Stir the Chocolate in Your Milk

 “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt 6:33)

Have you ever considered what it means to “seek God”?  A good example of “seeking God” comes from the story of David’s struggle to move the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.  The first attempt did not go well, with the Ark on a cart steadied by men who may not have even been Levites.  David evaluated the failure of the first attempt in this way, “Because you (the Levites) did not carry it at the first, the LORD our God made an outburst on us, for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance,” (1Chon 15:11).  By David’s own definition, seeking the LORD God involves following His ordinance, as Zephaniah spoke, “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who have carried out His ordinances” (Zeph 2:3), along with the Psalmist, “With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your commandments,” (Psa 119:10).

“Seeking God” is just one of many phrases in scripture that attempt to frame the believer's proper response to God such as “abide in Him” (1John 4:13), “cling to the Lord your God” (Josh 23:8), and of course “You shall love the Lord your God,” (Matt 22:37).  Although each word may offer a differing and unique picture in a believer’s mind, they are all linked in scripture by a common call to obedience, specifically, obedience to the commandments.  For example, “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice serve Him, and cling to Him,” (Deut 13:4).

In the gospel of John we read, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you,” (John 15:7).  The promise of answered prayer is attractive, but contingent on the believer’s “abiding” action, so it’s important to understand what it means to “abide”.  A popular definition of “abiding” that I have heard is “to dwell comfortably”, but I don't know what that means.  Here is the scriptural answer, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10), and “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him,” (John 14:23).  Clearly, “abiding”, like seeking and clinging, requires obedience.  In the same way, loving God is demonstrated by obedience, “You shall love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statures, His ordinances, and His commandments,” (Deut 11:1).

Obedience is foundational to the believer’s seeking, clinging, abiding, and loving the LORD God.  For this reason, obedience impacts the power of the Spirit in a believer’s life, at least if the words of Jesus can be trusted.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another  Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17)

My NASB does a tremendous disservice by inserting a “Heading” between the 15^th and 16^th verses interrupting the flow of Jesus’ statement.  When read in the uninterrupted context of the passage, Jesus is saying, “If you…keep My commandments…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper…the Spirit of truth.”  John reinforces this idea in his epistle, “The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him.  We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given,” (1John 3:24).  Again we see that “abiding” comes to “the one who keeps His commandments,” whose “abiding” is testified to by “the Spirit whom He has given.”  Although the Spirit is generally seen as given at baptism based on the example of Jesus and the words of the apostles (Acts 2:38), the fullness that can be received or even maintained appears limited in proportion to our obedience, or lack thereof.

A member of my Saturday Bible study group recently equated the giving of the Spirit in a believer’s life to the depositing of chocolate syrup in the bottom of a glass of milk, and the empowering of the Spirit to the stirring of the chocolate.  If the person drinking the milk never stirs the milk, then the milk receives little benefit from the chocolate syrup, even though they are in contact with one another.  

In a similar way, too many believer’s claim the power of the Spirit, but do not seek to engage the Spirit because then do not appreciate the necessity of obedience for empowering the Spirit.  If the Spirit is not stirred in a believer’s life through acts of obedience and loving kindness, then the Spirit will remain dormant at the bottom of the glass.  I like the image and will probably look at my milk differently in the future.  Now let’s get stirring!!!