Day Seven: Beliefs that Get in the Way of Serving, Part Three: Cheap and Easy Holy Spirit Encounters

Hey all! Hope you had a great Easter. This week on Extreme Servanthood, we are going to finish up beliefs that get in the way of Christians serving, so stay tuned!

I love the Holy Spirit. He is a member of the immortal Godhead, whom I love and serve. He is our Comforter, Counselor, Teacher, and Intercessor. The Holy Spirit is an ever present indwelling reality in the life of a believer, but Scripture gives us lots of examples of times when people had very powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit--- Pentecost, Saul’s conversion, Philip in Samaria. There are times when the Holy Spirit chooses to make his presence known in powerful ways.

Depending on your denomination, these power encounters, as some call them, may happen in different ways. It happens a lot during worship. Sometimes the Spirit will touch someone during a sermon. Some churches have altar calls or sharing times when the Spirit can move.

Unfortunately, these power encounters are not always so powerful. They often don’t leave any residual effects once the service is done. In one of their songs, Casting Crowns says that the only thing needed to undo the work of an altar service is the distance “between the altar and the door.”

But Christians will go to great lengths to have these “powerless encounters” because they are such a great emotional high. The music swells, people around you are crying and praying, and you get caught up in the moment. It’s a cheap and easy encounter that ultimately is all about what I am experiencing. It’s not about the God of the Universe that I might encounter or the work He might be preparing me for. It’s about how the music makes me feel.

A couple of years ago I was glancing through Parade Magazine and saw an article about Brad Pitt. In that article, he made a comment that has bothered me since I read it. He said, “I’ve been in church and felt great emotional energy, and then I go to rock concerts and feel the same thing.”  Is that really all it is when the Holy Spirit moves in our services? A source of great emotional energy for those who can’t afford to buy U2 tickets? God forbid.

I have no idea what church Brad Pitt wondered into, but the work of the Spirit is not about great emotional energy; it’s not about just what we feel while the service is going on. It is about something infinitely more real. We are, in theory at least, a Spirit-filled people. But that means more than just exciting worship and emotional altar calls.

My first reaction when I read the article about Brad Pitt was how in the world, could that church let him out the door without explaining the truth to him? And then I wondered how many people, who do not have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame come into our churches and leave disappointed because we did not even noticed they were there as were too busy “worshiping God” or “feeling the Spirit.”

In John 14-16 Jesus highlights the main reason for the work of the Spirit: Jesus. Any legitimate work of the Spirit will point back to Jesus Christ, crucified, buried for three days, risen Lord of All. That is the whole point of the Holy Spirit in our lives: to bear witness of Jesus. Any true act of the Sprit will point people back to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is more than just the special effects director of our church services. He is the empowerment in our lives to testify of our Risen Lord. In John 16, when Jesus is describing and promising the Holy Spirit to his disciples, he makes the statement in verse 14 that “he will bring glory to me (me being Jesus).”

We have to carefully exam our reason for our desire for the Holy Spirit to show up in our service. If it is because it will be “cool,” if it is because we are bored and want entertained, if it because we want to feel good, then Brad Pitt was right--- our church services are no better than a secular concert. If it is because we want to see Jesus lifted high in the world around us and we want to be a part of his witness in the world today, then watch out world!

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