In the past two years, I have found that God has been teaching me a lot about the Holy Spirit, how important He is, and how much I need Him. I used to work with kids in HSM (High School Ministries for those who don’t know) and I loved talking to the youth and watching them grow in their faith and being a tool God could use for his glory. I loved it when students would come to me after experiencing God in a truly spiritual experience (Usually at a Christian summer camp) and wanted to change their ways and begin to walk with Christ. “That’s fantastic!” I would exclaim and I would praise God for his Holy Spirit and the conviction they felt. But I noticed that many of these kids would start strong and then fade away gradually, reverting to their pre-spiritual experience state and begin falling back into the practices that the Holy Spirit had convicted them of just months ago. They would say, “I need to change my ways, I need to follow Christ, I need to stop drinking, stop smoking, stop sleeping with my girlfriend” and I truly believe they would mean it at the time but then would regress.
I am not innocent of this, I of course sin daily unfortunately, and try really hard to hit the mark but "all fall short of the glory of God" and I am no exception by any means. I would find myself doing things that I had tried so hard to overcome and had succeeded in for a while, but then would stray again after I grew tired. One of my students referred to this as the Jesus Camp High. The students (and I) would catch a dose of the Holy Spirit, feel His conviction, but then would try to change the outward before allowing Him to change the heart. The flesh grows weak and when WE try to obtain change through our own acts and initiative, we will fail. Galatians 3:3 says,
Our imperfections and sin causes the Holy Spirit to leak out of us. Rather than asking for the Holy Spirit DAILY, we experience Him once and then try to change on our own. We must constantly ask for the Holy Spirit to replenish us. Only God can change our hearts and make true change permanent. But be careful! Francis Chan wrote in his book Forgotten God (Which I encourage everyone to read)
and he is right! A lot of my growth this year came from painful, embarrassing experiences where I was convicted of my sin in very public ways. C.S. Lewis illustrated this in his book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Eustace is turned into a Dragon and to become a boy again, Aslan has to peal away the flesh of the Dragon and expose the boy inside. Eustace tries to do it on his own but the skin remains and it’s only when Aslan does it that the dragon skin is finally pealed away. Pealing away the flesh? I didn’t sign up for that... How about a nice, safe pain-free transformation? But the risk of not allowing God to refurnish our heart is too great to ignore. We discussed Hell and salvation on Monday at my college ministry, and the ramifications of not following Christ and being obedient. I think we can ALL agree the ramifications are incredible. Luckily for us, all we have to do is ask. Matthew 7:11 says, "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask?" So I want to encourage you, don’t be foolish. Ask for the Holy Spirit daily (and sometimes hourly) to fill you. Allow him to move in you and to create a palace fit for a King.
I am not innocent of this, I of course sin daily unfortunately, and try really hard to hit the mark but "all fall short of the glory of God" and I am no exception by any means. I would find myself doing things that I had tried so hard to overcome and had succeeded in for a while, but then would stray again after I grew tired. One of my students referred to this as the Jesus Camp High. The students (and I) would catch a dose of the Holy Spirit, feel His conviction, but then would try to change the outward before allowing Him to change the heart. The flesh grows weak and when WE try to obtain change through our own acts and initiative, we will fail. Galatians 3:3 says,
“Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by Human efforts?” (NIV)
Our imperfections and sin causes the Holy Spirit to leak out of us. Rather than asking for the Holy Spirit DAILY, we experience Him once and then try to change on our own. We must constantly ask for the Holy Spirit to replenish us. Only God can change our hearts and make true change permanent. But be careful! Francis Chan wrote in his book Forgotten God (Which I encourage everyone to read)
“The Holy Spirit will lead us the way of the cross, and that is not a comfortable or safe place to be”
and he is right! A lot of my growth this year came from painful, embarrassing experiences where I was convicted of my sin in very public ways. C.S. Lewis illustrated this in his book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader when Eustace is turned into a Dragon and to become a boy again, Aslan has to peal away the flesh of the Dragon and expose the boy inside. Eustace tries to do it on his own but the skin remains and it’s only when Aslan does it that the dragon skin is finally pealed away. Pealing away the flesh? I didn’t sign up for that... How about a nice, safe pain-free transformation? But the risk of not allowing God to refurnish our heart is too great to ignore. We discussed Hell and salvation on Monday at my college ministry, and the ramifications of not following Christ and being obedient. I think we can ALL agree the ramifications are incredible. Luckily for us, all we have to do is ask. Matthew 7:11 says, "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask?" So I want to encourage you, don’t be foolish. Ask for the Holy Spirit daily (and sometimes hourly) to fill you. Allow him to move in you and to create a palace fit for a King.
Until next time God bless.
you can't steal my background! :)
ReplyDelete-bs
nice job recaping the monday lesson.
It sounds to me like you're arguing that sin is an experience that takes you away from the glory of God. Have you ever considered that it might be the other way around? ...that it's the "high" of a spiritual experience that is manufactured and takes you away from reality?
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has not had Jesus in my life for many years and who has no plans to seek him out, could you share what some of the "incredible ramifications" are? It might even warrant its own post... :)
Great stuff, Mark. Also,I love the reference to Voyage of the Dawn Treader and that scene with the scales. One of my favorite scenes in all the Narnia series.
ReplyDeleteZack,
ReplyDeleteI would say that it is possible that it is merely a "groupthink" situation. "Everyone is having a spiritual experience so I must be having one too" type of situation. One thing that I tried to stay away from was "planned spiritual experiences" for just that reason. I want real, authentic, Holy Spirit moving, hearts being opened experiences and not forced ones. Sort of the same idea that we can't obtain change through our own works.
I would argue FOR the existence of the Holy Spirit, only because of the change He is doing in me. I have to way to quantify that and give you hard data (which will drive you crazy I know... how can you argue facts when the only fact is subjective) but I do feel like there has been growth in my life spiritually which has not been because I'm trying harder but because I am experiencing the Holy Spirit more and allowing him to fix stuff. He still has a long way to go to fix me but I'm excited for his growth.
I will blog about the incredible ramifications for being disobedient so follow me! I don't know what happens when you follow me but I assume you'll get some kind of notification that I have posted a new post. I have been crazy busy with work, school work and life so I haven't posted but I hope to post this week!
Thanks for the helpful hint! I'll try to use it in my next post ; ) as always your questions are more than welcomed and I hope any other readers won't be offended, and I promise that I won't be offended.