I’ve recently heard both chatter and stimulating conversations about the Holy Spirit. There has been excitement and exploration on one side and concerns and cautions on the other. Arguments for and against abound all around.
In varying points and degrees throughout life, there are some who are affronted by the sense that there must be “something more” to the Christian life. There is a perceived void in what they’ve known (and observed, in some cases) of a spiritual reality, so these honest, truth-seeking souls naturally search beyond their current understanding to find it. (I see this as a God-given desire and a result of His constant efforts to draw all of humankind to Himself.)
I am simultaneously incredibly inspired by and concerned for these genuine seekers. They are right: there is more.
Yet what is it that they’re going after? Is it the gifts or the Giver? Is it the Holy Spirit for a manifestation, or is it the Triune God Himself for a relationship?
We all can imagine how we’d feel if we were rich and famous and somebody wanted to get close because of what they could get from us. That would be a totally different experience than someone who was our own child with whom we’d freely share all that we had in the context of a deep connectedness. (“Relationship” has, unfortunately, been so overused in the context of Christianity that it has lost so much meaning is often passed over as religious jargon.)
Seeking the gifts that God has to offer, is to go after something lesser. It’s like the prodigal son who returns because he just wants clothes on his back and food in his belly who passes up the father who is standing with an offer of full restoration of sonship. The gifts are elusive as an end in themselves and have led many to find them to be only a mirage in the end. But to those who seek first to [experientially] know God Himself, the reality and gifts are born out of that connectedness.
Perhaps we see the Trinity too much as three separate entities instead of the oneness of God Himself. Creation paints a striking picture of this oneness. God [often seen as the Father] spoke the world into existence with His words [the Son (John 1:1)] and breathed [the Spirit] life into humankind. There is a oneness that we cannot grasp as we attempt to understand the complexity of the three-in-one concept. But to wholeheartedly go after the Triune God, is to go after connectedness and relationship first, with an openness to all that He has in store. To state that one is wanting “more of the Spirit”, portrays that perhaps one desires the gifts more than the Giver: a manifestation or outworking more than a deeply real relationship (that would make the other a natural consequence).
The gifts are more glamorous. They’re often presented as a time-stamped event that takes place. What if, in going after the reality of son/daughtership, God instead chooses to ignite and fan that flame over time? What if experiencing the fullness of God has more to do with how dedicated we are to sit in His presence and listen, to put forth effort to learn to know who He is and how He feels about us and the world in which we live: to be like Mary and stay at His feet? We may find that the filling comes to us naturally, gradually or abruptly, as a result of pursuing a genuine friendship/connectedness/relationship with the Triune God.
The desire for more is God-given: don’t ever squelch it! Yet also don’t let it lead you towards something that is less than the size of that void. Don’t settle for the gifts when the Giver is offering friendship, son/daughtership, and the reality of doing all of life in communion and relationship, with gifts as a natural product of that connectedness.
And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus...Whom You have sent. (John 17:4, Amplified)
If this article was interesting or relevant to you, please take time to read “With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God” by Skye Jethani
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard and Pursuit of God by A. Z. Tozer are also thought-provoking reads.
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