I looked to see what I wrote last year. I didn’t. I had a post from March 17th and March 19th, but nothing on this day. Maybe I was scared to be in my upper 30s, I don’t know. I considered saying nothing again, but when I looked back I saw that it was in March last year that I had some of my most read and commented on posts, so I thought I would republish those. I mean, “It’s my birthday and I’ll repost if I want to….”
What is wonderful is being able to say, after 37 years, that I do feel as though I am doing what I was created to do!
For those of you who have been reading all along, I apologize for the repeats (but it is my birthday); I hope they are worth rereading. They’re really pretty simple posts. My March 2007 archives are pretty good (remember, it’s my birthday – i can say that today) – there are more than just these that I’m reprinting here worth looking back on. Things like how to shut up theological know it alls (a very important thing to know!) and thoughts on whether people replace the Holy Spirit with hermeneutics. Anyway….
The first one had the lengthy title of “The Dangers of De-Emphasizing the Role of the Holy Spirit in the Everyday Life of Christians Today.” Whew! That’s catchy… I wrote:
This is a thinking out loud post.
There are some Christians/Theologians who teach that the primary, if not only, way God speaks today is through His Word. There is a trepidation about people leaning too much on “God told me . . .” or “God led me to do . . .” or even worse “God told me to tell you . . . .” And, that fear comes with reason, because there are many who have abused “following God’s voice” or “the leading of the Holy Spirit.” But, I use the word “reason” intentionally because with God we are to live by faith and not by our own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6. And, unless one were to teach that when Jesus told the disciples that it is good for them that He was leaving because then the Comforter would come that it was only for those apostles and not for Christians today, it is hard to deny the fact that the Holy Spirit is involved in the every day life of every Christian.
What I wonder is if this fear of the abuse of spiritual gifts and listening to the voice of God via the Holy Spirit in our lives has so focused many followers of Jesus solely on the Word in a way that leads to two deficits in their faith walk: (1) whether they can more easily compartmentalize their lives such that where the Word of God doesn’t seem to speak directly to today’s issues they simply follow the ways of the world rather than listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, particularly with regard to the every day issues, and (2) there is the danger of legalism because the focus becomes the letter and not the Spirit. I believe this second issue is what leads to extrabiblical doctrines taught by Christian leaders who (perhaps subconsciously) fear that they must fill gaps with “solid, black and white truth” to prevent unbridled spiritual abuse. In turn they may become the abusers, unfortunately. (A third issue is a failure to work together through our spiritual giftings, creating disunity and disorder, but that may be for another topic.)
This is not to de-emphasize the Word or to suggest that God will teach us things that trump His Word. His Word must be one of the ways we test what we believe to be the leading of the Spirit.
How do these thoughts resonate with you? I am perhaps being too brief and not detailed in connecting all the dots, but that is why it is just thinking out loud and a short post.
In the next post I thought of a more creative title and wrote “Boo! Are We Scared of the Holy Ghost?!”
In response to my last post on the Holy Spirit and listening to God’s voice, a reader and commenter, Josh, wrote:
But there’s a difference between obeying the Word of God and living what it says and claiming that you get personal guidance from God outside of reading his Word.
He also wrote this:
I don’t have to seek God’s will in the air bro. because its all written down in The Book. Thats about as personal as it gets. You want to “know and do God’s will”? Open up His Word and read it. It’s all laid out for you.
Dorcas Hawker added in: “Therefore, the Spirit’s role is to point us to Jesus and Jesus’ word,” after quoting from John 16. I will tell you that Josh’s comments at best confuse me. I believe wholeheartedly in God’s Word and its sufficiency, but I also believe that God speaks to me personally. He will never contradict His word, and His personal word to me will never be the same as the written revelation, but it is His voice for me nonetheless and I can test it against His written word and the Holy Spirit who lives in me.
Here’s what I really don’t understand, if the Holy Spirit does nothing but point us to the Word and we need nothing but the Word, then why do we listen to preaching? What do preachers do? Shouldn’t they just read the Word and say nothing else?
Why would we need to pray?
And, how are we supposed to live by the Spirit or be filled with the Spirit?
Does it just mean that we should be great students of His Word and memorize as much of it as possible and that by so doing we are filled with the Spirit?
Does that mean that great faith and great Christianity is reserved for those who are more intelligent than others and who can better understand the letter of the Word?
And, does this mean that I and millions of others who believe that God speaks to them on a personal level are deceived? Whose voice are we hearing? If we are deceived would those who would argue what Josh has presented say we are not believers?
Perhaps I’ll write more of our story later today or tomorrow.