From Peter to Suzette: Some thoughts on the Holy Spirit
- David Martin
- | Mar 16, 2010
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From Peter to Suzette: Some thoughts on the Holy Spirit
Dear Suzette
I am sorry that we were not able to discuss your experiences of seeing people ‘slain in the Spirit’, and hope you don’t mind if I write some comments for you to think about. There is so much of this experience-based Christianity around now that you are sure to run into it again, even wonder whether you need something more yourself. So I’ll make the following points:
1. Because we live in a ‘godless’ society, many Christians feel that they have lost contact with God. Maybe they have had a wonderful conversion, and are sure that God is real at that stage, but as time passes, they begin to wonder, ‘Is God alive?’ ‘Is he really there?’
Now you and I know that the true answer to that question is Yes!, and the big evidence is Jesus, the gospel and the Bible. After we are confident for those reasons, we can also be assured through such things as answered prayers.
But many young Christians think that what they need first and foremost is another big experience. So they go in for speaking in tongues or healing or the ‘Toronto Blessing’, or being ‘slain in the Spirit’, etc, etc. Using the rule ‘to add is to subtract’, what happens is that the experience becomes more important than Jesus and the Bible.
2. The problem with seeking experiences first of all are as follows: a) All these experiences are also in non-Christian religions, or amongst unbelievers – so they don’t prove anything at all. b) The experiences are usually ‘strange but natural’ e.g. virtually anyone can learn to ‘speak in tongues’ – it’s not a miracle. c) Experiences like this have to keep becoming more exciting so that we get re-assured – e.g. healing is not enough; we need resurrections! d) Most (if not all) ‘healing miracles’ turn out to be false – or temporary; and they don’t seem to involve such things as giving amputees new limbs – why not? The famous quadriplegic, Joni Eareckson Tada advises physically disabled people: ‘First, let go of your hope that you will be healed in this life; it may not happen.’ e) Experience-based religion is human-centred – it points to us, rather than to the Lord Jesus. That is why it is filled with testimonies and anecdotes, rather than Bible teaching.
3. Experience-based religion divides Christians into ordinary and ‘super’ Christians. You see people being manipulated into thinking that the gospel is not enough, and the cross of Jesus is not so important. Music becomes more significant than the Bible.
4. According to the Bible, false prophets and Satan are able to work signs and wonders (see Deut. 13:1-5; Matthew 7:21-23; 2 Thess 2:7-10). In fact, a number of experiences sich as ‘being slain in the Spirit’ or the ‘Toronto Blessing’ are not actually in the Bible, and the Lord never promises a repeat of a number of others (e.g. healings). Gifts are meant to help us serve one another (1 Cor. 12:7), not to reassure us that God is alive.
There’s a lot more to say, in the meantime, concentrate on the big things such as Jesus and the cross and the Bible and people coming to know that Lord. You can trust God’s Fatherly, Sovereign power, because you know that Jesus died for you. In the hard times or the good, you can trust our heavenly Father.
Sorry if this letter is too long! Don’t bother to reply – answering letters takes all the fun out of getting them. Maybe we can chat together face to face soon.
Every blessing
Warmest regards
Peter.
