Good day to all: Welcome to the “front porch.”
Recently, a friend wrote me with some questions on the Holy Spirit, and along the way he said, “Since you believe in the direct operation of the Spirit, I thought maybe you believed …”—and he added something else I didn't believe.
That little tidbit got my attention fast. I immediately responded with a smile and a “Time out, brother! Better say that again, and this time a little slower.”
It is always a little funny to me when people tell you what you believe, almost as if they think if they throw it out there you might just own it because they said it. I’m glad that I grew up in a family of friendly debaters who taught you two things fast: If you wanted to survive in this family, you’d better learn two things—one, your Bible, and, two, not to own up to anything that feels slippery in your mind. A failure either way could make for a long day down at my Grandma’s house.
The initial problem – and there are several – in my friend’s statement is that it is a man-made term from long ago that could well mean different things to different people.
Oh, I immediately knew what he was saying, and I also knew – even before he could get the words out of his mouth – that I didn’t believe any such thing. But many of you, I am sure, do not know what the direct operation of the Spirit refers to. So, I want you to be clear, so you can know the merits or the failures of the belief.
The expression refers to a common denominational view that the Spirit must act directly on the heart of a person before he is able to receive the gospel. For example: With the nobleman of Acts 8, he could not have known how to obey the gospel through the preaching of Philip unless the Spirit fell upon him first to “enlighten” him.
Perhaps under the umbrella of that expression is the Holy Spirit’s falling on the apostles (Acts 2:1-4) as well the Spirit's working on others who received miraculous spiritual gifts by the laying on of the apostles’ hands (Acts 8:17), all of which are phenomena that were prevalent during the first century and the age of miracles. That age we believe to have long-since passed (Acts 8:17; 1 Corinthians 13:8-10).
You may wonder, then, why a good friend of mine would take such a leap (and it was a leap, to be sure) and say that I believed in any such things. The reason is that he knows that I and many others hold firmly to another belief, and that is that the Bible teaches the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christian – that is, the Spirit Himself dwells (Romans 8:9/1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
I say Spirit “Himself” as opposed to the view my friend holds that the Spirit only dwells through a medium, that being the Word of God. Some refer to the belief of the Spirit’s indwelling in His Person as the “personal indwelling” of the Holy Spirit.
Again, to be clear – and that, always, is our intent, even if we do not come to an agreement – we all understand that the Spirit works through His word, the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 3:16; Heb. 4:12; Col. 3:16).
But the Spirit’s use of the Word as His powerful tool and weapon does not tell us how He dwells. The Bible simply says that He dwells! And for a long time I've wondered: Who am I to ask “how?”
Stay tuned, now, and, the Lord willing, we will discuss soon the merits of the belief that the Spirit Himself dwells.
But for today, we wanted to set the record straight so as not to be misunderstood—Friends, the belief that the Spirit Himself dwells in the Christian really isn’t even a 32nd cousin to the direct-operation view.
I say that with a smile, of course – and we will set out to let the Bible prove it cheerfully a bit later.
God bless!
Comments