- 50. Spirit Poured Out
Isaiah 32:15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
The Holy Spirit was poured upon us from on high on the Day of Pentecost. This promise was fulfilled, and it continues to be fulfilled every day in the life of believers ever since. The figurative image of a poured out Spirit is the picture of the wilderness becoming a fruitful field and the field looking like a forest. The image is one of fertility and abundance. This is a metaphor for the spiritual fertility and abundance of the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the believers’ lives and in the Church. Since we can’t see the spiritual world with our physical eyes the Spirit gives us mental images of something that we can see. We have seen deserts and fruitful fields and forests. Now we transfer that picture to the spirit within the heart: what was dry, empty and parched has become fertile and abundant. This is what it really looks like to the eyes of faith, faith that comes through hearing the Word of Christ. We should be overwhelmed and thankful. If we could only see what happened to us in Baptism!
It looks like a miracle; and it is. What a difference it makes when the Spirit is poured upon us from on high; we go from drought to fruitfulness, from emptiness to fullness, from darkness to light, from ugliness to beauty, from sinner to saint, from life to death; and other Biblical images that are promised in Scripture. When we were baptized the Spirit was poured out; when we receive Holy Communion the Spirit is poured out; when we hear the Gospel the Spirit is poured out. Whenever we repent and believe the Spirit is poured out.
We are in desperate need of a daily outpouring. We just don’t always realize it because we don’t want to believe are so dry, empty, parched, hungry, thirsty, and poor in spirit. But the Spirit uses life experiences along with the Word of Law to convince us that life without God is no life at all. The Spirit pours Himself upon us through the Gospel to open the eyes to see the desert within and receive the refreshing rain of Life in the Spirit. The really good news is that this poured out Spirit is always ready and available. The Spirit then prompts us to avail ourselves of the outpouring, The promise is realized again and again.