Over the past
week, this idea of walking in spirit AND
truth has been heavy on my heart.
In the States we tend to have a grasp on this idea of walking in truth
and often times spend more of our “spiritual” conversations on apologetics and
theology than even discussing the idea that maybe the Holy Spirit does still
play a role in modern day society.
On the other hand, a majority of the rest of the world is on the
opposite side of the scale in that they walk in the power of the Holy Spirit,
but are often swayed by false teachings because of a lack of foundational truth.
So where exactly is this balance?
On the race, some
have said that we focus too much on the miraculous workings of the Holy Spirit
and that we need to be more grounded in truth. To be completely honest, part of me believes we need more of
this to drown out all the “truth”, more accurately called logic, that too often
silences the power of the spirit within me. I’m not trying to get into a charismatic verses conservative
debate (partly because I still don’t know where I would land on this because of
all the misconceptions on both ends), but I am saying this balance is something
that we are poor at even striving for.
We’ve been on a
college campus this past week with a group of Christian students and this
balance is just as hard to find here.
These students are in the middle of a Muslim culture and face so much
persecution. They are learning to
walk in the confidence of the Holy Spirit, but many have no idea of how to
answer the question, “Why Jesus?”
Aside from him claiming to be, “the way, the truth, and the life“, how
can we call him the Messiah?
We had a session
with them tonight where we helped them to answer that question. We were able to walk through what the
Bible says about Jesus and how he could come and make the claim to be the “Son of God” and bring to his followers
complete assurance in their faith.
It was incredible
to watch their eyes open up. It
wasn’t that they were excited to have all this new head knowledge; it was that
the assurance they felt in their heart was confirmed in their head. Their passion for the Spirit was
beginning to balance with their confidence in the foundational truth of the
Word. We are scheduled to have an
outreach event tomorrow, and many of the students were very timid about sharing
their faith in such an oppressive society partly due to a lack of truth. While they have been walking in
passion, they have lacked confidence.
I find the opposite to be true in my life as I walk in confidence in the
truth I know, but lack any sense of passion or urgency the Spirit often brings.
How can we find this balance?
What if this moved us out of
our comfort zone?
Could we stand true to our foundational
theology?
And still walk in the powerful, sometimes illogical, Holy Spirit?
I say I love God
but often neglect the third member of his trinity. I don’t know where this balance is, but my prayer is that my
self-proclaimed wisdom wouldn’t get in the way of God using me in a powerful
way that may not fit into my explanations…
