Charles R. Swindoll - Embraced by the Spirit: The Untold Blessings of Intimacy with God

The Untold Blessings
of Intimacy with God

C HARLES R.
SWINDOLL

I f you are truly and completely fulfilled in your spiritual life, seldom frustrated, and rarely dissatisfied, this book is not for you. No need to read further.

But if, like me, you long for a more intimate and uninterrupted relationship with the living God, where you and He are in sync and where you regularly sense His presence and experience His power, lets walk through these pages together.

Most of the people you sit with in church live with a persistent, nagging fear that they are missing out on something in their walk as a believer. Their intellectual faith is intactbut their intimacy with God is missing. No one could argue with them about what they believe, but its been a long time since their heart has stirred with fresh faith. To make matters even worse, they havent explored any new places in Gods Word for years. And lest exposed as weird, they keep their distance from anything related to the Holy Spirit. Dont go too far down that road or youll be labeled emotional or falling into error.

I call that tragic. If you are one of the vast number of Christians who have never known the joy, the sheer ecstasy, of walking more intimately with God, yet have known there was more, so much more my hope is that these pages will draw you in, calm your fears, encourage you to be held tighter by His embrace. I understand what you have been going through and I welcome you as a fellow pilgrim who is weary of a sterile, unproductive, predictable existence. Jesus promise of an abundant life surely includes more than that!

Most of us are intrigued by the Holy Spirit. Like a moth to a lamp, His bright warmth attracts us. Our desire is to draw nearer, to know Him intimately. We long to enter into new and stimulating dimensions of His workingbut yet we hold back. Were hesitant fearful of being wrong or misunderstood. I know that was once true of me, and I suspect you often feel the same.

I have discovered that often one of the best ways to arrive at the right answers is to start with the right questions. Perhaps that is what first attracted me to a disarming little book titled Dear God: Childrens Letters to God.

A little girl named Lucy asked God: Dear God, are You really invisible or is that just a trick?

Norma asked: Dear God, did You mean for a giraffe to look like that or was that an accident?

One of my favorites was asked by Nan: Dear God, who draws the lines around all the countries?

Anita asked, Is it true my father wont get in heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house?

Hilarious, charming, innocent and oh, so perceptive! Dont you wrestle at times with similar questions?

I saved Seymours question for last: Dear God, How come You did all those miracles in the old days and You dont do any now?

Is that true? Certainly it may appear to be the case. Dear God, have all those great and mighty things ended? Is that all there is to the Spirits ministry? Have we reached the end of His meaningful presence and powerful workings?

These are valid questions. Here are some more that beg to be answered. Well explore each one in greater detail in our journey together:

• Who is the Holy Spirit?
• Why do I need the Spirit?
• What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
• How do I know Im led by the Spirit?
• How does the Spirit free me from sin?
• Can I be prompted by the Spirit today?
• Does the Spirit heal today?
• How can I knowreally experiencethe Spirits power?

We will explore the answers to each one of these questions in the chapters that follow as we discover for ourselves real-to-life reasons we need the Spirit. We will also learn the incredible difference He can make in the way we conduct our lives on a personal basis.

During my growing-up years, including my years in seminary, I kept a safe distance from most things related to the Holy Spirit. I was taught to be careful, to study Him from a doctrinal distance but not to enter too closely into any of the realms of His supernatural workings. Explaining the Spirit was acceptable and encouraged; experiencing Him was neither. Embracing Him was out of the question. Today, I regret that. I have lived long enough and ministered broadly enough to realize that drawing near to Him is not only possible, it is precisely what God wants.

My great hope in these pages is to step away from the heat of theological battle that analyzes and criticizes and move quietly and closely to the One who has been sent alongside to help. He longs to empower you and me with His dynamic presence. He is ready and able to change our attitudes, warm our hearts, show us how and where to walk, comfort us in our struggles, strengthen us in the weak and fragile places of our lives, and literally revolutionize our pilgrimage from this planet to paradise. Inner transformation is His specialty.

Candidly, this is a book for the heart much more than for the head.

I invite you to enter the journey on a personal level. Other studies can be found that approach this topic on a more cognitive level, looking at theological nuances and exhaustively researching every detail. But in our journey through these pages together, rather than restricting Gods Spirit to a library shelf, lets invite Him into the room. The Spirit of God was sent, ultimately, to be engaged in our everyday lives to be experienced intimately. God intended our relationship to be closegrowing in depth and nearness.

Never forget this: the Holy Spirit is interested in transforming us from the inside out. His nearness sets that in motion. He is at work in dozens of different ways, some of them supernatural. He is interested in showing us the Fathers will. He stands ready to provide us with the dynamics necessary for experiencing satisfaction, joy, peace, and contentment in spite of our circumstances. Embracing the Spirit gives us the correct perspective for entering into those (and so many other) experiences. Isnt it time for that to become a reality?

I invite you to come along and journey with me. Weve got nothing to fear, only great joys to be discovered when we follow His lead.

Charles R. Swindoll
Frisco, Texas
Summer 2010

O ne of my most unforgettable moments happened when I was about ten years old. My father served our country during World War II in a plant in our hometown, building all sorts of interesting equipment for the massive tanks, fighter planes, and bombers that defended us in lands far away. Dad worked too long and too hard. As a result he suffered a physical breakdown, and on its heels came an emotional trauma that puzzled everyone, including the doctors.

I was convinced in my heart that my dad was going to die. He may have had such thoughts too, because one night he called me into his room for a somber father-son talk, spoken in terminal terms. I remember leaning hard against his bed, listening carefully to a voice that was hardly more than a whisper. I thought I was hearing him for the last time. He gave me counsel on lifehow I should live, how I should conduct myself as his son. The counsel wasnt long, and then I left and went across the hall to the room that I shared with my older brother. All alone, I lay across my bed and sobbed, convinced that I would never see my dad alive again.

That scene haunts me. Even though my dad recovered to live three decades more, I still remember the night he talked with me.

Something very significant is wrapped up in our final words. Consider that night in Jerusalem when the Lord and His disciples gathered for the Passover Sederwhat we call The Last Supper. Less than twelve hours after the disciples sat beside the Savior during that meal, Jesus was nailed to a cross; a few hours later, He was dead. Jesus understood the significance of those moments and the importance of His last counsel. And so He gave His disciples exactly what they would need to carry them through the rest of their days. In that little room they pushed aside wooden cups and bowls, and every eye fell on Him and every ear leaned in to hear His voice. Their grief hardly allowed them to take in the last words of their Lord as He taught them how they might live on without Him.