. The Christian is to live by faith, trusting in the trustworthiness of God Himself and His Word. The following diagram of a train is a good illustration of the relationship among fact, faith, and feeling.
Let us call the train engine “fact” - the fact of God’s promises found in His Word. The fuel car we will call “faith” - your trust in God and His Word. The caboose we will call “feelings.”
As fuel flows into the engine, the train runs. It would be futile and, of course, ridiculous to attempt to pull the train by the caboose. In the same way you, as a Christian, should not depend on feelings or emotion to live a Spirit-filled life. Rather, God wants you to simply place your faith in His trustworthiness and the promises (facts) of His Word.
Feelings are like the caboose. They are important, but are designed to result from a life of faith and obedience. Jesus promised all who obey Him:
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21).
So, you can expect to have a valid emotional relationship with our Lord when you trust and obey Him. But you should never depend on feelings or seek an emotional experience. The very act of looking for an emotional experience is a denial of the concept of faith and whatever is not of faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
To summarize, then, you can know that you are filled with the Holy Spirit by trusting in God - His command and His promise - and you can go through life with that assurance.
Part 2 - Be prepared for spiritual conflict
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