God and the Church

I love most of the songs that Chris Tomlin writes. One of my favorites is I Will Follow You.

The chorus of this song says:

Where You go, I’ll go

Where You stay, I’ll stay

When You move, I’ll move

I will follow You

Who You love, I’ll love

How You serve, I’ll serve

If this life I lose, I will follow You

I will follow You

The idea is that we are to follow Jesus no matter the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

The invitation that Jesus offers us, as He did to Andrew, Peter, James, John, and Matthew, is to follow Him.

In Luke 9:23 Jesus said that to follow Him we have to deny self and take up our cross daily.

The question is how do we do that when everything in this fallen world tends to separate us from following Jesus and tries to convince us that life is about us, not Jesus.

The Holy Spirit provides all we need to effectively follow Jesus.

In Genesis 24 Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for his son Isaac.

There were two guidelines that Abraham gave the servant.

First, that she was not to be from the Canaanites, but she would come from Abraham’s kindred.

Second, that he was not to take Isaac back to the land they had come from, but the servant would bring the women to Abraham’s tents.

The servant agrees and proceeds on his journey to find a wife for Isaac.

When the servant gets to where Abraham’s family lives, he prays for God’s guidance to direct him to the right woman.

God answers and brings the woman to the servant. She takes him back to her family. They agree to let the woman, Rebekah, to go with the servant back to Abraham. The next day when the servant is ready to go. Rebekah’s mother and brother ask that she could stay for ten more days. The servant is wanting to start back and so Rebekah’s family tells him to ask Rebekah.

In Genesis 24:58 Rebekah simply says, “I will go.”

The servant then takes Rebekah and her servants back across the desert to Abraham’s tents.

I know your are asking, “What does this have to do with the Holy Spirit empowering us to follow Jesus?”

I believe it is a picture of the Holy Spirit leading us.

Abraham is a symbol of God. He is the father who is seeking a bride for his son.

In Genesis 2:18 God establishes a principle that it is not good for man to be alone. Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. It was not good for Jesus to be alone. The Father provides a bride for Jesus: the church.

The church started with the twelve whom Jesus chose to follow Him. In Ephesians 2:20 we are told that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus as the cornerstone.

God the Father envisions the church.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to be the authority that directs our lives.

Isaac is the son of the father. He symbolizes Jesus.

Isaac was the son of the promise. Abraham and Sarah were too old to have a child, but God empowered them supernaturally to produce a son, Isaac. Isaac would be the beginning of God fulfilling His promises to Abraham.

Jesus was not born through human effort but by the power of the Holy Spirit in Mary.

It was in and through Jesus that all of the Father’s promises are fulfilled.

Jesus establishes the church.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is us finding our fulfillment in Jesus and Jesus alone.

The servant symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

The servant is sent by the father to get a bride for his son.

The Holy Spirit births the church in Acts 1. It is through the Holy Spirit that the church receives the gifts and resources to become the bride of Jesus, the Son.

The Holy Spirit empowers the church.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing the Holy Spirit to fill and empower us.

Rebekah symbolizes the church.

She is the bride that the Father desires for His Son and that the Holy Spirit brings to the Son.

The church trusts the Holy Spirit to lead her to the Father.

The church trusts the Holy Spirit to unite her to the Son.

The church trusts the Holy Spirit to provide and protect her.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is the church trusting the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Raising the Roof and

Removing the Walls,

Joe