The Skilled Surgeon // The Spirit and The Word, Part 5

It’s amazing how thoroughly we manage to delude ourselves about our own failings and weaknesses. We’re actually pretty darned good at it. But God is a skilful surgeon capable of performing radical surgery.

This week on the program, we've been looking at intimacy with God through His Spirit and His Word. And when you think about it, those are the two things of Himself that He has left here on this planet for you and me. His Spirit – God Himself, with a promise that if we believe in Jesus, He will make His home in us, dwell in us when we put our faith in Him. And His word – the Bible.

I so often see people cringe when I mention that book. But as we've been exploring this week, this is the most amazing and awesome love letter God’s left here for you and for me. Through His Spirit (we open that book), He speaks to us in the most direct and intimate and extraordinary way. And sometimes when we open that book and read it through His Spirit, it's like holding up a mirror to who we are. And I don't know about you but sometimes I don't actually like what I see in that mirror.

Let's not kid ourselves. When things aren't going well, when we're under pressure, we blame everyone else. He did this; she said that; if he hadn't done this, I wouldn't have blown up in his face, you know the sort of stuff. It's amazing how much more quickly we'll forgive ourselves than we forgive other people. We are so quick to rationalise our own failures and yet to blame others for theirs and even ours. And the longer we delude ourselves about the things that we're doing wrong or our bad character traits or our bad habits or our anger or our fear or our insecurities, the more they're going to ruin not only our lives but also the lives of people around us.

There's a great passage in Hebrews in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews chapter 4, verses 12 and 13, says this:

The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides the soul from the spirit, the joints from the marrow. It's able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart and before God no creature is hidden but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Boy, that's bad news isn't it? Who wants to read God’s word? Sharper than any two-edged sword, it pierces, it divides the spirit from the soul, the joints from the marrow, it judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No, thanks. I'll give that a miss, I think. I'll pass.

But it's only bad news if we want to hang on to the bad stuff. If you or I want to hang on to our dishonesty, our critical spirit, our nasty attitudes or whatever, then this bit about God’s word is bad news.

But if we want to be set free from this stuff, it's fantastic news. In other words, we read God’s word and it's like a mirror, it judges the intentions of the heart. It lays everything bare, it lays everything open.

We can see in there where our intentions are wrong – where the way we think is wrong or hurting us or hurting other people and it happens to me all the time. When we let God do that, when we go to God’s word and open it up and say, "Dear Holy Spirit, you wrote this thing. Will you now open it up for me, will you now hold it up, will you pour into my heart, will you show me who I am through your word”? When we let God hold His mirror up to our faces it changes us.

Let me give you an example …there’s a story about a woman caught in adultery. And the religious leaders whip up the crowd and they drag her out in front of Jesus for a good old-fashioned stoning. And it wasn't because of what she did; they were trying to trick Him. Jewish religious law prescribed that a person caught in adultery should be stoned to death. But Roman law, (remember at this point in the first century Rome had occupied the land of Israel), Roman law said, they weren't allowed to do that anymore. So whichever way Jesus answered, He'd lose.

So Jesus pauses and squats down and doodles in the sand. Then He looks everyone in the eye, one by one, and He says:

 Whichever of you has never sinned, you pick up the first stone, you cast the first stone. (John 8:7)

And one by one they all drift away. They all go embarrassed because they know that none of them can say that they have never sinned. And He's left alone with her and He says:

"Woman, is there no-one left to condemn you?" And she says, "No-one sir.’ And He says, ‘Then neither do I condemn you. Go, go and sin no more." (John 8:10-11)

That is brilliant isn't it? But I remember reading that and it was as though God’s spirit was holding a mirror up to my face. God's spirit spoke to me and said, "You know Berni, the way you think, the way you act, you would have been one of the people in that crowd." And it was true ... I was so judgemental, I was so critical, I was so ready to jump down peoples’ throats and tell them what they were doing wrong.

And here I was reading God’s word and through this beautiful story of Jesus' wisdom and the way He protected this woman and yet He dealt with her sin. The spirit of God said to me, "Berni, there's something I want to change in you." My favourite saying used to be, "It's so hard to soar like an eagle when you're surrounded by turkeys." And the Holy Spirit took that and said, "Now I'm going to do something in you”. And He really challenged me. God used that story. And He's still using that scripture in my heart and in my life today, and He's done a radical work.

I used to be so judgemental, and now other people’s weaknesses and failures (by and large), I just let them go. And the more I've been able to do that (not in my own strength but because I opened the Bible and read the story and the Spirit of God did this work in me), you know what's happened? He set me free … from me!

God is good. God through His word and His Spirit give us the power to change. That's what God's word does and that's what God does through it, through His Holy Spirit.

He lifts the words off the page. He breathes them into our hearts and into our souls and into our spirits. He makes things happen inside us. He changes us in a way that we could never even begin to contemplate. It's not just about believing in Jesus, but about letting Him change us. Jesus said, “I have come to set the captives free."

That's you and me He's talking about day by day. For me, that wouldn't have happened thus far. And it wouldn't still be happening if I wasn't spending time in His Word, letting His Spirit breath His life into me.

Awesome stuff – God’s plan! God’s Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. And He is the skilful surgeon who cuts out just as much as He needs to – through His word and His spirit – and leaves us healthy and whole and free.

Pretty good plan, huh? God’s Word … God’s Spirit … God’s way.