Holy Spirit – The Yoke of Jesus (Proper 14 2020)

(Available on John Gishler Youtube channel Sunday morning)

Jesus is teaching us that spiritual wisdom is very different from intellectual wisdom. Christians need to put on His “yoke”- the Holy Spirit, to guide them in overcoming the conflict between their bodily or worldly desires and their spiritual or heavenly desires. Abraham’s servant gives us an example of choosing to be guided by divine wisdom instead of his human wisdom in finding a wife for Isaac. This is in contrast to Paul who is so steeped in human wisdom he cannot understand the conflict in his soul.  

1. Spiritual wisdom is very different from human wisdom

Jesus is teaching us about how the supernatural dimension can affect our lives in the natural dimension. This is the root of religious conflicts, particularly in protestant churches which affirm human “reason and tradition” and not the Holy Spirit as authoritative in interpreting the Bible. Jesus is reaching out to help us understand how things work in the supernatural world and how this affects our earthly and heavenly lives.

·      Jesus respects our free will and invites us to put on His yoke – the Holy Spirit to guide us in life

·      We all need experiences of the Holy Spirit guiding us to grow in our spiritual lives and learn to trust in Jesus

·      In Going Spiritual I shared the contrast between my own choosing of a wife based on my bodily or human understanding – and then listening to the Holy Spirit

2. Abraham’s servant got it right the first time

The Genesis 24 story reminds us how he made all the right human preparations for a long journey to Abraham’s birthplace then, when he go there, he depended on divine guidance to find Rebecca.

·      Abraham trusted in God to send the servant

·      Servant depended on God to find the right woman

3. Paul does not understand the conflict in his mind /soul

Paul was the ultimate educated intellectual. He is still struggling to understand the war between his bodily or human desires and the guidance he is receiving from his personal spirit:

·      Watchman Nee’s “The Spiritual Man” helped me understand the different functions of our body, soul and spirit

·      The Genesis creation story helped me develop a teaching diagram to illustrate this relationship

·      God makes the human body out of clay – our earthly human nature with all its desires, fears and temptations

·      God breaths on the man so His Spirit becomes man’s personal spirit and gives spiritual and physical life

·      I developed a diagram to explain overlap between the blue personal spirit and red body as the purple soul

·      Our soul is like the meat in the sandwich where our mind and  will must choose which voice to listen to

 

Jesus is urging us to accept His guidance and forgiveness by:

•  Trusting in Him and putting on His yoke for guidance
• We put on His yoke when we accept Him as Lord and Master and invite the Holy Spirit to come and live in