It is common at this time of year, when the momentum of January begins to subside and our good intentions begin to founder, to seek inspiration, motivation, and even enlightenment. I would like to encourage you that, if you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, you are already inspired, motivated, and enlightened.
Let's start with inspiration. Etymologically, the word means to "breathe in". It seems to have derived its customary connotation - of providing an animus of some sort - from the original act of inspiration, the original act of animation: when God "breathed into [man's] nostrils the breath of life", "man became a living creature" (Genesis 2:7). Like us, Adam was - quite literally - an "earthen vessel", which nevertheless received an inspiration so powerful that it came to life (2 Corinthians 4:7). An analogous event occurred in the New Testament when Christ breathed His Spirit first onto His disciples (John 20:22) and then onto the Church as a whole (Acts 2:1-13).
While it was God's Breath that inspired man, moreover, it was his Word that created the soil to begin with. Breath and Word are inextricably related: a word can only be communicated if it is breathed (think of the diligent scribes who know the scriptures by heart, but whose hearts remain unchanged) just as breath can only communicate if it contains a word (think of spiritual experiences that fail to produce any sort of direction). "It is the Spirit who gives life", and His words "are spirit and are life", the Gospel of John (6:63, emphasis added; see also John 6:68; 2 Timothy 3:16) tells us. If you have the Spirit, you are by definition inspired, for the Word who existed before the foundation of the world - and who created the world itself - also existed before you, created you, and now dwells within you (e.g. John 1; 2 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:9).
Let's 'move on' to motivation, which, indeed, derives from the root word meaning "to move". Again we encounter the Spirit, and again we do so right at the beginning. Even before the seven days of creation began, when the earth was still "formless and void", we read that "the Spirit was moving" (Genesis 1:2). Paul later remarks that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28, emphasis added). If you have the Spirit, you are motivated; for, although we often seek motivation as a means of achieving something, the motivation of God it is a matter of "being", not doing. Perhaps to be truly motivated we need to "be still and know that [He] is God" (Psalm 46:10).
Finally, we reach enlightenment. It should be obvious that the word 'enlightenment' has something to do with light. Indeed, the relationship between light and knowledge in the Bible is 'blindingly' obvious (cf. Acts 9). In Psalm 119:130, for example, we learn that "The unfolding of [His] words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple". It was, after all, "God, who," in the beginning, "said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness'"; and it is the same God "who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6; see also Ephesians 1:16-21). We normally think of enlightenment as something kind of end destination, a kind of final achievement; but God's act of enlightenment was actually His first act of creation (Genesis 1:3).
"New Year, new you" - that's what we are often told, and how we often think. This, however, is folly; for those of us who are in Christ have already been made new (2 Corinthians 5:17), are constantly being made new (2 Corinthians 3:18) , and will one day be made new once and for all (Revelation 21:1-8).
Let's start with inspiration. Etymologically, the word means to "breathe in". It seems to have derived its customary connotation - of providing an animus of some sort - from the original act of inspiration, the original act of animation: when God "breathed into [man's] nostrils the breath of life", "man became a living creature" (Genesis 2:7). Like us, Adam was - quite literally - an "earthen vessel", which nevertheless received an inspiration so powerful that it came to life (2 Corinthians 4:7). An analogous event occurred in the New Testament when Christ breathed His Spirit first onto His disciples (John 20:22) and then onto the Church as a whole (Acts 2:1-13).
While it was God's Breath that inspired man, moreover, it was his Word that created the soil to begin with. Breath and Word are inextricably related: a word can only be communicated if it is breathed (think of the diligent scribes who know the scriptures by heart, but whose hearts remain unchanged) just as breath can only communicate if it contains a word (think of spiritual experiences that fail to produce any sort of direction). "It is the Spirit who gives life", and His words "are spirit and are life", the Gospel of John (6:63, emphasis added; see also John 6:68; 2 Timothy 3:16) tells us. If you have the Spirit, you are by definition inspired, for the Word who existed before the foundation of the world - and who created the world itself - also existed before you, created you, and now dwells within you (e.g. John 1; 2 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:9).
Let's 'move on' to motivation, which, indeed, derives from the root word meaning "to move". Again we encounter the Spirit, and again we do so right at the beginning. Even before the seven days of creation began, when the earth was still "formless and void", we read that "the Spirit was moving" (Genesis 1:2). Paul later remarks that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28, emphasis added). If you have the Spirit, you are motivated; for, although we often seek motivation as a means of achieving something, the motivation of God it is a matter of "being", not doing. Perhaps to be truly motivated we need to "be still and know that [He] is God" (Psalm 46:10).
Finally, we reach enlightenment. It should be obvious that the word 'enlightenment' has something to do with light. Indeed, the relationship between light and knowledge in the Bible is 'blindingly' obvious (cf. Acts 9). In Psalm 119:130, for example, we learn that "The unfolding of [His] words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple". It was, after all, "God, who," in the beginning, "said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness'"; and it is the same God "who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6; see also Ephesians 1:16-21). We normally think of enlightenment as something kind of end destination, a kind of final achievement; but God's act of enlightenment was actually His first act of creation (Genesis 1:3).
"New Year, new you" - that's what we are often told, and how we often think. This, however, is folly; for those of us who are in Christ have already been made new (2 Corinthians 5:17), are constantly being made new (2 Corinthians 3:18) , and will one day be made new once and for all (Revelation 21:1-8).
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