Q: I feel like there is so must resistance to letting the Holy Spirit move in our church. Do you feel the same and could you possible explain why for me? The Holy Spirit is a good thing!
A: Wow- a loaded question! There is always the possibility of such a question exploding in my face. But then, I trust God to protect and man's response is not to be my concern. Are you sure you really want me to try to answer this? Not only is it a loaded question, there are also many sides. Let's hope I get to most of them.
1) Have you ever sat in a room reading during early evening? No light is necessary, because it's light outside and that light shines in the windows. But all of a sudden, you notice you're struggling and it's really hard to read, because there is no light! What happened? Time passed and the light that was there, faded. You find yourself sitting in a dark room.
It happens to all of us spiritually, if we're not vigilant- constantly watching carefully for any slight change in God's "light." Here's where the fork in the road comes:
a) for those who are vigilant, they do what they need to, to get God's light back. That will entail work- getting up, walking across the room and turning the light on. No light shines forever. We cannot expect an old light to continue to give light forever. There will always be effort needed to keep the light going in our spiritual lives. God was very careful to tell the OT priests to be vigilant in keeping the fire in the temple burning all the time! Some people understand that and deal with it. But that means a terrible thing: CHANGE!
b) for those who are not vigilant, the light goes out, but they just squint and refuse to look up from what they are doing even a moment. They are very legalistic about what they are doing. They believe that their first light is the only light and are not open to change. This is what happened to the Pharisees of Jesus' day. They were too busy doing what they thought they had to do to notice that God had changed things a bit. The light went out of their worship pattern. Then, instead of accepting God's new thing, they fought against Him and actually killed Him! People like these actually backslide out of their salvation while still wearing the "outward robes of the religion" like the Pharisees. There are way too many Salvationist Pharisees around today. I pray for them to see the light like some of the pharisees did- and accepted Christ. They moved on and were made plyable wineskins again to accept God's new wine.
This first of these is happening with some people in our corps.
2) I believe we've also got some people who are members (soldiers too) who are not really saved in the first place. Yeah, they wear the uniform, play in the band, just attend (for years) etc, but their lives do not exemplify what a Christian is like. The old "wheat and tears" situation. Strange, a real Christian can see it as plain as day, but so many are fooled by them. Bottom line: is a person's life showing the fruit of the Spirit within? If not, then scripture says they are not a Christian.
This is happening in our corps with some people too.
3) There are also those who are saved, but stopped their Christian growth right there. They are carnal- still controlled by their human nature and not the Spirit within. They might make it into heaven if they don't backslide, but that's about all. They are accomplishing nothing for Jesus and He will be very disappointed with them on judgement day. They'll be in the last row as far away from God's throne as possible, yet still being in heaven (so to speak). These are those who have one talent, but they are burrying it in the ground. Very sad.
This as well, is happening in our corps with some people.
Now that I think about it, I believe I've hit all the issues on the head. Others I'm thinking of are only variations and flow from these 3.
Ultimately, if the Holy Spirit is within us and we are in touch with Him, then someone who is truly filled with the Holy Spirit will be recognized by them, because the Holy Spirit recognizes Himself wherever He is (don't you recognize yourself?)!
When I go other places to minister, there are those who connect with me right away, because the Holy Spirit tells each of us He is within us both. There is an instant connection and we are able to worship, trust and minister together right away. Of course there are those who do not see that. The only reason is that they do not have the Spirit filling them.
Some people don't trust us and don't like what we are doing. Well, it is from God- we are doing what He is telling us to do (there are many good people who are confirming this for us), so I wonder who has the problem? Should I back down from what God is telling me to do so that they (who don't have the Spirit within) are more comfortable? I think not! Oh man, I'm preaching now!
Anyway, my job is to teach anyone God sends our way. I understand that many will not ever accept our message and while it makes me sad, I understand it, because they called Jesus "Satan," so we are to expect no less!
(Bet you didn't expect a book, huh?!) This is a good conversation we should take up some day. I'm sure God has more in it for us both.
Can You Hear Me?
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