C'mon Down To The Holy Spirit Hoedown!

Recently my family and I attended a contemporary church service. If you know us then you are probably asking “Do what? Really? On purpose?” Yes, it was an intentional visit. During the excessively loud worship service, the worship leader said that she prayed that the Holy Spirit would come down and move throughout the seats and among the congregation. I looked over at my wife and rolled my eyes. “Oh dear. Here we go!” I thought to myself. The issue within the contemporary church, as well as within the Charismatic movements, is that they hold a view of the Holy Spirit that is unlike what is described in the Bible. I would go as far as to say that they are very confused as to what the Holy Spirit is and what it does.

First of all, my addressing the Holy Spirit just a moment ago was a trick statement. The Holy Spirit is not an “it”, but a “who”. He is actually the third person of the Trinity and is the most misunderstood. I do not know why He is so misunderstood, but it is very well possible because He is the least tangible. We see Jesus walking among people upon earth and we can visualize His actions within our minds. We see many human attributes given to God, such as speaking and doing things among the people, and so we can visualize Him to as if He were a person. However, the Holy Spirit does not walk among people and talk to people as God and Jesus did. This “mysterious” ministry of the Spirit has caused many Christians to view Him as a force and not as a person. This “force” causes people to act out in worship. From dancin’ to convulsin’. From runnin’ ‘round to fallin’ down. From hootin’ to hollerin’ to speakin’ gibberish in between. It’s as if worship has become a Holy Spirit Hoedown. The question that we need to ask is this: What is the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit doesn’t need to be called out during worship. He isn’t some scared little kitty cat hiding in the woodpile that needs to be conjured out. The worship leader at this contemporary church obviously does not know this when she prays that He will descend onto the congregation with a beckoning prayer. Assuming that everyone that is in attendance in this church (as well as every church in the world) is a Christian and is indeed saved, then the Holy Spirit is already there. When we first accept Christ as our Savior, it is then that the Spirit indwells us. “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14). We cannot pray for something (or in this case someone) to come down and do His work among the believers if He is already there indwelling them. Romans 8:9 says “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”. But the two views that reign in regard to what this Spirit does is at odds with each other. In order to gain an understanding on this matter we need to first explore the history of the Holy Spirit in regard to the Christian life.

In John’s gospel Jesus said: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever… (John 14:16). But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you… (v. 26). But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me… (15:26). Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (16:7). Jesus promised this “helper” to teach us and to glorify Him. But this helper couldn’t come and indwell us until Jesus ascended into Heaven. His work was finished and it was time to go to His throne. The Holy Spirit continued the work that Jesus started with His disciples. This work has many aspects.

The first work of the Holy Spirit is that He seals us at the point of salvation and we see that in the previously mentioned Ephesians 1:13-14. He convicts us of our sin and our need to be saved (John 16:8-11). His sealing work upon our acceptance of Jesus as Savior sets us apart. Jesus said in John 3:5 “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Once the believer has been set apart by the Holy Spirit as being redeemed and justified, then the Spirit works in us sanctification, which is the continual process of making us more Christ-like and less like our old fleshly selves. Paul said in Galatians 5:16-17 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” He then gives an example of what the results of walking in the Spirit (sanctification) look like. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” (Vv. 22-23).

The next work of the Holy Spirit is that He illuminates the Scriptures. As I had mentioned before from John 14, He is referred to as “helper” and in some translations “counselor”. The Greek word here is “parakletos”, which means “one called to the side of another”. The Spirit works as a helper in that He teaches us the things of God and allows us to see and understand the things of God that make no sense to unbelievers (John 16:13). This Greek word also illustrates that one of His helping roles is to intercede for us. The Blue Letter Bible sums it up as “one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor… of Christ in his exaltation at God's right hand, pleading with God the Father for the pardon of our sins.” Also “in the widest sense, a helper, aider, assistant… of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom.” This statement also verifies another work of the Holy Spirit, which is to empower the believer to do the work of God and we see evidence of this all throughout the book of Acts when a bunch of ragged disciples became emboldened apostles and preached the gospel that led to great multitudes being saved. This is what Jesus meant when He said “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do…” (John 14:12).

The Holy Spirit also bestows gifts on the believer. I am not talking about mansions and private jets here. Please don’t thing that I am getting all Joel Osteen on you. What I am talking about are the spiritual gifts that are found in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. I am not going to get into an exhaustive discussion on these gifts (for the sake of our attention spans I will save that for another time), but I will tell you that the purpose of these gifts is to edify each other (1 Corinthians 14:26) and to glorify God (John 16:14).

The problem with those who have a faulty view of the Holy Spirit is that they go beyond what the scriptures express are His works and attributes. Again, instead of viewing Him as a person who walks with the believer on their daily journey towards Christ-likeness, teaching them and reminding them of the things of Christ and the call towards holiness, they view Him as also a force that causes the believer to do everything from speaking in gibberish, runnin’ around hootin’ and hollarin, and in some cases, being “knocked down” (or “slain in the spirit”) and forced to convulse in some sort of Holy Ghost epileptic seizure.

Now don’t mix my words here. I am not casting hellfire judgment upon people who have a distorted view of the Holy Spirit, nor am I doubting their salvation. I have no doubt within my mind that most of them have truly put their faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. However, having the wrong view of the Holy Spirit, as well as the Father and Jesus, can have an adverse effect on someone’s walk with Christ. For example, I once sat near a Pentecostal man who jokingly was putting down Baptists because they “do not have the spirit”. What he meant by this is that it is well known that most Baptists do not act out in the crazy fashions that I had previously mentioned. His view (like many Pentecostals and Charismatics) is that they have the spirit and thus are more holy and in touch with God than anyone else. This is a prideful view if you view yourself as better than someone else simply because you believe that you are more in touch with God than them. Also, in regard to our previously mentioned worship leader, if you view the Holy Spirit as a force that has to be prayed down from Heaven in order to do His work in your life then you will never know the full impact as to what the Spirit is doing and will do in your daily life, simply by believing and following Jesus. It makes a difference to have a correct view of the Spirit.

The point of this blog post is not to bash anyone who acts out in worship like they are at the Holy Spirit Hoedown, but to illustrate what the Bible lays out as the work of the Holy Spirit. If you go around worshipping God by talking gibberish, convulsing, running up and down the aisles, jumping up and down in the pews, and throwing your body around like you are in a Demon Hunter mosh pit then fine. More power to you! But please, PLEASE, stop calling what you are doing the “work of the Holy Spirit” and please stop saying that such actions within your church is evidence that the Holy Spirit is present. Such actions are foreign to the works of the Spirit that are laid out in the Bible. What you are doing is in fact the work of the spirit, but it is the spirit of the flesh. It is driven by the excitement that you have for God and in some cases, it drives many believers to lose control of themselves during worship. As Paul said in regard to the chaos that was taking place during worship at the church in Corinth: “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints (v.33). Let all things be done decently and in order (v.40).”

In summary, the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and does not reside in Heaven, needing to be conjured down during worship. His work is to help the believer by making them more like Christ in conviction of sin and illumination of the Word. He also intercedes for them in prayer and empowers them to do the work of ministering, as well as granting them spiritual gifts that edify other believers. All of this gives one uniform result- God is glorified. Whoever could glorify God by acting like they were out of their mind? As I said, it makes a difference to know the true Holy Spirit.

In Christ Alone.