Journal 2006
There’s a debate swirling around these days about the role of the Holy Spirit. Some claim that only through study of the Scriptures can we know truth; others say we experience the Holy Spirit whispering truth in our ears. I say it’s both/and. We must know the Scriptures in order to test the spirit’s voice. The Holy Spirit’s words will never violate the written Word.
Some people argue, “You can’t trust your experiences,” but I retort, “That’s all we have! Everything that has ever happened to us is our experience, and we live our lives accordingly.” My experience will be different from yours, and this is okay. The goal is to get rid of the lies we believe in those experiences.
Some would admonish us, “Don’t seek an experience,” and I think they may be right. If one person experiences a spiritual high of some sort, I don’t have to go chasing after it to duplicate it. God will give me the experiences I need. My goal is to continually seek Him, pursue Him, and look for the treasures in His Word.
A spiritual experience can come from the outside—such as a visitation by an angel. This is not something I can manipulate or orchestrate. It’s God’s doing. But experiencing God on the inside, in my mind, happens because I choose to open myself up to Him—when I choose to obey, to let go of bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness. It comes when I fill my mind with good things and not evil ones. It happens when I guard my heart against the lies and wiles of the devil. It happens most often when I spend quiet, alone time in God’s presence, just being still. It’s the place of meditation. It’s where Jesus is. It’s where God’s Spirit speaks to my human spirit.
In the Pursuit of Peace 
Dear Karen,
Thank you for all that you share! I especially appreciated this message. I agree with you fully.
Merry Christmas,
❤️Sunshine
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I know I could just hit the comment button, but thought I would share something here. I could comment on each and every one of your blog posts, and many is the time I am not at a computer to do so. It does come up on my phone. I think sometimes that I will remove all messaging and emails from my phone and free up the storage that I am sure has caused me to have to upgrade my storage in the cloud. We have been groomed to think we need all this instant information.
The topic of this post interested me because about 2019, or thereabouts, I began noticing how little the person of the Holy Spirit has not been a topic of discussion in a lot of messages that preachers have been spending time talking about. Maybe the Lord had been nudging me to more thought toward this. Is the Holy Spirit a male? God and Jesus are referred to as male.
Would the Holy Spirit be the “person” who will sit at God left hand?
Do we receive the Holy Spirit at the time of our salvation? I believe that I did because of the experience I had at the time of my decision to choose Jesus when there was a distinct situation that I was to make.
I had a friend growing up in high school that was of the Apostolic Pentecostal persuasion. She wore only dresses, never cut her hair, nor did she wear makeup. Did not watch TV because it was against “church” policy. Everything she did was referred to as “church” and it seemed her belief was that to transgress any of the aforementioned attributes, would cause her to not be “in church”…or I suppose our way of viewing loose her salvation. There were a lot of dos and don’ts to her faith tradition, but isn’t it true of all of us…just about?
One thing she did mention was the “Holy Ghost” which always bothered me to an extent. It just seemed so unsettling to refer to “ghost” rather than “spirit”. I don’t like it to this day to hear that term.
I shy’d away from anything that had to do with the Holy Spirit because I equated it with her and her church. It was never referred to in any of my understanding as something that was significant, but leaned toward cult-like organizations. The only real doctrine I learned was that of the Independent Baptist church. This is too much to spend any time on as you are well acquainted with all of this.
I think I really began taking more of an interest finding out about the “person” of the Holy Spirit around the time of our shutdown and self-imposed quarantine. It certainly gave me more time to watch a few YouTube videos of church services that I would never have otherwise entertained watching. I knew that you and Scott had attended World Outreach at one time due to wanting to attend church as a family with your girls who had gotten to know friends that were going there. I only had the idea it was “charismatic” and that sent red flags to my thinking of my friend Sandy’s church. She was the only one who I knew to be part of the charismatic movement. Her church is far from what WOC is like. But I didn’t understand that. I equated it (not WOC) but the charismatic churches to all be like hers, and in the same category as Jehovah’s Witnesses. That’s how much I knew about it. Didn’t have a class at Temple on whatever that course would be to learn of the different faith traditions…as Pastor Allen would say.
Anyway, I did approach Barry once we got back to having church services, and asked if he would consider doing a series on the Person of the Holy Spirit. I think he said he had his sermons planned ahead for several months. I asked if he had any Bible Study on the Holy Spirit or did he know of one. He pulled about three books out of his library, but they were books about the Holy Spirit by men he had confidence in from seminary…but nothing that would allow me to dig in for myself. I finally found in my Blue Letter Bible app a study on the Holy Spirit by Chuck Smith. I asked Barry if he was familiar with Chuck Smith and he said, “yes, he is a charismatic preacher, would probably be a good one to do”. I found it and thought I would go through it. I got distracted in getting into it very far due to having signed up for a Precepts course and it required a lot of work to complete each week.
I learned that a couple of my Franklin Road friends were attending WO and it took me by surprise to find out THEY were going out there. Randy was especially all in for the Highland Park theology and such…however, they had been attending New Vision at one time, and I think they attended BelAire and were in Scott’s Sunday School class. I could be wrong. Are you familiar with Randy and Kathy Stem?
Anyway, I began going with them on Saturday night and felt at home in that situation. So, I began finding ways to be involved and got to know people, and even tho it is a big church, it has a small church feel. I do like it and appreciate the people there who seem to authentic in their walk with the Lord.
So in a nutshell, this is what led me to make a change. There is no complaint, I have nothing against anyone…it’s just I did not seem to find a place to serve after asking if I could be a part of areas that I felt were in my wheelhouse…and no one seemed to respond. I sort of sulffed it off and worked at the connection center. It wasn’t for lack of trying…I guess they didn’t have a need in areas where I fit. You know my comfort level working with kids. Ha!
Well, I’ve droned on and on…but you struck a note of interest with this post. Thanks for your faithfulness, and your transparency in sharing some of your questions as you have grown in your spiritual walk.
Linda
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Praying with clients and experiencing my own healing opened my eyes to the work of the Holy Spirit in ways that no information or doctrinal teaching had touched. It’s the difference between knowing information about someone vs having them live in your house.
We are all on a journey of discovery, and if we seek Him, we will find Him.
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