:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

The last significant aspect of our vocabulary of the Holy Spirit concerns the ways in which the Holy Spirit speaks to and through us.

Many evangelicals such as myself have a hard time with this one since we’ve historically been rather fixated on the Bible as our source of revelation. Tossing the Holy Spirit into the mix complicates things.

However, even if we just try to read the Bible without acknowledging the role of the Spirit, we’ll keep bumping into verses that give the Spirit a prominent place in our lives.

Teaching Us

Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus frequently speaks of the Holy Spirit as a guide for his followers, leading them into the truth (John 14:17, 26; 15:26: 16:13, 15). The scripture itself came about originally through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The process of interpreting the scriptures and living with wisdom is just as connected to the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts (1:2, 6:10). Paul frequently alludes to the guidance of the Spirit in discerning a particular belief or application.

Therefore, as we study scripture we can also speak of the Spirit as a guide who teaches us. This isn’t a stretch of scripture, though we can certainly take this notion too far by creating individual bastions of interpretation and defying all who disagree with us. Though, we don’t need the Holy Spirit to do such a thing, we can abuse the leading of the Holy Spirit in heavy-handed ways.

Prophetic Words

We could choose several different ways to speak of prophetic words from the Holy Spirit, but I think it’s quite biblical to speak of the spiritual gift of prophecy as another way the Spirit guides and teaches us. According to 1 Corinthians 14 a prophetic word is a revelation from the Spirit that edifies the church.

Acts, Romans, and 1 Corinthians all speak of prophetic gifts being given to God’s people, and Paul even said that he wished all of the Corinthians would prophesy. Having said that, he also took a great deal of care to explain how to use their gifts in orderly, beneficial ways. Prophecy is intended, above all else, to help other Christians to grow.

We could debate whether Acts 2 makes prophecy a gift for all Christians or whether Paul’s spiritual gift lists make it one gift among many that we may not have. I’m not certain about this, but I do believe we should remain open to the possibility of God giving ourselves or someone else a specific word for our edification.

I mean, God spoke through Balaam’s mule (or ass if you want a laugh), so there’s no reason why his Spirit couldn’t speak through me, right?

Desiring the Lord, Not Just the Gifts of the Lord

The work of the Holy Spirit is an incredible blessing that I sometimes wish I experienced on a more regular basis, but the trouble with such gifts as prophetic words is we can end up craving the gifts rather than the Lord we are called to love above all else.

And so while we should desire these important gifts that will empower us for ministry and help us contribute to the health of the church, our chief desire should be the Lord himself. As we draw near to him and remain open to the work of his Spirit, he is able to direct and empower us as he sees fit.

In Acts 1:4 Jesus asked his disciples to not leave Jerusalem until they received the Spirit. John prophesied that Jesus would baptize them in the Holy Spirit, and before they set out to do the work of the Kingdom, they would need this empowering baptism.

Though they were looking for the restoration of Israel as a Kingdom, Jesus pointed them back to the coming Holy Spirit. The Spirit would empower them to be witnesses whether close to home or far abroad.

Don’t Leave…

The words of Jesus stop me in my tracks. How many times have I tried to do something for God and His Kingdom without first waiting for the empowering of the Holy Spirit? I think I’ve tried to do a lot of well-intentioned ministry out of my own strength and wisdom.

In our American culture that focuses on planning and doing, it’s jarring to read that Jesus told his disciples to sit and wait. Waiting can be one of the most important parts of our ministry.

It’s like that episode of Seinfeld about a show that is about nothing—the work of ministry begins by doing nothing. We are seeking the filling, empowering, and guidance of the Spirit before we step forward.

That doesn’t mean we do nothing all of the time; waiting can be exploratory. Waiting may look fairly proactive in some circumstances since we’ll need the Spirit to confirm our tentative first steps.

However, can you imagine what the early church would have looked like if the disciples ran out of Jerusalem without the Holy Spirit? They would have created some chaotic, ill-conceived mishmash of the teachings of Jesus and of the expectations of Israel’s restoration as a Kingdom. No one would have thought about preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles for sure.

Waiting on God’s Spirit

What does waiting for the Spirit’s power look like? Do you need to sit in the presence of the Lord to wait for his leading? Do you need to talk with some friends about where you sense he’s leading? Do you need to try something new, while prayerfully asking God for guidance?

We know that waiting for the Spirit’s empowering is important. We oftentimes don’t know what it looks like. However, as we step forward in ministry, we should aim to make sure there’s no mistake that it has been God’s power at work in and among us.

While I believe that the Holy Spirit should be quite noticeable and active in the lives of Christians today, the role of the Holy Spirit in our salvation is something that we may not notice at first. I know I can’t say why exactly I believed the words of scripture and began to follow Jesus in the first place.

However, in retrospect, I can see that somehow God’s Spirit was at work, guiding me to him. When I look back at the times I took significant steps forward, I can hardly take any credit because the Holy Spirit taught me something or brought a particular healing to my life.

If we are saved by God’s grace, and we are dependent on him to one degree or another (no Calvinist/Arminian debates please), then at rock bottom we can agree that the Holy Spirit must be integrally involved in the process. The Holy Spirit is how God imparts life to us (see John 3:3,6; 6:63).

In addition, when we speak of Jesus as Lord, we can be confident that this is only possible because of the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 22:43). Any devotion we may feel toward God is the work of the Holy Spirit who is given generously to all who repent (see Acts 2:38).

When we speak of being saved, or brought into God’s family by the Holy Spirit, we can trust that the means by which we have entered will continue to be the means by which we continue. If we couldn’t come to God without the work of the Holy Spirit in the first place, what makes us think we can add anything to our relationship with him now?

In continuing to grow as believers, we continue to rely on the Spirit who brought salvation to us and enabled us to become God’s children. Next week we’ll discuss some of the ways we continue to follow the Spirit in our lives as disciples of Jesus.

As we move toward a more functional vocabulary of the Holy Spirit, the first concept I’d like to tackle is that of being “filled” with the Holy Spirit. It is a rather broad concept that is assumed throughout the New Testament when speaking of more specific manifestations and works of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.

There’s almost too much material to cover in this topic, but the filling of the Holy Spirit is a particularly important topic that comes up throughout the New Testament. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit the book of Acts would be a rather short read.

While I’d like to spend some time on all of the various ways we can speak of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives, I’d like to begin with this very general idea of the Spirit’s filling our lives or the state of being Spirit-filled. What does it look like? How should we speak of it?

Christians as Naturally Spirit-Filled

Acts 8:16-18 tells of an unusual group of Christians in the region of Samaria—possibly the believers who resulted from the ministry of Jesus in John chapter 4. These Christians were not filled with the Spirit, and it was strange.

Think about that. Is it possible that the majority of the Christians in the world today would have been anomalies in the early church? It’s a chilling thought. That’s purely speculation on my part since we’ll never know in a definitive way, but keep that thought in the back of your mind as we continue with this study. If being Spirit-filled is something that is obvious and well-known, what can we say for ourselves today?

The Moment of Filling

There seemed to be moments of being filled with the Holy Spirit both at the moment of salvation, as in when Peter preached to the Roman soldier in Acts, and other times, such as Acts 8, when believers are filled with the Spirit on a separate occasion from their profession of faith.

Christians who are already Spirit-filled are sometimes filled again, as in Acts 4:31. This means we can speak of being filled with the Spirit in both an initial sense and in an ongoing sense. We should not be satisfied with the initial filling of the Spirit. Becoming a “Spirit-filled” believer is an ongoing process that requires prayer, devotion, and the initiative of God.

The Results of Filling

Spirit-filled Christians took on several noticeable characteristics that generally served the work of spreading the Gospel and made them particularly bold for the cause of Christ. The Apostles and Deacons of the church are regularly designated as filled with the Spirit throughout Acts.

Whether giving confidence, wisdom, or the right words to say, the Holy Spirit makes the church happen. In fact, each step forward for the church in Acts is a result of the Holy Spirit. If we read a Gospel such as Matthew or Luke we’ll also notice the initiative of the Spirit.

If we are reading the book of Acts and we envy the results of the early church, then we have one central question to answer, “How do we become Spirit-filled.” Being Spirit-filled did not mean out of control, manipulative, or divorced from the truth of the Gospel.

No one could lead or effectively minister in the book of Acts without being Spirit-filled. The action recorded in Acts is regularly linked with the indwelling of the Spirit among the Christian community.

Therefore, I’m convinced from this brief study that we should hope to regularly speak of our leaders and one another as “Spirit-filled.” As we continue our look at the Holy Spirit this week, I pray that we’ll experience this filling in new and refreshing ways.

Sadly, the Charismatic renewal of the church may be fading.

When I speak of developing a vocabulary of the Holy Spirit, I’m referring to the practice of regularly speaking of the various ways that God’s Spirit works among us. Theologically speaking the Holy Spirit plays an absolutely essential role int he Christian life, but the language of most evangelicals lacks references to the third member of the Trinity.

Today I’d like to identify a few reasons why many Christians, especially my own evangelical tribe, have a hard time speaking of the Holy Spirit.

We Fear We’ll Sound Like Pentecostals

Most Christians are familiar with emotional and dramatic Pentecostal preachers who dance around their pulpits, strike people on the head, and send them flopping onto the floor. Whether or not all such preachers are to be trusted, they generally speak regularly of the power of the Holy Spirit in their ministries.

Perhaps there are some who are genuinely moving with the Spirit, while others are invoking the Spirit’s influence to validate a suspect ministry. That’s not for us to decide. However, Christians who associate such ministries with fraud can run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water when it comes to the Spirit.

In the broadest sense, Christians will err by either favoring Spirit or truth. Some will focus on manifestations of the Spirit, but fail to work at the truth of scripture and the guidance of their traditions. Others will focus on truth, but neglect the direct influence of the Spirit. Both groups would acknowledge they depend on Spirit and truth, but their language, among other marks, suggests otherwise.

I’ve tended to belong to the side of truth over Spirit throughout most of my Christian life. It has taken me years to learn that God’s Spirit can work in very real and present ways among his people without making the mistakes of showmanship and manipulation that are often associated with the dark side of Pentecostalism.

We Fear We’ll Get It Wrong

Even if we are open to the Spirit working among us, Christians tend to fear speaking of the Spirit’s work because they don’t want to get it wrong.

We wonder things such as: Was that prompting I sensed really a work of God, or was it just my mind or emotions? Will I use that prompting to manipulate someone? Could I lead my family into trouble by mishearing the Spirit?

I’ve seen some terrible situations unfold because Christians were convinced they heard from the Holy Spirit, though every other Christian involved sensed they were wrong. Matters of pride and control often come up. In addition we have our limitations and fallibility to consider.

When I think of all the times I’ve misinterpreted the Bible, it’s a wonder that I’m still willing to read it and to reach conclusions that I’ll share in public. I spent several years listening to some pretty wacky fundamentalist doctrines. However, I’m still game for reading the Bible after all of my mistakes. Why should listening to and speaking of the Holy Spirit be any different?

Listening for the Spirit and moving according to the Spirit’s lead is a fallible, imperfect process. Get used to it. You’ll get better at it given some practice, and all of those Christians in your church are there to help you sort through things when you aren’t sure.

God Transcends Our Language

Even if we are open and willing to work with the Holy Spirit, many don’t know what it looks like for the Spirit to genuinely work among us. We aren’t sure how to apply the scriptures or how to speak of the Spirit’s work.

For instance, I know some folks think I’m positively out to lunch when I try to relate what I’ve learned over the past few years about spiritual warfare and the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. It sounds a bit far-fetched, and I struggle to put my experiences into terms that they’ll believe. Perhaps there are no terms that will resonate with those unfamiliar with the hands-on work of the Spirit.

Other times the Spirit sneaks up on me in ways that I can only describe in emotive terms. I once prayed over a youth pastor and his wife, and the presence of God just crashed onto all of us. I knew we needed to pray, but then God took over.

Something happened that day. I’m almost brought to tears whenever I think of that day, and I sense something stir within me. What is that all about? We don’t even know what God did, and we lack the ability to quantify it for others.

Tomorrow

Now that we know about the obstacles that stand in the way of speaking of the Holy Spirit, I’ll spend the rest of the discussing ways we can speak of the Spirit’s work among us, including the saving work of the Spirit, listening to the Spirit, receiving guidance from the Spirit, living in obedience, and a few other topics that will carry over into next week.

As I look at where I’ve come from as an evangelical Christian the vast majority of evangelicals I read and interact with, I’ve been realizing that I generally lack a functional vocabulary of the Holy Spirit.

While I’m very much aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence, and I mention the Spirit at times, I lack the tools to speak of the Spirit’s work with other evangelicals. I’ve seen this among many colleagues online as well.

In a blog post I once critiqued one well-known speaker and author among the missional gang of Christians for his dearth of references to the Holy Spirit. A friend who knew this author shared that he knew from personal interaction with this man that he was fully committed to relying on the Holy Spirit for Christian mission.

However, we would never know this from his writings.

From blogs to sermons to books, in my travels and readings I repeatedly run into Christians who merely assume the Holy Spirit’s work or take his/her/its presence for granted. The teachings generally end with some kind of call to action, Do this. Period

If we challenge such teachers, even if I challenged myself sometimes, the reply would be something like, “Well of course the Holy Spirit is in the mix.” Somewhere. We don’t quite know how to verbally express how the Holy Spirit empowers us to holy living and generally makes the whole salvation, Christianity thing possible.

There are a few reasons for this verbal disconnect. In examining my own struggles with speaking of the Spirit there are reasons that range from the evangelical fear of sounding too “Pentecostal” and a failure to seek out the Spirit’s influence in our daily lives. I’ll touch on these reasons tomorrow.