The Gentleman

John 14:15-31

The song, “The Change in Me” begins with this line:

“Your Spirit is a gentleman, standing at my hidden doors within, where you wait for me to let you in, so you can set me free.”

Sometimes lyrics wind up on my journal page and all I can think is, “Wow, that’s a little more than I can pull off on my own.” We all know that God does big things through little people, and this line sticks out to me. The Holy Spirit is our escort through life, and He is kind enough to wade into the cesspool of our lives and stand at all of the doors to our hidden rooms. God refines us through His Holy Spirit who is jealous for His glory and the hearts of His people. (Malachi 2:17-3:6)

That the Holy Spirit stands at our hidden doors and waits for us to let Him in so He can set us free is a mind-blowing paradox. We’re already God’s children forever, but this pictures show how we decide whether or not we want to let God into our prison. We’re deciding whether we want the sanctifying fire of the holiness and purity of a holy God. The walls we’ve built, the world we’ve created so we can have control, are cages of our own device. God’s Spirit stands on the outside of our cell doors and longs to set us free. 

The prodigal son’s spiritual awakening when “he came to himself” was prompted by God’s Spirit, not by the prodigal. The prodigal didn’t have the ability to wake from his slumber. God alone, through the resurrection power of his Holy Spirit, can bring new life. Only Jesus.

When I fight God and run from Him, it’s because He’s trying to set me free of bondage. When God reveals our sin to us, we think He’s coming down on us hard and we’re in big trouble. More accurately, when the Holy Spirit lights up a sin that is taking us in the wrong direction, He’s really saying, “Let me free you from this.” It’s like when mom says to the toddler, “Don’t touch the iron.” That is a rule, yes. But she’s really saying, “Let me free you from being burned.” We should understand all of God’s commandments and precepts in this light.

God shows us the way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13), but we often look for it way too late. For instance, I tell teenagers who are making decisions about their friends and about drinking that the way of escape isn’t, “Do you want to try this at the party?” The way of escape came earlier. It was, “Do you want to come to the party?”

When the Holy Spirit shows us, “This is not for you. This is not the way I’m going,” and we step beyond that, we are now living in our own strength and making our own decisions. We’re doing life on our own. If Jesus is getting in our way, we’re going the wrong way.