Seeking The Spirit

In our small group, we are beginning a study of the Holy Spirit using the book and study guide by Francis Chan entitled, "The Forgotten God."  The premise is that while we believe there is a Holy Spirit, talk about there being a Holy Spirit and even have teaching about the Holy Spirit; we don't live as if we know the Holy Spirit.  We, as Christians at larg, don't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.

The Bible tells us that God "can do more than we can ask or imagine according to his power at work within us" (Eph 3:20).  And yet, we don't imagine ourselves accomplishing the great things that we read about in the Book of Acts, where thousands are led to the Lord in a single day, where the powerless stand up against the powerful, where amazing things were expected.

We tend to envision things that we can accomplish by our own power, things we can fit into our own budgets, things that our limited resources and abilities can manage.  Look at the slow growth, no growth and even negative growth of so many churches today and tell me we are advancing with Holy Spirit power.  Consider our individual lives marked so often with fear and doubt, and tell me we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

After beginning to read from "The Forgotten God" last night, this morning's reading from my daily Bible app was Psalm 143, where I read the following: "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground" (v. 10).  This is it, this is what we need, this is what I need - to be taught of God, not about God; to be led by the Spirit, not just learn about the Spirit.

We are warned in the Bible: "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thess 5:19) but I believe, in the church, we have largely do exactly that as we have been led by our rational, logical, science-based cultural thinking, which depends more on on sight and less on faith.

We talk about living by faith but tend to react in fear when we are diagnosed with a terminal illness or given notice of a company-wide layoff.  If we really lived by the power of the Holy Spirit, would we really fear such things?  Would anxiety, depression and stress have such an impact on us if we were facing life in the power of the Holy Spirit?

I have faith.  Perhaps it could be said that I have a fair amount of faith.  But it cannot be said that I have a faith like I read about in the Book of Acts.  And I certainly don't believe that any of us would be in danger of getting too much Spirit by searching after him, by seeking to be filled with him.  Jus' Say'n.