God Running is a place for anyone who wants to (or even anyone who wants to want to) love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

Acts 19:1-7

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. There were about twelve men in all.

Acts 19:1-7

In our last post we saw how Apollos believed in Jesus but only knew the baptism of John (John as in John the Baptist). We also saw how Priscilla and Aquila came along side Apollos and helped him understand Jesus more completely. (If you’re interested, you can learn more here: A Beautiful Reaction to Someone Who Didn’t Do It Right (and the spectacular results that followed)–Acts 18:24-28.) Today we see Paul come upon some believers who also had incomplete knowledge of Jesus. Like Apollos these believers were baptized into John. And apparently, they didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit. So Paul shared about Christ and then baptized these believers in the name of Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands on them they received the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues and prophesying.

Patience and the Holy Spirit

Those twelve men from our passage were so amazingly blessed. I would love to receive God’s Holy Spirit in the measure they did. Who wouldn’t want to receive the Holy Spirit in such a great and abundant way. I pray often that God would fill me and my family and my friends with His Holy Spirit. But also, I’m on the lookout for ways I can make my life attractive to the Holy Spirit, beyond just asking (as important as that is).

The other day I was reading The Apostolic Fathers in English by Michael W. Holmes when I came upon this passage in The Shepherd of Hermas: “For if you are patient, the holy spirit that lives in you will be pure, uncontaminated by some other, evil spirit; living in a spacious room, it will rejoice and be glad with the vessel in which it lives.”

I never thought about God’s Spirit dwelling in me, in those terms. But what a tremendous insight. If we cultivate patience in our personalities, we make a spacious room for God’s Spirit to dwell in. We become an inviting warm welcoming dwelling for the Holy Spirit. Taking this idea further, conversely, if we’re impatient, we ask God’s Spirit to live inside of a closet. With that idea in mind, is it any wonder why I’m not rich in the Holy Spirit the way these men were and the way other heroes of mine in the Bible were?

Patience.

Six or so weeks ago we saw how patience is the first word used to describe love in the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. (If you’re interested, you can learn more here: Is Patience an Essential Part of Love?) Today we see twelve men blessed by the Holy Spirit, used by God to prophesy. And just a few days earlier I learned of this idea that patience provides an attractive place inside of us for God’s Holy Spirit.

Patience.

God help me.

God help you too.

God help us.

“Father, if it will make me and the dear person reading this right now to become more pleasing to You, and more useful to You, and a more attractive dwelling for Your Holy Spirit, then please bless us with the great blessing of patience. Intervene in our lives and give us the patience of Jesus.

“We ask in Jesus’ name.

“Amen.”

Notes:

Michael W. Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers in English, Baker Academic, 2006

Portrait of a Patient Man by Carsten ten Brink via flickr — Creative Commons

Available on Amazon!

Love Like Jesus: How Jesus Loved People (and how you can love like Jesus)

Love Like Jesus begins with the story of how after a life of regular church attendance and Bible study, Bennett was challenged by a pastor to study Jesus. That led to an obsessive seven year deep dive. After pouring over Jesus’ every interaction with another human being, he realized he was doing a much better job of studying Jesus’ words than he was following Jesus’ words and example. The honest and fearless revelations of Bennett’s own moral failures affirm he wrote this book for himself as much as for others.

Love Like Jesus examines a variety of stories, examples, and research, including:

• Specific examples of how Jesus communicated God’s love to others.
• How Jesus demonstrated all five of Gary Chapman’s love languages (and how you can too).
• The story of how Billy Graham extended Christ’s extraordinary love and grace toward a man who misrepresented Jesus to millions.
• How to respond to critics the way Jesus did.
• How to love unlovable people the way Jesus did.
• How to survive a life of loving like Jesus (or how not to become a Christian doormat).
• How Jesus didn’t love everyone the same (and why you shouldn’t either).
• How Jesus guarded his heart by taking care of himself–he even napped–and why you should do the same.
• How Jesus loved his betrayer Judas, even to the very end.

With genuine unfiltered honesty, Love Like Jesus, shows you how to live a life according to God’s definition of success: A life of loving God well, and loving the people around you well too.

A life of loving like Jesus.

(Kindle, hardcover, and paperback now available on Amazon.)