God Takes Away, and God Gives

John 7:39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

            I have recently been doing a series of Bible studies with my wife called “Modus Operandi” and I would like to share something I got from that series.  In that series I have been examining the way that God operates.  According to Wikipedia, Modus operandi is a Latin phrase, approximately translated as "method of operation". The term is used to describe someone's habits or manner of working, their method of operating or functioning.  God has given to us the way He operates throughout the whole of Scripture.  As we get to know His Word, we can see the way He operates and grow closer in our relationship to Him.

            As I was reading the John 7:39 passage above I felt God speak to me.  In this life we often have stuff or things taken from us, sometimes things very dear to us.  Perhaps our car was stolen or we even lost a job.  We may have even begun to question God in our hearts as to why He was allowing this to happen to us.  I would like to bring a new perspective to situations like these.  What we may think of as bad luck or life just happening to us may in fact be the hand of God beginning to move over and in our lives.  Let me try to allow God’s Word to explain.

In John 7:39 it says that the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.  There is a wealth of information in just this small verse.  One principle I got from this is that in order for God to bring new blessings into our lives or to take us to that next level, He must first remove something from our lives.  To sum it up, in order for God to give, he first takes away.  Usually the something that is removed is hindering what God is trying to do, and usually it is something very dear and important to us. 

In John 16 Jesus was this something that was hindering the work of God and was also the something very important and dear to the 12 disciples.  God was about to build his church and he was about to use these 11 men to do it.  But before He could do that Jesus had to be taken up in order that God could send the Holy Spirit.  As long as Jesus remained on earth, the Holy Spirit could not come.  In John 16:5-7 Jesus told the disciples, “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”

Did you see that?  Let us look at it from the disciples’ eyes. Sorrow filled their hearts.  How often does sorrow fill our hearts when we lose things or have things taken from us.  I am not saying it is wrong to feel sorrow.  I too have felt sorrow.  What I am saying is that there is much more to the loss than just a loss.  Here was their leader, their Lord telling Him He was leaving them.  This was the man who they followed for 3 years, who taught them and loved them.  Jesus was the most important thing to them.  They loved Him with all of their hearts.  But God had a church to build and He was going to use these 11 men as its pillars, Jesus being the chief cornerstone of course.  Although these 11 men couldn’t understand it at the time, in the years to come God was about to take these men from being simple fishermen, tax collectors, and other tradesmen to being world missionaries, church planters, and powerful men of God.  God was about to take these men to that next level, but they would need the Holy Spirit and His power.  Acts 1:8 says you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  No Holy Spirit meant no power.  Jesus Himself told the disciples that if He didn’t go away the Spirit would not come.  Jesus, the Head of the church, was actually a hindrance to it as long as He remained on earth.  Jesus had to go for God to begin His next work in these men. 

And in order for God to begin that next work in our lives, or to bring us the blessings he wants to bring, or to take us to that next level, He must do the same in our lives.  He must remove something from us or something in our lives that is hindering what He is trying to do.  And more times than not it is something dear to us.  I would like to share a testimony in the life of my Pastor to demonstrate this principle.  My pastor has been pastoring for 8 years.  About 5 or 6 years ago he was renting from a Spanish church to have services on Sundays and Wednesdays.  One Sunday he showed up to have service only to learn that he had been kicked out and locked out by the Spanish church.  All of his worship equipment and other equipment were outside on the front lawn and the pastor wouldn’t let him in.  So he took his congregation down the street and had service at the park.  During that service he told his congregation, “God has something better for us.”  He saw God at work in having his building taken away from him.  Something like this would have killed many ministries.  But my pastor knew how God operated and knew this only meant that God had something better for him.  He didn’t give up, didn’t get depressed, didn’t get mad at God or blame God, and he kept pressing on. Within a month he was blessed and had a building given to him debt free.  You see God wanted to bless my pastor with his very own debt free building, but before he could he had to remove the old building.  That is how God operates.

            So the next time something is taken from you I challenge you to have the same perspective.  I challenge you to find God in the situation and circumstances.  I challenge you to have the same perspective that God has something better for me.  Don’t look at it as something being taken from you.  Look at it as God’s about to do something awesome.  God bless.