Gang, I’ve got to get back on track with Philippians next week. I’m finishing my lengthy series (29 messages) on 1 Corinthians, called “The Church Warts and All,” this Sunday and will begin preaching Philippians with an introductory message the next Sunday.
What I will probably try to do, after concluding what I’m going to say about the introductory questions next week, each week is to give you my sermon outline in the Tuesday installment. Then, I will follow up on Thursday with comments that fill in the “skeleton” of the outline.
So, here goes on trying to further work through my two areas of searching at the moment: 1) listening the voice of God in prayer; and 2) now that I’m a convinced Continuationist, exploring whether I have “missed out” on anything else significant in my walk with the Lord.
To aid in this process, the last time I was at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary library, I checked out two significant books. (I tried to check out Jack Deere’s Surprised by the Voice of God, but, at that point, somebody else had beaten me to it.) They were published almost a generation–nearly 30 years–apart and are very helpful indicators of where things were on the front of the gifts and working of the Holy Spirit at their points of origin.
The first is now considered a classic: Frederick Dale Bruner’s A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Eerdmans), which was released in 1970, just as the white-hot heat of the Charismatic wing of the Jesus Movement was mounting. The second book is by Dr. Max Turner of London Bible College and was published originally in 1996, though revised as recently as 2005 in the Hendrickson edition I am reading. It is called The Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts.
It appears that neither author is a full-blown Charismatic, though both do seem to be quite sympathetic to at least what they see as the strengths of the movement. As such, they are not completely objective observers–if such a thing is even remotely possible!–but they are “objective” enough to not feel like they have to argue for every apect of what they are describing.
Frankly, I like–even admire–that. I tend to get somewhat uncomfortable when I am reading an account and all there is forthcoming is praise. No man–except Jesus, of course!–and especially no movement has ever occurred in history without its significant flaws, blind spots and failures.
I’m going to give you a quick update on where I am on both fronts. Then, I’m going to briefly explain one thing I have taken from each book to help me in my quest.
In regard to listening to the voice of God in prayer, I am improving on making prayer more than a monologue. While I still largely am only hearing silence when I stop vocalizing. However, I have realized afresh that’s not a bad thing. After all, “Be still and know that I am God” is a crucial awareness we should all have constantly before the Lord. Plus, silence would seem to be a key component of waiting on the Lord–which, frankly, remains for me the most difficult part of the Christian life (maybe my ADD-based impatience has at least a little to do with that!).
In regard to seeking whether there is more available in the Christian life than I have previously experienced, I have fortunate recently to have some people come alongside me recently as human “paraketes,” if you will. They have each carefully and patiently explained to me their own deeper experiences with the Lord, none of which were “taught” to them, just embraced when they happened. And, each has been very helpful to me as a “recovering” Stoic and Cessationist. Since I’m still trying to come to grips with the full range of my emotions, and since I am also still trying to figure out how much of my spiritual “deafness” might have to do with my horrible realtionship with my Dad–which makes it very difficult and scary to trust a “father figure,” it is likely that it will be some time yet before I get where I’m headed on this front. But, I am seeking, which leads me to believe that, in God’s perfect timing, I will find what He wants me to discover (Matt. 7:7-8).
What did I learn from Bruner’s book that is helping me in this process? The history of the Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal (i.e., Charismatic) movements focuses on the pursuit of the immediate experience of the Holy Spirit. While there should be concern about whether the Pentecostal is seeking to glorify the Spirit in place of Christ, the desire for spiritual intimacy with God must be considered a positive thing. Yes, it can be taken to extreme. But, is that not a calculated risk that is better than just going through the motions in a spiritually dead church?
What did I learn from Turner’s book? Even though there are some notable differences in the ways that Charismatics understand certain practices from what the New Testament actually says, it is overreacting to “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Turner thinks that the “baby” (in this analogy) may be a significant moving of the Lord in our times, which merely has some questionable practices around it as window-dressing, if you will. If that is true, and since the moving of the Spirit in the churches in Corinth definitely had its excesses, should we not be very cautious in regard to both what we acccept and what we reject? After all, as John 3:8 says, there is mystery in the working of the Spirit: “The wind blows where it wishes,a nd you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Coming Tuesday: “Nailing Down the Mirroring Structure and Themes of Philippians”
One other little point … I personally don’t think of prayer as listening to God. I see a lot of references in scripture to meditating .. pondering .. on God’s word. That seems to be when God speaks most clearly to me.
I recall one event most clearly. I was sitting in our prayer meeting .. not churchwide, but our little band that gets together twice a week to just worship ..and I was meditating on all this. I found my mind wandering to the pondering of a lot of life events other than the Bible. When I realized that, I apologized in my own mind, to God, and very clearly heard “Your passion is applying scripture to life; how can you do that unless you meditate on both?”
Anyway .. that’s my take, for what it’s worth.
Boyd,
I’m late in coming to the past several of your posts and I have to ask…is it me or has there come a fresh wind of the Spirit in your heart and writings? Whatever…I feel as if I’m standing under a shower of refreshing water as I’ve read. Thanks.
Your spiritual journey has been a benefit to me and I agree with your conclusions. I hope that we as Southern Baptists realize that we need God to move, to not do so results in what we have now, which in my opinion, is a mess, and PRIDE is written all over it.
I could not but respond to several points in your post, though what I say may not be more significant than what you are learning. First, “more available in the Christian life than I have previously experienced.” From my corner of the question, you phrased this well. All that God has made available, with regard to the spiritual life and the Spirit-full life, is and always has been available. There is much than we for whatever reason have not either paid attention to, or opened our soul to recieve. The Pentecostals overstate their doctrine at this point by emphasizing almost a new kind of experience with the Spirit if one just seeks. The Baptist non-pentecostal does just the opposite, i.e., nothing new since the completion of the canon and thus nothing to seek or look for. Second, the Bruner book has been on my shelf since 1977/78 when I was at SWBTS in the D.Min. program. I think it was none other than Bob Reccord (don’t hold me to that, it may have been the then Pastor at FBC, Oklahoma City) who brought the book into a Seminar. (Such reading and talking about the Spirit-full life was not a punishable offense at SWBTS in those days.) I have used it with the same general review that you spoke above. It has grown dusty because I have grown dusty in my own spiritual life and preaching. James Robison, in the 70’s,at his crusades, gave an older book authored by James Stewart concerning “being filled the the Spirit.” Of course, he quidkly fell from Baptist grace, I think, for saying what you are saying. Be careful. Remember the Holy Spirit doesn’t need to come from anywhere to get to us, He is in the Temple. One of the greatest hindrances are those who are spiritually lazy and don’t want the bother–the Church is full of these which makes it difficult for the Spirit-full worshippers. We must drink deeply without preconceptions.
Pardon for the length.
Sam
One other thing I need to add. Ask yourself the question about the church today … is it LESS in need of miraculous moves of God in its midst now, than it was 2000 years ago? If miraculous healings and prophecy were appropriate then to accomplish certain things, are they less needful today?
I have seen miraculous healing in the here and now. There’s no argument that could ever tell me what I didn’t see. So why is there seemingly less of that now, than then? Could it be that Jesus’ apparent reluctance to do the miraculous where there was no faith, is still there today?
If there’s such a thing as the gift of tongues, allowing the believer’s soul to communicate with God without having to voice cognitive words, is that as needful today as it was then?
And in answering those, consider also the fact that Jesus Himself said we’d receive power … the dunamis variety .. when the Holy Ghost comes upon us. When you see people receive the Holy Ghost in the New Testament, something powerful happened. Yet today, in our SBC churches, I have never, ever seen someone “get saved”, at which point we maintain the Holy Ghost comes upon them, who EVER indicated in any way that they’d experienced power coming on them.
I cannot avoid the conclusion that, in the SBC, we’re sadly missing something. And I know that I had to step outside conventional SBC’isms to experience it, myself.
Bob, Paul, Debbie and Sam,
Thank you, as always for your gracious comments and helpful insights!
I was away on Friday and Saturday to go to a wonderful concert by Stephen Curtis Chapman at Euless First Baptist Church. It was a blessing to hear him speak of how the Lord has sustained his family during this time of tragic loss. This was one of the first public appearances he had made since the death of his daughter in mid-May. He did it because it was a benefit for the Mid-Cities Pregnancy Center.
Blessings, Boyd