The terrifyingly safest place to be.

A call to worship.

Themes

Holy Spirit • Transformation • Reflecting Christ’s character • Power • Union with Christ • Victory over sin • Fruit of the Spirit • Gifts of the Spirit • Communion with God

The Holy Spirit provides to us all the power we need to bring to life in us the undeniably visible manifestations of the character of Jesus Christ—all the stuff that it seems we are not naturally that great at, except that we are because the Spirit is at home within us. And He can’t help but be these things. 

Through a relationship with the Holy Spirit that fills us and on which we are so dependent for power and guidance—a relationship that is so dynamic—when we yield fully to it, it isn’t possible to tell where we are coming from or where we are going. 

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Scripture reading

John 3:8
Romans 8:9–15
2 Peter 1:3–4

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This call to worship¹ is about how the Holy Spirit empowers each of us to live a different kind of life—a very different kind of life. 

Way before the Holy Spirit showed up at Pentecost, before the Church got started, before Paul and Luke and many others were ever believers, Jesus told Nicodemus what a life empowered by the Spirit would look like.

Jesus said:

The wind blows wherever it pleases. 
You hear its sound, 
but you cannot tell where it comes from 
or where it is going. 
So it is 
with everyone 
born of the Spirit.” 

Not: “So it is with the Spirit.” 

No. 

“So it is with everyone 
born 
of the Spirit.”

And in the Book of Romans, Paul wrote: 

You are not in 
the realm of the flesh 
but you are in 
the realm of the Spirit. 
The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead 
is living in you! 
So he who raised Christ from the dead 
will also give life to your mortal bodies. 
Therefore, we have an obligation — 
it is to live according to the Spirit. 
For if you live according to the flesh, 
you will die; 
but if by the Spirit 
you put to death 
the misdeeds of the body, 
you will live.
Those who are led by the Spirit of God 
are the children of God. 
The Spirit you received 
does not make you slaves, 
so that you live in fear; 
rather, 
the Spirit you received 
brought about your adoption to sonship. 
And by Him 
we cry, 
“Abba, Father!”

"Abba" is an Aramaic term that means "father," used by children for their fathers, and it conveys a sense of warmth, intimacy, and trust (like our children use the word “daddy”).


Peter wrote: 

His divine power has given us everything we need 
for a godly life — 
a godly life that comes through our knowledge of Him; 
Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 
Through these — 
through glory and goodness — 
He has given us His very great and precious promises, 
so that through them 
you may participate 
in the divine nature.

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Prayer

Unconditionally loving, 
radically graceful, 
infinitely creative, 
holy other 
Father in heaven, 
You have given to us Your Holy Spirit. 
And Your Holy Spirit is doing a transformative work 
inside of us, 
pushing on us, 
reshaping us, 
stretching us, 
molding us 
so that we reflect Christ’s character. 
Your Spirit is internally transforming us 
and externally transforming us 
so that we can express 
and display 
and convey 
in and through our life… 
Your life — 
a life that is perfectly pleasing to You. 

With that same power 
that raised Jesus from the dead, 
Your Spirit has also regenerated us out of death 
and has given to us 
new life — 
a life that, through union with Christ, 
can actually participate 
in Your own divine nature.

Your Spirit illuminates our minds, 
helps us to see things 
that we have never seen before, 
convicts us of sin, 
enhances our comprehension of scripture, 
deepens our knowledge of You, 
reveals to us life-changing and mind-blowing insights 
that change how we see the world, 
how we see others, 
how we see You, 
how we see the person of Jesus Christ, 
revealing more and more of just who He is, 
and drawing us deeper 
and deeper 
and deeper 
into relationship with Him. 

Your Spirit provides to us 
all the power we need 
to have victory over sin — 
power to put to death 
the misdeeds of the body 
and power to bring to life 
in us 
the virtues of Jesus Christ himself. 
Your Holy Spirit — 
the Spirit of Christ — 
produces in us His fruit — 
undeniably visible manifestations of His character: 
love, 
joy, 
peace, 
patience, 
kindness, 
faithfulness, 
gentleness, 
self-control — 
all the stuff that it seems we are not naturally that great at, 
except that we are, 
because Your Spirit 
is at home 
within us 
and He can’t help but be these things. 

Your Spirit has also gifted us, 
not with natural talents we happen to be born with 
or with acquired talents we’ve disciplined ourselves into having, 
but with unnaturally given gifts 
that have no such explanation 
and that happen to be incredibly and perfectly useful, 
when we use them, 
for building up others right here, 
in this local Pathway body of Christ. 

Through a relationship with your Holy Spirit that fills us 
and on which we are so dependent for power and guidance — 
a relationship that is so dynamic —
when we yield fully to it, 
it isn’t possible to tell where we are coming from 
or where we are going. 

Father, 
we confess, 
that seems 
at face value 
unpredictably terrifying, 
and yet it is the place that is fully in communion with You, 
and so it is the terrifyingly safest place to be 
in all the universe. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, 
whom the Spirit raised from the dead, 
whose Spirit lives in us, 
Amen

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1. This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on October 27, 2024.