Twice Boxed; Twice Released
On Sunday I usually attend an early service that focuses on prayer, praise, and worship. I love to just sit quietly and listen to what the Spirit has to say. During the time of worship, a new revelation came to me. I had known that when Jesus died on the cross, the veil on the temple had been torn from top to bottom, not bottom to top. God’s Spirit had been in the Holy of Holies since its inception in the tabernacle, but at the crucifixion of God’s only Son, the Spirit of God rent the veil, freeing His Spirit to go wherever one would receive the Spirit of His Son, Jesus Christ. The body of His believers would become the temple of the Holy Spirit.
If God’s Spirit was no longer contained at one location, what Satan could no longer prevent in life, he tried to contain in death, thus a huge stone was rolled in front of the tomb where the body of Jesus laid. Jesus descended to the lowest depths before the power of his resurrection rolled the stone away while Jesus ascended back to life and eventually to the right hand of God, the Father. Death and the grave could not even contain Him. God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, would not be boxed in any longer.
I got to see the resurrection power in a new perspective. How often have we either as an institution called the Church or as individual believers try to box in God? How often do we want to control God’s Spirit by containing him rather than freeing Him in order to lead or control our lives? The Holy Spirit, God’s resurrection Spirit, is a freeing spirit, not a containing spirit. We can try to box him into our molds of what Church should be, but His freeing resurrection Spirit breaks through those molds to produce freedom in Jesus Christ. We can try to put Him in a “tomb”, so we can do our things, that usually produces spiritual death, but death and the grave can not contain Him, and his Spirit will break through our dead religious practices.
The Resurrection Spirit of Jesus Christ is a break-through spirit, a powerful spirit, a spirit that produces life, overcoming death. Let’s embrace this Spirit more often.