Week 3 July 2025, Devotion Part 1

Since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.  1 Corinthians 14:12

We would just as soon settle for a honeymoon cottage and permanently engage in the private fireworks of our initial experience with the Holy Spirit. In our intensely personal moments with God we can fit His whole kingdom into our enraptured soul and become convinced that such highs are normative for the spirit-filled Christian. Well, how mature an assessment of marriage would we expect from honeymooning eighteen-year-olds?

 Manifestations of the Spirit are to be sought for ministry, not magical moments. They are not bubbly stuff to raise up a champagne edition of Christianity; the raw needs of the world cry out for fresh living water. Manifestations of the Spirit harmonize the sacred with the ordinary, dull, and commonplace. They do not validate our standing before God. Our worth was established once and for all when Jesus shed His blood as ransom for our life of sin.. He imputed His holiness to the believer as the sign and seal of atoning substitution. The Holy Spirit gifts us with the tools to apply it practically.  Part 1 of 2

Comment: Having first published my thoughts on the above text 40 years ago, I needed to review the whole chapter.  Now I’m a shocked to find that I opened a can of worms.  If the fishing fanatics in the 50s opened one, then tipped if over accidentally, their “live” bait proved it by distancing itself from the hook they didn’t fancy.  Humans have lungs to draw in fresh breath, but the 40 verses of chapter 14 “wriggle” off in various directions and can worm themselves into awkward conversation.  Ask some people on the church patio about their honeymoon phase with the Holy Spirit, and you’ll never again be able to unsee the horrified look on their face.  Or, try fishing for the proper answer to another nutty-sounding question, “Can a woman be just a little bit pregnant?”  In a nutshell, no, she either is, or she isn’t.  And if she isn’t pregnant, no miracle of a new life forming in her womb  can happen.  So it is with the central reality of our eternal salvation.  “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12.).  When my early devotions were published, I was a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian, and well respected Bible teacher.  When a group of vocal charismatics asked me to visit their class, I looked like a forlorn spinster among gloating “honeymooners.”  While sitting quietly with my eyes closed, their leader suddenly brought his forceful hand down on my head to ostensibly crack it open for the Holy Spirit to enter in.  His shrill voice made me feel spiritually raped.  While on a visit with my dad in my small Swiss hometown, I worshiped with the spurned Methodists and a handful of charismatics in their living room.  He threatened to call the police if I didn’t return quickly.  Do check the Internet and find on YouTube a cornucopia of pseudo spirituality that is corny enough to blow away as chaff.  See for yourself in chapter 14 what chiefly edifies “your” church!