Space Available

Growing families often move residences one or more times to find the additional space they require.  A larger house generally means more bedrooms and baths, more storage, and more kitchen cabinets. There is something very gratifying about moving from cramped conditions into what feels so much more spacious.  But the surprising part is how quickly all the additional space becomes occupied.  Is this another application of the law of supply and demand where possessions will increase to occupy the available space?

Does this spatial reality translate to Christ-followers’ bodies being home to the Holy Spirit?  “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) This was a totally new concept for early Jewish believers with historical knowledge of the prophets and select individuals who carried the presence of the Holy Spirit.  God apportioned who received what, whether it was a singular visitation of the Holy Spirit, or, as with Moses, the Holy Spirit’s constant presence.  Regardless, Holy Spirit’s presence was evidenced by truth, wisdom, and power.

Moses needed all of that to be able to lead more than a million people out of Egyptian captivity into God’s Promised Land.  But even with the help of Holy Spirit, that job proved to be more than Moses could physically manage.  God came to his aid by supplying additional leadership. “So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. ²⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and He took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.”  (Numbers 11:24-25)

Two very interesting things happened.  When the Lord took some of the Holy Spirit off of Moses, His power and presence in Moses did not diminish. However, God made a distinction by giving the elders a limited dose.  Numbers 12:3 offers the explanation. “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” Moses was trusted by God because of his humility to always seek God, rather than making executive decisions.  If it is true for most people that absolute power corrupts absolutely, limiting the 70 elders was God’s protection.

The only person to exceed Moses’ humility was Jesus, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; ⁷ rather, he made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:6-7)  Jesus received all the fullness of the Holy Spirit when He was baptized in the Jordan by John.  He alone qualified as our substitutional sacrifice because He was both the son of man and the sinless Son of God, granting us forgiveness and eternal life.  His humility to endure torturous scourging, mocking, and the pain of crucifixion has made us clean vessels to receive the Holy Spirit Whom Jesus left for us when He ascended to the Father.

Now it’s our turn.  Are we living lives that point to the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and power, or are we distracted by all the desires and cares of life that push Holy Spirit into a corner of His temple?  Perhaps the starting place is the humility to pick up our cross and die to our selfish nature.  Less of us means more of Him.  What an amazing privilege to get to choose how much of the Holy Spirit we will receive simply by making space available!