The Overflow: Spirit-Breathed Creativity
How amazing it is that God breathed (ruach) his breath into Adam, literally in-spiring him -animating Adam with His life. This is where our word 'inspire' comes from: the Latin inspirare, 'to breathe in,’ or more literally, “spirit in.” When it says in Ephesians 5:18 “be filled with the Spirit,” this filling is Oh! so much greater! It’s a filling of the New Covenant, more glorious than the Old Covenant. It is the future new creation, breaking in to our present (thank you NT Wright!).
We are to intentionally “be filled” (passive verb!) with the Holy Spirit. To be so ‘under the influence’ of Him that our wandering thoughts turn the corner to see… God -and our wandering imaginations end in wonder!
How? The answer is revealed in Paul’s sister passage, Colossians 3:16. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in/among us richly.” Once again we are to be intentional about “letting (passive verb -God does the action) the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.” This Spirit-filled life requires discipline. (What!?) Yes, discipline. Does that word feel un-inspirational? But that is what Paul is urging us to do: to intentionally read the Bible, and that this will result in perpetual, glory-to-glory inspiration (Spirit-in), the Spirit of God breathing His life within us. Read the WHOLE Bible as “the Word of Christ” because that is what it is. And allow the Holy Spirit to enrich our reading -take us further up and further in, showing us the glory of God in Christ Jesus, on every page. Gordon Fee, wonderful Pentecostal theologian (no, it’s not an oxymoron, haha!) says “the Word of Christ” here means “the message of the gospel with its central focus on Christ.” (Fee, “God’s Empowering Presence” p. 650)
Allowing the Holy Spirit to SO richly fill us with the wisdom of the gospel of Jesus Christ until… we can’t HELP but burst out into song. The same breath (Spirit) that inspired Scripture inspires (breathes His Spirit into) our creativity. We can’t help but Song It! Song the glorious gospel! Filled and being filled by the songing.
When we are filled with the Spirit, the overflow is his Spirit animating our creating - the same breath that in-spired Adam and animated his life now, so much more, in-spires and animates our creativity.