ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
Greetings and welcome to the September edition of our digital newsletter, Creating Connections. I am Dennis Rivera from the Assemblies of God Office of Hispanic and Ethnic Relations, where it is my joy to serve our growing multi-ethnic constituency. Since the beginning of 2024, our monthly devotional messages have been developed around the theme, “Be filled with the Spirit” from Ephesians 5:18. Today, I want to begin by reading Ephesians 5:15-18 (NLT), in order to understand the context of the Apostle Paul’s writing this exhortation. Paul writes, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Paul originally writes to first century people who had come to faith in Jesus Christ and had come out of a spiritually dark world that was ignorant of the one true God. Many of them—prior to becoming Christians—practiced pagan idolatry, which meant they were giving themselves over to a life of sensuality, greed, immorality, and every kind of impurity. In that setting, Paul exhorts these new followers of Jesus to walk carefully and live wisely by choosing to spend their time doing God’s will. He charges them to no longer be intoxicated by physical stimulants like wine, and we could add a number of other means or stimulants, whereby people today, in 2024, seek to numb the pain of their meaningless existence. Instead, Paul was teaching them to “Be filled with the Spirit.” Because the verb in this verse is passive with a focus more on the character of the person, rather than just their action, it can be also said, “Let yourselves be filled with the Holy Spirit”. The Christian life can only be lived by the power and ability that is given to us when we are “born again” by the Spirit (John 3:3), and as we are also subsequently “filled” or “baptized” in the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). True Christianity is not based on human works or efforts, but we literally live by the Spirit. Paul also describes this in Galatians 5:16 (NASB), writing, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” He also writes in verse 25 of the same chapter, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
Living by the Spirit means the Holy Spirit empowers our life so that we can experience God’s supernatural power and ability to serve Him, His church, and the people among whom we live our lives every day. In our August edition of Creation Connections, I mentioned the nine spiritual gifts referenced by Paul in I Corinthians 12:7-11. As we study the life of Jesus in the four gospels and later the ministry of Paul in the book of Acts, we can see some of these gifts manifesting as they ministered to people. It’s important to remember that Jesus did not begin his public ministry until He was baptized by John the Baptist, and it was at His baptism where the Holy Spirit came upon Him. Luke 4:1 says, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.” Luke 14:14 says, “And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.” M.S. Mills, in his book The Life of Christ: A Study Guide to the Gospel Record, wrote the following: “Luke 4:14 reminds us that Jesus conducted His ministry in the power of the Spirit, and thus not in His personal divine power. He emptied Himself of His own divinity (Phil 2:6–8) so that He was fully human and therefore a valid, perfect model for His followers. All believers have this same source of power available to them.” The word “power” in Luke 14:14 is the Greek word dunamis, which the New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary defines as miraculous power, might, strength. The word dunamis is translated in the New Testament four times as ability, two times as strength, one time as mightily, 17 times as miracles, three times as miraculous powers, and 83 times as power.
Let me illustrate how the gifts of the Spirit operated in the life of Jesus as recorded in the gospel of Luke 6:6-10 (NLT). “On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, ‘Come and stand in front of everyone.’ So, the man came forward. Then Jesus said to his critics, ‘I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?’ He looked around at them one by one and then said to the man, ‘Hold out your hand.’ So, the man held out his hand, and it was restored!” Notice that in this story there are two spiritual gifts operating by the Spirit through Jesus: the word of knowledge and the gifts of healing. Verse 8 said that Jesus knew their thoughts. How did he know their thoughts? Some might say He used His divinity, but Jesus ministered by the anointing and power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave Jesus a word of knowledge, He knew at that moment what they were thinking. The second gift was the gift of healing. In John’s gospel, we read the story of Jesus healing the blind man. Jesus came across a man who had been born blind and John records the event this way: “Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, ‘Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam’ (Siloam means “sent”). So, the man went and washed and came back seeing!” (John 9:6-7, NLT). How did Jesus know that if this man washed in the pool of Siloam, he would be healed? By a word of wisdom. The Holy Spirit revealed that if this man obeyed, like Naaman in the Old Testament, he would be healed.
Let’s look at how one of the gifts of the Spirit operated in the ministry of Paul while he was in Philippi. Acts 16:17-18 (NASB) reads, “Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bondservants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’ She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment.” How did Paul know this was a demon spirit speaking through the girl and then cast it out of her? It was by the gift of discerning of spirits. He knew this spirit was not from God, and by the gift of faith, he cast the demon out.
Let me close by giving encouragement. The world we live in is full of broken people who need healing from sickness and disease, others who need deliverance from demonic oppression, and in some cases, possession. To be effective in helping people who need Jesus as their Savior and Lord, we need to live dependent upon the Holy Spirit to anoint and empower us when we encounter the needs of those around us. God bless you and let’s continue to pray for America!
Dennis Rivera
Director, Hispanic & Ethnic Relations
