The Price

Hi people,

Before I begin, just wanna say:

1. A big thanks to all for bearing with the silence thus far; now that my Practicum is over and I have a bit more time, will use this platform to update all the Outreach people more.
2. I noticed that somehow our blogskin stops people from putting comments. Anyone with a wise idea on how to solve the problem? :)
3. Chris' idea rocks. How many of the rest think so too? :D

By the way, today's post is unashamedly on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let me say 3 things that every Christian must know before I get to what I want to say:

1. To live an overcoming life, you need the Holy Spirit. This was
i) advocated by Jesus (John 14:15-18);
ii) advocated by Paul (Gal 5:5, 16-26; Eph 6: 17-18, and even more passages in Romans and 1 Cor)
iii) experienced intimately by people like Peter (Acts 2, 4, 10)

2. You need to know Him as a Person. Before he does anything for you, you need to realise that according to what Jesus says:
i) He represents Jesus to you, i.e. Jesus is present with you through Him; (and for those of you who like the intellectual thrill, try this: since the Father is present through Jesus, and Jesus is present through the Holy Spirit, both Father and Son are present through the Holy Spirit. Rejecting the Spirit is rejecting the Son and the Father who sent Him.)
ii) He will teach you the way Jesus did
iii) He will guide you the way Jesus did on earth to his disciples
iv) He will empower you the way he did for Jesus.
So you need to know your God--the Holy Spirit.

3. You need to know his power. If you do not know his power:
i) Theologically, you will always be in error, even if you have the best scholarship-- "You are in error because you neither know the Scriptures, nor the power of God". The way I see it, Jesus is not giving us an option to either know the Scriptures or know the power (otherwise those who experience the power of God would know their theology exactly). Rather, he is saying that if we don't have both at the same time, we WILL be in error.

ii) You will not know what is resurrection life--"the same power that resurrected Christ from the dead". i.e. you will not know what it means to have the impossible happen in your life, what it means when the Scriptures say "for nothing is impossible with God" and when Jesus says "For with God, all things are possible". Rather, you will believe that impossible things happened last time, and you'll be happy to leave that "impossible" bit in history. This is an emotional blind spot many Christians have.

iii) You may find yourself unwittingly quenching/resisting/insulting the Spirit. First, let me explain terms. Resisting the Spirit is what people who are uninitiated to the Spirit do, e.g. they are disobedient to the prophecies/preaching of the Gospel; unwilling to change from tradition to what God intends to do, and more commonly, a general resistance to the radical counter-cultural behaviour that the Holy Spirit (and the whole of Christianity) demands. Stephen, for instance, labels the Israelite community (that should have known God): "Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did, and so do you!" (Acts 7:51-53). Note that v 53 says "You are the ones who received God's law". I will argue that resisting the Holy Spirit includes resisting the Gospel, and since the Israelite community resisted the gospel message mainly because of their tradition and resistance to change, I argue also that resisting the Holy Spirit includes resisting what he is doing, purely on the basis that "it doesn't fit within our tradition".

Quenching the Spirit? Less rebellious, but still rebellious. Mainly to do with people who know the Spirit's power, but who snuff any activity of the Spirit because of their own cynicism/disappointment.

Which actually leads me to my next point. If you didn't realise already, it is possible for the Holy Spirit, as a person, to be really offended. Do you like rejection? Probably not. The Holy Spirit is patient, but most people don't realise he has a tolerance level. There is a line that cannot be crossed with him. When you are resisted, do you like it? If someone, for instance, played politics with you at work, resisting you in all you do, do you like it? Well, think a bit about how the Holy Spirit feels when people resist the compelling pull of the Gospel or when they resist the compelling nature of his works. What if someone went around, undoing all the good you were trying to do? They quenched the effectiveness of your work. Guess what? That's what quenching the Spirit does. And even fewer people know that the Spirit of grace can be really insulted. The passage of Scripture about it is mainly about backsliding, but why he is insulted is more important. It's because that intentional backslider "treats as a cheap thing the sacrifice of Christ". It's got to do with the idea that "ahh, this salvation is worthless anyway". Makes sense, doesn't it? When someone treats what you do as cheap, that's insulting. When people treat what the Holy Spirit does as cheap, that insults him. And I argue that has to do with salvation, with his grace, with his works, and yes, his power.

I noticed something in common for those who have not experienced the power of God/had an experience, but it's so remote that it is the same era as when policemen wore shorts. They tend to belittle the experience of the power of God. Don't get me wrong: some are not amazed by it only because they are aiming for a higher experience of God. That's fine. But condescension towards someone else's experience of the power of God--somehow insinuating that "we are beyond it now"--is honestly insulting to the One who demonstrated his power. I also noticed that these are the same people who advocate "restraint" in all the activity of the Spirit--"we are comfortable about this this this and this, but as for that that that and that, I think we must exercise some self-restraint". Strange, they weren't very "restrained" in their scrutiny of the Bible to find an ant. They weren't very "restrained" about their need to gossip about other people's lives in the prayer meeting as well. Oh no, board meetings that take up 5 hours are fine. Oh but to have Spirit meetings that take 15 minutes longer than the appointed time--what will the poor people think? We better exercise some "restraint".

I have an easy word for that: it's called quenching the Spirit. The Spirit's extending the time? Call it off. The Spirit's delivering a word of prophecy? Condescend towards it and make people doubt all the way. Or don't be seen to oppose it-- ask them to "wait and see". No, don't encourage them to be obedient towards the vision--you never know, they might actually get to the stage where they can say as Paul did: "I was not disobedient to the vision". That wouldn't be good. --let's ask them instead to take that vision and put it on the shelf. Que sera sera. Whatever will be, will be.

But before I get too carried away being sarcastic about these people, I must say this: these people usually do not know they are quenching the Spirit. If they knew, they wouldn't have done it. Or resisting the Spirit, for that matter. Paul, for instance, participated in the stoning of Stephen. He was one of the people who Stephen included in his rebuke: "Must you always resist the Holy Spirit?" Later he was to say that he was a blasphemer, but did so ignorantly. There you have it, folks. Ignorance is the key to all bliss. And blaspheming, and resisting, and quenching.

Let me as sympathetic as possible. The main reason why people resist, quench, and insult the Spirit? Ignorance. They never hear his voice, so they cannot tell real prophecy from fake. They don't have the gift of discernment, but they try to substitute some kind of man-made objective measure by which someone can "tell" if it's of the Spirit. Why they never bother to ask the Spirit stumps me. I've asked him for tons of gifts, gifts that were never mine. He rarely said no, especially when I had a good reason for asking for it. He sometimes postponed though, but at the end of the day, he still gave it. What--you mean knowing the will of God for your life is the most unreasonable request in the world? You mean knowing if what someone said was God or pizza is "not bad, you know, but I have other things to do"? In China, if the emperor said "Stand on one leg", and you laughed in his face, saying "The Emperor would never ask me to do something like that", the heads of your nine clans might be his next pencil-holders. I think it's quite important to actually know whether an edict comes from the emperor or not. And in this case, this emperor rules this galaxy AND BEYOND. I'd hurry to know his voice if I were you.

Let me come back to ignorance. So the main reason why so many of these well-meaning folks resist the Spirit, is purely because of ignorance. They don't know that the Spirit is capable of doing something new. They believe only what their pastor tells them. They don't know what the Scriptures say. The most fatal mistake: they don't know the Spirit personally. If they did, even if they were the most noob in Scriptures, they could simply just ask him and he would tell them. And because these people are so ignorant, they use every other method to get God's job done: legalism, procedures, systems, and above all, explaining away what God is doing. The best part? They are ignorant that they themselves are so ignorant. So they devise methods, accepted norms, that allow them to get away with ignorance. Phrases like "we will never know if that message was from God or not until the time passes". Phrases like "these are all so dangerous. we must be very careful". I'd say to them: What's dangerous is you not knowing good from bad. You are the danger, not Him. They will misuse phrases like "ultimately it all comes down to Scripture", good phrases, but in their case misused to justify why they can totally ignore what God is saying and hide behind some Scriptures that are not intended to address their specific situation. Or "ultimately it's all about the fruit", not knowing that what the Spirit is doing might actually be intended to produce that fruit they were talking about.

Sorry it had to be this coarse, but that was the most sympathetic I could be. Sometimes I wish some of these people I am talking about could get offended enough to get off their hobby horse, deliberately prove me wrong, and show that they know what they are talking about. I will be the first to congratulate them. Really. But coming back to the point: if you don't know the Spirit's power (or assume you do when you don't), you are in danger of resisting, quenching, and insulting the Spirit.

A tip for you when dealing with the Spirit. Understand that the Spirit is the most sensitive divine being. I'm sorry I can't put it in any more accurate terms than that. Let me just explain what I mean. You know your heart? Your spirit? It's the most sensitive side of you. And it is the deepest side of you. It is the side where no secrets are kept, where you can be most easily injured, and where some thoughts that you never share with anyone are stored away. For "who knows the thoughts of his own heart better than his own spirit?" So it is with the Spirit of God: He is the Heart of God, the One who knows the thoughts of God better than anyone else. And with that argument, He is the most sensitive person of the Trinity, the one who is most easily hurt. A Bible teacher once said: "If God had a feminine side, the Spirit would be that." No, he is not helping the extreme feminists with their idea of a female God, but he is simply stating what I've been trying to say here: the Spirit of God is extremely sensitive and gentle, in my experience arguably the most sensitive, the easiest to chase away, and if God had a vulnerable side, the Spirit would be Him (because the Spirit cannot be an it. Haha.) . Notice the symbol He used to manifest himself: the dove. Notice the way the Spirit can be resisted, so easily and sometimes out of simple careless actions. Notice how conducive an environment we prepare with our hearts before the Spirit comes and takes his place. And yes, the idea of "blaspheming the Spirit" being the most unpardonable sin does play a part as well: blaspheming the Spirit, after all, is blaspheming the Heart of God. I don't want to make too big a point about this, because honestly the members of the Trinity are very alike to one another. But in my experience, yes, for some reason which I cannot define to a T, the Spirit is the most elusive member, the one who stays hidden behind the scenes, the one who I am more afraid to offend than anyone else, the one I know feels my sin very acutely, the one who faces the most rejection among the members of the Trinity. And that's partly why you need to know not to offend him. He's patient as ever, but just because he is patient, does not mean he is pleased. And usually when he is not pleased, it can be quite easy to tell.

This leads me to what I want to say. Church, we have a price to pay if we want to experience all that God has for us. Remember what Jesus said, that in this world you will have tribulation, but take courage, for he has overcome the world? I need you to know that the Spirit is your greatest treasure in the same way Jesus is your greatest treasure. If you have Him, you will have Jesus, and you will overcome the world. You must not shy away from rejection, from misunderstanding, from the consequences of being associated with the Spirit. This rejection can come from many quarters. The world will reject you. If you need confirmation about that, check out the Christians who recently came under fire from Aware and our press. Not too long ago, a very fantastic pastor came under fire too. He's Rick Warren, the one who wrote The Purpose Driven Life. A fantastic pastor and a model to many, but simply by being chosen to pray the opening prayer for Obama, he and Obama were criticised simply because he was not pro-homosexual. Look, fellas, whoever you are, I hope you realise following Christ is not going to be easy. It will be the most meaningful thing you have ever done, but I can also tell you that you will be the most rejected bunch ever. No matter how sensitive or caring you have been (Rick and the Aware Christians are good examples, but for Aware I know I need to give more substantiation--next time). The sooner you understand and appreciate that your lot is to suffer with Christ, the more joy and less strife you will experience in this life. The most pain, however, will come from your brethren who for some reason or another have allowed the devil to have a foothold in their life. I use this sentence very deliberately. They are not possessed by the devil, but they have allowed him a foothold over their life. You see, those who don't know (and don't care) will not bother you. They will just treat you like crazy. But those who have something to fight for--either to prove they're very spiritual, or to prove their tradition is correct, or simply because they get a thrill putting people down--will see you as their target. [There's a difference between inquisitiveness and cynicism. Those who are inquisitive will ask (and if not satisfied, criticise). Those who are cynical will simply criticise.] The three reasons above just point to one root problem: pride. They are somehow proud of the achievement they have had, even in the spiritual life. The interesting thing is that everyone will see the good fruit that results from the move of the Spirit, especially the non-Christians--but those with spiritual pride rarely see. And because they are bound with pride, the devil has a field day poking them on in their religious zeal to damage you. And of course, to stop other ignoramuses from enjoying the blessing you have.

So don't let these people get to you. Ignore them, and try to forgive them for the pain they cause (because pain from your own brothers is the worst). Remember that they know not what they do. Remember that the weapons you use are powerful to break down strongholds and to "take captive every proud argument that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ". The Holy Spirit will guide you. You will be able to clear some of these religious mindsets. But expect the fiercest opposition nonetheless. You cannot clear every one, and you will have to learn to be joyful in spite of these people wasting your time.

Jan and I have paid a price recently. It is painful, but we know that (and I leave you with this): the best way to demonstrate love to the Holy Spirit, is none other than to stand on his side and to defend him. The way Jesus demonstrated love to the Holy Spirit (by defending what the Spirit did and not allowing the Pharisees to attribute it to demons without a counter-statement), the same way Peter demonstrated love to the Holy Spirit (by challenging Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit)--the same way they defended the Holy Spirit when his honour and reputation was at stake, we dare not say we have done, but at least in a very very small way, we are moving in that direction. I can only pray that enough of Daniel can die, so that I can be fully committed to standing on His side and defending His cause. And I pray that in your own inidividual ways, you too will reach that decision.