By Jonathan Keller
Recently, my inner emotional life has surprised me. During Sunday worship, we have a few songs that carry an irreplicable warmth in my soul when our congregation sings them; recordings can’t stir me like singing with our people in worship. Praying with or listening to a sermon with these people elicits the same response. Strangely, this warmth also comes when I hear of brothers and sisters in Christ in Haiti undergoing tragedy upon tragedy. When I pray for my Haitian siblings, it is as if they are right next to me, despite knowing none of their faces!
In the pages of Scripture, I find this warmth in the little words “with” and “in.” Fellowship is a fancier term for this idea, but the New Testament is filled with statements of “with” or “in” Christ or “with” other believers. The power of these words apparently comes from God’s Spirit (Galatians 4:4-7, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). By God’s Spirit, we are transformed from “slaves” into “sons” (and daughters). Somehow God’s Spirit brings a “with-Christ” and a “with-God’s-people” dimension to the faith.
How is that? How can something without a body make my body feel close to others? How can the Spirit of God connect me to spiritual realities that I can’t see? It seems like faith in Christ acts a conduit between both my spirit and God as well as my spirit and others with the Spirit of God dwelling in them. Despite what my eyes see, my spirit feels the beating of the Holy Spirit and works on my body to feel that sense of “with” or “in” that I associate with dear relationships. Mysteriously, God is able to instruct my spirit and body by His Holy Spirit that I am with both Him and His people, though we are physically separated.
While I need to be careful not to confuse every motion of my heart with every beat of the Holy Spirit, I can praise God that He daily instructs me in this union with Him and His people. This warmth may be one of the many excellencies that Christ had in mind when He said it was better that He should leave the world so that He might send His Holy Spirit to dwell in and with His people (John 16:6-7). By it God continues to astound me that He has made me one of His people, even a son.