"By Constant Use" (Heb. 5)

Hear the Spirit like a Train Engineer

9/28/2024

LEARNING to Live in the Spirit

Did you know that the Greek word for disciple (μαθητής - mathētēs) means learner? It comes from the verb "μανθάνω" (manthanō), which means "to learn." So, a μαθητής is a learner or a student.

This is so important because our Life IN Christ, our following Christ, and being led by His Spirit are very connected to being a learner. The very word itself for disciple or discipline involves learning and training. It is through listening and learning and discipline and training that our characters can change to become more and more like Jesus.

Someone living on the XY axis/eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil says, “I did something bad. I said something bad.”

But if you are living on the Z axis and have tasted of the Tree of Zoe Life, then you say, “What I just said or what I just did may seem like it should have been OK, but something about it just doesn’t feel right.”

Like a Seasoned Engineer

I took someone to another room where there was a drip in a drain, and I turned off the light. “Do you hear that?” Drip, thup. Drip, thup. Drip, thup. I said, “What is that?”

“Well obviously, it’s water,” they answered.

“What kind of water? Where is that water? Is it dripping on the floor? Is it the toilet dripping? Is it the shower dripping? How do you know? What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“If it landed on the floor, what would it sound like?”

“Splat, splat, splat.”

“So drip, thup, drip, thup is not on the floor, probably, right?”

“Oh! It’s hitting the drain and then the tub. The drain, then tub—the drain, then tub.”

“Now… Pretend you’re an engineer of a train. This is a steam engine with a coal fire. You’re the engineer, and you’re sitting there in the seat watching the temperature gauge. But it turns out the gauge is stuck. The gauge says everything is fine, but the train is about to explode because it’s overheating. And because you’re just sitting there in your chair only watching the gauge, the train blows up and everybody dies. But what if instead, you were a seasoned engineer? What would a seasoned engineer know? If you are a seasoned engineer, you know that something doesn’t sound quite right. You hear the creak of metal. You see the glow of the boiler. You smell a smell you’re not used to smelling. You feel a rumble you’re not used to feeling. A seasoned engineer knows something is wrong regardless of what the gauge says.”

Can you see that if you are someone who learns to discern in the Spirit, you learn what strange fire is, even if the content of what is being done or said is “right”?

If you really understand the ways of the Spirit, you’re going to be drawn into this idea that the Z-axis doesn’t abide by all the rules.

“Take kill and eat”… Jesus letting His disciples harvest on the Sabbath… There are a lot of things about this universe that have to do with God’s heart not the XY axis of good and evil.

Can you be having a legitimately fine conversation but then the scale tips into arrogance or pride, even if the words are still “right”? Absolutely you can. (Motives of the heart matter.)

So you have to LEARN how to smell the boiler. Don’t look at the gauge by thinking, “Well, everything I said was right.” Instead, Learn how to smell. Learn how to listen to the creak of steel that’s overheating. In the spiritual realm Learn how you’re getting into the area of strange fire even if the content is fine.

In any conversation you have anywhere, anytime, there is a way to be led by the Spirit. “The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.”

“I’m not feeling much life and peace right now. My volume went up. My velocity went up. Everybody is looking at me. Uh-oh!”

There’s a way to know you’re out of the Spirit even if the content is perfect. That’s where Jesus lived. He didn’t do anything He didn’t see the Father doing. That sounds so magical and so poetic, but the reality is that anybody with the Spirit living in them has access to: “Greater works than these shall you do.”

When Jesus said that, He wasn’t just talking about walking on water. He was primarily talking about changing lives. Did Jesus come here to walk on water? NO. It was a nice demonstration of an important point, but it was just a parable. That’s all it ever was. It was a parable. Trust me. The physical world is not defined by Newtonian Laws.

Motives Matter

I remember somebody who, every place he went, he HAD to go find someone he'd never met before and give them a card about Jesus.

I said, “Why are you doing that?”

“What’s wrong with giving them a card about Jesus?”

“It sounds so logical, but you are arrogant and you’re doing that to be seen. You’re never going to follow up with them, and it’s not their heart that you’re after. It’s your ‘duty’ to be evangelistic. This is all about you. It’s strange fire.”

“I don’t get it. What’s wrong with giving them a card?”

“XY axis. It’s the Tree of ‘this is something good to do.’ Not the Tree of Zoe-Life.”

On the Z axis (The Tree of Life) you’re watching, you’re praying, you’re considering. You’re quiet when you need to be quiet, which is probably most of the time. You’re bold and courageous to the point of risking your life if that’s what’s required. You don’t care either way: quiet or bold and courageous. There’s no difference between those two things. There’s no difference between risking your life and shutting your mouth. All you’re doing is watching for strange fire versus the Spirit of life and peace. And you’re navigating those waters, keeping your eye on God with nothing in it for yourself.

Make Learners

Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Go into every nation and make learners. Make disciples. Teaching them everything to obey, so they can be like Me. Boom. End of story.

Why do you want to be like you when you were born for: “On earth as it is in Heaven.” The second Adam. You were born to be one in the Spirit with God and with others in the Body of Christ. That’s what you were born for. That’s your destiny. Don’t blow it like Esau. Don’t give in to the moment. Look at the bigger picture.

•  Full Abdication to Him