CHALLENGE 2-B
All studies are available in two formats:
Read the online version of Challenge 2, Part B below.
Or download the book formatted 8.5” x 11” version. You can print this version to keep in a binder as you progress through the study.
CHALLENGE 2: SPIRIT-FILLED
Part B - From Head to Heart
Jesus Loves Me
The children’s song, “Jesus Loves Me,” speaks a profound truth:
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
The song’s central assertion is accurate. The Bible consistently affirms that Jesus loves us. Many children sing this song in Sunday school and believe its message without reservation. Perhaps this explains why Jesus said we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom of God (Luke 18:15-17). — Do you believe Jesus loves you?
Some, if not many of us, would reply, “Yes” and then add a qualifier. Yes, I believe it — “most of the time,” or “I sort of believe it,” or “I believe it intellectually.” We want it to be true and believe in our minds that it is true. Yet we may not feel loved by Jesus. Our belief in his personal love is a mental affirmation, not an experience. We don’t “know” it to be true in the way a child growing up in a healthy family just “knows” that their parents love them. Their belief is more than an intellectual belief; it’s something they experience daily when they are fed, when Band-Aids are carefully applied to skinned knees, when stories are read and hugs are given — these actions fill out the words, “We love you.”
Our problem could be the twelve inches or so that lie between our heads and our hearts. We believe God loves us in our heads (intellectually) but that mental affirmation never seems to travel from our heads to our hearts. It never gets internalized so that it becomes personal, something we know by experience.
Perhaps it would be helpful to look at some of the things God has promised that you may sincerely desire but have not experienced. You may think:
God has forgiven me, but I don’t feel forgiven.
The Bible says God is with me, but I don’t sense his presence.
He may delight in me, but why do I feel guilty?
God promises peace and joy, but they are just words to me.
The list could go on and on.
More than Words
One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to move faith from our minds and plant it deep within our hearts. The Spirit transforms intellectual propositions into living faith. When this happens, we express it with phrases like “I believe it with all of my heart” or “I know it is true.” The Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scriptures, can make God’s promises in scripture real and vital in our daily lives. The Spirit transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary — he makes us spiritual in a way that is both authentic and life-giving. We do not need to fake it or worry we may forget it.
Even though the primary role of the Holy Spirit is to draw people to Jesus; the Spirit does much more once he lives in us. Two of the things he seeks to do in us are:
make us more like Jesus (this is what we will cover in the Tier 2 Challenges 5-8) and
bring disciples of Jesus into the same type of relationship with Jesus that Jesus enjoyed with the Father.
As this happens, disciples experience deepening intimacy with Jesus. We will know we are loved by Jesus just as Jesus knew he was loved by the Father. Disciples will realize that God listens to their prayers just as he listened to Jesus’ prayers. But the crux of this process is coming to know God more intimately, as Daddy, just as Jesus knew God as Daddy. As this relationship deepens you know you are cherished and loved. You know he will provide for your needs. You know he listens to you and cares about what you care about. You know he is present. You know his promises are given to you.
When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he told them to address God as “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). This implied group of “our” includes Jesus, other disciples, and you. Jesus showed them, and us how to approach God in the same way he approached and related to God, as our Father. That was shocking in first century Palestine, and it is still shocking today. When Jesus spoke about God as his Father, the religious leaders claimed that he was blaspheming God. Calling YHWH (Yahweh, the name of God) “Father,” infuriated the religious leaders and ultimately led to Jesus’ crucifixion for blasphemy. Nevertheless, Jesus taught his disciples to approach God with the same familiarity and confidence as he did, as sons and daughters.
The Spirit Confirms Our True Identity
Moreover, Jesus sometimes addressed God by an even more intimate term, “Abba,” which is an Aramaic term a child would use to address his Father. It is roughly equivalent to the way a child addresses his or her Father as “daddy” or “papa.” Have you ever addressed God as “Papa”?
John Calvin was a brilliant reformer and theologian. He had some particularly profound insights into this biblical truth. The final edition of his four volume Institutes of the Christian Religion were published in 1559. His third volume focused on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When discussing the blessings that come through the Spirit, he began with the Spirit’s ministry of helping disciples discover their true identity as children of God. He emphasized the biblical truth that every disciple is given the same status with the Father that Jesus enjoyed in his relationship with the Father — as a beloved child of God. For Calvin, this was the most central and essential ministry of the Holy Spirit. Calvin expressed it in this way:
First, he [Holy Spirit] is called the “Spirit of Adoption,” because he is witness to us of the free favour with which God the Father embraced us in his well-beloved and only-begotten Son, so as to become our Father, and give us boldness of access to him; nay, he dictates the very words, so that we can boldly cry, “Abba, Father.”
John Calvin, Institutes III.1.3
Julie Canlis clarifies Calvin’s insight in her observations:
For Calvin, the Spirit’s primary and most difficult work is to persuade believers to act like children, to pray like children, to help them delight in the Fatherhood of God, to be gentle with themselves and others, or — to use a rather apt cliché —to belong before they begin to do. Our identity as children of God is not something of which we can convince ourselves. It is the jurisdiction of the Holy Spirit, “without whom,” says Calvin, “we cannot taste either the fatherly favor of God or the beneficence of Christ (Institutes III.1.2). It is an identity-forming ministry, calling us to trust in God’s fatherly goodness and allowing us to cease from perfectionism and performance. In fact, Calvin notes, we are so slow to believe that the Spirit has to place the very words that the Son prayed into our fearful mouths: Abba, as a child to its Father. Calvin knew this was such a supernatural revelation that it could only happen through the Spirit over and over again.
Julie Canlis CRUX, Spring 2009, p. 7.
In other words, since Pentecost, Calvin believed the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit has been to convince us that we truly are beloved children of the Father — just as Jesus is a beloved child of the Father. God the Father exclaimed at Jesus’ baptism, as the Spirit descended upon him, “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you” (Mark 1:11).
The Spirit helps us know with certainty that the Father responds to each of us as beloved sons and daughters, because Christ dwells within us through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit assures us that we are forgiven, adopted, and eternally loved. The enemy (Satan) tries to convince us that he looks at us as sinners and that we couldn’t possibly be one of the saints — God’s holy ones. God’s Spirit helps us to reject this as Satan’s lie and to believe the gospel truth — we are God’s adopted and beloved children in whom he delights. He loves us like he loves Jesus.
You can never convince yourself of that truth. This reality can only be known by Divine revelation which comes to you through the Spirit. Then with childlike trust, which is fostered and confirmed by the Spirit, you wake up to this truth and realize you honestly believe God loves you as much as he loves Jesus. The Spirit does all the heavy lifting in moving that almost inconceivable truth from your head to your heart. Then and only then, you can approach God as your loving Daddy (Abba). And that cornerstone truth becomes part of your new normal (and you recognize this position as a supreme privilege, which prevents you from treating it as an entitlement).
Like the children’s song declares,
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
This is a simple tune and a wonderful truth. But the truth has to take root in our hearts before it becomes life-changing. Causing that exact thing to happen and to flourish is one of the chief ministries of the Spirit. He softens (changes) our hearts, making them receptive. Then he transfers the truth from our head to our hearts, confirming it and making it personal and a source of joy. Unless the truth is internalized in our hearts, becoming like new DNA, we are unable to stay the course on the Jesus Way.
The Emerging Pattern
Some of you may have detected an emerging pattern in the first two challenges. Both of these steps focus on what God has done on our behalf. That’s the natural flow of Kingdom Living.
GOD INITIATES — WE RESPOND IN FAITH AND OBEDIENCE
Or considered in the context of the Jesus Way,
JESUS LEADS (Initiates) — WE FOLLOW (Respond in Faith and Obedience)
That also describes the role of a disciple (apprentice) of Jesus in Kingdom living (how we live in the here and now by preparing for life in the then and there).
THINKING IT THROUGH
“You love him even though you have never seen him.” 1 Peter 1:8
THE TRUTH: Jesus promised his disciples he would not leave them alone when he ascended,
but they would be filled with his presence and power through the Holy Spirit after he left them.
THE CHALLENGE: Disciples live Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered lives.
Each part of every four-part challenge concludes with a “Thinking it Through” segment which consists of a list of Scriptures related to the topic being considered, questions for group discussion and personal reflection, and notes. Each of the twelve challenges will end with an exercise to guide you through the process of naming lies, believing the truth, and clarifying the personal implications and applications of the truth to your life. Truth, if believed, must be lived, and living the truth brings personal transformation (Kingdom living). Please consider this section as a tool to help you to understand the truth, not as a test or as busy work.
Related Scriptures
Romans 8:1-17 ¹ So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. ² And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. ³ The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. ⁴ He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. ⁵ Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. ⁶ So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. ⁷ For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. ⁸ That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. ⁹ But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) ¹⁰ And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. ¹¹ The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. ¹² Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. ¹³ For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵ So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
Galatians 4:6 ⁶ And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”
Romans 8:26-27 ²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
Romans 15:13 ¹³ I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 3:2 ² Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.
Galatians 3:3 ³ How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
Galatians 5:25 ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
2 Corinthians 1:22 ²² ... he [God] has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.
Ephesians 1:13-14 ¹³ And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. ¹⁴ The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people.
Ephesians 2:18 ¹⁸ Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
1 Thessalonians 1:5 ⁵ For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true.
Questions
You are encouraged to use these questions for group discussion or personal reflection. Respond to the questions that are most relevant or interesting to you (I urge you to write your responses in a journal or notebook).
Can you honestly and confidently state as a fact, “I know Jesus loves me?” If not, fill in the blanks as honestly as you can: “I _____________ that Jesus _________________ me.”
Describe your relationship with Jesus. What adjectives are most important to you when describing your relationship with Jesus?
If you could change one thing in your relationship with Jesus, what would it be?
Challenge #2, Parts A and B, focus on three ministries of the Spirit. A. Revealing and confirming that Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior and Lord (Part A). B. Confirming that Jesus lives in our hearts (Parts A and B). C. Confirming our identity as God’s cherished children (Part B). D. The Spirit also confirms God is our Daddy (Part B) and that he loves us as he loves Jesus (John 17:23). Which of these ministries has the Spirit done for you? If the Spirit has not confirmed each of these truths to you, then it needs to be settled. Ask him to do so at this time.
Do you feel comfortable addressing God as Daddy or Abba? Why or why not?
Bottom Line: Do you know in your heart that you are saved by Jesus, forgiven by your heavenly Father, and that the Holy Spirit lives in you? This is a “yes” or “no” question. If the answer is “no” it is appropriate to ask God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to confirm these life-giving truths to you right now.
Do you agree that there is nothing we can do to cause God to love us more? If you answered “No,” what do you believe you can do to cause God to love you more?
Notes
Many people have indicated that a more accurate name for “Acts of the Apostles” would be “Acts of the Holy Spirit.” The second chapter describes the fulfillment of God’s promise to send the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. Acts tells how the infant church grew from a small Jewish sect into a distinct but closely related religion as it was empowered and led by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity and thus is fully God. A common error is to think of the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force or influence instead of a living being. The Spirit lives in every believer, but not every believer is sensitive to the guidance of Spirit or lives his or her life empowered by the Spirit. It is impossible to grow into Christ-like spiritual maturity, to fulfill God’s call on your life, or to follow the Jesus Way without the Spirit’s presence and power working in you and through you.
The Christian community, the Church, is equally dependent upon the Spirit. The Spirit birthed the Church on the day of Pentecost. There is no church without the Spirit. Without the Spirit the Church becomes merely a religious social club or another organization seeking social justice and the common good. But when the church is Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, and Spirit-powered, the church becomes an expression of God’s love and holiness illumining the Jesus Way to all.