Spiritual Practices: Cooperating with the Spirit

This Fall the whole church will be walking together through a number of weeks introducing and describing Christian “spirituality,” or “Spiritual Practices.” We’re aiming to address questions like: “How do I grow?” and “How do I get close to God?” 

We’re going to introduce this series of teaching for the children through the story of Pentecost, because all spirituality flows from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Our spiritual practices, then, are habits or disciplines (“disciple”) that are intended to lead us into alignment with God and whatever he has for us—both internally and externally in our day to day life.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live... These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:15-20, 25-27

One of the most tragic aspects of sin and its consequences is our alienation from God. We were made by God, are sustained by him at every moment, and yet find ourselves wandering through a world wondering where he is. We do not hear God “walking in the cool of the day” like our first parents, and even though the whole world at every moment is a kind of book about God, we struggle to learn to read it. 

Pentecost is about God returning to us, and in a manner far better than before. Instead of walking with us, he enters into us. We become the “holy of holies,” each one of us. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Cor. 6:19) As flesh ascends to heaven in the Ascension, now heaven descends to flesh in Pentecost. It is a major development in God’s redemptive work and a sign of the extent to which Christians participate in the nature of Christ. 

It is also the basis of any Christian "spirituality": to live "in Christ," is also to be filled with the Holy Spirit--the Spirit that will lead you into life.

Scripture to consider:

• Acts 2:1-12

  
  

Questions for your kids

• I wonder: Have you ever tried to understand a different language? What is that like?

• I wonder: Why might Pentecost be so important to our following Jesus? (Hint: his Spirit is now in us, and always with us!

  
  

Peace,

Danny+