I Believe In The Holy Spirit

One of the resources Christians are given is the power of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. When believers talk about feeling God's presence, or feeling the pangs of conscience, or feeling driven to perform some act on God's behalf, that's probably the Holy Spirit. Spiritual gifts have been theorized, studied, classified, debated, denounced, and thoroughly misunderstood since Christianity first began. This Person enters into a lot of controversy, especially because He is so often claimed to be on the side of obvious frauds.

I don't know whether I've got this down any better than anybody else, but I believe that the Bible teaches that every believer in Christ is given one or more supernatural abilities to be used to build up the Church and expand the family of God. I'm not saying we can all do miracles. I'm not saying we can't do plenty of good with our natural abilities and talents. I'm saying that when a person discovers what their gifts are, and uses those gifts in a way that honors God, to fulfill His purposes, that person will achieve results that are not humanly possible.

I'm sure that many people would think I'm selling humanity short with that statement. But, it's my opinion that those who believe in a purely natural Church are selling God short. Surveys and studies of growing and declining churches back me up in that opinion. One of the most important factors in a church's health and growth is whether that church is employing a gifts-based ministry approach. Churches that emphasize spiritual gifts tend to grow. Churches that leave the Spirit alone tend to shrink. I do not think it is mere coincidence that as the mainline denominations have become more humanistic, they've been losing membership.

As in all things, though, some take good things to extremes. There are all sorts of odd and unexplained phenomena attributed to the Holy Spirit. I personally believe that some people have been gifted with the ability to "speak in tongues". But, there are those who insist, on very shaky grounds, that only those who speak in tongues are Christians. And there are many more that are quite sure that everyone who claims to speak in tongues is crazy. Perhaps you've heard of the "Toronto Blessing", where people are driven to laugh or cry for no apparent reason. Perhaps you've stumbled across the stories of plain old amalgam tooth fillings turning to gold. I'm certain we've all seen or heard of various healings and levitations and prophecies and whatnot. It's hard to know what to believe. But, I think we can believe this: if it's not Scriptural, it's not Spiritual. I don't mean that the Spirit can only manifest Himself in ways described in the Bible, but the Bible is not completely silent on the subject either. True uses of spiritual gifts are orderly, purposeful, and interpretable. They do not invite ridicule from other believers. God does not interrupt Himself and does not oppose Himself. There cannot be factions within a church working within their gifts, yet disagreeing on church direction. If no one can explain the reason for, or the significance of, a particular occurrence, that occurrence did not come from God. Spiritual gifts always build up and strengthen the church, never weaken it.

In an odd little piece of recursive meta-analysis, it is clear that those who cause division in the church over the use of spiritual gifts cannot be actually using their spiritual gifts appropriately. This is not healthy for the Body of Christ.

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