What A Great Question!

2-4-16   Audio on Soundcloud

I was asked, “Why do you suppose some Christians focus heavily on God the Father & Jesus but don’t discuss the Holy Spirit as much?”  I responded with, “What a great question!”

I have come at this same question in a myriad of ways to try and understand and explain it myself.  The simplest answer is I don’t really know because I can’t be sure of another’s motivation, but the fruit of our speech and actions always convey ample truth for discernment and understanding.

• Maybe the Father and Jesus are easier to relate to?  Like a lamp, we can understand the bulb and the switch, but the electricity to make it illuminate is a bit tricky.
• Conceivably, it is because the heart of a man, where the Spirit speaks, is his most overlooked distinction in all of creation.
• Possibly for some, God is just an intellectual pursuit to be taught?  A doctrine, a precept, information to be garnered, overlooking the heart.
• …or God is just something to know about and not a relationship we are to share in the unity of surrender and mutual admiration.
• Some certainly live like it is Father, Son and Holy Bible and deny the fullness of His precious Spirit.
• Perhaps some just need to keep their finger on the switch so they can feel that they are in control?
• Maybe some don’t really worship in Spirit and Truth at all?

…and that is why the Holy Spirit is not discussed.

The natural man is generally afraid to reach out beyond what he can touch taste or smell and so being “reached into” as God desires is even more difficult.  The gravitational pull of the flesh is toward the tried and true method, something that is nicely laid out, something that can be easily followed without too much hassle, discomfort or internal work.

However, that is not the message of faith the Bible describes.

It isn’t seeking, asking and knocking for the understanding as Jesus exhorted us to do. (Matt 7:7-8).  It’s not like the word Abraham heard, “Go to the land I will show you”. (Gen. 12:1)  It doesn’t require that everyone needs to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. (Rev. 2 & 3)

Hebrews 11:1 says: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Yet, far too many trust in who and what can be touched and seen. The Holy Spirit is responsible for any revelation we have ever received about Himself, Jesus or the Father, yet many think it is through their study and meditation and thereby miss God in His fullness and take credit for a work that is only done by the Spirit.  I regularly wonder how that will be handled in the end by the one Who’s eyes are like a flame of fire?

At the root, the Holy Spirit is not subject to man like scripture.  That is a BIG problem for people who think they run the church and have the need to dictate the will of God.  It also makes acknowledging His presence and supremacy in the church very dangerous because it means someone unseen, who we ALL have access to and unity in, is actually in charge.

Admittedly, there is an apprehension and awkwardness elicited in true corporate surrender to the Holy Spirit to direct His church and the fellowship that is in Him.  It requires us to bring our crucified lives, (Rom 12:1) our personal meditation, our heart felt songs and prayers of admiration and love of God out into the open, for the edification of all.  For those who are waiting to be told what to do or are only approaching God for their intellect, a disease is created in that reality.

Societal conditioning is to turn our lives over to the experts.  We shy away from the true freedom we have been given by the Spirit in Christ.  And those same experts have big problems with those who truly are free because they are not looking for the comforts of man’s approval.  They speak and do as the Spirit leads.  I have encountered so many who are waiting for someone to give them permission to be free because they haven’t taken it on faith alone that Galatians 5:1 is the truth.  And sadly, there are many who affirm “the needed chains of bondage to opinion” in light of being shunned.

It is the Holy Spirit who empowers freedom, but because the heart is so often overlooked, many balk at that existence, forsaking the opportunity for an encounter or a point of reference with Him, even as they proclaim Christ, who came to set the captives free.

The Scriptures can be quantified, contained, controlled, even manipulated to express a desired outcome, and they are.  The Holy Spirit Himself though He can be ignored, can not be manipulated, controlled, contained or even quantified because He doesn’t operate in the physical realm like a book or a language.  However, He is the revelation to the book, the word of authority, the power of our lives through His intercession, the resurrecting dynamite and baptizing fire of the Most High God in His church! (I know, a little too charismatic for some).

• One can’t really teach the leading of the Holy Spirit out of scripture, but conversely scripture can confirm the leading of the Spirit.
• How does an individual acquire ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches?  Where are those chapters and verses?
• Where is the practical scriptural explanation of how the Holy Spirit leads?
• As Jesus said, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7-8)
• The Holy Spirit is the one aspect of the Godhead that remains a mystery to be constantly yielded to, and listened for with a seeking heart.  He reveals Jesus, He is hidden in the parables as the power of the Kingdom of Heaven and He’s hidden from the wise and the prudent.
• …there is no life in Christ without Him but He is overlooked as life is feigned.

“The Holy Spirit is THE most important asset
the bride has in this earth.”
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The leading of the Holy Spirit is all over the old and new testament, but can not be practically taught.  He is not like the study of soteriology, ecclesiology or Paul’s journey’s through Asia Minor.  The Holy Spirit’s work can not be packaged in 3 easy steps to a better life with God.  His power is a demonstration, and it manifests in more variety and detail than the vision given to Ezekiel. (Ezk 1)  That makes the subject of the Holy Spirit a bit more tenuous because truly, not all people who say they believe in Jesus are explicitly listening for and being led by His Spirit. (Acts 19:2) (John 8:31-47)  Paul asserts in (2 Cor. 2:4-5), My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.  In the main, the Holy Spirit is not demonstrated in the modern western church and I think there is a direct corollary to not being yielded to Him.  What a quandary man has created for himself before God; being able to talk about the truth and create a form of Godliness, yet shying away from acknowledging the full power thereof, who is the Holy Spirit.

But when His baptism of fire is received by a dead lamp it illuminates the bulb.  Dark as it was, revelation comes and with true understanding the lamp only wants to give glory to it’s illuminator.  A good lamp and bulb know their purpose is only fulfilled in an open circuit to the source of power.  They are dead, without spark, without the ability to give light until full yielding is offered.  Fingers off the switch please.

The life and power of the church purchased by Christ is in the Holy Spirit!…and now the Lord is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17)

Jesus gave His diagnosis and prescription to the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3. Regardless of His verdict on their behavior, the remedy and admonition was always, to have ears to hear what the Spirit was saying to the churches and do as He said.  They weren’t told to go read the scriptures because He was seeking to lead them into His life which is in the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, “You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life”. (John 5:39-40)  Life is in the Spirit. (Rom 8:10)

In the end some will say, Lord, Lord did we not..?  And He will say depart from me, I never knew you. (Matt 7:21) Here’s the revelation in it, did WE not?  UH?, no we didn’t.  It is either the recognized confession and surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit working through us or it is man centered corrupt fruit fit for destruction in the fire.  It is every bit a form of Godliness yet denying it’s power.  Jesus was clear that, “Apart from me you can do nothing”.  If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. (John 15:5-6)  Following God is not fait accompli just because we believe something.  Having begun in the Spirit receiving Jesus, it is also in the power of His Spirit to complete the work begun in Christ.  Are we listening for His voice, in repentance with the understanding and acknowledgment that it is all Him?  That we can’t get to God, but His Spirit leads us to Him so all credit will be to Him.  Maybe that’s why we don’t talk about the Holy Spirit, because there still resides a desire for control and credit over God in us.

I find no one answer to why some Christians don’t discuss the Holy Spirit as much?  Reasons why are certainly as diverse as the sin of our hearts.  It is sad.  He is misunderstood and His tribute is sidestepped for the aggrandizement of many and detriment of the same.  He has opened my eyes to see that, I live off of His intercession in repentance.  In that, His desire to bring followers into the unity of the Godhead is realized.  The revelation He has brought to me and I acknowledge to those He leads me to encounter is this; the motivation, power, strength, and authority to do anything for Christ is in the Holy Spirit alone.  Why we don’t live and act in that understanding can only be attributed to the treasure of our hearts.  Because where our treasure is there our heart will also be. (Matt 6:21)  The voice of the Holy Spirit has become my treasure.  Everyone will be held accountable to the attribution of the heart and everything that is not His will only be fit for the fire.  The same fire he is calling us to submit and be submerged in here on earth.  “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!  (Luke 12:49)  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matt 3:11)  “Everyone will be salted with fire”. (Mk 9:49)

…so maybe that is why the Holy Spirit is not discussed.