The following is an excerpt from “A Praying Church,” by Paul Miller, published by Modern Reformation. This excerpt is part 2 of a four-part series in which Miller addresses the importance of a praying church. Here, Miller answers three important questions: Why is the Spirit of Jesus so important? Why is prayer so central to the work of the Spirit? And what does this look like in a church?
(Read Part 1 HERE)
THE MISSING SPIRIT OF JESUS
After visiting L’Abri, Dad still didn’t know why prayer was critical for the life of the church— until he took a sabbatical in Spain in the summer of 1970. In the writings of Princeton scholar Geerhardus Vos, Dad discovered that the end time had already begun on Easter morning with the resurrection of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit. We now live in the age of the Spirit
Dad was captured by Ezekiel’s vision of the river of grace flowing out of the new temple (Ezek. 47). Everything the river touches comes alive. The farther out the river goes, the deeper it gets. Jesus picked up Ezekiel’s visions at the end of the Feast of the Tabernacles, when huge vats of water were poured out in the temple symbolizing the poured-out Spirit in “the last days.” Jesus stood up and cried out,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit. (John 7:37–39)
At the same time as Dad, another Westminster professor, Richard (“Dick”) Gaffin, read Vos and made similar, parallel discoveries. What my dad developed practically, Gaffin developed in his biblical studies. Here’s how most translations translate 1 Corinthians 15:45 (emphases added):
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam [Jesus] became a life-giving spirit.
But Vos and Gaffin point out that Paul really says:
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam [Jesus] became life-giving Spirit.
Notice the difference. Jesus becoming a life-giving spirit merely suggests that the resurrected Jesus gives life, while becoming life-giving Spirit means that in the resurrection Jesus is so united with the Spirit that Paul can say Jesus became Spirit.
On the first Easter morning, the Spirit transformed Jesus’s lifeless body into a Spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44). The Spirit unites with Jesus so intimately that, without losing their separate identities, Jesus and the Spirit become functionally one. They are so united that Paul easily interchanges “Spirit” and “Lord” or joins them in a single phrase, “the Spirit of the Lord.” So Paul writes,
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17–18; emphasis added)
The Spirit now carries Christ to us. Or to put it simply, the incarnate Son of God is dependent on the Spirit not only for his life but to “get around.” Mysteriously, Jesus, as the Son of God, fills the universe, but he can only get into “the rebellion” through the Spirit.
Paul repeatedly links Christ’s life by the spirit with our life by the Spirit. If Jesus lives by the power of the Spirit, then so do we. The Spirit made Jesus’ body come alive, and he now makes Jesus’ body on earth—the church—come alive. So what does that have to do with prayer?
PRAYER AND THE SPIRIT
The apostle Paul makes a tight connection between the Spirit and prayer that looks like this: Prayer >> Spirit>> Jesus. Here’s one of the many places Paul lays out this pattern:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith— that you, being rooted and grounded in love. (Eph.3:14–17)
Notice Paul’s pattern: he prays to the Father, for the gift of the Spirit, who in turn brings Christ. A praying community makes space for the Spirit, who in turn brings us Jesus. That is the church’s most basic need.
This explains something unusual about Paul’s gift lists. Some people are clearly better at praying than others, and yet prayer is never mentioned as a gift. Why? Prayer is so fundamental to the life of the church that it is not a gift. It’s like breathing. It is not an option; it’s the engine.
The post A Praying Church, Part 2: Prayer and the Spirit appeared first on Focus on the Family.
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(Read Part 1 HERE)
THE MISSING SPIRIT OF JESUS
After visiting L’Abri, Dad still didn’t know why prayer was critical for the life of the church— until he took a sabbatical in Spain in the summer of 1970. In the writings of Princeton scholar Geerhardus Vos, Dad discovered that the end time had already begun on Easter morning with the resurrection of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit. We now live in the age of the Spirit
Dad was captured by Ezekiel’s vision of the river of grace flowing out of the new temple (Ezek. 47). Everything the river touches comes alive. The farther out the river goes, the deeper it gets. Jesus picked up Ezekiel’s visions at the end of the Feast of the Tabernacles, when huge vats of water were poured out in the temple symbolizing the poured-out Spirit in “the last days.” Jesus stood up and cried out,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit. (John 7:37–39)
At the same time as Dad, another Westminster professor, Richard (“Dick”) Gaffin, read Vos and made similar, parallel discoveries. What my dad developed practically, Gaffin developed in his biblical studies. Here’s how most translations translate 1 Corinthians 15:45 (emphases added):
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam [Jesus] became a life-giving spirit.
But Vos and Gaffin point out that Paul really says:
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam [Jesus] became life-giving Spirit.
Notice the difference. Jesus becoming a life-giving spirit merely suggests that the resurrected Jesus gives life, while becoming life-giving Spirit means that in the resurrection Jesus is so united with the Spirit that Paul can say Jesus became Spirit.
On the first Easter morning, the Spirit transformed Jesus’s lifeless body into a Spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44). The Spirit unites with Jesus so intimately that, without losing their separate identities, Jesus and the Spirit become functionally one. They are so united that Paul easily interchanges “Spirit” and “Lord” or joins them in a single phrase, “the Spirit of the Lord.” So Paul writes,
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17–18; emphasis added)
The Spirit now carries Christ to us. Or to put it simply, the incarnate Son of God is dependent on the Spirit not only for his life but to “get around.” Mysteriously, Jesus, as the Son of God, fills the universe, but he can only get into “the rebellion” through the Spirit.
Paul repeatedly links Christ’s life by the spirit with our life by the Spirit. If Jesus lives by the power of the Spirit, then so do we. The Spirit made Jesus’ body come alive, and he now makes Jesus’ body on earth—the church—come alive. So what does that have to do with prayer?
PRAYER AND THE SPIRIT
The apostle Paul makes a tight connection between the Spirit and prayer that looks like this: Prayer >> Spirit>> Jesus. Here’s one of the many places Paul lays out this pattern:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith— that you, being rooted and grounded in love. (Eph.3:14–17)
Notice Paul’s pattern: he prays to the Father, for the gift of the Spirit, who in turn brings Christ. A praying community makes space for the Spirit, who in turn brings us Jesus. That is the church’s most basic need.
This explains something unusual about Paul’s gift lists. Some people are clearly better at praying than others, and yet prayer is never mentioned as a gift. Why? Prayer is so fundamental to the life of the church that it is not a gift. It’s like breathing. It is not an option; it’s the engine.
The post A Praying Church, Part 2: Prayer and the Spirit appeared first on Focus on the Family.
Continue reading...