The Holy... What?

Read: 1 Corinthians 2

My most aggravated worship experience in a non-prosperity-gospel church involved the Holy Spirit. The praise team sang Give Thanks. Now, the refrain/ending of the song was: Give thanks (x3). After the first “give thanks”, the praise leader said, “to God the Father.” After the second “give thanks”, the praise leader said, “to Christ the Son.” After the third “give thanks”, the praise leader said... “for God’s blessings.” I know what you were thinking: what happened to the Holy Spirit? I seems to me that in Protestant circles, most Christians have a poor understanding of who the Holy Spirit is.

But the Holy Spirit is extremely important (and I’m understating it) for knowing God. In fact, God can be knowable only through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, Jesus makes no sense. That’s why, after Pentecost, you notice that the 12 disciples were different. By the Holy Spirit, things finally “clicked” and now, empowered by the Spirit, they began the ministry of the Church.

The Holy Spirit enables us to understand God, because God makes no sense to a godless world. To a godless world, living for Jesus is incomprehensible. If you’re at school, living for Jesus means being a good student. Being a good student does NOT always mean getting good grades. It means being a good member of the academic community. You help others become better students. You help others want to learn. The teachers like you not because you’re smart, but because without you, class is just not the same.

Later on, when you all will enter the “real world”, living for Jesus means doing well the job God has called you to have. Godly structural engineers ensure their buildings don’t collapse. Godly financial economists... well, if there were more of those, we might’ve not be talking about the Financial Crisis. Godly teachers impart their knowledge with enthusiasm and love for their students. I know a lot of people would say that living for Jesus is “unrealistic” or too idealistic. But isn’t Christianity somehow otherworldly in a sense? No wonder the world sees Christianity as “old-fashioned”. In Paul’s time, however, Christianity is seen as “liberal”, “revolutionary”, and even a cult.

But, as we’ve said before, Christianity is not about being “conservative”, “old-fashioned”, “liberal”, or “revolutionary”, but is about Jesus. Following Jesus, however, is difficult because we humans are limited in so many ways. Only through the Holy Spirit can we truly live as members of Christ’s church. So, instead of living as Christians on our own strength, let us live as Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit. Only then can we truly be united in Christ and walk together to do the impossible for Jesus.

Wednesday: Pray for friends (inside and outside church)
Pray for your prayer partner…if you don’t have one, sign up for next week! =)