Why wouldn’t I have the Holy Spirit already dwelling within me?
In a word, sin.
Isaiah 59:1-2.
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
2 but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.
Divine alienation – ouch. Sin causes separation from the divine. It is a barrier to our relationship with God and must be removed before connecting with him. The critical question is: Are we aware of sin in our own lives? The question challenges us.
The Lord is described as holy, holy, holy in Isaiah 6:3. Three-fold repetition is uncommon in the Bible. Here it is used for extreme emphasis. Today, we might write, “The Lord is HOLY!!!” The prophet Isaiah had a vision of the Lord in the temple. Isaiah was possibly the most righteous man in the nation of Israel at the time of his vision. He was a major prophet. His reaction to encountering a holy, holy, holy God is given in Isaiah 6:5, “And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’” With this encounter, Isaiah realized who he was and who God is. Isaiah became keenly aware of his sin.
I read a Bible story to my daughter Kirsten when she was about five or six. When I finished reading, Kirsten told me that she had sinned four times. Before she could ask me how many times I had sinned, I declared an early bedtime. In reality, I probably sin more than four times before breakfast.
What is sin?
In brief, sin is the failure to be what God intended us to be. It is a failure to love and respond to human need. Sin is failing to do God’s will in a given situation. All sin against God. The most challenging individuals I encounter are self-centered. They would be characterized by pridefulness, being too busy to help others, and hypocrisy. The most beautiful individuals I experience are humble, straight-forward, and honest. They consistently make time for God and others.
Let’s look at Jesus in Luke 18:15-17.
15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
A little later in Luke 18, Jesus will remind his disciples that they are on their way to Jerusalem, where he will be put to death. You have to admire this God-man who would take time to bless infants while on his way to the Cross.
To connect with the Lord and become Christ-like loving individuals, we need to become pure so that we are a suitable place for a holy, holy, holy Spirit to reside. We can then be born of the Spirit, enabling the Spirit to work within us and grow us into Christ-like behavior.
In the next blog, we will look at how we become born of the Spirit?
