Summer 2026: ‘Wildfires’ – The Holy Spirit, from Genesis to Revelation
This summer, we’ll immerse ourselves in the person and work of the Holy Spirit: from the first verses of Genesis, to the last verses of Revelation. Often the ‘forgotten’ part of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is there at Creation, and also at the climax of the New Creation, throughout history revealing the reality of God’s presence and power to the world. So, let’s celebrate the Wildfire of the Holy Spirit, and continue to welcome His presence in our lives today!
Tuesday 11th August – Hebrews 9:11-15 ‘Spiritual cleansing’
I love meat. As it happens, I love fruit, nuts and vegetables too, and will happily live as a vegetarian for half the week. But I can’t go the whole hog – pardon the pun. Walk me down the meat aisle of the supermarket, past the speciality sausages and the cuts of beef, and I can’t help but be drawn to them.
But like most people today, I don’t really appreciate what it takes for me to eat the meat that’s on my plate. I don’t have to kill the animal myself, to watch its life blood drain away. I suspect if I did, I would feel very differently. Does that make me a hypocrite? Possibly!
As a culture we are now shielded from the true cost of what it means to eat flesh. Animals are ‘sacrificed’ in special places, far away from where we live, so what we experience is sanitised – an inanimate object packaged in cling film, like most of the other food we eat.
Such a removal of the reality of what it means to use animals in this way makes it much harder for us than it used to be to read the accounts of the Jewish sacrificial system. They feel strange to our ears now, even barbaric. And yet, it’s not so very far from how many of us relate to the same sorts of animals today.
And the system had a divine purpose. The life of the animals was given for ours. They won our forgiveness, our rightness with God. By their wounds, we are healed. The book of Hebrews takes this starting point and shows over 13 chapters how Jesus fulfilled and completed the whole system, so that it was no longer required. Christ was both a perfect priest (mediator between God and humans) and perfect sacrifice, winning through his one sacrificial death forgiveness and rightness with God for all people, for all time.
Or as this passage puts it: ‘he entered the most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption’ (v12). What needed constant new sacrifices under the old system is now completed for all time – this is such a radical change that the author reminds us that this is a new covenant between God and humanity, which guarantees us an eternal inheritance (v15).
But how did this perfect transaction take place? Well, it involves the whole Trinity of God – Jesus offers himself to the Father ‘through the eternal Spirit’ (v14). The Spirit effected the offering of Christ to God – how amazing is that? We rightly praise Jesus for what he did for us, and God the Father for offering his only son, but very rarely do we give the Spirit any credit. And yet, Jesus’ sacrifice is offered to God through the Spirit. Wow!
Truthfully I’m not sure I’ve ever thought about that till today – which reminds us that with God there are always new treasures to find, new truths to inspire us. The Spirit’s task is to teach us all things (John 14:26): may God reveal a beautiful new truth to you today that captures your heart and fills you with joy.
Monday 10th August – 2 Timothy 1:3-8 ‘A courageous spirit’
God has a role for everyone in His kingdom. It sometimes appears that the people God mostly uses are the ‘alpha’ characters – the big, out-there extroverts, those with the gift of the gab, the confident, funny ones, the people who naturally take charge. And don’t get me wrong, we do need those.
But God needs everyone else too. We are all made with unique, God-given personalities. Sometimes those of us who are quieter, or more serious, or like things to be right, or don’t like upsetting people, wish we were louder, or more spontaneous, more able to ride the wave of life. But God made us as we are. He doesn’t just love us, He actually likes us as we are, and wouldn’t want us to be any other way.
Timothy has a hard act to follow. He’s Paul’s closest confidant, and the person being prepared by Paul to shoulder the senior leadership role after Paul is gone. But he’s very different to Paul. He’s a quiet, gentle character, who leads by wisdom and the example of a godly life. He gets intimidated by aggressive characters and the rough and tumble of pastoral ministry. He’s young, too, and wonders if he’s up to the job, if he carries the authority to lead people of all generations.
And Paul, in this lovely start to what is probably his last letter, reminds Timothy of the only three things he needs to be the person God has made him to be. First, a sincere faith (v5). Timothy has this in abundance: he was blessed to have a mature Christian mother and grandmother, and this heritage of faith will serve Timothy well. Even if we don’t have those role models in our past, let’s take heart that it’s our sincerity of faith that qualifies us to be fit for service in God’s kingdom. Real faith is all that God needs to use us.
But if that’s the foundation, what kick-starts our Christian service are the other two things: we all have gifts, and Paul encourages Timothy to use his as much as he can (v6). The suspicion is that Timothy’s particular gift was dormant, so Paul says ‘fan it back into flame’. You’ve got it, Timothy – go use it! Timothy’s gift was obviously supernaturally imparted through Paul’s own commissioning prayer, and we reflected on the value of spiritual gifts a couple of weeks ago. But the basic principle here, whether for natural or spiritual gifts, is: use them! Fan them into flame and let God bless them for His glory.
Finally, we need a bit of courage. Timothy was timid, you get the sense he felt inferior when around other people. But Paul says: the Holy Spirit has much more for you! Your authority, your qualification to serve, is not ultimately given by other humans – it is validated by the Spirit of God, whose presence in you fills you with love, power and a sound mind (the other translation of ‘self-discipline’).
The Spirit is what makes our faith and gifts effective for God. So let us keep fanning our gifts into flame, filled with faith and empowered by the Spirit. God is able to use you, today, wherever you are. Take heart!
Saturday 8th August – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 ‘Stoking the fire’
I have a confession – I do love a good steam train. There’s something about the ‘golden age of railways’ which captures the hearts of those of us who live in a more functional age. It’s the theatre of it – the noise, the smoke, the beautiful designs of the locomotives. I fully accept that it is not a practical or environmentally friendly way to travel nowadays – but nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, eh?
For all their beauty and romantic appeal, though, fundamental to all of these trains is the basic requirement for a huge amount of coal. Steam trains need fire, and this fire has to be stoked. At least one person is needed to be shovelling the coal on a fairly continuous basis – he or she is called, not unreasonably, The Stoker. Fire needs fuel, and the link to today’s passage is the central phrase found in v19: ‘do not put out the Spirit’s fire’.
As St Paul finishes his short letter to the young church in Thessalonica, he wants to end where he started: as they began their faith ‘with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction… [and] the joy given by the Holy Spirit’ (1:5-6) so he wants this same spiritual fire to keep burning in their (and our) lives.
This section is like many of Paul’s closing chapters: vellum was expensive, so letters had to be fitted onto one sheet of paper. As space ran out, he runs through a list of profound instructions at breakneck speed – but they give us some sense of how we keep stoking our spiritual fire.
It starts with joy and gratitude (v16 and v18), bathed in prayer (v17). Again and again, we have noted how gratitude fuels so much of our thriving in faith and life. Gratitude keeps our eyes lifted up to God, rather than down on our circumstances or in on ourselves.
Paul then adds some more overtly practical advice specifically related to things of the Spirit in verses 20-22. We should listen to all messages purportedly from the Lord: not uncritically, but weighing each one. The good ones we should treasure and hang onto, the bad ones we should steer clear of.
There’s always a lot of chatter in the Christian world about what God might be saying, and the internet has unfortunately got a reputation for giving airtime to all kinds of views. It can be easy to be cynical, but Paul cautions us to be neither naive nor dismissive. God’s word is ‘the most precious thing this world affords’, and the more of it we can receive, the better. That’s ultimately always founded in Scripture, but God still speaks today – if not words of biblical authority, words which we would do well to heed.
When King George called for a national day of prayer and fasting in May 1940, the result was a miraculous rescue of hundreds of thousands of stranded soldiers from the beach at Dunkirk. What would have happened if the church had dismissed the king as a crank?
We need the fire, and part of our calling as followers of Jesus is to keep stoking it. Today, let us bathe the day in gratitude, and be ready to weigh whatever we sense the Lord is saying to us.
Friday 7th August – 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 ‘Unexpected joy’
Good trips are always over too soon, aren’t they? A lovely day out, a restful holiday – and suddenly we find it’s over… if only it could last just a bit longer! St Paul had a similar experience in Thessalonica. (You can read about it in Acts 17:1-9.) Having just been released from prison in Philippi, Paul and his friends travel on to Thessalonica and have a very fruitful trip sharing their faith. Lots of citizens became followers of Jesus (17:4).
But it didn’t last long. They had just three weeks before opposition swelled and they were run out of town. Imagine Paul’s anxiety at the fate of the new believers he’d left behind. They’d had very little instruction, and possibly a lot of troubles faced them. Would they survive, spiritually or otherwise?
So, he writes back to them as soon as he can, and this becomes the letter that we now know as 1 Thessalonians, whose first chapter is our passage for today. Imagine his relief, then, when he gets encouraging reports back from his friend Timothy, who says that the new church is staying strong and keeping going.
But how was this new Christian community birthed in Thessalonica? What prompted such a fruitful response? Paul gives us some clues in verses 4-6. First and foremost, what he has to share is good news (v5) – that is what the word ‘gospel’ means. And it is good to remind ourselves that what we believe is good news! It offers forgiveness, peace, hope, purpose. It tells us the remarkable truth that we are chosen by God (v4), and therefore special to Him.
This series, though, is focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, and what we see here is that this message of good news needs more than just good presentation. It also needs the Holy Spirit, at work in two ways (v5). First convicting our hearts – we looked at this in John’s gospel a few weeks ago. The message goes beyond just words to something which captures our soul, creates that sense that God is speaking directly to us.
And second, there is real power. This likely refers to demonstrations of God’s supernatural activity – whether through acts of healing, or sharing of information which couldn’t have been known to the sharer, but which blesses the hearer. I have been privileged to witness some of these occasions when God confirms the message through signs of His presence. It reminds us that the message is not just true, but real.
And this sense of a real faith is manifested with one further sign of the Spirit – unexpected joy (v6). These new believers faced much opposition, but God in His grace gave them a wonderful gift – joy. May that joy be ours today – whatever our circumstances, however long we’ve followed Jesus. Why not ask God to fill you again with ‘joy given by the Holy Spirit’?
Thursday 6th August – Ephesians 6:10-18 ‘Spiritual armour’
Sometimes, life is a battle. And there’s no harm in admitting that. Generally, we feel less comfortable with the martial metaphors in the bible than we used to be. We prefer the images of building, or growing, or running – and, perhaps, rightly so. These are all positive, life-affirming ways of describing the journey of faith. But they don’t reflect the full picture. Obstacles and opposition are noticeably absent.
As Paul finishes his letter to the young church in Ephesus – and to all of us – a letter which is full of images of building and growing, he reminds his readers of another reality: that following Jesus can be challenging, that there are powers in this world (both natural and spiritual) which are opposed to us. In these circumstances, our calling is to stand – to stand firm (v14), to stand our ground (v13).
But we do not stand on our own. We are strong in God’s mighty power, not ours (v10). And God gives us special armour: spiritual armour to wear for the challenging seasons of our lives, the days which feel like a battle. The armour of truth, which, like the Roman belt, holds everything in place and makes us ready for battle. Of righteousness, a godly life which, like a breastplate, guards our heart. Of the good news (gospel) which leads our feet to places where God wants us to be. Of faith, which, like a shield, parries the lies and doubts which weaken our resolve. Of salvation, the ultimate reality which, like a helmet, guards our minds.
All of these items are defensive. Our calling is to stand, and not to attack. But there is one weapon which can be used positively – the sword. It is the ‘sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God’ (v17). Since Jesus has ultimate authority in the universe, his Word and his Spirit are the two things which take the fight to the enemy. They don’t rest on our power, but his.
And we too must use the power of God’s word in our daily battles. God’s truth unmasks the lies that bring us down, and robs them of their power. When we feel useless, God’s word tells us we are loved and special. When we lack hope, God’s word tells us there is always hope. When we think we can’t be forgiven and feel ashamed, God’s word tells us that Christ forgives us completely and sets us free from sin. God’s word is our spiritual sword.
And we can also pray ‘in the Spirit’. This could be a reference to special languages like tongues, but more likely it covers all types of prayers directed by God. As God’s word soaks into our lives, so we are led by the Spirit to pray more and more according to his will. We can do this anytime, anywhere, about anything – amazing!
If life feels like a battle for you today – take heart. The spiritual armour is yours – and God will enable you to stand.
Wednesday 5th August – Ephesians 5:15-21 ‘Under the influence’
Among the many changes to our lifestyles during the pandemic a few years ago, one which probably very few of us missed is the frequency of trips to the petrol station. The lockdowns dramatically reduced our mileage, and suddenly what for many of us was a weekly chore became perhaps every month or even two months. Our cars will always need fuel, we just didn’t need to fill them as often.
But this is not the case with the spiritual life. Today’s passage reminds us that we need to be filled with the presence, love and power of God as often as possible. The word ‘be filled’ in v18 is actually in the ‘continuous present’ tense (something in the Greek language we don’t have in quite the same way in English). It is best translated as ‘go on being filled’ or ‘keep being filled’, or even ‘be continuously filled’. Our lives need the constant refreshment of God’s Spirit to live as followers of Jesus. This, Paul says, is the ‘wise’ way to live (v15).
And just as a car needs the right fuel, so Paul also encourages us to put the right fuel into our lives. His caution against excessive drinking (note: the issue is drunkenness, not consumption of alcohol per se) is really all about what controls us. We should beware surrendering our bodies to something that leads us to unwise or unhealthy behaviour. As we observed a few weeks ago, the true test of anything is the fruit it produces. Our lives should be under the influence of the Holy Spirit, so we avoid anything else that controls us and leads us in other directions.
But Paul’s wisdom doesn’t stop there. He actually gives us four ways that we can keep being filled with the Spirit. Verse 18 and 19-21 run together, literally Paul says ‘keep being filled, as you….’ What? Well, here’s four great ways to keep being filled with the Spirit:
Encourage each other, especially in worship.
Make music in your hearts – particularly appropriate in the pandemic, when singing was banned in church buildings! If you’re still enjoying online worship, singing your heart out on the sofa at home, there’s a good reason for that – we are filled with the Spirit as we make music in our hearts to the Lord.
Gratitude in all things – finding things to praise God for fills us with His love, as we gain His perspective on our lives and recognise that all of life is gift.
Practising humility – this is the curveball. Verse 21 is actually part of the same sentence as verses 18-20, even though most modern bibles put it in the next section. We are filled with the Spirit as we submit to each other. There’s a thought! What he means here is not a form of weakness, rather our choice to put others first is a sign of true strength, of security in God’s love. We do it ‘out of reverence for Christ.’ And as we do that, we are filled with the presence of Christ by His Spirit.
So today, let us welcome God’s presence again, and be filled with His precious Spirit. And, perhaps, let’s draw alongside at least one of these four ‘spiritual fuel pumps’ to be refuelled with God’s love.
Tuesday 4th August – Ephesians 4:29-5:2 ‘The life of love’
In 2015 a stretch of the newly resurfaced A303 in Wiltshire had to be replaced. The problem was invisible to the naked eye, but fundamental: the resurfacing had used poor quality stone which couldn’t withstand the weight of traffic. And so, the roadworks began all over again!
In today’s passage St Paul continues the building analogy he developed back in chapter 2. If we are now the new ‘temple’, the place where God dwells, what sort of stones do we need to build it? What will ensure a strong and stable structure, somewhere fit for the Lord for the long-term?
What Paul contrasts are the good quality stones versus the bad – those which might not look too different on the surface, but which won’t stand the weight of the job.
The good ones are scattered throughout our verses: encouraging talk (v29), kindness and compassion (v32), self-giving love (v2). We can really build others up with these! They are how Jesus lived, and so they form the model for us too – we try to live like this ‘just as Christ loved us.’ His example becomes ours.
On the other hand, we also get some bad bricks to avoid: dirty talk (v29), bitterness, rage, slander and malice (v31). If we’re honest, we’ll all feel the temptation towards these from time to time. People let us down, or treat us unfairly and we want to get them back. It’s natural – but it’s not supernatural. It’s not the life God has called us to. In fact, Paul goes further and says that these are things which ‘grieve the Holy Spirit’ (v30).
It’s worth spending a moment unpacking that challenging phrase. The sort of image Paul is conjuring here is not that of a temperamental diva liable to take offence at the slightest of slights. Nor is it the permanently disappointed manager for whom nothing is ever good enough. Rather, it is the loving parent who feels genuine sadness when we let ourselves down – but who never stops loving us, can’t wait to forgive us, and who is always quick to see the best in us. In short, our biggest supporter.
It reminds us that the Spirit’s presence in our lives isn’t an impersonal force but a close friend, with deep feelings for us. We are God’s dearly-loved children (v1), and God is always cheering us on from the sidelines. It may be that there are some negative feelings which we need to let go of at present – take a moment to offer these back to your biggest supporter. And, positively, may God’s unconditional love inspire us today to build our lives – and the lives of others – with life-giving stones.
Monday 3rd August – Ephesians 4:1-6 ‘The power of one’
The diversity of the worldwide church is extraordinary. Every culture and every society is included. In fact, in every country in the world there is at least one follower of Jesus – and for many, following this path to life comes at great personal cost.
The same is true of our buildings – look around my home town of Milton Keynes and you can see communities of Christians gathering everywhere. Just here in Walton we have churches meeting in every type of building: mediaeval, modern purpose-built worship centres, a number of schools and community centres – even, on occasions, the local pub. Church happens when Christians gather together, and the history of the church proves that this can happen anywhere – in caves, in prisons, in shopping centres and even on rubbish dumps, in the case of one church serving destitute people in Cairo.
But what holds us together? What are the things we can agree on, which represent the glue for this vast diversity of humanity? Here in Ephesians chapter 4, St. Paul gives us the vital clues. To start with, we all have a common calling: to ‘live a life worthy of the calling you have received’ (v1). As the first half of the book outlines, we share an identity: chosen children of God, forgiven and freed and brought into God’s family – and this calling stirs us to a grace-filled life of gratitude. A life marked by humility, gentleness, patience and love (v2).
But we also share common convictions, a core of truths that bind us together (vv4-6). We worship one God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are part of one Body – the universal and worldwide family of God. We profess one faith in this glorious Trinitarian God, and (almost universally) acknowledge one special way of declaring and signifying our faith: baptism – in water and the Spirit.
This is the power of one – one hope for the world, and for ourselves. And it is noteworthy that Paul starts his list with the practical outworkings of our unity: one body – one group of people self-identifying and sharing together as followers of Jesus – filled with one Spirit: the power of God poured out into all of our hearts so that, as we saw a couple of days ago, we are now little temples where God’s presence dwells.
So, today let us celebrate what holds us together, what unites us as one big family of God stretching across the world. I like to picture it as millions of lights scattered across the globe worshipping the one true light of all. May it stir us both to gratitude and to prayer, and to renewed energy and vision to live a life worthy of the glorious calling we have received.
Saturday 1st August – Ephesians 3:14-21 ‘Ultimate purpose’
It’s easy to over-complicate faith. As we’ve journeyed through the wonderful presence and work of the Holy Spirit over the last few weeks, we’ve uncovered some glorious truths. We’ve seen how the Spirit has been around for eternity, co-existing with the Father and the Son in a beautiful relationship of mutual love. How the Spirit was breathed into us to give us life, and, though the image of God became scarred in humans, how the work of Christ has renewed this breath of God, so that the Spirit dwells in us again.
We’ve marvelled at the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the wisdom imparted by the Spirit – and how all this was promised centuries ago, and sealed at Pentecost. Now the work of the Spirit is not limited to a few individuals but freely available to all God’s people. Because of Christ, the way to God is clear and we can enjoy spiritual blessings for all eternity.
But what does it all boil down to? St Paul’s amazing prayer in today’s passage somehow encapsulates all of this glory, all of this wisdom, into a few profound phrases, and one simple request to our great God. What is the power of the Spirit for? Ultimately, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith (v17). The Spirit always points us to Jesus, and as we offer our weak and limited faith in Christ to God, so the Spirit works in power to seal this faith in our hearts. Jesus dwells with us and we slowly grasp the great depths of that love (v18). Indeed we start to know something that surpasses knowledge (v19) – something so great, so transcendent, and yet implanted in us by the Spirit.
Life can be challenging, and if you’re anything like me, we often lack faith to believe in the power of prayer, in the truth that somehow everything will turn out alright. But as we let the Spirit move our hearts, as the love of Christ truly dwells there, warming us, transforming us, so we somehow seize faith to pray what must be one of the great blessings of all history – and may it be our prayer today as well:
‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’
Friday 31st July – Ephesians 2:18-22 ‘The new temple’
When St Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians it was still possible to walk around the glorious Second Temple in Jerusalem. Begun by Zerubbabel in 538BC, it was finally completed by Herod the Great (king at the time of Jesus’ birth) more than 500 years later, and its dimensions were vast for a complex of its time. The courtyard was almost 500 feet wide and 150 feet long, and the crowning glory at its heart – the Holy of Holies – was 90 feet high. It was almost a ‘city within a city’, with colonnades, accommodation for priests, libraries and courtrooms and other important areas.
This temple still formed the heart of Jewish worship. It was the place where God dwelt and met with His people. But with the coming of Jesus Christ, all that had changed. Jesus’ death and resurrection made it possible for us to know God in a new and deeper way. The temple curtain had been torn in two, signifying that, through Christ, all humanity had direct access to God. The temple was now Jesus’ own body (John 2:21).
The seal of this radical good news, as we saw yesterday, was the gift of the Spirit. It guarantees our access to God through Jesus (v18). If the ‘temple’ is where God dwells on earth, then Christians are now that temple, since the Spirit of God dwells in us (v22). We are the body of Christ – the new temple, the place where God meets with humanity.
But this is not just an individual experience – it is a corporate one, too. Christians forming communities become ‘temples’ dedicated to God. Our collective love and friendship, our desire to worship and follow God together, rise up to be a ‘holy temple in the Lord’ (v21). Jesus is the cornerstone, but as St Peter says elsewhere, using a lovely image, we are ‘living stones’ forming part of this temple (1 Peter 2:5) – each joined to the other, each playing our part in the structure.
As we reflect on this amazing truth that our bodies are each a temple, let’s also give thanks for the Church family too, and Christian communities everywhere – little temples where God meets with people. And you are a living stone in that structure! What sort of stone are you? Which stones are you next to? How can you display the presence of God to those looking at our particular temple?
Thursday 30th July – Ephesians 1:13-17 ‘The heavenly down-payment’
For many hundreds of years, a wax seal has been used to mark letters of importance. A seal indicates both the sender and the authority attached to the contents of the letter. You may be surprised to learn that the practice is still in use today. For example, when Harry and Meghan got married in 2018 they required a royal ‘Instrument of Consent’. This is the official document giving the late Queen’s permission for them to wed. Like all royal documents it was marked with The Great Seal – proof that the Queen had authorised it and given her blessing.
St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was probably the only letter he wrote which was sent to multiple locations – we have a surviving manuscript addressing the letter to Laodicea as well as to Ephesus. This makes it unique, and incredibly important to biblical theology, since we can reasonably assume that Paul here is condensing two or three decades of church leadership and deep thinking into one profound letter which summarises The Things You Really Need To Know as a Christian.
It’s really all about identity – who we are in Christ. When we truly grasp just how much Jesus has done for us, how precious we are to God and what our salvation means, then we are empowered and energised to live the kind of life we were always meant to live. Ephesians is one of those little books to come back to throughout our lives – it will never fail to yield fresh treasures and inspiration.
But here, near the start, Paul addresses a simple, but very important question: how can we know if we’re part of God’s people? If we’re forgiven and secure in His love? Chapter 1 sets out many compelling reasons: how God chose us and adopted us into His family, how Jesus set us free through the cross, how God’s grace demonstrates the wisdom of God. But here in this short passage he gives us a very concrete proof: God has made a down-payment in our lives. How? The presence of His Holy Spirit in us. The fact that we have the Spirit in our lives is the deposit which ‘guarantees our inheritance’. What we experience now in part is proof that the full reality will be ours eternally.
It is something God promised – as we saw in the early days of these reflections. It is also our ‘seal’. Since a seal denotes the authority of the giver, the Holy Spirit represents the authority of none other than God Himself declaring that we are His, that we are saved and chosen and set free to be part of His family forever.
Seals are also unique – they tell us something about the sender. The Holy Spirit in our lives manifests the unique love and power of God. There is nothing like the Spirit – and this seal slowly transforms our lives in a Christlike direction.
No wonder that the first of Paul’s prayers (v17) is to keep asking that we receive more and more of this Spirit. Why not pray that prayer today, and give thanks that you – yes, you – are sealed by the Holy Spirit in the love and grace of Christ.
Wednesday 29th July – Galatians 5:25-26 ‘Keeping in step’
On Albert Bridge which crosses the River Thames in Battersea, near where we used to live, you’ll find a plaque: ‘All troops must break step when marching over this bridge.’ The story behind this is that in 1831 the Broughton Suspension Bridge (now in Salford, Manchester) collapsed as a troop of 74 men marched across. Investigations put this down to the effects of mechanical resonance caused by multiple feet landing on the bridge at once. The army subsequently issued an order that troops should always ‘break step’ when crossing a bridge.
There’s something powerful about keeping in step. It might be bad for bridges, but it’s good for our spiritual lives. In today’s reading, St. Paul gives us this exact advice when it comes to the Holy Spirit: let’s keep in step (v25). Let’s match our strides to what God the Holy Spirit is saying to us, and how He is directing our lives.
It’s significant that this simple but immensely important advice comes straight after the famous teaching on the fruit of the Spirit. Let’s be honest: it’s impossible to grow all nine fruit of the Spirit at once, most of us think we’re doing well if we’re growing in one or two at any point in time. So this is very wise advice: in effect Paul is saying, take note of where God is at work in you, what particular areas of your life are growing or changing – and keep in step. Follow the Spirit’s lead. The best thing for any follower of Jesus is to bless what God is already doing. If we do that, we’ll never go far wrong.
There’s also a secondary implication. To see God at work in our lives brings us great joy. But sometimes we can fall into the trap of giving ourselves too much credit. We see growth, but it brings us pride, not humble thanks. So Paul follows up with a timely reminder not to get either conceited at our own growth, or envious of others’ (v26). This was a trap the young church in Galatia was prone to: Paul had already had to warn them in chapter 3 about trying to achieve by their own efforts what is only a work of the Spirit (3:3).
The Christian life is a beautiful blend of the general and the particular. We live by general principles which apply to all of human life, but we also seek the Lord for the particular things where God is most at work at any point in time. Sometimes the Spirit’s step speeds up, sometimes it slows down. Maybe sometimes it stands still to direct our gaze at something important. Sometimes the Spirit leads us through lush meadows, at other times through harsh deserts. We step up the mountain and down again into the valley. But the advice is always the same: keep in step. This is the key to true and abundant life.
Where is God calling you to ‘keep in step’ today?
Tuesday 28th July – Galatians 5:16-23 ‘The fruit of the Spirit’
How do you test the value of anything? It’s a good question to ask, and nowadays we have lots of clever analytical tools to do just that for almost any type of situation. But Jesus’ answer to this question was disarmingly simple: look at the fruit it produces. Is it good or bad? Is there lots of it, or not much at all? Does it look good, but taste horrible? Or vice versa? The point is: the fruit tells you what the tree is like. It’s a good way of evaluating a project or an investment of time and resources.
It’s also a pretty good test of a life – look at the fruit!
In our passage today, St. Paul likens this process of growing in Christlike character to growing fruit. Indeed, he gives what is produced by the work of the Spirit in our hearts and lives a name which surely picks up Jesus’ own teaching: the fruit of the Spirit. He, like Jesus, encourages us to focus on the inner life and not external behaviour: get the heart right, and the actions will follow. So, these kinds of fruit are attitudes or virtues of character: love, joy, peace, and so on. If we develop such virtues, we can assume that these fruit will in turn produce Christlike words and actions.
We can also reflect today that using this idea of ‘fruit’ also suggests some other things to us about the formation of character:
Time Fruit doesn’t grow overnight, it takes weeks or months. I love pears: but I get frustrated by having to wait a week or so for those pears we bought at the greengrocers or the supermarket to get really ripe and juicy. They seem to just sit and look at me in the fruit bowl. How long does it take? How hard can it be? Much more so, of course, with the months and years to make any real headway in forming a godly character.
Cultivation Good fruit grows when it is looked after. Followers of Jesus needs their own spiritual fertiliser (bible study and prayer) and pesticide (spiritual disciplines and practices), the methods of cultivation which will produce great fruit.
Fragility Fruit is easily spoiled. Any Christian knows how easy it is for hard-won gains in character to be lost by moments of weakness, or periods of inattention to growth.
Taste Good fruit tastes good! The formation of a truly Christ-like character is one which ought to appeal to others, much as Jesus was constantly surrounded by people drawn by his love and grace.
Single source It is ultimately the fruit – singular – of the Spirit. One tree, one source – the Spirit of Jesus, manifesting his character in different ways. Arguably, Paul also put love first as the greatest of all the virtues, and the one which binds the others together. He said as much elsewhere (Colossians 3:14, 1 Corinthians 13:13).
So, the fruit of the Spirit proves to be a lovely metaphor for growing more like Jesus. And a realistic one, too. I’m sure most of us have felt that frustration concerning the time it takes to grow real virtues. But bite into your favourite fruit today and you’ll know that it’s worth it! May God grant us grace to keep cultivating the fruit of the Spirit in our lives today.
Monday 27th July – 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 ‘Ever increasing glory’
When I was a student, I used to earn my money in the long summers working for a builder. Sometimes the work would be nice and easy – glossing outdoor window frames in the sunshine, with factor 15 and the radio on. Other times the work would be much harder. My least favourite job of all was fitting plasterboard ceilings. As the labourer, my job was to hold the board in position above my head while the fitter screwed in the fixings. Even now, I can still remember that feeling of a great weight above my head push, push, pushing down on me, while the muscles in my arms burned. I earned my minimum wage that day!
This idea of a weight pushing down on us is unexpectedly relevant for today’s passage. You’ll have noticed that the key word is ‘glory’, or its variant ‘glorious’ – in Greek, it’s doxa and it appears 11 times. But what is glory?
The original Old Testament word which doxa copies is ‘kabod’ and it literally means ‘weight’. So when we talk about glory, what we mean is literally the ‘weight’ of God falling on us. Obviously, a spiritual being doesn’t weigh anything, but the sense is that when God’s glory appears it feels like a presence pushing down on us, you could say pushing us to our knees in worship and adoration. On many occasions, when the glory of God ‘fell’ (significant word that), people often went further and fell on their faces in awe (e.g. Leviticus 9:23-24, 2 Chronicles 7:1-3). The weight of God has that effect.
In fact, the reference from Leviticus is helpful, as this was the occasion when Moses dedicated the original tabernacle, and Paul here in this passage describes how Moses had to wear a veil in the presence of God. But now – and what amazing news this is! – because of Christ and His indwelling Spirit, our access to God is no longer veiled. We can experience His manifest presence directly (v16) and not just occasionally, but on an ongoing basis (v11).
The tangible sense of God’s presence, or by extension anything that points to God’s presence, is how we use the word ‘glory’ now. And this is available to us! No wonder Paul gets excited and indicates the sort of effect this kind of realisation can have on us. It makes us bold (v12), we can approach God with confidence, knowing the Spirit of His Son is with us. It brings us freedom (v17), as we live with the truth in our hearts and with eternity as our future. And ultimately it transforms us (v18) – this ‘weight’ of God does not crush us, but shapes us.
Our task? Contemplation. To give our attention to what the Spirit reveals to us, to seek God’s presence – His glory – day by day. As we do that, we slowly become more and more the people we were made to be (v18) – with ‘ever-increasing glory’!
May God grant us grace to contemplate the Lord’s glory today.
Note: Our back catalogue is still available here. There are series from all across the bible, and you can either view the PDF files online or download at your leisure.