Yes, You

In my previous post, Identity Drift I commented,

Moses being alive did not make Israel successful, nor did Jesus being on the earth mean that everyone followed Him, nor did the apostles being alive mean that everything was perfect in the church in those days.

I said this to make a point about assuming that another time and place would be better than our own, and that another person would be better than you.  You can’t reverse-engineer the book of Acts, or re-create some other historical spiritual revival.  The temptation is to wish “If only that person or that place or that time”.  It’s easy to defer and disbelieve our best hopes while coveting a different situation.  It’s easy think about the disciples walking with Jesus in the flesh and think, “It would be easier that way.”  But it’s not clear that it was easier for them.  Quite the contrary.  Consider Jesus’ words to His disciples in John 16:7;

“It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away, the counselor will not come to you.”

It is for your benefit!  Surely there are multiple layers of meaning to that declaration, but the main thing I was gleaning from it when I wrote The Counselor was that the ministry of the Holy Spirit was foretold to be even better than the experience the disciples had with Jesus in the flesh.

Looking back isn’t the answer, wishing isn’t the answer, assuming isn’t the answer.  What you have right now in Christ Jesus is more than enough for today.

Don’t be so sure that it’s not you, or not today.

I’m preaching to myself as much as anyone else.