Episode 1649: Spirit Unbound

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,649 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

Dr. Ravi Iyer: I am Dr. Ravi Iyer. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your colleagues. Having the ability to overcome fear is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: But Pentecost is calling out that moment of all people have value in the spirit. All people have the power to speak truth, and that's what's going on. [00:01:00] In Pentecost, the spirit is unbound and poured out to all. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about numbers chapter 11 verses 24 through 30, and Acts chapter two, verse one through 21. I talk about how spirit-led leadership is hard, but it is what God calls for us to do. I also share how we are called to that type of leadership numbers. Chapter [00:02:00] 11 verses 24 through 30 says, so Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and he gathered 70 of the elders of the people and placed them all around the tent.

Then the Lord came down in the clouds and spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do, so again, two men remained in the camp, one named El a and the other named Mead, and the spirit rested on them.

They were among those registered, but they had not get out to the tent. And so they prophesied in the camp and a young man ran and told Moses, Elda and Mead are prophesying in the camp. And Joshua son of none, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, my Lord, Moses, stop them. But Moses said to him, are you jealous?

For my sake, would that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them? And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to Camp Acts chapter two verses one through [00:03:00] 21. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Divided tongues as a fire appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the spirit gave them ability. Now, there were devote Jews from every people under heaven living in Jerusalem, and at the sound of the crowd gathered and was bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.

Amazed and astonished they ask, are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? Ians Medias mites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Ca and Cappo, Poncia and Asia, Fria and Paraphilia, Egypt in the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and [00:04:00] ProSites.

Ians and Arabs in our own language, we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power. All were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what does this mean? But others sneered and said, they're filled with new wine. But Peter standing with the 11, raised his voice and address them fellow Jews in all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to what I see.

Say indeed these are not drunk, as you suppose for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. In the last days it will be God declares that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions.

And your old men shall dream dreams even upon my slaves, both men and women. In those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show importance in the heaven above and signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood [00:05:00] before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This last Sunday was the day of Pentecost or Pentecost Sunday. The truth is, you know, as it says in numbers wood, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them. Wouldn't that be amazing? Wouldn't it be amazing if we all had a statement to make and a stand to take, to be an advocate for justice, to represent the marginalized, to welcome the stranger?

Would that it be that all of the Lord's people were prophets? Now, in that passage, Moses seems to be saying it maybe with a little exasperation. Why is God so stingy with the spirit? Moses had to share what was within him, but was it that somehow God had a limited supply? That almost seems to be what Joshua was afraid of.

Stop them. Maybe there's something unauthorized, [00:06:00] something about their prophesying that needs to be nipped in the bud before it turns into something that diminishes Moses and Joshua and the elders. Worse that it, maybe it would steal some of that authority of Moses and possibly by association of Joshua, Joshua's team Moses all the way, and he doesn't want anyone to step on his toes.

But it seems to be clear that at least in this instance, Moses has a different idea of what leadership is. Maybe Moses even has a different idea of what the spirit is, and Moses seems to be happy to share. He's happy to offer to the 70 elders so that they too can prophesy. And even these two that didn't make it to the meaning.

But what is it that it actually means to prophesy? What does that mean? What is being shared? What are they [00:07:00] talking about? What are they sharing with the crowd? I is this about, nowadays we have this modern meaning to prophesy that's about fortune tellers and psychics and this sort of thing, but that's not really how it's meant in this use.

No. This is the spirit is sharing with the leader what the leader needs. To lead God's people. It's speaking truth to power. That is what is going on. It's telling the leaders you need to have empathy and care for the people. This isn't about you. This is about others. This is about taking care of the marginalized.

This is about justice for the iJust. It's about caring and empathy that seems to be at the heart of this event. Tell us, tell the truth about what is God is doing and what we are doing in response, and perhaps [00:08:00] even what we're not doing but should be doing in response. It's not just all good words and oh rah rah us.

It's also calling out the leader for what the leader is not doing, how the leader is not caring about the people that are being led. We care about their wellbeing. We care about their survival. We care about their relationship. We care about the fact that they are thriving as a whole people, or at least that is what the Spirit is calling for us to do as leaders.

This is leading with the spirit, not with human power, not with human authority, not just because you've got the title or the coroner office. Let's face it. Leaders that are leading from positional authority, leaders that are leading from fear and by stoking, hatred and division, they're worried about empathy.

They talk [00:09:00] about empathy as a weakness. Empathy is a, a sory thing that causes us to care about others and makes us soft and emotional. But the truth is real empathy takes strength. It takes someone who's strong enough to do it. It's difficult, and even Moses wanted to get away with it more than once. He argued with God saying, these people are pain.

They're your people. What have you done? And yet he still stepped forward and protected his people and led his people and cared about his people. Because that's what good leadership is. Moses was not made smaller by sharing the power of the spirit. By sharing the gifts, he lost none of his leadership and authority.

He could still call things out and tell the truth. He could still lead towards the vision that God had given [00:10:00] him. He was not diminished by sharing the spirit any more than love is diminished by giving it away. The truth is love is grown by giving it away. The more we love, the more we have the capacity to love, the more we begin to care for the people around us.

Just like the more we hate, the more we begin to hate. Those things have consequences, behaviors and choices have consequences, and that is the truth. If a leader is wielding power through lies and threats, they're not leading with the spirit. And Moses' complaint was that there weren't more people out there leading with the spirit would that all the Lord's people were prophets.

And because of that, eventually God heard that prayer immediately. But eventually we have Pentecost. We [00:11:00] have that moment called out in acts when Peter is standing in for Moses in a way and saying, see that prayer of Moses has been answered. That spirit once shared out only to a few, is now poured out on all flesh on sons and daughters.

And I think that's important because we often overlook women in leadership. It is poured out to sons and daughters. Daughters and sons, old and young slaves and free. It's pulled out on young and old. Yes, we can ignore the wisdom of youth and the wisdom of the elders. We can look out and discount the poor and the marginalized and the disadvantaged people.

And only look to those who are blessed. But Pentecost is calling out that moment of [00:12:00] all people have value in the spirit. All people have the power to speak truth, and that's what's going on in Pentecost. The spirit is unbound and poured out to all. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode. Please do us a favor. Go over to inspired stewardship.com/itunes.

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