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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Divine
Energy Jesus told Nicodemus
that he must be born again (John 3:3 - 5).
To explain this phenomenon Jesus said that "flesh gives birth
to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit" (verse 6 NIV).
That is to say, when a husband and wife unite sexually, a fleshly
human is conceived and born. Similarly,
when God's Spirit unites Himself with a believer, a spiritual human is
born. Jesus then said that one
who is spiritually born is like wind (verse 8).
We experience wind but we don't know where it originated or where
it will end up. Likewise, one
who isn't born spiritually can't comprehend the one who is spiritually
born. A modern day
illustration might be microwaves. We
put a cold cup of coffee into the microwave oven, press a button or two
and the energy exerted by the microwaves produces a hot cup of coffee.
We can't see the microwaves or the energy they exert, but we
experience their intended result.
Like the energy exerted
by wind and microwaves, the Holy Spirit exerts energy in our lives that
produces its intended results. Maybe
I can say the very essence of the Holy Spirit is pure spiritual energy,
but if I can't, maybe I can say He is the energizing spiritual force
within the Godhead. I suggest
this because the Greek word "energeia" is the source of our
English word "energy." In
the New Testament energeia
is often translated as "work" that is
performed by the Holy Spirit.
Energy can be defined as
the capacity of work that is performed by a certain force, as in thermal
energy, chemical energy, radiant energy, nuclear energy, electrical
energy, motion energy, sound energy and gravitational energy.
As energy pertains to God and us, it is the capacity of work
performed by the Holy Spirit that produces its intended purpose in our
lives. The concept of divine
energy, the divine capacity of work performed by the Holy Spirit is seen
in the New Testament. Read 1
Thessalonians 2:13. "And we also thank
God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you
heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is,
the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe." The Thessalonians
received God's word spoken to them by humans, yet was divinely delivered to
their hearts and was effectively at work in their lives. Our
English verb "work" in this verse is translated from the Greek
verb "energeo." This
means that the capacity of work exerted by God's word was producing its
intended purpose in the lives of those Christians.
Note the word
"work" in Ephesians 3:20. "Now to him who is
able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his
power that is at work within us," Paul acknowledged that
the energizing capacity of work (Greek energeo) exerted by the Holy Spirit
is able to accomplish its intended purpose in our lives.
In the above verses the
Greek verb "energeo" is a middle voice verb.
This suggests that the work, the energy that is exerted by the Holy
Spirit, comes from both within and from outside of the believer, as is often seen in the
Book of Acts. Believers like
Peter, who already had the Holy Spirit inside of them were often refilled with Him
from His heavenly home for a specific reason (Acts 4:8).
Obviously, there is more to the Holy Spirit than one human can
contain. So once being born again we
must allow the divine energy to effectively work in our lives, whether
He does so from within us or from coming upon us from His heavenly home.
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