I'm Exhausted. Where's the Spirit?

Have you ever returned home from a long day and literally sunk into your favorite chair? Have you ever gotten into bed and you’re so exhausted, feeling so pressed down and heavy, that it feels like the line between you and your mattress becomes blurred? Do you wish you had more strength, stamina, power? Have you ever wondered about the power of the Holy Spirit the Bible speaks so profusely about? I mean, where does He fit into the equation? He is omnipotent, after all, right? For years, I was confused about such things, even thinking that if I was weary, maybe I wasn’t filled, or minimally, somehow thwarting His power with my flesh. But I was wrong…very wrong.Every man of God, doing the will of God, living his life as unto the Lord, gets tired. And I’m not just talking about pastors and evangelists. I’m talking about everyone, man or woman, who’s put their hand to the plow. There’s a reason why Jesus’ parables often depict physical labor. It’s because when He created us, He knew that He’d be able to relate to humanity through the very real existence of exhaustion, not just spiritually, but physically as well.On the one hand, we have the power of the Spirit; on the other, we all get tired. We hear preachers say things like, “You can’t do anything good aside from the power of the Spirit!” And they are correct, but statements like that require qualification. Why do we grow tired if God never does, given the fact that we live and walk, as believers, by His power? “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). It’s a good question, and it requires a good answer, because many have missed the point and taken polar stances on the subject. Some suppose that the power of the Spirit is to be taken academically and therefore by exerting their own power, they do nothing good and still grow tired in the process. Others suppose that the power of the Spirit will go so far as to lift them onto their feet, walk them to a soup kitchen, and feed the poor…and if it doesn’t, well then, the Spirit mustn’t want them to do it. This group never grows tired because they never actually do anything.The truth is that we may be both tired and walking by the Spirit. The implication is that although the Spirit empowers us to press on, since we’re human, we grow tired from physical, emotional, and spiritual exertion. As believers, God demands that we employ ourselves as “God’s fellow workers” (1 Corinthians 3:9). However, the Bible never states that we are immune to fatigue, even when filled by the Spirit. In fact, it says just the opposite. Lazy Christians would prefer I didn’t write such things, but I’d be dishonest if I didn’t - I’d be grieving the “Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9; Ephesians 4:30). By the way, I can just as easily say that I’d be grieving Christ, Himself, and the Word, too, for they are essentially the same.We may rightly say that if we have Jesus Christ, then we have His Spirit (aka the Holy Spirit) and vice versa. This means that whatever Christ’s desires are, they are the same as the Spirit’s; and whatever the Spirit’s are, they are, in fact, the same as Christ’s. Oh, and Jesus Christ is the Word, the Logos, which is another name for Holy Scripture, something the Spirit of Christ inspired. Do you see the “connective tissue” yet? I hope so. If not, let me help you.Consider the will of the One who asks us to put our hand to the plow, that is, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. Know that Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit will reveal the same things to us. In other words, when you read the Bible, you are reading Jesus Christ’s thoughts and the inspiration of His Spirit. These three things are never inconsistent with one another. Therefore, when we read in scripture, “Christ the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), the “power of the Spirit” (Romans 15:19), and the “word of God is quick and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12 - KJV), we may rightly conclude that the “power” in view is the same power in all cases, just represented differently. How awesome, and simplifying, is that perspective? Even so, what does this all mean to us believers, who have been endowed with said power?And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.To answer the question on the table, we need a little more theology. Again, we consider Jesus, for He became a man in part to “sympathize” (Hebrews 4:15) with us, including our labor to do good as humans. As God, He could not be tempted, “for God cannot be tempted” (James 1:13). However, as a man, He “has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). This means that the man who asks us to labor for Him understands what it’s like to labor, and grow tired in the process.Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.So let’s just wrap our arms around the abundance of doctrine set before us. What we have is a nice picture of the eternal unity between Jesus Christ, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. We also have the truth that Jesus was temptable, which means that in order for the human side of the God-man to remain sinless (Jesus Christ is 100% God and 100% man simultaneously), Jesus had to rely on a power source that wasn’t of His human nature. It’s in this reality that we humans are able to relate directly to Jesus…especially regarding our current topic - human fatigue.Let’s take all of this back to where we started from. The title of this blog entry is, “I’m exhausted. Where’s the Spirit?” The recurring question is, “Why would I ever be tired if I have the power of God literally inside of me, which is tantamount to saying I have Jesus Christ, the Word, and the Spirit indwelling me, filling me with their power?” Well, without overcomplicating the supernatural things of God, let me give you this.Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.Do not make the mistake of thinking that Jesus is implying that His “yoke” is without labor. It’s true, His yoke is easier to bear than the world’s, but the implication is still that as believers, we are yoked. This implies real labor, and therefore real fatigue, hence His allusion to rest.The Word of God speaks clearly about the strength of man. It says that without the power of God, man is incapable of bearing up under load. Yet, and heed my words, the Word of God never says that man, even holy men, won’t ever grow tired. They do. And it isn’t a bad thing; rather, in many ways, it’s proof of one’s effort in doing good. In fact, even the perfect One, Jesus Christ, was worn out from time to time, having to break away from the intense labor of ministry. We know the pressure was so real at one point that, “His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground” (Luke 22:44b). Where was the Spirit then? Right where He always was, empowering Jesus. Yet Jesus experienced real strain.Jesus had compassion on humanity, having experienced it firsthand, so He encouraged His disciples to rest.The apostles *gathered together with Jesus; and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He *said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)While it’s impossible to describe every nuance between the physical and spiritual parts of a believer, what we can say from scripture is that physical and spiritual stresses interact. But how can this be if we have the very power of God within us? I mean, why doesn’t God just bear the complete load for us, regardless of the type of stress? Why do we ever become tired? I suppose, theologically, it’d be a lot “tidier” if we could just postulate that since we can’t do anything good without God’s power, then we might as well just kick our feet up, sit in our recliners and wait until that power physically lifts us up to “visit orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27b). That’s silly talk, isn’t it? It is, based on scripture, yet some Christians live just that way. It’s how they justify never doing anything for anyone else…ever!This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.Ask anyone who’s laid down his life for others if they’ve ever grown weary doing so while being filled with the Spirit. If they’re honest, they’ll all affirm what I’m writing here. Heck, you don’t even need to do that - all you really have to do is read your Bible. Find a godly character and search for the truth about this.While every believer is indwelt with the very power of God, we know from scripture that we grow tired under the pressures of life. We also know that even Jesus, in His humanity, grew tired, and He was perfect! If we read the whole of the Bible, we see prophets, apostles, and disciples all growing weary as a result of doing God’s good work in time. Fighting takes its toll, even if it’s with the help of God’s divine power, as believers. Remember, the Bible says the Spirit is our “Helper” (John 15:26), it never says that we are His little puppets on strings. We ought never shy away from potential exhaustion on the false premise that fatigue somehow means we lack the power of God in us. The Bible is chalk full of examples to the contrary.But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.Love in Christ,Ed Collins