The Spirit of Abba

“Boy, Dad! You sure are dusty!” the young boy said to his father who worked at a local feed processing plant in Ohio by during the week and pastored a community church in Ohio at night and on weekends. This almost daily exclamation received in response a tired and sometimes weary, “Yes, I sure am dusty,” from the pastor, dad, husband, and man trying to do good for his family, his community, and his Savior.

One Saturday morning while out washing the car, the Dad saw his oldest 4-year-old picking up handfuls of dirt mixed with the gravel and grit in the driveway and rubbing them into his little pants.

“What are you doing?!” the Dad asked with a curious brow and grin.

“I want to be like you, Dad!” came the reply from the beaming but determined little boy making his britches dusty.

What Dad doesn’t want to hear that?! The greatest words spoken by a child of their parent in admiration and honor are the same...”I want to be like you.”

Father’s Day was even more special as Reid Phillips, my middle son, joined me to break the bread of the Word of God together and share it at Abba’s House. Rather than write each point, I ask you to please watch. Watch on YouTube or in the Abba’s House app.

Like my favorite ice cream cake that my mom, Paulette, painstakingly prepares (definitely delicious!), I can write all about it. I can even share a photo of it. But until you experience it for yourself, you’ll never know how good it is!

Watch. Observe, take in with your eyes, ears, and spiritual perceptions. Challenge yourself to ask how you relate to Abba – our Heavenly Daddy or Father. Honestly assess how you welcome the One Who God gave us to comfort, to act as our inner conscious for godliness and goodness, and to cover us in His protections.

Father’s Day hit differently for each person. Some reading this may have had an incredibly blessed day of worship at church, a delicious meal and fellowship with family, and maybe even a gift or card.

Others may have some distance between them and their family members. That distance is often created by our career choices, marriages that bring about a move, or just desires to live beyond our hometown.

Some may not have an earthly father to celebrate due to death, broken relationships, or even just not knowing their dad at all.

Relationships on this earth may be imperfect and even deeply flawed. But the relationship with Abba, our heavenly Father, is meant to be much different than those of this earth. To understand this relationship and to enjoy a love like nothing imaginable, let’s look at the love of God our Father that gave us, first, His Son, then His Spirit.

It’s as simple as what God did...He gave. For God, in His Most Holy, Highest Authority wanted His created life that was made in His image – with a spirit living in a fleshly body governed by a soul or will – to fellowship with Him. To do that, we must be made holy and with our sins covered. For God so loved the world to cover our sins that He gave His Son, Jesus.

Want to know what God would be like if we were to meet Him in person? Read the Bible. God’s Word was made flesh and His fullness – God’s entire essence – came in Jesus. God incarnate. Because of this great sacrifice and act of love, those who believe and follow Jesus are adopted as children (Galatians 4:6 and Romans 8:15). Not only are we adopted, but we are also given His Spirit.

God’s Spirit – the Third Person of the Trinity – mirrors the third aspect of our human existence. Remember, our spirit lives within our own flesh. But the Holy Spirit is just that — Holy. He has a distinct role as part of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is the very Spirit of God expressing His presence, will, and power in the here and now at all places and at all times. How? He is God.

If the Holy Spirit lives in you, so does the Father. He reflects the love of the Father and the finished work of Jesus Christ. All of this is so because the Living and Most High God loves you.

Like the young boy in the opening story, my son Reid has rubbed the gravel and grit into his pants like his dad, and granddad, Dr. Ron Phillips, Sr., to be a messenger for the Gospel. You may have a dad you’ve modeled. Maybe you’re a dad with eyes watching you for replication. Or maybe you’re in need, as we all are, of a Father.

Just welcome Him. Invite His Spirit to live in and through you. You may look down to see you’re rubbing the gravel and grit into your pants and becoming more and more like God the Father – love in its purest and highest form.

Choosing To Be

Yes! We’re human BEINGS. Each and every single day, we choose to be, to do, to learn, to grow, to BE. Each of these choices determines who we are and who we become.

The choice to follow Jesus is more than whispered prayer to avoid hell and the separation from God in eternal death.

The choice to follow Jesus begins with first believing in His great love and sacrifice. We choose to believe in Him and accept Him as Savior.

Then, we choose to follow Him in in our love and trusting expectation – a demonstration or proof of our faith. This is where we demonstrate Jesus is Lord. We obey Jesus’ command to love Him with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength; to choose to die to self spiritually and walk in a resurrected life in Christ.

“Now what?” you might ask. What in the world does this mean? How can I die but live? How can I be resurrected in Christ when He’s at the right hand of God the Father?

Read Colossians 3:1-11. In his book Basic Christianity, Pastor John Stott summed this up in the midst of a quote: “If we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves.”

Let’s move beyond words and to the application. A married person makes a choice every day to be loyal and loving or to be hateful and hurtful. One struggling to overcome addiction makes a choice every morning to continue down the road of enslaved living to substances that numb and alter only their perception, not their reality, or they live sober and fight on to be clean and free. One whose self-esteem is so fragile that they struggle with the truth can either choose to keep living lie after lie or they can be real, authentic, and honest.

Take note, friends. If we choose anything but being and living an authentic life that is in pursuit of Jesus, we end up on our own, often living isolated, hurt, broken, in our own ways, and in our own messes that are guaranteed. Many who reject choosing to be like Jesus in life by dying to your own ways end up becoming that which we despise.

Be who God created you to be!

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that “we are His creation (workmanship), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” Your life has purpose, a kingdom purpose, when lived in Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:20 explains that the fact that Jesus has “bought us at a price” elicits our natural response  that “we glorify God.” But beyond magnifying Jesus with the words of our lips, we are to look at verse 19 to understand that the best version of you is when you’re in Christ, yielded and operating as who God said you are to be.

As Paul wrote in Colossians to a church heavily influenced by culture, academia, and various religions, the word picture is painted clearly that our faith in Jesus means we have been spiritually raised with Him because, like Him, we’ve died to self and His Spirit has raised us to a new, resurrected life.

Now, this resurrected life is not some comic book farce of a perfect life with no problems, no struggles, and plenty of wealth and success. Our lives are lived higher than this world’s trappings, temptations, and tests. Colossians 3:2 instructs us to “set your minds on what is above, not what is on the earth.”

The higher life in Christ sees through the drama and trauma to pursue thing of Jesus, His ways, His teachings, connecting with His Body, and serving His kingdom on this earth, not running on the treadmill of life without His Spirit guiding and directing us.

Choosing to Be in Christ is a life “hidden with the Messiah in God”- a life of victory in Jesus, noted in verse 3. Our flesh no longer controls us. Fear no longer hinders us. Instead, faith is the choice that  propels us forward.

As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we choose to be holy. Stop! Don’t you dare stop reading. When we read something that challenges our lives, we swipe the phone, turn the page, or just “x” out. No. Stop. If we believe in Jesus as Savior, if He is Lord of our lives, we are called “God’s chosen ones, holy and loved...”

Nothing we do makes us holy. Jesus’ blood is that which covers our sins in love and makes them appear to God as white as snow. So, yes! We are made holy – or separated as sacred or a saint – by the blood shed in love by Jesus. But we must choose to live under His covering, obeying His commands and doing what the rest of Colossians 3:12-17 instructs. We are to “put on” Jesus Christ as Paul describes in great detail: heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another...just as the Lord has forgiven you. Above all, put on love – the perfect bond of unity...”

Adorning Jesus as the substitute for our flesh is not just beautiful, it’s the highest of life.

Listen to the full teaching below .

Accept the challenge: Choose to be... like Jesus.  You become that which you choose.

Does Your Heart Burn For Him?

Have you ever repeated something to emphasize the importance of your message and even repeated it with a little change to make sure the meaning is clear? If you’ve ever raised kids, coached, or worked in an environment with team dynamics, I know you understand!

God did and does the same thing.

In Leviticus 6:8-13, Jehovah, or the great I AM, instructed Moses to keep the fire on the altar in the tabernacle burning. The key detail was the fact that the fire was never to be extinguished. Not only that, but it was supposed to be “kept burning.” Burning. Not a gentle glow with embers crackling quietly. The fire was to burn.

Why?

The fire was to represent the consuming nature of God Himself (Hebrews 12:29) – His very Presence. The altar was the designated place for offerings to be presented for the purpose of atonement or the forgiveness of sin. The consuming fire would accept the sacrifice offered as our reasonable sacrifice in view of the Most High God’s mercy, love, and grace.

Jehovah – the God of holiness and righteousness – would abide in the tabernacle with sin confessed, sacrifices made, and the consuming fire purifying flesh and sin.

The application in our lives over 3,000 years later is the fact that we are to burn, to be kindled, from the Source – Jesus’ Spirit. Our fire should not be of our own making, not from the fuel of this world which burns as stubble.

The blaze of our faith is no figure of speech. The New Testament demonstrates an Old Testament principle with Jesus Christ as the sacrifice offered for the atonement of sin, and the Presence of God abiding with those who invite Him to stay and tabernacle.

Turn to Luke 24. Jesus has been publicly scorned, flogged, then crucified on a Roman cross of execution used for criminals. Jesus was placed in the borrowed tomb – needed only for 3 days. Angels had appeared to the women coming to dress the body and honor their friend and Rabbi, Jesus. But the tomb was empty because the power of the Holy Spirit literally brought the dead corpse of Jesus back to life.

Jesus Christ was resurrected and alive.

He appeared along a seven-mile road to a group of men “hurling words” at each other in discussing and debating about the ministry of Jesus and the whereabouts of His body, while searching for meaning. Jesus was invited by these men to walk along this road to Emmaus. As the conversation turned to Jesus, He escorted these men along another road – the journey back in time from Moses to the prophets. Every account cited by the risen Christ pointed to the Messiah’s first coming and the events that had culminated with Jesus’ death and crucifixion.

As these men urged Jesus to abide and linger with them over a meal, their eyes were opened to see Jesus – the risen Savior...before He vanished. At that moment, these travelers said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Take the time to watch the complete teaching below, but take a moment now to see the parallels between Jehovah’s instruction.

Jesus was invited to abide. God first loved us and desires to tabernacle and abide with His people. Jesus was the sacrifice offered to atone for sins, as required for love, forgiveness, and fellowship with the Presence of God.

The never-ceasing fire burning in the Old Testament was at the altar. Our very lives are directed by that which occupies our hearts and minds. What occupies your altar, the space of your heart that holds your objects of devotion, your loves and obsessions, and the seat of your very being?

It’s time for you to acknowledge what Jesus already knows. Does your heart burn for Jesus? Is there a kindled fire that indicates the very Presence of Jesus Christ, the King, in your life that emanates from within your being? Has your heart ever burned for Jesus?

How can your heart burn for Jesus if you can’t answer these questions with a “yes?”

Make sure you have sacrificed self and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Those are two separate ways to know Jesus! As Savior, we know Jesus as Redeemer who has saved us from the debt of our sin by purchasing us. Knowing Jesus as Lord is to know Him after dying to self and placing Him on the seat of your life’s throne for governance and rule (see last week’s blogpost, He Reigns...Well, Does He?)

If Jesus Christ is both Your Savior and Lord, your altar is set for His fire to burn. We have to invite His Spirit to abide and seek His Presence. The fire of Jesus burns in the hearts of the faithful. This fire burns in those overcoming failures, flaws, and the fights in the spiritual world. The fire of Jesus’ Spirit burns in the hearts of those living under an open heaven. The Spirit revealed Jesus through the healing of spiritual blindness and the understanding of God’s Holy Word.

Do you want to burn for Jesus? You have to get close enough to the fire to catch ablaze. The Abba’s House family of faith welcomes you and needs you. Come burn with us!