Session One

Well, the course is off to a good start. There were 58 in attendance last evening. Thanks for that show of support. It says something about our interest in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and something about our sense of what God wants to do among us.

I wanted to share last evening, but forgot, that our Staff is currently reading the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. The book walks through the spiritual disciplines that have proven themselves over time--like prayer, fasting, meditation, etc. The first chapter is on meditation, and we are as a staff trying to work into our devotional life some intentional times of meditation, and then sharing them with each other. As I was entering into this, I was seeking a passage of scripture to focus on during times of meditation. One morning I woke up with these words running through my mind, "The earth is the Lords and all that is in it." This is the first verse of Psalm 24, so I took that as a sign that this is the passage for me to focus on during meditation.

As I focused on this text, I realized that it had something to say to our Holy Spirit study. You know that I have said, even before being on Sabbatical last year, that I was sensing that ECOB was being called to a new experience with the Holy Spirit. (I also wrote about this in a Upward Call article which you can read via the link on the side of this blog--"Why this emphasis on the Holy Spirit at ECOB?)

Anyway, Psalm 24 ends with these words:

     7 Lift up your heads, you gates;
              be lifted up, you ancient doors,
              that the King of glory may come in.
     8 Who is this King of glory?
        The Lord strong and mighty,
             the Lord mighty in battle.
     9 Lift up your heads, you gates;
             lift them up, you ancient doors,
             that the King of glory may come in.
   10 Who is he, this King of glory?
        The Lord Almighty—
            he is the King of glory.

For the Lord to enter our lives and our church in a new way we need "lift up the gates and the doors" so that he may come in. It is as simple as that--and as difficult as that. Some of the "doors" that need "lifted up" are ancient--they have been around a while--but they are keeping the fullness of the Spirit out rather than letting him in. These "ancient doors" might be personal issues, inhibitions, fears, or unbelief; or they may be corporate ones. In either way, the message I hear is that the gates and doors must be opened for he King of Glory to move among us.

Thanks for joining us on this spiritual journey of understanding and experiencing the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Galen