The following post is from a series of upcoming blogs from the CBFVA Vision Team in preparation for the CBFVA General Assembly 2011. The theme of the assembly is “Beautiful Witness. Being Baptists Together. Doing God’s Mission” and the focal text is Luke 4:18-19.
This week’s blog was written by Rev. Nathan Taylor who serves as the Associate Pastor for Christian Formation & Children at Central Baptist Church, Richmond, VA.
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The nature of the Holy Spirit, how it works and is known, is the subject of much differentiation among God’s many children. Some of God’s people feel that if they cannot “feel” the Spirit, it must not be present. On the other hand, that which seems Spirit-filled to some can feel downright chaotic to others. Our many human experiences and traditions measure the presence of the Spirit with a variety of yardsticks.
Finding a worshiping community in which to meet God as our true selves is an important consideration. If we are not careful, however, our cultural tastes can divide us from the beautiful witness to which we are called as a whole people. In fact, our peculiar heritage as Baptists puts us in the midst of this tension every Sunday.
Very few of us in the US can say that our faith heritage comes from this or that unbroken line of “low-church” or “high-church” Baptists. In one meeting house, we hash out, act out, and hope for those elements of worship and ministry that seem most fitting to our own sensibilities of what it means to be Baptist. It’s not that anything goes. It’s that, over the space of 400 years, many ways of being church together have qualified for residence under our big, Baptist tent!
Our family is diverse, and in that diversity can lie both promise and peril. The promise is that we might become a testimony of grace in a divided world by finding unity in the Spirit. The peril is that we may allow our preferences, and very real historical divisions stand as insurmountable obstacles to the actualization of God’s Kingdom.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…
With these powerful words from the prophet Isaiah, Jesus inaugurates his public ministry (Luke 4:18). A few verses before this, Jesus is returning from his retreat in the wilderness during which he confronted the devil. It is said that he was “filled with the power of the Spirit,” and word spread about him through the Galilean countryside.
The image might come to mind of an emboldened prophet, who powerfully and effortlessly strolls back into Galilee…low sunlight radiating behind him, outlining his figure. What was in his eyes? His thoughts? His stride? His breathing? With what purpose did he move? With what was he possessed as he picked up those scrolls, claiming the words of Isaiah for a new era?
If we claim to follow Christ, this is our Lord. While sometimes we have domesticated him into a friendly, neighborhood super hero, Luke’s Jesus is one who rolls in from the desert having stared down the devil. The same Spirit who walked with the Hebrews across the Red Sea is upon him. The force of God’s presence throughout human history has coalesced upon his person. He is ready to do business.
Are we?
Would it be too bold if our prayer for the people of CBFVA were to call upon this very same Spirit? Do we have the nerve to consider that God might use us – us! – in yet unimagined ways to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor? May it be so in 2011.
Originally posted at http://www.cbfva.org/felt-full-spirit-nathan-taylor.
This article has got me thinking! I have two responses for you. First, the more difficult one: no, I don’t think its too bold for us fellowship baptists in Virginia to call upon the Holy Spirit, especially as we consider our witness. I think however, our experience of the Holy Spirit would be more potent if we did as Jesus did, and “stared down the devil” in “the desert” as we made this request. How many times have we faced adversity and strife (work of “the devil”) and we cut and run? Fear of confrontation can lead us away from being ourselves, and I think if we CBFVA folks spent time in the barren places of our lives face to face with our personal devils, our experience of the Spirit would be deeper in our inner-selves. This is true for all Christians, is it not?
Second, in response to the question found in the title of this post, yes, I have had unique experiences of the Holy Spirit in my life, and I can name those times because I was aware in those sacred moments. I hesitate saying “full of” because I learned the lesson of what Dr. Sam Balentine said was one of the greatest lies in the hymnal “I Surrender All” (All? Really? ALL??) In the spirit of that lesson, I don’t want to say I was “full” of the Holy Spirit, but I have had unique experiences of the Spirit in my life.
Thank you for provoking me to thought!
Steve…good, thoughtful responses, thank you! Per point number one, we need this kind of courage and vision to face and shape our future as fellowship Baptists. Per point number two, AMEN!
The Holy Spirit is so amazing no one can really put it into words. I came upon your post by accident tonight how ever I am going to tell you something I experienced because for some reason I feel I am supposed to share…
I used to look at different people in my life and really could see that they were blessed by God, not by what they have but the person they were their spirit and I could see the good things in them and really could see God would bless them and they couldnt see what good godly people they were but I could see it feel it and tell them but they didnt see… The one thing I couldnt see is how in the world people could tell me God loves me too! I would think to myself how could god love me? How could these people say that I wasnt half as godly as they were. I always believed in God even when I ran away at 16 (Now 49) but I couldnt understand how he could possibly love someone like me. I was 33 sitting on my bed one morning thinking how I would love to go back to sleep and not get up and in a split second something came over me it was the most BEAUTIFUL feeling I have ever felt that amazng Love that filled my body all I can say is it felt like I was truly loved and I knew in a instant it was the Holy Spirit and God truly loved me too. It didnt last long that visit from the Holy Spirit how ever when the spirit left my body it was like emptying a Measuring cup started at the top of my head and pouring out the water slowly left through my feet. I knew from that moment on that I was loved by God and why not me! I cant tell this story often because people just dont believe its true… I am here to tell you its true there is a God and he loves everyone if they will except and believe and let him in.
My father said to me once Rose does your God pay your bills? What does he do for you? He makes fun of God. My answer to non believers is why do they try so hard to convience people there is no God? Why is it so important for them to try to make people agree with them no God? I said to my father that day these words…
I said “Dad you should be happy I believe in God what if your wrong and there is a God what will happen to you I said Dad you maybe saved through my prayers and others prayers I told him to think about what he is saying and asked him why he has to mock God and what If he is the one who is wrong and I am the one who is right and he will be bowing on his knees thanking God he was saved through prayer. He stopped talking to me about God not being there he doesnt admit there is a God but maybe just maybe inside his heart he believes! For all the people who dont believe I received the Holy Spirit you should hear my life story someday you may change your mind….
May God Bless All Of You and the Angels Watch Over You. Keep praying keep believing because GOD is there and Loves You Too!!