This blog post is the second in a series of posts about the gift and power of the Holy Spirit that the believer has access to.
Do you feel powerless to change unhealthy eating behavior? If you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ you have the power of God within you to change. Consider the power of the Holy Spirit given at the moment of salvation. Jesus told Nicodemus that the Holy Spirit is the agent involved in the conversion of a soul for salvation:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” John 3:6-7 (NKJV)
It is the same resurrection power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that also gives the spirit of the unbeliever, dead in sin, new life in Christ. And the same Holy Spirit then transforms (sanctifies) the believer and provides the supernatural power to overcome sin and addictions. The Bible describes the power that comes with the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11, 15:13, 2 Timothy 1:7, Acts 1:8, Luke 24:49, Titus 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 1 Thessalonians 1:5, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 12:4-6, John 6:63, Joel 2:28-29).
All who repent for their sin and put their faith in Christ for redemption and Forgiveness of sins receive the gift of the Holy Spirit the moment they are saved, and the benefits are abundant. Indeed, Jesus said we have life “more abundantly”:
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10b (NKVJ)
Jesus said that those who believe in Him “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” referring to the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39) and that the Father would send the Helper in His name. The Greek word in John 14:16, 26; 15:26 and 16:7 is “parakletos” which means “one called to the side of another”--the word can be translated as Comforter, Counselor, Advocate. Elsewhere in Scripture the Holy Spirit also guides, seals, baptizes, regenerates, sanctifies, and convicts. In addition to the most important gift of eternal life upon conversion of a soul from unbelief to belief the Holy Spirit also continues to work in the believer in a process of sanctification--a process of transformation of the believer who has become a new creation in Christ. Sanctification includes growing the fruits of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). The Holy Spirit is a Helper indeed!
Consider the power of the Holy Spirit. From the very beginning the Holy Spirit participated in the powerful miracle of creation:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2 (NKJV)
Jesus told the apostles that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit to witness about Him:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you . . .” Acts 1:8a (NIV)
The Holy Spirit’s power is associated with healings, miracles and regeneration in Scripture:
“You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:37-38 (NIV)
And it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Mary miraculously conceived Jesus:
“And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.’
“Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’” Luke 1:35-38 (NKJV)
In case there were any “doubters” about Mary’s story, let them explain Elizabeth! Notice the similarity—the Son of God born in Mary when the Holy Spirit came upon her, and the Son of God born in us when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. Both miracles take the power of God to happen. Also notice that Mary had to receive the offer--and so do we--and that by doing so she would be in an extremely embarrassing and difficult situation. Isn’t that what keeps some from receiving Christ, and also once having received Christ, from living evidently for him?
Consider the power involved when God poured out the Holy Spirit on the disciples and others who gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost that birthed the Church in the power of the New Covenant ministry which has done more to change the world than any other force since history began (Acts 2:1-47). The power of the Holy Spirit can change the world, and can change us. If you are in bondage to food and you feel like it would take a miracle for you to be free from it consider the powerful miracle of the conception of Jesus in Mary, the Son of God born in her when the Holy Spirit came upon her. Consider the participation of this same Holy Spirit in the powerful miracle of creation. And consider the force of change in the world initiated by the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Realize it is also by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus overcame temptation:
“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. . . Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.” Luke 3:21-22a, 4:1-2a (NIV)
There in the desert, full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus as a man was confronted by Satan and tested, and He gained the victory. Think about that. The same overcoming power of God is in us if we are “full of the Holy Spirit”! What can be more powerful against that?
The Powerless Law (and Diets)
The Word of God says that even God’s Holy law is “powerless”--that is, it has no power to help us to follow it, but can only show us where we fall short. The law shows us what is required but has no power to help us do it. It is the job of the Holy Spirit, the gift of a deposit in those who have accepted Jesus Christ, to help us to make happen what the law says should happen but doesn’t have the power to make happen:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)
I highly encourage you stop reading this blog post at this point and read Romans 8 where the Holy Spirit is mentioned 19 times. The Holy Spirit frees us from sin and enables us to fulfill God’s law, gives us the same power for victory over our flesh as Jesus’ resurrection power over death, and confirms our adoption as God’s children and eternal life.
It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can become free from bondage and live an abundant life.
As pastor Tony Evans has so eloquently said, it is the job of the Holy Spirit to bring the promises of God into your life.
How then can diets, which are based on “man’s law” instead of God’s law, have any power to help us to change? The answer is they cannot. Rules and regulations (whether they be God’s Holy law or rules of diets) have no life and no power in them to make us follow them. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to follow God’s law. Indeed, that’s why Jesus died—through His death and resurrection He made a way for us to be cleansed from and overcome our sin so that our relationship with a Holy Father might be restored. The gift of the Holy Spirit (Who He leaves with us if we accept His death on the cross for our sin) enables us to follow God’s law which we were unable to do left to ourselves.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Matthew 5:17-18 (NIV)
Not only is the law powerless to help us, the sinful passions are actually aroused by the law:
“For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:5-6 (NKJV)
Sinful passions aroused by the law--don’t you want to eat “restricted” food more when a diet tells you that you “should not” or “cannot”? Instead of putting your faith in a diet put your faith in God and nourish yourself with His Word which He uses to both save and to sanctify.
