Lightbulb WORD PICTURE: LIGHTBULB
Scriptural Reference: Matthew 28:19
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit....”
1. Have someone(s) read the scriptures from various translations.
2. Using the object, point out the three-in-one description of the Godhead -- the Tri-unity of God, the Trinity. Tie it to the lightbulb illustration as follows:
Father God: Please turn on the light (gives the command).
The Son: Goes over to the switch and turns it on (performs it)
Holy Spirit: Suddenly room is filled with light (displays the power).
3. My sharing, offered to spark sharing by others.
What I Shared
This sharing is an attempt to describe how the Trinity works in my life -- how I understand what it means to turn to receive illumination by the Holy Spirit. My example is one that is typical for me -- a moment when I received a strong sense of condemnation, followed by how God moved me immediately from that into His illumination:
I feel condemnation a lot -- sometimes even when I am reading the Word. A recent example is when I read Job. At one point, in the Book of Job, Job’s friends came along and told him terrible things. I found myself agreeing with Eliaphaz as he told Job, “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” (Job 5:17 ) So I felt in agreement with one of the bad guys .
Prompted by the Holy Spirit, some things were brought to light (pun intended) :
· That I tend to ignore the motto my mother taught me about not saying anything if it isn’t “nice”. It went like this: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” It didn’t work for her--she only stuffed her feelings and got seriously ill. My reaction was to do the opposite, saying precisely what I thought whenever asked, which ended up with me thinking of myself as “not nice”.
· That I spent years lying to myself that my life by denying alcoholism in my family, so I must have concluded that I was still a liar.
· That I transfer the above two mistaken beliefs into the present, suspecting myself of being not nice and a liar when I say that I believe Christ Jesus.
At first I didn’t see what these thoughts had to do with the condemnation I was getting from the pages of Job. But here’s what I finally understood by the illumination of the Holy Spirit:
I used to live in darkness and denial, but that’s not true anymore. Through the Holy Spirit, God said to my heart, “Now you have Me.”
He then proceeded clarify, impressing my heart as follows: “All the concerns you expressed as a child were not the same thing as ‘not having anything nice to say.’ Concern is not gossip, nor is it negative speaking.”
Suddenly my condemnation was converted into conviction, which sounded like this, “Oh. okay. I see how that is not good for me.” When I feel condemnation, I need to “grab” it and say, “Okay, what is in this thing from hell that my God wants me to see?”
God has been teaching me not to dismiss obstacles and negative encounters, but instead, to ask Him if there is something useful in it somewhere. I am learning to ask God, by His Holy Spirit, to shed light on just that thing -- if there is something in it I need to see. So, my question is:
Is there any situation (past or present) where you need the illumination of God’s Holy Spirit?
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, July 2007