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Knowing and Growing with God: God in Us

10.13.2020 by Jennifer Howe //

Hello! This month a FACET shares what’s happening here as we talk about knowing and growing with God:

As we start to dig into the Persons of God this month, we wanted to preface with a bit about what we believe. We believe in one God who exists in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are three individual Persons of one magnificent God. There are numerous scriptures throughout the New Testament that reference the three Persons of God individually, and together, giving us glimpses of the personality and characteristics of God. If you wrestle with the thought of one God in three Persons, we encourage you to lean in, pray, and ask God to further reveal Himself. We pray you find comfort in the greatness and vastness of our God, knowing we will forever have more to learn about Him.

The Trinity: Intimately knowing and growing? (Jennifer J Howe)

Once upon a time…

I (Jennifer) put God in a box. He seemed, like the wind, invisible. In my ignorance, I assumed the situation was like Shrödinger’s cat: He was there, but I could never be sure if He was alive or dead. (Forgive me, Father!) I couldn’t be sure of what He might or might not do…or what He definitely wouldn’t do. My rebel heart was on a rampage.

Every so often it’s still tempting to throw a little tantrum when I can’t see what He’s doing, when I don’t know which way to go in the silence, when I can’t be sure He’s working in the way I’d like. (Key words: the way I’d like!)

The real truth is: this was nothing my Abba Father couldn’t handle or lead me through, and He graciously and mercifully did!

There was Someone I didn’t know…

I wasn’t reading enough of the Bible or looking very closely at the evidence surrounding me. It was the perfect setup for a setback in what should have been an intimate relationship with my God. How I calibrated “truth” in my life and heart mattered. A person’s version of truth and reality comes from somewhere; mine was a lot “loosey-goosey.”

Who is He?

When the conversation revolves around God, only ultimate truth will do. And His identity—Father, Son, and Spirit—that’s where His holiness, bigness, and otherness leaves me (and you?) speechless. Since it’s impossible to use my limited language and experience to express His identity with specific clarity, I know better than to try, I suppose. For simplicity, I want to think about the Person of God who has been my heart’s longing to know more and more intimately: His Holy Spirit.

Spirit of God…

The Spirit! I grew up reading ‘Holy Ghost’ in my Bible. Not a wrong translation necessarily, of course, but I’ve always had a certain mindset in connection with “ghost” because I lived through the extremes of the cultural conversation about spiritual things: Casper the Friendly Ghost and Poltergeist. It’s not surprising the culture holds mistaken ideas about His identity. What a challenging way to think about spiritual things and, ultimately, the Person of God!

God in us…

We have been given an incredible gift! Father God has always been for us; Jesus, Immanuel, is God with us; and Holy Spirit is God filling us. Please know there is little I can say here that is pinpoint accurate. I’m humbled with every word I try to put on the page.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Romans 8:9 ESV

For me, silence falls on those words.

The gift of Him and assurance…

Not only does every believer receive the presence of the Person of God, Holy Spirit, as a definite seal of belonging to God.

1 …I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12 ESV

A sure sign of life in Christ! We cannot speak truth, or perhaps even desire godly things, without the beautiful activity of His Spirit. Thank you, God, that You never wanted any of us to die apart from You (Matthew 18:14) and gifted us Your Spirit! Thank you, Spirit of mercy!

As if He were not enough…

In humility I come to these words and sit with them. Really—as if HE were not enough, He generously fills us with truth, wisdom, strength, and integrity we couldn’t even attempt to muster up!

For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.
Philippians 2:13 HCSB

And that’s why it has to be His truth, love, and power. Ours is flawed and weak in comparison. By His strength…

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit… 11 All these [gifts] are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 1 Corinthians 12

Galatians 5:22-26 (fruit) and 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (gifts) reveal how a believer is equipped. A range of gifts are given in order to glorify God and bless others. How generous is our God!

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 2 Peter 1:3 ESV

“All we need for life and godliness”…that’s what some translations say. Thank goodness! It’s the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that makes that happen.

A prayer…

I would love to pray for both of us, friend, if you’ll have it:

I’m asking You, Spirit, to do this very thing: work in us! Grant us fresh mercy.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin… Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. — Psalm 51:1-2, Psalm 51:10-12

Enable us to desire and do the will of God, which is “good and perfect and pleasing” (Romans 12:1-2). We know Your goodness, love, and holiness; and we are getting to know the things You will do! Holy Spirit, we want to be intimately knowing and growing with YOU! Help us lean into the Word of God instead of others’ takes on what the Bible says.

Neither by our human strength nor our measly power, ‘but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts’ (Zechariah 4:6).

“By my Spirit,” says the Lord. It’s a good word!

Thanks for reading, friend. Be blessed as you go today! Should you choose to share this with a friend, I’d be humbled.

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Signature: Jennifer Howe

Categories // Jennifer Howe's Perspective, The Trinity: Intimately knowing and growing Tags // 1 Corinthians 12:1-3, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, 2 Peter 1:3, Facets of Faith, Galatians 5:22-26, God in us, Holy Spirit, Jennifer J Howe, Knowing and growing with God, Matthew 18:14, Philippians 2:13, Psalm 51:1-2, Psalm 51:10-12, Romans 12:1-2, Romans 8:9, Zechariah 4:6

Love and Rescue: What might’ve been—except…

04.10.2018 by Jennifer Howe //

Hey, friend! Welcome to our April topic: What has God rescued you from? This month started off with a heart-felt share from Tracy, and I can’t wait to hear from Kim and our guest author the next two weeks. Check in Tuesday mornings here or at our Facebook Page—April promises to be a celebration of the rescue mission our Daddy-God planned from the beginning of time. For every single one of us!

April 2018: God rescue (J Howe)

I (Jennifer) sit quietly in my caffeinated hidey hole, pre-Resurrection Day, and I’m in awe of the intricate strands braided at the cross on Friday. Deepest love, excruciating pain, and hours of suffering twist tightly, not that different from the crown of thorns pressing on Jesus’ brow. Then Friday’s crusty, blood-red thorns were exchanged for a gilded crown forever on Sunday morning. He came, lived, and loved! And the rescue mission was victorious when Jesus rose from the dead and opened the way to eternal life for us all.

A Resurrection made possible by—
Resurrection: God’s power on display. How beautiful! It’s amazing and almost inconceivable—the God of the universe unseated himself from heaven’s perfection, stooped down to humanity’s messy condition, and bore immeasurable pain—all on a rescue mission for the rebel horde (all of us!). The resurrection power could never be, though, without the crucifixion on Friday. That’s a “no-brainer” in one sense, but have you seriously thought about it? We might be tempted to leap past the ugly, bloody, rugged cross to chocolate bunnies and brightly-colored eggs. And that would be natural, I suppose. Certainly the images of the two days and the way we observe them stand in stark contrast.

The rescue mission began in rough, 1-Star accommodations in a manger setting, and included all 33 years of Jesus’ life. Now we zero in on the final week of his life; it culminated in a battle that shook the heavenly realms and a victory for the Christ, the King of all.

Me—like it never happened…
So, how did this rescue mission work out for me, personally? I thought about it earlier this week. A friend gave me a fantastic story idea: What if I met my earlier self down the road from age 23, but the self who chose not to identify with Christ? (Think: parallel universe.) What would happen if the seeds in my younger self had germinated and grown and bloomed? That could reveal what I was rescued from, couldn’t it?

What might’ve been…
I imagine meeting myself at a very different hidey hole.

[Insert 80s television show wavy lines preceding an alternate reality here.]

She’s at a dark corner table taking a short break from a string of two-steps, double-twos, swings, and line dances. A freshly starched southwestern button-down, faded Wranglers, an oversized, silver buckle, and beat-up twenty-five-year-old boots. She looks put-together and fits right into her environment—perfect for playing the game.

A little unsteady on her feet by 10 o’clock with several Bartels & Jameses down the hatch, but she has some of her wits about her. Bottles gather in the middle of the table. An equal number of men wonder how they could buy her a drink and be ignored. She’s not going down that road.

Men are heartache and trouble. There’s no cowboy riding to the rescue. There never was, her inner voice hisses.

She wipes the sweat from a new bottle and offers the man a nod and flashes a disinterested raised brow. The fifth quizzical look chalked up. Another brick and mortar in the wall.

Heartbreak is on her face. The losses are big: children (by choice), her home (by her fiery temper), cars (by repeated “accidents”). The pain and abuse scrawled all over her story shows. Anger, stress, and bitterness fold into every wrinkle. There’s no inquisitive, interested-in-life-and-learning look on her face. It’s sour lemons never made into anything. It’s distrust and disgust.

Colored and carefully styled hair frames her face, and dark emotion seethes behind perfectly made-up green eyes. Appearances are everything. They work for her. But the attractive appearance is in contrast to her social presence once she opens her mouth. She’s all sunshine or summer storm. She chooses word weapons from the arsenal carefully. If anyone hangs around, her grit and salt grinds until their rash begs tending. No one hangs around long. Verbal bricks in the wall against the world.

The “Principle of the Least Interest” is still in play. She works relationships the way she buys cars.

Never let ‘em know how interested you are. You never experience loss or pain publicly if nobody knows. Prepare to walk away. No commitment is safe. It’s better there’s no commitment.

She’s been through loads of “test drives” without signing her life away. Not surprising. The wall is thick. Impenetrable. Unless she wants it.

[End Scene]

Rescued!
Want to know what I was rescued from? I imagine it’s all that and more. No doubt, my hard places could have etched deep creases. Abuse could take its toll. Sad life choices could take over. More importantly, all of it could become deeply-ingrained pathways in the mind, keeping me prisoner to the thought life they drove. The relational patterns, life choices, and conceit could have become a lifestyle merry-go-round. The use of words could’ve been the same and very different. (Different vocabulary, for sure!)

I imagine the internal and external looking different and dark, but something gnaws at me.

What was I really rescued from?
I was rescued from what might’ve been and more! The seething emotional pain, relational distance, and all-about-me ego was part of it, but there was something deeper. The rebel in me at the DNA level stood in futile opposition to God (hot, angry, spewing obscenities, fists clenched, for sure!). That, my friend, could only mean one thing: Jesus could have granted my wish to be separate from the God I didn’t know or want. That’s not what he would have wanted, but in this case, we can have what we want.

[They perish] because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:10b CSB

[I]t is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish. Matthew 18:14

Friend, Jesus rescued me from ME. Daddy-God used every event in life to show me how sweet life could be when I was rescued from certain death to real life with Jesus.

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. John 10:28

Thanks for reading along. We’d love to hear your rescue story. Pop a comment below or visit our Facebook Page. If you believe FACETS is worth sharing, we’d love that, too.

Want to talk more about the rescue? Contact us.

Signature, Jennifer Howe

Categories // Jennifer Howe's Perspective, What has God rescued you from? Tags // 2 Thessalonians 2:10, Christian, Eternal life, Facets of Faith, Jennifer J Howe, John 10:28, John 3:16, Life with God, Life without God, Matthew 18:14, Rescue

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