Fire, why aren’t you falling?
March 21, 2010
Please read this whole thing if you have time, I know its long. This post has the potential to sound complain-y and rude and accusational. Or it might sound like I think I know best in some proud way. It also is very generalizing and for that I’m sorry because I know some things that I say are not true for all people or every church. So let me apologize off the bat if anyone might think that is the attitude that I’m taking, because I’m not. I just have a problem with something.
So lately I have been a bit uneasy about the churches that I have been attending. Uneasy might not be the right word, maybe more….discontent and unsatisfied. I’m not targeting any one church at all so don’t take it that way. I just feel like we are all so comfortable, content and maybe even lazy. Let me explain a little better.
First I think that my background might play a part in all of this. I was raised in an Assemblies of God church which is rather charismatic, spirit driven and Pentecostal. I believe that I was filled with the Holy Spirit during a special service when I was about 12 years old. And since then I do believe that the Holy Spirit has been a part of my life, I know that He has moved in me and through me, prolly not as much as He could. But I know that He does live in me. And from this I feel like the Holy Spirit is important, both my background and the truth on the Holy Spirit rooted in scripture. That being said I have witnessed multiple times where I believe that the Holy Spirit has been taken out of context and/or forced on people. However, there are different areas of Christianity that are also taken out of context and forced on people. But I feel like often the power and importance of the Holy Spirit is shied away from in many congregational settings.
Basically I feel like the church is dry and maybe even comfortably dry. The church is a broad generally term I’m using, not any one specific church because there are some anomalies. Get this for example- I had the opportunity to lead worship at a Living in the Spirit seminar at a catholic church this week. I can’t explain in words the presence of the Holy Spirit in that place and with those people. I mean they were on fire! They were singing the Hillsong song Fire Fall Down and the fire was falling. They waited expecting the spirit to move, they prayed knowing that He would come, that danced and celebrated. They wanted it, they really were pursuing. Why is that missing from the christian church? Granted I know that not all Catholics are like that, but these people were on fire and more so than I have seen in a christian church for a long time. Another example would be a big worship night on my college campus that happens once a semester. This night is called ONE in which all the campus ministries get together for worship and prayer and it is something eagerly anticipated by many. I feel the spirit fall during that night as all are emerged in deep and passionate worship together. It sometimes seems like that one night a semester we all “get it.” And there are a few churches that I feel really embrace the spirit. One well known church to mention might be Bethel Church in California. I have never been there but their worship cds make it so evident that they are encouraging and asking the spirit to move. You can hear them praying in the spirit in the background. Also Hillsong Church in Australia. One of my favorites songs, I Will Exalt You on Faith+Hope+Love, you can hear the lead singer step off the microphone singing in the Holy Spirit. So genuine.
So then why not us? Why not small town churches, or even big town churches? Why not on a week to week, service to service basis? I do believe that living in the Spirit is a personal thing, whether we chose to live in the Spirit day by day and moment by moment is an individual’s decision. Why aren’t we seeking out the Holy Spirit, congregationally? There may be churches more friendly to those seeking after the Lord, there may be churches for older congregations, there may be different denominations that believe one thing and not the other. But I think its because it freaks people out a little bit. We can’t define the Holy Spirit. We can’t explain Him very well. Its somewhat of a mystery, even Paul writes that in 1 Corinthians 14:2. Ultimately its a beautiful and magical mystery. But yeah, its a little freaky if you don’t understand. Not that I understand because I know I would stumble over the right words to say in trying to describe it to someone who had no idea. But i do know that it is a God thing that He has given to us, the Spirit of God. There is so much power and strength rooted in the Spirit of God, Jesus did all of His ministry through the power of the Spirit, Jesus was baptized by the Spirit before he embarked on His ministry. And He gives that same power to us, He commissions us with it in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus wants us to be baptized in the Holy Spirit like He was and to do our ministry in that power. The Holy Spirit is sent from God to us and we are meant to live in it. But yeah, I think that we are just so shy to it as churches. I feel like we are scared or worried about what it would do to the ministry because not everyone would get it or accept it. I see that it is hardly preached or taught or sought.
But its biblical, and I think that is the first key. People do oppose the Holy Spirit, for many reasons. I’m not even going to try to list off the excuses that people give for why the Spirit isn’t for this era or this church or this day. There are too many to count. But I do know that it is biblical. And all scripture is God breathed. And with that being said I know that we can look into the Word and see what God says about the Spirit and how we should live in it. I’ve attached many verses at the end of this post. Those that oppose the Holy Spirit or are scared or shy to it need to read their Word! If someone doesn’t agree with it then I would argue that they don’t know their scriptures very well, they may not understand their salvation very well, they may not understand Jesus or God or His power very well!
The second key is that I don’t think we are eagerly anticipating the Holy Spirit. We aren’t creating and cultivating an environment for Him to come and move in our lives. We don’t make that a congregational goal. For whatever excuse we might conjure up we decide to leave that part out. We decided to stand and sing like we are conditioned to. Worshipping? I sure hope so! (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7) But desiring more? Searching for the power of the Spirit? I’m not convinced. I know that’s it’s somewhat of an individual thing, but if we were all pursuing the Spirit of God, together, I think we would see something different. We need to want it. We need to seek it. We need to create an environment in which we worship with expect the Spirit to flow.
This is no simple fix and I understand that. We are comfortable and to some this whole “spirit” thing may seem strange and outta place. Thinking through this I was trying to decide what it would look like to get the Spirit flowing in some of the dry places I’ve been. I don’t know the answer but I think it might start with acknowledging the Holy Spirit in teaching and preaching. Biblically presenting the Spirit to congregations. And from there encouraging the congregations to worship with the Holy Spirit and to live in the Spirit and to exercise the gifts of the Spirit. And from there we could cultivate an expectant environment for worship in which we seek and desire to see the Spirit move together, where we sing with hungry hearts for the fire to actually fall. We need to get these pivotal generation living and working in the power of the Holy Spirit for our attempts without will fall short.
I mean what if we all did live with the Holy Spirit? People would see it in us, I really believe that non-believers would see it. They wouldn’t know what “it” is but they would see it. We would have the gifts of the Spirit and through the same power that Jesus used in His ministry and the same power that moved in Peter’s ministry could be in our ministry. The evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit is so evident in the gospels and the book of Acts. Why wouldn’t we want that?! Why wouldn’t we seek that out?! That’s why I’m so frustrated. Are we that lazy and complacent and comfortable? Didn’t God say that He would spit the lukewarm out of His mouth? (Revelation 3:14-22) We need to be the history makers living in the Spirit that God has given to us. We need to step out, even if it seems uncomfortable and radical. This is what God has for us and He makes it so clear in His word.
Ah, I dunno. This has been a long post, sorry and thanks for reading it all. I guess I am just hungry myself and I am longing for a church body to pursue the Lord and seek after the Holy Spirit with me. Yeah, i definitely haven’t mastered this whole Holy Spirit thing myself, but I just know that I know that I know there is more for us if we seek. There is so much more to be said in all of this. I know again that this may seem generalizing and maybe complaining and for that I’m sorry. I guess I just wanna see a hunger stirred in the hearts of God’s people for more of Him and His gift to us the Holy Spirit. I’m frustrated that its so quickly looked over. So look over it yourself and I hope you get excited about the plan and the power God has in store for us through the Holy Spirit.
A few scriptures, of many, on the Holy Spirit: Luke 11:13 (11:5-13) – on seeking out the Holy Spirit and finding Him, Acts 1:4-8- on the intended use and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, Acts 2- first story of humans encountering the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 3:16- the Spirit lives in us, 1 Corinthians 12- gift of the spirit, 1 Corinthians 14- very important proper etiquette for biblical exercise of the Holy Spirit in congregational settings, Ephesians 4: 11-16 -on spiritual gifts, Ephesians 5:15-20 -on living in the Spirit, Galations 5:16-26 – living in the Spirit and fruits of the Spirit, Acts talks all about the works that the disciples did through the Spirit of God, there are many more!
I got asked this question through someone on facebook regarding this blog, so I thought I’d post it and post my reply and just let those who want to engage deeper into this issue.
Question: “I glanced at your blog and read the most recent entry about the Holy Spirit. I thought it was good and very interesting and inspiring. It has caused me to review the Bible on the Holy Spirit. I have a few thoughts. I agree that it seems at some churches I’ve attended that during music worship that it looks like the entire church is just going through the motions, that it seems their hearts aren’t really in it for worship. However, I’ve thought, and am curious what you think, that maybe the Spirit moves people in different ways. I know those people are believers, but maybe they have a calmer spirit about themselves and the Holy Spirit moves them to sing the best they can and maybe not to dance or raise their hands. How do you picture a church that is pursuing after the Holy Spirit in worship? I can imagine that the church that sings old time hymns can have the Spirit moving in them just the same as the charismatic church that is out of their seats and dancing in the aisles. What are your thoughts on this? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been to several worship nights at different churches and also regular services where the atmosphere is one of great enthusiasm and joy and God’s presence seems much more powerful in it. I sometimes have to pause and just stand back at those because I enjoy watching people worship God in many different ways and seeing their joy for God causes more joy for me. I also have to remind myself that music during church isn’t the only way to worship…that how I live my life or how I work (…etc) is a form of worship. We must do these things in a way that honors God. If I am doing so I should show certain qualities, which are the fruits of the Spirit. What do you think…in our daily lives if we are living in a worshipful way, how is the Spirit playing out in that? I would think that it’s the Spirit that is moving us to live in that worshipful manner.
I don’t mean to be judging or sound judging of you or your blog…I really enjoyed reading through it a few times to really take in what you were saying. It turned into some great Bible study time for me
I’m just curious of your thoughts on my thoughts about the subject.”
My very long response: “Its so great to hear from you and I’m glad that you enjoyed my blog! Sorry its taken a while for me to get back to you. And just so you know I didn’t think you sounded judgmental or anything like that at all! I love getting feed back on my thoughts cuz I am just sorting through all this myself. I have so much to learn.
So if I understand this right you are just wondering what I think about the Spirit moving in people in different ways. I think He absolutely does! I mean that’s what the bible is saying in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. And I just love this because there are people that are more introverted and I know that the Spirit totally uses those people in different ways such as the gifts of faith or wisdom or discernment. But there are also the extroverted people who He might use for the prophesy and speaking out in tongues or interpreting them. At the same time though, I feel like sometimes people use their personality type as maybe an excuse or cop out for what the Spirit could do in them. For example I’m saying someone may think that because they don’t like public speaking the Spirit hasn’t called them to speak a message of special knowledge to a group when really by saying that they are limiting the Spirit. I think of Moses really when he was using his stutter to get out of talking to Pharaoh. So I guess with that being said, I do know that its not my place to say what someone’s gifting could be or are. Which I know you didn’t ask that, so sorry. Tangent. To get back to your question, yes, I think that biblically speaking the Spirit moves through people in different ways. And I think that it takes all the different people and gifts and personalities to make it work. Just as 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 is talking about. I think that this is key in what you were asking about. Not everyone may be raising their hands in worship, but as 1 TImothy 2:8 says some should be because it is a response in genuine worship. It takes everyone, and everyone’s different gifts.
Another question was how I see the church pursuing the Holy Spirit to worship. Gosh, I don’t really know how to answer this question. I mean I’ve been raised really charismatic and so I’m used to that. But with that I’ve seen a lot of times where people are getting hyped up on emotion rather then the reality of God. I think misconceptions can go either way. So on the other spectrum some of my most favorite times of worship have been the old hymns that have seemed to have lost their popularity. But those worship services can also be so dry and conditioned and forced. So I’m trying to think what the Bible represents as evidence of a church pursuing God in worship. I know that after Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and preached 3,000 were added to their church that day. And i don’t think that numbers like that are beyond the Holy Spirit today. But week by week, I dunno, I just think enthusiasm, genuine worship, hungry hearts and hearts that are living and making advances for the Kingdom. Its so easy for us as christians to get comfortable and even selfish in our pursuing God and I think that if we let Him the Holy Spirit would pour out of us more. I think that we would be more open and expectant to the gifts of the Holy Spirit in healing and prophecy and miracles. There is just so much unseen, so much unknown and so much that you and I will never know. So for now this is just kind of my heart in all of it but I’m interested to hear what you think. The Holy Spirit moves in so many different ways and so its hard to even try to label it and define it.
One more thing that you said that I really appreciate was about worship. I am a worship leader in many different groups and churches and it has been an interesting and beautiful journey trying to understand the art of worship. But you said it so well when you said “I also have to remind myself that music during church isn’t the only way to worship…that how I live my life or how I work (…etc) is a form of worship. We must do these things in a way that honors God.” I think that’s exactly it. Music is a way we express worship. Even words are a way we express worship but they are not the worship itself. Worship is that love and adoration and…worship that is just welled up within us. Music and words are ways we express that. That being said I do think that worship is an attribute that will be in our lives when we live in with the Holy Spirit day by day. I also think, as you said, that the fruits of the Spirit and just passion for the Lord would be attributes of living in the Spirit. A sense of honest urgency for the lost, a sense of longing for our Savior, a consistent heart of prayer, a desire to live out what we believe in love. Dedication, desire and fruits of the harvest. I’ve been discovering that this week more and more. But as I’ve said, I don’t know. I don’t know what its all supposed to look like. I don’t have the answers. So take what I’ve said and do your own research and pray and bring it to God and I’d be so interested to hear what He shows you.
So yeah, I don’t really know. This is all just what God has been laying on my heart through His word and prayer. Thanks again for reading my blog and taking the time to respond. I hope this is more food for thought. “