PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 2:22–31 (NIV)
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:
“‘I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’”
CONSIDER THIS
From day 1 of the church, two unified realities have guided us. Immediately, upon being filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter began to preach the Word of God. Notice how through the first two chapters of Acts alone we have already quoted or alluded to five different passages of Scripture, ranging from the Prophets to the Psalms to the Gospels. These folks were people of one book. The Word of God, by the Spirit of God, had formed their memory and was now forging their imagination.
Friends, there are two fundamental resources that enable us to be fruitful followers of Jesus in the world:
1. The Word of God.
2. The Spirit of God.
One without the other leaves persons, communities, and even entire religious movements in the state of arrested development known as fundamentalism. On the one hand, the Word without the Spirit invariably moves toward a fundamentalism characterized by rigid legalism. On the other hand, the Spirit without the Word moves toward a fundamentalism characterized by unbridled chaos. The Word without the Spirit counterfeits order. The Spirit without the Word counterfeits freedom. The truth: Neither are either.
Word and Spirit are the fundamental fundamentals that together keep us out of the ditches of religious fundamentalism. That’s what we are after—fundamentals without fundamentalism. Two points of guidance for us going forward:
1. To be discipled in the way of Jesus means to live life anchored, rooted, and immersed in the wisdom, world, and story of the Scriptures. It is to be a person of One Book. That’s what we are going for with the Wake-Up Call every single day.1
2. To be discipled in the way of Jesus means to live life animated, intoxicated, and infused with the love, gifts, and power of the Holy Spirit. And yes, this is also what we are going for in the Wake-Up Call every single day.
Keep in mind, we are not aiming at a 50-50 mix of the two. This isn’t about living in the so-called “tension” or trying to find a “middle way” between them. It is 100%-100%—Word and Spirit bonded in an inseparable, indivisible nuptial union.
All we need for the life God created us for is right here: Word and Spirit.
Now, if we want to see what this kind of life looks like in perfection we need look no further than Jesus. It’s yet another reason we call him the Master.
How are you working with these resources? How would you like to be?
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness.
I receive your righteousness and release my sin.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your creativity and release my chaos.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your rest and release my striving.
Come Holy Spirit transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE QUESTION
Do you tend to be stronger in your understanding and experience of the Word of God or the Spirit of God? What might growing in this weakness look like? Take a minute and note in your journal how the Wake-Up Call is helping you grow in these ways.
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “Trust and Obey.” It is hymn 334 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P.S. Can’t Join Us for New Room Conference?
Notes for Further Study and Reflection
- There are two major and conflicting ways of approaching Scripture. We can interpret the story of our life and times through the lens of Scripture or we can interpret Scripture through the lens of the story of our life and times. The difference means everything. Let’s call the first approach, “contexting.” We will call the second approach, “proof-texting.” We could also use the respective terms exegesis and eisegesis.
In the first public message of the Acts of the Apostles, Peter interprets their experience of the Holy Spirit through the lens of the Scripture. His instincts lead him to read his own story out of the context of the larger story of Scripture. He knows this story inside-out and his mind runs to a prophecy and a psalm. For Peter, Scripture is not like a rolodex of recipes, principles, and precepts. Because Scripture has so formed his own memory, it readily informs his understanding of the present while it transforms his imagination of the possibilities of the future.
Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.
2 Responses
The Spirit will demonstrate the Word in our midst if we let Him.
When we look at the Greek
We can honestly exegete
That the word “ekklesia”
Was the name of the Greek
Interactive town hall meeting
Where anyone could speak.
Since Jesus chose that word
To describe what He’s building
It shouldn’t be unique
For Christians to assemble
And let the members
Of Christ’s body speak
As led by His Spirit
And aligned to His Word.
Wow! Today’s Wake-Call is really deep, a lot of meat here to chew on. This morning’s study has confirmed some of the the thoughts that were swirling around in my mind earlier this morning during my meditation. Yes, we as students of Christ need to be led 100% by both Spirit and Word, just as Jesus came to us from the Father, full (100%) of grace and truth. And yes, Scripture should set the pattern of our daily walk, the story of our lives and times through the lens of the Scripture, not the other way around. The latter way results in the transformation of our lives into the ways of the world. And that, in my opinion, is what is killing the Institutionalized Church. I personally would rather self- identify as part of a movement rather than a denomination.