Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

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Sudsy
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Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Sudsy »

Anabaptism is strong on expecting Christian practise will go hand in hand with Christian belief. Scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit working in us is essential to be able to live the Christian life. Dogged determination to be obedient will not produce what can only be achieved through the guidance and enabling power of the Holy Spirit. My guess is, at this point, most here would agree.

Regarding how the Spirit works today some don't believe the gifts or certain gifts of the Spirit and/or miracles and supernatural healings (i.e. blind made to see; deaf made to hear; dead raised; arms and limbs made new, etc) are at work today while others believe all these are still occurring somewhere in the world.

So, this is a thread to talk about how a Christian today experiences and knows the Holy Spirit working in their lives.

A few examples on what scripture says about how He works in a believer with an accompanying question -

John 16:13, John 14:26, 1 Cor 2:10 - the Holy Spirit guides, teaches and reveals truth to us - yet we have these differing beliefs on spiritual truth. So how do we know the truth we are believing came via the Holy Spirit ?

Acts 8:29 - the Holy spirit gives personal, direct instructions. How do we know these instructions from something that might pop into the head of an unbeliever ?

Acts 4:31 - the Holy Spirit fills us with boldness. Are we experiencing a boldness to witness that is not our human nature ?

And I could go on about various other workings of the Spirit written in the NT that we can look at today.

Occasionally I hear someone say something about the Spirit's leading that puzzles me. One lady says she prays about what colour to paint a room in the house and gets Holy Spirit direction. Is this how the Holy Spirit speaks or is it more like how He spoke to Philip to guide him in ministry ?
Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”
Well, I better end here and see who might be interested in this topic.
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Wayne in Maine »

I have always been impressed by the fact that the church, immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, was "of one heart and of one mind".

I believe God's Spirit will speak, on a matter for the assembly, with one voice to everyone who really is filled with His Spirit. I do not believe God is schizophrenic; I find it easier to believe that fewer of us are filled with the Holy Spirit than we would like to believe or that some of us are not listening to (or are rejecting) the Holy Spirit's voice or that that God is, for His own purposes, being quiet.

We have too little fear at our not hearing God speak with one voice - it should terrify any church.
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Sudsy »

Wayne in Maine wrote:I have always been impressed by the fact that the church, immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, was "of one heart and of one mind".

I believe God's Spirit will speak, on a matter for the assembly, with one voice to everyone who really is filled with His Spirit. I do not believe God is schizophrenic; I find it easier to believe that fewer of us are filled with the Holy Spirit than we would like to believe or that some of us are not listening to (or are rejecting) the Holy Spirit's voice or that that God is, for His own purposes, being quiet.

We have too little fear at our not hearing God speak with one voice - it should terrify any church.
Yes, quite interesting of the 2 areas mentioned resulting from Holy Spirit filling. 1) boldness to share the Gospel 2) an eternal perspective on their earthly stuff.

Acts 4:31-32 "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common."

Regarding if we are filled with the Spirit, as I read this text, not as this early church responded to being filled.

I have often wondered about the Holy Spirit's work today -

1) have we so grieved the Spirit in saying He says this or that when He is not the one speaking
2) have we quenched the fire of the Spirit in our lives to not even be concerned about the lost
3) are we so misunderstanding the Spirit's workings from emotional experiences
4) are we living at such a fast pace that we can't shut out the world to hear the Spirit (that still small voice saying)
5) all of the above or is God, at this point in time not speaking as you say for His purposes.

I tend to agree that few of us are living in the realm of on-going Spirit fillings/control even though it is commanded. Here is another text on what a Spirit filled person is like - Ephesians 5:17-21

"Therefore, be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God."

I, for one, am not reflecting a Spirit filled person but there was a short period in my late teens when I did experience these attitudes and ways of living and I recall my Christian brothers asking what I had. Having that taste of what is possible as an abundant living relationship with God I will never forget that time and wonder what happened although I suspect various things got and are are still getting in the way of this 'walking in the Spirit'.

As for your last statement about being terrified of God not speaking with one voice in the church, I think many replaced that with a voting concept believing the majority in a congregation are Spirit lead. Yet I think strong personalities can be swaying the voting more that the Spirit. I prefer to trust a small group of elders that must all agree to stand a better chance that the Spirit is truly behind decisions.

Anyway, thanks for the input. Hope more will share their thoughts on this.
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Josh »

Wayne in Maine wrote:I have always been impressed by the fact that the church, immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, was "of one heart and of one mind".

I believe God's Spirit will speak, on a matter for the assembly, with one voice to everyone who really is filled with His Spirit. I do not believe God is schizophrenic; I find it easier to believe that fewer of us are filled with the Holy Spirit than we would like to believe or that some of us are not listening to (or are rejecting) the Holy Spirit's voice or that that God is, for His own purposes, being quiet.

We have too little fear at our not hearing God speak with one voice - it should terrify any church.
This is the Holdeman view of the Holy Spirit in a nutshell. The average Holdeman takes it for granted that the same Holy Spirit is speaking to them personally in their quiet time, to the rest of their family, to their brotherhood and local church leaders, and then conference wide.
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by temporal1 »

Wayne in Maine wrote:I have always been impressed by the fact that the church, immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, was "of one heart and of one mind".

I believe God's Spirit will speak, on a matter for the assembly, with one voice to everyone who really is filled with His Spirit. I do not believe God is schizophrenic; I find it easier to believe that fewer of us are filled with the Holy Spirit than we would like to believe or that some of us are not listening to (or are rejecting) the Holy Spirit's voice or that that God is, for His own purposes, being quiet.

We have too little fear at our not hearing God speak with one voice - it should terrify any church.
i wonder, how many church groups have no concept of what you are describing?
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by MaxPC »

I'm of the opinion that a strong prayer life increases our ability to hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I say "promptings" because God prods gently. Sometimes for the truly stubborn it can become a full fledged attention grabber as happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Sudsy »

Josh wrote:
Wayne in Maine wrote:I have always been impressed by the fact that the church, immediately after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, was "of one heart and of one mind".

I believe God's Spirit will speak, on a matter for the assembly, with one voice to everyone who really is filled with His Spirit. I do not believe God is schizophrenic; I find it easier to believe that fewer of us are filled with the Holy Spirit than we would like to believe or that some of us are not listening to (or are rejecting) the Holy Spirit's voice or that that God is, for His own purposes, being quiet.

We have too little fear at our not hearing God speak with one voice - it should terrify any church.
This is the Holdeman view of the Holy Spirit in a nutshell. The average Holdeman takes it for granted that the same Holy Spirit is speaking to them personally in their quiet time, to the rest of their family, to their brotherhood and local church leaders, and then conference wide.
From what I understand, ready to be corrected, the idea to "take for granted that the same Holy Spirit is speaking to them" is only if it is in sync with what Holdeman says they are to believe and how they are to practise Christianity. In other words, the guidance of the Spirit is according to how John Holdeman believes he was Spirit lead. Is that correct ?
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Sudsy »

MaxPC wrote:I'm of the opinion that a strong prayer life increases our ability to hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I say "promptings" because God prods gently. Sometimes for the truly stubborn it can become a full fledged attention grabber as happened to Paul on the road to Damascus.
I can agree with the need for a 'strong prayer life' and that is an area that is being brought to my attention lately from various sources. Our pastor just gave a very practical sermon on building our relationship with God through our prayer life.

I believe God also speaks through prophets lead by the Spirit as occurred here in Acts 13:2 - "While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." And we are told to test out any prophet according to 1 John 4:1-3.

I guess no one has an opinion they want to share on how the various groups in Christianity all feel lead by the Spirit and yet have various secondary beliefs and practises of Christianity. I think the primary belief in what Paul called 'of first importance' is shared but after that who is really doing the leading ? Perhaps most of us do not want to confess that we don't have precise Holy Spirit guidance into all truth.
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Josh »

Sudsy wrote:From what I understand, ready to be corrected, the idea to "take for granted that the same Holy Spirit is speaking to them" is only if it is in sync with what Holdeman says they are to believe and how they are to practise Christianity. In other words, the guidance of the Spirit is according to how John Holdeman believes he was Spirit lead. Is that correct ?
No.

The idea is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t tell 3 different believers 3 different things and doesn’t conflict with scripture.

As far as what John Holdeman believed, we differ from him in a number of areas. He also never set himself up as Somehow perfect.
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Re: Experiencing the Work of the Holy Spirit ?

Post by Josh »

Sudsy wrote:I guess no one has an opinion they want to share on how the various groups in Christianity all feel lead by the Spirit and yet have various secondary beliefs and practises of Christianity. I think the primary belief in what Paul called 'of first importance' is shared but after that who is really doing the leading ? Perhaps most of us do not want to confess that we don't have precise Holy Spirit guidance into all truth.
The Holdeman answer is one true visible church teaching, although that answer isn’t very popular around here (for example, I was dis-invited from the Seekers’ Gathering unless I am willing to confess my main purpose and goal of being Holdeman is to try to talk 25,000 other people out of this belief).

Most conservative Anabaptists believe anyone who doesn’t practice head coverings, dresses/skirts for women, etc probably doesn’t have the Holy Spirit or else isn’t listening.
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