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!
Thursday 18th June – Ezra 1:1-5 ‘God at work in unlikely people’
‘This is what the Lord says to his anointed, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armour, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and level the mountains… I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.’
I wonder, who was that written about? It’s from the book of the great prophet Isaiah. Care to hazard a guess? I imagine most of us would guess ‘The Messiah’ or Jesus, maybe another prophet who was to come. In fact, it was King Cyrus of Persia – the most powerful human being in the world at the time, and ruler of a huge empire that included the conquered and humiliated nation of Israel. A sort of enemy, certainly not Jewish, and even more surely not identified as ‘one of God’s people’. Indeed, the prophecy (from Isaiah 45) continues: ‘For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honour, though you do not acknowledge me.’
It’s strange, isn’t it? That God would use a pagan emperor to achieve his purposes. And more than that, to call him God’s ‘anointed’ – that is the language of spirit-filled kingship. Given to a pagan emperor! And yet, in our reading for today, Ezra insists: it was God who ‘moved the heart of Cyrus’ to allow the exiled Israelites to return to the promised land; and even more, amazingly, to worship their God in the temple.
The Lord, as it has often been observed, moves in mysterious ways. And his Spirit can be at work in the most unlikely people. God took a Christian-murderer and made him the world’s greatest evangelist (Paul). A disgraced exile who had difficulty speaking in public and made him the rescuer of God’s enslaved people (Moses). A hated Roman soldier to be the first to recognise Jesus’ divinity on the cross, and another one (Cornelius) to be the first non-Jew to be filled with the Spirit.
The Spirit, like the wind, blows where it pleases. Which is great news for us; and great news for our friends and family; and, we pray, for our world too. God can be at work, is at work, in ways we can’t predict. No-one is beyond His reach, and even when people still do not acknowledge Him, God is able to use them wonderfully for His purposes.
King Cyrus did more for God’s people than at least half of their actual kings. Let’s pray for our leaders, that God would do the same again today. And let’s also raise faith to pray for those we love, too.
Wednesday 17th June – 2 Kings 2:1,9-16 ‘Pass it on’
On one of the shelves in my study is an old pocket bible. It belonged to the first person for whom I took a funeral. He died without next-of-kin, and the care home where he was a resident asked if I would like to have it, otherwise it would just be thrown away. It turns out that I am the fourth owner: the bible previously belonged to the chap’s father, who was called Fred. Fred in turn received it from the Tabernacle Sunday School ‘on his promotion to the bible class’ in 1903.
As humans, it’s natural to pass things on. In fact, much of the time we can’t help but pass things on. Some of these things are good and healthy. Sadly, some aren’t: we need no reminding in these years after the pandemic of what can pass between one human and the next.
Whilst most of us will have mementoes and keepsakes from people we’ve known and loved, often the things that ‘pass on’ to us are less tangible, but far more important. I have very few physical objects to remind me of my late mum, but the unseen things she gave to me – unconditional love, a listening ear, the value of gentleness, a love of music and books – are with me all the time, and have changed my life for the better. I hope that I can likewise pass these on to my own children, and maybe others too.
In today’s reading we see something else pass on from one human to the next – this time, it is the Spirit of God. The great prophet Elijah’s life and ministry is coming to an end, and his young protégé Elisha is about to take over the reins. As the two prepare to part ways, Elijah asks him one last question: ‘what would you like from me?’ Elisha’s answer is unusual but inspiring: ‘A double portion of your spirit.’ God is obviously pleased with this answer, as Elisha inherits exactly as requested.
Now whilst we must admit that the circumstances of this story are unusual – not many of us get taken up in a whirlwind to heaven – nevertheless, the process by which the Spirit ‘transfers’ from Elijah to Elisha is not so strange as we might think. It was the common practice of the early church to commission new leaders by laying hands on them, and likewise, the ‘laying of hands’ has typically characterised the Christian ministry of healing too. Whilst the Spirit is always a gift of God and cannot be bought, enhanced or manipulated by humans, the Spirit can be conferred prayerfully and under God’s direction between one human and the next. After all, the Spirit’s purpose is to glorify Jesus and when we pray for healing, or commission new leaders, Jesus is glorified.
Take a moment today to give thanks for those who have blessed you, who have conferred God’s grace to you, whose friendship and leadership have helped you grow in the spiritual life. And perhaps, reflect too on who you might in turn be able to bless. Pass it on!
Tuesday 16th June – 1 Samuel 16:1-13 ‘The heart of the matter’
For much of our driving lives, we’ve driven old cars. For ten years, that was a pair of first-generation Nissan Micras. Fantastically well-made, almost indestructible cars. In fact, we only moved on to something marginally less old because it was getting hard to find replacement parts. Woody (as we knew our previous car) was just too ancient to fit the diagnostic tool at the mechanics.
Our kids became increasingly embarrassed about these beaten-up old bangers (as they saw them). Yet the point was: these cars might not look like much from the outside – but what was inside was brilliant. The engine, the gearbox, the heart of the car was superb, and was why we stuck with them for ten years.
By contrast, in 2020 we offloaded the best-looking car we’ve ever owned. When we drove it away from the seller, we were congratulating ourselves on a bargain… until we took it for its MOT a few days later and discovered it needed £1,000 of repairs. Bizarrely, it passed the MOT – it could still function on the road – but underneath the pristine exterior it was severely damaged.
This contrast is a perfect illustration of the difference between King Saul and King David. Why was David feted through history as Israel’s greatest king, yet Saul was seen largely as a failure? Both were anointed by the same prophet, both received the Spirit, both were chosen by their people. Both had their failures, too. And yet, one died in disgrace, the other became the ancestor of the greatest King of them all.
The answer is not what was outside. In any beauty contest, Saul would win hands down: he was much taller and more physically imposing, and although David was ‘ruddy and handsome’, Saul was ‘as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel.’
It was what was inside that mattered. As we observed yesterday, the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart. For all his gifts, his physical attributes, his calling and even his anointing by the Spirit, Saul’s heart was never right. By contrast, it was David’s heart that set him apart. Inspired by God, Samuel saw in David the character of a true king: ‘People look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.’ (v7)
So, when the Spirit filled David (v13), it was working in tandem with a heart that was already in fine shape: brave and humble, merciful and generous, purposeful, rooted and secure. David knew who he was: a child of God, set apart for His purposes. God’s Spirit went deeper than surface behaviour to mould this heart yet further into one that was fully surrendered to God.
God never forces himself on us. He works with the grain of who we are, and how far we let Him in. The greatest work of the Spirit is not in the outward things: great deeds, miracles, heroic achievements. It is what goes on inside: the Spirit’s transforming work in the heart. The Spirit was the world’s greatest heart surgeon long before we invented the job.
May we too offer our hearts fully to God, to the Spirit’s transforming love and power, that it too may be said of us, like David, that we are people ‘after God’s own heart’.
Monday 15th June – 1 Samuel 10:1,6-16 ‘It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish’
Poor old Saul. One of the notorious tragic-comic figures of the bible. A man who never really knew who he was. Chosen to be king for his physical attributes – as if being tall and handsome was the best qualification for leadership! – we first encounter him wandering around the desert searching for his father’s lost donkeys. One senses that this sense of aimlessness was not lost on the marvellous writer of 1 Samuel, whose deadpan style reveals as much by what it does not say as what it does. I like to imagine the author pursing their lips and raising an eyebrow as they write…
Nevertheless, Samuel finds Saul (v1) and – ignoring his protestations of unworthiness: ‘am I not the least of the smallest?’ (9:21) etc etc – anoints him king. Samuel declares that the Spirit will come upon him (v6) and it duly does (v10), confirmed by the fact that Saul starts to prophesy – a sure sign of spiritual connectedness.
What is interesting is that Samuel declares that being filled with the Spirit will ‘change Saul into a different person’ (v6); and we know that, for a while, it does. Saul makes an unexpectedly good start as king: he leads an army to rescue Jabesh and is filled again powerfully with the Spirit (11:6). In fact, he starts well enough for Samuel formally to lay down his leadership straight after that victory.
But, as we know, things go rapidly downhill from there. Saul never internalises his true identity: despite the early promise, he remains deep in his soul a lost young man wandering after his donkeys and hiding in the luggage (10:22).
This reminds us that our spiritual journey is a lifelong journey. Yes, we need the Spirit every day, every hour. But ultimately, it’s not how we start, it’s how we finish. We may look back at great seasons in our lives, but the question is always: what is God doing in me now? How am I growing? Where will He lead me next? Do I still know who I really am?
Saul’s spiritual awakening was not without its detractors. Those who knew Saul by reputation mocked his prophesying (v11-12). And we too must be ready to face those who will pooh-pooh our spiritual growth, or continually reduce the spiritual journey to one of human effort. What begins as a work of God must remain a work of God – as St Paul warned the young church in Galatia: ‘After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?’
But the real issue was not those who teased Saul. When the freshly anointed, Spirit-filled Saul returns to his uncle (v14), he is unable to tell him the big news. And this is the heart of the problem: the problem of Saul’s heart. Saul’s spiritual journey remained skin-deep. He did stuff, but he never knew who he really was.
Today, let’s give thanks for all that God has done in us thus far. Let’s receive that precious truth that we are, and remain, God’s beloved children. But most of all, let’s ask for grace to keep on keeping on. To be led by the Spirit. To listen, and learn, and let God continue to work His will in us. After all, it’s not how we start, it’s how we finish.
Saturday 13th June – Judges 11:1-6,29-35 ‘Blessing versus bargaining’
In the lists of people’s ‘favourite stories of the bible’, the story of Jephthah is not likely to be one of them. And with good reason – it is a story of human brokenness from start to finish. Broken families, broken promises; and with tragic irony the one thing that apparently can’t be broken is Jephthah’s hubristic promise to sacrifice the first human or animal who appears from the door of his house after his victory.
But hidden in the midst of this most starkly human of stories is a story of grace. And one very simple encouragement: God’s Spirit is a gift. We don’t deserve it; we can’t earn it. He simply, freely and gladly gives it to us. It is all the grace of God.
Why did God choose Jephthah? On the face of it, there is no good reason. His upbringing was traumatic. His current lifestyle – a violent gang leader – was repulsive. There is barely a less deserving character…. and yet God restores him and anoints him with the Spirit.
No-one is beyond the rescue of God. No-one is outside the reach of the kingdom of grace. But there is a warning here, too. The fact that the Spirit is a gift means that it cannot be bought, or earned, or bargained for. The tragedy of Jephthah’s story is that, having received this extraordinary gift of grace he then tries to bargain for God’s favour by making a daft, and ultimately gruesome, promise.
The point is, he didn’t need to. He already had God’s Spirit. He already had His forgiveness and favour. And we too must never assume that the path to greater spiritual wholeness is to bargain with God. ‘If you do this… then I’ll do that…’ Rather, we live in a new reality. We are God’s beloved children, nourished by a Father who gives us all things. Jephthah never grasped his new identity as God’s beloved child, and the tragedy is that this needlessly cost him his own beloved child.
So how do we grow? We learn to become what we already are. We fix our eyes on receiving, understanding and ultimately internalising what God has already given us, that we are new creations, that – in Christ and through the indwelling Spirit – we already have all that we need. This wells up to become a spring of gratitude inside us, and fosters a surrendered heart; in other words, a strong determination to keep offering all that we are to God, because it’s His anyway.
Wherever you find yourself today – whether facing Jephthah-sized challenges or not – take a moment to dwell on who you are. You are God’s beloved child. His grace to you is all gift. And let the gratitude of your heart be your offering.
Friday 12th June – Judges 6:11-14,34-35 ‘Mighty warrior? Who, me?’
History is full of unlikely heroes. Read the following paragraph: who is this?
At the age of 7 he was the worst in his class. His school report declared that he ‘seems unable to learn anything.’ He was denied the secondary school of his choice by his father who considered him ‘such a stupid boy’. His father later wrote to him at college ‘Not only are you a complete failure… I see nothing ahead of you but failure.’
Who is this failure, hampered by a loveless childhood and a cold, disappointed father? None other than Winston Churchill.
The story of Gideon touches our hearts for many reasons. There is humour – Gideon means ‘mighty warrior’, but the bearer of this name is initially found hiding in the winepress. There is humanity, in Gideon’s very cautious response to his commissioning and the famous ‘fleeces’. There is also, ultimately, a happy ending (more or less), as Gideon’s tiny army miraculously defeats their adversaries. Along the way, we also encounter surely the strangest recruitment strategy in literature, as just 1% of Israelite army applicants were selected, determined by how they drank water from a stream.
But what we learn from Gideon is that identity comes before destiny. God sees what we can’t; or to put it more precisely: God calls us according to what He knows that we are, not what we see that we are. His Spirit looks inside our hearts and reveals our true identity. And from that, our calling.
Gideon saw a frightened dropout; God saw a mighty warrior. And that should give us all hope.
‘Go in the strength that you have.’ This is a double encouragement. In human terms, God calls us to be ourselves. We don’t have to try to be someone else. In divine terms, us plus God is enough. When the Spirit finally comes upon Gideon, the strength that he has is more than sufficient to change the destiny of a nation.
Winston Churchill’s spirituality has always remained something of a mystery. But like Gideon, his childhood did not determine his future. He believed he would one day grow up to change the destiny of a nation. Nevertheless, what took the remarkable Churchill decades, God did by His Spirit through Gideon in a matter of weeks.
‘Go in the strength that you have.’ Us plus God is always enough.
Thursday 11th June – Numbers 11:16-17,24-29 ‘Spread it around’
Leadership is a spiritual task. For all that there is a whole secular industry nowadays teaching leadership and management principles, the essence of good leadership – wisdom, humility, service, vision, empowerment – are things which reside in the nature and heart of God. It stands to reason, then, that the calling of true leadership is amplified and empowered by the Spirit of God.
This happens a lot earlier than we think in the bible. Well before King David, well before Gideon or Samson, or any of the Judges. You have to go back to chapter 11 of the book of Numbers. And, even more surprising, this gift of spiritual leadership was a corporate affair. No less than 70 people, along with Moses, were filled with the Spirit for the task of leadership.
The context? Moses is overwhelmed with the burden of leading God’s people. This has happened before (in Exodus 18), but this time, faced with another rebellion, Moses has had enough. ‘Kill me now!’ he says to God (v15), who wisely realises that this is a man at the end of his tether. So, God provides Moses with 70 others to ‘share the burden of the people with you’ (v17).
What is fascinating is how God equips this leadership team: ‘I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them.’ (v17) The work of God needs the Spirit of God. Almost uniquely in the Old Testament, this work is shown to be something for many, not just for one.
And it is not limited to place, either. Two of the new leaders – Eldad and Medad – don’t get the memo, and miss the meeting. Yet, amazingly, they begin to prophesy too, out in the camp (v26). In a lovely foreshadowing of the sort of conversation the disciples have with Jesus, Joshua complains to Moses: it’s just not cricket! And, like Jesus, Moses says, effectively: ‘Calm down: you should be pleased. I wish everyone could receive the Spirit and prophesy!’ (v29)
The applications of this lovely story are numerous. We could reflect that leadership is a spiritual calling requiring spiritual equipping. We could rejoice that God is not limited to times and places, techniques and rituals. But let’s give thanks today that there’s plenty enough of the Spirit to go round. You might feel like Eldad and Medad – always missing the memo – but God doesn’t forget you. He can bless you and use you anyway.
Wednesday 10th June – Exodus 31:1-5 ‘Surprisingly creative?’
If I was to ask you to guess the first spiritual gift mentioned in the bible, what do you think it is? Preaching? Prayer? Miracles? Leadership? No, non, nein and nej. It’s creativity.
You might be surprised to learn that the first person we encounter in the bible who is ‘filled with the Spirit of God’ is an artist, a craftsman: Bezalel (pronounced ‘bed-za-lay-el’). We meet him in Exodus chapter 31, and it is God himself who declares that Bezalel is filled with the Spirit (v3). In fact, just in case we found it too surprising – and perhaps, like us, many of Bezalel’s fellow Israelites did – it’s repeated by Moses to the people in Exodus 35.
The church has always had an ambiguous relationship with the creative arts. We might marvel at our glorious mediaeval church buildings, but too often the arts have either been hijacked for the glory of proud humanity (in the name of God, which is far worse) or treated as idolatrous and ignored altogether. The church where my father was a minister in the 1980s was one of those where all the heads and hands had been hacked off the mediaeval statues by Thomas Cromwell’s thugs.
As always, the two extremes – hubris and hatred – fall far short of God’s intention. As we saw in Genesis 1, God loves creating, it’s in his nature. No surprise then that his intention for humans – who bear his image – is just the same. We are made to create! And God loves that side of our nature. Whenever we create in God’s name, we are filled with the Spirit, and witness to God’s glory, just as good old Bezalel thousands of years ago.
And even if you’re not a natural artist, we all get to create – when we cook, when we clear up, when we mend clothes, or tend our gardens, or try our hand at painting or crochet or pottery, or perfect the cross court backhand or do keepy-uppies, or just doodle when we’re bored in meetings. We’re always creating. And God loves that about you. Even if you’re not sure you love that about yourself.
So, if you’re currently trying new ways of creating, or investing more in the ways you already know: keep doing that! It’s who you are. And, even more, it’s part of what it means to be ‘filled with the Spirit of God.’
What are you creating today? Take a moment to stop and just feel God’s pleasure. He loves it!
Tuesday 9th June – Genesis 2:7 ‘The Breath of Life’
If Genesis 1 is the big picture account of creation – the grand canvas – Genesis 2 is more personal and intimate: the tender portrait of a loving God making and relating to human beings, the glory of His creation. In Genesis 1 we learn that God makes humans in his image, both male and female. God blesses them and gives them authority. But what we don’t learn is how God makes us. How is it that we can claim to bear God’s image? In Genesis 2, we get the answer: ‘The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life.’
No other animal receives this particular intimate blessing: the very breath of God. And much as we can explain some of our human behaviour in evolutionary terms, necessary adaptations for our survival, or we can observe certain abilities which exist in certain species in the natural world, there remains much that is unique to humanity, or that we possess to an unparalleled degree. Our love of beauty, our capacity to organise, to create, to care for the vulnerable, to think objectively, to ask why…. This is what it means to be human; but even more, it is what it means to bear the image of God.
The principal word for Spirit in Hebrew is ‘ruach’. It means breath or wind, and is the word used most often throughout the Old Testament. But there is a second, more intimate word for breath, more rarely used: ‘neshama’. And it is this word ‘neshama’ which the writer of Genesis uses here. God breathes his neshama, his divine breath into us, and gives us life. Though the Fall shatters the perfection of our original nature – and scars the image of God in all of us – that divine breath, that neshama is still there. We are spiritual beings, trying to find our way home.
And the story of scripture from a human perspective is the story of how God, in Christ, is able to restore that true divine breath in all of us. Christ’s death and resurrection points the way to the renewal of all things, and since Pentecost his followers now receive that divine breath, that Spirit, in a new way. Through Christ, God can dwell in us again by the Holy Spirit, and his breath of life transforms us from the inside out. It’s a gift we don’t deserve, but God in his great love and mercy joyfully bestows it on us, and points us towards home.
Take a moment today to just stop and breathe. Imagine the breath of God filling your lungs. Become aware of His presence. Receive His peace. And give thanks.
Monday 8th June – Genesis 1:1-3 ‘The Spirit in Creation’
In 1998, Dame Judi Dench won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth I in the film ‘Shakespeare in Love’. Despite the fact that she only appeared in the film for 8 ½ minutes, her presence as the reigning monarch was felt throughout, and, being the supreme actress that she is, when she does appear she dominates the screen.
In some ways the Holy Spirit plays a similar role in Scripture. Appearing only occasionally in the text of the first three quarters of the bible (the Old Testament), nevertheless the Spirit’s presence is known and felt throughout – and, when the Spirit does appear front and centre in the narrative, whether ‘coming upon’ a Judge or King, or rushing through the room at Pentecost, the power and glory of God dominates the page.
If Jesus Christ is the unquestioned ‘hero’ of Scripture, the Holy Spirit plays the decisive supporting role. This is true even at Creation. Whilst New Testament writers St John and St Paul make it clear that Christ was the ‘Word of God’ declaring creation into being through the narrative of the bible’s first chapter, Genesis 1:2 tells us that it was the Spirit of God who was hovering (or brooding, in the marvellous phrasing of the old translations) over the waters, making Christ’s creative word a powerful reality.
From the beginning, God has always been a Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit, a perfect inter-relationship of love and glory. People often mistakenly think that God started as one, then became two with Jesus, and finally three at Pentecost. But Genesis 1 tells us otherwise. And the extraordinary truth is that we are invited into that relationship: effective through the work of Christ and the indwelling witness of the Spirit. We get to ‘eat with God, and God with us’ (Rev 3:20), to share in this divine web of love forever.
In this season we will explore what that means, and I hope this journey will reveal new depths to you about God, and your life in and with Him. But today, let’s reflect a moment that the fullness of the Spirit was only revealed many, many years after creation, at Pentecost. In the divine will and wisdom of God, what had always been there finally became a visible reality.
The fact that we bear God’s image means that this too can be a reality for us. Gifts and talents, causes and opportunities, can still come unexpectedly to the fore later in our lives. In God’s economy, all of life can be used for His glory. How is God at work in you currently? Are there deep facets of who you are being revealed for His glory, even now? As the Spirit of God hovers over the waters of your life, where might God be saying: ‘Let there be light….’?
God is always making everything new. Amen, come Holy Spirit.
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