My gym is one of those places that you see sports people show up now and then. Like Kobe Bryant and a few others so it was not unusual to see AC Green playing in an impromptu game there. I live in the basketball capital of the world.
As I continued to watch the game it came to an end with a perfect swish of the ball through the hoop. Then as each sweaty player headed for their towel or drink, AC walks towards me and asks me if I want in on the game.
Oh man! Here I am in a place that millions of inner city kids would do anything to be in. Being asked to play with someone they have watched play with some of the games greatest players. He has played in more consecutive games than any other player in NBA and ABA history. The longest streaks in sports history gained him the nick name "Ironman." He has played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat. He played along side of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Shaq Oneil.
Speaking of AC Green, Magic Johnson said, "AC was deeply committed to his beliefs in Christianity. He was very strong in his convictions. He would never sway. I'd say, AC what about this or what about that? And he'd refuse to budge. I could never get him to consider anything different."
AC Green remained a virgin until the day he married.
So there I was being asked if I wanted to play basket ball. I grew up with the greatest back yard any young boy could have grown up with, the beach at Newport Beach California. We body surfed, skimboarded, surfed and played in the ocean. We did not have basketball courts so I never learned how to play the game. There were a few times in high school where we played during PE. But that was eons ago, just a faded memory. Although I do like to shoot a few baskets on the court by myself before working out.
So what did I do? I declined...
Knowing that somewhere out there are people who would have given anything to have what I just declined. It was not because of my lack of understanding the value of what was being offered me. It was because I did not have the skill set to even try to play basketball on the level of these men.
I was unprepared. Unprepared to play a very popular game that was invented in 1891in Massachusetts in Springfield College. The dean, James Naismith, used peach baskets for his game, hung at each end of a large room so the students would have something to do during the long winters.
How many times do we find ourselves in this position? Arriving at a certain point in place and time only to be unprepared for it? I just was not prepared for a once in a lifetime moment. I could have played basketball with one of the games great players.
Almighty God has His plans and purposes for each one of us. He grows us and leads us like a potter kneads the clay to make of us what He desires us to be in Him. The seemly out of control moments are actually preparation for what is to come.
I listened as Corrie Ten Boom explained, to us young kids at a Calvary Chapel camp meeting, that when you look at an embroidered fabric from the back side, all you see is chaotic colored threads going every which way with no discernible pattern. But when you look at it from the front you see a well designed, colorful pattern with no chaos.
Life is a lot like that for us Christians as Almighty God works upon us to prepare us for what is to come. I know of people who have fainted and lost their faith along the way because all they see of their own lives is the underside. They can't see what God sees of the top side of their lives.
Corrie went on to show us a flash light, she aimed it at us and turned it on, nothing happened because there were no batteries in it. She opened the back of the flash light and showed us the empty chamber.
She then said even though the main parts were all there, the light bulb, the switch etc, with out the power of the batteries it was not much use. Then she installed the batteries and turned on the bright light and shined it at all of us.
We need the infilling of God's Holy Spirit if we want to be fully functional.
The Word came when holy men of God spoke as they were 'moved by the Holy Spirit'
2 Peter 1:21
All scripture is given by inspiration of God...
2 Tim 3:16
The word moved means, 'to be borne along or carried along." The imagery is a ship with sails and the wind blowing into the sails, moving the ship according to the wind's direction and not by the hands of the captain. The Spirit moved upon the waters of creation (Gen 1:2), and from within our innermost being (belly) flow rivers of living water (John 7:38), which Jesus said was the indwelling of the Spirit.
The Greek word pneuma refers to a life force, an energy and power. The energy enabling a person to
perform feats that are beyond his or her own strength, such as when the Spirit came upon Samson and he gripped the jawbone of a donkey and slew a thousand Philistines, or when he ripped the gates off the city. He was enabled with this life giving supernatural power of God (Judg. 15:16; 16:3.
The light shines when there is power.
As God is preparing you be filled with the Holy Spirit. The word pneuma combined with theos refers to the breath of God Himself, thus the word inspiration. It refers to how God "breathed upon the prophets" to write Scriptures under a divine influence. They were the instruments, and God was blowing the wind of His breath through the human instrument. The breath of God, His Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ said,
"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but can not tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
It is important to be infilled by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5:18
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Acts 2:4
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 4:8
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be prepared. It is a good place to start if you want to make some sense out of what appears to you as chaos in your own life. Let the breath of God blow life into your sails, directing and guiding you along the course that He has planned for you. Then when you get there you will be ready...
David Sloane
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