The Presence Driven Life

Scripture

61Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, “Does this offend you? 62Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? 63The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and he knew who would betray him.)  John 6:61-63

Observation

Everyone was pretty happy with Jesus when he fed the 5000 and sent everyone home full and with leftover bread. When He started challenging them that He was not a commodity to be consumed, but a God to be worshipped, and a bread of life to be internalized they all walked away. To be honest, if I was only hearing this with the natural ears and heard Jesus inviting me to some form of cannibalism I might have walked away offended as well. Maybe, I do walk away. When Jesus says something or does something I don’t understand, do I keep my distance? When He doesn’t bless me this week the way He did last week do I get offended? When He asks me to give away something I want to keep instead of giving something to me, do I resist? Have I become program driven instead of Presence driven because it's more predictable?

Application

I’m not sure why I’ve never caught this before. Jesus’ talk of being the bread was revisited at the Last Supper as He broke the bread, representing His body broken for us.  Right here, in John 6, Jesus was not only prophesying the crucifixion and resurrection, but the ascension. In Acts 1 the disciples would be standing there wide eyed and mouths open fully stunned and offended that Jesus had just left them standing there.  In fact, Jesus had said a couple of times before the ascension on the Mt. of Olives to not do anything until they had receive the Baptism of The Holy Spirit. Jesus followed up this prophecy in John 6 with this powerful indictment of the modern day American Christian- “Human effort accomplishes nothing.” When we don’t understand what Jesus is doing, why He’s doing it, how or when He’s doing it, we prefer to take matters in to our own hands. Just as human effort couldn’t take five loaves and two fish and make it feed a multitude, we can’t take the talents, abilities, gifts and personalities we have and somehow meet the needs all around us. It’s only by His Spirit and in His presence that we can accomplish anything. Yet, we still prefer to lean on our religious traditions, because at least they make us look good and in control. We can schedule it and program it down to a science, so that, if the Holy Spirit doesn’t show up, most won’t notice. This is the difference between program driven and presence driven. The Presence of The Holy Spirit is the difference between “looking busy” and being “about The Father’s Business”. This is the difference between having content for the masses and being content in the Holy Spirit’s presence. This is the difference between information dissimination and internal transformation. A.W. Tozer’s convicting observation comes to mind here, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference." 

Prayer

How much of what I’ve been doing in Your Name Jesus has just been fruitless human effort? Forgive me for being program driven instead of presence driven. Forgive me for settling for less than You because I don’t want to wait on You. Forgive me for being offended at how Your Spirit moves in unpredictable and often messy ways.  I want to live the Presence driven life!  I want my response to be that of Peter’s when what You’re doing makes no sense,  “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn. 6:68-69)