Loosing the Spirit? Does that imply that He has been caged? Or that His power has somehow been curtailed? But He’s the Third Person in the Trinity. He’s God. He cannot be constrained. Who could possibly constrain the omnipotent God of the Bible?
CONSTRAINING THE SPIRIT
The Spirit is able to do more than I could ever ask or think. Not just more. Exceedingly abundantly more (Ephesians 3:20). One gets the feeling that Paul could not find enough superlatives to adequately express all that the Spirit longs to do in the lives of yielded believers.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21).
The Spirit is indeed ready, willing, and more-than-able to provide a way of escape for all who would think to ask to be freed of an addiction. But His hands are tied—and the level of difficulty skyrockets—if I limit my asking and thinking to ways of escape that are “me-powered,” or "my small group-powered," rather than Spirit-powered. I must think to ask bigger (Ephesians 3:20) if I am to make full use of His glorious, limitless, inner-working power. As another author has so famously stated:
... we’ve ignored the Spirit for far too long, and we are reaping the disastrous results... (let us) stop and remember the One we’ve forgotten, the Spirit of the living God [1].
LOOSING THE SPIRIT—A GAME-CHANGING BOOK HAS ARRIVED
In A Way of Escape, readers learn how to let loose their inner-working Holy Spirit power (Ephesians 3:20). Readers learn how to overcome the flesh by stepping up the degree to which they “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). They learn how to build a library of Spirit-anointed, flesh-diffusing apps. Apps that are uniquely fitted to them, and their unique Spirit-filling triggers (Ephesians 5:18b-19).
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
The let-loose Spirit gives the still-struggling believer another option. The let-loose Spirit offers the still-struggling believer fresh hope for discovering that long-sought-after way of escape from temptation and resulting sin (I Corinthians 10:13). A way that—because it is wholly Spirit-powered—does not require enlisting the aid of an accountability partner or group.
THANK YOU, HOLY SPIRIT!
RIDDLE SOLVED?
Have you figured out my blog-opening riddle? Have you figured out who it is that could possibly constrain the omnipotent God of the Bible? If so, then today’s blog has been a huge success!
REFERENCES
1. Chan, F., Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, First Printing, David C Cook, Colorado Springs, CO (quote taken from the Amazon online blurb for pastor Chan’s book), 2009
