Reverend Shane Raynor – Tuesday, 27 January 2014 “6 Things We
(Wrongly) Attribute to the Holy Spirit”
The Holy Spirit is arguably the least understood person of the
Trinity.
When I was a kid, the United Methodist church I grew up in held
a series of Sunday night services where praying in tongues became common. I was
both scared and fascinated. “Why is the pastor’s wife talking that way?” I
asked. “She’s filled with the Holy Ghost,” I was told.
Ah, the Holy Ghost. The one we sang about in the Gloria Patri,
which I knew by heart before I was 9. At that time, I pictured the Holy Ghost
as a cross between Casper and the Force in Star Wars. A scary presence who was
also good and made people speak weird languages. And I suppose I thought he
haunted churches too.
My understanding of the Holy Spirit increased as I got older and
read more about him. I noticed that some Christians hardly ever said anything
about the Holy Spirit, while others mentioned him regularly. I also began to
suspect that people were connecting things to the work of the Holy Spirit
whether he had anything to do with those things or not.
Some of us do that now.
Here are a few things I’ve heard attributed to the Holy Spirit
that raise a red flag for me:
Services going into overtime. I know that for the Lord a
thousand years are like a single day, but that doesn’t apply to the rest of us!
I’ve heard church leaders defend poor transitions, rambling sermons, long
prayer request segments, and seemingly never-ending announcements with the
excuse that it “allows the Spirit to move.” Sometimes, maybe the Spirit does do
something that lengthens a worship service. More often, however, I suspect it’s
a combination of poor planning and execution by the humans involved.
Suspicious minds. Often what we call a “gift of discernment” is
our own negativity and cynicism. Certainly the Spirit gives us wisdom to
discern right from wrong and some of us even have the supernatural ability to
detect when diabolical forces are at work in a situation. But that’s not the
same thing as having a critical spirit. When the Holy Spirit is at work, the
Kingdom is built up, not torn apart.
Bad Bible interpretation. I’m the first to admit that there are
times when the Spirit shows us something in Scripture that may seem a little
unorthodox. That’s the way God works. But we have to be careful, lest we come
up with novel interpretations born from our own prejudices and imagination.
Being accountable to someone we don’t teach, and studying the Bible with peers
as well as individually can provide some checks and balances to help prevent
this potential pitfall.
Guilt. Conviction comes from the Holy Spirit and it’s good
because it leads to repentance and positive changes. Guilt, however, is not from
the Spirit. It leads to negative cycles of sin, lowers our self-esteem, drains
us emotionally, and produces no fruit for the Kingdom of God. True conviction
is liberating, never accusatory, and ultimately produces holiness in our lives.
Changing sermons at the last minute. You may have heard pastors
say that God had them throw out their sermon the night before and preach
something totally different on Sunday from what they’d planned. That may be
true, but it makes me wonder if it’s possible they weren’t really listening to
God when they planned the sermon in the first place. Or maybe they’re being too
rigid in their planning process. Or the sermon stunk and they finally saw the
light. Sometimes we don’t need supernatural help to show us when something is
low quality.
Inspiring the people who agree with us. It’s interesting how
quickly some are willing to call “prophetic” those who agree with their
political causes or beat a similar theological drum. I’m much more impressed
when a person recognizes the Spirit working through someone who challenges
their perspective on something. Surely there are times when the Spirit affirms
things we believe, but if he’s only a “yes man” and never turns one of our
opinions on its head, maybe it’s time to question how much we’re hearing the
Spirit in the first place.
How about you? Can you think of anything you’d add to my list?
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