Day 15 - Wednesday, February 28
Title:  THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Scripture #1: Ephesians 1:13-21 (NKJV)
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Scripture #2: Romans 8:26-27 (NKJV)
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Poetry & Poet: 
“The House at Rest”
by Jessica Powers
On a dark night
 Kindled in love with yearnings —
 Oh, happy chance! —
 I went forth unobserved,
 My house being now at rest.
 – St. John of the Cross

How does one hush one’s house,
each proud possessive wall, each sighing rafter,
the rooms made restless with remembered laughter
or wounding echoes, the permissive doors,
the stairs that vacillate from up to down,
windows that bring in color and event
from countryside or town,
oppressive ceilings and complaining floors?

The house must first of all accept the night.
Let it erase the walls and their display,
impoverish the rooms till they are filled
with humble silences; let clocks be stilled
and all the selfish urgencies of day.

Midnight is not the time to greet a guest.
Caution the doors against both foes and friends,
and try to make the windows understand
their unimportance when the daylight ends.
Persuade the stairs to patience, and deny
the passages their aimless to and fro.
Virtue it is that puts a house at rest.
How well repaid that tenant is, how blest
who, when the call is heard,
is free to take his kindled heart and go.

NOT ALL THOSE WHO WANDER ARE LOST

There is a short poem in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings that marks the identity of the character Aragorn. The opening lines are:

    All that is gold does not glitter.
        Not all those who wander are lost.

Lent is a time to reflect, among other things, on wandering. The forty days of Lent picture, the forty years that the children of Israel wandered in the desert. It pictures also the temptation of Jesus for forty days and night––in another desert. Desert times involve hardship, struggle, and often wandering.

We too are wanderers. We navigate our lives through the terrain of our work, families, churches, school, and a host of complex responsibilities. We hear the gospel promise that our destiny is the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom, as the theologians say, is already established, but it is not yet fully realized. It is already, but not yet. This phrase captures what it is like to occupy our space, our time, and our circumstances. We are not yet there, but the marks of His Kingdom are already present. His fingerprints are on our lives.

We wander, but not all those who wander are lost. As the Scriptures we read today remind us, we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession…” The Spirit is our guarantee in the not yet. He is not a future guarantee––He is a present guarantee. As many commentators have noticed, the guarantee is like a down payment. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit who is our down payment until the full redemption we will experience when the Kingdom of God is fully realized in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Thinking of the Spirit as our down payment might lead us to forget that His work in our lives is not simply a transaction. We are sealed in an intimate relationship with the Spirit. Paul goes on to pray that we may know the hope of our calling, the riches of the glory of the inheritance God has for us, and the great power God has exercised on our behalf. I dare say, Paul is not praying that we would have more theoretical knowledge of these things. He is praying that we would know by experience, the great things God has given us. In context, it is through the Holy Spirit that we come to experience the destiny to which we are called.

In the passage from the letter to the Roman, Paul is more explicit about this relationship. The Spirit knows our hearts, our longings, our feeble prayer. He knows us intimately. He knows the triune God intimately. He is known intimately. He takes our longings and feeble prayers and He perfects them and presents them to God according to His will.

In the midst of our complex lives, we are wanderers. Not all those who wander are lost. Some have been found. Some have been sealed. Some enjoy the deep intimacy with the Spirit of God. 

Prayer
Lord who gives your Spirit to me so that I may securely look for the full redemption, search my soul, draw out the hidden things. Conform these. Perfect these. Make them worthy praises to God.
Amen

Dr. Greg E. Ganssle
Professor of Philosophy
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University

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